On March 16, 1961, General Chen Geng died of illness at the age of 58.
Li Kenong, who was seriously ill, was very sad when he learned the news of Chen Geng's death, and he immediately said that he would personally attend the farewell ceremony of Chen Geng's body.
Daughter Li Bing tried her best to stop her, but Li Kenong insisted on going, helpless, Li Bing could only accompany her.
Later, Li Kenong insisted on sending Chen Geng's ashes to the airport, this time, Li Bing did not stop her, maybe she knew that the relationship between old comrades-in-arms was really something she couldn't understand, but she could understand it completely.
Li Kenong is very emotional, one day, a few guests came to the house, Li Kenong was drinking wine, and suddenly dropped the wine glass to the ground.
Everyone looked a little dazed, and Li Kenong burst into tears: "Chen Geng is not here, and there is no taste for drinking.......
What is the relationship between Li Kenong and Chen Geng?
As early as the 20s of the last century, Li Kenong became acquainted with Chen Geng.
In the autumn of 1927, Zhou Enlai proposed the creation of a special branch organization within the party, whose task was to obtain intelligence, raise funds, and sanction traitors.
When the Special Branch was first established, there were only two sections, one was the red team and the other was the general affairs section, the red team was responsible for suppressing traitors, and the general affairs section was responsible for running chores.
In 1928, in order to further grasp the enemy situation, the Intelligence Section was established, and Chen Geng was appointed by Zhou Enlai as the first section chief.
Prior to this, Chen Geng, Gu Shunzhang and others had been appointed by the party organization to go to the Soviet Union for secret training, and they had gained a lot during the six months they studied in the Soviet Union.
Later, after the establishment of Tekko, Gu Shunzhang served as the captain of the red team, also known as the "dog fighting team", which was mainly responsible for suppressing traitors in the party.
Because of Gu Shunzhang's strong ability and the fact that he received systematic spy work in the Soviet Union, the "dog fighting team" he led was very famous in Shanghai for a while.
According to American journalist Robert Parker, the Red Team consisted of a group of skilled gunmen who provided security for the senior cadres of the party in Shanghai, and were responsible for the security of various meetings, keeping an eye on the anti-communist Kuomintang agents, but the main goal was to punish those who defected to the enemy.
At the beginning of 1928, when Chen Geng came to the Special Branch, he served as the head of the Intelligence Section, and in terms of rank, he became Gu Shunzhang's deputy.
After taking office, Chen Geng, under the pseudonym "Wang Yong," held a 29-day training course, which included learning how to guess the enemy's code, how to effectively conceal himself and conduct reconnaissance and surveillance of the enemy, unshackling himself after being arrested, and mixing sugar in gasoline to sabotage cars.
It was also in the Intelligence Department that Chen Geng got acquainted with Li Kenong.
Li Kenong is a native of Chaoxian County, Anhui Province, born in 1899, joined the Communist Party of China during the Great Revolution, and at the beginning of joining the party, Li Kenong was sent by his superiors to Wuhu Youth Gang to organize underground activities.
This may also be a foreshadowing of his life's work, that is, intelligence work.
In 1929, Li Kenong came to Shanghai to work, and immediately afterward, he entered the Central Special Branch and became a member of the Intelligence Section.
At this time, Chen Geng was the chief of the intelligence department, that is to say, Li Kenong was actually Chen Geng's subordinate, but Chen Geng never regarded Li Kenong as a subordinate, and the two formed a deep personal friendship.
In 1931, the leader of the special department, Gu Shunzhang, was captured by the enemy and immediately defected.
After Gu Shunzhang's rebellion, in order to fight for his position, he kept silent about important information, but was anxious to meet Chiang Kai-shek, during which he told the Kuomintang spies in Wuhan not to report the news to Nanjing.
However, Cai Mengjian, the Kuomintang spy who arrested Gu Shunzhang, immediately reported the news to Xu Enzeng, head of the Kuomintang Party Affairs Investigation Section, in order to solicit credit.
On this day, it happened to be Sunday, Xu En had gone out to play, and the person on duty in the office was an underground member of our party, Qian Zhuangfei.
6 urgent top-secret telegrams from Wuhan, each of which reads "Xu Enzeng's personal translation", Qian Zhuangfei mastered Xu Enzeng's intelligence code, he quickly translated the information, and finally learned that Gu Shunzhang had defected and had been sent to Nanjing at this time.
Qian Zhuangfei was very shocked when he got the information, and he immediately found his son-in-law Liu Qifu and asked him to take an express train to Shanghai overnight to tell Li Kenong the news.
