Chapter 98 Conspiracy
Dai Jiliang slowly opened his eyes, and the heavy feeling in his arms reminded him of what he had done before his nap.
So he lowered his head and saw, as expected, a beautiful woman in military uniform with disheveled hair and half-naked clothes was sleeping soundly in his arms.
Dai Jiliang reached his hand into the beautiful woman's open shirt with satisfaction, and squeezed her breasts sometimes roughly and sometimes gently.
Soon, the beauty's originally even breathing became rapid, and an alluring blush appeared on her fair face.
Dai Jiliang lowered his head and bit the beautiful woman's earlobe to taste it. The strong stimulation made the beautiful woman, who had completely woken up, beg for mercy in a moaning tone: "Don't, my lord, don't." The half-hearted tone made Dai Jiliang's desire even stronger. However, before he could take further action, the shrill phone ring suddenly rang. Dai Jiliang was stunned, then slowed down his movements, calmed down a little, and motioned to the somewhat resentful woman to take the phone for him.
"Your Excellency, the airport just reported that Stilwell suddenly appeared in the special plane of the US military liaison group."
This was news that was enough to shake up China's political arena, and even the reporter himself was a little nervous.
"The U.S. side now requests a direct audience with Your Excellency."
"Stillwell?"
Dai Jiliang pondered for a while and sneered.
"Let's arrange for the Chief of Staff to contact him first."
After hanging up the phone, Dai Jiliang motioned the beauty in military uniform to return to his arms, but his subsequent caresses seemed perfunctory, leaving the woman breathless but without any further action. The beauty in military uniform was so angry that she could only try to interrupt Dai Jiliang's thoughts with even louder and more rapid moans.
"It's nothing more than coercion and inducement."
In the woman's seductive call, Dai Jiliang suddenly said something out of the blue, and then he seemed to come to his senses and slapped the woman's elastic butt hard.
"You damn girl, you are so rebellious."
As he spoke, Dai Jiliang reached out and unbuttoned his military pants.
"Keep your head down and serve me well." Just as Dai Jiliang thought, Stilwell came to Lanzhou secretly because he could no longer tolerate Chiang's performance in Burma and the Zhejiang-Jiangxi Campaign.
If it was understandable that Chiang's army was defeated after fighting hard in the Yunnan-Burma Campaign, then in the Zhejiang-Jiangxi Campaign that just ended, Chiang's faction had an army of more than 500,000 but passively avoided fighting, which led to the fall of Zhejiang and Jiangxi. This made the United States, which was trying to use China to contain Japan, extremely dissatisfied.
In American political life, there is a habit of replacing the incompetent, so Stilwell naturally had to look for a replacement for Chiang.
Looking at China as a whole, among all the political forces, only the Northwest has the strength to change the situation. Therefore, Stilwell came to the door on his own initiative. Perhaps in his opinion, as long as the United States supports it and the Northwest has this idea, everything will come to fruition.
Glancing at the trusted officials in the room, Dai Jiliang calmly asked, "What do you think of this matter?"
"The Americans don't understand Chinese politics at all. It's not easy to force Chiang to step down."
Zhang Binnan, deputy commander-in-chief of the Northwest National Defense Army, shook his head.
"Chiang still has hundreds of thousands of his own followers. What if he is forced into a corner and surrenders to Japan? Once the southern battlefield collapses, the pressure of the millions of Japanese troops in China will all fall on us."
"Chiang may not surrender to Japan."
Chairman of the Military and Political Committee E Tao was somewhat hesitant.
"Chiang must have seen that if he surrendered to Japan, the Kuomintang would inevitably split, and the Whampoa Party Army would also inevitably split."
"If Chiang Kai-shek does not surrender to Japan and is unwilling to hand over power, then do we have to fight a civil war with Chiang Kai-shek first?"
The concerns of Du Pigong, member of the Central Committee of the Renaissance Party and Chairman of the Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs Commission, were not a problem for Ma Kang, commander-in-chief of the Mongolian Border Army Group, who happened to be in Lanzhou to discuss the eastward transfer of the Northwest Garrison. "Just fight. With the current strength of the Kuomintang, it may not be a bad thing to resolve the conflict cleanly after a fight."
"You can't say that."
Lin Jing, member of the Central Executive Committee of the Renaissance Party and chairman of the Industrial Committee, objected.
"Let's not talk about whether our fight with Chiang's army will benefit the Japanese army, but as long as the guns are fired, we will be in trouble in the eyes of domestic public opinion." Ma Kang interrupted: "The Chinese believe in the principle of success and failure. As long as we succeed, the tone of public opinion will naturally change. What's more, the Kuomintang has public opinion weapons, and we also have public opinion weapons, so we may not necessarily lose to the other side in the debate."
