Bright Sword: The Flowers of War

Chapter 67 The Chairman's Reflection

At noon on December 16, 1937, Xu Huansheng, a radio translator in the Shanghai International Settlement, was fiddling with his radio as usual when he suddenly received a string of plaintext telegrams:
"This is Xiaguan, Nanjing... The Japanese army is massacring tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians with naval guns... We request all ships along the Yangtze River to come to our aid... Any response, no matter how frequent, will be a testament to the civilized world..."

At the same time, not only Xu Huansheng received this telegram in plain text, but also all the foreign concessions and embassies of various countries stationed in China.

"Damn it...beast...robbers...a bunch of robbers!"

Zengjiayan Official Residence in Chongqing

A voice with a thick Fenghua accent roared in the office.

“Slaughter… They are committing slaughter, a slaughter that violates international law!”

Having not slept well for several days, Chairman Chiang Kai-shek, sporting dark circles under his eyes, was roaring at a group of high-ranking officials in front of him.

"The Japanese are brutal... Tang Mengxiao (Tang Shengzhi) is stupid and incompetent, and you are all just a bunch of useless trash like him!"

Chiang Kai-shek's spittle almost flew onto the faces of Chen Cheng, He Yingqin, and the others standing in front of the desk, but they remained respectful and didn't even dare to wipe it off.

"Do you know that the Japanese are openly massacring our people and prisoners of war in Nanjing? Do you know what kind of damage this will bring to our international image?"
How will the United States, Britain, and a group of European countries view us? How can we expect them to support us then?

The group exchanged glances, realizing that the chairman wasn't angry about the massacre of civilians, but rather that friendly nations might think he was too weak and stop supporting him.

The office fell silent for a moment. Seeing that no one spoke, Chiang Kai-shek became even angrier and slammed his fist on the table. "Damn it... The Japanese are going too far... Tang Mengxiao deserted in the face of battle, none of them are good people."

At this point, Chiang Kai-shek's teeth were itching. Everyone could understand why his face turned ashen at the mention of Tang Shengzhi.

Before the war began, this guy shouted that he would live and die with Nanjing, but he himself was not very capable. He adopted a passive defense strategy, and the defense strategy he set up was full of loopholes, which allowed the Japanese army to concentrate its superior forces to defeat them one by one.

He also confiscated all the ferries at the ferry crossing to show his determination to fight to the death, but he never thought that if he was defeated, the entire military and civilian population of Nanjing would have to pay the price for his decision.

After the Japanese army entered Nanjing, he himself took the reserved ferry and fled Nanjing, leaving behind only the city's residents and soldiers.

As soon as he left, the Nanjing defense line collapsed completely. His departure exacerbated the soldiers' chaos and despair. It can be said that he bears at least half the responsibility for the catastrophe that Nanjing suffered.

No wonder Chiang Kai-shek hated him so much whenever he mentioned him.

Seeing that everyone remained silent, Chiang Kai-shek angrily said, "Why is no one saying anything? Cixiu, Jingzhi, aren't you usually so eloquent? Why have you all become mute?"

Chen Cheng smiled wryly and said, "Chairman, it's not that we're not saying anything, but it's pointless to say anything now. What we need to do now is to restore our international image as quickly as possible. That's the most important thing."

"Hmm...that makes sense." Chen Cheng, as expected of the chairman's most valued subordinate, hit the nail on the head with just one sentence, and his originally livid face softened.

He thought for a moment and then asked Chen Cheng, "Cixiu, how is Nanjing now?"

Chen Cheng sighed softly: "It's a terrible sight. According to the telegrams sent by the escaped soldiers and some of the murdered reporters and officers, the Japanese have actually started a killing contest in the city to see who can kill the most people. Nanjing is now like hell!"

"boom!"

Chairman Chiang Kai-shek glared angrily and shouted, "This is outrageous!"

“It is indeed outrageous, but what can we do?” He Yingqin also advised, “Our national strength is inferior to theirs, what can we do?”

"What methods do you have to teach the Japanese a lesson?" Chiang Kai-shek asked, his chest heaving as he looked around at everyone. "This..." Chen Cheng and He Yingqin both looked troubled; what solutions could they possibly come up with?

“Principal.” At this moment, Dai Li, who had been silent since entering, spoke up, “I have heard some news, but I don’t know if it’s true or false.”

"Speak quickly." The chairman glared at him.

Dai Li stepped forward and bowed, saying, "This morning I received intelligence that there is still a force in Nanjing that is resisting and has inflicted considerable casualties on the Japanese army."

They even killed Hasegawa, the deputy commander of the Kunisaki Detachment, and Colonel Nagano Yuichiro of the 11th Regiment, for which Kunisaki, the detachment commander, was dismissed.

Dai Li, as expected of the intelligence chief valued by the Chairman and the director of the Military Commission's Investigation and Statistics Bureau, had already thoroughly investigated Su Yaoyang's past activities in just a few days.

"Oh... is that so?"

Upon hearing this, the Chairman was first surprised, then overjoyed.

"Tell me quickly, which unit is it? What's the commander's name? Which class of the Whampoa Military Academy did he graduate from? I want to reward him handsomely!"

Dai Li thought for a moment, "The commander of that unit was surnamed Su, named Su Yaoyang. He was not a graduate of the Whampoa Military Academy, nor was he even a soldier. He was a young man who fled to Nanjing."

He simply gathered a group by chance, then occupied a church and started fighting the Japanese.

“What… a young man.”

Upon hearing this, not only the Chairman, but also Chen Cheng and He Yingqin were taken aback. No one expected that the person who had so thoroughly humiliated the Japanese was a young man who had never attended a military academy.

However, after realizing what had happened, their expressions inevitably turned somewhat unpleasant.

I am afraid of comparison in everything.

In the Battle of Nanjing, the Chinese army of over 100,000 failed to kill a single Japanese colonel, but Su Yaoyang, a young man just starting out, did just that. Wasn't that a slap in their face?

Seeing the chairman's subtle expression, Dai Li added, "Principal... there's no need to be sad. In the students' opinion, Su Yaoyang was just there by chance."

He was able to achieve this thanks in large part to the help of one person, who happened to be an instructor in the training corps.

"Training Corps?"

The chairman immediately became interested upon hearing this.

The Training Corps was the most elite of the elite, with all its officers being elites selected from graduates of the Whampoa Military Academy; you could say they were all his students.

"That man is Li Gaoyuan, an instructor from the First Regiment of the First Brigade of the Training Corps."

For some reason, this person volunteered to become Su Yaoyang's deputy. The two of them teamed up and formed some kind of newly organized Nanjing Security Regiment, causing quite a stir.

Although the Military Intelligence Bureau was powerful, it wasn't a god. There were some things that were difficult for them to know unless the people involved told them.

"Oh..." The chairman stroked his chin, closed his eyes in deep thought, and it was unclear what he was thinking.

(End of this chapter)