Anti-Japanese War: From Becoming Chu Yunfei to Rising

Mountain City, the office building of the Military Commission of the National Government.

A high-level coordination meeting regarding the Yangtze River crossing operation had just concluded, and the generals in the meeting room had only just dispersed.

Suddenly, a series of extremely rough and unrestrained thuds of leather boots hitting the ground echoed in the corridor.

"boom!"

The half-open double mahogany doors were suddenly pushed open with great force, slamming against the wall with a terrifyingly loud bang.

Chang Ruiyuan was reviewing documents when his brows suddenly furrowed.

He looked up and saw General Joseph Stilwell, Chief of Staff of the U.S. Joint Advisory Group in China, charging in like an angry bull.

Stilwell didn't even take off his military cap; his thin face flushed red, and the veins on his forehead throbbed.

His adjutant, Dorn, who was following closely behind him, was holding a thick stack of documents and photos and looked very embarrassed.

"Your Excellency Chairman!"

Stilwell strode to his desk, stood at attention, and saluted: "This is an outright fraud! It's a crime against Allied strategy and an insult to the taxpayers of the United States!"

Chang Ruiyuan put down his brush, a hint of hidden anger flashing in his eyes, but he still maintained the restraint of a national leader.

"General Stilwell, what's wrong?"

Stilwell was furious. He grabbed the folder from Dorn's hand and threw a dozen black and white photos and a stack of account lists in front of Chang Ruiyuan.

The photos were scattered on the table.

Those were the outskirts of several newly liberated county towns in South China.

In the photo, a group of starving people, barely clothed, emaciated, and resembling living skeletons, are being driven by several local officers of the Nationalist Army who are carrying whips and rifles, carrying rubble in tattered willow baskets.

The scene was horrific; in the corners of some photos, one could even clearly see the bodies of laborers lying in the mud, unclaimed.

"Is this how you repaired the counterattack airport?"

Stilwell's spittle almost landed on Chang Ruiyuan's face: "The US government allocated a full eight million US dollars in special construction funds for these four field airfields in South China!"

"But the people I sent to audit it discovered that this 50 million yuan project was stripped of its value and subcontracted layer by layer by your South China Joint Command's local agencies, headquarters, and logistics department. By the time it reached the last person in charge of the project, only a pitiful 6 million yuan was left!"

Chang Ruiyuan's eye twitched suddenly.

He instinctively wanted to retort, to rebuke the Americans for their "stinginess" and harshness in exchange rates and resource allocation.

But when his gaze fell upon the plight of the starving people and the clear details of the deductions in the ledger, all the words stuck in his throat.

"It's fine if we only have six million left."

Stilwell placed his hands on the table, looking down at Chang Ruiyuan with a piercing gaze: "Those greedy officers, in order to save money on buying machines and hiring workers, actually sent their troops to the countryside to capture refugees who had just escaped from the clutches of the Japanese army and use them as free laborers!"

"Without food rations or medicine, they were forced to work by being whipped!"

Stilwell straightened up, his eyes filled with undisguised contempt: "Same funding, same blueprints!"

"It will only take two and a half months to build a field airfield in North China capable of handling B-24 heavy bombers!"

Stilwell held up eight fingers, his voice echoing in the office: "The speed and quality of airport construction in North China is eight times that of South China!"

"Your Excellency Chairman, if you cannot resolve this issue completely..."

Stilwell issued an ultimatum: "I will immediately halt the planned transfer of equipment for the 60th Division in South China."

That's all.

Stilwell snorted and turned to leave with Dorn.

Chang Ruiyuan was left behind, his face ashen and trembling with rage.

"Damn it!"

Chang Ruiyuan suddenly grabbed the stack of photos and smashed them on the ground. He also swept the teacup out of his hand, shattering it.

Zhu Peiji, the head of the attendant's office, pushed open the door upon hearing the noise and was so frightened by the mess that he dared not even breathe.

"These bastards!"

Chang Ruiyuan stood up, leaning on his cane, his chest heaving violently.

The group of scoundrels below made Chang Ruiyuan look like a clown in front of the Allied high command once again.

"Power up Jianfeng!"

Chang Ruiyuan gritted his teeth and squeezed out the words: "Let him investigate this matter personally."

……

February 10th, 1944.

A cold rain was falling at the construction site of a newly built airport in South China.

On the construction site, where the mud reached up to their knees, thousands of ragged laborers shivered in the cold wind.

