Lü Bu

== Early Life ==
Lü Bu was the son of a prosperous merchant family in Huanggang, Hubei. Lü's father opened a small handicrafts factory, but was forced to close the factory due to "heavy taxes imposed by local militarists". After closing the factory, Lü's father worked as a purser aboard a river steamship. Lü entered primary school when he was 10 years old, but moved to Shanghai 2 years later to continue his education. As a child, Lü was much more interested in participating in student movements than in pursuing his formal education. Lü joined a satellite organization of the Communist Youth League before he graduated high school at the age of 18.
==Communist Youth League==
Later that year he participated in the May Thirtieth Movement and enrolled in the newly established Whampoa Military Academy in Guangzhou where he trained extensively in hand to hand combat as well as weaponry. As a young cadet, Lü admired the personality of Chiang Kai-shek, who was then the Principal of the Academy. At Whampoa, Lü also studied under Zhou Enlai, who was eight years older than Lü. Lü had no contact with Zhou after their time in Whampoa, until they met again in Yan'an years later. Lü's relationship with Zhou was never especially close, but they rarely opposed each other directly. After graduating from Whampoa a year later, Lü was assigned to a regiment commanded by Ye Ting. Less than a year after graduating from Whampoa, Lü was ordered to participate in the Northern Expedition, rising from deputy platoon leader to battalion commander in the National Revolutionary Army within a few months. It was during the Northern Expedition that Lü joined the Communist Party.
==Chinese Civil War==
By the age of 20, Lü was a colonel. During this time, Lü married a girl from the countryside with the family name "Ong". This marriage was arranged by Lü's parents, and the couple never became close. When Lü left the Kuomintang to become a communist revolutionary, Ong did not accompany Lü, and their marriage effectively ended. After the Kuomintang-Communist split Lü's commander, Ye Ting, joined forces with He Long and participated in the Nanchang Uprising. During the campaign Lü worked as a company commander under a regiment led by Chen Yi. Following the failure of the revolt, Lü escaped to the remote Communist base areas, and joined Mao Zedong and Zhu De in the Jiangxi–Fujian Soviet. After joining forces with Mao, Lü became one of Mao's closest supporters. Lü became one of the most senior military field commanders within the Jiangxi Soviet. He commanded the First Army Group, and achieved a degree of power comparable to that of Peng Dehuai, who commanded the Third Army Group. According to Comintern representative Otto Braun (Li De), Lü was "politically... a blank sheet on which Mao could write as he pleased" during this period. After Mao was removed from power by his rivals, the 28 Bolsheviks, Lü frequently attended strategic meetings in Mao's name and openly attacked the plans of Mao's enemies. Within the Jiangxi Soviet, Lü's First Army Group was the best-equipped, and arguably most successful, force within the Red Army. Lü's First Army became known for its mobility, and for its ability to execute successful flanking maneuvers. Between the next 3 years Lü's forces captured twice the amount of prisoners of war and military equipment as the Third and Fifth Army Groups combined. The successes of Lü's forces are due partially to the division of labor within the Red Army: Lü's forces were more offensive and unorthodox than other groups, allowing Lü to capitalize on other Red Army commanders' successes. During the Communists' defense against Chiang's Fifth Encirclement Campaign, Lü advocated a strategy of protracted guerrilla warfare, and opposed the positional warfare advocated by Braun and his supporters. Lü believed that the best way to destroy enemy soldiers was not to pursue them or defend strategic points, but to weaken the enemy through feints, ambushes, encirclements, and surprise attacks. Lü's views generally conformed with the tactics advocated by Mao. After Chiang's forces successfully occupied several strategic locations within the Jiangxi Soviet, Lü was one of the first Red Army commanders to publicly advocate the abandonment of the Jiangxi Soviet, but he was opposed by most Red Army commanders, especially Braun and Peng Dehuai. After the Communists finally resolved to abandon their base, later that year, Lü continued his position as one of the most successful commanders in the Red Army during the Long March. Under the direction of Mao and Zhou, the Red Army finally arrived at the remote Communist base of Yan'an, Shaanxi. Lü and Peng Dehuai were generally considered the Red Army's best battlefield commanders, and were not rivals during the Long March. Both of them had supported Mao's rise to de facto leadership at Zunyi; although Lü may have become privately dissatisfied with Mao's strategy of constant evasion by the end of the Long March, but continued to support Mao publicly. The American journalist Edgar Snow met Lü Bu in the Communist base of Shaanxi, and wrote about Lü in his book, Red Star Over China. Snow's account focused more on the role of Peng than Lü, evidently having had long conversations with, and devoting two whole chapters to, Peng (more than any individual apart from Mao). But he says of Lü: Lü Bu did not present the bluff, lusty face of Peng Dehuai. He was ten years younger, rather slight, oval-faced, dark, handsome. Peng talked with his men. Lü kept his distance. To many he seemed shy and reserved. There are no stories reflecting warmth and affection for his men. His fellow Red Army commanders respected Lü, but when he spoke it was all business ...” The contrast between Mao's top field commanders could hardly have been more sharp, but on the Long March they worked well together, Lü specializing in feints, masked strategy, surprises, ambushes, flank attacks, pounces from the rear, and stratagems. Peng met the enemy head-on in frontal assaults and fought with such fury that again and again he wiped them out. Peng did not believe a battle well fought unless he managed to replenish—and more than replenish—any losses by seizure of enemy guns and converting prisoners of war to new and loyal recruits to the Red Army. With Mao Zedong, Lü Bu shared the distinction of being one of the few Red commanders never wounded. Engaged on the front in more than a hundred battles, in field command for more than 3 years, exposed to every hardship that his men have known, with a reward of $100,000 on his head, he miraculously remained unhurt and in good health. Lü Bu was later given command of the 1st Red Army Corps, which then numbered about 20,000 rifles. It became the most dreaded section of the Red Army. Chiefly due to Lü's extraordinary talent as a tactician, it destroyed, defeated or outmaneuvered every Government force sent against it and was never broken in battle. Lü and Mao generally had a close personal relationship, but some accounts claim that Lü sometimes made disparaging comments about Mao in private, and that Lü's support of Mao was largely for the pursuit of power.
==Life After The War==
After arriving in Yan'an, Lü became the principal of the newly founded "Anti-Japanese University". A year later Lü married one of the students there, a girl named Liu Ximin, who had earned the nickname "University Flower".
