Yang Dezhi

Yang Dezhi (simplified Chinese: 杨得志; traditional Chinese: 楊得志; pinyin: Yáng Dézhì; January 13, 1911 – October 25, 1994) was a Chinese general and politician. He was senior military officer in the North China (or 5th) Field Army, a veteran of the Korean War and commander in China during the Sino–Vietnamese War.

Yang Dezhi was a native of Nanyangqiao in Liling County, Hunan Province, the son of a blacksmith. He worked as a miner at Anyuan Coal Mine near Pingxiang at the age of 16 (1926) and may have heard Mao Zedong speak during the 1927 strike organization efforts. He later joined a force that followed Mao to Changsha in the summer of 1927, and was defeated in that aborted uprising. Joining the CCP in 1928, Yang fought in the early battles around the Jinggang Mountains and was assigned to Lin Biao's 28th Regiment where he participated in battles in Jiangxi and Fujian in 1929. After 1932, Yang commanded the 1st Regiment, 1st Division under Lin and Nie Rongzhen during the Long March.

During the 1930s and 1940s, Yang commanded the 344th Brigade of the 115th Division; the 1st Column of the Field Army of the Shanxi-Hebei-Shandong-Henan Military Area; and the 2nd and 19th Army Groups of the Northern China Military District.

During the Second Sino-Japanese War, Yang studied at the Counter-Japanese University in 1937. In the late 1938 in southern Hebei, the 343rd Brigade joined Yang Yong’s 68th Regiment to form the a unit known to the KMT as the Second Column of the Eighth Route Army, under the command of Yang Dezhi, with Yang Yong as his deputy and Su Zhenhua as political commissar. This 685th Regiment of the 344th Brigade would be Yang’s main force in the Chi-Lu-Yu Military Region until the end of the Sino-Japanese war in 1945.

...
Wikipedia