In the summer of 1958, Li Zhonghua left his home in a hurry, and has not been seen since. The Li family tried everything to find Li Zhonghua, but in the end, they had to accept the reality of Li Zhonghua's disappearance. It wasn't until December 2016 that the Pakistan-China police suddenly contacted Li's family and informed them that Li's remains had been found in Lop Nur.
The remains in Lop Nur
It has become dry bones
On October 23, 2016, three stone pickers came to the Big Wave Beach Dry Salt Lake in Huatugou Township, hoping to pick up some stones on this trip. By chance, the three found a little white in the sand not far away, and when they came up to see it, it turned out to be a human bone.
The frightened three immediately found the Public Security Bureau of the Vast Cliff Committee of Haixi Mongolian Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Qinghai Province to call the police, and Deputy Director Tang Tuohua hurriedly brought forensic police and others to the scene.
Tang Tuohua and others extracted the light yellow canvas bags, letters, newspapers, flashlights, windshields and other relics next to the remains, and then buried the remains on the spot.
One of Li Zhonghua's relics: windproof goggles
Because the remains have been completely ossified, coupled with the interference of the geographical environment and climate, the police spent a lot of effort to deduce the time of death of the remains, and after many analyses and discussions, everyone tentatively determined the time of death of the remains to be after April 1961.
Tang Tuohua and others began to visit a large area, but they could not determine the true identity of the remains. On November 28, Tang Tuohua posted "information on the search for relatives" on the official micro of the Public Security Bureau, and after several days of searching, finally concluded that the remains were most likely Li Zhonghua, a missing person in Longbei Township, Bazhong City.
Human remains were found
In order to further verify this conclusion, Tang Tuohua and others went to the location of the remains again on December 2 to extract the DNA samples of the remains, and at the same time, the Bazhong-China police also extracted the blood of Li Zhonghua's wife Deng Guangming and Li Zhonghua's two daughters.
Through DNA comparison, it was finally determined that the accidentally discovered body was Li Zhonghua himself. The mystery of the true identity of the remains has been solved, so how did Li Zhonghua die?
Lop Nur environment is harsh
Cause of death reduction
Tang Tuohua speculated through Li Zhonghua's relic newspaper that Li Zhonghua should have settled in Luoyang before coming to Lop Nur, because the newspaper was the Luoyang Daily published on September 13, 1960.
If Li Zhonghua had not been to Luoyang, he would not have Luoyang Daily on him. Later, for some reason, Li Zhonghua came to Lop Nur, due to the bad weather in Lop Nur, Li Zhonghua unfortunately lost his way after the dust weather passed, and finally fell into the wind and sand because of severe dehydration.
The newspaper found near Li Zhonghua
In addition to this speculation, some police officers also raised whether Li Zhonghua was lured to Lop Nur and the murderer murdered and robbed of wealth. But this speculation was quickly denied, first of all, the risk of entering Lop Nor to kill is too great, the slightest mistake will be lost, the murderer will not take the initiative to drill into Lop Nor if he has brains.
In addition, through the study of Li Zhonghua's life, Li Zhonghua cannot be deceived. Li Zhonghua participated in the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea in his early years, made second-class meritorious service, and left the battlefield in 1953 with a calf injury and disability, and Li Zhonghua returned home soon after.
Li Zhonghua was wounded on the battlefield of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea
In order to support his family, Li Zhonghua worked as a weaving and dyeing cloth, and followed his brother Li Zhongdou next door to work in railways, brick factories and other places. In 1958, he suddenly left his family, and during the first year of his "disappearance", Li Zhonghua still had correspondence with Li Zhongdou, who had settled in Guizhou (the letters in the relics were to and from Guizhou).
By 1960, Li Zhonghua went to Lop Nur in Xinjiang, during which he sent dozens of yuan to his family, and asked his parents to make a cotton coat for himself, but after the cotton coat was ready, Li Zhonghua could no longer be contacted.
Li Zhonghua old photo
If Li Zhonghua was deceived, the deceire must have wanted to get certain benefits through Li Zhonghua, and it was impossible for Li Zhonghua to make contact with his family and then make no move; moreover, a demobilized soldier who had enlisted in the army and fought with real knives and guns arrived in Lop Nur without long belongings, and the deceire had no reason to attack Li Zhonghua.
Restore the truth
After determining the cause of death, Tang Tuohua and others began to find "some reasons", hoping to restore the truth of Li Zhonghua's death in Lop Nur after his disappearance with the help of information.
Part of Li Zhonghua's relics
Through Li Zhonghua's identity as a former volunteer; He visited Luoyang before his death, and finally died in Lop Nur's life trajectory; After his death, as well as the background and time of the times, Tang Tuohua and others boldly speculated that Li Zhonghua was most likely called by the state at that time to secretly carry out a mission to Lop Nor to investigate the site of the nuclear test.
Because the windproof goggles he carried were very similar to military supplies, and he was not engaged in geological surveys, if there was any survey mission that made Li Zhonghua "mysteriously disappear" in that era, it was only the site of the nuclear test.
China's nuclear test was successful
Not only that, around 1958, several troops stationed in Los Angeles went to Lop Nur to participate in the mainland's first nuclear test, and the time and place were highly consistent with Li Zhonghua's trajectory before his death. Another Luoyang veteran Li Liangxi provided clues, recalling:
"Our team came to Lop Nur from Xinjiang, and there were veterans from other cities, but there were many veterans from Sichuan who set off from Luoyang."
Luoyang "Malan" veteran Li Liangxi and others
With these clues, Tang Tuohua said that Li Zhonghua should have received a secret mission to Lop Nur in 1958, and in order to keep it secret, he directly did not say goodbye, and then arrived in Luoyang, where he has been on standby, during which he had some contact with his brother Li Zhongdou in Guizhou.
In September 1960, Li Zhonghua's unit set out from Luoyang, and before leaving, Li Zhonghua also brought a copy of the Luoyang Daily, probably to pass the time on the road. After arriving in Xinjiang, it may be that anticipating the danger of the future, Li Zhonghua sent a sum of money home, and because of the large temperature difference between day and night in Lop Nur, Li Zhonghua also asked his family to make a cotton coat for himself.
Lop Nur environment is harsh
But when Li Zhonghua was waiting for the cotton coat, the superior suddenly gave an order, and Li Zhonghua officially entered Lop Nur with the troops, so he lost contact with the outside world, which also explained why the Li family could no longer contact Li Zhonghua after making the cotton coat.
Li Zhonghua, who arrived at Lop Nur, may have been left behind because of a calf disability, and eventually separated from the troops and died of severe dehydration; It is also possible that when he was scattered with his comrades in Ramp Nur to find a water source, he got lost due to the spread of wind and sand, and finally died.
The small unit in "Born in the Sky" who went out to find water was left with only one shoe
I still remember the movie "Born in the Sky", which tells the story of the development of the atomic bomb, in which an entire army disappeared while looking for water, and everyone searched for a long time and found only one shoe. It is also reasonable to infer that Li Zhonghua got lost and died while searching for water.
Of course, inference is inference, not conclusive. To this day, the case of "the remains of volunteer hero Li Zhonghua appeared in Lop Nur" is still full of mystery and heated discussion.