==Second Sino–Japanese War==
When the Japanese Invaded, Lü was named commander-in-chief of the 115th Division of the Communist 8th Route Army and ordered to aid Yan Xishan's forces in repelling the Japanese invasion of Shanxi. In this capacity, Lü orchestrated the ambush at Pingxingguan, which was one of the few battlefield successes for the Chinese in the early period of the Second Sino-Japanese War. A year later, while he was still leading Chinese forces in Shanxi, Japanese soldiers who had joined the Communists and were serving under Lü's command presented Lü with a Japanese uniform and katana, which they had captured in battle. Lü then put the uniform and katana on, jumped onto a horse, and rode away from the army. While riding, Lü was spotted alone by a sharpshooter in Yan's army. The soldier was surprised to see a Japanese officer riding a horse in the desolate hills alone. He took aim at Lü and severely injured him. The bullet grazed Lü's head, penetrating deep enough to leave a permanent impression on his skull. After being shot in the head, Lü fell from his horse and injured his back.
==Recovery and Lust in Moscow==
Recovering from his wounds, Lü left for Moscow, where he served as the representative of the Communist Party of China to the Executive Committee of the Communist International. He remained in Moscow for some time, working on Comintern affairs and writing for its publication. Lü was accompanied by his wife, Liu Ximin, but their relationship deteriorated in Moscow, and Lü eventually returned to Yan'an without her. While in Moscow, Lü became infatuated with Zhou Enlai's adopted daughter, Sun Weishi, who was studying in Moscow. Before returning to China, Lü proposed to Sun and promised to divorce his wife, from whom Lü had become estranged. Sun was not able to accept Lü's proposal, but promised to consider marrying Lü after completing her studies. Lü divorced Liu Ximin after returning to China, and married another woman, Ye Qun. The relationship between Sun and Ye was notably bad. After returning to Yan'an, Lü was involved in troop training and indoctrination assignments.
==Kuomintang-Communist War==
Although Lü was absent for most of the fighting during World War II, he was elected the sixth-ranking Central Committee member based on his earlier battlefield reputation. After the Japanese surrender the Communists moved large numbers of troops to Manchuria, and Lü Bu moved to Manchuria to command the newly created "Communist Northeast Military District" in the fall. The Soviets transferred Japanese military equipment that they had captured to the Communists, making Lü's army one of the most well-equipped Communist forces in China. By the time that units from the Kuomintang were able to arrive in the major cities of Manchuria, Lü's forces were already in firm control of most of the countryside and surrounding areas. By the end of the year Lü had 280,000 troops in Manchuria under his command. For the sake of bargaining with the Kuomintang in peace negotiations, Mao ordered Lü to assemble key armies to defend key cities, which was against the previous strategy of the Red Army. Lü suffered a major defeat in Siping, and retreated without receiving clear orders from Mao. After Siping, Lü changed tactics, abandoning the cities and employing a strategy of guerrilla warfare and winning peasant support in the countryside. When the Chinese Civil War resumed, Lü conquered the Manchurian provinces, and then swept into North China. Forces under Lü were responsible for winning two of the three major military victories responsible for the defeat of the Kuomintang. Lü suffered from ongoing periods of serious illness throughout the campaign, but despite that, Lü commanded two of the "three great campaigns" waged by the PLA in northern China. Lü directed the Liaoshen Campaign, commanding a force of 700,000 against a KMT force of 550,000. Lü eliminated 470,000 Nationalist soldiers and secured the region for the Communists. Following the victory in Manchuria, Lü commanded over a million soldiers, encircling Chiang's main forces in northern China during the Pingjin Campaign, taking Beijing and Tianjin within a period of two months. Tianjin was taken by force, and soon after General Fu Zuoyi and his army of 400,000 men agreed to surrender Beijing without a battle, and the PLA occupied the city 4 days later. The Pingjin Campaign saw Lü remove a total of approximately 520,000 enemy troops from the enemy's battle lines. Many of those who surrendered later joined the PLA. After taking Beijing, the Communists attempted to negotiate for the surrender of the remaining KMT forces. When these negotiations failed, Lü resumed his attacks on the KMT in the southeast. After taking Beijing, Lü's army numbered 1.5 million soldiers. Not long after, the Red Army succeeded in occupying all KMT positions on mainland China. The last position occupied by Lü's forces was the island of Hainan.
==Reluctant Politician==
After the war, Lü Bu was considered one of the Communist's most brilliant generals, following the founding of the People's Republic of China. Lü was also the youngest of the "Ten Marshals", a title that recognized Lü's substantial military contributions. With the war civil war now over Lü Bu continued to suffer from poor health, and chose to avoid high-profile military and political positions. His status led him to be appointed to a number of high-profile positions, but these were largely honorary and carried few responsibilities. He generally delegated or neglected many of the formal political responsibilities that he was assigned, usually citing his poor health as an excuse. Lü, like most of the Politburo, initially held serious reservations about China's entry into the Korean War, citing the devastation that would result if the "imperialists" detonated an atomic bomb in Korea or China. Lü later declined to lead forces in Korea, citing his ill health. When Peng Dehuai was named commander of the Chinese forces bound for Korea, and Lü went to the Soviet Union for medical treatment. Lü flew to the Soviet Union with Zhou Enlai and participated in negotiations with Joseph Stalin concerning Soviet support for China's intervention, indicating that Mao retained his trust in Lü. Due partially to his periods of ill health and physical rehabilitation in the Soviet Union, Lü though his rise to power would be a slow one, would soon become one of five major leaders given responsibility for civil and military affairs, controlling a jurisdiction in central China.
