| Early in the year, Jiang Jieshi launched the GMD's New Life movement, an effort to forge “a new national consciousness and mass psychology.” He sought to militarize the entire Chinese populace so as to be prepared for dangers and adversity. He was inspired by many creeds, from Confucianism to Fascism. Another movement of GMD party stalwarts, supported by Jiang, from the early 1930s was the archreactionary Blue Shirts; ferociously devoted to their “leader,” Jiang Jieshi, they formed a special corps for military and secret police actions. | 1 |
| Faced with an onslaught from air and land of GMD troops far in excess of their own numbers, the Communist leaders of the Jiangxi Soviet decided (Aug.) to leave their base, prepared to break through the GMD encirclement to the southwest (Sept.), and finally commenced the Long March, one of the longest retreats in military history, subsequently treated as a heroic event. The two advance armies, the First Army Corps and the Third Army Corps, were under the commands, respectively, of Lin Biao (1908–71) and Peng Dehuai (1898–1974). The total number of “marchers” was 80,000. Their decimated numbers, perhaps no more than 10 percent of the original “marchers,” reached Shaanxi province just over one year later (Oct. 20, 1935), after a march of nearly 6,000 miles over rugged and perilous terrain. | 2 |
