He joined the Red Army at the age of 15 and became a commander at the regiment headquarters at the age of 16.
After finding out the cause of death, Peng Dehuai immediately asked to keep it secret, what was the reason?
Who is this man, and what is the secret in it?
First paragraph: Strange death
On July 1, 1952, Li Xiang, the commander of the 67th Army, inexplicably had a high fever, and the medical staff tried their best but were still helpless, and seven days later, the commander Li Xiang died.
The strange thing is that as the highest-ranking officer who died at that time, Peng Dehuai announced that he would not mourn secretly, and even the body was not transported to China in time.
Could it be that Peng Dehuai was so unkind? What was the real cause of Li Xiang's death?
On the Korean battlefield in 1952, Li Xiang, commander of the 67th Army of the Volunteer Army, led the whole army of the 67th Army to win an "autumn counterattack war".
Everyone was shocked and hurriedly carried Li Xiang to the infirmary, and after the hygienist examined it, it was found that Commander Li Xiang was suffering from acute meningitis.
This diagnosis made everyone puzzled, and no one believed that the army commander, who was fine yesterday, suddenly contracted acute meningitis today.
In fact, Li Xiang's symptoms were not without warning, in fact, a few days ago, Li Xiang's physical condition had problems.
A few days ago in the morning, Li Xiang woke up and found that he had a small mustard seed on his face, but he didn't take it to heart, thinking that it was just an ordinary fire, and he squeezed it casually.
It was his seemingly small gesture that caused a series of subsequent situations.
That afternoon, he began to feel that something was wrong, that the little mustard seed did not heal itself as usual, but began to ache, from a dull ache at first to a more and more intense one, causing him not to sleep well at night.
But even so, he still didn't care.
As a result, when he woke up the next day, he was surprised to find that his face was swollen, and not only that, but also that there were a lot of mustard seeds and abnormal pain in other parts of his body, and it didn't take long for him to start having a fever.
This series of symptoms made him miserable, and he was even unable to walk normally, so he could only rely on human support.
The hygienist rushed to hear the news, and after the inspection, he concluded that Commander Li should have a decrease in resistance caused by malnutrition, so it caused inflammation of mustard seeds.
But things did not develop according to Li Xiang's expectations, Li Xiang still did not get better after taking medicine for a few days, and the mustard seeds on his body did not decrease but increased. The hygienists also wondered if malnutrition should not be so bad, even if the frontline was hard.
In this way, after a battle a few days later, Li Xiang fell.
Immediately afterwards, the previous scene was ushered in, and Li Xiang was diagnosed with acute meningitis.
Li Xiang's body took a sharp turn for the worse, and he was diagnosed with sepsis on the fourth day after the diagnosis. Just when he was about to transfer Li Xiang to a hospital with better medical conditions for treatment, Commander Li Xiang had already passed away.
From the diagnosis of acute meningitis to death, it was only seven days.
What happened to Li Xiang? The sanitary conditions at the front line would not have allowed the army commander to suffer from such a serious amount of meningitis, not to mention that Li Xiang's physical condition had been very good before this, what was the cause of his death?
The second paragraph: The real cause of Li Xiang's death
In July 1952, Li Xiang was leading the 67th Army to build a defensive position on the Korean battlefield, and when he was engrossed in command, a strange thing happened in the 67th Army garrison.
On July 1, Li Xiang reported the military situation to the division commander as usual, but the difference was that the army commander's expression that day was extremely solemn, and he suddenly felt bad, and hurriedly asked the division commander what had happened.
The division commander told him that the US troops had begun to fly over our garrison with reconnaissance planes a few days ago, but the strange thing was that they did not throw artillery shells, but only some empty shells.
There was nothing in these empty shells, as if they had caused no harm to our soldiers, and the division commander was puzzled.
Li Xiang was also a little puzzled: Could it be that those US troops had dropped the wrong bomb? But this is not logical. Commander Li Xiang has always been cautious and decided to personally go outside the garrison to check on him.
When he arrived, he found that there were a lot of empty shells and shrapnel scattered on the ground, and he did not dare to take it lightly, fearing that these empty shells would suddenly explode, so he asked the soldiers to step back, and he stepped forward to check alone.
He picked up the shrapnel, carefully studied what it was made of, and sniffed the crumbs inside, feeling a foul smell, but nothing out of the ordinary.
After not finding any problems, Li Xiang and the accompanying soldiers were even more puzzled, could it be that the US military went to great lengths to throw a few empty bullet casings just to come over?
Li Xiang carefully checked again, and after finding that there was no gain, he asked his entourage to sweep away the shrapnel and left together.