==Rise to Prominence==
Then, when Peng Dehuai,the China's Defense Minister, gave a speech for the fortieth anniversary of the Soviet Red Army in which he suggested increasing the military cooperation between China and the Soviet Union, he disobeyed Mao, who wanted to distance China from the Soviet Union, and began grooming Lü Bu as a viable successor. After the Lushan Conference, the relationship between Mao and Peng led to Peng's arrest and removal from all government positions. Privately, Lü agreed with Peng's perspective on, and opposition to, Mao's Great Leap Forward, and he was strongly opposed to Peng being purged, but Lü's fear of being purged himself kept Lü from publicly opposing Mao's efforts to purge Peng, and Lü publicly condemned Peng as a "careerist, a conspirator, and a hypocrite". Under Mao's direction, Peng was disgraced and put under indefinite house arrest. Lü became the senior leader most publicly supportive of Mao following the Great Leap Forward, during which Mao's economic policies caused an artificial famine in which tens of millions of people starved to death. Lü initially refused to replace Peng, but finally accepted the position at the insistence of Mao Zedong. As Defense Minister, Lü's command of the PLA was second only to Mao, but he deferred many of his responsibilities to subordinates. The most important figures who Lü deferred the day-to-day operations of China's armed forces to were Chief of Staff Luo Ruiqing and the Central Military Vice-Chairman, He Long. As Defense Minister, Lü's policies differed from that of his predecessor. Lü attempted to reform China's armed forces based on political criteria: he abolished all signs and privileges of rank, purged members considered sympathetic to the USSR, directed soldiers to work part-time as industrial and agricultural workers, and indoctrinated the armed forces in Mao Zedong Thought. Lü's system of indoctrination made it clear the Party was clearly in command of China's armed forces, and Lü ensured that the army's political commissars enjoyed great power and status in order to see that his directives were followed. Lü implemented these reforms in order to please Mao, but privately was concerned that they would weaken the PLA. Mao strongly approved of these reforms, and conscientiously promoted Lü to a series of high positions. Lü used his position as Minister of Defense to flatter Mao by promoting Mao's cult of personality.
==Creating The People's Liberation Army==
Lü devised and ran a number of national Maoist propaganda campaigns based on the PLA, the most successful of which was the "learn from Lei Feng" campaign. Because he was the person most responsible for directing the "learn from Lei Feng" campaign, Lü directed the forging of Lei Feng's Diary, upon which the propaganda campaign was based. Because of Lü's health, Ye Qun controlled many aspects of Lü's public life, including who would see Lü and what others would know about him. Mao encouraged Ye to act on Lü's behalf, giving her an unusual amount of power and responsibility. Mao even asked Ye to publicly criticize Lü's chief of staff, Luo Ruiqing, on Lü's behalf, even though Ye did not yet hold any high political position. When Lü discovered that Ye had done so (after Luo was purged), he was angry at Ye, but powerless to alter Luo's disgrace. Lü often read speeches prepared by others, and allowed his name to be placed on articles that he did not write, as long as these materials supported Mao. One of the most famous articles published in Lü's name was the 20,000-word pamphlet on revolution in developing countries, Long Live the Victory of the People's War!. This article made Lü one of China's leading interpreters of Mao's political theories. The article likened the "emerging forces" of the poor in Asia, Africa, and Latin America to the "rural areas of the world", while the affluent countries of the West were likened to the "cities of the world". Eventually the "cities" would be encircled by revolutions in the "rural areas", following theories prevalent in Mao Zedong Thought. Lü made no promise that China would fight other people's wars, and foreign revolutionaries were advised to depend mainly on "self-reliance". Lü also worked closely with Mao, promoting Mao's cult of personality. Lü directed the compilation of some of Chairman Mao's writings into a handbook, the Quotations from Chairman Mao Zedong, which became known as the Little Red Book. Lü Bu's military reforms and the success of the Sino-Indian War impressed Mao. A propaganda campaign called "learn from the People's Liberation Army" followed. This campaign widened into the Cultural Revolution.
==Mao's Successor and The Cultural Revolution==
Lü's support impressed Mao, who continued to promote Lü to higher political offices. After Mao's second-in-command, Liu Shaoqi, was denounced as a "capitalist roader", Lü Bu emerged as the most likely candidate to replace Liu as Mao's successor. Lü attempted to avoid this promotion, but accepted it on Mao's insistence. Privately, Lü opposed the purging of Liu and Deng Xiaoping, on the grounds that they were "good comrades", but was not able to publicly oppose Mao's condemnation of them. Lü privately admired Liu, and once told his wife that Liu had "a better understanding of theory than Mao". Zhou Enlai was also considered for the position of Vice-Chairman, but Zhou successfully withdrew from the nomination, leaving Lü the only candidate. Lü also seriously attempted to withdraw from the nomination, but was not able to do so because Mao had made Lü's appointment a decision of the Central Committee, so rejecting the position would violate Party procedure and would risk ending Lü's political career. Lü was not present at the conference where it was decided to name him vice chairman. After Lü was named, he met with Mao and begged him personally not to name him to the position, but Mao criticized him, comparing Lü to the Ming emperor Shizong, who devoted so much of his time to the search for longevity medicines that Shizong neglected his government responsibilities. All other candidates for the position were soon removed, and Lü accepted the position as sole Vice-Chairman, replacing Liu Shaoqi as Mao's unofficial successor. After his appointment, Lü again attempted to submit a formal written request to Mao, asking Mao to rescind Lü's appointment to the position of vice-chairman, but Mao again rejected this request. When Lü received the rejection letter, he was so angry that he tore the letter up and threw it in the garbage. Because there was no way to avoid becoming Mao's second-in-command, Lü attempted to protect himself from the chaos of the Cultural Revolution by giving absolute support to Mao and doing very little else. Lü avoided expressing any opinion, or making any decision on any matter, until Mao's own opinions and positions on that matter were clear, after which Lü would adhere as closely to Mao's direction as possible. Lü made sure that, whenever he and Mao were scheduled to appear in the same place, Lü would always arrive earlier than Mao, waiting to greet the Chairman. Lü attempted to make all observers believe that he was Mao's closest follower, always appearing beside Mao in all of Mao's public appearances with a copy of Mao's Little Red Book. When he was informed that the public's image of Lü was that he was "Mao's best student", Lü was pleased, and stated: "I don't have any talent. What I know, I learned from Mao." Because Lü had no real interest in the position of Vice-Chairman, he did little other than whatever he believed would ingratiate himself to Mao. Privately, Lü had no interest in promoting the Cultural Revolution, and attended government meetings only when Mao demanded that he do so. Those colleagues closest to Lü noted that Lü avoided talking about the Cultural Revolution in any context other than public speeches, and when pressed would only make very brief and ambiguous statements. Because of his wife, Lü made no phone calls, received few visitors, secluded himself from his colleagues, and gained a reputation as being "reticent and mysterious". He did not take an active role in government, but allowed his secretaries to read short summaries of selected