How Did Zhu De and Mao Zedong Meet? The Real Story of the Jinggangshan Junction

How Did Zhu De and Mao Zedong Meet? The Real Story of the Jinggangshan Junction

At dawn on April 28, 1928, in Longshi, Ninggang County, Jinggangshan, a ragged, footsore force with steady eyes entered the small mountain town to the sound of firecrackers from the locals. Leading them was a powerful, dark-faced 42-year-old soldier: Zhu De. On the other side, having waited a long time, Mao Zedong in a gray cloth uniform broke into a rare smile and strode forward. Two hands clasped tightly; the most important "junction" in the history of Chinese revolution had just happened. This was the famous Jinggangshan Junction. That day the Fourth Army of Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army was formally founded — Mao as party representative, Zhu De as commander. From then on "Zhu Mao" became inseparable, a spiritual totem of the entire Red Army. Few know that the two men had never met before. How did they meet? What heart-stopping path lay behind this junction?

Two Separate Paths: Where Zhu and Mao Stood Before the Junction

To understand the significance, look at where Zhu De and Mao Zedong had each been — two separate, extraordinarily hard roads that miraculously met in the spring of 1928 in Jinggangshan.

Mao's line. On September 9, 1927, Mao led the Autumn Harvest Uprising, originally aiming to attack Changsha; the assault did badly with heavy losses. At Wenjiashi Mao made a decisive turn — abandon big-city targets and head into Jinggangshan. On September 29, in Sanwan, Yongxin County, he carried out the famous Sanwan Reorganization, compressing the scattered force into a single regiment and establishing principles like "branch built on the company," "the Party commands the gun," and democratic practices. The reforms reborn the force as a true revolutionary army. By late October 1927 he arrived at Jinggangshan and began building China's first rural revolutionary base.

Zhu's line. Zhu De was a veteran professional soldier trained at Yunnan Military Academy. He had been Cai E's adjutant, Yunnan Army brigade commander, and fought in the anti-Yuan campaign to defend the republic. In 1922 he went to Germany to study; in Berlin he joined the CCP. On August 1, 1927, the Nanchang Uprising broke out; Zhu De was deputy commander of the Ninth Army of the uprising. After the southern push to Guangdong failed, Zhu De and Chen Yi led the last 800-plus men south, struggling for a year through southern Jiangxi, northern Guangdong, and southern Hunan. The force was called "vagabonds" by the enemy and could be wiped out any day, but Zhu De preserved it through experience and iron will.

In January 1928 Zhu De launched the "Xiangnan Uprising" in Yizhang, Hunan, mobilizing peasants; the force grew to several thousand. But KMT encirclement and suppression came quickly; Zhu De began looking for a new base.

Mao Reaches Out: Sending He Changgong to Find the Nanchang Remnants

In November 1927 in Jinggangshan, Mao heard that the Nanchang Uprising forces were still fighting in the south. He sent a cadre named He Changgong on a needle-in-a-haystack mission. He Changgong disguised himself as a merchant and traveled across Hunan, Guangdong, and Guangxi asking where Zhu De's force was.

In January 1928 He Changgong met an underground intelligence comrade in Guangzhou and learned Zhu De was at Yizhang in southern Hunan. He went there at once and met Zhu De for the first time at a teahouse. As they shook hands Zhu De said: "At last we've made contact with Comrade Mao!" He Changgong relayed Mao's message: "Jinggangshan has mountains, water, and a popular base; the Nanchang Uprising forces are welcome to join up here."

Zhu De decided on the spot: head north to Jinggangshan. A crucial call — if he stayed in southern Hunan his force would likely be destroyed; the road north was dangerous, but joining Mao's Autumn Harvest force would create a stronger revolutionary force.

The 800-Li Bloody Road North

In late March 1928 Zhu De led the Nanchang Uprising remnants and Xiangnan peasant army — over 10,000 in total — on a hard march from southern Hunan to Jinggangshan. A "Little Long March" of more than 800 li: KMT Hunan Army ahead, Cantonese Army behind, KMT central forces on one side, bandit gangs in the middle.

They moved in guerrilla fashion. Many soldiers had no straw sandals and walked barefoot on mountain roads; food was one meal a day, eked out with wild fruit; KMT planes strafed by day, and at night they slept in the forest. Zhu De always walked at the head. His mule did not carry his luggage but the most important documents and wounded-relief supplies.

At the same time, Mao Zedong prepared at Jinggangshan. He sent He Changgong, Mao Zetan, and others to set up liaison stations along the route and dispatched guard units forward. He mobilized peasants and base-area residents to prepare rice, oil, salt, and medicine for the meeting.

In late April, Zhu De's force crossed the Longtou Mountain on the Hunan-Jiangxi border and entered the Jinggangshan area. Mao took part of his guard south to Longshi to receive them. On April 28, the two armies met at Longshi.

The Details of That Day

On the morning of April 28, the streets of Longshi were packed. Zhu De's force entered from the south; Mao walked in from the north. The two revolutionaries who had never met — Mao 34, tall and refined; Zhu De 42, sturdy and kindly — met at the head of Longshi street.

