Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army
When the Stams settled into the mission, the area was controlled by the Kuomintang-led Nationalist Government. The Nationalist forces were prevailing in the Chinese Civil War, and the forces of the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (Red Army) had started their Long March. The Red Army's 19th Division, under commander Xun Huaizhou and political commissar Nie Hongjun, passed through the town of Tsingteh on December 6, 1934, where they captured the Stams. They forced the Stams to march with them, until the executions on December 8.