52 Facts About Liu Bocheng

Liu Mingzhao, more commonly known as Liu Bocheng, was a Chinese military officer and Marshal of the People's Republic of China.

Liu Bocheng was born to a peasant family in Kaixian, Sichuan.

In 1911, Liu Bocheng joined the Boy Scouts in support of the Xinhai Revolution.

In 1914, Liu Bocheng joined Sun Yat-sen's party and gained extensive military experience.

Alternative accounts of how Liu Bocheng lost his eye have included the speculation that he lost it either earlier, in the 1911 Xinhai Revolution, or later, during the Long March.

In 1923, during a war against the warlord Wu Peifu, in response to the Northern Expedition of the Kuomintang, Liu Bocheng was appointed commander of the Eastern Route, and later was promoted to commanding general in Sichuan.

In May 1926, Liu Bocheng joined the Chinese Communist Party and was appointed military commissioner of Chongqing.

In December 1926, along with Zhu De and Yang, Liu Bocheng masterminded the Luzhou and Nanchong uprising, fought against local warlords, while supporting the Northern Expedition.

In 1927, Liu Bocheng was appointed army corps commander of the 15th Temporarily Organized National Revolutionary Army.

However, after a series of defeats Liu Bocheng's forces were destroyed, and its leaders went underground.

Later on, Liu Bocheng gave a lecture on the subject at the 6th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party, which was held in Moscow.

In December 1930, Liu Bocheng went to Shanghai to assist Zhou Enlai in the daily administration of CCP military affairs.

Liu Bocheng was sent to the Central Soviet Territory, the CCP's power base in Jiangxi.

In January 1932, Liu Bocheng was appointed president and commissar of the Red Army Military Academy.

All three were educated in Moscow, and Liu Bocheng found common ground with these young men.

Liu Bocheng grew to oppose the leadership of Bo and Braun later, after the Red Army began to suffer repeated defeats.

Liu Bocheng led the army across the Wu River and took control of Zunyi, a county of Guizhou province.

Later on, Liu Bocheng assisted Mao and Zhu across the Red Water River four times.

Liu Bocheng himself led troops in the takeover of the Jiaopin ferry, securing the route across the Jinsha River for the major troops.

When his army entered the ethnic settlement areas, Liu Bocheng pledged brotherhood with Xiao Yedan, a chieftain of the local Yi ethnicity, which significantly reduced the minorities' hostility towards the CCP.

Liu Bocheng then led the 1st Division of the Red Army across the Dadu River, where Chiang plotted to have the CCP armies annihilated, in the same manner as Shi Dakai and his army's road to perdition almost a century before.

When Mao's 1st Red Army later united with Zhang Guotao's 4th Red Army, Liu Bocheng stayed Chief of Staff.

Under the agreement with Chiang, CCP armies were reorganised into 8th Route Army, and Liu Bocheng was appointed commander of the 129th Division, one of its three divisions.

Secondly, in contrast to Liu Bocheng's role as a professional soldier, Deng was a political activist and knew little about the military.

In 1940, Liu Bocheng led his division in the Hundred Regiments Campaign, a major campaign led by Peng to breach the blockage on CCP base areas enforced by Japanese forces under the command of General Okamura Yasuji.

Liu Bocheng's heightened loathing for the Japanese gave him more courage under fire and more inspiration in command.

In 1943, Liu Bocheng was called back to Yan'an for Zheng Feng.

Liu Bocheng pledged his allegiance to Mao and supported Mao's power struggle with Wang Ming.

Liu Bocheng ordered Liu and Deng to lead their armies from their northern China base in Henan, Shanxi and Hebei, to Anhui in southern China.

Liu Bocheng launched the Southwestern Shandong Campaign defeating over nine brigades of KMT troops.

Liu Bocheng's armies suffered great losses; half of the troops were wiped out and all of their heavy artilleries were lost, which greatly weakened their military abilities in later campaigns.

Mao and his associates were very impressed by Liu Bocheng's achievement and it was only then did they begin to maintain that the direct threat to Nanjing and Wuhan was a great achievement; a knife into the heart of KMT governance.

Liu Bocheng's success did not end there, he carried out to expand his initial victories over the nationalists by carrying out several campaigns with armies led by Chen Yi and Su Yu, another army led by Chen Geng, to annihilate a great number of KMT troops led by two prominent generals, Chen Cheng and Bai Chongxi.

In January 1950, Liu Bocheng was appointed chairman of the Southwestern Division of the Central People's Government of PRC, together with Gao Gang, Rao Shushi, Peng and Lin Biao.

Mao soon sent his favorite general He Long to work alongside Liu Bocheng, to supervise and share the power with Liu Bocheng.

Towards the end of 1950, Liu Bocheng was transferred to Nanjing as president and commissar of the Military Academy of the PLA, which would be considered a demotion for Liu Bocheng.

One popular opinion holds that, during the long period of time that Liu Bocheng worked with or under Mao, he never really earned Mao's trust.

The other story says that, while Liu Bocheng was still chairman, someone unknown to the public submitted a biography of Liu Bocheng in support of his promotion.

Liu Bocheng organised the translations of numerous military textbooks from the Soviet Union and other countries, introducing major campaigns from ancient times to World War II to students, and sowing the seeds of the PLA's evolution into a modern army.

Liu Bocheng wrote an article, On the Ten Major Relationships, arguing that the CCP should learn from foreign countries selectively, analytically and with criticism.

Liu Bocheng had to make numerous self-criticisms for his association and support of these officials.

In 1959, Liu Bocheng left Nanjing for Beijing and lived in half-reclusion.

Liu Bocheng was purged in the Lushan Conference in 1959 and later tortured to death during the Cultural Revolution.

Liu Bocheng supported Deng in the power struggle against Mao's widow, Jiang Qing, and her Gang of Four, and advocated Deng's policy of reforming and opening up China to the outside world, a policy that Liu himself had practiced in the academy decades ago.

On 7 October 1986, Liu Bocheng died in Beijing, at the age of 94.

Similarly, Liu Bocheng showed his support to Deng for Deng's economic policy in the early 1960s to reform the Chinese economy.

Liu Bocheng told his family that after his death, he wanted his funeral to be held by Deng, and his eulogy to be done by Deng, and this was when Deng was still under house arrest and Liu Bocheng did so to show his support.

Liu Bocheng wanted a small funeral in the hospital he died in.

Unlike other PLA marshals and generals, such as Peng Dehuai and Lin Biao, Liu Bocheng never sought to win Chairman Mao's political trust and support, but on the other hand this prevented him from suffering from the backlash of a political fallout with Mao as did Peng and Lin did in 1959 and 1971, respectively.

Liu Bocheng earned his reputation and title through his own outstanding military skills and personality.

Liu Bocheng oversaw the development of the CCP armies' expertise in regular battle, frontal attack, army groups campaigns, and sieges.

Liu Bocheng was the first to introduce modern military strategies and the tactics of foreign countries to the CCP army, and incorporated science and artistry into military training.