Oct 16, 2026 · 1 hr · 31 segments
Thank you so much for listening to the Bob Harden Show, celebrating over 15 years broadcasting on the internet. On Friday’s show, we visit with author and Professor Andrew Joppa about a variety of…
The website is lifeinnanpoles.net. We have a terrific show for you today, including special guest Andrew Joppa, professor and author of Josephus of Arimathea.
We'll be exploring a number of cultural and political issues during the course of the show.
It is October the 16th, and on this day in 1934, the embattled Chinese communists broke through the National Enemy lines and began an epic flight, uh, from the encircled headquarters in southeast China.
Known as the Long March, the retreat lasted 368 days and covered 6,000 miles, more than twice the distance from New York to San Francisco.
Civil War in China began, and the Nationalists and the Communists broke out in 1927.
In 1931, Communist leader Mao Zedong, uh, was elected chairman of the newly established Soviet Republic of China, based in Zhanji- uh, China province in the, uh, southeast.
Between 1930 and '34, the Nationalists under Ch- uh, Chiang Kai-shek, uh, launched a series of five encirclement campaigns against the Soviet Republic.
Under the leadership of Mao, the Communists employed guerrilla tactics and resist, uh, successfully the first four campaigns, but in the fifth, uh, Chiang, uh, [clears throat] raised 700,000 troops and built fortifications around the Communist positions.
Hundreds of thousands of peasants were killed or died of starvation in the siege, and Mao was removed as chairman by the Communist Central Committee.
The new c- uh, Communist leader, uh, employed more conventional warfare tactics, and its Red Army was decimated.
With defeat imminent, the Communists decided to break out of the encirclement at its weakless- weakest points.
Secrecy and, uh, rearguard actions confused the Nationalists, and it was several weeks before they realized the main body of the Red Army had fled.
The retreating force initially consisted of 86,000 troops, 15,000 personnel, and fif- 35 women.
Weapons and supplies were borne on m- men's backs or horse-drawn carts, and the line of marchers stretched for 50 miles.
The Communists generally marched at night, and when the enemy was not near, a long column of torches could be seen snaking over valleys and hills in the distance.
The first disaster came in November when Nationalist forces blocked the Communist route across the Han- Hsiang River.
It soon, uh, took a week for Communists to break through the fortifications that cost them 50,000 men, more than half of their number.
After that debacle, Mao steadily regained his influence, and in January, he was again made chairman during a meeting of the party leaders that captured the city of Shenyi.
Uh, Mao's charged strategy or changed strategy, breaking his forces into several columns that would take varying paths to confuse the enemy.
There would be no more direct assaults on the enemy positions, and the destination would now be Jiangxi Province in the northwest, where the Communists hoped to, uh, fight the Japanese invaders and, uh, earn the respect of China's masses.
After enduring starvation, aerial bombardment, and almost daily skirmishes with the Nationalist forces, Mao halted his columns at the foot of the Great Wall of China on October the 20th, 1935.
The website is lifeinnanpoles.net. We have a terrific show for you today, including special guest Andrew Joppa, professor and author of Josephus of Arimathea.
We'll be exploring a number of cultural and political issues during the course of the show.
It is October the 16th, and on this day in 1934, the embattled Chinese communists broke through the National Enemy lines and began an epic flight, uh, from the encircled headquarters in southeast China.
Known as the Long March, the retreat lasted 368 days and covered 6,000 miles, more than twice the distance from New York to San Francisco.
Civil War in China began, and the Nationalists and the Communists broke out in 1927.
In 1931, Communist leader Mao Zedong, uh, was elected chairman of the newly established Soviet Republic of China, based in Zhanji- uh, China province in the, uh, southeast.
Between 1930 and '34, the Nationalists under Ch- uh, Chiang Kai-shek, uh, launched a series of five encirclement campaigns against the Soviet Republic.
Under the leadership of Mao, the Communists employed guerrilla tactics and resist, uh, successfully the first four campaigns, but in the fifth, uh, Chiang, uh, [clears throat] raised 700,000 troops and built fortifications around the Communist positions.
Hundreds of thousands of peasants were killed or died of starvation in the siege, and Mao was removed as chairman by the Communist Central Committee.
The new c- uh, Communist leader, uh, employed more conventional warfare tactics, and its Red Army was decimated.
With defeat imminent, the Communists decided to break out of the encirclement at its weakless- weakest points.
Secrecy and, uh, rearguard actions confused the Nationalists, and it was several weeks before they realized the main body of the Red Army had fled.
The retreating force initially consisted of 86,000 troops, 15,000 personnel, and fif- 35 women.
Weapons and supplies were borne on m- men's backs or horse-drawn carts, and the line of marchers stretched for 50 miles.
The Communists generally marched at night, and when the enemy was not near, a long column of torches could be seen snaking over valleys and hills in the distance.
The first disaster came in November when Nationalist forces blocked the Communist route across the Han- Hsiang River.
It soon, uh, took a week for Communists to break through the fortifications that cost them 50,000 men, more than half of their number.
After that debacle, Mao steadily regained his influence, and in January, he was again made chairman during a meeting of the party leaders that captured the city of Shenyi.
Uh, Mao's charged strategy or changed strategy, breaking his forces into several columns that would take varying paths to confuse the enemy.
There would be no more direct assaults on the enemy positions, and the destination would now be Jiangxi Province in the northwest, where the Communists hoped to, uh, fight the Japanese invaders and, uh, earn the respect of China's masses.
After enduring starvation, aerial bombardment, and almost daily skirmishes with the Nationalist forces, Mao halted his columns at the foot of the Great Wall of China on October the 20th, 1935.
The rest of this transcript — segmented and speaker-labeled, so you land on the exact moment something was said
Search every transcript — by keyword, by phrase, or by meaning, across every show Radar indexes
Trends — what is surging across podcasts, measured against its own baseline
Alerts — when a name you follow appears in a newly indexed episode
No account is needed to search Radar.