The autumn harvest uprising marked an important cooperation between the peasents and the CCP. This is veiwed as maybe the decisive factor as to why Mao won the war. This where the two opposing parties have the greatest difference, Jiang relied on the cities for his support while Mao gained his followers from the countryside who made up about 80% of the poppulation so about 400,000,000 men. The communists relied on the peasent support to give the CCP access to food and other resources without which they would have been unable to fight the war succesfully. Communist troops had their base in the mountains to which in 1933 the last of the communists had to flee. There they then didn't have as greater resources as the GMD had in the cities which they controlled. The communists had rules of courtesy towards the peasants with which they won their favor and their aid. The food from the peasant allowed them to act from the mountains and the countryside, because without it they would have had to attack cities for resources which inevitably would have ended fatal for them. Therefore the resources from the peasants were an important factor for Mao and one he heavily relied on.
The support of the peasants brought along further advantages, they gave the trooops important information about the environment which enabled the CCP to fight Guerrilla warfare. Guerrilla warfare became a vital part in the war against the Guomindang, as in a traditional clash between the two sides, the CCP could never have hoped to be victorious. Guerrilla warfare meant splitting the army up into small units of about fourty men, who came up the rear of the army and cut into the enemies flanks. Through this the communists could even though they were in numerical minority win a battle against the superior nationalists. Jiang himself attempted to fight Geurrilla warfare but failed due to the lack of support from the peasants. Both of the two factors, resources and Guerrilla warfare had their base with the support of the peasants.
The resources and information from the peasants also greatly helped the CCP to elude the GMD on the long march. The long march officially lasted from 16th October 1934 to 10th October 1935, though in a broader veiw one can also count the two other retreats from the red army, who were under pressure of the Guomindang. The march led by Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai went over 12,500 Kilometers over the course of 370 days. The march contributed to Mao winning the war because a war is not only fought on the field but also in the heads of the people that fight it. And as Mao said even though the march had lost the CCP many men, they emerged stronger than before as they were now closer than ever. This was a vital part in the fight against the nationalists because an army that is morally bonded can fight much better than an army where the men are randomly assigned and have no knowledge of eachother. The long march would never have been possible without the rural people. They enabled Mao to feed his army and they gave him information as to where they had to go. The peasants could be compared to someone watching over them, feeding them, giving them directions and deluding the enemy.
The question of why Mao prevailed during the civil war can be turned around to why Jiang lost the civil war. Jiang lost the civil war for several reasons, for one from 1937-1945 China was at war with Japan and although a second United Front was organised after a kidnapping of Jiang, Jiang never dedicated his full army to the Sino-Japanese war but rather towards fighting the communists. This meant that the GMD suffered great losses through the Japanese, during this time even though the GMD was aided by America with money and weapons they were weakened considerably. The cities were affected by bombing and so the places were Jiang had most of his support were attacked which hurt the GMD severely. The CCP were also affected by the invasion of Manchuria but as China is a big country they had a vast amount of territory to which they could retreat.
Also the money he acquired from the Americans which was meant to go towards rebuilding the country was mostly lost through corruption. His government took much of the money and kept it for private use. This angered the population greatly, especially the poor which made Jiang and the GMD extremely unpopular. This meant that there would be protest against the governemnt, which would benefit the communists and Also while Jiang was recieving resources from the Americans the communists obtained resources from the russians though this was inofficial, and not as great in number. This meant that not only the GMD was supplied with weapons but also the CCP which made them dangerous for the nationalists.
The unpoppularity Jiang gained from the corruption was further decreased by the way he treated the poor. While Mao made the poor promises for a better life Jiang only cared about the rich. Due to this the peasants objected to giving the GMD troops any food, other resources or information during the civil war. This crippled the GMD as without the information from the rural people Guerilla warfare couldn't be fought, it was extremely difficult to find a way through a big country like China and the troops could only go a certain distance before they had to stop somewhere to get new rations.
The Chinese civil war which lasted from 1946-1949 was ultimately decided by Mao's good leadership through which he gained the support of the rural people and Jiangs bad decisions. It was decided by a series of events which inevitably unified the communists and brought disorder to the nationalists and finally led to the declaration of the Peoples Republic of China by Mao Zedong in 1949.
