LRAB Chapter 69 The Tyrant's Rules of Conduct
Chapter 69 The Tyrant's Rules of Conduct
The rain stopped.
But the nightmare in Shanghai had only just begun.
At 2:15 a.m., three military trucks suddenly stopped in front of the French Concession police station.
The truck's canvas was lifted.
Shen Li stood next to the first truck and gave an order without expression.
"discharge."
Twenty soldiers from Chen's army jumped nimbly off the truck bed and began carrying "goods" up the steps in front of the police station.
Those "goods" are still bleeding.
One, two, five, ten...
One hundred and nineteen corpses, mangled beyond recognition by 7.92mm full-power bullets, were piled up in front of the French Concession police station.
Some remained in their charging stance, but their chests had been riddled with holes the size of bowls. Some were unrecognizable, their faces riddled with furrows carved by shrapnel. Some were simply reduced to half their bodies, nothing left below the waist.
Blood flowed down the steps, forming a dark red puddle.
The pungent, nauseating smell of blood could be detected two streets away.
The French police officers on night duty at the police station were alerted. A fat officer pushed open the door, saw the scene at the entrance, and his legs went weak. He leaned against the doorframe and began to dry heave.
"My God..."
Shen Li shook the blood off his hands, took a piece of paper out of his pocket, and stuffed it into the fat policeman's uniform pocket.
"Tell your chairman that these are the things he left in tonight while he had diarrhea. If this happens again, there won't just be these people piled up at the door."
After saying that, he got into the car without looking back.
The three trucks disappeared into the night.
Behind him were only a pile of dead bodies and a fat policeman slumped on the ground.
……
Half an hour later.
The phone of Mérieux, the general manager of the French Concession, was ringing off the hook.
He jumped out of bed wrapped in his bathrobe, and after listening to the report from the on-duty police officer, he almost dropped the phone receiver.
"Over a hundred? You mean over a hundred corpses? Piled up at our front gate?!"
His voice was as shrill as a cat whose tail had been stepped on.
"Whose men were those? The Japanese? You mean they let over a hundred Japanese into the French Concession tonight? And then the Chen family army killed them all? And then their bodies were piled up... piled up in our..."
He couldn't continue.
Because he knew.
The three police officers who "happened to have diarrhea" that night were under his tacit approval. The Japanese Consulate General had given prior notice that a group of "business people" needed to pass through the French Concession that night.
He received a kickback of two thousand francs.
Two thousand francs bought him over a hundred corpses piled up in front of his house.
Mérieux's hands trembled violently. He dialed three times before finally getting through to the private number of the French Consul General, Véritt.
"Mr. Wei Lide! Something terrible has happened! That madman Chen Jiajun... he's piled over a hundred corpses in front of our police station! Over a hundred! Blood is everywhere! What should I do? You have to help me..."
There was a few seconds of silence on the other end of the phone.
Then came Wei Lide's voice, tinged with an almost mocking weariness.
"Mr. Mérieux, you should investigate how those people got into the French Concession, instead of calling me."
"But……"
"I told you long ago." Wei Lide's tone suddenly turned cold. "Don't provoke that man. He's not a warlord, he's a living Yama. He sank the Izumo, a 10,000-ton behemoth, at the mouth of Wusong, crushed 100,000 Fengtian troops on the Taihu Plain, and what are a hundred or so Japanese spies in his eyes? They're not even enough to fill a tooth gap."
"But he piled up corpses in our French Concession... This is an insult! This is an insult to the French Republic!"
"Then go complain to him," Wei Lide sneered on the other end of the phone. "Do you dare?"
Mérieux opened his mouth.
He dare not.
Wei Lide hung up the phone.
Mérieux stood in the bedroom, shivering. Faint noises drifted in from outside the window; it was the police dealing with the disgusting pile of "diplomatic gifts" by the door.
He suddenly realized something.
The rules of Shanghai have indeed changed.
……
at the same time.
