Lü Zhengcao

Did You Know?

• During the Liaoshen Campaign, Lü's team covertly moved nearly 100,000 troops to the front in nine days using 64 military trains, with no accidents despite enemy aircraft and floods.
• Lü received Mao Zedong's praise for an article on locomotive systems; when Lü called his writing 'layman's talk,' Mao replied, 'Even laymen can become experts!'

Early life

Lü Zhengcao was born in Haicheng, Liaoning. At seventeen, in the spring of 1922, a distant relative helped him get into the Northeastern Army in Shenyang, where he was assigned to the 9th Company, 3rd Battalion, 1st Regiment of Zhang Xueliang's Guard Brigade. Soon after, examiners picked him for a clerk position in the brigade's adjutant's office, giving him the rank of Sergeant. Zhang Xueliang took notice of his calm manner, clear speech, and tidy handwriting. In the winter of 1923, Zhang recommended him for the Northeast Military Academy's fifth term, which he passed and graduated from in 1925. He then held posts in the Northeastern Army as a company commander, battalion commander, and chief adjutant with the rank of Major. By 1929, he was Chief of Staff of the 16th Brigade, now a Lieutenant Colonel. In the spring of 1934, his 647th Regiment moved to Beiping for defense duties. Japanese troops based in Dongjiaomin Lane kept trying to provoke his forces to find an excuse to take over the city's defenses, but Lü's men held firm. In June 1935, during what became known as the Beiping Incident, Lü led his troops to stop rebels who had sided with Shi Yousan and the invaders. He shelled their armored cars, cut off their escape at Fengtai, and wiped out the entire force. He joined the Chinese Communist Party in 1937.

Under Communist service

In 1936, Lü Zhengcao founded and led the Northeast Armed Comrades Anti-Japanese National Salvation Vanguard Group. The following year, while in command of the 647th Regiment, he left the Kuomintang, rebranded his forces as the Central Hebei People's Self-Defense Army, and became a Communist Party member. He subsequently led troops against the Japanese in Northern China. On April 1, 1944, the Jin-Sui Branch of the CCP Central Committee formed an Audit Committee with Lü as its chair; that same day, the committee released Audit Regulations detailing goals, structure, powers, and methods for auditing budgets, grain, clothing, currency, and transfers. Starting in December 1945, he sat on the standing committee of the CCP Central Committee’s West Manchuria Branch Bureau and commanded the West Manchuria Military Region, which covered Liaoning and Rehe. In June 1946, he was directed to move troops into the Northeast, becoming Deputy Commander of the Northeast Democratic Allied Army and head of the Songhua River Defense Command. He later served as Vice Director of the Northeast Railway General Bureau and Deputy Commander of the Northeast Railway Protection Corps. By January 1948, with the Allied Army renamed the Northeast People’s Liberation Army, he was appointed Vice Director of the Railway Department under the People’s Revolutionary Military Commission. In the late 1940s, he became Minister of Railways for the Northeast Administrative Committee, later the Northeast People’s Government. A 1948 U.S. State Department memo called him “an able tactician” with reportedly strong anti-Kuomintang views.

People's Republic of China

After the Communist victory in 1949, Lü served as a senior military and civil leader of the Central People's Government. In August 1950, US intelligence identified him as an alternate member of the CCP Central Committee. He was promoted to Vice Minister of Railways, and as Deputy Commander of the Railway Corps, Commander of Military Transportation of the Central Military Commission, and Director of Military Transportation of the General Staff Department, he organized provisions transport during the Korean War. He directed railway repair under enemy bombing, creating methods such as opening up first and then reinforcing, ensuring railways were repaired as bombed. He participated in the First Five-Year Plan for railway construction and led the Wuhan Yangtze River Bridge project. He directed completion of the Chengyu, Tianlan, Xianggui, Lanxin, Baocheng, Fengsha, and Yingxia railway lines. From 1954, he represented Liaoning at the National People's Congress, became a standing member of the CPPCC National Committee, and earned a seat on the National Defense Commission. In December 1954, he led a delegation to negotiate with North Vietnam on communications. He was conferred the rank of Shang Jiang in 1955 and awarded the First-Class Order of Independence and Freedom, First-Class Order of Liberation, and First-Class Red Star Medal of Honor. From 1956, he served as Chairman of the Chinese Tennis Association.

Later life

In 1985, Lü helped found and chair the China Milu Foundation to support the return of the critically endangered Père David's deer to China. In a March 1990 written opinion to General Secretary Jiang Zemin, he argued for building approximately 2,000 kilometers of new railways annually to reach at least 70,000 kilometers by 2000. From 1 to 13 June 1995, he inspected the Jingjiu Railway under construction from Beijing to Ganzhou. After retiring, he frequently discussed railways with Party and state leaders. He died in Beijing on 13 October 2009 at age 105 by Western reckoning, the last survivor among the founding Colonel Generals of the People's Liberation Army.