He Bingyan

He Bingyan 贺炳炎
File:File: Hebingyan1955.jpg
Commander of the Chengdu Military Region
In office May 1955 – 1 July 1960
Chairman	Mao Zedong
Succeeded by	Huang Xinting
Personal details
Born	(1913-02-05)February 5, 1913 Yidu, Hubei Province, China
Died	July 1, 1960(1960-07-01) (aged 47) Chengdu, China
Military service
Nickname(s)	“One-armed General”
Allegiance	China
Service/branch	People's Liberation Army Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army
Years of service	1930–1922
Rank	General
Commands	Commander of the Shenyang Military Region
Battles/wars	Second Sino-Japanese War, Battle of Pingxingguan, Chinese Civil War, Korean War
Awards	Order of Bayi (First Class) Order of Independence and Freedom (First Class) Order of Liberation (China) (First Class)

This is a Chinese name; the family name is He.

He Bingyan (Chinese: 贺炳炎; pinyin: Hè Bǐngyán; 5 February 1913 – 1 July 1960) was a general in the People's Liberation Army of the People's Republic of China from Hubei. He was known as the “one-armed General (独臂将军)” for his injuries suffered during the Long March.

Biography

Early life

He Bingyan was born into a widowed family. After his mother’s death, he changed his surname from “Hu” to “He”, the surname of his father. As a youth, he did many odd jobs, including being a porter, tailor and blacksmith. In 1929, he followed his father and joined the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army and was part of He Long’s security detail. He joined the Chinese Communist Party in June 1930. Upon graduation from the Hunan Hebei Red Army School in 1932, he was as the captain of an infantry brigade. He took part in the 4th Encirclement Campaign and was commended as the “model brigade” for assisting the 8th Division to break out of the Nationalist encirclement in Jiangxi Soviet.

In October 1932, He Bingyan led the 3rd Red Army out of the Nationalist Encirclement. However, due to the internal “revisionist” purges in 1933, he was jailed for a brief amount of time before being released by He Long. After his release, he was appointed as the Chief of the Recruit Brigade. In the same year, his father, He Xuewen died in battle at Hefeng County.

In November 1935, he was named as the Commander of the 5th Division in the 2nd Red Army to lead the forces in the Long March. During a battle in Suining County, He Bingyan was hit by a bullet in the arm and was amputated due to the lack of anesthetic. After rendezvous with the main army forces, he was sent to Xi'an Guangren Hospital for treatment.

During the Second Sino-Japanese War

Following the outbreak of war, he 358th Brigade’s Commander, in the 120th Division in the Eighth Route Army, participating skirmishes in Shanxi. In December 1938, he served as a detachment leader in the 120th Division, actively working with Political Commissar Yu Qiuli to expand the army’s area area of influence across the northern banks of the Qing River. In winter, He Bingyan led a detachment into Jizhong and successively conducted battles in Lianzikou and Bei Biaoqiao, smashing the 3-way encirclement of the Japanese army.

In 1940, He Bingyan was ordered to return to Jin Sui to participate in the Hundred Regiments Battle. He was subsequently appointed as the deputy commander of the 358th Brigade. He was then transferred to Yan’an for studies at Central Party School of the Communist Party of China. In November 1944, he was ordered to incite and establish an anti-Japanese base in Honghu and serve as the commander of the 3rd Division of the New Fourth Army in, Hubei, Henan and Jiangxi provinces.