After Li Kenong got the information, he knew what this meant, not to mention Nanjing, the intelligence agencies that had been established with great difficulty between Shanghai would be completely destroyed, and even the entire central organ would face a catastrophe.
After getting the information, Li Kenong was anxious to hand it over to Chen Geng.
But unfortunately, this day happened to be not the day he contacted Tekko.
Li Kenong, who was anxious, retained the last bit of thought, he thought: If you find the Jiangsu Provincial Party Committee, will you find Chen Geng?
Facts have proved that this matter is completely okay, and then, Li Kenong finally found Chen Geng with great difficulty.
Chen Geng didn't dare to delay and reported the matter to Zhou Enlai.
Zhou Enlai immediately made a decision, abolished all the secret working methods that Gu Shunzhang knew, and evacuated all the underground party members that Gu Shunzhang might have detected within one day.
A day later, Gu Shunzhang came to Nanjing, met Chiang Kai-shek, and then he took Zhou Enlai, Chen Geng, and the seats of the central organs out of the tray.
When the Kuomintang agents in Shanghai arrived at the secret location of the Central Committee of our Party, they saw only an empty room and a secret document being burned.
In this transfer of the central organs, Qian Zhuangfei made the greatest contribution, and the second merit was Li Kenong.
In a sense, Li Kenong actually saved Chen Geng's life indirectly.
Later, due to Gu Shunzhang's rebellion, Zhou Enlai, Chen Geng and others, the head of the Central Special Branch, left Shanghai one after another, and soon, the Central Special Branch was taken over by Chen Yun and others, but at this time, the Central Special Branch was mainly responsible for dealing with the legacy of Gu Shunzhang's rebellion.
Chen Yangshan, who had served in the Red Team under Gu Shunzhang and remained in Shanghai, later recalled that since Gu Shunzhang's defection: "Most of the responsible cadres were evacuated, the party organization was destroyed, and by 1935 the Shanghai defense organization no longer existed." ”
After this incident, the friendship between Chen Geng and Li Kenong became even deeper.
Soon, Chen Geng and Li Kenong went to work in the Central Soviet Region at the same time, and the two fought side by side again, and as time passed, their friendship also increased.
During the Anti-Japanese War, Chen Geng led his troops to the front, and Li Kenong has been leading the intelligence work in the rear.
It is worth mentioning that during the Liberation War, Li Kenong once again "saved" Chen Geng's life.
In August 1947, Chen Geng led his troops to break through the Yellow River and formed a "pin" shaped sharp knife with Liu Deng and Chen Su's armies, penetrating deep into the enemy's interior.
At this time, Chen Geng did not change his call sign for a long time, so the Kuomintang spies have always mastered the location of Chen Geng's headquarters.
At the critical moment, Li Kenong commanded the relevant intelligence departments of our party to detect the enemy's radio station.
After getting the content, I was very surprised: Chen Geng's position was completely controlled by Chiang Kai-shek.
This news was quickly told to Zhou Enlai by Li Kenong.
Zhou Enlai hurriedly used a triple-A telegram to inform Chen Geng of the matter, and exhorted: Command organs at all levels must improve communication technology and be vigilant against the enemy.
After Chen Geng learned about this, he was very excited, and as a result, the friendship between Chen Geng and Li Kenong became deeper.
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Chen Geng and Li Kenong were both deputy chiefs of general staff, and the two were often together.
Later, due to many years of war, coupled with injuries and many other reasons, Chen Geng's health has not been very good, in 1952, Chen Geng and his subordinates smiled and said: "Don't look at my health, I know that I will not live to be 60 years old." ”
In 1961, Chen Geng came to Shanghai for recuperation.
Just a few days after he came in, his wife Fu Ya said to him with a smile: "Chen Geng, you have an old acquaintance next door, and you won't be lonely if you want to come to the hospital." ”
Chen Geng was very excited: "Who, I have a lot of acquaintances in Shanghai, who are you talking about?"
Fu Ya smiled mysteriously: "You can just go and see for yourself, tell you something, you are not allowed to drink....."
Chen Geng turned over and came to the room next to him, and when he saw the acquaintance living in the room, Chen Geng laughed: "Is it Brother Su Yu?"
Su Yu turned around and saw Chen Geng, very happy: "I only came here yesterday, I heard that you live next to you, and I wanted to go and see you." ”
Chen Geng listened: "Brother Su Yu, I haven't seen you for a long time, I really miss you." ”
Someone asked, Su Yu is the first general, Chen Geng is behind him, why does Chen Geng call Su Yu his brother?
