In 1955, the first ceremony of the new China was officially opened in Zhongnanhai, and a total of 55 generals were awarded at the ceremony, one of whom was particularly special.
He was Li Kenong, the only man who had never led an army to fight, but had been made a general. He was a well-deserved general, but his battlefield was not in a field of fire, but in a room full of intelligence, at the negotiating table between the two countries.
Li Kenong
On February 9, 1962, Li Kenong died of illness in Beijing, and after his death, rumors and rumors about the cause of his death at home and abroad appeared endlessly, including poisoning and killing, and saying that he had won the beauty plan...
In the end, it was his youngest son, Li Lun, who came forward and announced the true cause of his father's death to stop the rumors.
Why are there so many gossip flowing out? What was the real cause of Li Kenong's death?
Embark on a battlefield without smoke
At the beginning of the 18th century, the mountains and rivers of Kyushu were turbulent, the Asian lions that had once been in the limelight slept for a long time, the ancient country of China lagged behind the West, and the country with its vast land and rich resources attracted covetousness from many sides.
Students parade the streets
Fortunately, a group of people with lofty ideals who have received advanced education rely on the raging flame that burns in their chests to oppose feudal despotism and imperial oppression, and they are eager to rely on new forces to fight a new world.
Li Kenong is such a person with lofty ideals.
At the age of 18, Li Kenong graduated from Shengyage Middle School in Wuhu City, Anhui Province, and then threw himself into Beijing to find a way to save the country. Mr. Lee first worked for an advanced weekly magazine, where he published articles critical of oppression and authoritarianism.
St. Accord Secondary School
At this time, China was in a period of cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party, but in the later period, Chiang Kai-shek was ambitious to break the situation of harmonious coexistence among domestic political parties, launched the "April 12 Coup", wantonly slaughtered the Communist Party and advanced youth, and engaged in white terror.
Including the weekly magazine where Li Kenong worked, many newspapers and periodicals that originally published advanced ideas were forced to shut down, and in desperation, Li Kenong returned to Wuhu, Anhui Province, to hide from the disaster, but found his heart there- the Communist Party.
Li Kenong's brain turned quickly, his logic was clear, he did everything in an orderly manner, he was excellent in all aspects, and excellent people would shine everywhere, and soon he was appreciated by his superiors and sent to carry out a secret mission - to go undercover at the Shanghai Radio Administration, which was run by the Kuomintang.
Xu En, the head of the Shanghai Radio Administration, was once a cousin of Chen Lifu, an important figure in the Kuomintang, and the radio administration that looked unremarkable was actually a secret service agency that Chen Lifu had rebuilt.
Li Kenong inquired a little, he knew the importance of this work, he worked hard to learn radio-related knowledge, in the job fair, with the first place results to stand out, successfully won the favor of Xu Enzeng, in a very short period of time was promoted to the chief of the special service unit.
In order to gain the further trust of Xu Enzeng, Li Kenong wrapped himself up well, he was dressed brightly, often in and out of high-end clubs, and to outsiders, he looked like a villain.
However, in private, Li Kenong did not really spend money for recreation, and he divided the high salary he received from the Radio Administration into two parts, a small part for the family's livelihood, and the other part was all donated to the Communist Party organization for activities.
Although he is bright and beautiful outside, at home he eats white porridge and pickles with his whole family. So he never brought people home to prevent the stuffing from being revealed.
People outside scoffed at Li Kenong's image, and some people scolded him as a lackey of the Kuomintang. When Li Kenong heard this, he often laughed. If he could exchange his reputation for the great cause of the Communist Party, he would be as willing as a glutton.
Li Kenong
During his undercover period in the Kuomintang, Li Kenong helped underground Communist Party members through crises countless times and helped organize organizations to overcome dangers on many occasions.
Among them, the greatest impact on the central organs was the "Gu Shunzhang Arrest and Defection Incident" in 1931.
Help the central authorities turn the tide
In 1930, Gu Shunzhang, a senior leader of the Communist Party, was captured by the Kuomintang in an operation, and the Kuomintang used coercion and inducement to make Gu Shunzhang defect, betray the party and organization, and betray his faith.
As one of the top leaders of the Communist Party at that time and the head of the CCP Central Committee Special Branch of the CCP's secret service organization, Gu Shunzhang held a lot of Communist Party secrets in his hands, and his defection would cause extremely serious damage to the Communist Party.
Gu Shunzhang
The Kuomintang, who had successfully forced intelligence from Gu Shunzhang's mouth, sent six urgent telegrams to Xu En, reporting on the results.
Fortunately, Xu En had gone out and did not return, and his secretary Qian Zhuangfei (also an undercover Communist Party) saw the urgent cable, felt that something was wrong, and began to decipher the telegram, the translation was just half cracked, Qian Zhuangfei was in a cold sweat. The contents of the telegram ranged down to where the underground organization personnel were hiding, to what the Communist Party's code was, and if the letter had been seen by Xu En, the consequences would have been unimaginable.
