The soil of Chaling is crimson, dyed red by the blood of more than 30,000 revolutionary masses killed and over 5,000 revolutionary martyrs. This land of Chaling is sacred. It bears the glorious footprints of older-generation revolutionaries including Mao Zedong, Zhu De, Chen Yi, Peng Dehuai, Tan Zhenlin and Mao Zetan, and nurtured a large contingent of outstanding talents such as Tan Jiashu, Liu Daosheng, Zhou Renjie, Liu Zhuanlian and Liu Peishan.

Boasting a long history, Chaling exerted considerable influence on China’s modern revolutionary history. During the First Revolutionary Civil War, the peasant movement swept across the whole county. In the era of the Second Revolutionary Civil War, as one of the six counties of the Jinggangshan Revolutionary Base Area, the birthplace of China’s first county-level Workers’, Peasants’ and Soldiers’ Government, and a key model county of the Hunan-Jiangxi Provincial Soviet Area, Chaling has left an indelible mark in history. Older-generation proletarian revolutionaries represented by Mao Zedong and Zhu De waged arduous battles on this land to turn the tide of the revolution.

Throughout the prolonged revolutionary struggles, the people of Chaling, known as the "Chaling Oxen" for their perseverance and fortitude, fought dauntlessly and shed blood one after another under the leadership of the Communist Party of China, staging countless magnificent historical epics. During the New Democratic Revolution, more than 30,000 local residents sacrificed their lives for the revolutionary cause, accounting for one-seventh of the county’s total population at that time. Among them, 5,270 were officially recognized and registered as revolutionary martyrs after liberation, ranking third in number among all counties and county-level cities in Hunan Province.

From 1955 to 1964, 25 natives of Chaling were conferred general ranks by the Central Military Commission, including 5 Lieutenant Generals and 20 Major Generals. In terms of the total number of generals, Chaling ranks 12th nationwide, third in Hunan Province and first in Zhuzhou City, earning it the well-deserved reputation as the "Hometown of Generals