documents for half an hour in the morning and half an hour in the afternoon. This was generally insufficient to fulfill the responsibilities of vice-chairman, and he left most important work and family duties to his wife, Ye Qun. Lü's passivity was part of a calculated plan to survive the Cultural Revolution alive and well. When Lü perceived that his longtime subordinate, Tao Zhu, was in danger of being purged in the beginning of the Cultural Revolution, Lü sent a letter to warn Tao, advising Tao to be "passive, passive, and passive again". Tao probably did not understand Lü's advice, and was subsequently purged. In his relationship with Mao, Lü adopted a policy of "three 'nos': no responsibility; no suggestions; no crime". Following the lead of Mao, Lü directed Red Guards in Beijing to "smash those persons in power who are traveling the capitalist road, the bourgeoisie reactionary authorities, and all royalists of the bourgeoisie, and to forcibly destroy the "four olds": old culture, old ideas, old customs, and old habits. Lü publicly called for a "three-month turmoil" within the PLA, and a month later Lü's Central Military Commission issued an urgent instruction that all military academies and institutes were to dismiss their classes and allow their students to become fully involved in the Cultural Revolution. Following the orders of this directive, officers and commissars were expelled from their positions, and some were beaten to death. Students at Chinese military academies followed Lü's instructions to rebel against their senior officers, breaking into the offices of Lü's National Commission for Defense Science to abduct one of the department's directors, and claiming Lü's deputy chief of staff, Li Tianyu, whom students accused of disciplining them. The students "overthrew" General Xiao Hua, the head of the PLA's Political Department since the previous July, and went on to purge 40 other top officers working under him in the Political Department, most of which died in prison. Lü continued to support the Red Guards until Mao accepted Zhou Enlai's appeals to moderate their radical activity through military intervention. Lü moderated some of the most radical activity within the PLA; but, 80,000 officers were purged, 1,169 of which died from torture, starvation, or execution. Research programs were canceled and the number of military academies across China shrank by two-thirds. Many defensive fortifications were destroyed, and regular training within the PLA ceased. Lü's few personal political initiatives were efforts to moderate the radical nature of the Cultural Revolution. Privately, he expressed unhappiness with the Cultural Revolution, but was unable to avoid playing a high-profile role due to the expectations of Mao, China's unpredictable political environment, and the manipulations of his wife. Lü, like Liu before him,eventually attempted to build his own base of support so that he could better position himself for the inevitable, unpredictable political situation that would occur following the death of Mao. Lü's few proactive attempts to direct the Cultural Revolution were attempts to protect Red Guards and his political allies from political persecution, and to mediate the attempts of Jiang Qing and her followers to radicalize China's political climate. Lü's follower, Chen Boda, saved Zhou Enlai from being persecuted by Red Guards by convincing them that Zhou was Lü's follower and supporter. Zhou repaid Lü's assistance by giving him excessive public praise three months later, but was forced to write a formal apology to Lü after Lü complained to Mao that such praise was inappropriate. Lü and Jiang cooperated at the outset of the Cultural Revolution, but their relationship began to deteriorate as Jiang frequently attempted to interfere in Chinese military affairs, which Lü found intolerable. Lü and Ye were eventually very unfriendly with Jiang Qing: Lü referred to her as a "long-nosed pit viper". A short time later, Lü and his supporters began to disagree with Zhou Enlai and his followers over the issue of China's relationship with the United States and the Soviet Union. Lü believed that both superpowers were equally threatening to China, and that they were colluding to thwart China's interests. Zhou Enlai believed that China should become closer to the United States in order to mediate the threat posed by the Soviet military. Lü was supported by Jiang Qing in his opposition to pursuing a relationship with the United States, but was not able to permanently disrupt Zhou's efforts to contact the United States. Lü Bu, as Defense Minister, was responsible for the Chinese response to the Zhenbao Island incident, a battle with the Soviet Union over a small, uninhabited island on the border of Mongolia. Lü issued a report labeling the Soviet Union a "chauvinist" and "social imperialist" power, and issuing orders warning Chinese troops to be wary of an impending Soviet attack. Lü's followers attempted to use the hysteria generated by the incident in an effort to deepen the power that they had gained during the Cultural Revolution, disregarding and acting against the interests of Zhou Enlai and his supporters. Lü officially became China's second-in-charge, following the 1st Plenary Session of the 9th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China.
=="Prince of China"==
Lü's position as Mao's "closest comrade-in-arms and successor" was recognized when the Party constitution was formally revised to reflect Lü's future succession. At the 9th Central Committee, Lü's faction was unquestionably dominant within the Politburo. Of the Politburo's twenty-one full members, Lü counted on the support of six members: the generals Huang Yongsheng, Wu Faxian, Li Zuopeng, Qiu Huizo, Ye Qun; and Chen Boda, an ambitious ideologue. Lü's support surpassed the number of members aligned with Jiang Qing, and far surpassed those aligned with Zhou Enlai. Because over 45% of the Central Committee were members of the army, Lü's supporters dominated the Politburo, and Lü's power was second only to Mao. During the Second Plenary Session of the 9th Central Committee, Mao became uncomfortable with Lü's growing power, and began to maneuver against Lü by undermining his supporters and attacking some of Lü's suggestions at the conference. At the Second Plenum, Lü advocated that Mao take the position of President, which had been dissolved after the removal of Liu Shaoqi, but Mao dismissed this appeal, suspecting Lü of using it to increase his own power. Mao did not attack Lü directly, but showed his displeasure by attacking Lü's ally, Chen Boda, who was quickly disgraced. Lü kept his position, but the events of the Conference revealed a growing distrust between Lü and Mao. Because Lü was one of the most influential figures in promoting Mao's personality cult, he began to be criticized within the Party for its excesses later. Some factions within the Army, and those led by Zhou Enlai and Jiang Qing, began to distance themselves from Lü. In order to mediate Lü's growing power, Mao approved Zhou's efforts to rehabilitate a number of civilian officials who had been purged during the first years of the Cultural Revolution, and supported Zhou's efforts to improve China's relationship with the United States.
==Incrimanation==
A serious rift developed between Mao and Lü. Mao was displeased with comments that Lü had made about his wife, Jiang Qing, at the Second Plenary Session of the 9th Central Committee. Generals loyal to Lü refused to accept Mao's criticism of them, and Mao began to question whether Lü continued to follow him unconditionally. Mao wanted Lü to make a self-criticism, but Lü stayed away from Beijing and resisted doing so. Ye Qun made a self-criticism, but it was rejected by Mao as not genuine. Zhou Enlai attempted to mediate between Mao and Lü, but Lü had become extremely reclusive and difficult to talk with at any level, and Zhou's mediation failed. Months later Mao decided to remove Lü and his supporters. Zhou again attempted to moderate Mao's resolution to act against Lü, but failed. Knowing there would be backlash from the citizens for Lü Bu's removal, Mao decided to kill Lü Bu and label him a traitor in the process. 