Two armored vehicles led the way, followed closely by four black sedans, as the convoy sped along the wet streets after the rain.
Fifteen minutes later, the convoy drove into the gate of the garrison command headquarters.
The iron gate slammed shut after the convoy had passed.
The headquarters was guarded by three sentry posts, each manned by fully armed German-equipped elite troops. The white beams of searchlights swept back and forth outside the compound wall, illuminating an area of two hundred meters as bright as day.
Sun Yun got out of the car, holding onto the door, and looked up at the fortress in front of him, made of concrete and barbed wire.
He coughed slightly, then smiled.
"Good heavens. This isn't headquarters, this is a fortress."
Chen Zijun got out of the car from the other side and walked up to him.
"The place to live in chaotic times is all about one word."
"What character?"
"hard."
Sun Yun laughed heartily. The laughter triggered a few coughs, and Ms. Song quickly supported his arm.
"Zijun is right." He coughed and waved his hand to indicate that he was alright. "In chaotic times, harsh measures are needed, and heroes live in iron houses. I've spent half my life in revolution, and only in the end did I realize that benevolence and morality are not as effective as a cannon."
Chen Zijun led Sun Yun and Ms. Song into the main building.
The lobby on the first floor had been tidied up. Hot tea, a change of clothes, and the first-aid kit arranged by Cao Qingdi were all in place.
Ms. Song was led by her adjutant to a guest room on the second floor to rest.
Sun Yun refused.
"No rush." He took a sip of tea, his gaze fixed on Chen Zijun. "Tonight you dared to block the dock with armored vehicles, dared to turn over a hundred Japanese spies into mincemeat right in front of me, and even dared to pile up corpses in the French Concession as a demonstration. Weren't you afraid of making me uncomfortable when you did these things?"
Chen Zijun sat opposite him, his hands crossed on his knees.
"Afraid."
He said.
"But rather than have something happen to you in Shanghai and extinguish the hopes of the whole country, I would rather you feel uncomfortable."
Sun Yun stared at him for three seconds.
Then he put down his teacup.
No. You did the right thing.
His voice suddenly became very deep.
"In this world, all the people who follow the rules are dead. The Beiyang government followed the rules, but in the end, they still ceded territory and paid indemnities. The Self-Strengthening Movement followed the rules, but in the end, the foreigners still rode all over the railway. If you don't follow the rules and just pile up corpses at the foreigners' doorsteps, they'll actually behave."
He patted the handrail.
"This is how you should do things in chaotic times."
……
The two then went into the study on the second floor of the headquarters.
The door closed.
Shen Li personally guarded the door, prohibiting anyone from approaching the entire floor.
In the study, the dim light of a table lamp shone on the faces of the two people.
Chen Zijun personally refilled Sun Yun's teacup, and then got straight to the point.
"Mr. Sun, I don't want to beat around the bush with you tonight."
"Then just say it."
"I have 170,000 regular troops, 30 tanks, 48 heavy howitzers, the 380mm fortress artillery group at Wusongkou, two arsenals, a steel mill, and destroyers under construction in the Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai area."
He revealed everything about his family in one go.
Sun Yun's eyelid twitched.
170,000 regular troops. Thirty tanks.
Any one of these figures could send shivers down the spines of half of China.
"But I am not a warlord," Chen Zijun said.
"I don't fight for territory, I don't vie for the presidency, and I don't dream of internal unification. I do all these things for one purpose."
He looked into Sun Yun's eyes.
"Block the Japanese."
Sun Yun remained silent.
"On the day of the May 30th Massacre, 67 people fell to the guns of foreigners on Nanjing Road. At the mouth of the Wusong River, the Japanese sent two Class A divisions with 50,000 elite troops to raze Shanghai. I drove them all back. But what about next time?"
Chen Zijun lowered his voice.
"The Japanese will come again. Not 50,000, but 500,000. Not just destroyers, but the entire combined fleet. And by then, if China is still fighting amongst itself, who will stop them?"
