Nanchang Uprising

The Nanchang Uprising (simplified Chinese: 南昌起义; traditional Chinese: 南昌起義; pinyin: Nánchāng Qǐyì) (August 1, 1927) was the first major Kuomintang-Communist engagement of the Chinese Civil War, begun by the Communists to counter the anti-communist purges by the Nationalist Party of China.

The Kuomintang (KMT, or Nationalist Party) established a "Revolutionary Committee" at Nanchang to plan the spark that was expected to ignite a widespread peasant uprising. Deng Yanda, Song Qingling (Soong Ching-ling, Madame Sun Yat-sen) and Zhang Fakui (who later crushed the uprising) were among the political leaders.

Military forces in Nanchang under the leadership of He Long and Zhou Enlai rebelled in an attempt to seize control of the city after the end of the first Kuomintang-Communist alliance. Other important leaders in this event were Zhu De, Ye Ting and Liu Bocheng.

Communist forces successfully occupied Nanchang and escaped from the siege of Kuomintang forces by August 5, withdrawing to the Jinggang Mountains of western Jiangxi. August 1 was later regarded as the anniversary of the founding of the People's Liberation Army and the first action fought against the Kuomintang.

Read more about Nanchang Uprising:  Names, Battle At Nanchang, Retreat

Famous quotes containing the word uprising:

    Whoever thinks of stopping the uprising before it achieves its goals, I will give him ten bullets in the chest.
    Yasir Arafat (b. 1929)