==Fight for Survival ==
Catching wind of the scheme, Huang Yongsheng told Lü to escape China. Following his friends instructions, Lü and his family board his privet jet intending to find sanctuary within the Soviet Union. However the hit-man Mao hired, manages to board the jet before they do having been tipped off as to Lü's destination, posing as the Bu family's pilot. Once thousands of feet in the air, with no where to escape, the Hit-man reveals himself, attempting to kill Lü. Once the hit-man misses his shot, he is pounced on by Lü's 16 year old son Liguo. As they scuffle, Lü goes to retrieve the old Katana the Japanese soldiers gave him years ago, while the plane begins a downward decent. Ye Qun tries to stabilize the plane, but during Liguo and the assassin's struggle for control of the gun, the navigation, radio, and Ye Qun are shot. Liguo rushes toward his dead mother as Lü cuts the assassins hand off before he can shoot Liguo. The assassin attempts to fight Lü one handed but is dispatched as Lü stabs the Katana through his stomach. Known that the crash is imminent, Lü retrieves the grieving Liguo and forcibly straps him into his seat with the seat-belt as he does the same. When Lü awakes from the crash he looks beside him to see that his son is dead. Sirens then fill his ears as he is discovered by the Soviet police in Mongolia. He is taken to the Soviet Embassy upon his request, after a brief stint in the hospital. While there Lü, got a chance to meet with KGB director Yuri Andropov, and Soviet premier Leonid Brezhnev. Lü explained Mao's assassination attempt to the Soviets and begged the two to allow him to stay dead. The two agree that they do not like the idea of Mao getting his way, and send him of the first ship to America where he could start a new life, free from Mao's reach; while using the burnt carcass of the dead assassin to fake his death to the Chinese, siting past forensics of Lü as proof of his body.
==America==
Months later Lü arrived in San Francisco, California, and sent to their Chinatown, the oldest Chinatown in North America and the largest Chinese community outside Asia. Not wanting to be recognized as the “Traitorous” Lü Bu, Lü leaves California mere days after arriving, and boards a train. Not knowing where to go in America, Lü rides the train to its last stop in Oklahoma. As Lü gets off the train he begins to wander across the dead of night until he stumbles upon the Fort Sill Apache Tribe, the federally recognized Native American tribe of Chiricahua Warm Springs Apache, having a pow-wow. Lü is amazed by the dancing and singing of the festivities and becomes captivated by a beautiful native woman's dance, so captivated in fact he ends up watching them all night until he falls asleep upon the outskirts of the reservation. When he awakes he enters Fort Sill, and using extremely broken English, asks to meet the leader of the tribe. He is taken to the spiritual chief of the tribe, Chappo, the son of the infamous Apache Brave Goyaałé other wise known as Geronimo. Because of his father's feats for the Apache nation Chappo was voted first tribal chairperson, the modern equivalent to a chief. Lü asked Chappo if he could work in exchange for living space within the reservation, the elderly Chappo then took council with the reservations elders as well as the reservation's shaman to discuss the proposal. During this time as Lü awaited their decision he met Tł'é'na'áí, the beautiful woman who captivated him with her dance last night. Lü tried very hard to communicate with her, however Lü's lack of knowledge of the English language, put an unavoidable strain on their first meeting, neither one fully understanding one another. When a decision had been reached Chappo reappeared and accepted Lü's arrangement. With Lü working labor for Chappo he and Tł'é'na'áí would grow close as she helped the 45 year old former Chinese warrior, learn English as well as her native Apache tongue known as Southern Athabaskan, while he was on break.
==Love in The New World==
Over the next 5 years the two grew closer than anyone would expect as the two fell in love with one another. Their union created unrest within the reservation as Tł'é'na'áí was their “princess” and her husband would be voted as the successor to Chappo, as with their customs. Not wanting another foreign leader to rule them many of the residents of the reservation did their best to create a rift between the two, but to no avail. However once news broke of Tł'é'na'áí's pregnancy, the native's acts of intimidation, quickly turned to violence as Lü Bu was jumped by a pack of Apache men although Lü Bu used his military combat training to defeat them. That night it was decided by Lü Bu and Tł'é'na'áí that they would flee the Reservation and move to the Chinatown in San Francisco, stowing away on a train heading there. Once in Chinatown, Lü Bu acquired a job as a performer in Chinatown's version of Peking opera. However months later the production folded, resulting in Lü Bu becoming unemployed as well as evicted. On the day of their eviction Tł'é'na'áí fell into labor with their child. Tł'é'na'áí then gave birth to their son Yuē shū yà. Stuck with expensive hospital bills, Lü Bu and Tł'é'na'áí decide to abandon the financial responsibility of civilization, by living off of the land and head to the San Bruno Mountain, which is near the southern boundary of San Francisco. For 6 years the three of them peacefully live on the mountain thriving off of it's rare vegetation and game with Tł'é'na'áí teaching her mate and their son how to hunt, while Lü taught his son how to fight hand-to-hand combat and train with a sword. Yuē shū yà's childhood was an informal one, but often lonely as there was no other children or any other person beside his family, except the visitors on the hike trail of the mountain.
