On the eve of the fall of Liaodong, he led his troops in a remonstrance against the young marshal.

Nanchang, official residence.

In order to organize the third encirclement campaign, the Chairman personally went to Nanchang to direct the campaign.

At 4:30 a.m., the entire city was still shrouded in the chill of late autumn.

The fallen leaves of the plane trees were swept up by the night wind, swirling on the empty road, and a thin layer of morning mist floated in the dim yellow glow of the streetlights.

The curtains in the bedroom on the second floor of the official residence were drawn tightly shut. The attendant and adjutant standing outside the door had his hands folded in front of him, and his eyelids were drooping uncontrollably.

Hurried footsteps came from the end of the corridor.

The military boots pounded on the marble floor, each step carrying a hurried weight, the echo reverberating through the empty corridor.

The adjutant suddenly opened his eyes and saw Gu Zhutong walking quickly toward them. One of the buttons on his military uniform was fastened incorrectly, and his hair was unkempt, clearly indicating that he had been urgently woken up from bed.

Gu Zhutong walked to the bedroom door, took a deep breath, and raised his hand to knock.

The knocking sounded particularly abrupt in the quiet corridor.

no respond.

He knocked three more times, harder than before.

"Chairman..."

He lowered his voice and called out, his voice filled with barely concealed anxiety.

A rustling sound came from the bedroom, followed by a muffled groan filled with anger:

"Wangzai Dumplings!!"

Gu Zhutong gritted his teeth and brought his mouth close to the crack in the door:

"Chairman, urgent telegram from the Northeast! Something has happened in the Northeast."

There was a three-second silence inside the door.

Then Gu Zhutong heard the bed creak, the sound of slippers on the floor getting closer, and the door lock clicked open.

The door was pulled open a crack, revealing the chairman's face, which showed signs of sleepiness and anger.

He was wearing a navy blue silk robe, his hair was messy and stuck to his scalp, and his eyes were bloodshot as if he had been forcibly pulled from his sleep, but his pupils had already contracted alertly.

"What's going on in the Northeast?" His voice was hoarse and short.

Gu Zhutong handed over the telegram with both hands:

"At 22:20 last night, the Japanese Kwantung Army blew up the Liutiaohu section of the South Manchurian Railway, and then launched an attack on Beidaying with the 4th Company of the 2nd Independent Garrison Battalion."

"The 7th Independent Brigade of the Northeast Army under Wang Yizhe..."

He paused, his Adam's apple bobbing, "We annihilated the invading Japanese company; none of the 180 men survived."

The corridor was silent for a full five seconds.

The chairman snatched the telegram and scanned it from the first line to the last.

His knuckles began to turn white as he gripped the telegram, and the paper became crumpled from his clenching.

His lips were pressed into a thin line, and anger suddenly flared up in his heart.

Suddenly, he threw the telegram on the ground. The paper tumbled twice in the air and landed in front of Gu Zhutong's military boots.

"Damn it!"

These three words were squeezed out through clenched teeth, incredibly violent, like a muffled thunderclap in the throat that then exploded suddenly.

His face turned a deep liver color under the dim light of the corridor wall lamp, with veins bulging from his temples to his forehead, and the collar of his bathrobe opening and closing with his heavy breathing.

"I wrote a secret letter to Zhang Xueliang! It was written very clearly and explicitly."

"No matter how the Japanese pirates provoke us, we must not resist, and we must not give them an excuse to start a war!"

"Why can't you stay calm? Why?!"

Gu Zhutong was startled by the roar and took half a step back, but he still forced himself to speak:

"Chairman, things are a bit complicated tonight."

"At 22:00, the Japanese Kwantung Army sent a telegram to the world in plain text, claiming that the Liutiaohu section of the South Manchurian Railway had been bombed by the Northeast Army and that they had launched an attack on the railway garrison."

"Then Captain Kawashima led a company to attack Beidaying, but the Northeast Army had laid an ambush and wiped them out."

"Wang Yizhe then sent a telegram to the whole country, declaring that it was the Japanese who provoked first, and that the bombing of the railway was also done by the Japanese themselves, and that the Northeast Army was acting in legitimate self-defense."

"Both sides have conflicting accounts, and there is currently no evidence to determine who started it..."

"That's enough!"

The Chairman waved his hand, interrupting Gu Zhutong's analysis, "I don't care who struck first! I only care about one thing: the Northeast Army must not clash with the Japanese pirates!"

