On December 4, 1959, the Northeast Fushun War Criminals Management Office granted amnesty to the first batch of Kuomintang war criminals, including Li Xianzhou, a general of the Nationalist Army who was defeated in the Battle of Laiwu.
In 1973, Zhou Enlai hosted a banquet in Zhongnanhai to entertain amnesty personnel from Huangpu.
When talking about the Battle of Laiwu, Li Xianzhou and Pan revealed the mystery that had been in his heart for 26 years: "After the battle started, I commanded 60,000 troops and did not find a way to break through the encirclement, how could Han Liancheng (former commander of the 46th Army of the National Army) be able to break out of the encirclement?"
Premier Zhou said meaningfully: "Comrade Han Liancheng is in Beijing, you can meet and ask face to face!" Li Xianzhou seemed to understand a little bit of the mystery from Zhou Enlai's smiling reply.
This Han Liancheng, known as the "invisible general", was once the most dangerous spy around Chiang Kai-shek.
Zhou Enlai's secret spy
Han Liancheng's life is a "legend" with a capital letter, and he has intersected with many famous figures in modern Chinese history.
He and Feng Yuxiang "shared hardships during the Northern Expedition"; he later led his troops to rescue Chiang Kai-shek from the midst of danger and encirclement, and was "authorized by Chiang to graduate from the Whampoa Military Academy in the third phase" and became a lieutenant general of the Kuomintang; Li Zongren and Bai Chongxi, the leaders of the Gui warlords, were very appreciative of him.
What is even more surprising is that Han Liancheng established a long-term and close one-line contact with Zhou Enlai, and later became a "Communist Party member who did not go through the procedures for joining the party".
Han Liancheng was born into a poor family in Guyuan County, Gansu Province, and made a living by herding sheep for the landlord's family when he was young.
In 1925, Feng Yuxiang's Northwest Army under Ma Hongkui recruited troops in Ningxia. Han Liancheng was forced to make a living, and thought of joining the army, and since then he has begun his legendary career as a horseman.
On the eve of the war between Chiang, Feng and Yan Zhongyuan, Ma Hongkui took refuge in Chiang Kai-shek, and Han Liancheng also changed his court.
In April 1930, the Central Plains War broke out, and Chiang Kai-shek personally commanded at the front. Feng Yuxiang's subordinate Zheng Dazhang led the cavalry to attack the Guide airport at night, and Chiang Kai-shek was in danger.
At the critical moment, Han Liancheng led the department to "rescue". Afterwards, Chiang Kai-shek personally received the young man.
He originally thought that such a young general who was fearless in danger and brave and good at fighting must be a Whampoa military academy student.
Who knew that Han Liancheng said that he had never entered Whampoa at all.
As a result, Chiang Kai-shek issued a "special handwritten order" to the Whampoa Military Academy: "Han Lian was ordered to be in danger, loyal and courageous, graduated from the third phase of the charter military academy, and was included in the ...... of the student status."
Within the national army, there are very few who have become descendants of Whampoa as a miscellaneous army.
Han Liancheng became a protégé of the Son of Heaven, and the third phase of Huangpu was also hot within the national army, and his future was immeasurable.
After the Xi'an Incident, Han Liancheng took the initiative to ask to go to the anti-Japanese front and met Zhou Enlai. He advocated the joint resistance of the Kuomintang and the Communist Party against Japan, so he did a lot of united front work.
Han Liancheng's wife, Wang Ping, often supports Li Kenong, Pan Hannian and others financially.
Li Kenong was very grateful for the help of the couple and knew that their hearts were towards the Communist Party, so he reported to Zhou Enlai and asked for approval for Han Lian to become a member of the Communist Party of China.
In this way, Han Liancheng became a secret party member.
On the surface, he was still a high-ranking general of the Kuomintang and Chiang Kai-shek's minister of the humerus. For the sake of secrecy, he only had contact with a few people, such as Zhou Enlai, Wang Ruofei, Dong Biwu, and Li Kenong, and never had any contact with the party's underground organizations and various armed forces under the party's leadership.
As a red agent beside Chiang Kai-shek, no one knows how much important information Han Liancheng provided to our party.
