As we all know, the Whampoa Military Academy has an important position in modern history, even some of the founding generals are also from the Whampoa Military Academy, and many founding generals have not attended the military academy, but the founding lieutenant general introduced by the author today is a failed student who applied for the Whampoa examination.
He is the founding lieutenant general Cao Lihuai, is a native of Zixing City, Hunan, born in an ordinary peasant family, his parents cut down on food and clothing for him to go to school, studied for several years, at that time the level of education was not low, in 1926, 17-year-old Cao Lihuai applied for the Whampoa Military Academy.
In the examination of the culture class, Cao Lihuai's results were good and met the requirements for entering Huangpu, but during the interview, the chief examiner saw that he was thin and short, so he politely rejected Cao Lihuai by appearance, so Cao Lihuai fell off the list and had no choice but to return home.
In 1928, Cao Lihuai participated in the Shonan Uprising led by Zhu Laozong, and then followed Zhu Laozong to Jinggangshan to become a soldier of the Red Army, because of Cao Li's culture, in January 1929, he was appointed as a clerk in the secretariat of the Red Fourth Army, staying with Zhu Laozong to work.
Under the education of Zhu Laozong, Cao Lihuai made rapid progress, he successively served as the party representative of the company, the chief of staff of the military department, the division commander, and the chief of staff of the regiment, and he participated in all the anti-encirclement and suppression battles in the Soviet region, and later on the Long March he was almost shot for offending Zhang Guotao.
After the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, he served as the chief of staff of the Left Guard Corps, assisted the commander Xiao Jinguang in guarding the Yellow River Thousand Mile Defense Line, and he also created a set of combat methods to fight the Japanese army, at that time, the Left Guard Corps had a total of about 15,000 people, and the defense line to be guarded was thousands of miles.
Relying on the natural barrier of the Yellow River, the Central Military Commission divided the river defense into three sections for the deployment of troops, and Cao Lihuai often went deep into the front line to work, especially when encountering situations, inspecting the enemy's situation and building fortifications Cao Lihuai personally came to the scene to supervise, and it was precisely in this way that the river defense could withstand the bombardment of the Japanese army.
On March 13, 1938, the Japanese army first captured Xingxian County in the northwest of Jin, and then more than 2,000 Japanese troops with more than 20 cannons tried to cross the Yellow River.
Cao Lihuai had told the soldiers in advance that if the enemy were allowed to bomb, our army would not expose the weapon configuration first, and then fight after the Japanese army crossed the river to the halfway point, so that the enemy would be in a dilemma, and after the bombing was over, the Japanese army would indeed send a team across the river.
The Japanese army crossed the river halfway, our army suddenly opened fire, the Japanese army was killed and wounded, and finally our army killed more than 140 Japanese troops, only 6 casualties, this operation against Japan laid the basic combat method of the river defense, Commander Xiao Jinguang said that he made great contributions to the defense of the border area.
Later, in the Liberation War, Cao Lihuai served as the deputy commander of the 1st Column of the Northeast Field Army and the deputy deputy commander of the 38th Army, sweeping thousands of miles to fight most of China, many Kuomintang generals from Huangpu were defeated at his hands, and he also served as the commander of the 47th Army in Siye.
In September 1949, he led his troops into Xiangxi, where he participated in the work of suppressing bandits, and in April 1951, he also led the 47th Army to participate in the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, in 1955, Cao Lihuai was awarded the rank of lieutenant general, and then served in the Air Force for a long time, and died of illness on May 19, 1998, at the age of 89.