Liu Bocheng
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Liu Bocheng (刘伯承, Wade-Giles: Liu Po-ch'eng; December 4, 1892 - October 7, 1986) was a Chinese Communist military commander and Field Marshal of the People's Liberation Army.
Liu, with nickname Chinese Mars and The One-eyed Dragon, which was both reflection of his military achievement and body character. Furthermore , Liu is regarded as one of the generally accepted Three and A Half Strategists of China in Modern History (The other two are commander of CPC Lin Biao and Kuomintang commander Bai Chongxi, the half was CPC commander Su Yu). Besides this respectable title, Liu’s official title is a revolutionist, militarist and military theoretician and one of the founders of People's Liberation Army .
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Early life
Liu was born in a family of peasants in Kaixian, Sichuan. Although he was in poverty, Liu made a determined effort in study and did get good mark in his learning. Moreover, under the influence of revolutionary theory of Sun Yat-sen, he decided to dedicate to the cause of establishment of a democratic and modern China. In 1911 Liu joined the Boy Scouts that supported the Xinhai Revolution. In the next year, he was enrolled in the Chongqing Military Academy and later joined the army against Yuan Shikai who usurped the achievement of Xinhai Revolution and intended to set up his own kingdom. In 1914 Liu joined Sun Yat-sen's party and gained his military experience from company commander, chief of staff of brigade to colonel. In 1916, he lost his right eye in the battle of capture of Fengdu county, Sichuan. In 1923 in the war against the warlord Wu Peifu which was a response to Northern Expedition of Kuomintang, Liu was appointed as commander of Eastern Route and later was regarded a prominent general of Sichuan. Liu showed his talent in military in battles against warlords plaguing China. Even Zhu De, who worked for a Yunnan warlord, was defeated by Liu in a close battle. In the same year, Liu became to be acquainted with the Yang Angong (杨闇公 in Chinese, the elder brother of Yang Shangkun) and Wu Yuzhang (吴玉章 in Chinese), who were the earliest Communists of Sichuan. Liu began to accept the theory and practice of Communism. In May 1926 Liu joined the CPC and was appointed as military commissioner of Chongqing. In Dec 1926, with Zhu De and Yang, Liu masterminded the Luzhou and Nanchong uprising, fought against local warlords and supported the Northern Expedition. In 1927 Liu was appointed as army corps commander of 15th Temporarily Organized National Revolutionary Army. But Liu experienced the split of alliance of KMT-CPC at that time. With his perseverance in CPC, Liu led the Nanchang Uprising along with Zhu De, He Long, Ye Ting and Zhou Enlai, which was the announcement of CPC war against KMT. In this uprising, Liu was appointed as chief of staff. However, with the lack of experience and preparation, this uprising was crackdown by KMT force quickly. Liu had to be a fugitive. In the winter of this year, Liu was sent to Soviet Union by CPC to learn military strategies and tactics. At first Liu studied in a military academy in Moscow, later he was transferred to more famous Frunze Military Academy for training. It was there Liu received regular training on both military strategy and tactic. Liu’s perseverance demonstrated quite well in his being in thirties but never be lagged in learning complicated Russian, which he later was so good at that Liu became the first translator of Russian military theories in CPC. Soon Liu became an expert in Chinese military. As a result Liu was invited to give a lecture on Chinese Military in the 6th National Congress which was held in Moscow.
