Peng Dehuai

Peng Dehuai was a prominent Chinese Communist military leader, and served as Chinas Defense Minister from 1954 to 1959. Peng was born into a poor peasant family, and received several years of primary education before his familys poverty forced him to suspend his education at the age of ten, and to work for several years as a manual laborer. When he was sixteen, Peng became a professional soldier. Over the next ten years Peng served in the armies of several Hunanbased warlord armies, raising himself from the rank of private second class to major. In 1926 Pengs forces joined the Kuomintang, and Peng was first introduced to communism. Peng participated in the Northern Expedition, and supported Wang Jingweis attempt to form a leftleaning Kuomintang government based in Wuhan. After Wang was defeated, Peng briefly rejoined Chiang Kaisheks forces before joining the Chinese Communist Party, allying himself with Mao Zedong and Zhu De.

Peng was born in 1898 in the village of Shixiang, Xiangtan County, Hunan. His personal name at birth was Dehua. Pengs family lived in a thatchedstraw hut and owned approximately 1.5 acres of irrigated land, on which the family grew bamboo, sweet potatoes, tea, cotton, and various vegetables. His father also operated a bean curd shop. The income from the land and shop supported an extended family of eight people, including Peng, his three brothers, his parents, his grandmother, and a granduncle. Pengs granduncle had joined and fought for the Taiping rebellion, and used to tell Peng about the old Taiping ideals that everyone should have enough food to eat, that women should not bind their feet, and that land should be redistributed equally. Peng later described his own class background as lowermiddle peasant.

Source: Wikipedia