Born in Yilong County, a hilly and isolated section of northern Sichuan province.a Chinese Communist military leader and statesman regarded as the founder of the Chinese Red Army.
During the Long March, Zhu De and Zhang Guotao commanded the "western column" of the Red Army, which barely survived the retreat through Sichuan Province.
During the Second Sino-Japanese War and the Chinese Civil War, he held the position of Commander-in-Chief of the Red Army.
In the mid-1920s, he went to Europe, studying at Göttingen University in Germany from 1922 to 1925 at which point he was expelled from the country by the government for his role in a number of student protests. Around this time, he joined the Communist Party. In 1925, he travelled to the Soviet Union to study military affairs. In 1926, he returned to China and took control of a military force in the Kuomintang under the First United Front (China). During the Second Sino-Japanese War and the Chinese Civil War, he held the position of Commander-in-Chief of the Red Army. After 1949, Zhu was named Commander-in-Chief of the People's Liberation Army (PLA). He was also the vice-Chairman of the Communist Party.
