He Long (1896-1969)

Outstanding proletarian revolutionary and military strategist; one of the founders and main leaders of the People's Liberation Army, Marshal of the People's Republic of China. He Long was also called as He Wenchang and his secondary personal name was Yunqing. He was born in Sangzhi, Hunan Province. He joined Chinese Revolutionary Party led by Sun Yat-sen in 1914. He has participated in the war against the Yuan movement. He took part in the Northern Expedition in the summer of 1926 and served as the division commander of the National Revolutionary Army and as the commander of the 20th Army.

In 1927, he took part in leading collective of the Nanchang Uprising and set up an important headquarter for the uprising army forces. He joined the CPC in the autumn of 1927. He Long, together with Zhou Yiqun and Duan Dechang created and he as the chief-commander led the Second Corps of the Chinese Red Army to establish the Western Hunan and Hubei revolutionary base areas. Between February and August 1935, the Second Corps and Sixth Corps of the Red Army respectively commanded by He Long and Ren Bishi smashed the "encirclement and suppression" campaign of the KMT which possessed 100,000 troops and established the western Hunan-Hubei Soviet, and the Hunan-Hubei-Sichuan-Guizhou-Soviet areas. In November 1935, the Second Corps and the Sixth Corps led respectively by He Long and Ren Bishi started the long march from Sangzhi county, Hunan province. In July 1936, the Second and Sixth Corps and the Fourth Front Army joined forces in the Long March in Garze County, Southwest China's Sichuan province. The two and part of the forces from First Front Army formed the Second Front Army, He Long was appointed as the commander-in-chief of the Second Front Army.

During the Anti-Japanese War, he successively served as commander of the 120th Division of the Eighth Route Army, the Secretary of the Military and Political Commission of the Central Hubei Region, the Secretary of the Military and Political Commission of the Northwest Shanxi province and the Chief Commander of the Northwest Shanxi Military Region; the Chief Commander of the United Defense Headquarters at Yan’an of Shaanxi province where he was in charge of defending two regions Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia region and Shanxi-Suiyuan region; he also served as the Vice-Chairman of Finance and Economics Commission of the Northwest China. In 1945 he was elected to the Central Committee of the CPC. During the War of Liberation (1946-1949), he served successively as the Chief-commander of the United Defense forces in Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia region and Shanxi-Suiyuan region; Chief-commander of the Shanxi-Suiyuan Military Region; President of the Northwest Military and Political Academy and the Chief-commander of the Northwestern Military Region. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, he has successively served as Vice-Chairman of the Southwest Military and Political Commission, Chief-Commander of the Southwest Military Field; Secretary of the Party Committee of the Southwest Military Region, Vice-Premier of the State Council (Central government) and as the Vice-Chairman of the Central Military Commission, Chairman of the National Defense Industrial Commission and also Director of the National Sports Commission. He served as member of the Seventh and Eighth Central Committees of the CPC and as the member of the Political Bureau of the Eighth Central Committee of the CPC. He was coarsely persecuted during the “Cultural Revolution”. On June 9, 1969, he died in Beijing. He was rehabilitated by the Central Committee of the CPC in 1982.