Speaking of Wei Lihuang, most people who know a little about history have heard of this name. Wei Lihuang was one of Chiang Kai-shek's most important five tiger generals, who repeatedly undertook combat tasks in warlord melee and "encirclement and suppression" of the Red Army, and made "outstanding military achievements" for Chiang Kai-shek in the course of operations. Later, with the acceleration of national liberation, the Xinhua News Agency announced 43 first-class war criminals, the first of which was Chiang Kai-shek, and Wei Lihuang's name was also among them. In the face of becoming a first-class war criminal, Wei Lihuang, who had fled to Hong Kong at this time, not only did not think so, but because he was worried that his 85-year-old mother on the mainland would not be taken care of, he personally wrote a handwritten letter to Zhu Zong, hoping that Zhu Zong could take care of his old mother in the Liberated Area of Hefei. After receiving the letter, Mr. Zhu did not dare to be careless, and immediately communicated with Chairman Mao, and after hearing the news, the chairman immediately instructed: We must take good care of General Wei's family, and immediately notified the relevant military and political departments in Hefei to provide necessary convenience. Not only that, after the founding of New China, when Wei Lihuang returned to the mainland, he not only received a personal banquet from Chairman Mao, but also succeeded Yunlong as vice chairman of the National Defense Commission. It is strange to see many people here, theoretically, if a first-class war criminal is caught, even if he is executed immediately. Why did Chairman Mao order kindness to his family in the Liberated Areas? Was he later appointed Vice-President of our country?
Here is Dr. Love Rabbit, like friends can pay attention to support it, today we will look at the story of the first-class war criminal - Wei Lihuang.
Wei Lihuang, who was born in Weiyang Village, Hefei, Anhui Province, has been brave and good at fighting since childhood. When he was 8 years old, his father died of the plague, and the family struggled to survive on the eldest brother. When the Nanchang Uprising broke out in 1911, Wei Lihuang, who was only 15 years old, embarked on the road of revolution with his eldest brother. Subsequently, Wei Lihuang went all the way south to Guangzhou and became a guard for Dr. Sun Yat-sen. Because of his excellent performance, Wei Lihuang was quickly promoted, was incorporated into the best Cantonese army at that time, and served as a platoon leader under Xu Chongzhi, and because of his repeated military achievements, he was soon promoted to battalion commander. After the End of the Central Plains War, Chiang Kai-shek began to encircle and suppress the Red Army. In May 1932, Chiang Kai-shek personally served as commander-in-chief, mobilized 300,000 people, encircled and suppressed the Soviet area, and appointed Wei Lihuang as the commander of the 6th Column of the Middle Route Army. It was precisely because wei Lihuang made many achievements in the "suppression of the communists" and was greatly appreciated by Chiang Kai-shek that he became one of Chiang Kai-shek's five tiger generals, and in 1936, he was awarded the rank of general of the army and served as the commander of Xuhai Appeasement Sub-district. In the same year, in order to urge Zhang Xueliang and Yang Hucheng to suppress the Communists, Chiang Kai-shek flew to Xi'an three times, and when the Xi'an Incident broke out, Wei Lihuang, who was then the commander-in-chief of the Fifth Route Army, was detained together with Chiang Kai-shek. Wei Lihuang, who witnessed the CCP actively promoting the peaceful settlement of the Xi'an Incident, was greatly touched.
