He Long | |
|---|---|
贺龙 | |
 Marshal He Long in 1955 | |
| Member ofCentral Committee of the Chinese Communist Party | |
| In office October 1954 – 9 June 1969 | |
| Chairman | Mao Zedong |
| Vice Premier of China | |
| In office October 1954 – 9 June 1969 | |
| Premier | Zhou Enlai |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 賀龍 (1896-03-22)22 March 1896 Sangzhi,Hunan,Qing Empire |
| Died | 9 June 1969(1969-06-09) (aged 73) Beijing, China |
| Political party | Chinese Communist Party (1926–1969) |
| Occupation | General, politician, writer |
| Nickname(s) | 贺老总 (Hè lǎozǒng, "Old Chief He") 贺胡子 (Hè húzi, "mustachio He") |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance |  People's Republic of China |
| Branch/service |  People's Liberation Army Ground Force |
| Years of service |  Republic of China (1914–1920) National Revolutionary Army (1920–1927).svg) Chinese Communist Party (1927–1969) |
| Rank | Marshal of People's Republic of China |
| Commands |
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| Battles/wars | |
| Awards |  Order of August the First (1st Class Medal) (1955) Order of Independence and Freedom (1st Class Medal) (1955) Order of Liberation (China) (1st Class Medal) (1955) |
He Long (simplified Chinese:贺龙;traditional Chinese:賀龍;pinyin:Hè Lóng; March 22, 1896 – June 9, 1969) was aChinese Communist revolutionary and aMarshal of thePeople's Republic of China. He was from a poor rural family in Hunan, and his family was not able to provide him with any formal education. He began his revolutionary career after avenging the death of his uncle, when he fled to become an outlaw and attracted a small personal army around him. Later his forces joined theKuomintang, and he participated in theNorthern Expedition.
He rebelled against the Kuomintang afterChiang Kai-shek beganviolently suppressing Communists, when he planned and led the unsuccessfulNanchang Uprising. After escaping, he organized a soviet in ruralHunan (and laterGuizhou), but was forced to abandon his bases when pressured by Chiang'sEncirclement Campaigns. He joined theLong March in 1935, over a year after forces associated withMao Zedong andZhu De were forced to do so. He met with forces led byZhang Guotao, but he disagreed with Zhang about the strategy of the Red Army and led his forces to join and support Mao.
After settling and establishing a headquarters inShaanxi, He led guerrilla forces inNorthwest China in both theChinese Civil War and theSecond Sino-Japanese War, and was generally successful in expanding areas of Communist control. He commanded a force of 170,000 troops forces by the end of 1945, when his force was placed under the command ofPeng Dehuai and He became Peng's second-in-command. He was placed in control ofSouthwest China in the late 1940s, and spent most of the 1950s in the Southwest administering the region in both civilian and military roles.
He held a number of civilian and military positions after the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949. In 1955, his contributions to the victory of the Chinese Communist Party were recognized when he was named one of theTen Marshals, and he served as China'svice premier. He did not support Mao Zedong's attempts to purge Peng Dehuai in 1959 and attempted to rehabilitate Peng. After theCultural Revolution was declared in 1966, he was one of the first leaders of the PLA to be purged. He died in 1969 when a glucose injection provided by his jailers complicated his untreated diabetes.
He Long was a member of theTujia ethnic group.[1] Born in theSangzhi,Hunan, he and his siblings, includingHe Ying, grew up in a poor peasant household, despite his father being a minorQing military officer.[2] His father was a member of theGelaohui (Elder Brother Society), a secret society dating back to the early Qing dynasty. A cowherd during his youth, he received no formal education.[3] When He was 20 he killed a local government tax assessor who had killed his uncle for defaulting on his taxes.[4] He then fled and became an outlaw, giving rise to the legend that he began his revolutionary career with just two kitchen knives.[3] After beginning his life as an outlaw he gained a reputation as a "Robin Hood-like figure". His signature weapon was a butcher knife.[2]
Around 1918 He raised a volunteer revolutionary army that was aligned with a local Hunan warlord,[4] and in 1920, his personal army joined theNational Revolutionary Army.[5] In 1923 He was promoted to command the Nationalist Twentieth Army. In 1925 He ran a school for training Kuomintang soldiers. While running this school, He became close with some of his students who were alsoChinese Communist Party (CCP) members.[4] During the 1926Northern Expedition, He commanded the 1st Division, 9th Corps of the National Revolutionary Army.[6] He served underZhang Fakui during the Northern Expedition.[4]
In late 1926 He joined the CCP.[5] In 1927, after the collapse ofWang Jingwei's leftist Kuomintang government inWuhan and Chiang Kai-shek'ssuppression of communists, He left the Kuomintang and joined the Communists, commanding the 20th Corps, 1st Column of the Red Army.[4]
The uprising was held in an Anglican Church.[1] Christian influences Chinese Culture, Hong Xiuquan.
