Chapter 6: Anti-Japanese War, Showdown
On December 16, 1938, Wang Jingwei, the vice president of the Kuomintang, suddenly left the temporary capital Guiyang and went to Hanoi via Kunming. Once the news spread, the Chinese people were shocked.
However, before the Kuomintang could quell the turmoil caused by Wang's departure, on January 6, 1939, Wang Jingwei published a fish telegram in the Hong Kong "South China Daily": January 6, 1939.
Guiyang Central Party Committee, Mr. Chiang and other comrades of the Central Executive and Supervisory Committee all read: "In April last year, the Provisional National Congress declared the reasons for the current war of resistance. After careful consideration, Zhaoming believed that the National Government should use this as a basis to exchange goodwill with the Japanese government in order to restore peace.
The purpose of China's War of Resistance against Japan is to seek the survival and independence of the country. After more than a year of resistance, the wounds are enormous and the pain is deep. If we can end the war with a just peace, the survival and independence of the country can be guaranteed, and the purpose of the War of Resistance against Japan will be achieved.
The above three points are the principles of peace.
China and Japan share borders, so it is natural and necessary for our two countries to be friendly neighbors. However, over the years, the two countries have gone in opposite directions. We must carefully examine the reasons and make each side aware of its responsibilities.
In the future, China should take good neighborliness and friendship as its educational policy, and Japan should especially make its people abandon their traditional ideas of invading and insulting China, and establish a pro-China policy in education to lay the foundation for permanent peace between the two countries. This is what we should do for the happiness of East Asia.
At the same time, we must work together with all countries concerned to maintain and enhance their friendship and common interests in order to safeguard the peaceful order of the world.
I respectfully propose this, and I hope you will adopt it! Wang Zhaoming, fish. "
Although Wang Jingwei's telegram made some high-ranking Japanese military officials ecstatic, it triggered a huge outcry among Chinese at home and overseas, and was then used by the Northwest to create widespread doubts about the Nationalist government.
Under such circumstances, Chiang Kai-shek had to take drastic measures to save the situation.
On January 17, the 17th Corps, including the 1st and 27th Armies of Hu Zongnan and the 69th Army of Ruan Zhaochang, which had retreated to Xishun, Zhenning and Pu'an in Guizhou Province for rest and recuperation, crossed the Yunnan-Guizhou border and broke into Yunnan directly. They immediately controlled the Fuyuan and Qujing lines and approached the outskirts of Kunming ten days later.
Long Yun, who had just been appointed as the commander-in-chief of the First Army Group in Guiyang, had only the newly established 93rd Army and several local security teams at his disposal. He was overwhelmed and in desperation sent a telegram to the whole country, recounting the revolutionary experience of the Yunnan Army and its performance after the Anti-Japanese War, and questioning the National Government on why it had invaded Yunnan by force and whether it was conspiring to eliminate the anti-Japanese armed forces.
The Guiyang National Government immediately revealed the information that Wang Jingwei had a secret meeting with Long Yun before his escape, and at the same time declared that the central government’s entry into Yunnan was not to abolish Long Yun’s title as provincial governor, but only to ensure the stability of the rear area and the safety of the Yunnan-Burma international transportation lines. If the Yunnan army officers and soldiers uphold the purpose of resisting the war and defending the country, they are advised not to resist.
At this time, the 30th Yunnan Army Corps led by Lu Han, Sun Du and Zhang Chong, which was blocking the Japanese 11th Army in Chongyang, Yangxin and Banbi Mountain, was surrounded on all sides by the Japanese Army in front and more than 100,000 "friendly troops" with ulterior motives in the back. In the situation of being unable to advance or retreat, in order to preserve the seeds of the Yunnan Army, more than a dozen lieutenant generals and major generals of the corps, led by Lu Han, jointly issued a telegram to support the Central Army's entry into Yunnan to investigate the "Tong Wang" case and stabilize the situation in central Yunnan.
Seeing that the situation was hopeless, the helpless Long Yun was forced to announce his resignation from the posts of Chairman of Yunnan Province and Commander-in-Chief of the First Army Group. On January 22, the First Army entered Kunming, and Long Yun was abducted and flown to Guiyang. Three days later, he was appointed as a member of the Central Supervisory Committee by the National Government and has been under semi-house arrest ever since.
Since Long Yun had already left Yunnan, the Central Army and various departments of the Guiyang National Government immediately entered Yunnan.
However, Long Yun admitted defeat, but the Northwest did not agree that Yunnan would be Chiang's territory from then on.
