introduction
On the evening of March 14, 1955, Wei Lihuang and his wife arrived safely in Guangzhou at 4 p.m. on the 15th via Hong Kong, Macao, and Shiqi, and on the morning of the 17th, a welcome telegram written by Chairman Mao was delivered to him:
"When the gentleman returned to China, he was very welcome, and looked forward to coming to Beijing as soon as possible. If you are interested, you can check the situation along the way, and it is also good to arrive in Beijing at the end of the month or the beginning of next month. ”
On the same day, people's daily and many other domestic media reported the news one after another, and published the "Letter to Taiwan's Friends in Robes" written by Wei Lihuang himself.
After staying in Guangzhou for about ten days, Wei Lihuang and his wife went to Hangzhou and Shanghai one after another, and arrived in Beijing by car at 9 a.m. on April 6, and when Wei Lihuang and his wife arrived at the station, Premier Zhou Enlai and Commander-in-Chief Zhu De had been waiting for a long time to extend a warm welcome to his arrival.
Who is Wei Lihuang who can be valued by Chairman Mao, Premier Zhou, Marshal Zhu De, and others at the same time?
One of Chiang Kai-shek's Five Tiger Generals, a senior general in the Nationalist Army
On February 16, 1897, Wei Lihuang was born in a small backward village in Anhui Province, his father was a small official under the Qing government, and when he was a teenager, he was sent to a private school in a neighboring village to study, and came into contact with many historical books.
After the outbreak of the Xinhai Revolution, the whole country set off a wave of ideological emancipation of democracy and republicanism, and under the influence of this, Wei Lihuang, who was only 15 years old, cut off his braids and joined the revolution. In 1914, Wei Lihuang was admitted to the Hubei Army Cadet Barracks, where he studied and lived for more than a year, during which he not only absorbed a lot of military knowledge, but also broadened his horizons. After graduation, he participated in the yuan campaign and joined the Cantonese army after his defeat.
In September 1917, Sun Yat-sen established a military government to protect the French in Guangzhou, and Wei Lihuang was elected as Sun Yat-sen's guard. Soon after, he was promoted to platoon leader of the guard platoon by virtue of his superior military qualities and command skills. In the years that followed, Wei Lihuang firmly followed Dr. Sun Yat-sen and gained a deeper understanding of the word revolution, which also made him fundamentally different from the future Kuomintang warlords.
In 1918, Wei Lihuang was ordered to be transferred to xu Chongzhi's troops of the Cantonese Army, and successively went to Guangxi, Jiangxi, and Fujian with the army.
On March 12, 1925, Sun Yat-sen died in Beijing, and in September, Chiang Kai-shek expelled Xu Chongzhi, the commander-in-chief of the Cantonese army, from Guangzhou and incorporated the Cantonese army on the spot, and Chiang Kai-shek became a figure in the Kuomintang who held military power. The Wei Lihuang Brigade was downsized to the 9th Regiment, and he served as the commander of the 9th Regiment as Major General.
During the Northern Expedition, Wei Lihuang had a proper strategy, won many victories, made military achievements, and was promoted to deputy commander of the 14th Division.
Against the background of the rapid progress of the Northern Expedition and the excellent domestic situation, in 1927, Chiang Kai-shek suddenly launched the "April 12 Counter-Revolutionary Coup" in Shanghai, wantonly slaughtering communists and revolutionary masses.
In February 1930, Chiang Kai-shek ordered to "encircle and suppress" the Red Army, in May 1932, a total of about 300,000 Kuomintang troops marched in three directions in the direction of the Eyu-Anhui Soviet District, Chiang Kai-shek ordered all columns to launch an attack on Jinjiazhai, the military and political center of the Red Army's Soviet district, and promised that whoever occupied it first would name the place after whom. Wei Lihuang became famous after this battle, and he was appointed "commander-in-chief of the suppression of bandits" and became the trump card of Chiang Kai-shek's "suppression of bandits".