"To repel external threats, we must first pacify internal strife!"

"You know the situation in China right now. What if the Japanese really turn on us and escalate this conflict into a full-scale war? What will we do then? What will we do?!"

His hand waved in the air, as if driving away something unseen.

Gu Zhutong stood there, unsure whether to go forward or backward, still clutching the telegram that the Chairman had thrown on the ground.

"Chairman, so now... what should we do?" he asked cautiously.

The chairman turned around, his back to Gu Zhutong, and faced the window at the end of the corridor.

The sky outside the window was still a deep, inky blue, with not even a hint of dawn's grayness showing through.

His shadow stretched long under the wall lamp, the hem of his bathrobe trailing on the marble floor, and he remained motionless.

"Send a telegram to Zhang Xueliang."

His voice was utterly cold. "Make him apologize, pay for the destroyed railway, and pay for the fallen Japanese soldiers!"

"All losses will be borne by the Northeast side."

"Suppress the matter; we must not allow the incident to escalate."

"If the Japanese pirates launch a full-scale attack because of this, Zhang Xueliang will bear all the blame."

Gu Zhutong was stunned.

He opened his mouth, his Adam's apple bobbing up and down, as if weighing whether he should say what he was about to say.

He ultimately chose to speak out, but his voice was much lower:

"Chairman, if I may be so bold, the Japanese pirates have been planning this for a long time."

"They first bombed the railway to frame us, and then attacked Beidaying. Their goal was to annex the three northeastern provinces."

"If we only apologize and offer compensation, the Japanese pirates may not stop there."

"They are likely to push their luck and use this opportunity to make even greater territorial demands, or even directly send troops to occupy the entire country..."

"You think I don't know?"

The chairman turned around, his anger had faded by half, replaced by a sinister calculation.

"If the Japanese pirates want to occupy the three northeastern provinces, then let them occupy them."

Gu Zhutong suddenly raised his head, his eyes filled with disbelief.

He thought he had misheard, but judging from the chairman's expression, he hadn't.

The chairman took a step forward and lowered his voice:

"Mo San, you've followed me for so many years, there are some things I might as well tell you."

"Zhang Xueliang is now the Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Army, Navy and Air Force, second only to the emperor."

"They have 300,000 Northeast Army soldiers in their hands, and the territory of the three northeastern provinces as their base."

"North China is now also under his control, and he has nominated and appointed half of the chairmen of the provinces in North China."

"Tell me, who really calls the shots in this world?"

Gu Zhutong did not answer; a chill began to run down his spine.

"If Zhang Xueliang establishes a firm foothold in North China and connects Northeast China and North China into one region, then he will be qualified to stand on equal footing with me."

"When the time comes, will the world listen to him or me?"

The Chairman's tone grew increasingly cold: "The Japanese invaders occupied the three northeastern provinces, severing Zhang Xueliang's very foundation."

"Without the arsenals in Northeast China, without the tax revenue from Fengtian (Shenyang), and without the grain from Northeast China, what can he use to negotiate with me?"

"Without their homeland, the 300,000 Northeast Army soldiers became like water without roots, and sooner or later they would have to rely on supplies from the Central Committee to survive."

He paused, his gaze passing over Gu Zhutong's shoulder and landing in the dim light at the end of the corridor:

"Use the three northeastern provinces to exchange for Zhang Xueliang's power base, and then use his power base to give me time to consolidate the Central Plains."

"No matter how you look at it, this is a win-win situation."

Gu Zhutong's fingers trembled slightly along the seam of his trousers.

He wanted to say something: that there were still 30 million people in the three northeastern provinces, that there were still countless compatriots in Fengtian City, and that doing so was tantamount to drinking poison to quench thirst.

But when he saw the chairman's cold, hard face, all the words stuck in his throat.

He had followed this man for over a decade and knew his temperament all too well. Once he made up his mind, he wouldn't listen to anyone else.

"Why aren't you sending the telegram yet?"

The chairman turned around, his voice regaining its authority.

"Yes."

Gu Zhutong stood at attention, saluted, and turned to walk towards the other end of the corridor.

The sound of military boots clicking on the marble floor faded into the distance in the empty corridor, mingling with the rustling of sycamore leaves in the morning breeze outside the window.

The Chairman stood by the window, his hands behind his back, his gaze looking eastward through the glass.

On the eastern horizon, it was still a deep, dark blue, with no sign of dawn.