Peng Dehuai (
Peng Te-huai; ) (October 24, 1898 – November 29, 1974) was a prominent Chinese Communist military leader, and served as China's Defense Minister from 1954 to 1959. Peng was born into a poor peasant family, and received several years of primary education before his family's poverty forced him to suspend his education at the age of ten, and to work for several years as a manual laborer. When he was sixteen, Peng became a professional soldier. Over the next ten years Peng served in the armies of several Hunan-based warlord armies, raising himself from the rank of private second class to major. In 1926 Peng's forces joined the
Kuomintang, and Peng was first introduced to communism. Peng participated in the
Northern Expedition, and supported
Wang Jingwei's attempt to form a left-leaning Kuomintang government based in Wuhan. After Wang was defeated, Peng briefly rejoined
Chiang Kai-shek's forces before joining the
Chinese Communist Party, allying himself with
Mao Zedong and
Zhu De.