Young Ye Jianying (left), Ye in 1949. [Photo/IC; File photo]

Ye Jianying

As one the Ten Marshals of China, Ye Jianying was born on April 28 in 1897 in Guangdong province. In 1919, Ye graduated from the Yunnan Military Academy and later joined the Kuomintang and followed Sun Yat-sen. He then joined the Communist Party in 1927 and participated in the Nanchang Uprising.

Mao Zedong once used two important officials in China to describe Ye, one is Zhuge Liang, a famous strategist and ancient scholar from the Tree Kingdoms (220-280), the other Lv Duan, an outstanding prime minister from the Song Dynasty (960-1279).