In 1991, Zheng Dongguo died of illness in Beijing at the age of 88. After his death, his ashes were buried in the Babaoshan Revolutionary Cemetery. In 2006, according to Mr. Zheng Lao's last wishes, his ashes were moved to his hometown of Shimen and buried in the southern foothills of Jiashan Mountain.
Zheng Dongguo was one of the few generals who was chased down by both sides of the strait at the same time when he died, and his performance in the War of Resistance Can be said to be tenacious and unyielding, fighting heroically, which has been appreciated by many people.
After the outbreak of the Pacific War, two divisions of the Japanese army attacked Burma through Thailand, and after capturing Rangoon, they further increased their troops in an attempt to seize the whole of Burma, and at the request of the British army in Burma, the Chinese Expeditionary Force was formed to support the British army in combat.
The first time he entered Burma to fight, Stilwell and Luo Zhuoying and Du Yuming were in a fight, Stilwell had a somewhat mean personality, talked straight to the point, so he wanted to reorganize the command structure of the expeditionary force, Chiang Kai-shek finally chose to let Chen Cheng serve as commander, set up a new 1st Army, originally to transfer Qiu Qingquan, Qiu Qingquan heard the news, they all began to prepare to learn to eat Western food, but Qiu Qingquan was also a bit grumpy, easy to have conflicts with Stilwell, and was finally rejected.
Chen Cheng did not immediately go to office at this time, but instead made a request, I can go, you have to send me a person I know well, he asked to send Huang Wei or Li Jilan or Zheng Dongguo to go, and finally chose Zheng Dongguo to go.
Zheng Dongguo can be selected, not because he has any experience, it is completely due to personality, Zheng Dongguo is a very tenacious person, and he is not really obedient to the words of the chief, but also very respectful. So let him partner with Stilwell, on the one hand, he can defend the dignity of our army, on the other hand, he can join forces with Stilwell to defeat the enemy army.
Stilwell was an American, in the environment at that time, they felt that their business level was not low, as long as there were troops who could command and defeat the enemy, defeating the enemy army was very arbitrary, Stilwell constantly reduced the rights of Zheng Dongguo, the American liaison officer could directly mobilize the troops below the battalion to train, but at that time, the expeditionary force was in Langa, they helped to train, the food and bullet consumption were much better than the domestic training, Zheng Dongguo was therefore patient on small issues, but did not compromise in the big aspects.
In 1943, Stilwell removed the deputy chief of staff of the headquarters without authorization, a move that triggered a collective backlash among the generals, and Zheng Dongguo also argued on the basis of reason, and eventually both sides took a step back, and the original deputy chief of staff returned to China, but Chiang Kai-shek still reappointed a new one.
Subsequently, the war continued to expand, and the rights of Zheng Dongguo also expanded, and the two sides cooperated friendlyly, and finally the expeditionary force triumphantly returned home.
After the outbreak of the civil war, Du Yuming was treated in Beiping due to illness, and Zheng Dongguo flew to the northeast to manage military affairs instead of him, but with the changes in the war situation, Zheng Dongguo, as a professional soldier, was already able to judge the situation, felt disappointed, and wanted to leave the northeast and leave the civil war by taking advantage of the illness. However, he was entrusted, and Zheng Dongguo proposed to evacuate Changchun, but Chiang Kai-shek, in order to alleviate the military pressure on the Jinzhou side and contain the pace of our army moving south, kept asking Zheng Dongguo that he stick to Changchun.
In the end, Zheng Dongguo chose to continue to be appointed, which can also confirm his character, is a very tough person, knowing the results he left behind, but still chose to convince himself to reach Changchun to take office. After taking office, he later recalled that "it was the most painful day of his life."
At that time, Changchun was already surrounded by our army on all sides, and in order to hold on, the nationalist army began to loot grain on a large scale, and some people appeared to eat lees and bean cakes in order to fill their hunger. The food of the nationalist army was always very sufficient, until our army entered the city and still found that there was still a lot of food for the nationalist army, but there were already many starving people outside.
Zheng Dongguo wanted to take advantage of the main force of our army to besiege Jinzhou and lead his troops to break through, but ultimately failed. The commander of the 60th Army under him, Zeng Zesheng is a general of the Dian clan, unlike Zheng Dongguo, he accepted Lu Han's request, looking for a time to prepare for the uprising, at this time there was no hope for a breakthrough, the only outcome of the stubbornness was to be destroyed, which made many Kuomintang generals begin to have ideas, Zeng Zesheng then led the army to revolt, which disrupted Zheng Dongguo's plan, but Zheng Dongguo still chose to stick to the central bank building, wanted to preserve the integrity of the soldiers, and wanted to commit suicide, but his men hid his gun and also held him hostage and chose to surrender.
In front of the central building, Zheng Dongguo handed over a suitcase handed over by the Japanese army after the surrender to Shi Jing, chief of staff of the First Regiment of the Independent Ninth Division of the Northeast People's Liberation Army, and told him to poison it and not to break it. Afterwards, Shi Jing learned that this was a germ weapon, and Zheng Dongguo did not listen to Chiang Kai-shek's use of it to break through.
Since then, after leaving the northeast, Zheng Dongguo has never set foot in the northeast again, nor has he ever been to Changchun. His grandson Zheng Jianbang had studied in the northeast, and some people had hoped that Zheng Jianbang would persuade Zheng Dongguo, but Zheng Dongguo refused, he could not face the scene he had created in Changchun, and felt ashamed of the people of Changchun, so he never went to the northeast again.