More than 17,000 residents joined the departing army. Only 277 were recorded as eventually returning home, said Zhong Min, a guide at a museum built beside the river to commemorate the departure.

　　Her voice still catches when she says that number.

　　Her maternal great-grandfather died fighting the encirclement campaigns. Her husband"s grandfather marched away with the troops and was never heard from again. Sun"s father fell in a battle that saw the forces of the Red Army reduced to just over 30,000.

　　"We are not telling other people"s stories," Zhong said. "We are telling our own families"."

　　Here, the Long March is measured not only in kilometers and battles, but in the people who left home knowing they might never return.

　　For Sun, the legacy of that generation is deeply personal. Under a local tradition, Sun was adopted as the son of the soldier who left the riverbank and never returned, so that the soldier"s family line could continue.

　　"People of my father"s generation were willing to give their lives so ordinary people could be liberated," Sun said.

　　On the same riverbank in 2019, Chinese President Xi Jinping spoke of what had enabled the Party and the Red Army to come back from the brink of destruction time and again: firm ideals and convictions, and strong willpower.

　　"We must not forget our Party"s original aspiration and founding mission," said Xi, also general secretary of the CPC Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission. The Party"s long-stated mission, dating to its founding in 1921, is to seek happiness for the Chinese people and rejuvenation for the Chinese nation.

　　During the visit, Xi placed a flower basket at a monument commemorating the Red Army"s departure and bowed in tribute. He then walked behind the monument to a railing overlooking the river and stood there for a long while.