When he returned, he still felt uneasy, so he wrote a report on the situation and handed it to the headquarters. Then, he continued to plunge into the intense war.
It didn't take long for the opening scene to happen, and Commander Li Xiang's condition deteriorated step by step and finally passed away, becoming the highest-ranking officer to die in the Korean War.
After Peng Dehuai received the report of Li Xiang's death, he did not speak for a long time, and then summoned people to set up an investigation team for Li Xiang's death, and immediately went to the 67th Army station.
He said that the news of Li Xiang's death should be blocked immediately, the real cause of Li Xiang's death should be secretly investigated, and if anyone accidentally leaked the news, it would be dealt with directly by military law.
In 1952, on the Korean battlefield, the commander of the 67th Army died mysteriously within seven days after a high fever, but Mr. Peng demanded strict secrecy.
The investigation team came to the 67th Army garrison for a secret visit, and they investigated all the guards, hygienists and officers around Li Xiang, but found nothing.
These people said that there was no physical abnormality before Li Junchang's illness, and his work and rest were also very healthy and normal. But only Li Xiang suffered from acute meningitis, but the others were unharmed.
The investigation team began to wonder what had been missed. Suddenly, there was a flash of inspiration, if there was nothing abnormal in Li Xiang's station, would there be anything abnormal outside the station?
So the investigation team began to investigate where Li Xiang went before his death, found the place where the US military dropped empty shells before, and found the report handed in by Li Xiang before.
The investigation team vaguely felt that Li Xiang's death was related to the empty bullet casings dropped by the US military, but not many people in the 67th Army knew about these things at that time, and could not provide much usable information.
After that, the Central Military Commission's joint medical examination team conducted a secret autopsy on Li Xiang, which confirmed that Li Xiang did not die of acute meningitis, but a biochemical bacterial infection.
Peng Dehuai sighed when he received the autopsy report and said, "Alas, I guessed it. ”
As soon as the words fell, the senior officers around Peng Dehuai also sighed, as if what they were most worried about had finally happened. What did Mr. Peng guess?
Paragraph 3: Buried secrets
More than 70 years ago, in order to defend peace, 2.9 million Chinese rushed to the front line of North Korea and fought fiercely against the US army, which was very different in strength at that time, and 197653 heroes sacrificed their precious lives in a foreign land, including the commander of the 67th Army, Li Xiang.
From Li Xiang's autopsy report, it is not difficult to see that the real cause of Li Xiang's death was not the so-called acute meningitis, nor was it a simple high fever and sepsis, but a bacterial infection.
At the end of 1951, with the heroic battle of the Chinese volunteers, the American army suffered heavy losses, and in such a situation, American General MacArthur secretly met with two people - Shiro Eishii and Masaji Kitano.
People may not be familiar with these two names now, they are the head of the infamous former Unit 731 Bacteriological Department during the Anti-Japanese War. It was these two men who joined forces with others to create countless bacteriological warfare in China.
Speaking of 731, then the intentions of the US military are clear. They want to use the means of bacterial infection to achieve victory, and this intention is not without sinister.
Li Xiang was infected with one of the viruses dropped by the US military, and the empty bullet casings he picked up contained many insects, and these mosquitoes carried many deadly infectious viruses such as botulinum toxin.
In fact, before Li Xiang was infected, the U.S. military had already begun to launch bacteriological warfare on a small scale, and countless North Korean civilians were infected and died, and many volunteers also died due to the limited health and medical conditions at that time.
Peng Dehuai was very sad when he received the death report of Commander Li Xiang, but he still ordered to block the news of Li Xiang's death because of the stability of the army.
It turned out that on the day of Li Xiang's death, the 67th Army was fighting a fierce battle with the US army, and Mr. Peng was worried that Li Xiang's sacrifice would shake the hearts of the 67th Army, so he had to order that the news should not be kept secret, and the publicity was just an ordinary death.
In this way, Li Xiang, who was only 37 years old, left the world in the conspiracy of the US military, leaving only his wife and a pair of young children, and even his body could only be temporarily buried on the green hills of North Korea.
It is these great people's volunteers who have defended the peace of our motherland with their lives and blood and created a beautiful new life today!
Resources
"During the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, Who Were the Commanders of the First Six Corps to Enter Korea?", Tencent.2020.11.20
"Internationalist Warrior Li Xiang", Yongxin County People's Government Network.2018.08.19
"Li Xiang: Experienced in a Hundred Battles and Fulfilled His Mission", Communist Party of China News Network, 2019.07.16