Since January 25, the 219th, 223rd and 240th Divisions of the Northwest Army, which had been deployed on the Yibin front, broke into Yunnan respectively, successively controlling Suijiang, Shuifu, Yanjin, Yongshan, Daguan and other places, and engaged in armed conflict south of Zhaotong with Liu Kan's 83rd Division of Li Mo'an's 33rd Corps, which had rushed to the scene.
For a time, there was panic and rumors everywhere that the Northwest was preparing to fight a battle with Guiyang for Long Yun.
"President, I thought Northwest was just bluffing."
In fact, Zhu Jiahua, who holds a long list of titles including Secretary-General of the Central Executive Committee and Director of the Central Party Affairs Committee, Executive Secretary of the Central Executive Committee of the Three Youth League and Acting Secretary-General of the Central League Department, Chief Director of the Chinese Branch of the International Anti-Aggression Movement Conference, Vice President and Honorary President of the World Association of League of Nations Comrades, has replaced the defected Wang Jingwei as the second person in the Kuomintang in terms of party affairs. Therefore, Chiang Kai-shek listened very seriously to his opinions.
"I don't understand military matters, but I know that Northwest only has three or four divisions in southern Sichuan and northern Yunnan. This is definitely not a posture of fighting with us. From this, we can judge that Northwest is just preparing ."
"President, what Brother Liuxian said makes a lot of sense."
Zhang Zhizhong, the chairman of Hunan Province, was also with Chiang Kai-shek at this moment.
"If the Japanese invaders capture Wuhan, there are two possibilities in the future. One is that Okamura Yasuji's 11th Army will go south to meet Ando Rikichi's 21st Army and attack our troops in Hunan and Guangdong. The other possibility is that the 11th Army will go north to join Odaka Kamezo's 12th Army to attack Henan and Anhui. Both possibilities exist. At this time of confusion, even if Dai Zhixiang is unruly, he dare not withdraw a large number of troops at this time to embarrass the central government, not to mention that domestic and international public opinion does not allow him to do so."
"It is better to be prepared than to be unprepared. Now that the Japanese army has occupied Guangzhou, apart from the northwest's transportation line with the Soviet Union, the remaining foreign aid materials must be imported through the Guangxi-Guangxi border, the Yunnan-Vietnam Railway and the newly built Yunnan-Burma Highway . The machines, raw materials and other materials that Dai Zhixiang requested may not be available from the Soviet Union, so it is hard to guarantee that the northwest will not take risks."
He Yingqin was from Guizhou and had served in the Qian Army for many years. He was the best spokesperson for Chiang's National Government in Guizhou. Although his value had slightly declined due to the change of hands in Yunnan, half of the Whampoa Military Academy soldiers came from his school, so he represented the largest faction in the Central Army.
"Brother Jingzhi, what you mean is that the Northwest is openly confronting the Central Government, but secretly deploying troops?"
Zhang Qun, who had just been appointed as the chairman of Yunnan Province, had not yet taken office. However, since he had been ordered to preside over Yunnan politics, he naturally did not want a powerful neighbor to spy on him.
"CEO, this is indeed possible, but can the Central Bureau of Investigation and the Military Bureau of Investigation provide enough intelligence?"
Everyone's eyes fell on Zhu Jiahua. This was not because he was the immediate superior of the Central Bureau of Investigation and Statistics, but because Zheng Jieming and Dai Li, who were currently in charge of the Military Bureau of Investigation and Statistics, had too low qualifications and were not qualified to appear in this occasion. Therefore, in order to solve Zhang Qun's problem, they could only ask Zhu Jiahua for confirmation.
Zhu Jiahua frowned slightly. He knew that Zhang Qun, the leader of the "New Policy School", was attacking him from behind. However, he could not say it directly because Chen Guofu and Chen Lifu's cronies were secretly making trouble. He could not completely control the Central Bureau of Investigation and Statistics, this secret service organization.
"It is currently difficult for the Central Bureau of Investigation to carry out its work in the three provinces of Sichuan, Chongqing and Kang. The Northwest's counterintelligence organization is closely monitoring all areas. Of course, the Northwest may be targeting the Japanese spy agencies, but our organization has also suffered a significant impact as a result. In addition, Liu Wenhui's sudden transfer has temporarily rendered the original covert line ineffective, so we only have some scattered intelligence at present."
Zhu Jiahua said a few necessary nonsense words before starting the introduction.
"Before the Northwest reorganized the Southern Army into the Hunan-Hubei-Bashu War Zone, there were a total of 5 divisions in Sichuan and Kang. After the reorganization, one more division was added. In addition, air defense headquarters were set up in Chengdu, Chongqing and other places, and river defense headquarters were set up in Zigui and Yichang. Anti-aircraft artillery and several battalions of fortress artillery were allocated..."
"Brother Liuxian, do you know about the Panzhihua project in the northwest?"
