Originally named Chen. Hunan Xiangxiang County people. 1922 joined China. 1924 Entered the first phase of Huangpu Military Academy. After graduation, he stayed in school as a vice captain and company commander. Participate in quelling the rebellion of the business group and crusade against Chen Jiongming. 1926 went to study in the Soviet Union, returned to China the following year, and participated in the Nanchang Uprising as a battalion commander. Later, he went to Shanghai and did intelligence work in the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. During the Agrarian Revolutionary War, he served as the head and division commander of the 12th Division of the Fourth Army of the Chinese Workers and Peasants Red Army, the headmaster of the Red Army Infantry School, the head of the Red Army Cadre Corps, the captain of the 13th Brigade of the Shaanxi-Gansu detachment, and the division commander of the first division of the Red Army Corps. Participated in the Long March. During the period of War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, he served as the brigade commander of the 386th Brigade of the Eighth Route Army129th Division and the commander of Taiyue Column in Taiyue Military Region. During the War of Liberation, he served as commander of the Fourth Column of the Shanxi-Hebei-Shandong-Henan Field Army and commander and political commissar of the Fourth Corps of the China People's Liberation Army. After the founding of People's Republic of China (PRC), he served as deputy commander of the Southwest Military Region and commander of the Yunnan Military Region, chairman of the Yunnan Provincial People's Government, commander and political commissar of the Third Corps of Chinese people's Volunteer Army, deputy commander of Chinese people's Volunteer Army, dean and political commissar of the Military Engineering College of the China People's Liberation Army, deputy chief of staff of China people, deputy director of the National Defense Science and Technology Commission and deputy minister of national defense. 1955, he was awarded the rank of general. He is a member of the first and second national defense committees, the seventh Central Committee-designate and the eighth Central Committee.