In 1974, Premier Zhou convened a meeting of the Politburo of the Central Committee to discuss the specific work arrangements for the reappointment of old cadres, and suddenly asked during the meeting: "Where has Wu Kehua gone?" ”
It turned out that Wu Kehua had "disappeared" in the post of artillery commander since 1967, and at this meeting, Premier Zhou suddenly found that he had not seen him for seven years.
So, where did Wu Kehua go?
Wu Kehua was born in Jiangxi Province in December 1913, and his family conditions were not very good, and he belonged to a poor peasant family. Due to financial constraints, he dropped out of school to work as a helper after three years of private school. Working as a helper in those days was very difficult, not only to do a lot of work, but also to accept the oppression and exploitation of the rich class. It was during that time that Wu Kehua realized the sinister nature of this society and how ugly Chinese society is now. Therefore, there is a sense of disgust towards the local tycoons and the rich.
In 1928, Wu Kehua participated in the peasant riot in his hometown, and later studied at the Xinjiang Military and Political School run by Fang Zhimin and Shao Shiping.
During his studies at the military academy, Wu Kehua also encountered something that made him very uncomfortable, that is, he lost his gun.
Fang Zhimin
The military school system is strict, so Fang Zhimin decided to lock Wu Kehua in prison for a month to let him reflect and reflect.
When Wu Kehua was released, the loss of the gun was also clearly investigated, it turned out that a prisoner had no money to live, so he secretly turned into the military school and stole Wu Kehua's gun. Afterwards, Wu Kehua sternly dissected himself: "I am too careless and lack the class vigilance I should have." ”
Wu Kehua's mother, Luo Xianglian, was an authentic rural woman, and when the Kuomintang army attacked the Soviet region in northeastern Gansu, someone told her that Luo Xianglian was a family member of a Red Army cadre.
The enemy captured Luo Xianglian and asked her to write a letter to her son and lead her troops down the mountain to surrender, otherwise he would kill her head.
Although Luo Xianglian had no culture, she knew that the Red Army that her son joined was a force that fought for the poor, so she strictly refused to write a letter.
The enemy became angry and killed Luo Xianglian that night.
Two days later, when the Red Army regained lost territory, Wu Kehua cried bitterly when he learned of the news of his mother's murder: "What a bitter mother, I will definitely avenge you." ”
In 1933, the Red 10th Army received an order: it was transferred to the Central Soviet Region and merged with the Red 31st Army waiting there to form the Red 11th Army. But the revolution in northern Gan could not be left without command, and Fang Zhimin chose to stay there.
After that, until Fang Zhimin's death, Wu Kehua never saw his revolutionary mentor again.
In 1934, Liu Bocheng found Wu Kehua and wanted him to be the chief of staff of the regiment in his own unit, Wu Kehua felt that his ability was insufficient and wanted to resign, but in the end, the organization appointed him as the chief of staff of the 63rd Regiment of the Red 21st Division, and since then his command skills have been displayed.
In January 1937, the Red Army University of the Four Fronts and the Central Red Army University merged to become the famous Anti-Japanese Military and Political University, and Wu Kehua and Xu Shiyou were transferred to study at Kang Da, and the relationship between the two became closer.
After the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, Wu Kehua was arranged to go to Shandong as the brigade commander of the fifth brigade, at this time Xu Shiyou also came to the Shandong battlefield, also a brigade commander, but Xu Shiyou once served as a military commander, and his prestige was above Wu Kehua.
In the anti-surrender campaign, Wu Kehua was the deputy commander and Xu Shiyou was the commander-in-chief, and with the cooperation of the two, the battle was very smooth. When Xu Shiyou was the commander, Wu Kehua was still the brigade commander of the fifth brigade, because the fifth brigade was to merge with Xu Shiyou's team, so Wu Kehua became Xu Shiyou's deputy again, and they cooperated tacitly during this time. Later, Wu Kehua led his army into the northeast, Xu Shiyou remained in Shandong, and the cooperation between the two ended.
On October 10, 1948, the famous Battle of Tower Hill began. In the bloody battle for 6 days and 6 nights, the enemy, relying on American weapons and equipment, tried to break our defense line in the form of a group charge. Under the condition that the enemy was outnumbered, Wu Kehua withstood tremendous pressure and commanded the fourth column to successfully block the fierce attack of the enemy four times his own, fought heroically and tenaciously when a large number of fortifications were destroyed and suffered heavy casualties, withstood the onslaught of 12 divisions of the enemy, held the position without losing an inch, and also achieved the victory of annihilating 6,117 enemy personnel. But they lost 3,145 fighters.
