Preface
Li Wanming's case is known as the first case of political fraud in New China, and he successfully turned himself into a "combat hero" after a series of careful planning and disguise from an ordinary low-level non-commissioned officer of the Kuomintang.
has been arrested and imprisoned many times, but his nature is still unchangeable, through a series of rhetoric, bragging about his background, and even marrying a beautiful translator as his wife.
In the end, he was arrested and imprisoned for revealing his identity with a sentence. People have speculated about Li Wanming's true identity, some say that he is an American spy, and some say that there must be a counterrevolutionary clique behind him.
So what is Li Wanming's purpose? How was the case solved?
"Fraud King" Li Wanming
Li Wanming was born in a family of landlords and businessmen, and he also has a twin brother Li Wanyu, whose temperaments and personalities are very different. Li Wanming is cunning and bold by nature, but his younger brother is an innocent and honest person.
Li Wanming's father is an "old fox" in the business world, although his wine shop hangs a signboard of "honest management", but he does not do personnel, and the wine is mixed with water, hiding countless cats.
His father often taught him: "In the business field, there are no eternal enemies, only eternal interests." Li Wanming remembered this sentence deeply.
Since he was a child, Li Wanming has been exposed to it and learned many "ways of survival" from his father.
He began to try all kinds of tricks, from stealing test papers, books, to openly stealing teachers' belongings, and his behavior became more and more unscrupulous. His parents did not stop him, but were proud of him.
In 1945, Li Wanming didn't want to stay in this small place anymore, he wanted to go outside and show his greater "ambition".
His ambition goes far beyond that, and one of the phrases he often hangs on his lips is: "If you don't deceive people, how can you achieve great things?" "He longed to be a great official and enjoy the supreme glory and power.
Since he was a child, he has relied on abduction and deception to make a living, and after coming to the army, his bad habits have not been changed, but have become more unscrupulous.
In the army, he continued to play his "specialty" and set his sights on the fat of military pay. He took advantage of the chaotic period of the alternation of the old and the new in the army to skillfully steal a large amount of discharge money.
After all, paper could not contain the fire, and his actions were discovered by the Kuomintang, and he was eventually arrested and imprisoned, where he spent three months.
In 1949, Li Wanming did not learn a lesson, but intensified. He skillfully disguised himself, falsely claiming that he was a top student of Central University, and with this false identity, he successfully infiltrated the Second Field Military and Political University of the People's Liberation Army.
Here, he continued to perform his deception until he graduated, and no one noticed. But he wasn't satisfied with the work assigned by the school, thinking it was too hard.
So, he forged seals and letters again, and successfully infiltrated the city government. It's good to work in the city government, but the position is too low, he wants to be a big official, but he doesn't want to climb up step by step.
The prototype of the story of the drama "Looking West to Chang'an".
He is not willing to work hard with his feet on the ground, and only wants to achieve his goals through deception and lies. So, after less than a week of working in the city government, he chose to resign.
Then, he began a new path of deception. He falsely claimed to be the "head of the Party Member Education Section" of a certain school, and fabricated a story about being disabled by the Huaihai Campaign to deceive the government into sympathy and support.
Li Wanming thought that this time he could be deceived like before, but this time his trick was discovered, and finally this "fraudster" was arrested by the police and sentenced to three years in prison.
Sample diagram of the source network
Swindling and deceiving to become a "battle hero"
After being released from prison, Li Wanming did not repent and did not stop there, still thinking about his way to promotion and fortune.
This time, he took a desperate step and even privately engraved Deng Xiaoping's seal and forged a letter of introduction. On this letter of introduction, he filled in the names of senior leaders such as Chen Geng and Luo Ruiqing as introducers and witnesses.
Officials at the grassroots level, seeing such a letter of introduction, naturally believed his identity, after all, with the endorsement of high-level leaders, who would dare to doubt it easily?
Li Wanming's move can be described as extremely clever, and he easily obtained the position of a clerk in the Ankang Special Administration. What is even more surprising is that he even won the medal of "People's Meritorious".
Drama "Looking West to Chang'an"
Overnight, he transformed from an ordinary criminal into a respected "combat hero", and for a time he was full of glory.
However, the most difficult thing to satisfy is people's desires, and Li Wanming's ambition did not stop there. He first forged a "military order", claiming that he needed to report to the Central South Bureau.
The local leaders were convinced of him and quickly handled the transfer procedures for him. He also took the opportunity to destroy some of the archives and stuffed a series of forged certificates of honor into them.
In this way, his resume becomes glamorous. In a few years, Li Wanming relied on his forgery and deception methods to rise all the way, and was even transferred to the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry in Beijing as a department-level cadre.
Although his eloquence is clumsy because of his stuttering, he can speak fluently when he cheats, and his stuttering is not visible at all.
Once, Li Wanming went to the Soviet Union with an inspection delegation. He was accompanied by a beautiful young female translator. Seeing this beauty, his lust was immediately hooked.
He has no other skills, just to eat with one mouth. This young woman was also a young woman who had just joined the revolution and was simple-minded.
Li Wanming is a veteran of deception again, he brags about his background and achievements, and soon makes this simple female translator have a good impression of him.
Disguising himself as a man of fame but a pure heart, he succeeds in attracting the attention of a beautiful translator and eventually marries her.
Although Li Wanming is greedy for vanity and lazy, he is good at calligraphy, especially good at imitating other people's handwriting.
Once, he got tired of work and wanted to hang out. So, he lied that he had received a call from Chen Geng and asked him to go to Beijing.
