Liu Bocheng
Liu Bocheng (刘柏承; Wade- Giles: Liu Po -ch'eng, born December 4, 1892, at Circle Kai (formerly Sichuan ) Province; † 7 October 1986) was an important leader of Communist army during the Chinese Civil War.
Life
A native of Sichuan Province Liu began his military career as a mercenary student militia, which had been established after the Xinhai Revolution in 1911 to defend the young republic. In the battle against the troops of Yuan Shikai in 1916, he lost an eye, which he henceforth earned the nickname One-Eyed Dragon.
In 1926 he joined the Communist Party of China and soon took a high military posts. On 1 August 1927 he was one of the leaders of the Nanchang Uprising. From late 1927 to 1930 he studied in the Soviet Union.
During the Long March, Liu served in the Red Army ( forerunner of the People's Liberation Army ) as Chief of Staff. Here Liu should have endured nine days and nights on a boulder to monitor the Yangtze crossing his troops. Liu's chicken blood - oath with the leader of the Yi people, Xiao Yedan, allowed a safe crossing of the Yi area. In the power and direction of struggle that took place during the Long March of Mao Zedong between followers and the Comintern agents to Otto Braun (28 Bolsheviks ), Liu stood up Mao's side, and in particular the crucial meeting of Zunyi.
During the Sino -Japanese War Liu commanded together with Deng Xiaoping as a political commissar the 129th Division, which was the best and most important unit of the Communist troops at that time. The 129th Division was expanded to the second field army later, Liu led this army in the fight against the Kuomintang forces of Chiang Kai- shek. He led the communist attempt to escape from Shanxi and built in the mountains on the border of Shanxi, Hebei and Henan anti-Japanese bases. After Japan surrendered in 1945, Liu commanded several field armies and led the change in strategy of the Communists of guerilla tactics after a counterattack. In June 1947, he led with Deng Xiaoping to attack the Dabie Mountains north of the Kuomintang capital in Nanjing, the Huaihai Campaign and the crossing of the Yangtze River. These maneuvers destroyed the central army of the Kuomintang and forced them to retreat to southern China.
As at October 1, 1949 Mao in Tiananmen Square proclaimed the People's Republic of China, Liu was among the participants of the ceremony. Subsequently, he was appointed deputy secretary of the Southwest Bureau of the CCP in Chongqing, the first secretary Deng Xiaoping was. Later he took a high military posts, such as the President and political commissar of the Military Academy of the People's Liberation Army, the Deputy Chairman of the Military Commission of the CPC Central Committee, as well as that of the member of several permanent Committee of the National People's Congress and several Central Committee of the CCP. In 1955, Liu was appointed Marshal of the People's Republic of China.
He died as the oldest of the commanders of the Long March.