Despite his fame, he was still not a concubine of Chiang Kai-shek at that time, and his ranks did not increase, nor did his army equipment improve. He served in the Kuomintang army for many years, and he was not unaware of the hook.
In 1933, Cai Yankai united with some anti-Chiang Kai-shek forces within the Kuomintang to launch the "Fujian Incident", Wei Lihuang once again turned the tide and helped Chiang Kai-shek stabilize the situation, and it was after the victory in this war that Wei Lihuang began to enter the core circle of the Kuomintang's ruling power, and in September 1936, Wei Lihuang was awarded the rank of general of the army and became the "tiger general" of Chiang Kai-shek's "five tiger generals".
The contradiction between Jiang and Wei continued to escalate, laying hidden dangers for indirectly helping the People's Liberation Army to win the Liaoshen Campaign in the future
On the surface, Wei Lihuang was one of the "Five Tiger Generals," but he was a miscellaneous army in Chiang Kai-shek's lineage, he was not surnamed "Chiang," he was not from the Whampoa Military Academy, nor was he from Zhejiang, and Chiang Kai-shek had always been suspicious. Therefore, he did not trust Wei Lihuang from the bottom of his heart, but only because he would fight, he had to reuse him.
For Wei Lihuang, he had already seen the true face of Chiang Kai-shek, and in 1927, he made great contributions to the battle to defend Nanjing, turning Nanjing into a safe situation. After the war, the Nationalist government issued him the pennant of "Party-State Cadre City", but under the interference of Chen Cheng and others, he was only promoted to one level and served as deputy commander, which also made him and Chen Cheng have a grudge, and at the same time, he scorned the corruption within the Kuomintang and the insider knowledge of the protection of officials and officials. Therefore, at the end of 1933, when Wei Lihuang was again appointed by the Kuomintang as the commander of the "suppression of bandits", he categorically refused:
"If you win the battle, the credit belongs to others, the fight is lost, the responsibility is mine, and besides, I want to work with Chen Cheng this time, and I don't want to go."
It can be seen that from the very beginning, the relationship between Jiang and Wei was very delicate. This suspicion reached its climax after the Xi'an Incident.
In the winter of 1936, Chiang Kai-shek went to Xi'an twice and mobilized troops to assemble here in an attempt to force Zhang Xueliang and Yang Hucheng to encircle and suppress the Red Army, and Wei Lihuang was ordered to lead his army to garrison Tongguan. On December 12, in order to save the nation from peril and the people from fire and water, Zhang Xueliang and Yang Hucheng launched the "Xi'an Incident" that shocked China and foreign countries, detained Chiang Kai-shek, who had come to Shaanxi to supervise the war, and demanded that he change the established national policy of "foreign countries must first be safe inside."During the period when Zhang and Yang were "military advice" to Chiang Kai-shek, Wei Lihuang and other senior Kuomintang generals were also detained.
After the Xi'an Incident, the Communist Party of China actively intervened, advocating a peaceful settlement and explicitly opposing the civil war, and then proposed to unite the anti-Japanese forces by all means, and at the same time, it also sent Zhou Enlai personally to Xi'an to promote the peaceful settlement of the Xi'an Incident. At an important juncture, the Communist Party of China put the interests of the country and the nation first and actively promoted the unity of the anti-Japanese forces throughout the country, which greatly touched Wei Lihuang, and compared with the great national righteousness of the Communist Party of China, the corruption within the Kuomintang was even more disgusting to him.
With the conclusion of the second Kuomintang-Communist cooperation, the national anti-Japanese national united front was also formally formed, and the Chinese people finally united to resist Japan. The Central Red Army in northern Shaanxi was reorganized into the Eighth Route Army of the National Revolutionary Army, and the guerrillas operating in the south were reorganized into the Fourth Army (New Fourth Army) of the National Revolutionary Army.
