Chen Mingren (; 7 April 1903 – 21 May 1974) was a prominent military figure from

Liling Liling () is a county-level city and the 12th most populous county-level division in Hunan Province, China; it is under the administration of the prefecture-level city of Zhuzhou. Located on the middle eastern margin of the province, the city i ...

Hunan Province Hunan is an inland province in Central China. Located in the middle reaches of the Yangtze watershed, it borders the province-level divisions of Hubei to the north, Jiangxi to the east, Guangdong and Guangxi to the south, and Guizhou and Chon ...

, and one of the founding members of the

People's Liberation Army The People's Liberation Army (PLA) is the military of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the People's Republic of China (PRC). It consists of four Military branch, services—People's Liberation Army Ground Force, Ground Force, People's ...

. He was a top-level military commander in the

Republic of China Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocea ...

. He then joined the forces of the

Chinese Communist Party The Communist Party of China (CPC), also translated into English as Chinese Communist Party (CCP), is the founding and One-party state, sole ruling party of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Founded in 1921, the CCP emerged victorious in the ...

in 1949. Chen was awarded with the rank of general in 1955.

Biography

Early years

Chen was born into family of farmers in Hunan on 7 April 1903. He went through his education in private institutions and underwent military training in 1924. On 19 November 1924, he was transferred to the

Whampoa Military Academy The Republic of China Military Academy ( zh, t=中華民國陸軍軍官學校, p=Zhōnghúa Mīngúo Lùjūn Jūnguān Xúexiào, poj=Tiong-hôa Bîn-kok Lio̍k-kun Kun-koaⁿ Ha̍k-hāu), also known as the Chinese Military Academy (CMA), is ...

. Upon his graduation and stellar military performance during the

Northern Expedition The Northern Expedition was a military campaign launched by the National Revolutionary Army (NRA) of the Kuomintang (KMT) against the Beiyang government and other regional warlords in 1926. The purpose of the campaign was to reunify China prop ...

, he rose through the ranks quickly. By 1928, he was a colonel in the

National Revolutionary Army The National Revolutionary Army (NRA; zh, labels=no, t=國民革命軍) served as the military arm of the Kuomintang, Chinese Nationalist Party (Kuomintang, or KMT) from 1924 until 1947. From 1928, it functioned as the regular army, de facto ...

. He was the general of the 24th Revolutionary Army (ROC) during the

Central Plains War The Central Plains War () was a series of military campaigns in 1929 and 1930 that constituted a Chinese civil war between the Nationalist Kuomintang government in Nanjing led by Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek and several regional military command ...

whom led a Pyrrhic victory against

Shi Yousan Shi Yousan (; 1 December 1891 – 1 December 1940), courtesy name Hanzhang (), was a Chinese general of the National Revolutionary Army who served as the 9th Governor of the Chahar and 3rd Governor of Anhui provinces in the Republic of Chi ...

. He was appointed as the 88th Division commander in 1932 and led the Republican Armies against the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People ...

Jiangxi ; Gan: ) , translit_lang1_type2 = , translit_lang1_info2 = , translit_lang1_type3 = , translit_lang1_info3 = , image_map = Jiangxi in China (+all claims hatched).svg , mapsize = 275px , map_caption = Location ...

and

Fujian Fujian is a provinces of China, province in East China, southeastern China. Fujian is bordered by Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, Guangdong to the south, and the Taiwan Strait to the east. Its capital is Fuzhou and its largest prefe ...

during the

encirclement campaigns The encirclement campaigns of the Chinese Civil War were Republic of China (ROC) offensives against Chinese Communist Party (CCP) revolutionary base areas in China from the late-1920s to 1934 during the Chinese Civil War. The climax were the fiv ...

. Following his defeat to the Communists in 1934 at Shaxian County, Chen was transferred to the Lushan Military Academy. Upon his graduation and the trust he had over Chiang Kai-shek, he was appointed into the Republican Senate for military affairs and became the director of the Guomindang Military Department.

Sino-Japanese and Chinese Civil War

After the outbreak of the

Second Sino-Japanese War The Second Sino-Japanese War was fought between the Republic of China (1912–1949), Republic of China and the Empire of Japan between 1937 and 1945, following a period of war localized to Manchuria that started in 1931. It is considered part ...

in 1937, Chen was appointed as a lieutenant-general in the 2nd Army Division (reserve division). Between 1937 and 1939, he held key positions such as being the commander of the

Changsha Changsha is the capital of Hunan, China. It is the 15th most populous city in China with a population of 10,513,100, the Central China#Cities with urban area over one million in population, third-most populous city in Central China, and the ...

Hengyang Hengyang (; ) is the second largest city of Hunan Province, China. It straddles the Xiang River about south of the provincial capital of Changsha. As of the 2020 Chinese census, Its total population was 6,645,243 inhabitants, of whom 1,290,71 ...

