Former Residence of Wu Shi

Former Residence of Wu Shi

The former residence of Wu Shi in Wucuo is located at No. 1, Wucuo Village, Luozhou Town, Cangshan District, Fuzhou City. It faces 15 degrees southwest, covers an area of 602 square meters, and is a traditional courtyard-style residence consisting of a screen door, wing rooms, a main hall, and a courtyard. Only the main structure of the first courtyard remains, featuring a hip-and-gable roof with fireproof walls, a width of three bays, a depth of five columns, and eleven purlins using a post-and-lintel construction method. The main structure of the second courtyard has a width of three bays, a depth of seven columns, and seventeen purlins, also using a post-and-lintel system. The central bay of the main hall is divided into front and rear sections by a screen door. The hall pillars are made of wood, are relatively tall, and have side wings. This building is large in scale and structurally complete. It was the birthplace of General Wu Shi. Later, Wu Shi joined the revolution, and this residence became the home of his parents, where Wu Shi also returned to live for some time.

Wu Shi (1894–1950), courtesy name Yuxun, was from Wucuo Village, Luozhou Township, Min County, Fujian (now Wucuo Village, Luozhou Town, Cangshan District, Fuzhou). After the outbreak of the 1911 Revolution, Wu Shi, along with his fellow townsman and friend Wu Zhongxi, joined the Fujian Northern Expedition Student Army. In August 1912, he entered the Second Preparatory Military Officers School in Wuchang. Two years later, he was selected to attend the Baoding Military Academy, where he was in the same third cohort as Li Zongren, Bai Chongxi, and Zhang Zhizhong. At the graduation ceremony in August 1916, Wu Shi, as the student representative, delivered the response speech to President Li Yuanhong’s address, gaining fame across the school and earning the title “Wu the Number One Scholar.” In 1934, while serving as director of a department under the General Staff Headquarters, Wu Shi had a favorable view of the Chinese Communist Party and advocated for cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Communists to unite against Japan. In August 1938, during the Battle of Wuhan, Wu Shi organized the “Field Intelligence and Staff Training Class,” specifically inviting Zhou Enlai and Ye Jianying to give lectures on guerrilla warfare, expressing deep admiration for the patriotism of the Communists. By the end of 1940, due to his outstanding performance in the Battle of Guangxi, Wu Shi was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant General and appointed Chief of Staff of the Fourth War Zone. In 1948, through the introduction of underground Communist Party member Wu Zhongxi, Wu Shi secretly joined the Communist Party. Thereafter, he provided the Communists with many highly important pieces of military intelligence, making significant contributions to the victories in the Huaihai Campaign and the Crossing of the Yangtze Campaign. After the Huaihai Campaign, the Nationalist Ministry of Defense still held 500 boxes of important military classified archives. The Minister of National Defense, Bai Chongxi, and the Chief of the General Staff, Chen Cheng, advocated transporting them directly to Taiwan. Wu Shi suggested temporarily moving them to Fuzhou, citing the advantages of “easy return to Nanjing if advancing, and convenient transfer to Taiwan if retreating.” The Nationalist authorities adopted his suggestion, storing the classified archives in the main hall of Qigong Ancestral Temple on Jishan Hill. After the breakdown of the KMT-CPC negotiations, the Nationalist authorities urged the urgent transport of the archives stored in Fuzhou to Taiwan. Wu Shi used the excuse of “tight military transportation and difficulty in securing ships,” directing that over a hundred boxes of reference materials and military books be treated as top-secret archives and listed as the first batch to be shipped to Taiwan, while the remaining 298 boxes of classified archives were secretly stored in the library of the Fujian Research Institute in Cangshan. After the liberation of Fuzhou, Wang Qiang presented these 298 boxes of intact Nationalist military top-secret archives to the headquarters of the People's Liberation Army’s 10th Corps. In August 1997, these precious documents were compiled and published as photocopies in the book *External Compilation of Historical Materials on the Republic of China — Intelligence Materials from the Former Namazu Research Institute in Japan*. On the eve of the founding of New China, Wu Shi, following instructions from the CPC, went to Taiwan to carry out the secret mission of reunifying the motherland. Before leaving for Taiwan, the East China Bureau of the CPC assigned him the code name “Secret Envoy No. 1.” After arriving in Taiwan, Wu Shi assumed the important position of Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Ministry of National Defense, operating in the heart of the enemy. Despite the perilous environment, he worked diligently for the CPC, achieving remarkable success in intelligence work. In early 1950, after the major crackdown on the underground CPC organization in Taiwan, Wu Shi was implicated and arrested. In 1950, he was executed by the Nationalist authorities on charges of “collaborating with the Communists.”

Due to the needs of the covert operations, General Wu Shi’s deeds remained little known for a long time. In 1973, with the concern of Premier Zhou Enlai and Marshal Ye Jianying, Wu Shi was posthumously recognized as a revolutionary martyr. To commemorate him, in 2017, the Red Culture Base of General Wu Shi was established in Wucuo Village, Luozhou Town, showcasing his outstanding deeds.

Chairman Mao Zedong personally composed a poem in his praise: “Raging waves lash the lonely isle, azure waves mirror the dawn. A loyal soul hides in the tiger’s den, the dawn arrives all too soon.” In his youth, he was known as the “Twelve-Talented Man” — skilled in literature, martial arts, poetry, ci poetry, calligraphy, painting, English, Japanese, horseback riding, archery, driving, and swimming. He was also the “Secret Envoy No. 1” who shocked the highest levels of both the KMT and the CPC, and the highest-ranking CPC officer embedded within the Nationalist forces.

The prototype of the male protagonist Yu Zecheng in the famous literary work and TV drama *Lurk* is Wu Shi — a hero of the CPC’s covert operations who never forgot the cause of national reunification even until his death.