In 1955, Wei Lihuang returned to the motherland from overseas, a Kuomintang general who was once listed as a "first-class war criminal", was the commander-in-chief of the Northeast Suppression, and was one of China's strongest enemies in the Northeast Battlefield.
However, what is surprising is that not only did he not **, but was personally greeted by *** and the six marshals, and drank with *** at the same table, talking and laughing.
Is Wei Lihuang friend or foe? He participated in the revolution as early as the Xinhai Revolution, and his many years of fighting career with Mr. Sun Yat-sen made him full of admiration for Mr. Sun Yat-sen's revolutionary ideas and the Three People's Principles, and he went all out to follow Mr. Sun Yat-sen, hoping to help him open up a bright path in this chaotic era.
However, fate gave him a heavy blow, just when the revolutionary cause of ** was just on the right track, Mr. Zhongshan died of illness, and the Kuomintang fell into a state of leaderlessness.
Chiang Kai-shek took the opportunity to ascend to the throne in the name of Mr. Nakayama's student, trying to use the power of all sides to consolidate his position.
Wei Lihuang initially had a simple admiration for Chiang Kai-shek, believing that he was a close confidant of Mr. Sun Yat-sen and was in charge of the Whampoa Military Academy, so he chose to follow him. Although Wei Lihuang did not receive professional military training, he possessed unique military talents that allowed him to excel on the battlefield.
During the Northern Expedition, he performed well and quickly became one of the important generals in Chiang Kai-shek's camp, rising in the ranks. However, as he rose through the ranks, he gradually found that Chiang Kai-shek was wary of him, unwilling to hand over key positions to him, and did not have complete trust in him.
Chiang Kai-shek was understandably suspicious. As a careerist, he has an extremely keen insight, which is an important factor in his ability to be a leader.
Wei Lihuang was not from Whampoa, had no relationship with him, and was not easy to control, which obviously did not meet the standards of Chiang Kai-shek's trust. However, Wei Lihuang did not realize this, and only thought that his achievements were not enough, which aroused Chiang Kai-shek's doubts.
With his strength and courage, Wei Lihuang took a series of powerful actions that succeeded in destroying the Communist strongholds and arresting a large number of Communist Party members. His army was well-armed and powerful, and as a result of which it achieved an overwhelming advantage in the engagement with the Red Army.
These victories earned him the status of a high-ranking Kuomintang general, making him a subordinate of Chiang Kai-shek"Five Tiger Generals"One. By 1936, he had become the commander of the appeasement division and received the rank of army general.
Wei Lihuang's official promotion did not enhance his status in the **, because he realized that no matter what he did, he could not escape the fate of being looked down upon by Chiang Kai-shek.
No matter how many mistakes Chen Cheng makes, he will not be reused by Chiang Kai-shek, but will become the "number one candidate" behind the black pot. This helpless status quo made Wei Lihuang's thinking undergo a major change, and he began to contradict Chiang Kai-shek, and the distance between the two became wider and wider.
After the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, although Chiang Kai-shek insisted on purging ** first and then resisting Japan, he was finally forced to compromise in the Xi'an Incident and chose the cooperation of the Kuomintang and the Communist Party.
At that time, Wei Lihuang was at the scene, and because he had heavy soldiers, he was also detained by Zhang Xueliang and others.
Yang Hucheng was brave and righteous, and Zhang Xueliang made great efforts, all of which were seen by Wei Lihuang. Although he regarded himself as proud and did not want to befriend Chiang Kai-shek, he was also unwilling to completely stand on the military opposite of Chiang Kai-shek.
Zhang Xueliang and others made such a huge sacrifice for the survival of the country, which deeply shocked Wei Lihuang and laid the groundwork for him to later embark on the road of anti-Chiang.
After the joint anti-Japanese resistance, Wei Lihuang was entrusted with an important task and became the deputy commander of the Second Theater and the former commander-in-chief of the enemy, with full responsibility for the anti-Japanese operations in Shanxi. The Shanxi region was the most powerful front-line battlefield of the Japanese army, and Wei Lihuang was enthusiastic about it and determined to serve the country.
What he may not be aware of, however, is that Chiang Kai-shek's reuse of him actually hides some other considerations. He was sent as commander-in-chief, on the one hand, to use Wei Lihuang's bravery and good fighting to help the Kuomintang win prestige and reputation at the front.
First, Chiang Kai-shek hoped to use Wei Lihuang's exploits in order to monitor and clamp down on the Communist Party in Shanxi. The second is that he has long been eyeing the Shanxi occupied by Yan Xishan, and sent Wei Lihuang over, hoping to occupy Shanxi and completely encroach on it.
