"To Mr. Wei Junru: The telegram was received on March 16, and Mr. Wei Junru was very welcome to return to China, looking forward to coming to Beijing at an early date, and if you are interested, you can check the situation along the way, and it is also good to arrive in Beijing at the end of this month and the beginning of next month." One day in March 1955, an old man who had been on the run for several days and whose face was still slightly tired took the telegram handed over by others and felt a lot of emotions in his heart. At the beginning, he gave everything for the land under his feet, but it was still difficult to turn the tide. If it were not for the "blow" of this person in the Ministry of Power Generation to himself, it is still unknown whether he would have survived to this day. Now, I have finally returned, and I can finally contribute my share in the vast new world.
This person is the famous Wei Lihuang, an uncompromising anti-Japanese hero. The person who sent him the welcome telegram was Chairman Mao, the leader of New China. When the two people interacted, it is still enjoyable today.
Early life
Wei Lihuang, a native of Hefei, Anhui Province, entered the hunan governor Tang Qianming's study camp at the age of 17, and after graduation joined the Cantonese army, he performed well in the battles against Yuan Shikai and against Chen Jiongming. During this period, he was appreciated by Sun Yat-sen, the father of the country, and became a guard of the Nationalist government in Guangzhou. Under sun Yat-sen's day-to-day ear orders, Wei Lihuang had a very pure idea of the Three People's Principles.
It was Chiang Kai-shek who really brought Wei Lihuang to the forefront of history, and this also began with Wei Lihuang's marriage. Wei Lihuang once married two wives in his hometown, both of which were the result of traditional arranged marriages, and the husband and wife had no emotional basis. Later, his wife died of illness, and Wei Lihuang's sons in his hometown also died, and he could only devote himself to his career.
In 1927, the Northern Expeditionary Army conquered Nanjing, Wei Lihuang was already the commander of the 14th Division, and his subordinates forcibly occupied the school building of The Chongshi Girls' School in Zhenjiang, which caused the dissatisfaction of its principal, Zhu Yunheng. This new woman, who was educated in the Christian Church, was also a tough woman, and broke into the 14th Division headquarters alone, demanding that Wei Lihuang restrain his men and compensate for the loss of the school building. Wei Lihuang had never seen such a woman, and he was really shocked at that time, and quickly agreed to the other party's request. However, after this contact, the impression of both sides is still good. Later, they each investigated each other's backgrounds and found that the men and women were not married, and they were overjoyed. A few days later, Zhu Yunheng invited Wei Lihuang to come to the girls' school to attend a cold dinner party. In the middle of a big meal, Wei Lihuang suddenly proposed to marry Zhu Yunheng as a wife, and Zhu Yunheng also agreed without hesitation, and the two achieved a good story in this way.
Zhu Yunheng is not a simple person, her education background is deep, she once studied in the United States, and she is a classmate of Chiang Kai-shek's wife, Soong Mei Ling. After returning to China, the two still maintained contact and were considered close friends. After she married Wei Lihuang, she often praised her husband in front of Song Meiling, and Song Meiling repeatedly recommended Wei Lihuang in front of Chiang Kai-shek. Soon, Chiang Kai-shek established contact with Wei Lihuang. In the subsequent Northern Expedition, Wei Lihuang's performance was quite eye-catching, and he gradually became one of the "five tiger generals" under Chiang Kai-shek.
Frequent contacts with the Communist Party
Wei Lihuang's contacts with the Communists were really not friendly at first. In 1931, Wei Lihuang participated in the third "encirclement and suppression" of the Jinggangshan base area, and although he failed, he himself was appointed as the commander of the 14th Army and stationed in Hangzhou. The following year, Chiang Kai-shek again launched the "encirclement and suppression" of the Central Soviet Region, and Wei Lihuang became the commander of the Sixth Column and commanded the troops to occupy Jinjiazhai. Chiang Kai-shek was so pleased that he merged Jinjiazhai and several surrounding places to form a new county, named "Lihuang County". But it was also here that Wei Lihuang began to have conflicts with Chiang Kai-shek and the Kuomintang forces behind him.
Wei Lihuang's subordinates had a division commander named Jiang Fusheng, who was cruel by nature. After he entered Lihuang County, he hunted down revolutionary cadres and red army family members everywhere. In just three months, more than 900 people have been poisoned, causing public resentment to boil over. However, Jiang Fusheng was born in the first term of Huangpu, and he had the golden sign of "Tianzi Protégé", and although he violated the warlord, he still had no fear. Although Wei Lihuang eventually expelled him from the army, Chiang Kai-shek deliberately shielded him and did not punish him further. Moreover, with the deepening of the war, other senior officials of the Kuomintang competed with each other for merit, which also made Wei Lihuang very disgusted.
