The core of the Soviet included the counties of Chong'an in Fujian, Kaihua in Zhejiang, Wuyuan in Anhui, and Yiyang and Hengfeng in Jiangxi.

Northeast Jiangxi is a rugged and relatively remote region centered around the Xin River, near where it empties into Poyang Lake.

[a] The economy of the region relied on agriculture and handicrafts, and had been badly hit by foreign competition in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

[9] When the Northern Expedition brought the region of the United Front's military control, the organizers rapidly expanded their activities.

[c] This period of growth came to an end when in April 1927 when KMT general Chiang Kai-shek led the right-wing of the party to turn against the Communists.

[15] They organized the sympathetic peasants of each village into a secret cell, inducting new initiates at ceremonies where "incense was burned, obeisance made, and chicken's blood drunk, [with] the members swearing to stand by each other until death.

[23] In November 1928 or February 1929, the Communist-controlled areas in northeast Jiangxi were formally united as the "Xin River Soviet", under a Special Committee chaired by Fang Zhimin.

[23] The three key policies of the Northeast Jiangxi Soviet were land reform, rent reduction, and abolition of all debts.

[26] To keep the economy functioning during the redistribution of land, the Soviet government prohibited the export of rice and established taxes, banks, and small handicrafts factories.

[30] In December of that year, a split between the moderate and radical factions took place in the Central Soviet, known as the Futian incident.

[31] In late 1931, the radical faction now in control of the CCP sent Wan Yongcheng and Zeng Hongyi to replace Fang Zhimin as leaders of the Northeast Jiangxi Soviet.

Ilpyong Kim argues that the Soviet "was consolidated and strengthened" by removing Party members who had been recruited from the rural gentry and were hesitant to implement radical land reform.

He concludes that, although costly, the purges "firmly established in the Chinese Revolution the policies of mass mobilization and radical socioeconomic change that played a major role in the eventual Communist victory.

[e][35] In early 1933, the Tenth Red Army was ordered south to help defend the Central Soviet in southern Jiangxi.

[35] In December, Fang Zhimin was reappointed head of the Minzhegan Soviet and began using a more mobile defensive strategy.

On its way, it captured arms from Nationalist garrisons, "electrified local units of the party", and distributed thousands of leaflets explaining why China needed to resist Japanese aggression.

[37] The next month, the Central Committee in Ruijin ordered the reunited Tenth Army to head north into southern Anhui to set up a Soviet there.

"[41] The core of the Soviet area were the counties of Chong'an in Fujian, Kaihua in Zhejiang, Wuyuan in Anhui,[f] and Yiyang and Hengfeng in Jiangxi.

They captured rifles and gained new recruits, but caused merchants to flee and considerably disrupted pottery production in the town.