At the beginning of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the Eighth Route Army was once subordinate to Wei Lihuang's Fourteenth Group Army, and it was precisely this opportunity that Wei Lihuang had deeper contacts and understanding with the Communist Party, and also formed a deep friendship with the communist generals.
The Eighth Route Army was nominally under the command of Wei Lihuang, but because the Communist Party of China learned the lessons of the failure of the first Kuomintang-Communist cooperation, pursued the principle of independence and self-determination, and practiced a strategy of both alliance and struggle against the Kuomintang, the Eighth Route Army was always under the command and dispatch of our Party. However, it is undeniable that although the principle of the Eighth Route Army at that time was independence and self-reliance, in the contacts with the Kuomintang troops, it was always inevitable that some interference by its party generals would be avoided, but Wei Lihuang never directly participated in or interfered with the actions of the Eighth Route Army.
This can be confirmed from the Battle of Xinkou launched in October 1937, in which Wei Lihuang and the Eighth Route Army cooperated with each other, constantly consulted and communicated, and finally completed this large-scale battle.
Marshal Peng Dehuai once mentioned it in his self-description as follows:
The Eighteenth Group Army (i.e., the Eighth Route Army) "came under the command of Wei Lihuang, but he never commanded us," and Wei Lihuang did not interfere, seize power, or engage in "friction." He was "a resistance faction in the Kuomintang at that time."
Wei Lihuang himself has repeatedly expressed his position, saying that all anti-Japanese troops are treated equally.
In 1938, Wei Lihuang ordered a one-time transfer of 1 million rounds of ammunition and 250,000 grenades to the Eighth Route Army, at that time, some people in the Kuomintang were very hesitant to issue them after learning about it, and finally, Wei Lihuang personally intervened to be successfully sent to Yan'an, in addition to ammunition, Wei Lihuang also supported a large number of food, clothing and other military supplies of the People's Liberation Army. In April, Wei Lihuang was invited to Yan'an, where he was personally received by Chairman Mao and left a precious group photo with many leaders in the Communist Party.
In 1939, Wei Lihuang was in charge of Henan, during which time he had closer contacts with the Communists, and whenever Zhou Enlai, Zhu De, and others came to the Eighth Route Army office in Luoyang, Wei Lihuang always personally received him.
Wei Lihuang's closer and closer to the Communist Party also made Chiang Kai-shek more and more anxious; he was sued by Kuomintang agents to Chiang Kai-shek for "protecting the Communist Party and harboring different intentions.", and dai Kasa, the head of the secret service, immediately arrived in Henan to collect "evidence.", and the Kuomintang officials who had always coveted Henan were even more like seeing the business opportunity to make a fortune, and their eyes lit up, and they accused Wei Lihuang of Chiang Kai-shek one after another.
However, Wei Lihuang still resisted the pressure and supported the actions of the Eighth Route Army as usual, providing ammunition and paying salaries. It was not until the end of 1941 that the kuomintang diehards' accusations against him reached their peak, and Chiang Kai-shek accused him of favoring the Eighth Route Army, and in January of the following year, Wei Lihuang was stripped of his military powers and secretly monitored by Kuomintang agents.
In January 1942, Japan invaded Burma, in March, China formed an expeditionary force to fight in Burma, Wei Lihuang was once again deprived of the post of commander of the expeditionary force because of his contact with the Communists during his standby in Chongqing, in 1943, the expeditionary force was defeated, Chiang Kai-shek had no choice but to use Wei Lihuang, under his command, after more than two years of hard fighting, successfully saved the Only remaining international land route in the southwest direction of the Yunnan Burma Highway.
In 1946, he and his wife rushed to the United States to escape the Civil War. In the following year, he visited the United Kingdom, Switzerland and the Netherlands.
He was on the list of War Criminals of the Kuomintang, but he was happy to have a way to live
In 1947, receiving an urgent telegram from Chiang Kai-shek, Wei Lihuang had no choice but to return.