Commander of CPC Army
In the summer of 1930 Liu was sent back to China, and appointed as commissioner of Central Military Committee of CPC and Military Secretary of Yangtze River division of CPC. In Dec of the same year Liu went to Shanghai to assist Zhou Enlai for daily run of CPC military affairs. In 1931 when CPC suffered great loss in major cities, it had to retreat to countryside. Liu was sent to Central Soviet Territory, CPC’s power base in Jiangxi. In Jan 1932 Liu was appointed as president and commissar of Red Army Military Academy, and in Oct he was promoted to be Chief of Staff of Red Army, assisting Zhu De and Zhou waging war against Chiang Kai-shek’s 4th Suppression on Central Soviet Territory. At this time, CPC was under the reign of members of 28 Bolsheviks such as Bo Gu and Zhang Mintian, and the Military Advisor of Comintern Otto Braun (with a Chinese name Li De) took control of military command. As both educated in Moscow, Liu had common grounds with these young men. Thus it was no surprise that Liu supported their opinions of regular battle inclusive of siege instead of bushfighting, which was direct clash with other military leaders such as Mao Zedong and Peng Dehuai’s proposal. When Peng led his troops for a siege of Guangchang under the order of Bo and Li De, with which Liu agreed, Peng’s troops suffered heavy casualties for their inferior weapon and resource compared to KMT defending troops. Outspoken and bad-temper Peng was furious and in direct confrontation with Liu.
However, Liu soon turned to Mao’s camp when he found out Bo and Braun’s way being unpractical and extreme. In the Red Army’s endeavor against 5th Suppression of Chiang, Liu was demoted to Chief of Staff of 5th Field Army, for his dissidence with Bo and Braun. Under the leadership of Bo and Braun in a way of doctrinarism and extremism, Red Army waged a face to face general war with better equipped and superior in number KMT army. Its failure was unavoidable. CPC had to retreat from its territory, seeking for a better refuge, which was the beginning of Long March.
During the Long March, in the end of 1934 Liu was reappointed as Chief of Staff of Red Army and commander of Central Column consisted of most CPC senior leaders such as Bo, Braun, Zhou and Mao. Liu led the army to across Wu River and took control of Zunyi, a county of Guizhou province. It was in this small city the famous Zunyi Conference was held in Jan 1935. In this conference Liu and most of the attendees openly supported Mao. As a result, Bo , Braun’s command in military were replaced by a new three-men team consisting in Mao, Zhou and Wang Jiaxiang. After this meeting, Liu assisted Mao and Zhu to across the Red Water River for 4 times. Liu himself led troops to take over Jiaopin ferry, ensuring the major troops to across Jinsha River. In May Liu was appointed as commander of avant-courier army and work with his commissar Nie Rongzhen to carve out a way for other troops. When his army entered the ethnic settlement areas, Liu pledged brotherhood with a chieftain of local Yi Nationality, which greatly cleared away these minorities’ hostility to CPC. Liu then led 1st Division of Red Army across the Dadu River, in which Chiang would like the CPC armies annihilated as Si Dakai and his army’s road to perdition almost a century ago.
When the 1st Red Army of Mao united with Zhang Guotao’s 4th Red Army later, Liu still took the job of Chief of Staff. When Mao and Zhang disagreed with each other over major issues, which led to their split later. Liu supported Mao with a firm hand. When they reached Yanan, it was quite obvious Mao was the winner.
In 1936 after the occurrence of Xian Incident, Chiang agreed with CPC to set up an alliance to fight against Japanese invader. On July 7th 1937, with the occurrence of Marco Polo Bridge Incident, the general war between China and Japan broke out. Under the agreement with Chiang, CPC armies were reorganized into 8th Route Army. Liu was appointed commander of one of the three divisions. As the commander of 129th Division, he began his cooperation with Deng Xiaoping, who was his commissar at that time. According to the orthodox record of CCP, their cooperation and friendship lasted more than decades. It is hard to find another perfect pair of Liu and Deng, a military talent and political work talent, trusting each other and serving each other, sharing with each other and thinking for each other. Whereas, their true relation was not so close as the record. For firstly Mao distrusted most of his generals and would send his associates as commissars to supervise these generals, among which Mao sent Deng who was Mao’s close associate from 1930’s when he worked in Jiangxi. for Liu, Luo Ronghuang for Lin Biao. Secondly, in contrast to Liu’ being a professional soldier, Deng was a political activist and knew little about military, their personalities and personal lives were quite different which made them impossible to be true friends. Liu , Deng and Deputy Commander Xu Xiangqian led their troops to Shanxi, and carried out bushfighting around Taihang Mountain. After rounds of successful battles against Japanese army, they set up Jingjiyu Base Area which consisted of part of