Chapter 58 Split between the Renaissance Society and the Secret Service

Although the relationship between the Fuxing Society and the Secret Service was not so tense elsewhere, the differences between the two organizations became more and more obvious as time went on. From 1933 to 1935, most of the grassroots members of Dai Li's secret agents were willing to participate in the activities of the Fuxing Society.But once he joined, Dai Li's secret agents began to organize branches that only members of the secret service participated.For example, Shen Zui and some of his "team leaders", including Huang Jiaji and Yang Huabo who worked in the police coach, formed their own team within the Fuxing Society at that time.Every time they held a meeting, they never reported the details of their intelligence work in front of others, completely ignoring the orders from the headquarters of the Fuxing Agency to carry out espionage activities in the name of the agency.Soon after, these secret agents simply stopped holding meetings at the Fuxingshe branch.The same is true of them in the "revolutionary comrades' association" that exists in name only.

The separation of activities, or more precisely, the concealment of spy activities from ordinary Fuxingshe members is also a typical practice of the Hubei Blue Shirts Society.When Xiao Zuolin was the secretary of the Hubei Branch of the Blue Shirts Society in 1935, the head of the Secret Service, Zhou Weilong, and any of his subordinates never reported anything to him. The only information he knew about the Secret Service was Zhou's private address. Part of the reason for this was that the Secret Service had to protect itself from the disorganized, competitive, and inefficient organizational quality of the Fuxing Society, the larger organization of the Blue Shirts.

The organization and discipline of the Secret Service is much stricter than that of Fuxingshe, and it has absolute power to control all its personnel. All its personnel at all levels are professional secret agents with jobs and salaries. No disputes are allowed, but if you want to kill people, you can kill them, and you can deal with whoever you want to deal with. The Shanghai station of the Secret Service vividly reflects this contrast.When Wang Xinheng was the head of the station, he made it clear that he would never participate in any activities of the Fuxing Society, and there was a mess of intrigue there.

All in all, the Secret Service had to pay special attention to the Shanghai Fuxing Society, because within the Fuxing Society, the leader Liu Bingli and his assistant Niu Peijiang were in a mess because of the power struggle.The feud between them is so intense that each plots to assassinate the other.These conspiracy activities attracted the attention of Chiang Kai-shek, who secretly ordered the Shanghai Secret Service Station to conduct a secret investigation.The Central Headquarters of Fuxingshe sent Xu Jin to Dai Li, and Dai Li appointed him to work as Wu Naixian's secretary at Shanghai Station.Wu is the mayor of the Shanghai district. He repeatedly told Xu not to disclose the investigation to other members of the Fuxing Society, otherwise it would cause great dissatisfaction among some upper-level figures.Xu Jin agreed, and these matters were kept secret until the Fuxingshe surrendered under the attack of the CC faction.

Meanwhile, the secret service station in Henan sought to continue operating without the involvement of the "local tyrants and evil gentry" who had given the secret police a bad name before Dai Li separated his men from the provincial Fuxingshe.But Xiao Sa and his accomplices did not disappear.When the Marco Polo Bridge Incident occurred in July 1937, the Fuxingshe "revolted against the rebels" as described in "Water Margin".Kaifeng issued an order to branches in various parts of the province: mobilize local gangsters and powerful people.As expected, the bandit leaders who had made Henan famous all over the world began to plan to gather together and form an anti-Japanese alliance.They held a meeting in Zhengzhou, which was full of famous bandits like Gao Laomo and Zhao Tianqing.Although KMT Senator Ai Jingwu withdrew from the meeting, believing that the government was simply giving the green light to these outlaws, the bandit leaders organized 28 guerrilla columns, led by the notorious Xiao Sa.As expected by Senator Ai, this group of guerrillas gambled and whored in Zhengzhou in the next few months, until Chiang Kai-shek ordered them to be arrested and escorted to Wuhan.But it was too late: Henan and Hubei were areas where the Fuxing Society was relatively successful in terms of recruiting and organizing, but the Blue Shirts Society was later brought into disrepute. Also because of their connection to the terrorist activities of the Secret Service.Although Dai Li and his men tried their best to keep the province's local evildoers a secret from their relatively professional and disciplined police activities, this did not help to change the public's impression of them.

Chiang Kai-shek was not later dismayed by the failure of the Blue Shirts to establish independent Blue Shirt movements in the provinces.Because he was always suspicious of people like He Zhonghan trying to use the Fuxing Society as a political weapon to realize their political ambitions.He Zhonghan already had his own supporters in the Hunan circle, but through his control of the Blue Shirts' political training system, he hoped to gain the support of others to ensure his rise in the party.Because He Zhonghan first took refuge in Chen Cheng, and later followed Hu Zongnan, he thought that he had full support and was qualified to speak as a representative of the entire Huangpu circle.But Chiang Kai-shek did not like to see any individual come forward, especially to oppose his leadership on the pretext of representing the Blue Shirts and Whampoa Military Academy graduates in general.Thus, he consistently used other Fuxingshe leaders, such as Feng Ti, Kang Ze, and Dai Li, to prevent He Zhonghan from monopolizing the ideological authority of the "fascist" faction of the party and becoming the number two figure.

When the Xi'an Incident occurred in December 1936 and Chiang Kai-shek was detained by Zhang Xueliang and Yang Hucheng, He Zhonghan had completely fallen out of favor.During Chiang Kai-shek's detention, He Zhonghan firmly supported the leadership of He Yingqin, and became one of the important figures in the "rebellion" movement, advocating the attack and bombing of Xi'an.He thought that if Chiang Kai-shek was released, He Zhonghan would have the merit of mobilizing the "king of diligence" and would be favored by Chiang Kai-shek; if Chiang Kai-shek was executed, he could become a successor to He Yingqin.But he never expected that Chiang Kai-shek was escorted back to Nanjing by Zhang Xueliang, and he himself would be involved in conspiracy to usurp power.Once his ambitions were exposed, he had no choice but to resign as the head of the Renaissance Society.Chiang Kai-shek immediately accepted his resignation and forced him to become an "outsider" until he was appointed as the head of the Labor Bureau of the Ministry of Social Affairs in 1942.He Zhonghan's former general secretary of the Fuxing Society was appointed by Liu Jianqun, who was appointed by Chiang Kai-shek, but was soon replaced by Kang Ze.