The Long March History | The Xiangjiang River Campaign

By late November 1934, just over a month into the Long March, the Central Red Army had reached the Xiangjiang River in southwest China. Five days of fierce fighting ensued, before the last troops made it across. The Red Army had succeeded in breaking the Kuomintang encirclement, but at a terrible cost. Of 86,000 men and women who had set out on the Long March, just over 30,000 remained.