In 1948, Wei Lihuang, who had just returned to China, was dispatched by Chiang Kai-shek to the northeast to serve as the commander-in-chief of the "Northeast Bandit General Headquarters", monopolizing the military and political power of the Kuomintang in the northeast.
After taking office, Wei Lihuang insisted on concentrating his forces and sticking to the main points. In spite of Chiang Kai-shek's repeated orders to send troops to assist the other defenders, under the command of Wei Lihuang, the Kuomintang forces were mainly concentrated in Shenyang, Jinzhou, and Changchun:
"The main point of the communist army's operation is to besiege the city and provide assistance, we must not send troops at will, we must stick to the areas around Shenyang, Jinzhou, and Changchun, do not act rashly, and wait for the situation to change."
Chiang Kai-shek was greatly annoyed by Wei Lihuang's refusal to carry out the order, and he issued another order, asking him to lead the main force south to open the road from Shenyang to Jinzhou and strictly defend Jinzhou, but Wei Lihuang still did not obey the order, so the contradiction between the two heated up rapidly and became more and more acute.
In May, Wei Lihuang sent a representative to Chiang Kai-shek's office to ask for instructions on combat operations, but Chiang Kai-shek did not listen at all and directly ordered the opening of the Shenjin Line:
"Only the Fifty-third Army and the 207th Division (both formerly the Northeast Army) remained to defend Shenyang, and the other arms were mixed together and organized into a mobile corps, and designated under the command of Liao Yaoxiang."
Liao Yaoxiang accepted the order to prepare to return to battle, wei Lihuang realized that he had been airlifted by Chiang Kai-shek, he was even more annoyed, and once again refused to carry out the orders issued by Chiang Kai-shek.
On September 12, when the Liaoshen Campaign broke out, Jinzhou and Jinxi were in a hurry, and Chiang Kai-shek issued three orders in succession, asking Wei Lihuang to send troops to help relieve Jinzhou's difficulties, and even sent gu Zhutong, the chief of staff, to Shenyang to supervise the operation, but Wei Lihuang, at the military conference, and most of the generals stuck to their own views and insisted on sticking to Shenyang and not sending troops:
"I'd rather not be this officer than rush to send troops, otherwise the main force in Shenyang will be completely annihilated, and if you don't believe it, we can bet."
Seeing that the matter had once again reached an impasse, Gu Zhutong had no choice but to return to Nanjing and return to Chiang Kai-shek:
"From Shen to Jinqianli, carrying three big rivers and seven small rivers, marching on the side of the enemy, committing a big taboo for soldiers." Whoever crosses the Liao River first and the two armies of the Kuomintang and the Communist Party loses. ”
On October 3, Chiang Kai-shek personally flew to Shenyang, crossed Wei Lihuang and directly ordered Liao Yaoxiang to lead an army to aid Jinzhou, and at the same time, ordered Hou Jingru, who was firmly entrenched at Huludao, to lead an army to attack Tashan. After Wei Lihuang was "seized of power," he also repeatedly instructed Hou Jingru not to attack and make senseless sacrifices:
"It is not easy for your corps to relieve the siege of Jinzhou and lead your troops to meet with the Liao Corps."
Seeing that Jinzhou was about to fall, Chiang Kai-shek suddenly ordered the defenders to abide by the rules and retreat to Jinxi if they could not, and Wei Lihuang once again contradicted Chiang Kai-shek: "Jinzhou cannot be lost, and once it is retreated, there will be great chaos." ”
On the 14th, the People's Liberation Army launched a general offensive, and after 31 hours of fierce fighting, more than 100,000 Kuomintang troops holding jinzhou were all annihilated, and jinzhou was liberated.
On the 30th, Wei Lihuang was sent by Chiang Kai-shek to beiping, and on November 26, Wei Lihuang was removed from his post and investigated, and in mid-December, after arriving in Guangzhou with his family, he was blocked by Kuomintang agents and brought back to Nanjing.
