In October 1933 Chiang Kai-shek took command of nearly 800,000 soldiers and led the Fifth Encirclement Campaign against the Red Army's force of 150,000 men. By September 1934, the Fifth Encirclement Campaign had been largely successful, and Peng's own units suffered heavy casualties defending the soviet and shrank from 35,000 to around 20,000 men. On October 20, 1934, the communists broke out of Chiang's encirclement and began the Long March. Of the 18,000 men under Peng's command when the March began, only about 3,000 remained when Peng's forces reached their eventual destination in Shaanxi on October 20, 1935.