The Selected Works of Lin Biao

Lin Yurong, better known by the nom de guerre Lin Biao (1907- 1971) was a major Chinese Communist military leader who was pivotal in the communist victory in the Chinese Civil War, especially in Northeastern China, and was the general who commanded the decisive Liaoshen Campaign and Pingjin Campaign, co-led the Northeast battlefield army of People's Liberation Army into Beijing and crossed Yangtze River in 1949. He ranked third among the ten Marshals and only equal to Zhu De and Peng Dehuai while ahead of He Long and Liu Bocheng. He abstained from becoming a major player in politics until he rose to prominence during the Cultural Revolution, climbing as high as second-in-charge and Mao Zedong's designated and constitutional successor and comrade-in-arms.He died in a plane crash in September 1971 in Mongolia. Following his death he was officially condemned as a traitor by Communist Party of China; he and Jiang Qing are still considered to be the two "major Counter-revolutionary parties" during the Cultural Revolution.