Qian Zhuangfei
Qian Zhuangfei immediately sent someone to inform Li Kenong, hoping that he would be able to pass the news to the people who contacted him as soon as possible. However, they didn't have much time left, and the operation was a complete race against time.
At that time, the person who connected with Li Kenong was Chen Geng, they were single-line contact, usually on a fixed day to meet, however, now that things happen suddenly, Li Kenong could not find Chen Geng for a while, which made him anxious.
At the risk of exposing his identity, Li Kenong directly went to the Political Commissar of Jiangsu, who led him to find Chen Geng. Chen Geng knew the seriousness of the matter and quickly reported the matter to Zhou Enlai, and with their cooperation, all the Communist Party members in Shanghai, as well as underground organizations, and even undercover, all retreated.
By the time the Kuomintang went to arrest people according to the information gu shunzhang confessed, those places were already empty, and they returned empty-handed.
However, the failure of this arrest made the Kuomintang realize that it had internal ghosts around it, and in order to escape as soon as possible, Li Kenong and Qian Zhuangfei had to end their lurking careers.
Longyuan Sanjie
During his time as a spy, Li Kenong was always cautious and cautious, and his identity was even hidden from the people in his family. After the Gu Shunzhang incident, Li Kenong was forced to go out to hide from the limelight, but his family was worried all day because of economic problems, and his family wanted to ask him for help, but they couldn't find him at all.
It was not until the end of the storm that Li Kenong returned to his family, but only spent 50 minutes with his family before he threw himself into China's construction cause.
After ending his latent life, Li Kenong's talent was not submerged; he applied the secret agent knowledge he had learned in the Kuomintang over the years to the Communist Party's intelligence network, and trained a number of outstanding agents.
Under such a high-intensity work, his body can not be supported quickly, but because of the particularity of his work content, he never discloses his physical condition to people outside the organ, and often braced himself when he goes out to work.
According to Li Lun's recollection, in the first few years of the founding of New China, his father's health was not very good, and his family advised him to recuperate well.
Li Kenong's family
However, at that time, when the central authorities were employing people, my father had outstanding work ability, strong psychological quality, extremely high adaptability, decisive action, and accurate analysis of intelligence, which was deeply appreciated by Chairman Mao and Premier Zhou, and many things were willing to be entrusted to him.
Li Kenong used his many years of intelligence experience to coordinate the overall situation in the post-war situation during the Liberation War, providing a lot of important military intelligence for the soldiers in the front and assisting in the victory of many battles.
Everyone thought he was indestructible, until 1951, when Li Kenong fell seriously ill and had to ask the central government for leave to go to the Soviet Union for medical treatment, that no one knew about his hidden illness.
However, he had just been operated on and was in the recovery period, and there was a war to resist the United States and aid Korea in the country, and the central authorities urgently needed a person who could control the situation and go to the Korean battlefield to negotiate with the United States.
After much deliberation, Chairman Mao urgently summoned Li Kenong back and asked him to go to Kaesong to preside over the negotiations.
There will be no change of general before the battle
At that time, Li Kenong's condition had just improved somewhat, and the doctor had instructed him not to go to too cold places as much as possible, and his daily routine and rest must be regular.
However, he did not do both of these precautions, and negotiations in North Korea are not destined to be smooth sailing, and Li Kenong will be there for at least 2 to 3 years. Winters in North Korea are much colder than in Beijing, and he has severe asthma, dragging such a body, and living there is a disaster.
When Li Lun learned that his father was going to North Korea, he was very reluctant and advised him to take care of his body, but Li Kenong still put the country's major affairs first.
Li Kenong and his wife
He told his son that when Chairman Mao summoned him back, he simply said, "I will order your general!" This total trust, he could not live up to, nor could he live up to.
Everyone comes to this world with his own unique mission, and if his mission is destined to fight for China, even if he dies, he will not have any complaints.
Ignoring the opposition of his family, Li Kenong went to Kaesong, North Korea, and began to make preparations for negotiations in an intense manner; although the US side had the intention of stopping the fighting, they pretended to be a powerful country, vainly attempted to occupy Chinese territory within the 38th Line, and tested back and forth on China's bottom line.
Li Kenong took the ambitions of the United States in his eyes and has been carefully circling, and sometimes the AMERICAN negotiators will deliberately silence the whole negotiation, so that the entire negotiation will reach an impasse. This is a psychological tactic, and it is better to be the first to hold their breath.
Korean Battlefield
Li Kenong said: If the enemy does not move, I will not move, and I will spend time with the other side to the end.
This kind of deadlock has happened many times, Li Kenong has never backed down, this negotiation lasted for more than two years, held nearly 700 meetings, Li Kenong led the team, always strategizing.
In the past two years, Li Kenong's physical condition has been repeated, and the doctor said that he had a good work and rest, but the work was not allowed at all.
He needed to analyze the results of the daily negotiations with Beijing frequently, and the telegrams were slow, and each time he sent a good telegram, and he could not receive an echo until early in the morning, and after he hurriedly read it, he had to send back his judgment. Dealing with all this, Li Kenong was able to sleep for a few hours.
