As we all know, before the founding of New China, many difficulties and obstacles were overcome. After the end of the Liberation War, Chiang Kai-shek fled to Taiwan, and his remnants fled to various places. Some have even fled overseas. A few years later, two senior generals who had been members of the Kuomintang returned to China.
They were Chiang Kai-shek's former subordinate Wei Lihuang and Chiang Kai-shek's "sworn enemy" Li Zongren. You know, the political positions of the Communist Party and the Kuomintang are not the same, and they have even been in a state of hostility for a long time, so why did they not follow Chiang Kai-shek but chose to return to the interior? In this regard, the central leaders also welcomed the two of them back to China.
I. Brief introduction of Wei Lihuang
Wei Lihuang was a fierce general under Chiang Kai-shek, one of the five senior generals, and a "constant victorious general" in the eyes of foreign generals, and senior generals who had intersected with him also praised Wei Lihuang and called him capable.
When Wei Lihuang was young, under the influence of his eldest brother, he read the history books and classics, laying a solid cultural foundation for his future development. When he was a teenager, he studied in the Hubei Army Cadet Barracks. After graduation, he joined the Revolutionary Party. After the failed crusade against Yuan Shikai, the "Qiuhe" ship followed Dr. Sun Yat-sen and became his escort.
During his period of following Dr. Sun Yat-sen, Wei Lihuang can be said to have benefited a lot and deepened his understanding of the democratic revolution. When attacking Duan Qirui, Wei Lihuang was bold and brave, and the momentum was like a broken bamboo, and the defeat turned into victory. When the crusade against the Gui warlords was triumphant, Dr. Sun Yat-sen gave Wei Lihuang a single photo of his own inscription for his performance.
Later, his troops were reorganized by Chiang Kai-shek, pacifying Fujian and defeating Sun Chuanfang. After the victory in the Central Plains, the Red Army was encircled and suppressed at the behest of Chiang Kai-shek, and Chiang Kai-shek also named the county party committee after him.
After the Xi'an Incident, Wei Lihuang went to Tongguan to garrison, and the Communist Party's idea of peacefully resolving the Xi'an Incident and its attitude of actively promoting unity and resistance against Japan brought Great touch to Wei Lihuang. During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the Kuomintang and the Communists cooperated for the second time, and Wei Lihuang treated both the Kuomintang and the Communist forces equally. Under pressure, the Communist army was given armaments and supplies.
Later, because during the period of the War of Resistance Against Japan, Wei Lihuang had more contacts with our party, and was taken out by those who had factional struggles with him to make a fuss, so he was dismissed by Chiang Kai-shek. In 1946, in order to avoid the civil war, Wei Lihuang went to the United States to investigate, and later traveled to various countries to investigate.
Until 1948, when he was urgently recalled to China by Chiang Kai-shek and sent to the northeast to reinforce the follow-up troops, however, no matter how Chiang Kai-shek urged and sent orders, Wei Lihuang always turned a deaf ear and refused to go to war, and the relationship between Chiang and Wei became increasingly tense, and there was a tendency to ratify the sword. After the liberation of Jinzhou, Wei Lihuang was intercepted by agents in Guangzhou and returned to Nanjing.
In January 1949, after Chiang Kai-shek left his post, Wei Lihuang took advantage of the laxity of the guards to go to Hong Kong, and on October 1, the People's Republic of China was founded. In 1955, under the careful arrangements of relevant organizations, Wei Lihuang and his wife arrived in Beijing to personally greet the great man and set up a banquet to entertain them.
2. Introduction of Li Zongren
Li Zongren joined the League in 1910, and after finishing his studies at the Army Accelerated School, he rose through the ranks, followed Lu Rongting, and later established contact with Dr. Sun Yat-sen and was introduced to the Kuomintang. After the unification of Guangxi, it became the new head.
During the Northern Expedition, a factional struggle broke out with Chiang Kai-shek, and after defeat, he was expelled from the party, and later, Li Zongren was stationed in Guangxi for a long time, confronting Chiang Kai-shek for a long time, and after the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japan, he participated in the famous Battle of Taierzhuang, and his troops annihilated more than 20,000 enemy troops. Since then, he has participated in numerous battles large and small.
After Chiang Kai-shek left his post, Li Zongren took the throne as acting president, hoping to prevent the People's Liberation Army from crossing the Yangtze River through peaceful negotiations, but was later prevented by Chiang Kai-shek. After the Kuomintang's reactionary rule was overthrown and he retreated to Guangxi, Li Zongren lost his political reliance and flew from Hong Kong to the United States in the name of medical treatment. In 1965, he returned to Beijing.
Third, the reasons for differential treatment
Curiously, the "treatment" of the two after returning to China was different, Wei Lihuang served as vice chairman of the National Defense Commission after returning to China, while Li Zongren did not hold any official position, and even, he euphemistically expressed his willingness to take up the post to the great man, but the great man politely refused. Both were former senior Kuomintang generals, what was the reason for this phenomenon?
In fact, it is not that the Party Central Committee favors one over the other and treats them differently, the main reason is because the two people's previous backgrounds are different. Although Wei Lihuang was a senior general of Chiang Kai-shek, he essentially belonged to Chiang Kai-shek's subordinates, while Li Zongren was different; although he was a senior general of the Kuomintang, he was a faction of his own, and he was in a competitive relationship with Chiang Kai-shek, and could be said to be on an equal footing with Chiang Kai-shek.
After Wei Lihuang returned to China, the country was in need of talents in this area, and in order to welcome him, it was most appropriate for the great man to give him the position of deputy state-level cadre, and Long Yun and Cheng Qian also served as deputy state-level cadres in the central government. In the past National Government, their official positions and Wei Lihuang were also at the same level.
As for Li Zongren, although he was also a senior general of the Kuomintang, he was one of the leaders of the Gui clan, a powerful warlord, holding great military power, not Chiang Kai-shek's subordinates, although on the surface Li Zongren and Wei Lihuang's official positions were the same, but in fact there was an essential gap between the two officials.
It is worth noting that during the Republic of China period, Li Zongren succeeded Chiang Kai-shek as the "acting president" for a period of time, and it is not casual to arrange official posts for him, according to his previous rank, it should be a cadre at the level of the state. Cadres at the State level are all people who have made great contributions to the founding of New China, and who have held real power, not to mention that there are very few positions, and it is difficult to convince the public to arrange such a position for Li Zongren.
Another reason is that Wei Lihuang was 58 years old when he returned to China, and he still had spare energy to contribute to the national defense construction of the motherland. Li Zongren returned to China in 1965, when he was past the age of Hua Jia and was already at retirement age, and assigning him a job may make him more than enough and insufficient.
Therefore, under the constraints of various factors, the Party Central Committee did not arrange a post for Li Zongren, but in terms of living conditions, it provided relatively high conditions, so that it not only reconciled the relations between all parties, avoided a lot of gossip, but also avoided Making Li Zongren feel bad.
summary
Before Li Zongren's death, he wrote to the great man and Premier Zhou, saying: It is a very correct decision to return to the motherland, he has never regretted it, and he also hopes that the motherland will be reunified at an early date.
Wei Lihuang and Li Zongren are both people who have made outstanding contributions to national reunification, and they also deserve to be respected, although after returning to China, one person continues to shine and one person is idle, but in other respects, there is no problem between the two.