However, no matter how loud Chiang Kai-shek's calculations played, he also ignored the fact that Wei Lihuang's thoughts and actions could not be completely controlled by him.
In 1938, the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression was in full swing, and the Japanese army suffered a setback in the defense of Taiyuan, so it gathered hundreds of thousands of troops in anger and anger, aiming to move south, trying to capture Shanxi in one fell swoop, and then control the whole of North China.
This is a life-and-death war, once North China falls into the hands of the Japanese army, the national war of resistance will fall into an extremely grim situation, and at that time it will face great difficulties to completely drive out the Japanese army.
Therefore, defending Shanxi and guarding this last line of defense has become the main task of the KMT-CCP alliance.
At the critical juncture of life and death, Wei Lihuang acted decisively, led the main force to garrison Taiyue Mountain, built a solid defensive line, and successfully blocked the large-scale attack of the Japanese army.
Although the Japanese army had sufficient troops, it was unable to break through our defense line for a while. However, instead of attacking head-on, the Japanese sent small units to make a detour around the flanks of our troops and carry out a two-sided attack.
Wei Lihuang led the troops to resist desperately, but he could not wait for reinforcements from the Kuomintang. At the critical moment, the Eighth Route Army broke the deadlock. ** and *** commanded troops to make frequent sorties in the Niangziguan area, which seriously damaged the Japanese army's transportation and supply lines and weakened the Japanese offensive.
At the same time, the Eighth Route Army also sent a letter to Wei Lihuang, informing him that he was ready to break through and that the Eighth Route Army would cooperate on one side.
After experiencing a difficult breakthrough, Wei Lihuang did not get rid of the danger, the Japanese army behind the relentless pursuit made it difficult for him to move forward, and only by reaching the Zhongtiao Mountains occupied by the Kuomintang in southern Jinnan could he truly ensure safety.
However, the road to Jinnan is not easy, and it needs to pass through northern Shaanxi, passing through the *** location of the Eighth Route Army. Considering Chiang Kai-shek's caution on this matter and his own experience of suppressing the CCP over the past years, Wei Lihuang's heart was full of worries and he was unable to make a decision for a long time.
At this moment, his secretary Zhao Rongsheng saw his hesitation and began to persuade him of the benefits of going to Yan'an. Wei Lihuang was moved by Zhao Rongsheng's words and began to waver in his heart, but at this moment, he received a telegram from Chiang Kai-shek asking him to go to Luoyang for a meeting.
The route to Luoyang had to pass through northern Shaanxi, which eventually strengthened Wei Lihuang's determination to go to northern Shaanxi.
The news that Wei Lihuang was going to pass through northern Shaanxi made *** and *** highly concerned, because he was the first Kuomintang theater commander to arrive in northern Shaanxi, which was of great significance to the cooperation between the KMT and the Communist Party.
Wei Lihuang was terrified along the way, worried that the Eighth Route Army would take the opportunity to retaliate. But after arriving in Yan'an, he found that his previous concerns were superfluous, not only did he not mention the past, but also recognized his talents and merits on the battlefield of resistance against Japan.
Wei Lihuang relaxed, and the two sides began to discuss the battlefield situation in depth. As the conversation deepened, Wei Lihuang's views on the Eighth Route Army gradually changed, especially his unique views on the battle situation and insight into the future, which made him deeply admired.
Wei Lihuang personally supervised the distribution of supplies to the People's Liberation Army in his Xi'an office, and he made a list of supplies including ammunition, communications and anti-inflammatory drugs.
The people in the material management department of the office were puzzled by this list, because it had instructed to reduce the supplies to the Eighth Route Army as much as possible, and Wei Lihuang's list seemed to be a little too generous.
Wei Lihuang saw through the minds of these people at a glance, and he sneered and directly gave the death order. Now that the Kuomintang and the Communist Party are cooperating, all the armies in the second theater are his troops, and naturally they must be treated equally.
But he understood that only soldiers who could fight could get enough supplies. In addition, considering that the living conditions of the Eighth Route Army were difficult and there was almost no nutritional supplement, he decided to give all the only hundreds of boxes of canned beef in the war zone to the Eighth Route Army, a total of 180 boxes.
Although these numbers are nothing in the face of the huge number of troops, this is Wei Lihuang's sincere care for the brothers of the Eighth Route Army. It is easy to put icing on the cake, but it is difficult to send charcoal in the snow, Wei Lihuang risked being suspicious of Chiang Kai-shek, and at the most difficult moment, he provided a large amount of supplies for the Eighth Route Army.
