Fourth Encirclement Campaign Against Jiangxi Soviet - Strategies

Strategies

In December, 1932, He Yingqing had completed the mobilization of more than three dozen nationalist divisions totaling over half a million troops for the fourth encirclement campaign against the Jiangxi Soviet. The nationalist troops were divided into three fronts with Chiang Kai-shek own troops as the central front, totaling more than 160,000. The central front shouldered the main responsibility of attacking the communist enemy while the left and right fronts were tasked to assist the main attack in the central front. The rest of the nationalist force consisting around sixty percent of the half a million mobilized troops were tasked to develop and man the blockade line, an effective strategy which would be proven in the next encirclement campaigns. The nationalists planned to annihilate the communist main force in the regions of Jianning (建宁) and Lichuan (黎川). In January, 1933, Chen Cheng, the commander of nationalist central front, further divided the nationalist troops under his command into three columns, and begun their offensive against their communist enemy.

The communists originally planned according to the new doctrines of Wang Ming by launching a preemptive strike against the nationalists before their mobilization and deployment was complete. Communists would concentrate their forces to destroy nationalists in the regions of Fu River (Fu Jiang, 抚江) first, and then went on to score their victory in entire Jiangxi province. To achieve this goal, the 10th Army of the Chinese Red Army crossed Letter River (Xin Jiang, 信江), and jointed forces with the 31st Division of the Chinese Red Army, forming the 11th Army of the Chinese Red Army. By mid March, 1933, communist formed the Chinese Red Army Southeastern Front Command, which was in charge of communist forces organized into five columns in southern Jiangxi and western Fujian, to coordinate their actions with the communists in the north bearing the brunt of the fighting.