Chiang Kai-shek purges communists in Shanghai

March 12, 1927

After cooperating with Chinese communists against the warlords, Chiang Kai-shek turned on his allies in Shanghai, using Green Gang gangsters and Nationalist troops to slaughter thousands of labor organizers and party members in a single bloody week. The first united front was over. The Chinese Communist Party went underground and to the countryside, where Mao was waiting.