"hurry up!"

"All of you, get the hell to get this done!"

A portly Nationalist Army major quartermaster, wearing a military overcoat, sat in a tent nearby.

While he was eating roast chicken, he directed his soldiers to drive the laborers away with their rifle butts.

Just then.

Several black sedans bearing special license plates from the Chongqing Military Intelligence Bureau broke through the construction site's cordon without warning and came to an abrupt stop in front of the jeep.

The car door opened.

Chang Jingguo, dressed in a gray Zhongshan suit, walked down the street with a blank expression.

Behind him followed two teams of fully armed special operations agents wearing sunglasses.

The quartermaster major was startled, dropped the roast chicken, and was about to explode in anger.

Two dark Thompson submachine guns were already pressed against his forehead.

"Which department are you from?" the major asked, raising his hands and stammering.

Chang Jingguo did not look at him.

He walked straight to a mud puddle.

He reached out and helped up an elderly laborer with a full head of white hair who had been overwhelmed by the heavy burden.

Looking at the old man's withered arms and frostbitten purple toes, Chang Jingguo's eyes were terrifyingly cold.

He turned around and took out the special approval order from the Chairman from his pocket.

Chang Ching-kuo calmly uttered a few words: "Arrest them all, including the local contractors and supervisors."

The agents pounced on them like wolves, instantly disarming all the officers and supervisors present and kicking them into the mud.

"Sir!"

"Sir, I am from the Logistics Department of the Fourth War Zone!"

The major struggled frantically in the mud: "This is a misunderstanding!"

Chang Jingguo walked up to him and looked down at him: "There is no misunderstanding."

"Building airports during the national resistance against Japan was a sacred patriotic movement."

“Since this is a patriotic movement, you officers and government officials who receive high military salaries should take the lead and set an example.”

Chang Jingguo turned to the special operations team leader and gave an extremely ruthless order: "Strip them of their uniforms and overcoats!"

“Give each of them a basket and a shovel.”

Chang Ching-kuo pointed to the unfinished runway: "From today onwards, these officers and corrupt contractors will be the commandos of this construction site."

"Working fourteen hours a day."

"No food allowed if the quota isn't met."

"Anyone who dares to desert or shirk their duties will be executed on the spot!"

It only took a week.

Chang Jingguo was like a sharp, unsheathed scalpel, uprooting the corruption chains at several airports in South China.

More than 100 military officers involved in the case were dismissed on the spot and forced to work on construction sites, smashing stones and carrying cement.

As for their actual solution, it still needs to be decided by the authorities in Chongqing.

The embezzled funds were forcibly recovered, and large quantities of food and winter clothing were quickly distributed to the laborers.

The construction speed of the airport increased significantly in an instant.

……

half a month later.

Mountain city, secret chamber of Yunxiu Tower.

The silver charcoal in the copper brazier was burning brightly.

Chang Ruiyuan sat upright on the sofa.

To his left sat T.V. Soong, who held the reins of the Nationalist government's finances.

Standing before him was Chang Jingguo, who had just returned from the front lines in South China, looking travel-worn.

"You handled the South China Airport matter very well, but not well enough. The Control Yuan is making a big fuss about it, but fortunately Stilwell has shut up."

Chang Ruiyuan nodded slightly, his eyes showing his satisfaction with his eldest son: "But you sent a secret telegram today, requesting that Ziwen come along as well, saying that you have a matter of great importance concerning the foundation of the nation to report?"

Song Ziwen took off his gold-rimmed glasses and gently wiped them with a silk handkerchief, his eyes showing a hint of nonchalance.

“Jianfeng, the millions of national currency embezzled by those local quartermasters, although egregious, are just a minor problem when placed in the grand scheme of the nation.”

Chang Ching-kuo ignored Soong Tse-ven's "reminder" and placed a black briefcase on the table.

"Chairman, Minister Song."

Chang Jingguo's voice was unusually heavy: "In the past six months, under the guise of investigating local corruption, I have used my top-secret forces to conduct a thorough investigation into the economic situation, bank statements, and industrial and mining sectors of the entire Southwest and South China rear area."

Chang Ching-kuo pushed the report in front of the two men: "First, regarding the disconnect between finance and industry in the rear."

"Based on the internal secret transaction records of the four major banks and local commercial savings banks."

"Currently, over 90% of the loans issued by banks in the rear areas have flowed into commercial speculation and hoarding of goods!"