According to his son, Han Jing, his father never mentioned the past when he was alive.
Whenever someone asked, he only said: "Before the liberation, I was directly led by Premier Zhou, and I won't say anything that the premier doesn't say, and I won't say anything that is not public." ”
Wandering between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party
In 1945, Han Liancheng, who was deeply trusted by Chiang and Gui, was appointed commander of the 46th Army. In September of that year, he led his troops across the Qiongzhou Strait to accept the surrender of the Japanese army.
Before leaving, Chiang Kai-shek issued a secret order to eliminate all Communist-led troops on Hainan Island.
But at the same time, Zhou Enlai also wrote a personal letter. In the letter, he asked Han Liancheng to "use his personal influence and power in his hands to protect the safety of the Qiongya Party organization as much as possible."
In the face of Zhou Enlai's entrustment, Han Liancheng knew that he had a heavy responsibility.
In fact, before Han Liancheng arrived in Hainan, Cai Jinjun, a special agent of the military command, had already taken away the captured personnel of the Qiongya Column and related materials from the Japanese.
After Han Liancheng arrived in Hainan, he felt that this was a breakthrough.
Relying on his status as the "surrendered commander of the Hainan Region of the Chinese Army," he ordered Cai to hand over all the detainees and materials to the Haikou Garrison Command for disposal on the grounds that Cai Jinjun had acted beyond his authority.
In this way, the relevant materials were not only protected, but also the opportunity to release some of the detained "suspected Communist Party elements".
During this period, Chiang Kai-shek sent He Yingqin, Song Ziwen and others to Hainan Island many times to inspect and urge Han Liancheng to "suppress the Communists," but he used various reasons to prevaricate and protect the Communists in Hainan as much as possible.
In late January 1947, in order to organize a large-scale attack on the liberated areas of Shandong, Chiang Kai-shek personally formulated the plan for the "Battle of Lunan".
The specific content of the plan is as follows: Han Liancheng led the reorganized 46th Division to join the Northern Front Corps, commanded by Li Xianzhou, and cooperated with the Southern Front Group to annihilate the main force of the East China Field Army in Linyi.
After Han Liancheng learned of this plan, he tried every means to send the information to the headquarters of the East China Field Army.
On February 19 of the same year, the Huaye troops led by Chen Yi had formed an encirclement posture against Li Xianzhou's group in the east and west of the Laiwu area.
Li Xianzhou advocated sticking to Laiwu and waiting for help.
In fact, this Li Xianzhou is right to stick to it.
The fortifications of Laiwu City are strong, easy to defend and difficult to attack, coupled with the well-equipped national army, sufficient ammunition, and the lack of heavy artillery in the East China Field Army, it is bound to pay a tragic price if it wants to take Laiwu City. If you want to annihilate Li Xianzhou's troops, there is only one way, and that is to transfer the national army out of the city, break it out of the strong fortifications, and annihilate it in a movement war.
However, at that time, Han Jun, the commander of the 73rd Army, opposed holding on and waiting for reinforcements, and Li Xianzhou no longer insisted and decided to retreat north.
Han Lian became a time to buy Huaye to adjust the deployment of troops, and deliberately delayed the retreat to the north.
He and Li Xianzhou said: "Most of my troops are outside the city, some of them are entangled with the communist army, and some of them are intersected with the 73rd army, and it will take time to gather the troops. In addition, it takes time to prepare all the supplies, ammunition, etc. ”
Li Xianzhou asked: How much time does it take?
Han Liancheng said: "It will take two days, and it will start on time at 6 o'clock in the morning on February 23."
In this way, the meeting decided to evacuate Laiwu City on the 23rd.
The commander is missing
Early in the morning of February 23, 1947, the Kuomintang troops began to retreat as originally planned, and the troops came to the designated assembly place to prepare for a breakthrough. But at this moment, Han Liancheng disappeared.
Li Xianzhou sent people to look around, but they couldn't find anyone.
At the moment of life and death, the army commander "disappeared", and the team fully equipped with American weapons and equipment was disheartened and chaotic, which also disrupted Li Xianzhou's operational arrangement.
