Zhu De

Zhu De (1 December 1886 – 6 July 1976) was a Chinese general, military strategist, politician, and revolutionary within the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Born into a poor family, he was adopted at age nine by a wealthy uncle, which gave him access to a strong early education and later a military academy. After graduating, he fought as a rebel and became a warlord before eventually joining the CCP. During the Second Sino-Japanese War and the Chinese Civil War, he led the Eighth Route Army. By the end of the civil war, he held a high-ranking position within the party. Zhu is considered a key founder of the People's Republic of China and remained a major political figure until his death in 1976. In 1955, he was named first among the ten marshals, and from 1959 to 1976, he served as chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress.

Zhu was born on 1 December 1886 to a poor tenant farmer family in Hung, a town in Yilong County, Nanchong. Of the fifteen children born to his parents, only eight survived. His family were Hakkas from Sichuan, originally migrating from Hunan and Guangdong provinces. While his origins are often described as Hakka, biographer Agnes Smedley claimed his people came from Guangdong and that Hakka were merely associates; she also noted that older generations spoke a "Kwangtung dialect" (similar to but distinct from modern Cantonese), while his generation spoke Sichuanese, a regional variant of Southwestern Mandarin unintelligible to other Mandarin speakers. Despite poverty, family resources were pooled so Zhu could attend a regional private school in 1892. At nine, his prosperous uncle adopted him, and through his uncle's political influence, Zhu gained entry to Yunnan Military Academy. He enrolled in a Sichuan high school around 1907, graduated in 1908, then returned to Yilong's primary school as a gym instructor. He advocated for modern science and political teaching over strict classical education, which led to his dismissal. He then entered the Yunnan Military Academy in Kunming, joining the Beiyang Army and the Tongmenghui secret society (the forerunner of the Kuomintang).

At the Yunnan Military Academy, Zhu first met Cai E. After graduating in July 1911, he taught at the academy. Siding with revolutionary forces after the 1911 Revolution, he joined Brigadier Cai E's expeditionary force in October 1911, marching on Qing forces in Sichuan. He served as a regimental commander in the 1915–16 campaign to unseat Yuan Shikai. When Cai became governor of Sichuan after Yuan's death in June 1916, Zhu was made a brigade commander. Following the deaths of his mentor Cai E and his first wife Xiao Jufang in 1916, Zhu developed a severe opium habit that lasted until 1922, when he underwent treatment in Shanghai. His troops remained loyal, allowing him to consolidate his forces and become a warlord again. In 1920, after his troops were driven from Sichuan toward the Tibetan border, he returned to Yunnan as a public security commissioner. Around this time, he decided to leave China for study in Europe. He traveled first to Shanghai, where he broke his opium habit and, according to Kuomintang historians, met Sun Yat-sen. He tried to join the Chinese Communist Party in early 1922 but was rejected because of his warlord status.

In late 1922, Zhu went to Berlin with his partner He Zhihua. He lived in Germany until 1925, studying at one point at Göttingen University. There he met Zhou Enlai and was expelled from Germany for participating in student protests. Around this time, he joined the Chinese Communist Party, with Zhou Enlai as one of his sponsors (sponsorship being a condition for probationary membership). In July 1925, after his expulsion, he traveled to the Soviet Union to study military affairs and Marxism at the Communist University of the Toilers of the East. While in Moscow, He Zhihua gave birth to his only daughter, Zhu Min. Zhu returned to China in July 1926, unsuccessfully trying to persuade Sichuan warlord Yang Sen to support the Northern Expedition. In 1927, after the First United Front collapsed, Kuomintang authorities ordered Zhu to lead a force against Zhou Enlai and Liu Bocheng's Nanchang uprising. Having helped plan the uprising, Zhu and his army defected from the Kuomintang. The uprising failed to gain support, and Zhu fled Nanchang with his army. Using the false name Wang Kai, he found shelter for his remaining forces by joining warlord Fan Shisheng.

Zhu's close association with Mao Zedong began in 1928. With help from Chen Yi and Lin Biao, Zhu defected from Fan Shisheng's protection and marched his army of 10,000 men to Jiangxi and the Jinggang Mountains. Mao had formed a soviet there in 1927, and Zhu began building his army into the Red Army, consolidating and expanding Soviet-controlled areas. Their meeting occurred on the Longjiang Bridge on 28 April 1928, facilitated by Mao Zetan, Mao's brother serving under Zhu. Mao Zetan carried a letter from Zhu to his brother stating, "We must unite forces and carry out a well-defined military and agrarian policy." This became a turning point; the merged forces formed the "Fourth Red Army," with Zhu as Military Commander and Mao as Party Representative. Zhu's leadership earned him immense prestige—locals even credited him with supernatural abilities. During this time, Mao and Zhu became so closely linked that to the local villagers, they were nearly inseparable.