"Cotton cloth, penicillin, tung oil, even grain!"

“These businessmen obtained low-interest loans from banks and then used them to hoard goods and drive up prices in the market by dozens or even hundreds of times.”

"Less than 10 percent of the funds are actually willing to invest in local machinery manufacturing, chemical plants, and light industry!"

Chang Ruiyuan's face instantly darkened, and he subconsciously asked, "Why?"

This inquiry was actually directed not at Chang Ching-kuo, but at T.V. Soong.

However, Chang Ching-kuo subconsciously replied, "Because commercial speculation brings in money quickly and with high profits!"

"Those private banks and national capitalists who genuinely wanted to build the country through hard work and open factories were squeezed out of their living space by these comprador capitals that hoarded and speculated, and in the past two years, a large-scale wave of bankruptcies and closures has broken out!"

On the back of Chang Ruiyuan's hand, where he gripped his cane, the veins bulged as he glared fiercely at Song Ziwen, whose expression remained unchanged.

Chang Jingguo then produced a second document.

This document caused Soong Tse-ven's hand, which was wiping his glasses, to freeze in mid-air.

"The second thing."

Chang Jingguo opened the accounts: "Although there is widespread famine among the people and military funds are tight at the front, the total amount of personal deposits in major banks in the rear areas has increased sixfold at an extremely abnormal rate during the war!"

“Even more incredible is that…”

Chang Jingguo's voice was as cold as the wind in an ice cellar: "Of this surge in deposits, forty percent are actually hard currencies—gold and US dollars!"

"Where did this money come from?" Chang Ching-kuo's gaze was like a steel knife, scraping across Soong Tse-ven's cheek.

"What kind of person could take out such a huge amount of gold and foreign exchange and deposit it in a bank when the country was on the verge of collapse?"

"Why don't they use the money to buy anti-Japanese war and national salvation bonds?!"

The air inside the sealed room instantly froze to its limit.

A fine layer of cold sweat appeared on Song Ziwen's forehead. He coughed awkwardly twice: "Jianfeng, these may be wealth accumulated by ordinary people over many years, or remittances from overseas Chinese."

"No!"

Chang Ching-kuo interrupted him without hesitation, dropping the most lethal "nuclear bomb" of the day.

He pulled out a top-secret blue file from the very bottom of his briefcase. It was printed in both English and Chinese and bore the official seals of the FBI and the U.S. Embassy in China.

"This is a list that was handed over to us by our US allies as a 'goodwill' exchange after the Cairo Conference."

Chang Jingguo slammed the file onto the center of the table: "The client information on this file is all from accounts opened using extremely secretive agents or aliases."

"Based on the verifiable transaction links and wire transfer receipts provided by the United States."

Chang Jingguo's eyes were bloodshot, and he spoke through gritted teeth: "Since the outbreak of the War of Resistance against Japan, those military and political bureaucrats and comprador elites who shouted 'Resist Japan and save the country' in the rear and gave impassioned speeches on the podium!"

"They used the black market, embezzled military pay, and resold US aid supplies."

"He secretly deposited over $300 million in private funds at Citibank and Chase Bank on Wall Street!"

"boom!"

These words struck Chang Ruiyuan like a bolt of lightning, hitting him squarely on the head.

Chang Ruiyuan was aware of the corruption among high-ranking Kuomintang officials and the privileged lifestyle of lower-ranking officials.

But three hundred million US dollars.
What is this concept?
That $300 million would be equivalent to 2.5 billion RMB in today's currency.

(PS: This refers to the fictional world. Historically, at this point in time, the exchange rate was 1:20, and the exchange rate completely collapsed.)
1.5 billion.

The predicament faced by North China can be easily resolved.

What's even more disheartening is that Chang Ching-kuo coldly added, "These are only the verified figures within the United States."

"If you include their bearer assets held in banks in Brazil and even neutral Switzerland, the wealth these parasites have plundered from the people is simply immeasurable!"

Song Ziwen sighed.

This matter was eventually brought to the forefront.

He knew perfectly well whose money it was.

But what can Chang Ruiyuan do about it?
"boom!!!"

Chang Ruiyuan swung his silver-inlaid cane and slammed it hard onto the solid wood coffee table in front of him.

The immense impact caused a deep crack to appear on the expensive coffee table.

Chang Ruiyuan stood up like a raging lion.

His chest heaved violently, his face turned from ashen to purplish-red, and his eyes flashed with terrifying killing intent.

