After the failure of the fifth anti-encirclement and suppression campaign, the main force of the Central Red Army began to carry out a strategic shift in order to get rid of the encirclement and blockade of the Kuomintang army, that is, the world-famous Long March. The 25,000-mile Long March had a great impact on later generations, but the long march also encountered many difficult things, and on the way of the Red Army, the most tragic battle was the Battle of the Xiangjiang River.
In November 1934, after the Red Army broke through the third blockade line of the Kuomintang army, Chiang Kai-shek ordered hundreds of thousands of troops, including the Xiang Army, the Qian Army, and the Gui Army, to surround and block the Red Army. Among them, the Gui army attacked the most fiercely, and the Gui army also fought a rather fierce white-knife battle with the Red Army. Bai Chongxi actually did not want to fight the Red Army to the death, but to preserve its strength, but for various reasons, the Gui Army still let the main force of the Red Army suffer heavy losses.
In the Battle of Xiangjiang, the 34th Division of the Fifth Red Army was ordered to go to Maple Point to block the headquarters of Xia Wei of the Gui Army, but due to unfamiliar terrain and other reasons, it not only failed to replace the 18th Regiment of the Red Sixth Division to block the Gui Army, but instead put itself in a desperate situation. In order to open the passage to the north, the 34th Division frantically launched round after round of attacks against the Gui Army, but instead of breaking through the Gui Army's troops, it inflicted heavy losses on its own, and many generals such as the political commissar and director of the Political Department of the 34th Division were sacrificed.
After the 34th Division suffered heavy casualties, division commander Chen Shuxiang led the remaining more than 100 people to break through. In the process of the breakthrough, Chen Shuxiang was seriously injured, hid in his hometown to recuperate, unfortunately was captured by the security team, and finally committed suicide. The Red Eighth Army was a newly formed unit at that time, this unit had a total of more than 10,000 people, mainly recruits, after the Battle of Xiangjiang, only more than 1,000 people were left, the 32nd Division suffered 4,000 casualties, and the whole army was destroyed.
In the Battle of xiangjiang, the total strength of the central Red Army was sharply reduced from 86,000 to more than 30,000, and the blood of more than 50,000 officers and men of the Red Army stained the waters of the Xiangjiang River red. Although the Red Army suffered heavy losses in the Battle of the Xiangjiang River, it successfully broke through the fourth blockade line of the Kuomintang army, and more importantly, directly promoted the convening of the Zunyi Conference, which had a great impact.