The study was quiet for a while.
"So you need me," Sun Yun said.
"Yes." Chen Zijun nodded. Very decisively. "I have soldiers, guns, steel, and factories. But I have no legitimate cause. In the eyes of the people, I am at best a local warlord who controls a few provinces. The banner of the National Revolution is in your hands, and the scales of the nation's hearts are also in your hands."
"You want my flag?"
"It's not just about the flag." Chen Zijun straightened up. "I need you to give my army an official designation in the name of the National Revolution. So that my troops aren't some local armed forces, but the National Defense Army. That way, when Japan attacks in the future, all of China will know that we are not resisting a warlord, but the whole of China."
Sun Yun nodded slowly.
"What are your terms?"
"I am fully responsible for the military and political affairs of Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shanghai, and Anhui. The organization, equipment, training, and combat of the army shall not be interfered with by anyone. I will provide weapons, ammunition, and financial support to the southern headquarters of the National Revolution. But there is one bottom line."
His gaze became extremely sharp.
"I will never implement any treaty, any transaction, or any compromise that involves ceding an inch of land or a single ounce of benefits to the great powers. No matter who signed it, it is unacceptable."
Sun Yun was stunned for a moment.
Then he laughed.
This was the most hearty laugh he had tonight.
"Okay. Okay! Okay!"
He said "good" three times in a row.
"After half a lifetime, I've finally met someone who dares to talk to me like this."
……
The corridor outside the door.
Shen Li leaned against the wall, unable to hear the conversation inside, but he could sense the atmosphere in the study.
The atmosphere was very intense.
It was so heavy that even the air seemed to sink.
He glanced down at his watch. It was 3:40 a.m.
At the other end of the corridor, a figure peeked out from a corner.
It was Mr. Sun Yun's attendant in the gray Zhongshan suit.
He pretended to be looking for a restroom, but his eyes were constantly scanning the location of doors and windows, the distribution of sentries, and the route of communication lines on both sides of the corridor.
Shen Li glanced at him but didn't say anything.
But in the dark room at the corner of the second floor, Moranzhi silently pressed the shutter of the Zeiss 120 camera in her hand.
Click.
A very faint mechanical sound was drowned out by the ticking of the old-fashioned wall clock at the end of the corridor.
The gray-clad attendant was completely unaware.
Moranzhi tucked the camera into her bosom, a slight smile playing on her lips.
Chiang Kai-shek's undercover agents, as expected, couldn't hold their tongues.
These photos will appear on Chen Zijun's desk tomorrow. Along with this person's true identity, the code words for communication with the South, and every word he wrote in his notebook tonight.
……
In the study.
The tea has gone cold.
Sun Yun suddenly started coughing violently. Since Ms. Song wasn't around, he took out a handkerchief and covered his mouth, coughing for a while before he calmed down.
There were faint traces of blood on the handkerchief.
He quickly stuffed the handkerchief back into his pocket.
Chen Zijun saw it.
He didn't say anything, but his heart sank.
Mr. Sun's health was worse than he had imagined.
Historically, this great man had less than a year left to live.
If the framework for the National Revolution is to be integrated during his lifetime, time is running out.
Sun Yun took a few breaths and suddenly sat up straight.
His eyes were fixed intently on Chen Zijun.
A fire burned in those eyes.
"Chen Zijun".
He called out the full name.
"Do you want to be the King of Southeast China...?"
He spoke slowly and deliberately.
"But can you withstand the Japanese army?"
The air in the study seemed to freeze.
The filament of the table lamp emitted a faint humming sound.
Chen Zijun did not answer immediately.
He gazed at the elderly man opposite him, who, despite his ailing body, still possessed a piercing gaze.
I have a thousand words in my heart.
But in the end, he only said five words.
"Yes. I definitely can."
Outside the window, the horizon was beginning to lighten with the first hint of dawn.
The longest night in Shanghai has finally come to an end.
But a brand new era is quietly being born from this study.