In 1932, Chiang Kai-shek again dispatched troops to "encircle and suppress" the Red Army, and Wei Lihuang was again requisitioned. However, this time he lost his temper and directly threw the army back to Nanjing. This incident caused an uproar, and later it was his wife Zhu Yunheng who came out of the horse and interceded with Soong Meiling, and Chiang Kai-shek did not punish him. Afterwards, when asked why he was, Wei Lihuang said, "I don't want to work with those guys who are fighting." ”
In 1936, Chiang Kai-shek ordered a heavy military tycoon, including Wei Lihuang and Chen Cheng, to gather in Xi'an and force Zhang Xueliang to "encircle and suppress" the Yan'an Red Army. At this time, the anti-Japanese cry of the whole country was getting louder and louder, and Zhang Xueliang also persuaded Chiang Kai-shek to resist Japan several times, but Chiang Kai-shek insisted on going his own way, stressing: "The bandits have not been purged and absolutely do not speak of resisting Japan." Zhang Xueliang had no choice but to launch the "Xi'an Incident" on December 12, and Chiang Kai-shek, Wei Lihuang, and others were detained. Later, the Communist Party Zhou Enlai came to Xi'an to mediate and had many long talks with Wei Lihuang. After the peaceful settlement of the incident, although Wei Lihuang's main military deployment was still aimed at the Red Army, his heart had changed.
Anti-Japanese battlefield
In 1937, the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression officially broke out, and Wei Lihuang encouraged other soldiers to say: "We are soldiers, and it is our duty to defend the country and the people." We must be ready to go to the front line of the anti-Japanese resistance at any time. At the same time, Wang Xiushen, commander of the Thirty-second Division, reported that Gao Jingting, political commissar of the Twenty-eighth Army of the Red Army, sent people to discuss peace talks. In late September, the two sides reached an agreement that the Kuomintang and the Communists would cooperate in the joint resistance against Japan, and the Nanjing side would be responsible for providing supplies such as feeding, clothing, and ammunition. The second Kuomintang-Communist cooperation was formally formed.
Wei Lihuang's performance on the anti-Japanese battlefield can only be described as "stunning". In the Battle of Xinkou in 1938, Wei Lihuang commanded 280,000 Chinese troops to resist the attack of 140,000 Japanese troops, fought back and forth, and finally annihilated more than 30,000 people on the other side; in 1943, Wei Lihuang commanded the expeditionary force to go abroad to fight, eliminated the Japanese army occupying Burma, opened the Burma Road, won the respect of the American general Stilwell, and called him "The Victorious General".
Unfortunately, while Wei Lihuang achieved outstanding results, he also suffered a lot of anger. At the Battle of Xinkou, the situation would not have gotten out of control, but Liu Zhi could not withstand the pressure and collapsed in Hebei, causing a chain reaction, causing the heavenly danger of opening the cave, and Wei Lihuang could only regretfully swallow the bitter fruit of defeat; at the Battle of Zhongtiao Mountain, many Kuomintang troops surrendered to the enemy at a critical moment, causing Wei Lihuang to lose again and lose his post as chairman of Henan Province; what is even more embarrassing is that when he commanded the expeditionary force to achieve a series of victories, Chiang Kai-shek was furious behind his back, accusing him of leading the troops to resist Japan. However, he did not regard the surveillance of Long Yun in Yunnan as the first priority, and later even withdrew Wei Lihuang's expeditionary force commander's headquarters! Wei Lihuang was angry with Chiang Kai-shek over this matter and refused to abolish the commander's office, but in the end Chiang Kai-shek dismissed him from military power.
Unlike being angry in the Kuomintang camp, Wei Lihuang found a rare warmth on the side of the Communist Party. After the victory at Pingxingguan, Wei Lihuang purchased tens of thousands of yuan of materials to give to the newly formed Eighth Route Army; during the Battle of Xinkou, the divisions of the Eighth Route Army actively cooperated in the battle, accepted Wei Lihuang's unified command, and launched operations behind enemy lines, effectively pinning down the enemy; in 1938, Wei Lihuang personally visited Yan'an, was cordially received by Chairman Mao, and also saw the tenacious will of the soldiers and people in the Liberated Areas to resist Japan;
The repeated contacts made Wei Lihuang deeply feel that the Communist Party was the party that sincerely resisted Japan and sincerely sought national liberation and national freedom. Thus, the two sides established a friendship behind them. In 1941, Chiang Kai-shek set off an anti-communist upsurge, and Wei Lihuang was passive and sluggish, and as a result, he was dismissed by Chiang Kai-shek...
Passively coping with the war of liberation
After the end of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Wei Lihuang had already sensed Chiang Kai-shek's intention to start a civil war, so he prepared to go overseas to hide. Just at this time, the US Department of Defense sent an invitation to welcome Wei Lihuang to the United States for military investigation. Wei Lihuang quickly packed up and took his wife Han Quanhua (at this time, the former wife Zhu Yunheng had died of illness), and two secretaries, and embarked on a journey to the United States together. After more than a year in the United States, he went to Europe. From 1946 to 1947, the two crucial years of the Liberation War, Wei Lihuang spent almost all of his time overseas, cleverly avoiding the dilemma of left and right.