Before dawn could clear, he had to wake up again to repeat all the work of the previous day. And so on, a strong person can't stand it, let alone his body is not good.
Once, when all the negotiators were in a meeting, Li Kenong was overwhelmed and directly fainted on the ground. This matter was known to Chairman Mao, who was very worried about General Ai's physical condition and immediately sent Wu Xiuquan, deputy chief of the general staff of the Chinese People's Liberation Army, to Korea to negotiate in place of Li Kenong.
However, Li Kenong is well aware that the slightest change in the negotiation process may allow the other side to take advantage of the opportunity and ultimately affect the outcome of the negotiation, so he resolutely rejected such an arrangement.
After hesitating, the Central Committee decided to let Wu Xiuquan temporarily accompany him to familiarize himself with the situation and share his work, of course, the main negotiation was still mainly li Kenong, but the Central Committee also stated that if he had any physical discomfort, he would stop working, and his life was as important to China as the Korean War.
It was not until 1953 that the ceasefire agreement between China and the United States was finally negotiated, and the war was over. But just the day before the two sides signed the agreement, Lee Kenong, who had insight into the situation in North Korea, discovered that South Korea was harboring evil intentions and tried to stir up trouble at the ceremony of signing the armistice agreement the next day.
Sign an armistice
In order not to affect the ensuing war situation, Li Kenong immediately proposed that the commanders of the two sides did not need to attend the scene, but only needed to sign the armistice agreement with each other and exchange it.
Li Kenong fought with the enemy bloodlessly at the negotiating table, winning a turnaround on the battlefield for China and assisting the volunteer army to win the final victory. His contribution to the Chinese revolution was no less than that of the generals who fought on the battlefield with swords and guns.
Li Kenong and Peng Dehua
Thus, in 1955, at the ceremony of the award, Li Kenong was named a general, becoming the only general who did not lead the army to fight. No one disputed the honor he had received, and all of them sincerely admired him.
Heroes are twilight
Returning to Beijing from the Korean battlefield, Li Kenong began to work in different jobs regardless of his physical condition.
Mr. Lee had been taking care of his father, and he knew that during his two years in North Korea, his father had broken his eyes, and even though he had the lights on, he would have to lie on his desk to see the words. Because there are many old diseases on the body, even rest is not good, and every night you need morphine to fall asleep.
He always wanted his father to take a break, but Li Kenong was really relieved not to do the work at hand, not only did he not have a good rest, but he also followed Premier Zhou on business trips, often for two or three weeks.
After such a rush, Li Kenong's body was even worse, and sometimes he couldn't even eat food, and the whole person lost a lot of weight.
One day in December 1957, Li Kenong was walking with Li Lun, who had thought that if he did not pay attention to Li Kenong, he lost his center of gravity and directly fell on the roadside steps and passed out.
When Chairman Mao and Premier Zhou learned of this, they immediately summoned the most professional brain experts in the country to perform surgery on Li Kenong. After the rescue experts finally took Li Kenong back from the hands of the god of death. However, people were rescued, but Li Kenong's memory still had some deviations, and he did not remember some previous events clearly.
The accident made Chairman Mao and Premier Zhou very worried about Li Kenong's physical condition, and they forced Li Kenong to rest well.
But Li Kenong was completely idle and did not let him work, so he began to write his own memoirs, and the feeling of losing his memory was not good, and he wanted to take advantage of the fact that he was still awake to write down all the things he had experienced in the past.
Statue of Li Kenong
Among the things that Li Kenong wrote down were many colleagues who worked as spies with him, many of them were cursed when they died, and since the mountains and rivers were now calm, it was time to give them a fair life, to justify their names, and let more people know about these special heroes.
After doing what he had to do, Li Kenong still wanted to go back to work, and considering his physical condition, Premier Zhou sent many lobbyists to persuade him to continue to rest, including his wife Deng Yingchao, before finally persuading him to stop.
Everyone was waiting for the day when Li Kenong's health would improve and return to his peak. Unfortunately, not long after, Li Kenong died suddenly. This mysterious "King of Secret Agents" thus ended his life's legend.
Tombstones of Li Kenong and his wife
Li Kenong was relatively low-key, and the CCP simply announced to the outside world that he had died of cerebral hemorrhage, and did not publish too many details. This was exploited by ill-intentioned people, and many people began to use his death to make articles and fabricate various rumors to spread among the people.
Some people say that his death was done by AMERICAN agents in order to retaliate for what he did during the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea; Some people also say that he died in the enemy's beauty plan, the story is extremely beautiful, although these claims are absurd, but because of the mystery of his identity as a secret agent, many people believe it.
Seeing that the cause of his father's death was getting worse and worse, Li Lun had to stand up and tell the world:
His father, Li Kenong, died of cerebral softening due to overwork. His death was for work, organization and country, and his death was glorious and great.
There are many martyrs like Li Kenong, who bowed down to the great righteousness of the country and died, and it is precisely because of their existence that we can enjoy such a peaceful and beautiful life today.