In China's modern history, in addition to Chiang Kai-shek, Li Zongren was also a crucial and important figure in the Kuomintang camp. He was the leader of the Gui warlords, a famous general of the War of Resistance, the first vice president and the last president (generation) of the Republic of China, and it can be said that in terms of military strength, Li Zongren can be called the number two person of the Kuomintang.
In his early years, Li Zongren joined forces with Huang Shaohu and Bai Chongxi to defeat the old Gui clan of Lu Rongting and Shen Hongying, becoming the leader of the new Gui clan and unifying Guangxi. During the Northern Expedition, Li Zongren led the Seventh Army of more than 20,000 people to cross the provinces of Hunan, Hubei, Gansu, and Anhui, and achieved outstanding results. In 1935, at the age of 44, Li Zongren became one of the first generals in the Kuomintang Army with his strong Gui clan strength. During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Li Zongren, as the commander of the Fifth Theater, commanded the famous Battle of Taierzhuang and was recognized as a famous general of the War of Resistance.
In April 1948, Li Zongren was elected vice president of the Republic of China, and became acting president after Chiang Kai-shek "stepped into the wilderness". With the defeat of the Kuomintang, Li Zongren fled the United States.
Like his military and political resumes, Li Zongren's marriage resume is also full of legends.
Li Zongren's original wife, Li Xiuwen, married into the Li family at the age of 18 and gave birth to a son in 1918. In 1920, the Two Cantons War broke out, and the war was tense, and Li Zongren sent Li Xiuwen's mother and son to Shanghai. During this period, Li Zongren became acquainted with Guo Dejie, a girls' school student, and the two soon married. For Li Xiuwen, it was handled according to the custom of "equal wife system" in Guangxi, that is, the two wives did not live separately, and there was no distinction between each other in terms of fame and position.
However, Li Xiuwen spent very little time with Li Zongren in his life, most of the time with his son Li Youlin, and he had been wandering overseas for a long time. In December 1973, Li Xiuwen returned to Guilin to spend his old age, and died in 1992 at the age of 102. In 1964, when Li Zongren met Li Xiuwen in the United States, he said apologetically: "I used to protect you too little..."
Li Xiuwen came from a peasant family and was a traditional woman who was virtuous and filial. Guo Dejie is a new woman with a certain cultural accomplishment, she and Li Zongren have experienced war and exile together, and they have deep feelings for each other. But Guo Dejie is more fond of vanity, in 1965, when Li Zongren decided to return to the motherland, she was originally unwilling to give up the good life in the United States, but before leaving, she was found to have worsening breast cancer and did not want to die in a foreign country, so she temporarily changed her mind.
In fact, as early as 1962, Guo Dejie gave up the best opportunity to remove the tumor early for fear of affecting the body shape, and in 1965, under the persuasion of Li Zongren, Guo Dejie underwent surgery, but by this time breast cancer had spread. On March 8, 1966, eight months after returning to China, Guo Dejie died at the age of 60.
After Guo Dejie's death, Li Zongren was depressed. In order to help the patriot emerge from his grief and to take better care of his life, under the arrangement of the premier and relevant departments, in July 1966, 75-year-old Li Zongren and 27-year-old Hu Yousong held a simple wedding ceremony in Beijing.
To this day, Hu Yousong's name is still little known. However, her mother was a household name at that time, China's first film queen, Hu Die. Hu Yousong is the illegitimate daughter of Hu Die, and Hu Die gave her the name Hu Ruomei. Hu Yousong was a nurse at Beijing Fuxing Hospital at the time, beautiful, good temperament, as a medical staff, also met the conditions for caring for Li Zongren.
Hu Yousong took care of Li Zongren very meticulously and thoughtfully, and Li Zongren was also very satisfied with this considerate lady, and he wrote in the photo of the two people sent to relatives and friends: This is my wife Hu Yousong!
Unfortunately, the two lived together for only two years, and in January 1969, Li Zongren died of rectal cancer.
When Li Zongren died, he said: As a soldier, he has only shed tears twice in his life, once when his mother died, and this time he was concerned about Hu Yousong.
After Li Zongren's death, Hu Yousong has been living a life of poverty on his meager salary, and in 1995 he converted to Buddhism at The Guangji Temple in Beijing, where he died in 2008 at the Age of 69 at the Jinshan Temple on the island of Qingyun County, Dezhou, Shandong Province.