Luo Ronghuan Luo Ronghuan ( ; November 26 , 1902 – December 16 , 1963 ) was a Chinese communist military leader . Biography . Luo was born in a village in Hengshan County , Hunan Province . He joined the Chinese Communist Youth League in April 1927 and the Chinese Communist Party later that year . During the Long March he served as the security chief for the Chinese Red Army . After World War II , Luo served as the political commissar of Lin Biao in Manchuria during the Chinese civil war . Unbeknownst to outsiders , Luo ' s contribution to the communist victory in Manchuria and hence to a great degree , in the mainland China was far greater than what was previously publicized , and in fact , greater than that of Lin Biao . The reason is that people often overlooked Luo ' s political contribution by concentrating on Lin Biao ' s military victories . However , Lin Biao , or any other communist commanders would never be able to achieve any military victory if there is not any strong and stable political support from the troops and the general populace . This is where Luo ' s importance proved to be critical : Luo ' s skillful political work ensured the troops ' loyalty and popular support of the communists . After the end of World War II , the communists demilitarized more than a million of its troops . However , the communist demilitarization was far from the peaceful demilitarization of the nationalist counterparts , and in fact , the communist demilitarization was part of Mao Zedong ' s class struggle in which most of these demilitarized troops and cadres were persecuted . The reason of persecution of the troops and cadres within their own rank was simple : despite their dedication to communism , those troops and cadres were from well to do family backgrounds . As a result , the communists were not only in danger losing the popular support , but also face alienation and defection within its own ranks . Luo was instrumental in stopping the widespread persecution and thus saved the communists in Manchuria from losing the popular support , as well as supports within its own ranks , thus strengthened the communists , ensured Lin Biao ' s later military victories , and Luo did all of these against Mao ' s wishes . It was not after witnessing Luo ' s success did Mao started to praise Luo ' s effort . As a result of Luo ' s success , the defection and desertion among communists in the entire Manchuria only numbered around 60 , 000 , while in other communist controlled region such as in Shandong alone , the defection and desertion numbered more than 300 , 000 according to Mao ' s own admission , and the communist force in Shandong was much smaller than that of Manchuria . Luo ' s bravery of rejecting persecution of Mao ' s class struggle ideology had saved Chinese communists in Manchuria from certain failure . After the formation of the People ' s Republic of China in 1949 he became Chief of Staff of the People ' s Liberation Army . He was made a marshal in 1955 . Luo was the member of the 7th CPC Central Committee and 8th CPC Politburo . When Luo died in 1963 , Both Mao and Lin Biao attended his funeral , his funeral was one of the only two funerals Marshal Lin Biao attended to , the other being the funeral of his former chief of staff and commander - in - chief of the PLA air force General Liu Yalou .