He took part in the Long March (where he earned a reputation as a reckless military leader due to his intentional sacrifice of his entire division, even though that bought more time for the Communist forces to retreat from the pursuing KMT forces)[1] and then fought in both the Second Sino-Japanese War and the Chinese Civil War. In the meantime, from 1938 to 1944 he lived in the Soviet Union, and graduated from the Soviet Frunze Military Academy.