In 1949, when victory in the liberation of the whole country was in sight, the Xinhua News Agency announced 43 first-class war criminals, but one of them, Wei Lihuang, suddenly wrote a letter to President Zhu asking for help, and this few words from the enemy side alarmed the great man, and even more personally gave instructions, why Wei Lihuang asked our army for help, why he chose Mr. Zhu, what kind of secrets did the contents of the letter have, why it attracted the special attention of the great man, and all these things please explore with Abo.
There are many mysteries in Wei Lihuang's life, he was once the defender of Dr. Sun Yat-sen and the "Five Tiger Generals" of Chiang Kai-shek, but at the same time he also has a lot of connections with the CCP, and there have always been many theories about his true identity, but which one is true? All this has to start from Wei Lihuang's childhood.
Wei Lihuang was born in 1897 in Hefei, Anhui Province, ranked third among several brothers, Wei Lihuang loved to learn since he was a child, he entered the private school of a large family at the age of 10, his memory was very good, he had been working very hard in learning, refusing to fall behind, and thus developed a strong character, because Wei Lihuang's eldest brother Wei Lijiong served under the revolutionary army, so in 1912 Wei Lihuang found Wei Lijiong to participate in military training, but because of age and physical reasons, he failed to do so, and in 1914 Wei Lihuang came to Wuhan At the right time, the army recruited students, so he signed up for the study barracks, where he learned the basic knowledge of the military and also received strict military training, laying a solid foundation for the future.
In 1916, Wei Lihuang defected to his cousin Song Jike
Here he met several people who held important places in his life,
Since Wu Zhongxin and Song Jike were fellow countrymen, Wei Lihuang was introduced to his side as an aide-de-camp to his entourage, and because Wu Zhongxin and Chiang Kai-shek were good classmates and good brothers, Chiang Kai-shek often came to find Song Jike, and they were all received by Wei Lihuang.
After Dr. Sun Yat-sen became the Grand Marshal, after Wu Zhongxin's introduction, Wei Lihuang entered the Grand Marshal's Mansion as a guard, because he was loyal and loyal to his duties, so Dr. Sun Yat-sen trusted him very much, and later the Grand Marshal's Office was dissolved, and Wei Lihuang was transferred to Xu Chongzhi's subordinates as a platoon leader. Because in the next few missions, Wei Lihuang was not in danger, and he was always able to successfully complete the task, so it was very appreciated by the superior, and in a garrison mission in 1921, Wei Lihuang successfully completed and was promoted to regimental commander. After the victory of the First Crusade, Mr. Sun Yat-sen also gave him a twelve-inch photo and signed a six-inch photo with the inscription "Comrade Wei Lihuang Sun Wen gift", but in 1925, Mr. Sun Yat-sen died of illness, and Wei Lihuang also felt unbearable grief.
In 1926, the National Revolutionary Army officially dispatched troops to the Northern Expedition, wei Lihuang made repeated military achievements in just two months, and in 1927 Sun Chuanfang took advantage of the April 12 counter-revolutionary coup and forcibly crossed the Yangtze River directly to Nanjing.
Chiang Kai-shek also had great trust in Wei Lihuang in the early days; after the Battles of Huang'an and other battles, the Kuomintang troops shirked their defeat and did not move, and Chiang Kai-shek did not find a brave man under his heavy rewards; later, Wei Lihuang was ordered to go to the front line and also took advantage of the false occupation of Jinjiazhai, the center of the Soviet region, and Chiang Kai-shek was also very happy to personally go to offer condolences.
However, when Chiang Kai-shek later transferred Wei Lihuang to participate in the fifth encirclement and suppression campaign, he was only appointed commander of the first column, and Wei Lihuang was extremely dissatisfied with this appointment and went so far as to directly pick a pick. In his view, "The battle is won, and it is all the credit of others." If you lose, it's all your responsibility. This made Chiang Kai-shek extremely dissatisfied and prepared to remove him from his post. However, soon after the "Fujian Revolution" began, Chiang Kai-shek still needed such a fierce general as Wei Lihuang to charge into the battlefield, and only then did he appoint him as the commander-in-chief of the Fifth Route Army; after the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japan, he annihilated more than 20,000 Japanese invaders in the Battle of Xinkou in Shanxi, and defeated the Japanese invaders.
