Nanch'ang

The small group around Ch’en Tu-hsiu that had remained at headquarters hastily sent an emissary—Chang Kuo-t’ao—to Nanch’ang. Though Chang set out immediately, he did not reach Nanch’ang until July 31, the day before the rising.

The First Army Corps attacked Nanch'ang on August 1, but failed to capture it.[…]In the meantime, P'eng's Third Army Corps had captured Ch'angsha on July 29 and proclaimed a soviet government of three provinces (Kiangsi, Hunan, and Hupeh), with Li Li-san as its chairman in absentia.

The Communist Party had no troops of its own, but it is known that the Northern Expedition forces included several communist officers, some of whom held important commands. Such was the case in the Second Front Army (ex Fourth Army), commanded by General Chang Fa-k'uei and recently transferred from Hupei to the Nanch'ang-Kiukiang area of Kiangsi, with its headquarters to Kiukiang (see Map 5, p. 152). A few units of three armies belonging to the Second Front Army were in Nanch'ang itself or in the neighbourhood of the town:[…]

In early 1358 Ch’en Yu-liang captured Anch’ing, and soon afterwards Nanch’ang, the key to central Kiangsi, fell without serious resistance.