After the joint anti-Japanese war, Wei Lihuang was appointed deputy commander and commander-in-chief of the Second Theater, and the Eighth Route Army at this time was nominally under the command of Wei Lihuang, but Wei Lihuang never interfered in the affairs of the Eighth Route Army, but actively contacted and consulted with the generals of the Eighth Route Army to coordinate operations. Not only that, wei Lihuang never interfered too much with the anti-Japanese contingents of different camps, nor did he engage in some small actions; he once said that as long as they were anti-Japanese troops, they were treated equally. Wei Lihuang is not only talking, but also supporting the Japanese team within his ability in action. For example, when he learned that Lin Biao was injured, Wei Lihuang personally went to Yan'an to visit, and also brought a total of 10 truckloads of bullets, grenades and other military supplies. When Wei Lihuang visited Yan'an, Chairman Mao praised him for his persistence in the War of Resistance. The two like-minded people hit it off at once, and they hated each other late. Later, Wei Lihuang was transferred to the commander of the First Theater of Operations, and the contacts between him and the Communist leaders became closer. The Eighth Route Army set up an office in Luoyang, and whenever Premier Zhou, General Manager Zhu, and other comrades came to Luoyang, Wei Lihuang would personally receive them warmly and set up a banquet.
Due to the continuous power struggle within the Kuomintang, Wei Lihuang was accused of various actions year after year. At this time, the suspicious Chiang Kai-shek began to have a gap in his heart for Wei Lihuang. In February and March 1940, the Kuomintang set off the first anti-communist upsurge after the cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Communists. Chiang Kai-shek hinted that Zhu Huaibing muster his forces to attack the Eighth Route Army garrison in the Taihang Mountains, but was met with self-defense resistance from the Eighth Route Army. Zhu Huaibing, who knew that he was not an opponent, hurriedly asked Wei Lihuang for help, who knew that Wei Lihuang refused Zhu Huaibing's request and did not send troops to assist, but instead issued military equipment to the Eighth Route Army as usual. During this period, Chiang Kai-shek sent four consecutive telegrams in 4 days, calling Wei Lihuang and demanding that the Eighth Route Army must withdraw from the area south of the Taihang Mountains, fight if it does not obey, and solve it by force. In this regard, Wei Lihuang repeatedly persuaded him to hope for a peaceful settlement. Chiang Kai-shek lost his temper and scolded Wei Lihuang. Wei Lihuang had no choice but to obey the order and ask his troops to be ready to wait for action, while on the other hand, he privately sent letters to Zhu Laozong and Peng Laozong, expressing that he would maintain unity and mutual assistance with the Eighth Route Army and fight side by side. The two sides held friendly consultations against Japan's defensive areas. During his tenure in Luoyang, Wei Lihuang exchanged more than 60 telegrams with Chairman Mao, discussing the theory and strategy of the War of Resistance and Revolution. Through exchanges with Chairman Mao, Wei Lihuang gained a deeper understanding of the Communist Party.
At the end of 1942, Chiang Kai-shek, who was already dissatisfied with Wei Lihuang, dismissed him from his post as chairman of Henan Province and military power. In 1943, Chiang Kai-shek, who had no one to use, once again used Wei Lihuang as the commander of the Chinese expedition and went to Burma to fight the Japanese army. Under the command of Wei Lihuang, hundreds of thousands of expeditionary troops crushed the Japanese army on the borders of western Yunnan and China and Burma in one fell swoop, recovering all the fallen land and preserving the lifeline of the anti-Japanese resistance.
After the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, disputes between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party re-emerged, first manifested in the northeast issue. The Kuomintang tried to control and control the northeast. However, at this time, the northeast battlefield had become a mess, and no one within the Kuomintang was willing to take over. Chiang Kai-shek hesitated for several days, and finally selected Wei Lihuang. Chiang Kai-shek felt that during Wei Lihuang's visit, the situation in the northeast "may be able to turn the crisis into safety." He didn't know that Wei Lihuang already had his own plan in mind at this moment. After receiving a call from Chiang Kai-shek's appointment, Wei Lihuang contacted the CPC Central Committee through the embassy. Therefore, after returning to China, Wei Lihuang did not behave actively, and after arriving in the northeast, he concentrated his troops near Shenyang and Changchun, and insisted on sticking to the main points and refusing to fight.
In July 1948, Wei Lihuang went to Nanjing to meet Chiang Kai-shek, saying that the combat strength and energy of the northeast army had been restored, and the plan for an independent garrison in Shenyang had been reached, and if troops were sent at this time to open the Jinshen Passage, it would waste the resources of troops and resources, and it would also increase the crisis in Shenyang, and specially came to urge Chiang Kai-shek to make the decision to continue to hold on to Shenyang.
