In July 1933 the NRA established a review team to identify and rectify mistakes made in previous encirclement campaigns.

[2] Firstly, the Soviet would be surrounded and blockaded, cutting off crucial goods that were important to the logistics of the Red Army such as raw materials, rice, and salt.

Lastly, roads were built in rear areas to facilitate the delivery of supplies, these strategies were adopted piecemeal before to varying often limited success.

In addition to mobilizing the warlords' troops, Chiang also adopted the strategy of systematic encirclement of the Jiangxi Soviet region with fortified blockhouses.

In an effort to break the blockade, the Red Army—under the orders of a three-man committee consisting of Bo Gu, Zhou Enlai and Li De (Otto Braun)—besieged the forts many times, but suffered heavy casualties with little success.

Although their force managed to stop the Nationalist advance on the southwest of Lichuan, further operations ended in failure: when the 24th division of the Chinese Red Army attempted to take Xiaoshi [zh] on 9 October 1933, not only did the city remain firmly in Nationalist hands, but the communists were forced to withdraw over the next few days while suffering heavy casualties.

Between September 25, 1933, and mid-November 1933, the Chinese Red Army failed to achieve any major victories and suffered serious losses, not only in battle but from defection and disease.

Due to overwhelming Nationalist superiority, Communist strongholds at Ganzhu, Daluo Mountain (大罗山) and Yanfuzhang (延福嶂) fell.

On 27 April 1934, the Nationalists launched their final assault on Guangchang, succeeding in taking it by the evening and inflicting over 5,500 casualties on its Communist defenders.

On 5 August 1934, nine Nationalist divisions ventured out of their forts, taking areas north of Yiqian [zh] and adjacent regions.

By the late September 1934, the Chinese Soviet Republic was left with only Ruijin, Huichang, Xingguo, Ningdu, Shicheng, Ninghua and Changting.