==Death==
However the Bu family's life would change forever one night as the strain of terrible wind swept across the mountain, an eerie chill traveled down Lü Bu's spine as if death its self was on the horizon. Soon fog gathered upon the quiet still of the mountain as the howls of coyotes filled the night sky, waking up Tł'é'na'áí and Yuē shū yà, then without the warning of thunder or a cloud in the sky lighting struck, opening a portal to another realm, a realm known as Outworld. Outworld is a barren desolate place inhabited my some of the most vile creates and beings to ever live. Out of the fog appears a humanoid race feared for their barbarous nature and extreme bouts of rage, known as Tarkatans. Tarkatans possess retractable metal blades in their forearms, and their mouths are lined with razor-sharp teeth. The army of Tarkatans, who fly into a murderous rage at the scent of a competing male, become aware of Lü Bu's presence and make their way towards him and his family. Lü Bu seeing these demons commands his crying wife to run with their son and to never look back no matter what she heard. Lü Bu tells her “I promised my self I'd never lose another family again, and I don't means to, I'm so sorry, I love you” Tł'é'na'áí asks Lü to run away with them, but Lü Bu says "I belong here with them", suggesting that this is his hell, where he belongs and shall die for all the evil acts he had committed in his past. Tł'é'na'áí reluctantly nods and takes off with Yuē shū yà. Lü Bu then retrieved Tł'é'na'áí's hunting gun, and his Katana. As the horde charged, Lü Bu began shooting at them, taking some out with his aim, however he was soon out of bullets and forced to used his Katana as a Tarkatan slices his mates gun. Lü Bu fought valiantly managing to kill one, by decapitation, leading to a brief stoppage of the fight, as the horde stood shocked to see one of their own decapitated by a human. A voice is then heard, but Lü Bu cannot understand him as he is speaking his native tongue, the rest of the Tarkatans then let who Lü Bu concurs as their leader. The Leader then points to Lü challenging him to one-on-one combat as the rest of the Tarkatans encircle them. Realizing that the Tarkatan leader is a creature of honor, he engages in an intense battle with it. Due to his smaller size and agile reflexes, he is able to strike it several times, but the creature's strength and constitution remains too powerful to be killed from blood loss. Lü is also wounded, and is slashed across the back by the Tarkatan's blade. Realizing that he can't kill it with this method, he lunges at the Tarkatan leader in an all or nothing charge and strikes it against its Abdomen, severely wounding it. However, Lü Bu himself had also been slashed on the front of his body, and, gasps for air one lat time before he collapses and dies.
==Legacy==
Lü Bu was a major Chinese Communist military leader who was pivotal in the communist victory in the Chinese Civil War, especially in Northeastern China. Lü was the general who commanded the decisive Liaoshen and Pingjin Campaigns, co-led the Manchurian Field Army of the People's Liberation Army into Beijing, and crossed the Yangtze River. He ranked third among the Ten Marshals. Only Zhu De and Peng Dehuai were considered senior to Lü, and Lü ranked directly ahead of He Long and Liu Bocheng. By the age of 29, he had already won recognition beyond Red circles. His articles in the Chinese Reds' military magazines have been republished, studied and criticized in Nanking military journals, and also in Japan and Soviet Russia. However despite all he achieved, following Lü's apparent death in china, he was officially condemned as a traitor by the Communist Party of China. He and Jiang Qing are still considered to be the two "major Counter-revolutionary cliques" blamed by the Communist Party for the excesses of the Cultural Revolution. Due to the little inside information available to the public on what has been dubbed as the "Lü Bu incident", the exact events preceding Lü's death have been a source of speculation. According to the Chinese government, Lü Bu was made aware that Mao no longer trusted him after the 9th Central Committee, and he harbored a strong desire to seize supreme power. In February Lü and his wife, Ye Qun (who was then a Politburo member), began to plot Mao's assassination. In March, Lü's son, Liguo Bu (who was a senior Air Force officer) held a secret meeting with his closest followers at an Air Force base in Shanghai. At this meeting, Liguo and his subordinates supposedly drafted a plan to organize a coup, titled "Project 571" (in Chinese, "5-7-1" is a homophone for "armed uprising"). Later that March, the group met again to formalize the structure of command following the proposed Mao was unaware of the coup plot; and, in August, scheduled a conference for September to determine the political fate of Lü Bu. On August 15 Mao left Beijing to discuss the issue with other senior political and military leaders in southern China. On September 5, Lü received reports that Mao was preparing to purge him. On September 8, Lü gave the order to his subordinates to proceed with the coup. Lü's subordinates planned to assassinate Mao by sabotaging his train before he returned to Beijing, but Mao unexpectedly changed his route on September 11. Mao's bodyguards foiled several subsequent attempts on Mao's life, and Mao safely returned to Beijing in the evening of September 12. By failing to assassinate Mao, Lü's coup attempt failed. Realizing that Mao was now fully aware of his abortive coup, Lü's party first considered fleeing south to their base of power in Guangzhou, where they would establish an alternate 'Party headquarters' and attack armed forces loyal to Mao in cooperation with the Soviet Union. After hearing that Premier Zhou Enlai was investigating the incident, they abandoned this plan as impractical, and decided to flee to the Soviet Union instead. In the early morning of September 13, Lü Bu, Ye Qun, and Liguo Bu, attempted to flee to the Soviet Union and boarded a prearranged Trident 1-E, (a CAAC B-256) piloted by Pan Jingyin, the deputy commander of the PLAAF 34th division. The plane did not take aboard enough fuel before taking off, ran out of fuel, and crashed near Öndörkhaan in Mongolia on September 13. Everyone on board, was killed. However that description of events were not believed Internationally as the exact circumstances surrounding Lü's death remained unclear to them, due to a lack of surviving evidence. Many of the original government records relevant to Lü's death were secretly and intentionally destroyed, with the approval of the Politburo, during the brief period of Hua Guofeng's interregnum. Among the records destroyed were telephone records, meeting minutes, personal notes, and desk diaries. The records, if they had survived, would have clarified the activities of Mao, Zhou Enlai, Jiang Qing, and Wang Dongxing relative to Lü, before and after Lü's death. Because of the destruction of government documentation related to Lü's death, the Chinese government has relied on the "evidence" provided by the "confessions" of purged officials close to Lü to corroborate the official narrative, but non-Chinese scholars generally regard this "evidence" as unreliable. Ever since Lü's supposed death, scholars outside of China have been skeptical of the government's official explanation of the circumstances surrounding Lü's death. Skeptics assert that the official narrative does not sufficiently explain why Lü, one of Mao's closest supporters and one of the most successful Communist generals, would suddenly attempt a poorly planned, abortive coup. The government narrative also does not sufficiently explain how and why Lü's plane crashed. Skeptics have claimed that Lü's decision to flee to the Soviet Union was illogical, on the grounds that the United States or Taiwan would have been safer destinations. Influential