The victory of Northern Expedition greatly weakened the power of the warlords and imperialists in China. But as time went on, the right wing of the KMT began to show their hostility towards the CPC and sabotaged the KMT-CPC cooperation. On April 12th, 1927, Chiang Kai-shek staged a reactionary coup d'etat in Shanghai, killing over 300 CPC members and other revolutionaries, and arresting over 500. In addition, thousands were missing. The purge spread to Guangdong, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Hunan province, where CPC members were slaughtered. After betraying the revolution, Chiang set up his National Government in Nanjing. On July 15th, the National Government in Wuhan, led by Wang Jingwei, also betrayed the revolution by arresting and killing CPC members en masse. At this time, the first KMT-CPC cooperation completely dissolved, and a period of white terror commenced in China.

At this critical moment, the communist rose in a brave struggle to save the revolution. On August 1st, 1927, Zhou Enlai, He Long, Ye Ting, Zhu De, Liu Bocheng and others inintiated and led Nanchang Uprising. After four hours of fierce battle, the uprising army beat National Army and seized the city of Nanchang.

Nanchang Uprising caused panic in National Government. Chiang dispatched an army which retook Nanchang. The insurgents then marched toward Guangdong, planning to rebuild the Guangdong revolutionary base. They failed to do so under siege of the enemy.

Nanchang Uprising was the "first shot" of the CPC's armed struggle against the KMT reactionaries. From that time on, the CPC built its own army to lead the revolution independently and to seize the governing power through armed forces.