After their defeat in the first encirclement campaign against the Honghu Soviet in early February 1931 and the subsequent forced withdraw to regroup, nationalist forces launched the second encirclement campaign against the communist base in Honghu on 1 March 1931. The nationalists believed that their poorly supplied communist enemy would not have sufficient time to recover from previous battles in the last encirclement campaign, and they must not wait too long to provide more times for their communist enemy. The nationalist commander-in-chief was the same one in the first encirclement campaign against the Honghu Soviet, the 10th Army commander Xu Yuanquan, whose 10th Army was not deployed directly in the campaign, but instead, deployed some distance away from the battlefield as strategic reserve. The brunt of the fighting was to be carried out mostly by troops of regional warlords who were nominally under the command of Chiang Kai-shek.

The communists were not jubilant after their victory achieved in first encirclement campaign against the Honghu Soviet, because they were fully aware the nationalist withdraw was only temporary and it was only matter of time before the nationalists resume their assault on Honghu Soviet. To better prepare the defense of their homebase against the new wave of the imminent nationalist attacks which had already begun, communists restructured their organization in Honghu Soviet. This restructure of communist party apparatus was proven to be catastrophic later on, when Xià Xī carried out huge purges on local communist ranks, resulting in causing more damage than the military actions taken by their nationalist enemy.

The local Chinese Red Army successfully defended their soviet republic in the Honghu region against the Nationalist attacks from 1 March 1931, to early June, 1931.