On July 1, 1931, the nationalists began their offensive. The communists had not fully recovered yet from the last encirclement campaign and
Wang Ming's protégés including
Xiang Ying had to agree with
Mao Zedong's decision to adopt the proven strategies in the earlier campaigns by letting the nationalists penetrate deep into the communist base and then to counterattack individual isolated enemy formations as they were dispersed. On July 10, 1931, the communist main force left western
Fujian and traveled more than five hundred kilometers back to
Xingguo in southern
Jiangxi and waited their opportunities to counterattack. By the end of July 1931, nationalists had discovered that the communist main force had withdrawn to
Xingguo, and
Chiang Kai-shek immediately ordered his troops to simultaneously attack southward from north and westward from east, so that communists would be forced onto the eastern bank of
Gan River and annihilated. The communists, in turn, decided to avoid direct clash with main nationalist force but instead, attack the weaker ones by outflanking the nationalists. To achieve their goal, communists planned to strike Futian (富田) from
Xingguo via Wan'an (万安), and then to strike eastward from the west to sever the nationalist communication/supply lines while the main nationalist force was trapped deep inside the communist base. As the main communist force moved toward Futian (富田), its intent was discovered by the nationalists and the nationalist 11th and 14th Division reached Futian (富田) ahead of the communists, resulting in the communist main force being blocked by the
Gan River in the west, and facing the nationalist forces in the east, south and north. The communist high command decided to change their strategy by breaking through in the center and move eastward to the regions of Liantang (莲塘), Liangcun (良村), and Huangbi (黄陂). In order to hide their true objective, the 35th Army and the 35th Division of the 12th Army of the
Chinese Red Army pretended to be the communist main force and moved towards the
Gan River to fool nationalists. The main communist force, meanwhile, swiftly moved to the region of Liantang (莲塘) at the night under the cover of the darkness on August 4, 1931 via passing through a twenty-kilometer gap in the nationalist lines between the nationalist divisions commanded
Cai Tingkai and
Jiang Dingwen. On August 7, 1931, communists succeeded in annihilating more than a brigade of troops from the nationalist 47th Division in the region of Liantang (莲塘), and soon afterward, badly mauling the nationalist 54th Division in Liangcun (良村). On August 11, 1931, communists succeeded in completely destroying four regiments of the nationalist 8th Division at Huangbi (黄陂), and after three consecutive defeats, the nationalist advance was checked temporarily. Realizing the communist main force was moving eastward, the nationalist troops moving southward and westward were ordered to move eastward on August 9, 1931, in an attempt to sounding the communist main force in the region to the east of Junbu (君埠). The communists ordered their 12th Army (missing its 35th Division) of the Chinese Red Army to move toward Yue'an (乐安) to lure the nationalists northeastward, while the communist main force secretly returned to
Xingguo by quietly passing a ten kilometer-wide gap in the nationalist encirclement in the mountain. Half a month later, nationalists chasing the communist 12th Army realized they were after the wrong target and abandoned the chase. As the over stretched nationalist forces attempted to regroup, the communists already had plenty of time to rest and regrouped already, and the nationalist morale dropped to a new low while their supplies had run out. Realizing further fighting was impossible, nationalists were forced to abandon their plans by starting to withdraw in early September, 1931. Taking the opportunity, communists counterattacked, and the only nationalist offensive still remaining was successfully checked when the nationalist 60th Division and 61st Division were forced to be on the defensive and abandoned all offensive attempts. Communists were not satisfied with this success and did not consider it a victory, but a draw instead, and continued their offensive on other fronts. On September 7, 1931, they succeeded in destroying an entire brigade of the nationalist 9th Division in the region of Laoyingpan (老营盘), and on September 15, 1931, another brigade of the nationalist 9th Division and the entire nationalist 52nd Division were completely destroyed by the communists in the region of Fangshiling (方石岭). The nationalist commander of the 52nd Division,
Han Deqin, was captured alive together with his staff, becoming the highest ranking nationalist commander captured, but they had successfully avoided being identified by disguising themselves as ordinary soldiers and each received two dollars in silver when released after the campaign. A total of seven nationalist divisions were badly mauled in the six battles, which communists themselves labeled as five victories and one draw, and nationalists suffered over 30,000 casualties. In addition, the communists also captured more than 20,000 rifles in their victory. ==Aftermath==