Anti-Japanese War: From Becoming Chu Yunfei to Rising

The troops marched continuously for seven hours.

At the request of Li Jiyun and others, the troops set up camp to rest.

Late at night, everything is silent.

Only the footsteps of the patrolling sentries sounded exceptionally clear in the empty camp.

After a fit of rage, Wu Tinglin, the commander of the 15th Army,

He had drunk a few glasses of wine in his sullen silence and was now lying on his cot, snoring loudly.

He was completely unaware.

A military coup targeting him is quietly approaching.

Outside the tent, two squads of soldiers in elite gear stood.

They moved swiftly through the darkness, like ghosts, and silently surrounded the 15th Army's command post.

They were the guard companies of the 64th and 65th Divisions.

They are Yao Beichen and Li Jiyun's most trusted confidants.

Leading the group were Yao and Li.

And Liu Hebi, the chief of staff who had just been secretly rescued from solitary confinement.

The three exchanged a glance, and each saw the same resolute determination in the other's eyes.

Yao Beichen waved his hand.

Several capable soldiers immediately stepped forward and swiftly disarmed the drowsy guards outside the tent.

During the entire process, not a single unnecessary sound was made.

Then, the three of them lifted the tent flap and strode inside.

"who!"

Wu Tinglin, who was asleep, was startled awake by the sudden noise and sat up abruptly.

When he saw the three familiar yet cold faces in front of him, he instantly sobered up by half.

"What are you doing?"

Wu Tinglin's voice trembled slightly.

"Wu Tinglin".

Liu Hebi stepped forward, his voice as cold as ice: "You colluded with the Japanese invaders and intended to betray the country. We, on the orders of the Chairman, have come with all our officers and soldiers to arrest you!"

"fart!"

Wu Tinglin roared, his voice trembling with fear, "Who the hell colluded with the Japanese invaders?"

"This is slander! This is rebellion!"

"Rebellion?"

Li Jiyun sneered and threw the Japanese-made radio and codebook in front of Wu Tinglin with a clatter.

"What is this? You don't recognize it, do you?"

"This was found in the room of your special operations battalion company commander's good nephew!"

Wu Tinglin stared at the radio, his pupils suddenly contracting.

Of course he knew what it was.

But he knew even more clearly that this thing could never be his!
"This is a frame-up! A setup!"

He screamed hysterically.

"Whether it's a frame-up or not, it's not up to you to decide."

Yao Beichen drew his pistol from his waist, the dark muzzle pointed at Wu Tinglin's head: "Commander Wu, don't waste your time, lest you ruin your own life."

"Guards! Tie him up!"

Several guards rushed in and, without saying a word, tied Wu Tinglin, who was still shouting, tightly with hemp rope and stuffed a rag into his mouth.

……

at the same time.

The military headquarters conference room was already brightly lit.

All officers of regimental rank and above from the 15th Army were urgently summoned here.

these people.

Most of them were former members of the Zhen Song Army promoted by Wu Tinglin; they were his confidants and henchmen.

At this moment, they were all whispering and discussing among themselves, wondering what major event had occurred.

When Liu Hebi, Yao Beichen, and Li Jiyun escorted Wu Tinglin, who was bound hand and foot, into the conference room, the entire room erupted in chaos.

"Chief of Staff! Division Commander Yao! Division Commander Liu, what are you doing?!"

"You dare touch the commander! Are you trying to rebel?!"

One of Wu Tinglin's trusted regimental commanders slammed his hand on the table, stood up, and reached for his holster.

"shut up!"

Liu Hebi's loud shout silenced the entire audience.

He walked to the head of the table and slammed the radio and the so-called "evidence of treason" heavily on the table.

"Everyone saw it clearly!"

Liu Hebi's voice echoed in the silent conference room: "Wu Tinglin has long been secretly colluding with the Japanese! This so-called 'proactive attack' is not about fighting the Japanese at all, but about surrendering to them!"
He wants to drag over 20,000 of us brothers down to become his traitors and cannon fodder!

"what?"

"This is impossible!"

The officers present were in an uproar.

Although they had done many bad things with Wu Tinglin on a regular basis.

However, the bottom line of "becoming a traitor" is something that the vast majority of people still dare not cross.

"Don't listen to his nonsense!"

The trusted regimental commander remained defiant, saying, "This is a lie they fabricated to seize power!"

"lie?"

Yao Beichen looked at him coldly: "Then I'd like to ask you something. Are you aware that the Japanese Fifth and Eighth Elite Divisions are flanking us from both sides?"

The regimental commander was speechless.

This news.

It had already spread privately among the officers, and everyone knew about it.

Li Jiyun also stepped forward, his voice filled with powerful persuasiveness: "Brothers! I only have a few questions for you!"

"Following Wu Tinglin, even if we take a step back and assume that these two Japanese divisions are reinforcements that Wu Tinglin invited to meet him, what's behind us?"

Few people who can become regimental commanders are fools.

