Chen Jiongming, Chiang suffered a stunning defeat, Chiang was covered with shame but refused to flee, trying to kill himself. Cheng Geng managed to take his pistol and piggy backed him for around 10km out of danger. He thus gained Chiang's confidence; however, when the Kuomintang broke ties with the Communists in 1927, Chen went underground as a Communist agent in Shanghai. In March 1933, Chen was sent to Shanghai to treat his leg wounds, but Chen was captured in Shanghai by the Kuomintang. But since he once saved Chiang Kai-shek's life, his life was spared. Chiang ordered his transfer to house arrest and does not send him to prison. Chen escaped a month later with the help of Song Qingling and other Communists. He moved to the Central Soviet Area and was appointed president of Peng Pai Yang Yin Infantry School (). From October 1934 to December 1935, he fought against the Kuomintang army in Guizhou and then in Shanxi, Shaanxi and Gansu in 1936. In February 1937 he was accepted to Counter-Japanese Military and Political University. When the Second Sino-Japanese War broke out, Chen was appointed commander-in-chief of the 386th Brigade, which he led in victories against the Imperial Japanese army, and his brigade was considered the best in China. In 1940, he led his brigade to Shanxi during Hundred Regiments Offensive. After the surrender of Japan in 1945, Chen's brigade became the 4th Column of the Shanxi-Henan-Hebei-Shandong Military District. He led his troops in important battles of the Chinese Civil War such as the Shangdang Campaign, the Datong-Puzhou Campaign, Linfen–Fushan Campaign and Lüliang Campaign, the Campaign of the eastern foothills of Funiu Mountain, and the Huaihai Campaign. The war ended and the 4th Column became the 4th Army Group, and Chen served as commander and political commissar. His troops entered Yunnan in 1949. At the request of Chen's longtime friend Hồ Chí Minh, he entered French Indochina to help Võ Nguyên Giáp launch a series of attacks on isolated French bases along the Chinese border in 1950. Back from French Indochina, he left for the Korean War and served as commander and political commissioner of the 3rd Army Group of the People's Volunteer Army. When Commander Peng Dehuai returned to China, Chen temporarily took command. He was awarded the military rank of senior general in September 1955 by Chairman Mao Zedong. His brother-in-law, Tan Zheng, who was