Wei Lihuang was a general in the Kuomintang army, and as the "tiger general" among the "five tiger generals" under Chiang Kai-shek, he had considerable military command skills. He once commanded the "Battle of Xinkou" in the War of Resistance Against Japan to severely damage the Japanese army, and then led the Chinese Expeditionary Force to defeat the Japanese army in Burma many times, ensuring the rescue life channel of China's anti-Japanese resistance, so he was once called "Indochina Tiger General" by the Supreme Commander of the Japanese Army in North China, And was praised by the Americans as "Changsheng General", which shows that his military ability is indeed outstanding. However, as a general who made many meritorious achievements in the War of Resistance Against Japan, why was he defeated by our People's Liberation Army in the later Liberation War without the strength to fight back?
First of all, the relationship between Wei Lihuang and Chiang Kai-shek himself is very delicate, he participated in the Xinhai Revolution in the early days, and then followed Sun Yat-sen and was selected as his guard, which shows that his seniority in the Kuomintang is very deep, not much lower than Chiang Kai-shek. During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, he was appointed by Chiang Kai-shek as the deputy commander of the Second Theater, and it should be known that the Eighth Route Army at that time also belonged to the Second Theater sequence, and nominally the Eighth Route Army belonged to his jurisdiction, but unlike other Kuomintang generals, he had a deep sense of national responsibility, actively resisted Japan, never interfered with the Eighth Route Army, did not engage in friction, and also cooperated with the Eighth Route Army on many occasions. In addition, he also helped the Eighth Route Army solve the problem of military supplies many times, and directly allocated one million rounds of ammunition and two hundred and fifty thousand grenades to the Eighth Route Army at one time, and he also visited Yan'an to communicate with the senior generals of the Eighth Route Army. It was precisely because of this that Chiang Kai-shek had always been very suspicious of Wei Lihuang, and coupled with the factional struggle within the Kuomintang, he was repeatedly accused of defending the Communist Party. Therefore, when Chiang Kai-shek decided to send the Chinese Expeditionary Force into Burma to fight the Japanese army, his position as commander was removed by Chiang Kai-shek and replaced by Luo Zhuoying, and then Chen Cheng. With the defeat of the Chinese Expeditionary Force, Chiang Kai-shek had to reactivate Wei Lihuang, and under his command, the Chinese Expeditionary Force won victories one after another, not only recovering a large area of land in western Yunnan, opening up the Sino-Indian Highway, ensuring that international aid could smoothly enter China, and making outstanding contributions to China's War of Resistance.
After the end of the War of Resistance Against Japan, Chiang Kai-shek's suspicion of him did not weaken in the slightest, and Wei Lihuang knew it well, and he was also tired of the factional struggles within the Kuomintang, so he went overseas for military investigations, far from the political center. At this time, Chiang Kai-shek was actively waging a civil war to further maintain his dictatorial rule, and Wei Lihuang's attitude toward the civil war had always been very negative, so he was not willing to help Chiang Kai-shek deal with the Communists. However, with the defeat of the war in the northeast and seeing that the situation in the northeast was not optimistic, Chiang Kai-shek had to remove Chen Cheng, once again let Wei Lihuang carry the pot, clean up the mess, and let him take over as the commander-in-chief of the northeast and take over the military and political power in the northeast. However, he himself was reluctant to participate in the civil war, and he was well aware of the factional struggle within the Kuomintang and the political defeat of the Kuomintang, so he was always not optimistic about the prospects of the Kuomintang war. Because of Wei Lihuang's negative attitude, and he adopted the strategy of concentrating troops and sticking to the main points, he did not take the initiative to attack, but only passively defended. This was rebuked by Chiang Kai-shek, but he was unmoved, insisted on his own strategy, and no matter how much Pressure Chiang Kai-shek exerted, he was not moved, so that he directly broke with Chiang Kai-shek later. Such a situation is more conducive to the operation of our Northeast Field Army, which is inconsistent internally, chaotic in command, and naturally defeated. Our northeast field army was like a bamboo, liberating the entire territory of northeast China in one fell swoop and annihilating more than 400,000 Kuomintang troops in northeast China.
After the Liaoshen Campaign, Chiang Kai-shek completely lost patience with Wei Lihuang and put him under house arrest, after which he moved to Hong Kong until the founding of New China. In 1955, Wei Lihuang returned to the mainland under the precise arrangements of our party and was warmly welcomed, with Zhou Enlai, Zhu De, and others personally greeting him at the station, and Chairman Mao also entertained him. He was elected as a deputy to the National People's Congress, a member of the Standing Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, and vice chairman of the National Defense Commission, and died of a sudden illness in 1960.