During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, many outstanding generals appeared within the Kuomintang, such as Zhang Zizhong, Fu Zuoyi, Wang Yaowu, and others; although they were Kuomintang generals, they cooperated with our Party during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression to jointly resist the aggressors.
Not only that, but these Kuomintang generals also made the right choice during the Liberation War, such as Fu Zuoyi leading an uprising and peacefully liberating Peiping; Wang Yaowu's army defeating Jinan but escorting the people out of the city, and so on.
However, within the Kuomintang, there was such a person, who was originally a famous anti-Japanese general, who was appreciated by Bai Chongxi, but committed a heinous crime and was eventually shot.
He is Li Benyi.
As for why Li Benyi had such an ending, it should be said that he entered the Kuomintang army and was appreciated by Bai Chongxi.
His family was poor and he aspired to join the army
Li Benyi was born into a poor family in Rong County, Guangxi Province, to peasant parents. In that feudal era, peasants were often exploited by landlords, and Li Ben's family was no exception. The poverty in his family led to Li Benyi not going to school, but the oppressive life made him think of rebellion.
After that, as soon as Li Ben saw that his family who was a soldier would not be bullied, he decided to join the army and become a soldier, so that his parents would no longer be bullied.
In 1920, at the age of 18, Li Benyi left his parents, left his hometown, joined the National Revolutionary Army, and began his military career. It is said that after Li Benyi entered the army, because he was illiterate and afraid that others would look down on him, he would often practice calligraphy after training and would borrow books from his superiors to browse.
He was a pioneer and brave in battle, and was appreciated by Bai Chongxi
Li Benyi did not learn more formal military knowledge, so he was like a "stunned young man" on the battlefield, he was a pioneer, brave in battle, and when the troops launched a charge, he was always in the forefront. It is also this that has made him a great achievement.
It is said that during the battle, Li Benyi's ring finger, middle finger and little finger of his right hand were broken, and his body was covered with bullet marks, which shows how "lifeless" Li Benyi was during the battle. After that, he gained a reputation in the military as a "dead beater".
However, these are all signs of Li Benyi's promotion, every time he is injured, it represents a promotion, and gradually, he appears in the sight of Bai Chongxi, the leader of the new Gui clan. Bai Chongxi greatly appreciated Li Benyi, a fierce general, but his cultural level was not high, so Bai Chongxi decided to send him to the Nanning Military Academy for further study.
Participate in the Battle of Songhu and stick to Jiaxing
After graduating from the military academy, Li Benyi was successively appointed by Bai Chongxi as the colonel of the 171st Division of the National Revolutionary Army, the commander of the 138th Division of the 48th Army, and the commander of the 10th Column of the Edong Guerrilla Force in the Fifth Theater.
In 1937, the Battle of Songhu broke out. Li Benyi was then the commander of the 1026th Regiment of the 513th Brigade of the 171st Division, and he was ordered to lead his troops to participate in the Battle of Songhu. Fortunately, however, his team was not assigned as a vanguard, but as a reserve force, it was only set to the battlefield later in the campaign.
Li Benyi received the order to escort the safe withdrawal of the main force, the 7th Army. Li Benyi led the officers and men of the whole regiment to hold on to Jiaxing, vowing not to retreat, and almost the entire army was destroyed. In the end, when there were only more than 200 people left in the regiment, he finally received an order from his superiors to retreat, and Li Benyi took the remaining hundreds of soldiers to swim across the Fuchun River to return to the army.
And this deed of his was still praised by officials within the Kuomintang until decades later, and he also deserved the title of a famous anti-Japanese general.
The famous anti-Japanese general, who committed a heinous crime, was shot
However, although Li Benyi was a famous anti-Japanese general, his warlord atmosphere was too heavy, and he had always been ill-hearted about the New Fourth Army and the Eighth Route Army. During the period of cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Communists, not only did they not cooperate with our army, but even openly wreaked havoc behind our army's back, and not only that, Li Benyi also maimed more than 30,000 innocent people, but Bai Chongxi did not punish him in the slightest.
After the end of the Liberation War, Li Benyi was arrested by our army. On August 24, 1951, after a public trial, the Anhui North People's Court in Anhui Province sentenced Li Ben to death on the charge of "maiming 30,000 people" and executed him immediately. In this way, Li Benyi paid the price of his life for the heinous crime he had committed.