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For millions of Chinese, the Long March is a seminal historic event. In 1934, the more-than-80,000-strong Red Army, having been routed by Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalists, retreated from its base in southeast China on a harrowing yearlong slog that killed 9 out of 10 soldiers—but ultimately, by saving the core cadre to fight another day, set the stage for the Communists' victory, launched a nation and turned a little-known guerilla fighter named Mao Zedong into a hero.

Mao said his troops wandered roughly 12,000 kilometers through the hinterlands, and that's what most of the history books say. But two British adventurers who just retraced the route report that the journey wasn't quite so epic. Ed Jocelyn and Andrew McEwen, two editors living in Beijing, spent 384 days following Mao's trail, consulting hundreds of villagers along the way for guidance in fording rivers and traversing the appropriate mountain passes. Their verdict: The army traveled about 6,000 kilometers, half the fabled distance. "People seem affronted [by the findings] and try to convince us we're wrong," says Jocelyn. But even at the shorter distance, it was a prodigious feat. "It was not a Short March," he says.

• Matthew Forney | Beijing
• A pair of adventurers retrace Mao Zedong's epic strategic retreat to find the journey may not have been as long as the history books say