After the Battle of Tashan, Chiang Kai-shek scolded his subordinate generals as "rice buckets".
The Tashan Blockade was the largest, longest, and most brutal positional defensive battle in the history of our army's warfare. Wu Kehua commanded the fourth column to fight the "Tashan Heroes Regiment" and other heroic units and heroic groups, and also won the most famous and crucial battle in his life.
Every late night, Wu Kehua recalled the soldiers who died in Tashan, but after the founding of the People's Republic of China, he did not have time to visit them because he was busy with official business, which also made his conscience uneasy.
Therefore, Wu Kehua left such a special last words as "not burying the hometown to bury Tashan".
In 1954, he was selected to study at the Nanjing Military Academy, and after graduation, he served in several military regions.
In 1955, Wu Kehua was awarded the rank of lieutenant general for his outstanding combat achievements.
In 1963, Wu Kehua was promoted to commander of the artillery of the Chinese People's Liberation Army, and did a lot of work to realize the modernization and regularization of the army.
Wu Kehua "disappeared" for seven years between 1967 and 1974 for some special reason, until Premier Zhou talked about Wu Kehua at a meeting to reappoint old cadres in 1974 and realized that he had not seen him for a long time.
Only then did it be discovered that Wu Kehua had mysteriously "disappeared" in 1967, and even his family did not know his whereabouts.
Premier Zhou was very angry, and after the meeting, he approached Li Desheng, director of the General Political Department, and asked him to thoroughly investigate the matter and find the whereabouts of General Wu Kehua.
After receiving the order, Li Desheng immediately began the search work. Due to the influence of the current situation, Li Desheng had to secretly investigate first, and later he used clever tricks, and General Wu Kehua finally regained his freedom.
After Wu Kehua was reappointed, he worked hard to repay Premier Zhou and Chairman Mao for their kindness.
In April 1975, the Central Military Commission appointed Wu Kehua as the commander of the People's Liberation Army Railway Corps, and in August 1976, Wu Kehua, who was already 63 years old, walked to Kunlun Mountain station by station along the Qinghai-Tibet Line at an altitude of 3,000 meters, and solved problems station by station, making great contributions to the construction of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway.
In September 1977, Wu Kehua was appointed commander of the Chengdu Military Region, and after one year in office, he was transferred from the Chengdu Military Region to the Urumqi Military Region as commander of the military region.
Wu Kehua served as commander of the Urumqi Military Region, and in 1980, General Xu Shiyou stepped down as commander of the Guangzhou Military Region due to physical reasons, entered the Central Committee, and became the deputy director of the Central Advisory Committee, and General Wu Kehua was responsible for replacing him.
Wu Kehua served as commander 16 times in his life, and this was also the last time he served as commander in his life.
In just 5 years, he served as the commander of 4 large military districts, which can be said to be the only one at that time.
It can be said that after the liberation, Wu Kehua served in six military district-level units, only one of which served as a deputy and the other five were all principal posts, which can be said to be the most used among lieutenant generals.
In 1982, the veteran general was elected as a member of the Central Advisory Committee of the Communist Party of China, and General You Taizhong replaced him.
Wu Kehua settled in Guangzhou in his later years, and You Taizhong still visited from time to time, and his respect was overflowing.
On February 13, 1987, Wu Kehua died in Guangzhou.
While in the hospital, he left a will requesting that his ashes be scattered in Tashan, and his wife Zhang Ming and his children followed the instructions of his will and scattered his ashes to Tashan on August 1, 1988, to permanently accompany the martyrs who died.
In fact, this is Wu Kehua's second will left before his death, and before that, it once said the following: "I hope that I can be buried next to my mother after I die, so as to make up for the debt I owed to my mother before my death." My mother was decapitated by herself, but I have not been able to burn the incense in front of her grave, which is a regret that I cannot make up for in my life, and I am ashamed of my mother! ”
Therefore, the people of Wu Kehua's hometown of Yiyang erected a pavilion and a full-body statue for Wu Kehua's mother in front of his mother's tomb, so that Wu Kehua could accompany his mother at the same time.