In Chang Ching-kuo's view, he understood his father all too well.

Chang Ruiyuan begged and pleaded on the front lines, even sending people to act subservient to Churchill and Stalin to beg for meager aid.

North China was selling everything it owned in Shanxi and Shaanxi provinces, and even trying every possible means to mobilize college students to work in arsenals to reorganize the defense industry.

Meanwhile, back in the central government, these damned military and political officials are still profiting from the bloodshed of soldiers on the front lines and frantically transferring assets overseas!

and.

This list was submitted directly by the Americans.

This was tantamount to Roosevelt slapping Chang Ruiyuan hard across the ocean.

The timing was chosen here again.

Just as the battle in the Yangtze River Delta had begun, and just as North China was sharpening its swords in preparation for its advance,

Just as China was brimming with confidence and preparing to establish its presence in East Asia at a crucial moment.

"it is good!"

"That's great!"

"We didn't take drastic measures in the past because we were afraid that the rear would fall into chaos before the front lines were stabilized."

"Now that the North China victory is underway, the 60th Division plan has been launched, and even the military command of the Expeditionary Force is being reorganized."

Chang Ruiyuan took a deep breath, his murderous aura now completely undisguised: "Do you really think I, Chang Ruiyuan, don't even have the guts to clean house in my own home?!"

He grabbed the list provided by the Americans: "Jianfeng!"

Chang Jingguo straightened up abruptly: "Here!"

"I now grant you the authority to make decisions on the spot!"

"Mobilize the Military Intelligence Bureau's special task force and the General Investigation Department!"

"Check each person on this list one by one!"

"Once the evidence is conclusive, arrest them all!"

Chang Jingguo gave a very proper military salute.

He grabbed the top-secret list, enough to unleash a bloodbath in the mountain city, turned and strode out of Yunxiu Tower.

The young man's stride exuded a spirited determination to break with the old and a fierce, undisguised killing intent.

As the heavy oak double doors were slowly closed by the guards, the atmosphere inside the secret room underwent another subtle shift.

The rage and bloodlust on Chang Ruiyuan's face, like that of an enraged lion, was fading away at a visible speed.

He slumped dejectedly into the sofa, glanced at the broken cane on the carpet, and sighed deeply.

The murderous intent in those originally cloudy eyes had vanished.

Chang Ruiyuan quietly looked at Song Ziwen, who was sitting opposite him and still wiping away cold sweat with a silk handkerchief.

"Ziwen."

Chang Ruiyuan's voice carried a weariness and coldness that came from a profound understanding of the world: "What do you think of this matter?"

Soong Tse-ven's hand holding the handkerchief stiffened slightly. He carefully replied, "The Chairman is as insightful as can be, so of course he understands. It's just that sometimes we have to be careful not to harm the innocent."

"Yes, we're afraid to act rashly for fear of inadvertently harming the innocent."

Chang Ruiyuan sneered, his tone revealing a deep-seated sorrow and extreme clarity: "Everyone in the world is pointing fingers at us and cursing us for being greedy, for being corrupt and profiting from the national crisis."

"But the foundation of our Party affairs, the lifeline of the grassroots, is almost entirely in the hands of the two Chens!"

The "two Chens" mentioned by Chang Ruiyuan were the CC Clique, which firmly controlled the Kuomintang's party affairs and intelligence system.

He stood up, walked to the copper charcoal brazier, and stretched out his hands to feel the faint residual warmth.

"Our party has become a disorganized mess since the passing of the Premier, a hodgepodge pieced together."

"After fighting for so long, facing those ideologies from the outside world, we can't even clearly explain to the people what kind of party we are!"

"They talk about the Three Principles of the People all the time, but the officers and bureaucrats below them all have their own ulterior motives."

"But amidst all the confusing definitions, there is only one thing that is absolutely clear, and it is the only consensus that barely brings this group of people together."

Chang Ruiyuan's words were exceptionally sharp, ruthlessly tearing open the deepest ideological wounds of the Kuomintang, yet he didn't care that he himself had caused these wounds.

That is, we are 'not a Communist Party'.

Song Ziwen remained silent.

He knew very well that this was the last political fig leaf supporting the mountain city regime.

Chang Ruiyuan turned his head and stared intently at the flickering charcoal fire: "This is the fundamental reason why I have been indulging the CC Clique's growth all these years, and even tacitly allowing them to engage in corruption behind the scenes."

