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except those belonging to workmen, peasants or soldiers; the re-organisation of the Kuomintang; the elimination of all military leaders hostile to Communism; and the arming of 20,000 Communists and 50,000 workmen and peasants. This proposal, however, was defeated, and the Communists ceased to support the intended campaign of the Kuomintang against the Northern militarists, although they had previously been most active in the organisation of the Nationalist forces. Nevertheless, at a later stage, they joined in it, and when the Northern Expedition reached Central China and established a Nationalist Government at Wu-Han in 1927, the Communists succeeded in obtaining a controlling position in it, as the Nationalist leaders were not prepared to join issue with them until their own forces had occupied Nanking and Shanghai. The Wu-Han Government put into operation in the provinces of Hunan and Hupeh a series of purely communistic measures. The Nationalist Revolution was almost on the point of being transformed into a Communist Revolution.
Break between Kuomintang and Communism, 1927.The Nationalist leaders at last decided that Communism had become too serious a menace to be tolerated any longer. As soon as they were firmly established at Nanking, where another National Government was constituted on April 10th, 1927, a proclamation was issued in which the Nanking Government ordered the immediate purification of the Army and the Civil Service from Communism. On July 15th, the majority of the Central Executive of the Kuomintang at Wu-Han, who had so far refused to join the Nationalist leaders at Nanking, adopted a resolution excluding Communists from the Kuomintang and ordering the Soviet advisers to leave China. As a result of this decision, the Kuomintang regained its unity and the Government at Nanking became generally recognised by the party.
Affairs of Nanchang and Canton.During the period of tolerance, several military units had been gained to the Communist cause. These had been left in the rear, mostly in Kiangsi Province, when the Nationalist Army was marching to the North. Communist agents were sent to co-ordinate these units and to persuade them to take action against the National Government. On July 30th, 1927, the garrison at Nanchang, the capital of Kiangsi Province, together with some other military units, revolted and subjected the population to numerous excesses. However, on August 5th, they were defeated by the Government forces and withdrew to the South. On December 11th, a Communist rising at Canton delivered control of the city for two days into their hands. The Nanking Government considered that official Soviet agents had actively participated in these uprisings. An order of December 14th, 1927, withdrew the exequatur of all the consuls of the U.S.S.R. residing in China.
Continuation of armed struggle with the Communist armies.The recrudescence of civil war favoured the growth of Communist influence in the period between 1928 and 1931. A Red army was organised, and extensive areas in Kiangsi and Fukien were sovietised. Only in November 1930, shortly after the defeat of a powerful coalition of Northern militarists, was the Central Government able to take up the suppression of Communism in earnest. The Communist forces had operated in parts of Kiangsi and Hunan Provinces and were then reported to have caused in two or three months the loss of 200,000 lives and of property valued at about one billion dollars (silver). They had now become so strong that they were able to defeat the first and frustrate the second expedition sent against them by the Government. The third expedition, directed by the Commander-in-Chief, General Chiang Kai-shek, defeated the Communist armies in several encounters. By the middle of July 1931, the most important Communist strongholds had been taken, and their forces were in full retreat towards Fuken.
Whilst constituting a political commission to re-organise the areas which had been devastated, General Chiang Kai-shek pursued the Red armies, and drove them into the mountainous region north-east of Kiangsi.