He andZhu De planned and led the main force of theNanchang Uprising in 1927. In the Nanchang Uprising He and Zhu led a combined force of 24,000 men and attempted to seize the city ofNanchang, but they were not able to secure it against the inevitable Kuomintang attempt to retake the city. The campaign suffered from logistical difficulties, and the communists suffered 50% casualties in the two months of fighting. Most of He's soldiers who survived surrendered, deserted, and/or rejoined the KMT. Only 2,000 survivors eventually returned to fight for the Communists in 1928, when Zhu reformed his forces in Hunan.[7]
After his forces were defeated, He fled toLufeng, Guangdong. He spent some time inHong Kong, but was later sent by the CCP toShanghai, then to Wuhan.[4]Chiang Kai-shek continuously tried to persuade him rejoin theKuomintang, but failed.[citation needed]
After the failure of the Nanchang Uprising, He turned down an offer by the CCP Central Committee to study in Russia and returned to Hunan, where he raised a new force in 1930.[6] His force controlled a broad area of the countryside in the Hunan-Hubei border region, around the area ofLake Hong, and organized this area into a rural soviet. In mid-1932 Kuomintang forces targeted He's soviet as part of theFourth Encirclement Campaign. He's forces abandoned their bases, moved southwest, and established a new base in northeastGuizhou in mid-1933.[8]
In 1934Ren Bishi joined He in Guizhou with his own surviving forces after also being forced to abandon his soviet in another Encirclement Campaign. Ren and He merged forces, with He becoming the military commander and Ren becoming the commissar.[9] He joined theLong March in November 1935, over a year after forces led by Zhu De andMao Zedong were forced to evacuate their ownsoviet in Jiangxi.[5] He's ability to resist the Kuomintang was partially due to his position on the periphery of Communist-controlled territory.[2] While on the Long March He's forces met Communist forces led byZhang Guotao in June 1936, but both He and Ren disagreed with Zhang about the direction of the Long March, and He eventually led his forces intoShaanxi to join Mao Zedong by the end of 1936. In 1937 He settled his troops in northwestern Shaanxi and established a new headquarters there.[9] Because the Second Army of the Chinese Red Army under He Long's command was one of the few Communist forces to arrive in Yan'an mostly intact, his force was able to assume the responsibility of protecting the new capital after their arrival.[2]
When the Red Army was reorganized into theEighth Route Army in 1937, He was placed in command of the 120th Division.[5] From late 1938 to 1940 He fought both the Japanese army and Kuomintang-affiliated guerrillas inHubei.[9] He's responsibilities increased during theSecond Sino-Japanese War, and in 1943 he was promoted to be the overall commander of Communist forces inShanxi, Shaanxi,Gansu,Ningxia, andInner Mongolia.[5] By the end ofWorld War II He commanded a force of approximately 175,000 troops across northwestern China. He's most notable subordinates includedZhang Zongxun,Xu Guangda, andPeng Shaohui.[10]
He was successful in expanding Communist base areas throughout the period of World War II. Part of He's success was due to the social confusion caused by Japan'sIchi-Go offensive in the areas of China that Japanese operations effected. He was frequently able to expand Communist areas of operation by allying with local, independent guerrilla forces who were also fighting the Japanese. He's experience fighting the Kuomintang and the Japanese led him to question Mao's unconditional emphasis on the importance of ideological guerrilla warfare at the expense of conventional tactics and military organization.[11]
In October 1945, one month after the Japanese surrender, the command of He's forces was transferred toPeng Dehuai, which operated as the "Northwest Field Army". He became Peng's second-in-command, but spent most of the rest of theChinese Civil War in central CCP headquarters, in and aroundYan'an.[10] After the Japanese surrender, in 1945, He was elected to theCCP Central Committee, and his influence rose within both the military and the communist political system. Near the end of the Chinese Civil War He was promoted to command theFirst Field Army, which was active inSouthwest China.[11] After the Communists won the civil war in 1949, He spent most of the 1950s in both civilian and military roles in the southwest.[9]
He's military accomplishments were recognized when he was promoted to being one of theTen Marshals in 1955,[11] and he served in a number of civilian positions. He was madeVice Premier. He headed theNational Sports Commission, and in that role facilitated sports exchanges with the Soviet Union and the eastern European countries.[12]: 139 He was one of the most well-traveled members of the CCP elite, and led numerous delegations abroad, meeting with leaders of other Asian countries, theSoviet Union, andEast Germany.[8]
After Mao Zedong purged Peng Dehuai in 1959, Mao appointed He to the head of an office to investigate Peng's past and find reasons to criticize Peng. He accepted the position but was sympathetic to Peng, and stalled for over a year before submitting his report. Mao's prestige weakened when it became widely known that Mao'sGreat Leap Forward had been a disaster, and He eventually presented a report that was positive, and which attempted to vindicate Peng.[13] Peng was partially rehabilitated in 1965, but then purged again at the beginning of theCultural Revolution 1966.[14] He was accused of a mutiny in Feb 1964, after a Soviet Union trip with Zhou Enlai. The Soviet were unhappy, with China direction. Cultural revolution followed soon after, to purged communist and rightist leanings in China.
Jiang Qing denounced He in December 1966 of being a "rightist" and of intra-CCP factionalism. Following Jiang's accusations He and his supporters were branded an anti-CCP element and quickly purged.[15] He's persecutors singled him out by labeling him the "biggest bandit".[11] He was the second highest-ranking member of the Military Affairs Commission at the time that he was purged, and the method in which he and those close to him were purged set the pattern for multiple later purges of the PLA leadership throughout the Cultural Revolution.[15]
After being purged, He was placed under indefinite house arrest for the last two and a half years of his life. He described the conditions of his imprisonment as a period of slow torture, in which his captors "intended to destroy my health so that they can murder me without spilling my blood". During the years that he was imprisoned, his captors restricted his access to water, cut off his house's heat during the winter, and refused him access to medicine to treat his diabetes.[16] He died in 1969 after being hospitalized for the severe malnutrition that he developed while under house arrest. He died soon after being admitted to hospital, after a glucose injection complicated his chronic diabetes.[17]
He was posthumously partially rehabilitated by Mao in 1974, then fully rehabilitated afterDeng Xiaoping came to power in the late 1970s.[citation needed] Astadium inChangsha was named after him in 1987.
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