Fifth encirclement campaign against the Jiangxi Soviet

Fifth Encirclement Campaign; Against the Jiangxi Soviet
	Part of the Chinese Civil War
	; Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek in 1933
Date	September 25, 1933 – October 10, 1934; (1 year, 2 weeks and 1 day)
Location	Jiangxi province, China
Result	Nationalist major victory Jiangxi Soviet Eliminated; Red Army forced onto Long March; ;
Belligerents
Nationalist China Nationalist Army Air Force; ; ; Allied Clique Troops; Supported by:; Germany	Chinese Soviet Red Army; ; Supported by:; Soviet Union
Commanders and leaders
Chiang Kai-shek; Chen Cheng; Chen Jitang; Xue Yue; Gu Zhutong; Tang En-po; A. von Falkenhausen	Wang Ming; Zhou Enlai; Bo Gu; Otto Braun; Lin Biao; Peng Dehuai; Yang Youlin
Strength
1,000,000 total mobilised 500,000 ; Chiang Kai-shek regime; 300,000 ; Chen Jitang Clique; 200,000 from various Northeast; Szechwan; Hunan; Hokkien; Kwangsi; ; ; ～1000 trucks; ～500 artillery pieces; ～270 aircraft;	70,000–150,000
Casualties and losses
2626 total casualty ; ~1,000 killed; 1 aircraft lost in accident	~60,000 total casualty ; 1000+ POW

The Fifth Encirclement Campaign against the Jiangxi Soviet was a series of military operations undertaken during the Chinese Civil War, spanning from 25 September 1933 to October 1934. The conflict pitted the forces of Chiang Kai-shek's Chinese Nationalist Party (Kuomintang) against the Chinese Communists.

Unlike earlier attempts to crush the Chinese Soviet Republic, the fifth campaign was marked by a more methodical strategy. Chiang Kai-shek implemented a policy of gradual advance fortified by the construction of blockhouses, aiming to systematically isolate and annihilate Communist-controlled areas. This tactic ultimately proved effective in tightening the Nationalist stranglehold over the Jiangxi region.

Despite fierce resistance, the Communist forces—under increasingly constrained circumstances—suffered significant losses. By October 1934, the Nationalist Forces had succeeded in overrunning the principal Communist base areas. This defeat forced the Communist leadership to initiate a massive strategic retreat, later memorialised as the beginning of the Long March.

The campaign represented a turning point in the civil conflict, not only due to its military consequences but also for how it reshaped the Communist Party's internal leadership and strategic doctrine in the years that followed.