At the beginning of 1948, Chen Cheng worked in the northeast for half a year, losing more than 100,000 people, and the land was lost more and more. This arrogant "civil engineering" big man finally admitted that he had exhausted his talents and could not hold back the situation in the northeast. Therefore, Chiang Kai-shek telegraphed Wei Lihuang to return to China and go to Shenyang to succeed Chen Cheng as the commander of the northeast "suppression general" commander.
Wei Lihuang had no interest in the civil war, and at this moment he asked him to come to the northeast to clean up a mess that was already rotten to the point where it could not be worse, which was really a bit difficult to do. Moreover, in terms of strategic command, there were huge differences between Chiang Kai-shek and Wei Lihuang. Chiang Kai-shek hoped that Wei Lihuang would form a mobile force and break the siege wherever he received an attack from the Plaster; Wei Lihuang felt that he was not strong enough, so he could only stick to the big city. He hoarded heavy troops into the city of Shenyang, and no matter how anxious elsewhere was, he did not send reinforcements. Over time, Wei Lihuang and Chiang Kai-shek had serious differences. Chiang Kai-shek later decided to let Liao Yaoxiang command the mobile corps, but Wei Lihuang refused to hand over power, and the two sides continued to fight. Later, Chiang Kai-shek had to let Fan Hanjie continue to divide the power of Wei Lihuang, and as a result, the northeast battlefield had many powers and was chaotic, until it was completely defeated in the end.
Resolutely returned home
At the last moment of the destruction of Shenyang, Chiang Kai-shek sent planes to pick up Wei Lihuang and immediately removed him from his military post. Wei Lihuang knew that he was more vicious this time, so he rented a plane from Chennault, commander of the US Air Force task force, and prepared to go to Hong Kong with his wife and children. Later, due to the secret agent's whistle-blowing, Wei Lihuang was arrested and returned to Nanjing under house arrest. In addition to the accountability for the defeat in the northeast, there was also a saying at the time that Wei Lihuang was actually a secret member of the Communist Party! If the crime is finally convicted, the famous anti-Japanese general who has made great achievements in war will face the disaster of imprisonment and even blood and light. At this moment, Chairman Mao made public the list of 43 war criminals, and Wei Lihuang was impressively listed. At this moment, it cleared Wei Lihuang of suspicion of "communism." Soon after, Wei Lihuang was released. However, at this time, the defeat of the Kuomintang on the mainland was already inevitable, and Wei Lihuang, in order to avoid the burning of jade, fled with his wife and children again, evaded the interrogation of secret agents by means of makeup, and came to Hong Kong.
In the first few months of Hong Kong, Wei Lihuang continued to "fight guerrillas" with Chiang Kai-shek, moving from a hotel to an apartment, and then from an apartment to the countryside, living back and forth in several places, and finally gradually getting rid of Chiang Kai-shek's surveillance. Soon after, two of his chiefs of staff came to him and persuaded him to go to Taiwan. From time to time, the Taiwan side also sent people to be lobbyists, or publicly summoned him in the newspapers, hoping that he would go to Taiwan. But Wei Lihuang ignored everything. Now, he no longer wants to have anything to do with Chiang Kai-shek.
On October 1, 1949, after the founding of New China, Wei Lihuang suddenly became inexplicably excited, risked being discovered, and sent a congratulatory message to Chairman Mao of the Party Central Committee. Among them: "Huang longs for sincerity, especially excited." In a word, you can see the real thoughts in his mind at that time.
However, because he was on the "list of war criminals," Wei Lihuang always had scruples in his heart, would the Communist Party really not be blamed for the past? In 1954, Premier Zhou passed on a message to Wei Lihuang through the staff: "The friend who met in Taiyuan, please ask your uncle and aunt to come back!" Wei Lihuang knew at a glance that this was the guarantee given to him by Premier Zhou. So in early 1955, Wei Lihuang and a few entourage came to Macau from Kowloon, Hong Kong, and then returned to China on a small boat personally arranged by Premier Zhou.
On the morning of March 15, Wei Lihuang and his entourage finally set foot on the land of the motherland. At four o'clock in the afternoon, a group of people came to Guangzhou, and under the arrangement of the local chief, they stayed in the hotel. Immediately, Wei Lihuang published the "Letter to Friends of Taiwan Compatriots" in major media, solemnly announcing his return. Soon after, he received a congratulatory message from the Chairman, the one at the beginning of this article.
On April 6, Wei Lihuang came to Beijing and was warmly welcomed by Chairman Mao and Premier Zhou. Since then, he has successively served as a deputy to the National People's Congress, a member of the Standing Committee of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, a member of the Standing Committee of the Central Committee of the Revolutionary Committee of the Chinese Kuomintang, and a vice chairman of the National Defense Commission, making considerable contributions to new China. In 1960, Wei Lihuang died of illness, ending his brilliant life.