Wang Bingzhang (; 14 January 1914 – 25 September 2005) was a Chinese Communist revolutionary and a founding lieutenant general of the People's Liberation Army (PLA). He joined the Northwest Army of the warlord Feng Yuxiang in 1929, before participating in the Ningdu uprising and defecting to the Communist Red Army in 1931. He fought in the Red Army's Long March, the Second Sino-Japanese War where he was credited with devising a trench warfare tactic that helped destroy enemy pillboxes, and the Chinese Civil War.
After the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, Wang served as the first chief of staff of the PLA Air Force and then the first Minister of the Seventh Ministry of Machine Building, in charge of China's ballistic missile program. During the Cultural Revolution, he replaced Marshall Nie Rongzhen as the acting director of the Science and Technology Commission of the National Defense Ministry, in charge of China's nuclear tests and the launch of its first satellite. However, in the aftermath of Marshall Lin Biao's alleged coup attempt and subsequent death in October 1971, Wang was purged and imprisoned for ten years. He was released in 1981 and discharged from the army without being prosecuted or convicted of a crime.
Early life and Guominjun
Wang Bingzhang was born on 14 January 1914 into a peasant family in Anyang, Henan Province. Owing to poverty, he dropped out of school second year in junior high school and apprenticed at a blacksmith's shop.
In September 1929, Wang enlisted in the Guominjun (Northwest Army) of the warlord Feng Yuxiang and trained as a radio operator. After Chiang Kai-shek defeated Feng in the Central Plains War in 1930, Chiang took over the Guominjun, reorganized it as the 26th Route Army, and dispatched it to Jiangxi to participate in the third encirclement campaign against the Jiangxi Soviet. On 14 December 1931, the 26th Army rebelled against Chiang in the Ningdu uprising and defected to the Chinese Red Army. It became the Fifth Army Group of the Red Army, greatly strengthening the Communist forces. Wang joined the Communist Youth League in 1932 and the Communist Party in 1935. He served in the Fifth and later the First Army Group of the Red Army, and participated in the army's Long March to Northern Shaanxi.
Second Sino-Japanese War
During the Second Sino-Japanese War, Wang served in the 115th Division of the Eighth Route Army commanded by Lin Biao, and fought in the battles of Pingxingguan, Guangyang, Wucheng, and Jinggou. In 1939 his division was deployed in Shandong to set up a guerrilla base in the Japanese-occupied province. After September 1940, he became acting commander of the Third Brigade and then commander of the Fourth Brigade in charge of the 11th military subdistrict.
In December 1942, Wang was appointed commander of the Fourth Brigade and of the Communist base in Huxi (), located southwest of Shandong. The area was under frequent attacks from the Japanese, the pro-Japanese Wang Jingwei regime, and the Kuomintang forces. Wang devised the jiaotonghao () tactic using a network of interconnected trenches from which to attack the enemies' pillbox system. In the "Anti-Pillbox Battle" in July 1943, Wang's brigade, by using his tactic, reportedly inflicted nearly 10,000 enemy casualties while losing around 100 men. Mao Zedong later personally praised Wang for his performance in Shandong. In late 1944, Wang led three regiments of the Eighth Route Army south to support the New Fourth Army. He made a report on his trench tactic, which was circulated by the Fourth Division of the New Fourth Army as a booklet titled Jiaotonghao Attacks (). Zhang Zhen, chief of staff of the Fourth Division, wrote its preface and praised jiaotonghao as an innovative and effective tactic.
Chinese Civil War
The Second Sino-Japanese War ended with the surrender of Japan in 1945; Civil War soon resumed between the Kuomintang and the Communists. During the war, Wang successively served as deputy commander and chief of staff of the Hebei-Shandong-Henan Military District, commander of the district, commander of the 11th Column, and commander of the 17th Corps of the Second Field Army, participating in many battles including the Huaihai Campaign and the Yangtze River Crossing Campaign. His anti-pillbox jiaotonghao tactic was widely propagated in the People's Liberation Army (PLA) and was credited with helping the PLA win many battles, including the sieges of Yixian and Jinzhou in the Liaoshen Campaign, the battles against Huang Baitao, Huang Wei, and Du Yuming in the Huaihai Campaign, and the Battle of Tianjin in the Pingjin Campaign.