"Wei Lihuang, commander-in-chief of the Northeast Bandits, hesitated, lost his chances, and lost his important town, and immediately removed him from his post to investigate and handle it."
In view of Wei Lihuang's prestige in the Kuomintang army, if he killed him, he was afraid that it would make the army unstable, so Chiang Kai-shek ordered his family to be placed under house arrest and sent agents to monitor it 24 hours a day. In Chiang Kai-shek's mind, he had long believed that Wei Lihuang had been plotted against by the Communist Party, and he did not dare to move him for the sake of the overall situation.
In the Liaoshen Campaign, there were serious differences between Chiang Kai-shek and Wei Lihuang in combat operations, which also helped the PLA to win to some extent.
On December 15, the Communists released a list of 43 Kuomintang war criminals, and Wei Lihuang's name was impressively listed, ranking 28th. When he saw his name appear on the Communist Party's "wanted list," Wei Lihuang suddenly looked up at the sky and laughed, clapped his hands happily, and shouted: "The Communist Party has not forgotten me, haha, I have been saved, I have been saved!" ”
When the sentry guarding the door heard this, he suddenly felt confused, feeling that Wei Lihuang had been locked up for too long, and his brain was stupid.
Sure enough, after this day, the Surveillance of him by Kuomintang agents was much looser.
On January 21, 1949, Li Zongren came to power and released Wei Lihuang, fearing that he would be persecuted by the Kuomintang in the future, Wei Lihuang took the opportunity to flee to Shanghai overnight when the guards were lax, and boarded a steamship from Shanghai to Hong Kong.
In October, the news of the founding of the People's Republic of China spread to all corners of the world, and Wei Lihuang personally sent a call to the mainland:
"Under chairman Mao's wise leadership, the people's revolution won victory. Under the guidance of the great leader, the people of the Chinese, the prosperity and strength of New China are in sight, and the whole world of China is rejoicing. Huang longs for heartfelt, especially excited, salute and congratulations! ”
It didn't take long for him to receive a reply:
"Chairman Mao of the Central People's Government, Vice Chairman Zhu De, and Premier Zhou Enlai warmly welcome Mr. Wei back to China!"
At the beginning, Wei Lihuang was still very entangled, after all, he was still carrying the identity of a "war criminal", and he did not know what the situation would be after returning to China. At that time, the niece of Wei Lihuang's wife Han Quanhua was working with Deng Yingchao, and in order to dispel Wei Lihuang's doubts, Premier Zhou personally entrusted his niece to write to them:
"The old friend who once met in Taiyuan, Shanxi, please rest assured that your uncle and aunt will come back!"
After receiving the letter sent by his niece, Wei Lihuang instantly understood who the old friend in his niece's letter was, and the big stone pressed on his heart finally fell to the ground.
In 1955, under the secret arrangement of the party, Wei Lihuang and his wife went all the way to the bumps, and after several twists and turns, they finally returned to the embrace of the motherland on March 15.
After returning to China, Premier Zhou and Marshal Zhu De personally went to the station to pick him up, and Chairman Mao also set up a banquet to welcome him and have dinner with him. Chairman Mao also recalled his various help to the Communist army...
During his stay in New China, Wei Lihuang actively offered suggestions and suggestions for national construction, successively held a series of important positions, and also succeeded Long Yun as vice chairman of the National Defense Commission.
In May 1958, Wei Lihuang was hospitalized for treatment due to ill health, and was diagnosed with diabetes complicated by heart disease, after which, his physical condition continued to deteriorate, and during his hospitalization, Zhu De, Zhou Enlai and other important leaders visited him in the hospital.
On January 17, 1960, Wei Lihuang died, ending his legendary life. After his death, his ashes were buried in the Babaoshan Revolutionary Cemetery in Beijing, where he was revered by future generations.