Western historians critical of the Chinese government's official story have promoted the view that Lü did not have either the intention or the ability to usurp Mao's place within the government or the Party. One theory attempted to explain Lü's flight and death by observing that Lü opposed China's rapprochement with the United States, which Zhou Enlai was organizing with Mao's approval. Because the Chinese government never produced evidence to support their report that Lü was on board the plane that crashed in Mongolia, Western scholars originally doubted that Lü had died in the crash. One book, published anonymously using a Chinese pseudonym, claimed that Mao had actually had Lü and his wife killed in Beijing, and that Liguo Bu had attempted to escape by air. Other scholars suggested that Mao had ordered the Chinese army to shoot down Lü's plane over Mongolia. The Chinese government has no interest in re-evaluating its narrative on Lü Bu's death. When contacted for its comment on fresh evidence that surfaced on the Lü Bu incident after the Cold War, the Chinese Foreign Ministry stated: "China already has a clear, authoritative conclusion about the Lü Bu incident. Other foreign reports of a conjectural nature are groundless." Non-Chinese scholars interpreted China's reluctance to consider evidence that contradicts its "official" history as the result of a desire to avoid exploring any issue that may lead to criticism of Mao Zedong or a re-evaluation of the Cultural Revolution in general, which may distract China from pursuing economic growth. A six-month investigation by Western scholars examined evidence in Russia, Mongolia, mainland China, the United States, and Taiwan, and came to a number of conclusions, some of which were contrary to the official Chinese version of events. The study confirmed that Lü Bu, Ye Qun, and Liguo Bu were all killed in the crash. Lü's plane was traveling away from the Soviet Union at the time of its crash, making the exact sequence of events before Lü's death more confusing, and casting doubt on the possibility that Lü was attempting to seek asylum in the USSR. Lü's wife and son may have forced Lü to board the plane against his will. Several senior leaders within the Communist Party hierarchy knew that Lü's party would flee, but chose not to attempt to stop their flight. According to this study, Lü had attempted to contact the Kuomintang in Taiwan on two separate occasions shortly before his death. The findings of Lü's attempt to contact the Kuomintang supported earlier rumors from inside China that Lü was secretly negotiating with Chiang's government in order to restore the Kuomintang government in mainland China in return for a high position in the new government. The claims of Lü's contact with the Kuomintang have never been formally confirmed nor denied by either the governments in Beijing or Taipei. The eyewitness account of Zhang Ning, who was Liguo Bu's fiancee before his death, and another witness who requested anonymity, indicate a sequence of events different from the official narrative. According to Zhang, Lü Bu had become extremely passive and inactive. When Liguo Bu informed Ye Qun that Mao was preparing to strip Ye of her Politburo seat, the two became convinced that their family would be purged if they failed to act, and developed a plan to escape. At 10 o'clock the night before Lü's party fled, Ye Qun announced that the family would board a plane at 7 the next morning to fly to Guangzhou. Lü's 27-year-old daughter, Lü Liheng (known by the nickname "Doudou") opposed the escape plan, and contacted Lü's bodyguards to request that they guard her father from Ye. Doudou then phoned Zhou Enlai, but was not able to contact him directly, and Zhou only received Doudou's report second-hand. Zhou received Doudou's message shortly after Doudou's phone call, directly from the general office of the Central Committee responsible for guarding China's senior leaders. The message contained Doudou's warning that Ye Qun and Liguo Bu were attempting to persuade Lü Bu to flee the country using an aircraft currently being prepared at Qinhuangdao Shanhaiguan Airport. Zhou called Wu Faxian, the commander of the air force, who verified the plane's existence. Zhou then issued orders that the plane could not take off without the written permission of himself and several other senior military officials, including Wu Faxian, general chief-of-staff Huang Yongsheng, and the commander of the navy and general chief-of-staff, Li Zuopeng. At 11:30, Ye Qun called Zhou and informed him that Lü Bu was planning to fly to Dalian, and denied that they had prepared a plane at Shanhuaiguan. Zhou then told Ye to wait for him to travel to see Lü before they left Beidaihe (where they were staying), issued orders to neutralize potentially disruptive officers close to Lü (Wu Faxian and Huang Yongsheng), and ordered two planes readied in Beijing so that he could fly to Lü's residence to personally deal with the matter. Ye made an announcement that the party were to pack quickly. Two hours after Doudou contacted Zhou, soldiers had still not responded in any meaningful way. Ye and Liguo Bu woke Lü Bu and packed him into a waiting limousine. The party then drove to Shanhaiguan airport, 25 miles away from their residence in Beidaihe, where their plane was waiting. Lü's bodyguards told Doudou and another companion that they were ordered to take them as well, but Doudou and her companion refused. One soldier shot at Lü's limousine as it left Beidaihe, but missed, and most soldiers that the party encountered on their way to the airport allowed the limousine to pass. According to the driver of Lü's limousine, there was no time to place mobile stairs next to the plane's entrance, so the party boarded the plane via a rope ladder. Lü Bu was so weak that he had to be lifted and pulled onto the plane. Zhang Ning observed the plane after it left the airport. Lü's plane initially traveled southeast (in the direction of Guangzhou). The plane then returned twenty minutes later and circled the airport several times as if it were trying to land, but the runway lights had been turned off. Soviet officials and Mongolian witnesses reported that the plane then flew north, over Mongolia and almost to the Soviet border, but then turned around and began flying south before it crashed. A Mongolian who witnessed the plane crash reported that the plane's tail was on fire when it crashed. None of Zhou's instructions prevented Lü's flight, and he learned that Lü's plane had taken off before he, himself, could fly to see Lü. Zhou then ordered all planes nationwide grounded without the written permission of Mao, himself, and several senior military leaders. He rushed to Zhongnanhai to brief Mao of Lü's flight, and asked Mao if he wanted to order Lü's plane shot down, but Mao replied that they should "let him go". At 8:30 PM, September 13, the Mongolian Foreign Ministry summoned the Chinese ambassador to make a formal complaint about the unauthorized entrance of a plane into Mongolian airspace, and reported to the ambassador that the plane had crashed, killing all on board. The Chinese ambassador to Mongolia then phoned Zhou Enlai, who then instructed the ambassador to tell the Mongolians that the plane had entered Mongolian airspace because it had gone off course. Mongolian investigators were the first to inspect the wreckage, arriving later the same day. They found an identity card belonging to Liguo Bu, confirming Liguo's presence on the flight. Markings on the plane and surviving miscellaneous personal items confirmed that the plane and passengers had originated from China, but the Mongolians were uncertain that any of the dead were either Lü Bu or Ye Qun. After inspecting the crash, the Mongolians buried the dead on site. Through the Chinese ambassador, Zhou requested and received permission for Chinese embassy staff to inspect the wreckage of