October 16, 1934

Long March

Advance elements of the Central Red Army begin crossing the Yudu River during the Long March breakout

The commemorated start date is challenged by the Red Army’s own crossing plan, which scheduled the main Yudu operation for 17–19 October — and the marchers were hauling printing presses and an X-ray machine.

A departure already under way

By 16 October 1934 the withdrawal had been running for nearly a week: Communist forces were already moving southwest out of the Jiangxi Soviet under secret orders issued on 10 October.

A Xinhua report based on the PLA Archives says some troops and baggage began crossing the Yudu River on the night of 16 October, ahead of the formally scheduled main crossing. The archival plan set that main operation from the night of the 17th until 5 a.m. on the 19th, across about seven crossing sectors.

An archivist concluded that 17 October should be treated as the main crossing date, even though some units went over on the 16th.

Not the PLA, and not yet Mao’s march

The force was the First Front, or Central, Red Army — the Chinese Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army. The People’s Liberation Army did not exist under that name in 1934; the term appeared during the later civil war, standardized by a November 1948 Central Military Commission order.

Bo Gu and the Comintern adviser Otto Braun had made the decision to abandon the base, and Zhou Enlai helped execute it. Mao Zedong crossed with part of the Military Commission column on the 18th; his ascendancy came later, at the January 1935 Zunyi Conference.

What went across the river

Roughly 87,000 troops left with the First Front Red Army. The column moved chiefly at night and carried not only weapons but printing presses, an X-ray machine, money, wounded personnel and sick leaders.

About 16,000 personnel stayed near Ruijin as a rearguard, to delay the Nationalists and conceal the withdrawal.

There was no fixed destination of Yan’an: the initial objective was to move southwest and link with He Long’s forces in or near Hunan.

Sources

Researched 24 Aug 2026 5 sources not yet audited Date disputed

How this was checked

Researched from the web into a fact sheet and rewritten from that sheet. This article has not yet had an independent model audit. How the pipeline works →

Date disputed. Sources disagree; the research places it at ~1934-10-16.

What the sources leave uncertain

The date depends on what is defined as the beginning. Marching orders and unit movements began on October 10; some accounts use October 14–16 for the breakout; October 16 is the traditional commemorative date.
The PLA Archives crossing plan began on October 17. An archivist concluded that October 17 should be treated as the main crossing date, although some troops and baggage crossed on the night of the 16th.
The withdrawal later called the Long March comprised several Communist armies and movements extending into 1936; October 16 applies specifically to the Central/First Front Red Army's Jiangxi breakout.