Leiyang Leiyang () is a county-level city and the third most populous county-level division in Hunan Province, China. Leiyang is under the administration of the prefecture-level city of Hengyang. Located on the south of the province, the city is bordered ...

garrisons. In the winter of 1941, he was appointed as the deputy commander of the 71st ROC Army. In 1946, the 71st Army was transported by US warships to the

Northeast The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A '' compass rose'' is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—eac ...

in preparation for the anticipated

Chinese Civil War The Chinese Civil War was fought between the Kuomintang-led Nationalist government, government of the Republic of China (1912–1949), Republic of China and the forces of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Armed conflict continued intermitt ...

. With the start of the

Summer Offensive of 1947 in Northeast China The Summer Offensive of 1947 in Northeast China (东北1947年夏季攻势) is a series of battles initiated by the communists against the nationalists during the Chinese Civil War after World War II. Prelude In the spring of 1947, the nationa ...

by Communist general

Lin Biao Lin Biao ( zh, 林彪; 5 December 1907 – 13 September 1971) was a Chinese politician and Marshal of the People's Republic of China who was pivotal in the Chinese Communist Party, Communist Chinese Communist Revolution, victory during the Chines ...

, Chen's 71st Army was forced to retreat to and rendezvous at

Siping, Jilin Siping ( zh, s=四平, p=Sìpíng), formerly Sipingjie ( zh, s=四平街, p=Sìpíngjiē, w=Ssupingchieh), is a prefecture-level city in the west of Jilin province, China, People's Republic of China. It has a total population of 1,814,733 inhabit ...

. Mustering local forces and his own army, he had around 30 thousand man waiting from reinforcements. Between 22 May and 30 June 1947, Chen was able to repel the Chinese Red Army in Northeast China that was led by

Li Tianyou Li Tianyou (; 1914–1970) was a Chinese general in the People's Liberation Army. Early life Born to a poor peasant family in Lingui, Guangxi, Li joined the Chinese Communist Party in 1929, at the age of 15, and in November of that year parti ...

. In June, he was able to resist the overwhelming forces under the command of Lin Biao at Siping Street for more than 40 days. For his gallant efforts, he was awarded with the

Order of Blue Sky and White Sun Order, ORDER or Orders may refer to: * A socio-political or established or existing order, e.g. World order, Ancien Regime, Pax Britannica * Categorization, the process in which ideas and objects are recognized, differentiated, and understood ...

and was promoted to the 7th Corps Commander. Although successful in the initial stages of the Siping Campaign, the Communist forces who surrounded the stronghold managed to break the Nationalist defenses following a nine-month long assault. At the eve of the Huaihai Campaign,

Bai Chongxi Bai Chongxi (18 March 1893 – 2 December 1966; , , Xiao'erjing: ) was a Chinese general in the National Revolutionary Army of the Republic of China (ROC) and a prominent leader of the Kuomintang. He was of Hui ethnicity and of the Muslim faith ...

recommended Chen Mingren to Chiang Kai-shek as the garrison commander of

Wuhan Wuhan; is the capital of Hubei, China. With a population of over eleven million, it is the most populous city in Hubei and the List of cities in China by population, eighth-most-populous city in China. It is also one of the nine National cent ...

. Chen transferred to his Wuhan office in October 1948 was concurrently the commander of the 29th Nationalist Army. He became the First Corps Commander and the provincial chairman of the Hunan Provincial Government.

After the establishment of the People's Republic of China

On 4 August 1949, Chen and

Cheng Qian Cheng Qian (; 31 March 1882 – 5 April 1968) was a Chinese army officer and politician who held important military and political positions in both the Republic of China and the People's Republic of China.Wolfgang Bartke, ''Who was Who in the Peop ...

joined the Communists at Changsha. After being encouraged by

Mao Zedong Mao Zedong pronounced ; traditionally Romanization of Chinese, romanised as Mao Tse-tung. (26December 18939September 1976) was a Chinese politician, revolutionary, and political theorist who founded the People's Republic of China (PRC) in ...

and

Zhou Enlai Zhou Enlai ( zh, s=周恩来, p=Zhōu Ēnlái, w=Chou1 Ên1-lai2; 5 March 1898 – 8 January 1976) was a Chinese statesman, diplomat, and revolutionary who served as the first Premier of the People's Republic of China from September 1954 unti ...

to continue his military service, he joined the

. He was made a three-star general in 1955 and died in 1974.

References

{{Authority control 1903 births 1974 deaths People of the Central Plains War Chinese Communist Party politicians from Hunan Chinese people of World War II People of the Northern Expedition People of the Chinese Civil War People from Liling Politicians from Zhuzhou People's Liberation Army generals from Hunan Republic of China people who surrendered to the Chinese Communist Party Burials at Babaoshan Revolutionary Cemetery