Lai joined the Communist Youth League of China in November 1926, the Chinese Communist Party in April 1927 and the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army in March 1928. Following outbreak of the Chinese Civil War, he was appointed as the 33rd Group Commander and Political Commissar in the Chinese Red Army, Chief of Staff of the 12th Division, Red Fifth Army's 37th Political Secretary, Vice Minister of the Organization Department of the Red Army and other key positions. He embarked on the Long March as the Acting Minister of the Provincial Committee of CPC Shaanxi-Gansu Region. During the Second Sino-Japanese War, he served as the New Fourth Army's Chief of Staff, Jiangbei Headquarters Chief of Staff. After the establishment of PRC, he was the Thirteenth Corps, Beijing and Shenyang Military Region's political commissar.
Biography
Ye Ting and others at the New Fourth Army Jiangbei Headquarters in 1939. From left: Ye Ting, Lai Chuanzhu, Luo Binghui [zh], Zhang Yunyi.
Early Revolutionary Years
After joining the Communist Youth League of China in November 1926, Lai went to Guidong County, Hunan to join the army under the command of Mao Zedong. Having ascended to key leadership position within the Fourth Army, he went on to participate in the Huangyang Boundary Battle in 1928.[1] As one of the divisional commanders of the New Fourth Army, he went on to attend the Gutian Congress. Lai suffered a facial wound during the First Encirclement Campaign against Jiangxi Soviet in January 1930.[2]
From December 1931 onward, he was appointed as the 13th Red Army Political Department's Secretary-General and 37th division political commissar, participating in the Ganzhou Campaign.[3] In March 1933, Lai has filled many roles, such as director of the 13th Division's Political Department and political commissar for the 5th and 13th Corps.[4] After participating in the Encirclement Campaigns, Lai embarked on the Long March in October 1934. With his arrival in Shanbei, he was made a deputy minister of the Soviet and concurrently was the political commissar for the region.[5]
Second Sino-Japanese War (1936-1945)
In November 1937 Lai was transferred to the New Fourth Army as the Director of the General Staff Office. In 1939, New Fourth Army Commander Ye Ting and Lai brought the army out of the Dabie Mountains to rendezvous at the Jiangbei regions.[6] By October 1940, Lai was appointed as the central headquarters chief of staff. Following the New Fourth Army incident in 1941 and the consequent annihilation of the army, Lai was appointed as chief of staff to re-establish the New Fourth Army.[7][8] Thereafter, Lai assisted other commanders (Chen Yi, Liu Shaoqi, Zhang Yunyi, Rao Shushi among others) at the Central Anti-Japanese Base Command which resisted Japanese occupation.
Chinese Civil War (1945-1949)
In October 1945, Lai was appointed as the Shandong Field Army's column political commissar. In September 1947, he took part in the Liaoshen Campaign as the political commissar for the sixth column of the Southwest Army (later became a field army). During the campaign, Hong Yongsheng and him flanked and surrounded the Nationalist army group led by Liao Yaoxiang.[9] In November 1948, he was appointed as one of the Fourth Field Army's political commissar and led troops which besieged Beijing, forcing Fu Zuoyi to shift key troops to counter them.[10] Following the capture of Guangzhou in 14 October, Lai was appointed the Guangdong military region's first deputy political commissar.[11]
After the Establishment of the PRC
In December 1949, Lai and Deng Hua were tasked to head the Landing Operation on Hainan Island. In 1950, communist landing operations was conducted with forces equivalent to two armies albeit the absence of a navy and air force to support the troops landing in small wooden crafts. The landed forces surrounded Xue Yue's forces and captured Haikou. Xue Yue had no choice but to retreat to Taiwan, and the People's Liberation Army took control of the whole Hainan Peninsula.[12] This campaign was the first amphibious assault won by the PLA.[13]
^赖传珠 [Lai Chuanzhu]. people.com.cn (in Chinese). Retrieved 2015-03-10.
^Yang Dezhi, ed. (1993). 中国工农红军第一方面军史 [History of the First Front Army of the Chinese Red Army] (in Chinese). Beijing: PLA Publishing House. p. 298. ISBN978-7-5065-5396-4.
^Chen, Ronghua (1986). 中国革命史手册 [Handbook of Chinese Revolutionary History]. Central China Normal University Press. p. 448.
^Writing Group, ed. (2011). 萧劲光传 [Biography of Xiao Jingguang] (in Chinese). Beijing: Contemporary China Publishing House. p. 79. ISBN978-7-8017-0995-0.
^新四军江北指挥部在庐江岁月 [Jiangbei Headquarters of the New Fourth Army in Lu River]. Chaohu Daily (in Chinese). 2009-06-08. Archived from the original on 2016-03-04.
^Military Library of the Academy of Military Sciences, ed. (2000). 中国人民解放军全史(中国人民解放军组织沿革和各级领导成员名录) [History of the People's Liberation Army] (in Chinese). Vol. 10. Beijing: Military Science Press. p. 498. ISBN7801373154.
^Zhang, Zhenglong (2011). 一将难求——四野名将录 [One General is Hard to Find -- A List of Renowned Generals in the Four Fields Army] (in Chinese). Shenyang, Liaoning: Baishan Press. p. 396. ISBN978-7-8068-7898-9.
^Zhang, Mingjin; Zhao, Gongde (2006). 中国人民解放军历史上的70个军 [70 Armies in the History of the People's Liberation Army] (in Chinese). Beijing: PLA Literature and Art Publishing House. p. 366. ISBN978-7-5033-1940-2.
^Zhang, Mingjin; Liu, Liqin (2010). 中国人民解放军历史上的200个军区 [200 Military Districts in the History of the People's Liberation Army] (in Chinese). Beijing: PLA Literature and Art Publishing House. p. 524. ISBN978-7-5033-2252-5.
^Peng, Qinglin (2010-10-18). 从解放战争到抗美援朝:毛主席选择邓华"放心" [From the Chinese Civil War to the Korean War: Chairman Mao Chooses Deng Hua to "Rest Assured"]. Hainan Daily. Retrieved 2015-03-10.
^Luo, Yinwen (1995). 邓华将军传 [Biography of Deng Hua] (in Chinese). CCP Central Party School Press. pp. 184–186. ISBN9787503512254.
^Zhou, Hong; Zhu Hanguo, eds. (2000). 中国二十世纪纪事本末 [History of the 20th Century in China]. Vol. Biography. Jinan, Shandong: Shandong People's Publishing House. p. 725. ISBN7-209-02403-4.
^Editorial Department, ed. (2007). 中国人民解放军将帅名录 [List of People's Liberation Army Generals]. Vol. 1. Beijing: PLA Publishing House. p. 155. ISBN978-7-5065-5031-4.