Lü's plane, which they did on September 15–16. The staff reported to Zhou that the plane had caught fire while attempting to land, and then exploded. Zhou then sent additional staff to interview Mongolian witnesses of the crash, and to perform a detailed technical assessment of the crash. The report concluded that the plane had approximately 30 minutes of fuel when it crashed, but attempted to land without activating its landing gear or wing flaps. Later a Soviet medical team secretly traveled to the crash site and exhumed the bodies, which were by then modestly decomposed. The team removed the heads of two of the corpses suspected to be Lü Bu and Ye Qun and took them back to Russia for forensic examination. The team concluded that the heads belonged to Lü Bu and Ye Qun (the heads are still stored in Russian archives). In order to corroborate their findings the team returned to Mongolia a second time to inspect the body believed to be Lü Bu's. After exhuming the body a second time the team found that the corpse's right lung had the remains of tuberculosis, which Lü had suffered from, confirming the Soviet identification. The Soviet team were not able to determine the cause of the crash, but hypothesized that the pilot was flying low to evade radar and misjudged the plane's altitude. Judging from the fires that burnt after the plane crashed, the Soviets estimated that it had enough fuel to fly to the Soviet cities of Irkutsk or Chita. All of the work and its results were kept secret from the public: outside of the investigative team, only KGB director Yuri Andropov and Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev were informed. The report remained classified until after the end of the Cold War. In the end Lü Bu was survived by his last son Yuē shū yà, who became a legendary Movie Actor as well as an infamous Super cop for the Hong Kong Police Department. All military officials identified as being close to Lü or his family (most of China's high military command) were purged within weeks of Lü's disappearance. On September 14, Zhou announced to the Politburo that four of the highest-ranking military officials in China were immediately suspended from duty and ordered to submit self-criticisms admitting their associations with Lü. This announcement was quickly followed by the arrest of ninety-three people suspected of being close to Lü, and within a month of Lü's disappearance over 1,000 senior Chinese military officials were purged. The official purge of Lü's supporters continued until it was closed by the 10th Central Committee 2 years later. The incident marked the end of the myth that Mao was always considered absolutely correct within the Party. The National Day celebrations on the year he “died” were canceled. The news of Lü's “death” was announced to all Communist Party officials in mid-October, and to the Chinese public in November. The news was publicly received with shock and confusion. Mao Zedong was especially disturbed by the incident: his health deteriorated, and he became depressed. At the end of that year, he became seriously ill; he suffered a stroke in January, received emergency medical treatment, and his health remained unstable. Mao became nostalgic about some of his revolutionary comrades whose purging Lü had supported, and backed Zhou's efforts to conduct a widespread rehabilitation of veteran revolutionaries, and to correct some of the excesses of the Cultural Revolution (which he blamed on Lü). In the aftermath of the purge of Lü's supporters, Zhou Enlai replaced Lü as the second most powerful man in China, and Jiang Qing and her followers were never able to displace him. Without the support of Lü, Jiang was unable to prevent Zhou's efforts to improve China's relationship with the United States, or to rehabilitate cadres who had been purged during the Cultural Revolution. The clause in the Party constitution indicating that Lü was Mao's successor was not officially amended until the 10th Central Committee 2 years after his “death”. The position of the Chinese government on Lü and the circumstances of his death changed several times over the decade. For over a year, the Party first attempted to cover up the details of Lü's death. The government then began to issue partial details of the event, followed by an anti-Lü Bu propaganda campaign. After Mao's death, 5 years later, the government confirmed its condemnation of Lü and generally ceased any dialogue concerning Lü's place in history. Throughout the decade, high-ranking leaders of the Chinese Communist Party, including Hua Guofeng, spread the story to foreign delegates that Lü had conspired with the KGB to assassinate Mao. Jiang Qing, Mao's fourth wife and a former political ally of Lü's, started the Criticize Lü, Criticize Confucius campaign, aimed at using Lü's scarred image to attack Zhou Enlai. Much of this propaganda campaign involved the creative falsification of history, including (false) details about how Lü had opposed Mao's leadership and tactics throughout his career. Lü's name became involved in Jiang's propaganda campaign after flashcards, made by Ye Qun to record Lü's thoughts, were discovered in Lü's residence following his death. Some of these flashcards recorded opinions critical of Mao. According to Lü's writings, Mao "will fabricate 'your' opinion first, then he will change 'your' opinion - which is not actually yours, but his fabrication. I should be careful of this standard trick." Another critical comment of Lü's states that Mao "worships himself and has a blind faith in himself. He worships himself to such an extent that all accomplishments are attributed to him, but all mistakes are made by others". Lü's private criticisms of Mao were directly contradictory of the public image cultivated by Lü, who publicly stated following the Great Leap Forward that all mistakes of the past were the result of deviating from Mao's instructions. Like many major proponents of the Cultural Revolution, Lü's image was manipulated after Mao's death and many negative aspects of the Cultural Revolution were blamed on Lü. Those in power also blamed Mao's supporters, the so-called Gang of Four. The Chinese government held a series of "special trials" to identify those most responsible for the Cultural Revolution. The government released their verdict: that Lü Bu must be held, along with Jiang Qing, as one of the two major "counter-revolutionary cliques" responsible for the excesses. According to the official Party verdict, Lü and Jiang were singled out for blame because they led intra-Party cliques which took advantage of Mao's "mistakes" to advance their own political goals, engaging in "criminal activity" for their own self-benefit. Among the "crimes" he was charged with was the ouster of China's head of state, Liu Shaoqi, in which Lü was found to have used "false evidence" to orchestrate a "political frame-up" of Liu. Lü has been officially remembered as one of the greatest villains of modern China since then. Lü was never politically rehabilitated, so the charges against him continue to stand. For several decades, Lü's name and image were censored within China, but in recent years a balanced image of Lü has reappeared in popular culture: surviving aides and family members have published memoirs about their experience with Lü; scholars have explored most surviving evidence relevant to his life and death, and have gained exposure within the official Chinese media; movies have made reference to Lü; and, Lü's name has re-appeared in Chinese history textbooks, recognizing his contributions to the victory of the Red Army. Within modern China, Lü is regarded as one of the Red Army's best military strategists. A portrait of Lü was added to the Chinese Military Museum in Beijing, included in a display of the "Ten Marshals", a group considered to be the founders of China's armed forces. Solidifying Lü among the greatest Chinese warriors/soldiers.