In fact, the reason for this is very simple, during the war years, they formed a friendship that transcended life and death, secondly, Chen Geng was 4 years older than Su Yu, and secondly, Chen Geng's seniority in the party was old, during the Nanchang Uprising, Chen Geng was the battalion commander, and Su Yu was a squad leader.
Therefore, no matter from which aspect, it is appropriate for Chen Geng to call Su Yu "elder brother", and we cannot judge it from the military rank alone.
On this day, Chen Geng was very excited to see Su Yu, the two chatted for a whole day, Fu Ya was also very happy when she learned about it, she hadn't seen Chen Geng so happy for a long time.
Nothing was said all night.
The next day, Fu Ya shouted loudly again: "Chen Geng, you have so many acquaintances, and today you live in another one, and he wants to see you early in the morning." ”
Chen Geng couldn't believe it, his eyes widened and he asked, "Who is it this time?"
Fu Ya was about to answer, when suddenly, Chen Geng's door was pushed open.
A man with eyes walked in, behind him, there was Su Yu, seeing the person in front of him, Chen Geng was excited again: "Brother Kenong, sure enough, when I Chen Geng arrives there, you will follow you, hahaha......"
Li Kenong and Chen Geng are very familiar, and he said: "You also know, I am the most righteous person, and I know that you are sick, then I must also be sick to accompany you, otherwise it will seem that I Li Kenong is unrighteous." ”
Su Yu, Fu Ya and others who were present also laughed when they heard Li Kenong's words.
After a while, watching the three old comrades-in-arms gather, Fu Ya walked out and gave them time to be alone.
Seeing Fu Ya leave, Li Kenong smiled mysteriously, and then, he took out a bottle of liquor from his arms.
Chen Geng's eyes were straight when he saw the liquor, he was sure that there was no one outside, so he hurriedly snatched the wine in Li Kenong's arms, opened the bottle cap, and sniffed it fiercely.
Then, the three of them sat on the bed and talked a lot about the past.
And the wine in the bottle is slowly decreasing with the passage of time.
In the evening, Fu Ya came, she asked about the taste of wine, at this time, Chen Geng and they had already cleaned up the "battlefield", Fu Ya stretched out his hand: "Where are you hiding, take it out." ”
Chen Geng pretended to be stupid and said, "What is hidden, what are you talking about?"
Fu Ya said solemnly: "Don't pretend to be stupid, I'm talking about wine, can't I smell such a big smell of wine in the house?"
Chen Geng: "Hehe, Brother Su Yu and Brother Kenong drank a little, and I chatted with them." ”
Fu Ya didn't believe it: "You open your mouth and let me smell it." ”
Chen Geng was like a child who had done something wrong at this time, and he confessed: "When the old comrades-in-arms met, they couldn't help but dip their tongues a little. ”
Fu Ya glanced at him, and Chen Geng laughed again.
However, although the state has provided meticulous medical treatment and care for Chen Geng, his illness has not improved.
During this period, Chen Geng also wrote a letter to Chairman Mao, hoping to continue to work for the party organization.
Chairman Mao politely rejected him and replied: "Comrade Chen Geng, your first priority now is to take care of your health........ I haven't talked to you for a long time, and I miss it too, and when you recover, I'll invite you to dinner with Fu Ya......."
Time flies, and it flies.
On the evening of March 15, 1961, Chen Geng chatted with Fu Ya, who was sitting on the edge of the bed: "Thank you for taking care of Zhifei for so many years! ”
Zhifei is the child of Chen Geng and his ex-wife Wang Genying, who later died in the Anti-Japanese War.
Fu Ya smiled softly.
That night, Chen Geng talked a lot with Fu Ya, and later, he slowly fell asleep in Fu Ya's soft whispering.
The next day, Fu Ya came to the ward and shouted, "Chen Geng, get up, the nurse will be here in a while." ”
Chen Geng didn't react, Fu Ya pushed him, but Chen Geng didn't react.
Fu Ya's tears immediately flowed out, and she shouted, "Chen Geng, Chen Geng." ”
The doctors, and nurses outside the ward all poured in, and Fu Ya said sadly, "Lao Chen is gone....."
When Su Yu got up and learned the news, tears rained down: "Brother Chen Geng, you left too early...... Then, he lay on the bed and cried bitterly.
Fu Ya knew that Li Kenong and Chen Geng had a good relationship, and knew that Li Kenong's wife died in January 1961, and Li Kenong was grieving, but after thinking about it, Fu Ya finally told Li Kenong the news.
Li Kenong was very sad when he learned that Chen Geng had died
On February 9, 1962, Li Kenong completed his legendary life.