The Nanchang Uprising 南昌起义

The statue on the right is a monument commemorating the Nanchang Uprising of August 1, 1927, that saw a victory for the Communist forces in Nanchang; and was a significant starting point for the insidious Long March. It sits on the south end of Ba Yi Square in the heart of Nanchang City.

After the death of Sun Yat-sen on March 12, 1925 the leadership of China’s Kuomintang as well as its Nationalist Army came under the leadership of Chiang Kai-Shek.. in 1927 Chiang began a purge of Communists from the ranks of the KMT, forcing many of them to flee.

Zhu De had arrived in Shanghai in 1926, after he was expelled from Germany for socialist activities, and was appointed the director of the Nationalist Officers’ School in Nanchang. Zhu had met Zhou Enlai in Berlin in 1922, and had joined the Chinese Socialist League there. In Nanchang, Zhou Enlai, Zhu De, Mao Zedong, and Lin Biao emerged as the leadership of the newly formed Jiangxi Soviet.

When the Nationalists broke with the Communists in the summer of 1927, the Communist forces in Nanchang rebelled in an attempt to seize control of the city.

Communist forces occupied Nanchang successfully and by August 5 had managed to escape from the siege of Kuomintang forces, withdrawing to the Jinggang Mountains of western Jiangxi Province.

The Nanchang Uprising 南昌起义 (August 1, 1927) was the first major Kuomintang- Communist engagement of the Chinese Civil War; therefore, August 1 is later regarded as the anniversary of the founding of the People's Liberation Army