Shanxi, Hebei and Henan. In 1940 Liu led his division taking part in the Hundred Regiments Campaign, which was a major campaign led by Peng to break the blockage enforced by Japanese force under the command of General Okamura Yasuji (岗村宁次) on CPC base areas. At the same time Liu integrated regular force with militia, using frontal attack and bushfighting to frustrate Japanese army’s efforts of suppression and clean-out. Japanese were so afraid of and irritated by Liu that they sent agents to assassinate Liu. Although their missions failed at last, they did succeeded in murdering Liu’s first daughter when she was kept in kindergarten. Japanese thought this revenge might distract Liu. But they underestimated Liu’s willpower and he turned this sorrow into hatred against Japanese which gave him more courage under fire and more inspiration in command. In 1943, Liu was called back to Yanan for Cheng Feng. He pledged his allegiance to Mao and supported in Mao’s power struggle with Wang Ming. On the contrary, Peng stood by Wang and was out of favor of Mao as a result, which indicated Liu was not only a skillful military commander, but also prudent in politics too. However, Liu was still labeled as dogmatist along with Wang and his associates of 28 Bolsheviks for Liu’s experience of studying in Russia, and Liu had to make public apology against his will. In 1945 Liu attended the 7th National Congress of CPC in Yanan, and prepared the counterattack against Japanese and forthcoming civil war with KMT armies.
After the end of Chinese anti Japanese war, Chinese people scourged by long time wars pleaded for peace. Under this circumstance, Chiang invited Mao to Chongqing for peace talk. During the peace talk, Yan Xishan sent his armies to attack CPC territories in Shanxi under the authorization of Chiang. Liu and Deng led the Shangdang Campaign and annihilated 13 divisions of Yan’s troops, and then commanded their armies going east and annihilated another army corps of Yan in Handan Campaign. These two campaigns were the first experiences of CPC army changing from bushfight to campaign in movement, and valuable practice for the army groups campaign of CPC armies, which also assisted CPC’s quick occupation of Manchuria, and won advantageous status for Mao and his peace talk delegation in Chongqing. Under the heavy pressure, Chiang had to sign a peace agreement with Mao in Oct 1945.
But the peace was fragile and civil war broke out in 1946. Liu and Deng led their armies carrying out several campaigns in movement, frustrating the strategic attack of KMT armies. In 1947, with the territory controlled by CCP being unable to sustain so many troops, Mao decided to send part of his troops to the territory controlled by KMT to relieve the heavy burden and put enemy at the gate of KMT. He ordered Liu and Deng to lead their armies transferred from their base in the Northern China of Henan, Shanxi and Hebei to Southern China of Anhui. Due to the long march and have to cross the Yellow River, Liu and Deng thought it would rather be a gamble than strategic movements. Liu and Deng expressed their concern to Mao, but Mao would not change his mind. Under Mao’s insistence, Liu and Deng had to lead their armies of 100,000 soldiers crossing the Yellow River, to march over 1000 kilometers into central plain. During the expedition, they had to face elite KMT armies. Liu launched the Southwestern Shandong Campaign annihilating over nine brigades of KMT troops. Under this plot and cover, Liu’s army promptly moved south and went into the destination Dabie Mountain areas. During this expedition, Liu’s armies suffered great loss for half of the troops being wiped out and all of their heavy artilleries being lost too, which greatly weaken their military abilities in later campaigns. But Mao and his associates still thought it was a great achievement for which was like a knife into heart of KMT governance for its direct threat to KMT’s capital Nanjing and Wuhan, another town of military importance. Liu and Deng led their troops surviving rounds of attack from KMT armies. When they were far away from power base, with few support armies and supplies, Liu led soldiers self supply and broke rounds of heavy blockade. Moreover, Liu carried out several campaigns with armies led by Chen Yi and Su Yu, another army led by Chen Geng (陈赓 in Chinese) to annihilate a great number of KMT troops led by two most prominent generals Chen Cheng and Bai Chongxi. After ten months hard work, Liu and Deng had greatly enlarged the area of central plain area occupied by CPC force, and forced the KMT armies into strategic defense for Chiang being unable to have enough troops for attack, which was a decisive factor of the outcome of civil war. In Nov 1948, Liu, Deng, Chen, Su and Tan Zhenlin (谭震林 in Chinese) composed the Military Committee to command massive Huai Hai Campaign , which was carried out by CPC troops in East China and central plain to fight against KMT main force in Xuzhou and Anhui areas for a decisive battle. In this battle, more than 500,000 KMT soldiers were annihilated, among the POWs was General Du Yuming, the most distinguished protégé of Chiang. After this campaign, Chiang really had few to make a gamble.