"Because the anti-communism of the two Chens is ingrained in their bones, their rigid party affairs system could never possibly merge with the Red Party, and they would never become corrupt."

"When local forces are unstable and internal ideology is extremely lacking, I need this vicious dog to guard my home and protect my absolute base of support for this 'non-G' faction!"

Chang Ruiyuan shook his head, a hint of reminiscence for the past flashing in his eyes: "If this had happened before the full-scale outbreak of the War of Resistance, our central government would still have cards to play."

“The youth party organization that Zhang Hanqing set up, as well as the young blood of our Fuxing Society, can still serve as a substitute to resist and counteract the CC Clique’s infiltration of party affairs.”

"But what about now?"

Chang Ruiyuan's voice suddenly turned cold, revealing a chilling murderous intent: "These old CC Clique bureaucrats, relying on the 'politically correct' get-out-of-jail-free card they hold, are controlling everything from behind the scenes!"

"They have not only become the biggest cancer sucking blood from the nation's lifeline, but now they have even angered the Americans who control the lifeline of US aid because of their insatiable greed!"

Faced with a life-or-death situation requiring international aid, the value of these corrupt politicians has become nothing more than a burden.

Chang Ruiyuan turned around, his gaze turning cold and oppressive once again: "Times have changed, Ziwen."

"We need someone of sufficient stature to be held accountable for the airport corruption case."

"Now that unification by force is imminent, the political structure within the party must not be allowed to continue to be controlled by these malignant tumors that hinder the operation of the state apparatus!"

In Chang Ruiyuan's eyes gleamed a terrifying calculation aimed at overturning the game: "Now is the time to fully utilize those factions within the Party that have always advocated reconstruction, reorganization, and revolutionary convergence."

"As long as the central government wields this swift anti-corruption weapon, even the Xishan Conference faction represented by Lin Sen, seeing that the tide has turned, will naturally jump ship and join forces with our new force!"

T.V. Soong astutely grasped the political tsunami that these words were about to unleash.

Chang Ruiyuan is using this as a pretext to completely reshuffle the internal structure of the Kuomintang.

"For postwar peace and national reconstruction, and to appease the political demands of America's allies for a 'coalition government'."

Chang Ruiyuan uttered the most shocking statement of the day.

"If necessary, I can even tolerate anything and sit down at the same negotiating table with the Yan'an side again to seek some degree of cooperation!"

Song Ziwen's pupils contracted sharply, and his palms, which were gripping the handkerchief, were covered in cold sweat.

"If it really comes to that..."

Song Ziwen swallowed hard, not daring to definitively say the second half of his sentence.

"If it really comes to that."

Chang Ruiyuan delivered the chilling conclusion for him, his tone like that of a high and mighty judge: "The extreme rigidity of the CC Clique's political ideology, which only incites confrontation, will become the biggest stumbling block."

"The two Chens and their gang of party hacks are destined to be mercilessly swept into the dustbin of history!"

This is where the ruthlessness of political oligarchs lies.

When your core value is denied by the new era, all that awaits you is a thunderous crushing defeat.

Chang Ruiyuan took a deep breath and walked to the coffee table.

"Therefore, the airport corruption case and the $100 million overseas slush fund that Jianfeng uncovered this time came at just the right time and were a godsend."

He looked at T.V. Soong with an extremely blatant warning and a strong attempt to win him over.

"This is the most perfect knife."

"Take advantage of this legitimate opportunity to give an account to the Americans and the nation, and completely sever the CC Clique's dark influence in local and financial systems!"

Chang Ruiyuan tapped his fingers lightly on the table: "Take back the power they seized, intact, to the Supreme Command."

"Ziwen, go back immediately and make the cleanest possible separation of the accounts of the Central Bank and the Ministry of Finance that you are in charge of."

Chang Ruiyuan issued an unquestionable order: "Jianfeng, you go ahead and take the list to arrest people, and you go behind and use your administrative privileges to cut off their money laundering channels and funding chains."

Soong Tse-ven felt as if he had been granted a pardon, but at the same time he also felt a deep sense of awe and trepidation.

They perfectly packaged the internal political purge as an anti-corruption storm that complied with American pressure and aimed to save the overall war effort.

"Rest assured, Chairman!"

Soong Tse-ven stood up abruptly and solemnly pledged his loyalty: "The Ministry of Finance will cooperate fully with the investigation. It's time to uproot this malignant tumor that's entrenched in the very bones of the Party and the nation." (End of Chapter)