On September 12, the Northeast Field Army captured Jinzhou, and Chiang Kai-shek, who learned of this, immediately flew to the northeast to urge Wei Lihuang to send troops, but Wei Lihuang resolutely refused to do so. In the end, Chiang Kai-shek, who was embarrassed and angry, personally took command, and Shenyang sent 5 troops to form the East-West Corps to reinforce Jinzhou. Liao Yaoxiang's Westward Advance Corps and Hou Jingru's EastWard Advance Corps were both stubbornly counterattacked by the Northeast Field Army in the process of reinforcing the Jinzhou Campaign, and it was very difficult to advance. Chiang Kai-shek's strategy of reinforcing Jinzhou was shattered, and soon Jinzhou was captured by our army, and Fan Hanjie, commander of the Jinzhou garrison, was taken prisoner.
As soon as Jinzhou was liberated, the gate from the northeast to Guannei was completely closed, and the Liaoshen Campaign had reached the most critical moment, and the Ninth Corps of Liao Yaoxiang, the most elite of the Nationalist army on the northeast battlefield, had also been completely annihilated on the liaoxi battlefield. However, at this moment, Chiang Kai-shek sent a plane to take Wei Lihuang from the northeast to Beiping, and in addition to him, Zhao Jiaji, chief of staff in the Liaoshen Campaign, as well as Pan Yukun, Long Tianwu, and others who escaped from the battlefield in western Liaoning, evacuated the northeast together. On November 30, Chiang Kai-shek took Wei "from his post and investigated" and sent him back to Nanjing under house arrest on the grounds that he "hesitated, took the wrong plane, and lost his important town." The Kuomintang and the United States attributed the main reason for the defeat in the northeast theater to Wei Lihuang's delay in fighters and disobedience to orders, which was obviously very one-sided. However, it is not difficult for us to see Wei Lihuang's good intentions during the Liaoshen Campaign. Within the limits of his ability, he repeatedly and again refused Chiang Kai-shek's orders, did everything possible to stay still, and used his position to exert influence, even to confuse the senior generals in the northeast and to make Chiang Kai-shek's strategic plan come to naught, thus cooperating with the strategic offensive of the People's Liberation Army at the most crucial moment of China's revolutionary war; he not only protected Shenyang, an important town in the northeast, but also effectively undermined Chiang Kai-shek's intention to withdraw hundreds of thousands of main forces in the northeast to Guannei in order to achieve the goal of withdrawing hundreds of thousands of main forces in the northeast to The People's Liberation Army. The Central Plains Battlefield is planned to compete with the People's Liberation Army again.
Hearing the news of the founding of the People's Republic of China, Wei Lihuang telephoned Chairman Mao and others and expressed great joy. Premier Zhou entrusted people to convey that they were welcome to return to the mainland to settle down. In March 1955, Wei Lihuang rejected the Kuomintang's arrangement to let him go to Taiwan, and returned to Beijing from Hong Kong, where he was cordially received by China's senior leaders. In the same year, under the meticulous arrangements of our leaders, Wei Lihuang finally returned to the mainland and used sharp words to forcefully expose Chiang Kai-shek's betrayal of Dr. Sun Yat-sen's Three People's Principles, traitors to the country and seeking glory, and the exclusion of dissidents, and fervently called on the patriotic Kuomintang generals to return to China, which played a great role at that time.
On January 17, 1960, Wei Lihuang died of illness in Beijing at the age of 64. Before his death, he held the following positions as Vice Chairman of the National Defense Commission, Deputy to the National People's Congress, Standing Committee Member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, and Member of the Central Committee of the Kuomintang Revolutionary Committee. In the five years since returning to the mainland, he has made due contributions to the cause of socialist construction and the great cause of reunification.
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