In Apr 1949, after the broken of illusive peace talk between CPC and KMT, Liu led his armies crossing Yangtze River and conquered huge areas of Anhui, Zhejiang, Jiangxi and Fujian, among which was Nanjing, capital of Chiang. Liu was appointed as mayor of Nanjing for a short while. He and Deng were again into the horse back with assistance from He Long , by using strategies of long distance bypass and siege, launching new campaigns to liberate vast areas in Southwestern China, among which were his and Deng’s hometown Sichuan, Guizhou, Yunnan and Xikang.
The Days after the Establishment of PRC
On Oct 1st 1949, Mao announced the establishment of People’s Republic of China. In the ceremony, Liu stood next to Mao. As a military commander, that must be the peak of his career. In Jan 1950, Liu was appointed as chairman of Southwestern Division of Central People’s Government of PRC, together with Gao Gang, Rao Shushi, Peng and Lin Biao , who could be compared with honorable and powerful governors of Roman Empire. As a military commander, which must be the peak of his career. But that was just a temporary reward from Mao for Liu’s contribution in conquer of Southwestern China. Mao soon sent his favorite general He Long to work with Liu , to supervise and share the power with Liu. In his short time as governor, Liu led soldiers to crack down those bandits and restored law and order, and directed the economic development, and more importantly he made plan for the peaceful occupation of Tibet.
In the end of 1950, Liu was transferred to Nanjing as the president and commissar of the Military Academy of PLA , which should be regarded as a demotion of Liu. For his being out of favor, there were no clear or generally accepted reasons in record. One of the popular saying was when Liu was still holding his title of chairman, one idea man unknown to the public submitted a biography of Liu as a step for promotion, in which he described Liu as offspring of Liu Bang, the first emperor of Han Dynasty and who set up the Han empire , and hinted that Liu himself could set up his own empire as his ancestor. Knowing the cruelty and conspiracy of Chinese history, Liu was worried instead of being happy, because he knew which would raised Mao’s suspicion of challenging Mao’s reign. Liu arrested and made this man disappeared without any delay. But Mao did know this event , and Liu’s worry turned into reality. This story was just an episode of Mao’s long time distrust over Liu.
Albeit this demotion, Liu devoted to his new job, which was the field he expert in too. Under his charge, Liu tried to bring the teaching way and practice he learned in Soviet Union to this new academy, which was the cornerstone for a successful and the regular training in strategy and tactic. He organized the translation of lots of military textbooks from Soviet Union and other countries, introducing major campaigns from ancient times to WW2 to students, and sowing the seeds of turning PLA into a modern army in those who should be senior commanders. Although Liu was appointed as vice chairman of Central Military Committee of CPC and PRC from 1954 as a reward for his contributions, these titles would rather be a horror title instead of real power, compared to Peng, who was appointed as Defense Minister for his battle achievements in Korean War. In 1955, Liu attained the rank of Field Marshal, ranking as the 4th in the 10 Field Marshal of PLA next to Zhu De, Peng and Lin Biao. But this was just the sunshine before storm.
