24 Facts About Chen Geng

Chen Geng was a Chinese military officer who served as a senior general in the People's Liberation Army.

Chen Geng approached Chiang Kai-shek and even saved his life by preventing him from committing suicide.

Chen Geng served as a Communist spy in the National Revolutionary Army for 6 years.

Chen Geng fought the Imperial Japanese Army during the Second Sino-Japanese War and then the Nationalists during the Chinese Civil War.

Chen Geng then founded an academy of military technologies but died before finalizing the ballistic missile and nuclear weapons programs.

Chen Geng's grandfather Chen Yihuai was an officer in the Xiang Army led by Zeng Guofan, a statesman, military general, and Confucian scholar of the late Qing dynasty.

At 13, his father arranged a marriage with a daughter two years older, but Chen Geng refused the marriage and left his family to join the warlord's army.

Chen Geng joined the Chinese Communist Party in 1922 and studied at Whampoa Military Academy in 1924.

Chen Geng gained the confidence of Chiang Kai-shek and became commander of his garrison.

Chen Geng managed to take his pistol and piggy backed him for around 10km out of danger.

Chen Geng thus gained Chiang's confidence; however, when the Kuomintang broke ties with the Communists in 1927, Chen went underground as a Communist agent in Shanghai.

In March 1933, Chen Geng was sent to Shanghai to treat his leg wounds, but Chen Geng was captured in Shanghai by the Kuomintang.

Chen Geng escaped a month later with the help of Song Qingling and other Communists.

Chen Geng moved to the Central Soviet Area and was appointed president of Peng Pai Yang Yin Infantry School.

The war ended and the 4th Column became the 4th Army Group, and Chen Geng served as commander and political commissar.

When Commander Peng Dehuai returned to China, Chen Geng temporarily took command.

Chen Geng was awarded the military rank of senior general in September 1955 by Chairman Mao Zedong.

Chen Geng died of a heart attack in Shanghai on March 16,1961.

In 1927 Chen Geng married Wang Genying, who was killed in the Second Sino-Japanese War.

Chen Geng was well known as a joker and a prankster amongst comrades.

Chen Geng was a gifted performer and was well known for his gags and play acting.

Chen Geng was jovial and well liked by both Communist comrades as well as former classmates in Whampoa who became Nationalist officers as well as Chiang Kai-shek himself.

Chen Geng had a caring attitude towards comrades and was instrumental in arranging Peng Dehuai's marriage to Pu Anxiu.

Chen Geng was the only Communist Whampoa student to visit his rehabilitated former classmates that had come out of Gongde Lin prison.