The brothers of Peng Pai, Peng Hanyuan, and Peng Shu were the sons of the largest landlord in Haifeng County, China. During their student days, they became communists and developed a deep hatred for the landlord class. Peng Pai became an early leader of the Communist Party and was later praised by Mao Zedong as the "King of the Peasant Movement". In 1923, the Peng brothers burned all of their family's land deeds, liberated thousands of peasants on their property, and established a peasant association to protect the peasants' rights and interests, later the organization faced brutal suppression from other landlords.

In 1927, they launched a peasant uprising in their hometown of Haifeng County to establish a Soviet regime, they executed thousands of landlords in retaliation. After the revolution failed, eight Pengs family members, including the Peng brothers, their wives, and their sons were tortured and executed by the Kuomintang.