In 1956 with Khrushchev shocking the Communism world by making his famous Secret Speech to denounce the cult of personality that surrounded Stalin, Mao was vigilant and reluctant to accept this fact for his being afraid of anther Khrushchev in CPC would denounce Mao himself later. Mao wrote his article of On Ten Relationships, arguing that CPC should learn from foreign countries in a chosen and analytic way , and even a criticized way. Then the CPC center issued documents to call on all CPC members shall overcome the trend of dogmatism and empiricism in work.. Under the direction of Peng, the investigation and purge against dogmatism was carried out in military. As advocate of learning from foreign countries, Liu was main target. Some of his subordinates and deputies including General Xiao Ke (萧克 in Chinese) were censored and kept in custody. Liu had to make rounds of sincere analyses and apologies. Under heavy pressure, and his health turned worse for losing eyesight of his only eye, Liu submitted resignation of president, and was granted later.
In 1959 Liu left Nanjing and transferred to Beijing and lived in half reclusion. Although he was elected as members of Politburo of 8th to 11th National Congress of CPC, and vice chairman of 2nd to 5th rubber stamp standing Committee of National People’s Congress, and holding the title of vice chairman of military committee all along, he was seldom involved in the politics for the excuse of health problem. But this absence saved him from following rounds of purge carried out by Mao. In contrast to Liu, Peng was not so lucky. He was purged in the Lushan Conference in 1959 and later tortured to death in Cultural Revolution.
During the cultural revolution, Liu was totally blind. But he survived the purge and witnessed his long time close friend Deng back to power again, and supported him in the power struggle with Mao’s widow and her Gang of Four, and also advocated the reform and opening up to outside world policy of Deng, which had been practiced by Liu himself in the academy decades ago.
In 1982 Liu quitted all his titles for the reason of health problem. This time was a real support for Deng’s calling for retirement of old leaders clearing the way for younger leaders of CPC. On Oct 7th 1986, Liu died in Beijing at the age of 94. In the lament given to him, Liu was rehabilitated and cleared of all charges over him in the movements against dogmatism.
Anecdotes
In the Fengdu campaign in 1916, Liu was hit by a bullet , which passed his temple in the head and went out from his right eye. A Germany doctor did the surgery for him. To keep his brain nerve from being damaged by the anaesthetic, Liu insisted on operation without any anaesthetic and drug. The doctor was greatly moved by this courage and perseverance, and gave Liu a nickname Chinese Mars to indicate his respect, which was later popular among both his comrades and enemies.
The famous “Cats Theory” of Deng ( No matter a white or black cat it is, a cat can catch mouse is a good cat) originated from Liu in fact. During his long military career, Liu often said “ No matter a yellow or black cat it is, a cat can catch mouse is a good cat” to prove the end of war is to win, no matter what strategies you take.
Once Deng made fun of Liu by complaining the only shortcoming of his partner was Liu being a dull man for he spent all times on reading and thinking except for command, no entertainment at all.
Liu and Deng’s relation was not so close as record. Once after their army won a battle, Deng claimed it was a great victory of Maoism. Liu refuted as follows: if we lose, can we say it is a great lose of Maoism?
Legacy
In contrast to other CCP generals such as Lin Biao and Peng Dehuai , who had won Mao’s trust by some degree , Liu never won trust and real support from Mao. Liu earned his reputation and title only by outstanding military skills and sublime personalities. As a military talent, Liu was one of the first CPC commanders who changed the opinion of CPC armies as only good at bushfighting. He demonstrated the CPC armies’ expertise in regular battle, frontal attack, army groups campaign and siege too. Liu also was the first to introduce modern military strategies and tactics of foreign countries to the CPC army, and made the military training in a scientific and artistic way. All of these endeavors changed the public opinion of the CPC army as a guerilla force consisting of peasants and proletariats with little regular training.
As a model of professional soldier, Liu preferred to contribute to all his life to military instead of politics. But under the system of army serving the party instead of government or country, he was forced to get involved in party politics. Just like what influential military thinker Carl von Clausewitz said, "War is merely the continuation of policy by other means." Soldiers are only the tools or victims of politics. The only comfort is like what General Patton said, soldiers never die, they only get older. The legend can survive.