The 'Autumn Harvest Uprising' () was an
insurrection that took place in
Hunan province and
Jiangxi province,
China on
September 7,
1927, led by
Mao Zedong, who established a short-lived 'Hunan Soviet'.
Mao led a small army of peasants to fight the
Kuomintang and the landlords of Hunan. The uprising was defeated by Kuomintang forces and Mao was forced to retreat to
Jiangxi( the east) province, where emerged an army of
miners. This was the first armed uprising by the Communists, and it marked a significant change in their strategy. Mao and Red Army founder Zhu De went on to develop a rural based strategy that centered on guerilla tactics, paving the way to the
Long March of
1934.