To add credibility, he also wrote a letter imitating Chen Geng's handwriting. Due to his superb imitation skills, the leader did not suspect it after reading the letter and immediately went through the formalities for him.
Since then, Li Wanming has been playing around in this way. The handwriting he imitates is so vivid that it is difficult to distinguish the authenticity from the fake. This also allows him to work like a fish in water and cope with various occasions smoothly.
In order to maintain his image, Li Wanming always wears a brand new military uniform to work. He walked through the crowd with his head held high, and anyone who looked at him would think he was a high-ranking officer.
At home, he is full of medals and certificates. Whether it's true or not, he hangs in a prominent position as a way to show off his achievements and status.
Outsmart oneself
As the saying goes, if you walk by the river, you can't get your shoes wet. All his achievements come from his clever eloquence, however, it is this mouth that finally pushes him into the abyss.
At the end of 1954, Li Wanming once again performed his "stunt" and forged an urgent telegram. In the telegram, he claimed that he was about to be urgently transferred to Lanzhou to participate in an important military meeting.
And it is expected that he will be appointed chief of staff of a certain military district. The local leaders were confused by the sudden news, and even thoughtfully bought him a ticket to Xi'an.
Beams and columns
After arriving in Xi'an, Li Wanming settled down under Liang Dezhu's arrangement. and quickly concocted a so-called "handwritten letter from Zhou Shidi". This time, his goal is even more ambitious - the throne of deputy minister of forestry of the Central Committee.
Liang Dezhu saw that Li Wanming had been living here for many days, but there was still no movement. He set out to find Li Wanming and asked about Lanzhou's participation in the military meeting.
The military meeting was originally made up, and he was interested in the position of deputy minister of the Central Forestry Department, and there was no news about the letter, so he naturally refused to leave.
Faced with Liang Dezhu's inquiry, Li Wanming could only vaguely say something and prevaricate in the past. This also attracted Liang Dezhu's attention, it stands to reason that participating in the military meeting is an important matter, but Li Wanming is not nervous about it.
Zhang Desheng
This unusual demeanor aroused Liang Dezhu's alarm. He noticed that Li Wanming didn't seem to be interested in the upcoming military meeting, and his eyes always showed a kind of evasion and uneasiness.
At this time, Zhang Desheng, secretary of the Shanxi Provincial Party Committee, came to visit, and Liang Dezhu introduced Li Wanming to Zhang Desheng, saying that he was an old revolutionary man who had participated in the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea before.
After the two shook hands and sat down, Li Wanming boasted to Zhang Desheng that he was about to go to Lanzhou to attend a meeting and be promoted to chief of staff.
After Zhang Desheng heard these words, he couldn't help but wonder, he was the director of the Political Department of the Second Field before, and he also served as the political commissar in the Lanzhou Military Region, why didn't he get any news?
Zhang Desheng
looked at Li Wanming, who was dressed in formal clothes in front of him, and even doubted that he had missed the news? Thinking about it, it's not right, this is impossible, I was deeply suspicious of Li Wanming's background, and I couldn't help but feel vigilant.
So he asked Li Wanming about the specific time and location of the meeting, as well as the number of the military region he was about to take office, and so on.
Li Wanming didn't expect Zhang Desheng to ask himself these questions, in the face of such a sudden inquiry, Li Wanming made up what he could, but he forced the topic elsewhere if he couldn't make it up.
Li Wanming's flawed rhetoric and evasive demeanor made Zhang Desheng more convinced of the doubts in his heart.
After bidding farewell to Liang's house, Zhang Desheng immediately sent someone to find out everything about what Li Wanming said. Not long after, the Central Military Commission called back, saying that there was no such thing as Li Wanming at all, let alone asking him to serve as chief of staff of the military region.
Investigators also found that all of Li Wanming's resumes were forged, and each item did not match the facts. In January 1955, public security officers arrested Li Wanming.
Surprisingly, he did not quibble or try to get away with it, as one might think, but confessed his guilt very calmly.
This poise raised questions about whether he had known he was going to be arrested and was well prepared.
Li Wanming's case caused an uproar in society. There has been a lot of speculation about his true identity and the motives behind it.
Some people say that he is an American spy whose purpose is to break into the Communist Party to steal intelligence information; Some people say that there must be a counter-revolutionary clique behind him, otherwise he would not dare to be so arrogant.
After more than a year of investigation and trial, the truth was finally revealed to the world - Li Wanming was just an ordinary liar who relied on swagger and deception to obtain personal benefits, and had no other political background.
Due to the seriousness of his crime, Li Wanming was eventually sentenced to 15 years in prison and deprived of political rights for five years.
From a respected "combat hero" to a political fraudster, Li Wanming has also become a topic of conversation and a laughing stock after dinner.
And the beautiful translator who believed Li Wanming's slander before, finally saw Li Wanming's true face and divorced him.
epilogue
After Li Wanming was released, the government gave him a chance to reform and arranged for him to work in Huafang. Later, he met a rural woman and married him.
Li Wanming's past experiences have not become a shackle to his life, and he is often invited to give reports in newspapers, prisons and other places to share his stories.
In his speech, Li Wanming unabashedly expressed his remorse for his past actions. He knew that the crimes he had committed had caused harm to society and others.
I also know that I can stand up again without the help of the government and society. Therefore, he is grateful for the job opportunities offered by the government and is satisfied with his living conditions.
He also built a house for his family, and wrote blessings and couplets for the villagers during the New Year's holidays. In April 1991, Li Wanming was seriously ill and hospitalized and passed away not long after.
Resources
The real Li Wanming and his affairs. Democracy and the Rule of Law Network