Lin Biao was a Chinese military commander and politician. Pivotal to the Communist victory in the Chinese Civil War, he commanded the Liaoshen and Pingjin campaigns at the head of the Manchurian Field Army, led the People's Liberation Army into Beijing, and swept the Kuomintang from the coastal provinces of Southeast China. He was ranked third among the Ten Marshals of the People's Republic of China, behind Zhu De and Peng Dehuai.