An aerial drone photo taken on Aug. 18, 2026 shows a view of Yudu County, east China"s Jiangxi Province. (Xinhua/Zhou Mi)

　　NANCHANG, Oct. 8 (Xinhua) -- The former ferry crossing is about half an hour"s walk from the home of Sun Guanfa, 77, in Yudu, a hilly county in east China"s Jiangxi Province.

　　For his father, the journey from this riverbank more than nine decades ago was part of an epic.

　　In October 1934, some 86,000 soldiers of the Red Army crossed the Yudu River to embark on what later came to be known as the Long March.

　　In a country beset by foreign invasion, social turmoil and destitution, the fledgling Red Army, led by the Communist Party of China (CPC), was fighting for national independence and the liberation of the Chinese people. But at the time, it was encircled by the overwhelming and much better-armed Kuomintang forces.

　　What followed was an epic military maneuver: from Yudu, Red Army troops trekked roughly 12,500 kilometers across China, crossing snow-covered mountains and treacherous marshlands, all the while battling enemy forces. They eventually reached the country"s northwest, where, in 1936, they were joined by several other Red Army branches, marking the victorious conclusion of the Long March.

　　This military maneuver preserved the Red Army. It also gave the CPC a new foothold in northwest China, from which it built up its strength, fought back against invading Japanese troops and eventually toppled the corrupt Kuomintang regime, leading to the founding of the People"s Republic of China in 1949.

　　In Yudu, the Long March is not simply a chapter in a history book. It is a family story.