Right up until the coup in nineteen twenty seven they had been following a policy  dictated by Moscow, dictated by Stalin  which told them form alliances with the Kuomintang, work with the Kuomintang, first of all trust Chiang Kai-shek, then when Chiang Kai-shek turned on them they were told to trust the left Kuomintang leaders who were based in Wo Han in the middle Yangtze valleys, and then they turned on them  a policy, in other words, that had proved absolutely disastrous.