After listening for a long time, Chiang Kai-shek suddenly interrupted Zhu Jiahua's introduction.
"The Northwest expects to produce more than 100,000 metric tons of steel using the iron ore in Panzhihua within three years. For this reason, the Northwest has not only deployed heavy troops around Panzhihua, but is also rushing to repair the railway from Chengdu to the mining area. Do you think that the central government's actions have stimulated the Northwest, causing Dai Jiliang to misjudge that the central government is going to attack the mining area, so he took preventive measures?"
"The possibility that the president mentioned does exist."
Haha, Kong is now the Premier of the Executive Yuan, and his promotion speed is not slower than that of our uncle Chairman Wang Danping in the Northwest.
“But I took a general look at the history of Northwest China’s expansion and found that Dai Jiliang’s biggest political task after he took control of Shaanxi was to build railways.
When the railway in Shaanxi was almost completed, he led his troops into Gansu, and the railway then extended to Lanzhou and Dihua. After controlling northern Sichuan, he immediately began to build the Baocheng and Pingcheng railways.
Can we conclude from this that the Northwest Army would not enter Yunnan before the construction of the railway from Chengdu to the Panzhihua mining area was completed? "
Several people present looked at each other and nodded at the same time. It seemed that they had reached a consensus, so Jiang Zhongzheng continued to ask: "Since we already know that it is blackmail, what attitude should the central government take towards this?"
"Boss, since we already know that Northwest is asking for an exorbitant price, we should just sit back and wait."
He Yingqin responded like this.
"Li Mo'an should be ordered to calm down and make arrangements on the spot. He should never easily clash with the Northwest. However, if a conflict occurs, he should immediately give a serious counterattack."
"Wouldn't that mean we can just let the Northwest occupy northern Yunnan?"
As the provincial governor, Zhang Qun certainly does not want to stick to the status quo.
"No, no, the central government's finances are supposed to be more, the better. Now that we've lost more than a dozen counties in northern Guizhou, the portion we reserved is still insufficient. We can't force other places in Yunnan Province to raise taxes to compensate, right?"
Kong Xiangxi also agreed: "Brother Yue Jun is right. We don't know the bottom line of the Northwest yet. What if the other side asks for more? Besides, if we lose northern Guizhou, the Jinsha River will be wide open. If the Northwest marches into Yunnan Province in the future, it will be at the gate of Kunming in a blink of an eye. We must not lose such a strategically located place."
"Report!"
A few people were still talking, and the guards were shouting loudly outside the door.
"Come in!"
Chiang Kai-shek frowned, and the others also felt that something bad was happening, fearing that something big might have happened again.
"CEO, urgent call from Kunming!"
As the guard handed over the telegram, Chiang Kai-shek slammed the table in anger when he saw it.
Several people looked at each other in bewilderment. After a long while, Kong Xiangxi finally asked, "President, what happened?"
"The Northwest Army sent planes to drop leaflets in Kunming to seek justice for Long Yun."
Chiang Kai-shek spoke coldly, and everyone's face suddenly changed. That's right, if Northwest China can spread leaflets to Kunming, it can naturally also spread leaflets to Guiyang. Maybe they can even turn the leaflets into bombs. What should they do?
"Brother Jingzhi, call Zhou Zhirou immediately and ask him to arrange for Guiyang's air defense."
It was Chiang Kai-shek who made the decision promptly. Of course, the Kuomintang's air force had been almost completely destroyed, and the few remaining fighter planes were just robbing Peter to pay Paul. The so-called strict arrangement of Guiyang's air defense was just an attempt to call on the flying squadron sent by the Soviet Union to aid China.
He Yingqin nodded and left immediately. Zhu Jiahua then said, "President, we still need to find out what the Northwest wants. Can we ask Madam Sun to help the Northwest? If not, we have to ask the British and American embassies to step in."
"The northwest is pressing forward step by step, and they are looking for more. This time, they are pretending to be on behalf of Long Yun, but they are just trying to get territory. The central government cannot show weakness easily."
However, Kong Xiangxi seemed unusually tough.
"I think the Northwest would never dare to start a civil war at this time when the country is in danger, so the central government must not be fooled and give in."
"President, I agree with Dean Kong's opinion."
Zhang Qun seconded.
"The Northwest is too rampant, using planes to threaten the skies over Kunming, frightening the citizens. This is a perfect opportunity for the central government to strike back."
Just as Zhu Jiahua was frowning and preparing to say something else, another "report" came in, and then the guard brought in another telegram: "President , a telegram from Lanzhou!"
Jiang Zhongzheng, who had read the telegram, suddenly laughed: "Northwest has sent Jiang Songlin to Lincheng. It seems that the time for a showdown has come. Let's wait and see."
