In the sequence of the National Revolutionary Army, there are those known as "three plums and one king". These "three li and one king" are all senior generals of the Shandong national army who are from the Huangpu clan. So who are they?
"Three Li" refers to Li Xianzhou, Li Yannian and Li Yutang. "One King" is Wang Yaowu.
Among these "three Li", Li Xianzhou is the eldest, he was born in 1894; Li Yutang is the second oldest, he was born in 1899; Li Yannian was the oldest, born in 1904. Li Xianzhou is a native of Texas, and both Li Yutang and Li Yannian are from Guangrao County, Shandong Province. All three graduated from the first phase of the Whampoa Military Academy.
Wang Yaowu of the "One King", a native of Tai'an, Shandong, was the same age as Li Yannian, the old man in the "Three Lis", but in the Huangpu department, he was two levels lower than the "Three Lis", and he graduated in the third term.
From the graduation of Huangpu to the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, what positions did these "three Li and One King" rise to?
Li Xianzhou, lieutenant general of the 21st Division;
Li Yutang, commander of the 3rd Division;
Li Yannian, commander of the 9th Division;
Although Wang Yaowu graduated two levels below them, he soon caught up and was promoted to lieutenant general of the 51st Division in 1934.
So why is it said that "three plums" are not as good as "one king"?
After the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Li Xianzhou served as the deputy commander of the 2nd Appeasement District; Li Yutang served as the commander of the 10th Appeasement District; Li Yannian served as the deputy director of the Xuzhou Appeasement Office and the commander of the Ninth Appeasement District; and Wang Yaowu was the chairman of Shandong Province, the director of the Shandong Provincial Party, Government, and Army Unification Headquarters, and the commander of the 2nd Appeasement District, becoming the boss of the "Three Lis" Li Xianzhou. Therefore, the "three Li" are not as good as the "one king", because they do not have The position of Wang Yaowu to rise quickly.
Finally, let's take a look at the final outcome of this "three plums and one king"?
Li Xianzhou, who was captured in the Battle of Laiwu, Shandong, on February 23, 1947, wang Yaowu was a terrible mess to command him, "That is, let the communist army catch 50,000 pigs, and it will not be able to catch them in three days!" After studying and reforming at the Gongdelin Prisoner of War Management Institute, he was released in 1960 and later served as a member of the Provincial and National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and honorary president of the Nanjing Huangpu Military Academy Alumni Association, and died on October 22, 1988, at the age of 94.
Li Yutang, after the Chiang regime lost the mainland, went to Taiwan, and was investigated for accepting the rebellion of our army's personnel when he was deputy commander-in-chief of the Hainan Defense General Headquarters, and was sentenced to death in Taiwan on February 5, 1951, and posthumously recognized as a revolutionary martyr by the Shandong Provincial People's Government in 1983.
Li Yannian, who fled to Taiwan in 1949 after handing over military power to others, was sentenced to 10 years in prison by Chiang Kai-shek for refusing to retreat. Released on bail a year later, he died of depression on 17 November 1974 at the age of 70.
Wang Yaowu, who was captured in the Battle of Jinan in September 1948, was studied and reformed by the Gongdelin Prisoner of War Management Center, and in February 1959, Wang Yaowu was pardoned as one of the first batch of war criminals, and later served as a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.