After the September 18 Incident, the Japanese completely exposed their ambitions to invade China, and after they occupied the northeast, they were not satisfied, and further extended their claws to north China. In their wishful thinking, they expect to occupy all of China within three months. But Chinese they can bully. In order to drive the Japanese out of China, the Kuomintang and the Communist Party established an anti-Japanese united front.
At that time, not only the Communist Party advocated anti-Japanese resistance, but also within the Kuomintang, there were also many patriotic generals, who also played an important role in the War of Resistance Against Japan. General Wei Lihuang was one of them. As one of the Five Tiger Generals around Chiang Kai-shek, General Wei had rich experience in military combat. When the Japanese army invaded North China, the Battle of Xinkou, in which General Wei participated, gave the Japanese a heavy blow.
At that time, Taiyuan was an important stepping stone for the Japanese army to further penetrate into north China, so for the Japanese army, it was necessary to take Taiyuan. In the face of the fierce Japanese army, Wei Lihuang and Zhu De jointly served as commanders to fight together. In the Battle of Xinkou, the combined forces of the Kuomintang and the Communists defeated the Japanese with no power to fight back, and if it were not for the strategic mistakes made by the Kuomintang troops in Hebei, the Taiyuan defense war could have ended in victory.
Although the Taiyuan Defense Battle was ultimately lost, the heroic and fearless spirit of the Chinese soldiers in this war greatly boosted the morale of the Chinese people, and also made the Japanese understand that it was only their wishful thinking to annex China.
After the war, Wei Lihuang was transferred to the commander of the First Theater, as Chiang Kai-shek's beloved general, Wei Lihuang was very close to the Communists, not only when the two armies were fighting jointly, he cooperated with the Communists tacitly, and even when he was serving as the commander of the First Theater, in the face of visiting Communists, Wei Lihuang would warmly entertain him. However, he did not hear Chiang Kai-shek's order to suppress the Communists and did not carry it out at all, which made Chiang Kai-shek very angry and directly relieved him of his military powers.
Shortly after Wei Lihuang was relieved of his military powers, China's First Expeditionary Force to Burma was defeated by the Japanese army and suffered heavy losses. As a last resort, Chiang Kai-shek reactivated Wei Lihuang. In the second expedition to Burma, the Chinese army won victories and recovered many lost lands, once again showing Wei Lihuang's excellent military command skills.
When the Japanese were driven out of China, the people did not usher in the peace they had imagined. Chiang Kai-shek launched a civil war against the Communists. Faced with the situation of making enemies of the Communist Party, Wei Lihuang adopted an evasive attitude and chose to go abroad. But soon he was recalled to China, and while he was in the northeast, he remained closely associated with the Communists, which completely annoyed Chiang Kai-shek, and Wei Lihuang was once again stripped of his military power and forced to Hong Kong.
After the founding of New China, because of Wei Lihuang's friendly coexistence with our party all along, he was invited several times by the central leaders, and after he came to Beijing, he was entrusted with a heavy responsibility, and later his position reached the rank of vice-state. Just as he was preparing to display his talents, he unfortunately died of illness at the age of 64.
For the death of Wei Lihuang, everyone in the country feels extremely sorry. He was left with five children, the most familiar of whom was the third son, Wei Daoran. A former pilot, he chose to return to China after his father's death, where he played his expertise in auto repair, while Wei Lihuang's other children chose a low-key lifestyle.
As a senior general of the Kuomintang, Wei Lihuang insisted on putting the national interests first in the face of national difficulties, and joined hands with the Eighth Route Army to defeat the Japanese invaders.