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第六十三军军长刘栋材

刘栋材，字道中，广西桂平人，生于1898年。刘 栋材毕业于黄埔军校长沙分校步科，作为广西人的他在军校毕业之后选择的是在粤军服务。资历尚浅的刘栋材，起初在部队中并没有明显的派系之分，即便是在派系 林立的粤系军队中，他也是随波逐流的跟着部队跑，一直到了余汉谋掌权时，刘栋材才正式投入了余的麾下，并得到了发展。

还是团附的刘栋材参加 过南京保卫战，他所在的团队和日军打的所剩无几。就在刘栋材准备殉国的时候，部队接到了突围的命令。根据命令，刘栋材所在的160师得从日军正面突围。要 完成这个突围任务，就必须以一部对日军发起佯攻，以吸引日军主力的注意，这样才能使160师的主力乘机突围出去。明眼人一看就知道，这个任务就是个自杀性 任务。人家避之不及，刘栋材到是主动站出来承担这个任务。在他的指挥下，一个营的英雄向日军发起了有去无回攻击，成功的掩护了大部队的突围。或许是老天对 于刘栋材的英勇行为所感动，刘栋材竟然奇迹般的在完成任务后归了队，于是他被提拔为上校团长了。

桂南会战的时候，作为第160师少将步兵指 挥官的刘栋材奉命随部向甘棠方向的迂回日军发起进攻。根据刘栋材的战地侦察，他主张部队应该从左侧袭击迂回的日军，在控制日军的后路后，利用地形一举突入 日军指挥部和炮兵阵地，随后与据守山口的友军合力夹击，可挫败日军的攻势。遗憾的是这一主张没能被66军军长陈骥采纳。结果由于陈骥的由于不决，66军反 遭迂回日军的重创。事后陈骥被撤职，66军番号也被撤消，刘栋材却因为提出了合理的作战策略，被提拔为157师副师长，后来又以战功先后担任157师师长 和158师师长。

抗战胜利时，158师被裁编，这使刘栋材一度失业。好在有余汉谋的照顾，刘栋材被保送到陆军大学将官班乙级第三期深造，毕 业后派任第62军副军长兼罗云师管区司令。这一职务使他一直在广东，避开了62军在天津覆灭的厄运。同时，也因为他是师管区司令，手中有大量的新兵，这就 给他成为了在徐蚌战场覆灭后重建的63军军长创造了条件。

刘栋材虽然当上了军长，但他对于党国的前途已经不抱希望。甚至在当上军长同时，他 第一件做的事就是把家眷安置到香港，对于部队的训练事宜全部交给了副手和两个师长来分别负责。到了解放军攻入广东时，刘栋材的63军被安排为二线兵团，在 德庆、高要地区集结。这使得63军在解放军的初期攻势中没有遭到损失。然而当63军应该派上用场的时候，刘栋材却带着63军一路南撤，放弃了德庆、高要， 在退无可退的情况下，才在云浮和解放军交了次手，但却马上带着主力跑到了钦州。

在钦州，刘栋材奉命率部撤往海南崖县。但是刘栋材在这个时候选择了离队，他在将部队交给了副军长郭永镳后，带着几名亲信去了香港，就此脱离是非之地以避开内战。1977年8月，刘栋材在香港因病去世。

Lau Tung Choi ( Lau: family name of the Han Dynasty, Tung Choi together means Supportive Pillar Materials for a Great Building.), aka Dol Chung (the two words together means: Taking the Middle Way.) was born in 1898. Lau graduated from Hwang Po Military Academy at Cheung Sha. His major of study was in Infantry. At the beginning of his career, as a Kwang Si Province resident hoping to serve in the Cantonese military blocs after his graduation, he had not provided himself with a clear enough identity as to what faction he would eventually belong to. Even though he would be serving in the extremely factionalized Cantonese military bloc, he was just moving along with the trend, without pledging allegiance to any power house in particular. This would continue until the reign of  the 5 starred General Yu Han Mou, to whom Lau had officially pledged his loyalty, thereby gaining the former’s trust and support, giving the younger warrior an opportunity to rise in the army.