The East China Field Army took the opportunity to launch a general offensive, the Kuomintang army was defeated, Li Xianzhou was wounded and captured, and the Battle of Laiwu achieved a brilliant victory.
After this battle, 7 integrated divisions of the Kuomintang army were annihilated, our army annihilated 56,000 enemies, and recovered 13 county towns such as Boshan and Zichuan.
After Wang Yaowu heard the news, he said bitterly: "More than 50,000 people were wiped out in 3 days, even 50,000 pigs were caught by the communist army, and they couldn't be caught in 3 days!"
So where did Han Liancheng go?
In fact, on the afternoon of the 23rd, he had already taken his cronies to the Huaye Headquarters and met Chen Yi. But in between, there was also a small episode.
After Han Liancheng and the guard platoon came to Huaye, the guard platoon was dispossessed of its firearms. Some comrades, who did not know the situation, treated them as if they were ordinary prisoners of the national army.
This made Han Liancheng aggrieved and dissatisfied.
He thought, "Is this how the Communist Party treats a friend who has done a lot of work for him?"
So much so that when he later met Tang Liang, director of the Political Department of the East China Field Army, he almost shed tears of sadness.
Because of this misunderstanding, Han Liancheng even had the idea of "preferring to die at the hands of Chiang Kai-shek rather than being humiliated in East China".
But fortunately, Chen Yi soon came to see Han Liancheng in person, and conveyed to him the condolences of the Party Central Committee and Zhou Enlai, which cleared up this misunderstanding.
Chen Yi asked him, what do you plan to do next?
Han Liancheng thought about it for a long time, but decided to go back to Nanjing.
He said to Chen Yi: "My identity and actions have not been exposed, I will go back to Nanjing to organize another division and an army, and then send you some American-style equipment." ”
Chen Yi felt that this move was too risky, and did not approve of him going back, and advised him to consider it carefully.
But Han Liancheng has already made up his mind. Later facts proved that he was right, because Chiang Kai-shek was not suspicious at the time.
Party members should not be generals
After Han Liancheng returned to Nanjing, he lied that he was disguised to escape from the Laiwu battlefield.
When Chiang Kai-shek heard this, not only did he not doubt it, but also called him "the only surviving hero of the Laiwu Campaign" and praised him for his "extraordinary courage, superior wisdom, and commendable loyalty." ”
Han Liancheng took advantage of Chiang's trust and once again gained a firm foothold in the Kuomintang. But his actions still aroused suspicion among some.
In the summer of 1948, He Yingqin grasped the information that Han Liancheng was "communist" on the Laiwu battlefield, and asked Zhang Zhizhong to immediately send someone to send Han Liancheng back to Nanjing.
Han Liancheng knew that his identity had been exposed, and under the help of Zhou Shiguan, Pan Hannian and others, he sneaked into Hong Kong by plane, and then came to the liberated area - Donghuangxiao Village, Pingshan County, Hebei Province.
In Hebei, he was received separately by Zhu De, Zhou Enlai, Mao Zedong and other leaders.
Mao Zedong said to him: "Chairman Chiang has you people by his side, and my small command not only commands the People's Liberation Army, but also mobilizes the Kuomintang's million-strong army!"
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, the state rewarded all Kuomintang generals with gold for their meritorious service in the uprising.
But Han Liancheng doesn't want gold.
He said: "I am not a general of the uprising, but a Communist Party member who has not gone through the formalities. ”
When our army conferred the title for the first time, according to his experience and contributions, Han Liancheng could be awarded the rank of general. Zhou Enlai also specially asked for his opinion.
Han Liancheng once again showed his broad mind, he said: "If I build the country peacefully, I should retire after success, and what kind of generals and lieutenant generals should I fight for? You are the person who knows me best, and I am not doing revolution for the sake of fame and fortune." ”
Zhou Enlai praised his move very much, saying that he was a strange man who "wanted party members not generals", and it became a beautiful talk in the army for a while.
In the spring of 1984, 75-year-old Han Liancheng passed away.
As a principal in the military region, he died with less than 10,000 yuan in savings.