Under Ma Kang's watch, the Chairman of the Propaganda Committee and former spy chief Guo Sinan nodded with a smile: "Don't worry about public opinion. We will do everything we can to guide things in the direction we want. As for the rest, I believe that the Internal Affairs Committee is capable of handling the affairs of the Military and Central Bureaus."
Guo Sinan was naturally referring to assassination and counter-assassination, but these bloody words aroused Chen Youren's dissatisfaction, and he pointed out: "The use of force may not solve the problem once and for all."
Chen Youren had never been a member of the core circle of the Northwest, but at this moment, he argued:
"The Kuomintang has held central power for more than a decade, but was suddenly overthrown. It will definitely not concede defeat.
Even local factions such as the Guangxi clique and the Guangdong clique may not be convinced by our collusion with foreign countries and our use of force to seize the throne.
This will inevitably create a huge obstacle to our unification of the South.
Moreover, there are many factions within the Kuomintang. Even if Chiang Kai-shek did not surrender to Japan, those who felt there was no way out would do so.”
Chen Fengtao, commander of the reserve army group, believed from a military perspective that "it would be good if the Kuomintang surrendered to Japan. This would completely solve some political problems. As for the dissatisfaction of the various factions in the south, that would also be a good thing. By then, we can wipe them out and completely solve the local problems since the Qing Dynasty." Chen Hongmo, secretary general of the Northwest National Defense Government and secretary general of the Renaissance Party, supported Chen Youren's opinion: "It is better to solve it within the scope of constitutionalism. We have done a lot of work and must not give up halfway because of some promises made by the Americans. This is not conducive to the realization of China's democratic process, and it is even harmful to it."
Chen Fanqing's words were a bit harsh, but Dai Jiliang didn't care. He just asked Zhang Zili, "What do you think, Brother Pu Chu?"
"According to the intelligence of the Military Intelligence Bureau and the notification from the United States, we already know that Chiang's army still has 4 army groups and 11 corps with a total of about 350,000 people in Yunnan, and another 6 corps in Guizhou."
As the chief of staff, Zhang Zilii naturally considered things from a military perspective.
"Although these troops are poorly equipped and their combat effectiveness is hard to say, the terrain of Yunnan and Guizhou also determines that the Southern Army Group cannot solve the problem quickly. Once the war is delayed, we cannot ignore the reaction of the Japanese side."
Dai Jiliang nodded and looked at Wang Danping: "Brother-in-law, you are the chairman of the National Defense Government, what is your opinion?"
Wang Danping answered the question irrelevantly: "I just wanted to say this. If we want to realize constitutionalism, the National Defense Government cannot always be elected. I am old and I don't have the energy to do it. Otherwise, let's arrange a National People's Congress soon. You can shoulder this responsibility and make it more legitimate to the outside world."
"Brother-in-law, let's discuss this later."
Dai Jiliang had long known that Wang Danping intended to step down, but now was not the time to discuss this issue. Moreover, he also had his own plans for the term of office of Chairman of the National Defense Government and his future term as President, so he declined.
"Tell me first whether you want to dance to the American rhythm."
"Zhixiang, the key to this matter is not what we think, but what do you think of this opportunity?"
"I?"
Dai Jiliang glanced at the people present whose attention was aroused by Wang Danping's words, and a smile appeared on his face.
"Chairman Wang also said that this is an opportunity, we certainly can't let it go easily." Rows of Chiang Kai-shek's troops hid in the trenches with their heads in their hands, listening to the huge explosions as shells landed in front of the positions. Because the shells landed too close, some of the flying dirt and rocks even smashed into the trenches and landed on the pale-faced junior officers and soldiers.
Taking advantage of the break in the bombardment, a corporal cursed loudly: "These bastards from the northwest, they fired so many shells just to scare us, they might as well use them on the Japanese."
The corporal who was cleaning his ears nearby smiled bitterly and said, "Save your energy. The negotiations between the north and the superiors may become stalemate. If this fake fight turns into a real fight, we will be in trouble. Judging from the situation, the Northwest Army's artillery is not much less than that of the Japanese."
Several veterans also lamented: "We should have known earlier that we would fight the Japanese. It is unfair to die at the hands of our own people."
Regardless of what Chiang Kai-shek's soldiers were saying, several military planes flew in the sky, and then a lot of leaflets fell from the sky. The literate soldiers picked them up and saw that it was "A Letter to Chiang Kai-shek's Officers and Soldiers".
