Editing Long March (section)

===Aftermath===

[[File:Long-march.jpg|thumb|275px|right|A Communist leader addressing Long March survivors]]

While costly, the Long March gave the CCP the isolation it needed, allowing its army to recuperate and rebuild in the north. It also was vital in helping the CCP to gain a positive reputation among the peasants due to the determination and dedication of the surviving participants of the Long March. Mao wrote in 1935:
<blockquote>The Long March is a manifesto. It has proclaimed to the world that the Red Army is an army of heroes, while the imperialists and their running dogs, Chiang Kai-shek and his like, are impotent. It has proclaimed their utter failure to encircle, pursue, obstruct and intercept us. The Long March is also a propaganda force. It has announced to some 200 million people in eleven provinces that the road of the Red Army is their only road to liberation.<ref>Mao Zedong, in ''On Tactics against Japanese Imperialism'' (December 27, 1935): [http://english.pladaily.com.cn/site2/special-reports/2006-08/14/content_554037.htm "The Characteristics of the Present Political Situation"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081212212710/http://english.pladaily.com.cn/site2/special-reports/2006-08/14/content_554037.htm |date=December 12, 2008 }} (Retrieved November 25, 2006)</ref></blockquote>

In addition, policies ordered by Mao for all soldiers to follow, the [[Eight Points of Attention]], instructed the army to treat peasants respectfully and pay fairly for, rather than confiscate, any goods, in spite of the desperate need for food and supplies. This policy won support for the Communists among the rural peasants.<ref name=step/>

Hostilities ceased while the Nationalists and Chinese Communists formed a nominal alliance during the [[Second Sino-Japanese War]] from 1937 until 1945. During these years, the CCP persevered and strengthened its influence. The Red Army fought a disciplined and organized guerilla campaign<ref>*{{cite book| translator-last = Griffith | translator-first = Samuel B.| year = 2005| title = On Guerrilla Warfare by Mao Tse-tung (1937)| publisher = Dover Books on History| page = 94
| isbn = 0-486-44376-0}}</ref> against superior Japanese forces, allowing it to gain experience. Following the end of [[World War II]], the resurgent Communist [[Eighth Route Army]], later called the People's Liberation Army, returned to drive the Kuomintang out of [[Mainland China]] to the island of [[Geography of Taiwan|Taiwan]]. Since the establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949, the Long March has been glorified as an example of the CCP's strength and resilience.

The Long March solidified Mao's status as the undisputed leader of the CCP, though he did not officially become party chairman until 1943. Other survivors of the March also went on to become prominent party leaders well into the 1990s, including Zhu De, [[Lin Biao]], [[Liu Shaoqi]], [[Dong Biwu]], [[Ye Jianying]], [[Li Xiannian]], [[Yang Shangkun]], Zhou Enlai and Deng Xiaoping.

At the age of 9, [[Xiang Xuan]], the nephew of He Long, was the youngest participant of the Long March.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202302/12/WS63e8cbbba31057c47ebae4a9.html|title=Youngest {{as written|soli|der [sic]}} of the Long March dies at 97|newspaper=China Daily|date=2023-02-12|access-date=2024-01-16}}</ref> [[Wu Zhong (general)|Wu Zhong]], one of the participants in the Long March, became the youngest general in the [[People's Liberation Army]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.163.com/dy/article/IUMC7GR40541A30T.html|title=我军历史上最年轻的将军吴忠：12岁参军，58岁挎步枪作战|newspaper=163.com|date=2016-04-01|access-date=2024-12-20}}</ref>

The last known survivor of the Long March, [[Tu Tongjin]], a native of Changting, Fujian, died at the age of 108 on April 3rd, 2023.<ref>{{Cite web | url=https://ishare.ifeng.com/c/s/v002tfLbyXRwl62jA4AoT0HwfqxPgaxmZ9-_w2d--CU8QaWys__|title=The 109-year-old founding major general Tu Tongjin passed away}}</ref>