1950s
In 1950, he was appointed CPC 1st Secretary and Mayor of Chongqing, Sichuan. He was also the commander of PLA's at East Sichuan region and a member of the Southwest Military Administrative Committee, under the leadership of Deng Xiaoping, He Long and Liu Bocheng. He was then assigned as commander of the entire PLA Artillery Corps and president of the Artillery Academy.
In 1955, Chen was assigned the rank of general, and the following year made an Alternate Member of the CPC Central Committee. In 1958, the PLA opened up a massive and sustained artillery barrage against the Nationalist-held island of Quemoy (Jinmen). General Chen was likely in direct command of the failed 400-piece cannonade.
The purge of Peng Dehuai in 1959 brought down two of his key allies as well: Chief-of-Staff Huang Kecheng and Shenyang MR Commander Deng Hua. Chen Xilian was send to Manchuria to take over from General Deng in one of the most sensitive regions of the Sino-Soviet border. He served in the post until 1973; his deputy was his old comrade in arms, Zeng Shaoshan.
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