They naturally understood what Li Jiyun had said so bluntly.

He paused, then said, word by word, "We will be facing the invincible general Chu Yunfei."

The name "Chu Yunfei" is like a curse.

It made the temperature in the entire conference room seem to drop a few degrees.

The officers present all turned pale.

"The war commander is currently at the First War Zone Command Headquarters!"

Li Jiyun's voice slowly faded away.

"His duties, his methods, his command and coordination abilities—brothers, you've all heard about them!"

"Don't forget, the 14th Army is the main force of the Central Army, and Chen Tie is a famous general from the first class of Whampoa Military Academy."

"Several thousand men died, but they only managed to take down the outer hills of Nankou. Who captured the core position of Nankou?"

A regimental commander spoke up, saying, "It's Chen Zejun."

"You all know very well who Chen Zejun is. He's just a capable subordinate of the War Commander, a rising mid-level commander. And there are at least eight such commanders and units in North China!"

"Do you really think that following Wu Tinglin and joining the Japanese will lead to a good end?"

Everyone looked at Li Jiyun in silence.

Seeing that the time was ripe, Li Jiyun continued, "That's right, you all know that it was truly suicide!"

"As long as the General Headquarters gives the order, all the planes and tanks that were chasing the Japanese in Southeast Asia will be transferred to the country."

"The powerful steel tanks will crush us into dust!"

"Even if we are lucky enough to survive, we will be nailed to the pillar of historical shame and never be able to rise again!"

"Our families and our descendants will all bear the stigma of being 'traitors'!"

"Should we continue to follow this traitorous scoundrel down into an abyss of no return, or..."

He looked around at the crowd, his voice suddenly rising: "Follow us, set things right, abandon darkness for light, preserve the entire team, and atone for your crimes! The choice is yours!"

His words were reasonable and insightful, clearly explaining the stakes involved. This united the second-in-command, third-in-command, and fourth-in-command within the team.

Even if Wu Tinglin is not controlled, the development of the situation will be very clear.

The officers present looked at each other.

Everyone saw wavering and fear in each other's eyes.

Yes.

The War General's reputation is truly overwhelming.

That was a formidable reputation built upon a series of glorious victories and the countless corpses of Japanese soldiers.

To be an enemy of the Nationalist army, and an enemy of Chu Yunfei?

To be an enemy of the greater good of the nation and its people?
Who the hell has had enough of living?
Finally, the trusted regimental commander who was the first to jump out, after a fierce internal struggle, was the first to unfasten the pistol from his waist and place it on the table.

"I'll listen to the chief of staff, brothers. We can do bastard things, but we can never be traitors!"

His actions were like toppling the first domino.

"We'll listen to the Chief of Staff!"

"We were also deceived by that old scoundrel Wu Tinglin!"

"We are willing to atone for our crimes by performing good deeds!"

In an instant, all the officers took off their weapons to show their stance.

A mutiny and crisis that seemed imminent.

that's it.

Under Chu Yunfei's immense intimidating power, it was easily neutralized and rendered ineffective.

Liu Hebi breathed a long sigh of relief as he watched this dramatic scene unfold.

he knows.

The 15th Army, formerly known as the "Zhensong Army," will bid farewell to its past from today onwards.

"Since the brothers are willing to trust us, send a telegram immediately to the First War Zone Command, the North China Joint Command, and the General Headquarters. All officers above the regimental level must jointly sever ties with the Wu rebels!"

"Yes!"
-
The next morning.

A telegram in plain text, led by Liu Hebi, Chief of Staff of the 15th Army, and jointly signed by all officers at the regimental level and above.

Like a pebble thrown into a calm lake, it instantly stirred up a huge uproar across the country.

[To eliminate traitors and restore order to the nation—A tearful letter from all officers and soldiers of the 15th Army to our compatriots across the country]

The telegram was sincere and righteous in its wording.

"With the nation in peril and the Japanese invaders still at large, it is the time for us soldiers to be ready to fight bravely against the enemy."

However, our army commander, Wu Tinglin, was utterly depraved, betraying national righteousness and secretly colluding with the Japanese invaders, intending to lead his entire army to defect to the enemy and become traitors and lackeys!

"At this critical moment, our Chief of Staff Liu Hebi, together with Division Commanders Yao Beichen and Li Jiyun, resolutely launched a military coup and captured the traitor Wu Tinglin. We, all officers and soldiers, hereby swear to resolutely support the National Government and the Chairman, and to sever all ties with the traitor Wu Tinglin! Our 15th Army swears to never be slaves of a conquered nation, and is willing to shed our last drop of blood for the great cause of resisting Japan!"

This telegram, like a thunderclap, resounded in the hearts of everyone who cared about national affairs.

Wu Tinglin?
Wu Tinglin, who had just led his troops in a "proactive attack" and was hailed by countless people as an "anti-Japanese hero."

He was actually a traitor who colluded with the enemy and betrayed the country?
This reversal came too quickly.

