Encirclement Campaign against Hunan-Hubei-Jiangxi Soviet

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Date	December, 1930 - May, 1931
Location	Border region of Hunan-Hubei-Jiangxi provinces, China
Result	Communist victory

Belligerents

National Revolutionary Army

People's Liberation Army

Commanders

Chiang Kai-shek

Strength

10,000+

Several thousands

Casualties and losses

3,000+

The Encirclement Campaign against Hunan-Hubei-Jiangxi Soviet was a campaign launched by the Chinese Nationalist Government that was intended to destroy communist Hunan-Hubei-Jiangxi Soviet and its Chinese Red Army in the local region. It was responded by the Communists’ Counter-Encirclement Campaign at Hunan-Hubei-Jiangxi Soviet (Chinese: 湘鄂赣苏区反围剿), also called by the communists as the Counter-Encirclement Campaign at Hunan-Hubei-Jiangxi Revolutionary Base (Chinese: 湘鄂赣革命根据地反围剿), in which the local Chinese Red Army successfully defended their soviet republic in the southern Jiangxi province against the Nationalist attacks from December, 1930 to May, 1931.

The communist 16th Army of the Chinese Red Army stationed at the Hunan-Hubei-Jiangxi Soviet launched a preemptive strike against the nationalist forces and succeeded in annihilating an entire nationalist regiment in Tong City (Tongcheng, 通城) in December, 1930 just before the nationalists launched their own attack on their communist enemy at the beginning of the campaign. As a result, nationalists had to withdraw temporarily to regroup, and wait for reinforcement. As the nationalists deployed more troops from other regions to Hunan-Hubei-Jiangxi Soviet for the preparation to avenge their initial defeat, they had left other regions dangerously vulnerable to enemy attacks. Pounced on the opportunity, the communist forces of the Hunan-Jiangxi Soviet decided to help their comrades in Hunan-Hubei-Jiangxi Soviet by striking the nationalists in two fronts: western Hunan and southeastern Hunan.

The communist offensives in western and southeastern Hunan were successful and in addition to obtaining more land, weaponry, money and supplies, the communist force of Hunan-Jiangxi Soviet also successfully linked up with the 7th Army of the Chinese Red Army at the border of Hunan and Guangdong. Nationalists were forced to redeploy their troops to face these newer threats that were much more urgent, and as a result, the planned offensives against communists at the Hunan-Hubei-Jiangxi Soviet had to be called off as troops were withdrawn for new assignments. Communists, however, would not let their adversary leave in peace, and the 16th Army of the Chinese Red Army launched another round of assaults on the retreating nationalists, annihilating eleven companies in the process. After the victory, the 16th Army of the Chinese Red Army was joined by the Independent 3rd Division of the Chinese Red Army, and succeeded in annihilating two more nationalist regiments.

The communist Hunan-Hubei-Jiangxi Soviet was a communist base to the west of Jiangxi Soviet, the most important communist base prior to Long March. In comparison to other communist Soviet Republics, the Hunan-Hubei-Jiangxi Soviet was relatively small, and it was a collection of communist bases linked together by regions with strong communist guerrilla activities. After suffering defeats in their Encirclement Campaign against Hunan-Hubei-Jiangxi Soviet, the nationalists decided it was not worth the energy and resources to continue the effort, which should be concentrated on encirclement campaign against major communist bases such as other communist Soviet Republics with much larger size, because as larger communist bases were eliminated, the smaller ones would not last for very long afterward either. As a result, the nationalists called off their Encirclement Campaign against Hunan-Hubei-Jiangxi Soviet, and the communists subsequently declared victory and continued to expand and consolidate their Hunan-Hubei-Jiangxi Soviet.