Chapter 16 cleaning whampoa

In April 1927, Dai Li was assigned to the first row of the cavalry battalion of the National Revolutionary Army under Xu Zhenya.The cavalry battalion was stationed at Whampoa, and the white terror that had begun in Shanghai three days earlier by Chiang Kai-shek and his military agents had spread to the cadets on April 15.That morning, the trainees got up as usual, washed their faces, and then went to the playground for morning exercises.When they came to the playground, they found that the surrounding hills and roads were covered with armed forces.The cadets had no weapons of their own; their guns had been confiscated earlier, and they were on the alert.At this time, Li Yafen, the "head" of the military academy, broke the silence. He announced that from now on, the students of the Kuomintang and the Communist Party will be separated and will be taught completely different courses.He said: All the Communist Party stood up immediately.Then he pointed to the machine gun mounted on a nearby hill.Except for a mentally ill student from Hubei, no one came forward and claimed to be the Communist Party. The audience was so quiet that only the breathing of the students could be heard.In the end, the group leader said that the students had been in the same group for several months and everyone knew each other's political views.Members of every unit should therefore immediately point out who among them is the Communist Party.This caused confusion.But as the order was repeated, the Communist students were gradually isolated, while the rest of the column was taken back to their dormitories.Once the other students left, the Communists were arrested and sent to a concentration camp in South Stone.

Students in other columns had much the same experience that morning.A cadet in the third column recalled that after the order for the Communists to come forward was issued, because they refused to identify them as Communists, the head of the regiment warned them: "If you don't come forward, we will call names. You have to come forward. It will do a lot of good if you come out of your own accord. You needn't worry." The number of Communists identified and arrested in each column varied.In the third student column, only 8 people came forward to admit that they were members of the Communist Party. It is said that when they were handed over to the military police and thrown into the prison in Butterfly Hill, other students admired their bravery.More than 150 people were arrested in the second column, but at least 200 students were arrested in the third column.That night, all those suspected of being Communists were taken to the Yuzhu Fortress in Humen and shot dead.

According to the information that Dai Li later disseminated, among the students who were killed, 75 Communist students were handed over to the commander-in-chief. For this reason, he was appreciated by Chiang Kai-shek throughout his life.The formed "Secret Investigation Team".In fact, Dai Li's intelligence work during the Northern Expedition was also appreciated.