In the later period of the Liberation War, he served as the commander-in-chief of the Kuomintang's northeast "suppression general", but no matter where the PLA fought, no matter how anxious the troops defending the city were, even if Chiang Kai-shek ordered him several times to send troops to relieve the siege, Wei Lihuang was still unmoved, and the contradiction between Chiang Kai-shek and Wei Lihuang became deeper and deeper. After that, Chiang Kai-shek issued many operational orders, and Wei Lihuang resolutely opposed their refusal to carry them out, and at this time, the generals of the Kuomintang in the northeast were all pregnant with ghosts, and their command power was sidelined, and they directly obeyed Chiang Kai-shek's orders; the People's Liberation Army followed the operational policy of the great man and marched all the way to the top to make Chiang Kai-shek dizzy, but when the People's Liberation Army was about to attack Shenyang, Chiang Kai-shek still ordered that "people are in Shenyang, and they must coexist and die with Shenyang."
Wei Lihuang sat in the army until October 30, when Chiang Kai-shek sent a plane to pick him up, and on October 31, when Shenyang was liberated, Chiang Kai-shek dismissed Wei Lihuang from his post and investigated him on the charge of "hesitating to make up his mind, losing his plane, and causing him to lose his serious town." Wei Lihuang knew that he had become a scapegoat and bore the charge of command errors for Chiang Kai-shek, so he fled to Hong Kong after hiding in Beiping for nearly a month.
With the success of the People's Liberation Army frequently circulated, the Xinhua News Agency announced 43 first-class war criminals, the first one is Chiang Kai-shek, Wei Lihuang is also one of the 43 war criminals, although he does not care about the name of this war criminal, but the mainland still has his own relatives, especially the old mother is 85 years old, now he can not return, the Kuomintang can not count on it, now who can ask who to take care of it?
Thinking of going to Wei Lihuang, he wrote a letter to President Zhu, in which he sincerely asked the People's Liberation Army to protect them from fright when passing through Hefei, but what surprised Wei Lihuang very much was that his request for help as a "first-class war criminal" alarmed the great man, and after reading it, the great man would forward this letter to Liu Deng, and personally gave instructions, "Looking forward to the Hefei County Government, protecting Wei Lihuang's family." ”
This result was unexpected by Wei Lihuang, and it is reasonable to think about it carefully, as early as the time of cooperation against Japan, Wei Lihuang and Mr. Peng, the president of Zhu Lao, had many exchanges and formed a deep friendship, and when he visited Yan'an, the great man personally received him, and he felt great admiration for the great man's mind.
After the founding of New China, Wei Lihuang was very happy, and also wrote a congratulatory telegram to Send to Beijing, Wei Lihuang firmly believed, "I am a Chinese, and I must return to New China in the future." However, the name of "war criminal" made him hesitate again, not knowing whether the party and the people could accept it, and in 1954 our party issued a call to "love the country in no particular order." After learning of Wei Lihuang's doubts, Premier Zhou also specially asked him to write a letter to inform him to come back with peace of mind.
After the big stone in his heart was put down, in 1955 Wei Lihuang went to the relevant departments and expressed his willingness to return to the mainland of the motherland at any time. On March 15, when Wei Lihuang set foot on his homeland, our party also expressed a warm welcome, and then Wei Lihuang issued a "Letter to Friends of Taiwan Compatriots." After arriving in Beijing on April 6, Premier Zhou and President Zhu personally went to the station to greet him. During this period of returning to his homeland, Wei Lihuang also held important positions and finally died in 1960.
In other words, Wei Lihuang was actually a patriotic general, but in the past few years of the Kuomintang, although he was ranked as one of the five tiger generals, he did not trust Chiang Kai-shek.