When he was still a Lieutenant Colonel, Lau Tung Choi took part in the famous Battle for the Protection of Nan Jing. Nan Jing was the capital of the Kuomintang regime at that time. In this major battle, the fighting unit where Lau belonged had been largely decimated in number by the considerably better equipped Japanese army. As Lau was prepared for his last stand, his combat unit suddenly received an order to break out from the horrific Japanese Siege which the 169th Division was subject to. According to the new plan, Lau’s fighting brigade within the 160th Division was given the impossible task of confronting the Japanese troops and stirring up trouble for them. To accomplish this, an elite group would have to feign frontal attack on the enemy formation in order to engage and divide their attentions. Such a disruption would enable the main body of the 160th Division to break out, and eventually escape successfully. Anyone familiar with military strategy would immediately sense the doom implied therein: it was a mission impossible,–a suicidal task at best. For that reason, everyone in his unit became very quiet and tried their best to avoid being drafted for the task. Lau, however, stood up solemnly and declared his willingness for the task! Under his command, a heroic squadron would pursue their mission of no return by attacking the Japanese troops aiming at providing cover for the main body of the 160th Division in their escape attempt. Miraculously, not only had the division successfully broken out of the siege, Lau was also able to survive the extreme dangers of the insurgence. He finally managed to re-group with his division and report to his superiors. Lau was promoted to be a full Colonel for his bravery and the success of his actions in the siege breaking.

During the massive Campaign of Southern Kwei, Lau Tung Choi, a Brigadier General commanding the infantry of the 160th Division, received the order to engage the snaking pattern of the Japanese movements at Kim Tong. After studious observation of the local terrains, Lau had come up with a plan of ambushing the left flank of the enemy formation. He also suggested that the exit of the would-be retreating enemies should be heavily guarded, thereby cutting off the escape route of the Japanese. Finally, an assault on the Japanese command post as well as their nearby artillery installations should be launched after all the aforesaid preparations were in place. Since the escape route of the Japanese had been cut off, the Japanese army would find itself sandwiched in the mountains and a major blow could be dealt them when they were thus cornered. Unfortunately, the plan was aborted by the commander of the Sixty-sixth Army, Chan Kei. Because of Chan’s further indiscretions, the Sixty-sixth Army became severely beaten by the Japanese snaking assault. After that battle, Chan Kei was dismissed, even the army number of 66 was dismantled. On the other hand, since Lau Tung Choi had provided a pretty remarkable attack strategy, he was promoted to be the Lieutenant Commander of the 157th Division. Later he would ascend the military rungs to become the commander of the 157th and 158th Division, owing to multiple victories at the battlefields.

After the final victory of the Japanese Resistance War,– at the conclusion of the Second World War,158th Division met the fate of Defense budget cut-back and deletion. Lau had briefly become unemployed. Fortunately for him, his old boss, the 5- starred General Yu Han Mou had come to his rescue and paved the way for him to further his study at the Army’s Military University. He would be studying in class B of Phase 3 Officers’ Class at the Army’s Military University. After his graduation from the university, he was assigned the important post of Lieutenant Commander of the 62th Army, as well as Commander-in-Chief of the Lo Wan Military Governing District. That employment had allowed him to escape the brutal annihilation of the 62nd Army in Tientsin. At the same time, because of his ongoing effort in the recruitment for new troops ( In China, it is maintained that “quality iron is not used for making nails, and quality young men are no materials for the military!– so one may imagine how difficult it was to recruit young people with ideals to sacrifice for their country!) Lau was able to rebuild the badly mutilated 63rd Army after the Total Campaign at Tsui Pong. He eventually became the commander of the new 63rd army, rebuilt from scratch by him. At that time, Lau Tung Choi had already grown pessimistic about the future of the Kuomintang regime. Around the time of his inauguration as Commander of the 63rd Army, one of the first things he did was send his family to live in Hong Kong, then a British Colony in China. The task of troop drilling was delegated to his attending associates as well as the two Divisional Commanders in his army. When the People’s Liberation Army entered Canton, Lau’s 63rd Army was assigned to a secondary line of defense, and they were due to join force at Tak Hing and Ko Yiu area. This arrangement had allowed the 63rd Army to escape significant damage at the early stages of onslaughts by the People’s Liberation Armies. Nevertheless, when the 63rd Army was supposed to encounter its Communist counterparts in a show-down battle, Lau Tung Choi led his troop instead in retreat to the south, thus giving up Tak Hing and Ko Yiu. The army had only been involved in some minor skirmishes with the PLA at Wan Fou under strenuous circumstances. Eventually he managed to take the bulk of his force in retreat to Yum Chau. Then Lau received the order to take his troop further to Ngai Yuen, Hai Nan Island. It was at this time that Lau had decided to leave the army for good. After he had passed on the control of his troop to his lieutenants, one Kwok Wing Hung, Lau took a boat to Hong Kong with a small entourage, thus avoiding deeper involvement in the deadly internecine blood feuds of the Civil War of China.

Lau Tung Choi died in Hong Kong in August 1977.

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GENERAL LAU TUNG CHOI IS THE FATHER OF THE ALPHA SEER, AKA BEN LAU