Liu Bocheng
In 1949, working with He Long and Liu Bocheng, and Li commanded his troops to occupy all of Sichuan province. It was then that he met Deng Xiaoping, the secretary of the Southwest Bureau responsible for Sichuan, with whom he would have a long working relationship. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Li became one of the dominant political figures in Sichuan. As in other areas of the Southwest, public security was a major early concern and Mao Zedong praised and rewarded leaders who forcefully approached "anti-bandit" activity and the Campaign to Suppress Counterrevolutionaries.