This made *** very moved, and he sighed more than once that Wei Lihuang was a real patriotic general.
After reading ***'s work, Wei Lihuang had a soft spot for "On Protracted War", and the strategic layout shown in the book made him, a man who had been fighting for many years, deeply amazed, it turned out that there was really such a strategizing military genius in the world.
Wei Lihuang's friendly interaction with the Eighth Route Army during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression aroused Chiang Kai-shek's dissatisfaction, so he relieved Wei Lihuang of his military post shortly after the start of the Liberation War and put him in charge of diplomatic matters to study abroad.
Although Wei Lihuang did not want to see a civil war among his compatriots, his favorable feelings for the Communist Party convinced him that *** and his team would win the war. Therefore, he did not hesitate to go abroad.
However, he still could not escape the arrangement of fate. With the fierce progress of the Liberation War and the successive defeats of the Kuomintang, Chiang Kai-shek remembered him, the former "best nemesis", and transferred him to the Northeast Battlefield and entrusted him with heavy tasks.
However, Chiang Kai-shek was still concerned about Wei Lihuang's position, and did not fully trust him, but put Chen Cheng in charge of the theater of operations.
This action made Wei Lihuang completely fall to the Communists, and he behaved passively in the subsequent battles, delaying as long as he could, sending troops late as he could, and deliberately causing trouble in the Liaoshen Campaign, providing important help to the PLA.
After the Battle of Liaoshen, the Kuomintang had no hope of turning the tide, and Chiang Kai-shek was so angry that he even wanted to kill Wei Lihuang because of his poor performance in the war.
However, ** sensed Wei Lihuang's dangerous situation and listed him as a "first-class war criminal", which made Chiang Kai-shek put aside his doubts and did not take action against him.
Chiang Kai-shek, seeing that the tide was turning, planned to flee to Taiwan. He knew that Wei Lihuang was living in seclusion in Hong Kong, so he sent someone to persuade him to go with him. Wei Lihuang is a famous Kuomintang general and an anti-Japanese hero, and his influence is extremely great, and if he returns to the mainland, it will be a major blow to the Kuomintang.
Therefore, Wei Lihuang was in fact a staunch revolutionary fighter, and he knew that communism was the only way to save the country, and it was naturally impossible to follow Chiang Kai-shek to Taiwan.
Chiang Kai-shek could not deal with him directly, but he was also unwilling to let him go, so he sent a large number of spies to monitor him.
In 1949, the news of the founding of the People's Republic of China spread around the world, and Wei Lihuang was so excited that he burst into tears when he heard the news. He immediately called *** to express his congratulations and expressed his desire to return to his homeland.
However, at that time, the situation in China was still unstable, and Chiang Kai-shek was also eyeing Taiwan, ** worried about Wei Lihuang's safety, so he let him stay in Hong Kong for the time being, waiting for the right time to take him back to China.
In 1955, Wei Lihuang's long-awaited moment to return to China finally arrived. At this time, New China was no longer what it used to be, and the victory of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea allowed China to stand up and gain an important position on the international stage, and Chiang Kai-shek was no longer a threat.
At 9 a.m. on April 6, General Wei Lihuang and his wife arrived at the Beijing Railway Station. As soon as they came into view, they saw *** standing on the platform, leading the six marshals, warmly welcoming their return.
After many years of leaving their hometown, they finally set foot on this familiar land, and they were greeted not only with the enthusiasm of the leaders, but also with the deep affection of their homeland that they had not seen for a long time. Wei Lihuang burst into tears, almost crying in the street.
After a short rest at his residence, Wei Lihuang was invited to a special dinner for him. At the banquet, he sat at the same table with many familiar leaders, recalling the days when he fought side by side, and his heart was full of emotion.
Who would have thought that he was once a "first-class war criminal" of the Kuomintang, but he could be so respected. After returning to China, Wei Lihuang actively participated in national construction, successively served as a deputy to the National People's Congress, a member of the Standing Committee, and a vice chairman of national defense, and made great contributions to the development of the country.
Wei Lihuang's military talent is beyond doubt, and Chiang Kai-shek's suspicion and reuse of him just proves his talent. However, his real brilliance came at the moment when he recognized the future path of the revolution and the most suitable revolutionary subject in China.
Only when he got out of his confusion and bravely marched towards the correct revolutionary road did he truly become a hero of the revolution!