"Since last year, the defeat in Yunnan and Burma, the collapse of the Zhejiang-Jiangxi army... the incompetence of the National Government is evident... I am ordered by the Chief of the General Staff of the Chinese Theater to enter Yunnan... The National Government can transfer troops from Yunnan to Hunan and Jiangxi to fight the war..."
The literate soldiers were reading word by word, and the company and platoon leaders hiding in the back rushed out upon receiving the order: "No reading, hand in the leaflets! This is the Northwest warlords slandering the government, don't believe it, aren't these bastards hiding in the back as well?"
However, there were so many leaflets that soldiers could get a few from the front of the position just by stretching out their hands. In this situation, the platoon leaders could not collect them all at once, so they had to force the soldiers to crawl out of the trenches and collect them for them in front of and behind the fortifications.
As they were collecting the information, the sound of artillery fire suddenly rang out, scaring the Jiang army soldiers so much that they tumbled back to the trenches and said, "Damn it, we can't live like this anymore."
Chiang Kai-shek's officers and soldiers on the front line were complaining, but they didn't know that their battalion and regiment commanders had already turned the phone into a hotline. As for the higher-level commanders, they sent telegrams one after another to Guiyang, all of which were about how to deal with the ultimatum from the Northwest.
However, the Guiyang side seemed to be paralyzed. Apart from demanding a resolute defense, it did not have any good ideas. The anxious commander had to pass the pressure to the front line, but facing the Northwest Army's aircraft, artillery and propaganda offensive, only the diehards and the mentally ill would choose to resist with force.
On July 12, 1942, Stilwell, in the name of the Chief of Staff of the China Theater, ordered the Northwest Southern Army Group to move south to recover the territory west of the Nujiang River. Then the Northwest Army, under the cover of airplanes and artillery, marched into Yunnan in an unstoppable manner, disarming Chiang Kai-shek's army along the way and destroying it on the spot if they encountered resistance. In less than two weeks, the Northwest Army had reached the outskirts of Kunming.
The furious Chiang, on the one hand, ordered the troops stationed in Yunnan to block the enemy on the spot, and on the other hand, he used the order of the commander-in-chief of the China Theater to revoke Stilwell's previous order and demand that the Northwest Army withdraw to its original defense.
However, the Northwest turned a deaf ear to this and, after surrounding Kunming with a part of its troops, the main force continued to move south to disarm more of Chiang's troops one by one.
Chiang was angry and anxious, so he ordered Hu Shi to protest to Washington about Stilwell's actions. At the same time, he openly attacked the atrocities in the Northwest for not resisting the enemy but focusing on seizing friendly defense zones.
In response, Northwest published an open article, refuting Chiang's accusations with detailed arguments, and claiming that Chiang's deliberate preservation of strength was the main reason for the current military failure on the Chinese battlefield. Northwest's move to Yunnan was on the one hand to launch a new Yunnan-Burma Campaign, and on the other hand to "force Chiang to (continue) the war of resistance." Northwest's remarks were transmitted back to the United States by Stilwell. Roosevelt, who felt that this was the best opportunity to interfere in China's internal politics, explicitly expressed his support for Northwest's actions, which made Hu Shi's lobbying in the United States fail.
What caught Chiang even more off guard was that Long Yun, who was under semi-house arrest, suddenly ventured into the U.S. Embassy and issued a statement in support of the Northwest's entry into Yunnan.
Under pressure from both inside and outside, in order to continue to maintain his position as head of state, Chiang had to seize on the words in the Northwest Declaration and demand that the Northwest stop oppressing him. The Northwest then held new negotiations with Chiang with the assistance of the United States.
During this round of negotiations, Chiang agreed to withdraw from Yunnan, and the troops stranded in Yunnan were transferred to the Hunan-Jiangxi front to participate in the war against Japan.
The Northwest promised not to attack the Central Government for the time being. At the same time, it returned the detained Chiang Kai-shek troops and weapons, provided the National Government with all the weapons and equipment of 10 divisions, and an additional 15 million machine rifle bullets, 60 75mm artillery pieces, 10,000 75mm artillery shells, and 30 Yinglong A fighter planes so that Guiyang could maintain its troops' ability to fight against Japan.
However, the two sides failed to reach an agreement on the affiliation of the Yunnan Army. As a result, Lu Han's First Army was still controlled by Chiang's faction. Only Zhang Chong led his New Third Army to break through Chiang's encirclement and enter the Hunan-Hubei-Bashu war zone.
On August 6, the day when the agreement between Northwest and Guiyang was reached, the United States announced as an endorsement that it would immediately provide Chiang's faction with US$70 million in emergency financial aid so that Chiang could pay his troops and provide salaries for government employees.
However, at this time, the rift between the United States and Chiang Kai-shek was irreparable, and it was only a matter of time before it completely broke down.