It was so sudden that it caught everyone off guard.

While the nation was still in shock and confusion.

Chu Yunfei.

The newly appointed chief advisor of the military training department has delivered his second, and even more devastating, blow.

He personally ordered that the prepared dossier detailing Wu Tinglin and his family's numerous crimes, along with the Japanese-made radio broadcast serving as "ironclad evidence of treason," be handed over to major news media outlets.

For a while.

An unprecedented media storm, personally orchestrated by Chu Yunfei, swept across the entire Kuomintang-controlled area and even reached the occupied territories and overseas.

Central Daily News.

As the official mouthpiece of the Nationalist government, it was the first to publish a strongly worded editorial on the front page:

National laws and military discipline are inviolable! The traitor Wu Tinglin must be severely punished as a warning to others!

The article details the "evidence" that Wu Tinglin colluded with the Japanese invaders.

They characterized him as "a scoundrel who infiltrated the revolutionary ranks and an enemy of the Chinese nation".

The Changzhi Weekly, Guanghua Daily, and Fuxing Daily, which were founded and controlled by Song Wenying, went all out.

They not only published numerous articles detailing Wu Tinglin's crimes of embezzling military funds and oppressing the local people, but also sent reporters deep into western Henan to interview ordinary people who had suffered greatly at his hands.

One tearful accusation after another, one factual report after another, were quickly published.

The Guanghua Daily published a special report titled "The Cry of Western Henan: A Dark Kingdom Ruled by 'Anti-Japanese Heroes'".

It even triggered tears from the public.

In the report, an elderly farmer with white hair tearfully recounted how his family's land was forcibly seized by the Wu family.

The widow, who had lost her husband, recounted in tears how he was beaten to death by Wu Tinglin's henchmen because of a single complaint.

The emaciated children, in their tender voices, spoke of how they were starving and cold, and how they had to pay heavy taxes to the Wu family's army.

These are the most authentic voices from the people.

This forms an incredibly ironic and stark contrast to the glorious image of the "anti-Japanese hero" previously portrayed in the media.

Even the Xinhua Daily, which has always maintained a distance from the Kuomintang, reported on the matter.

From "Anti-Japanese Hero" to "National Traitor": The Corruption Within the Kuomintang Army Reflected by the Wu Tinglin Incident

Although the articles have different stances.

However, on the point of exposing Wu Tinglin's crimes, they maintained a high degree of consistency with the media in the Kuomintang-controlled areas.

For a while.

Public opinion has completely reversed.

prior to.

Many people also sympathize with Wu Tinglin, believing that he was framed by "political struggle".

Many newspapers controlled by local warlords were still expressing their indignation, believing that the situation in the mountain city was due to incompetence.

And now.

When the bloody truth is revealed.

The whole country was in an uproar, followed by overwhelming anger.

People then realized that the "hero" they had elevated to a pedestal was, beneath his glamorous exterior, an absolute, ruthless killer who devoured people without spitting out the bones!
Especially the people in western Henan.

After learning of Wu Tinglin's downfall, many villages spontaneously set off firecrackers, making it even more lively than the Lunar New Year.

They spread the news with joy and celebration, as if the dark clouds that had hung over them for years had been dispelled.

They never expected that the "martial arts demon" who was seen as wicked and lawless would turn out to be someone they didn't know.

That local tyrant who seemed unshakeable as long as he carried the banner of "resistance against Japan" actually fell from power.

What they didn't expect was...

This seemingly all-powerful demon king, in their eyes, was actually a traitor who was preparing to defect to the Japanese!

"Serves him right! He really got what he deserved!"

"Thank you, Your Honor! Thank you, Commander Chu, for ridding us of this scourge!"

For a time, the surname "Wu" became a synonym for filth and shame in western Henan and even throughout China.

The Wu family is hated and despised by everyone.

And it was amidst this overwhelming wave of public opinion.

Chu Yunfei issued another order.

He instructed the First War Zone Command to coordinate with the joint action group of the Military Law Department and the Military Intelligence Bureau to conduct a comprehensive purge and arrest of the remaining members of the Wu family entrenched in Luoyang and various counties in western Henan.

A vast and inescapable net has been quietly cast.

Those Wu family nephews, confidants, and henchmen who usually abused Wu Tinglin's power and acted arrogantly.

Overnight, they went from being high and mighty "superiors" to being universally reviled as rats crossing the street.

Some were caught on the spot, while others fled at the first sign of trouble, but in the end, none of them could escape the law.

Their farmland was seized, their family property confiscated, and all the ill-gotten gains they had obtained through illegal means were to be inventoried and returned to the local people.

A vigorous campaign to "crack down on violence and eliminate evil."

It is unfolding vigorously in western Henan.

The mastermind behind all of this, Chu Yunfei, has never made a public appearance.

He stayed quietly in Luoyang.

Watching the fire he himself started burn a deeply entrenched local warlord force to the ground (End of Chapter)