Mao reached out: "You must be Comrade Zhu De — I am Mao Zedong."

Zhu De gripped his hand: "Commissioner Mao, finally I have found you!"

They stood in the street; soldiers and crowds cheered. He Changgong recalled that the handshake lasted a long, long time — neither let go. Both knew this was not just two men meeting, but the convergence of the two most important forces of Chinese revolution.

The two then held an emergency meeting at the Wenchang Temple in Longshi. The two units merged into the Fourth Army of Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (Red Fourth Army), about 10,000 strong, with three divisions. Mao was party representative and secretary of the military committee; Zhu De was commander; Chen Yi was head of political department. "Zhu Mao" became the symbol of the Red Army.

The meeting set the Fourth Army's basic tasks: take Jinggangshan as a base, mobilize the masses, build the Soviet zone, wage guerrilla war. These decisions are milestones in Chinese revolutionary history — Jinggangshan became the first rural revolutionary base; the Red Fourth Army became the source of all later Red Army units.

The Zhu-Mao Bond: Perfect Complement

Zhu De and Mao — one a trained professional soldier, the other a politically grounded ideologue; one steady and reserved, the other ambitious and strategic; one a master of concrete command, the other of grand strategy. Once paired, they became the firmest combination of Chinese revolution.

Militarily, Zhu De was the soul of the front. Red Fourth Army battles — tactical command, troop allocation, position choice — were largely Zhu De's calls. He had rich experience in the Northern Expedition and the Defend-the-Constitution War, and a deep grasp of modern military theory. His style — "careful use of troops, fast movement, concentration of strength" — became the Red Army's most precious military inheritance.

Politically, Mao was the core. Through a series of works — the "Three Disciplines and Eight Points of Attention," the Gutian Conference resolutions, the Changgang Township investigation — he forged the Red Army from a traditional army into one with "high political awareness, mass base, and strict discipline." His ideas — "workers' and peasants' armed independence," "surround the cities from the countryside" — pointed the direction for the whole Chinese revolution.

Personality-wise, they balanced wonderfully. Zhu De was good-tempered, accommodating; soldiers called him "Old Zhu." Mao was hot-tempered, sharp; cadres feared and revered him. Zhu De ran the army; Mao ran the thinking — perfect fit. By late 1928 the Red Army said: "Zhu and Mao are the Red Army's parents — Zhu the mother, Mao the father."

Forty Years From Jinggangshan to Zhongnanhai

After Jinggangshan, Zhu De and Mao walked the revolutionary road together for forty years — from Jinggangshan to Ruijin, from the Long March to Yan'an, from Xibaipo to Beijing. In every hard time, Zhu Mao did not separate.

On the Long March, Mao re-established leadership at the Zunyi Conference with Zhu De's solid support. In the Yan'an era, Zhu De as 8th Route Army commander-in-chief led the war in north China while Mao directed from Yan'an. In the civil war, Zhu De as PLA commander-in-chief sat at Center while Mao directly commanded the Three Great Campaigns. After 1949, Zhu De served as Vice Chairman of the Central Military Commission and Chairman of the NPC Standing Committee — at the highest leadership tier with Mao.

Zhu-Mao were comrades, confidants, and at times had different views. At the Red Fourth Army Party's Seventh Congress in 1929, they argued over whether the military committee should be independent of the Party; Zhu De was even elected secretary of the Front Committee (Mao temporarily stepped down). But after a few months of investigation and thought, Zhu De firmly supported Mao's position and brought him back. This "yielding" became a classic case of Zhu De's broad-minded prioritizing of revolutionary cause.

That Handshake at Jinggangshan: What It Changed

The handshake of April 28, 1928 looks like a first meeting of two revolutionaries — but it changed the entire direction of Chinese revolution.

Before the meeting, CCP-led armed struggle was scattered, mobile, without bases. After the failures of the Autumn Harvest, Nanchang, and Guangzhou uprisings, many were pessimistic about China's revolutionary future. The Zhu-Mao Junction showed that revolutionary armed force, given the right strategy, a stable base, and a core leadership, could survive and grow under enemy encirclement.

After the junction, Jinggangshan became the lighthouse of Chinese revolution; "Zhu Mao Red Army" spread across the country. Other uprising forces followed: Peng Dehuai's Pingjiang Uprising units joined Jinggangshan; He Long built a base in west Hunan–west Hubei; Xu Xiangqian built a base in Hubei-Henan-Anhui; Deng Xiaoping organized uprisings in Baise and Longzhou. The sparks of "workers' and peasants' armed independence" began to spread nationwide.

Today in Jinggangshan, the streets of Longshi, the conference room at Ciping, the sentry post at Huangyangjie still preserve their original look. The most striking painting in the memorial hall is Zhu Mao shaking hands at Longshi. Those two hands held not just each other but the future of Chinese revolution.

When later generations speak of the "Jinggangshan spirit," what is at the core? Belief that a single spark can start a prairie fire; the wisdom of merging two forces into one; the courage in the hardest hour to keep trusting comrades and the future. That is the most precious spiritual legacy Jinggangshan left China.