Who was the first deputy defense minister to die of illness in office? He is the great general Chen Geng who has been deplored by the people of the whole country. In 1961, General Chen Geng died in Shanghai because of a myocardial infarction, at the age of 58. Chen Geng was also concurrently serving as vice minister of defense at the time.
Chen Geng was the first founding general to die. Just four years later, another vice minister of defense, who also died of illness in Shanghai, was General Liu Yalou at the age of 55. The age of death was 3 years younger than Chen Geng. Liu Yalou was one of the founding generals who died earlier.
Among the founding generals, Liu Yalou's fame is relatively large, because he is the first commander of the air force of New China, and he is also the commander of the air force for the longest term so far, and Liu Yalou's record of being the commander of the air force for 16 years has not been broken.
In addition to serving as the commander of the Air Force, Liu Yalou also has an important part-time job, that is, the deputy minister of defense. Liu Yalou was appointed vice minister of defense in 1959, and there were only six years until his death in 1965.
(Li Kenong, Chen Geng and Liu Yalou)
To say this, the main responsibility is still Liu Yalou himself, he is a workaholic, never considering his physical condition. It was 1964, and American unmanned aerial vehicles were very arrogantly entering Chinese airspace, and we did not have the ability to shoot them down.
Liu Yalou attached great importance to this matter and personally went to Guangdong to inspect the First Air Division. When the leaders of the First Air Division saw Commander Liu, they were a little strange and uneasy in their hearts, not because they did not do a good job in their work and were afraid of being criticized by Commander Liu, but because they keenly found that Commander Liu's spirit was not very good.
In the past, Liu Yalou was full of red light and full of spirits, but this time, it was not, his whole person was very thin, his face was sallow, and he was obviously a sick face. The leader of the First Air Division said with concern, Commander Liu, is it necessary to take a break first?
Liu Yalou has always been fierce, and he said without doubt, I came to you not to recuperate, but to work. The leader of the First Air Division could not resist him, so he had to start reporting. In the process of listening to the report, Liu Yalou's liver hurt badly several times, and his forehead was full of beads of sweat, almost falling down. However, he endured the pain and continued to meet to study ways to fight drones.
After returning to Beijing, Liu Yalou immediately reported the situation to Premier Zhou, who instructed him to find a way to lay down an unmanned plane. Premier Zhou, who was so attentive, was talking about work while observing Liu Yalou, and he found that Liu Yalou was not in the whole person, so he immediately called Luo Ruiqing's chief of staff and arranged for Liu Yalou to go to the hospital for examination.
With the personal instructions of the prime minister and the repeated urging of his wife, Liu Yalou finally came to the hospital. After examination, the doctor was shocked, could not believe his eyes, Liu Yalou's body of liver transaminases has reached up to three hundred units, what does it mean? This is more than four times that of ordinary people, and Liu Yalou's entire liver is hard as a stone.
It's basically advanced liver cancer.
It should be said that at this time, the treatment is too late. How did this happen? Do you have liver disease, liu Yalou does not know? Did his family and friends know nothing? Discover earlier, treat earlier, why this?
However, this is the fact that after the founding of New China, the Air Force was poor and white, starting from scratch, but it was about to respond to the war against the United States and aid Korea, and Liu Yalou used his miraculous strength to conjure up so many air force units that could fight in the shortest possible time. Shock at home, attention from the world.
Liu Yalou is not Sun Wukong, there are no seventy-two changes, all the miracles are created by his work day and night. Liu Yalou actually found out that there was something wrong with his body long ago, but he forced himself to endure the pain, hid from everyone, and never went to the hospital for examination. All this is for work, for the strength of the new Chinese air force, Liu Yalou is racing against time.
(Liu Yalou and the three old marshals)
After Liu Yalou's physical examination report came out, the hospital did not tell him and his family, but first reported it to the central government. Upon receiving this report, Premier Zhou was shocked, Chairman Mao was shocked, and Liu Yalou's comrades-in-arms were shocked!
How can this be?!
Chairman Mao instructed that all work in Liu Yalou be stopped immediately and that he should be treated in the best hospital. Unexpectedly, with the instructions of the central authorities, Liu Yalou actually stuffed it into the drawer and continued to bury his head in work, and no one could persuade him. Liu Yalou quickly drafted a report on how to deal with US unmanned aircraft.
When this report was delivered to Chairman Mao, Chairman Mao did not give instructions, but personally wrote a letter full of concern to Liu Yalou:
"Comrade Yalou, knowing that you are ill, I am very worried about you, so we must seriously recuperate, listen to the doctor's words, and must not neglect it."
The next day, accompanied by his wife, he went to Shanghai Huadong Hospital, and Liu Yalou never returned. During Liu Yalou's hospitalization, the Air Force kept sending good news, and according to the methods formulated by Liu Yalou, the Chinese Air Force athletes successively shot down the Unmanned Aerial Aircraft of the United States.
(Lin Luo Liu)
When these air force heroes flew to Beijing and were personally received by the head of the central authorities, they saw the beloved Premier Zhou, saw Boss He, and saw Marshal Ye Jianying, but did not see their Commander Liu. When they heard that their Commander Liu was being treated in the hospital, the heroes could not help but burst into tears.
They would never see their commander Liu Yalou again. During Liu Yalou's hospitalization, many old comrades-in-arms came to visit him. Premier Zhou came, Marshal Ye Jianying came, Yang Chengwu came, and even Lin Zong, who had never visited patients in the hospital, also came.
Of course, Lin Yalou is coming, Liu Yalou has always been Lin Zong's love general, from the Central Red Army Long March Road, Lin is always the commander of the Red First Army, Liu Yalou is the pioneer of the Red First Army, the political commissar of the Red Second Division, the commander of the Red First Division. During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Liu Yalou went to the Soviet Union to study, Lin Zong went to the Soviet Union for medical treatment, and Lin Zong personally attended Liu Yalou's wedding. During the Liberation War, the commander of the Northeast Army, the god of war, Lin Zong, felt that a lot of work was not smooth and the command was not smooth. Since Liu Yalou came to be the chief of staff, Lin Zongcai commanded freely and was at ease.
(Lin Biao at Liu Yalou's memorial service)
During Liu Yalou's illness and hospitalization, Lin Not only called many times, but also wrote several letters, and rushed to Shanghai with his family three times to visit Liu Yalou in the hospital. The meticulous Lin Zong also brought some revolutionary song records and pictorials to Liu Yalou, so that he could adjust his life and recuperate well.
The care of the chiefs and comrades-in-arms did not keep Liu Yalou's life. In May 1965, Liu Yalou, a famous general, passed away, leaving behind his beloved air force career, his wife, and young children. He was a revolutionary old scalper who bowed down to death and then died of exhaustion. Liu Yalou died not only of illness while serving as commander of the Air Force, but also of being the vice minister of defense.