Zunyi Conference
It was also during this time, under the direction of Bo Gu, that the CPC suffered greatly at the hands of the KMT, both in the cities and the countryside. This led to a general retreat of the CPC to the distant countryside, called the Long March. In the Zunyi Conference, the 28 Bolsheviks dissolved. Key members of the group — Zhang Wentian, Wang Jiaxiang, and Yang Shangkun — defected to Mao Zedong's camp. Moreover, Mao had replaced Bo Gu as head of the military, which was unknown to Wang and Comintern. As Mao consolidated his power, he became the actual paramount leader of CPC, even though Zhang Wentian was officially appointed as General Secretary of the CPC in Zunyi Conference.