Deng Xiaoping was thirty when the Long March began. He started the Long March under a dark cloud. He had been removed from his army and political posts. He had been held under armed guard and denounced. Zunyi changed Deng's lowly status. Deng rose up from the political depths to join Mao in the higher echelons. Denounced during the Great Cultural Revolution, he was sent to Sichuan in disgrace. There he rose to high positions and was such a success that after the fall of the "Gang of Four," he was called back to Beijing where he eventually became the number one man in China. Nothing happened without his OK.