On October 1, 1949, Liu Bocheng, as one of the founders of the People's Liberation Army of China, stood together with Mao Zedong, Zhu De, and other national leaders on the Tian'anmen rostrum to attend the grand founding ceremony of the People's Republic of China. Though he was in Beijing, faraway Southwest China, which was still under the Kuomintang (KMT) rule, was on his mind.

Comrade Liu Bocheng Memorial Hall at Kaizhou District of Chongqing. (iChongqing file photo)

On November 30, 1949, two months after the founding ceremony, Liu Bocheng and Deng Xiaoping led the troops to advance on Chongqing and liberated the city, opening a new page for the strategically located city in Southwest China.

Major General Liu Meng, a son of Liu Bocheng, said that advancing on Chongqing is a crucial step for liberating Southwest China.

When the People's Republic of China was first founded, Southwest China was still under the rule of the KMT.

According to Liu Meng, during the Great Revolution period, Liu Bocheng was the commissioner of the KMT–the Communist Party of China (CPC) coalition in Sichuan and the commander-in-chief of all revolutionary forces in Sichuan. Therefore, his political choices would have a great influence on the landscape in Southwest China.

On November 21, 1949, Liu Bocheng and Deng Xiaoping jointly put forward the "Four Pieces of Advice" to all the KMT military and political circles in Sichuan, Yunnan, Guizhou, and Xikang provinces and urged them to accept the "Eight Regulations" by the People's Liberation Army.

Against this backdrop, large uprisings broke out successively in Sichuan Army, Yunnan Army, and others within only ten days after Chongqing's liberation, bringing a complete change to the situation in Southwest China.

"My father was born at Kaizhou District in Chongqing," said Liu Meng. “It was also in Chongqing that he made up his mind to participate in the great revolutionary cause. So there is a strong connection between him and Chongqing."

As a spiritual home of Chongqing people, the People's Liberation Monument, formerly known as the Monument to the Victory of the Chinese People's War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, was completed in 1947. However, after Chongqing's liberation, people asked to change the old name.

In September 1950, with the approval of the Southwest Military and Administrative Commission, the Monument to the Victory of the War of Resistance was renamed the People's Liberation Monument.

Shortly after that, Liu Bocheng, the then Chairman of the Southwest Military and Administrative Commission, wrote the inscription in person, which has become one of the best memorials to the Chinese people's liberation.