Chapter 99 Deng Wenyi and Nanchang Airport Arson

During the period of the Republic of China, a huge fire broke out at Nanchang Airport, which burned down almost all the equipment at Nanchang Airport. The explosion of oil depots and ammunition depots shook the entire city of Nanchang, causing great panic among the people.Nanchang Airport is a new airport built by 30,000 migrant workers in 9 months. The funds come from "the blood and sweat of countless overseas Chinese, the savings of citizens, the jewelry of women and the breakfast money of schoolchildren." Unexpectedly, it has not yet been put into use. It was destroyed in a fire.A week after the blaze, rumors began to circulate about what caused the blaze.One of the most widely circulated sayings is that this is an extremely vicious case of man-made arson. Xu Peigen, the mastermind of the arson, has repeatedly failed in his investment in the airport.Where did Xu Bagen's money come from?It's corruption, it's embezzlement of public funds to buy an airplane!By the end of May 1934, Xu Peigen no longer served as director of aviation after a transfer order.If the income and expenditure accounts of the funds are not destroyed at this time, the corruption will definitely be exposed.Therefore, on the eve of the new director's handover in Nanchang, he ordered the guards to pour gasoline on several barracks and set fire to them, creating a big fire.

Chiang Kai-shek heard that it was corruption, and he also held the attitude of "I would rather believe it than believe it."He immediately believed preconceivedly that it was Xu Peigen who took kickbacks, which led to the subsequent fire case and the embarrassment of the Nanjing government.Chiang Kai-shek decided to put Xu Peigen under house arrest, depose Deng Wenyi who failed to investigate, and ban the "Cultural Society". After the order was issued, the Blue Shirts lost the "Cultural Society", an influential public organization.In the following month or two, dozens of branches and thousands of members of the "Cultural Society" dispersed one after another.Some of them returned to the study, some disappeared without a trace, and some turned around and joined the "Cultural Construction Association" under the control of the CC Department, which they had fought against...

Decades later, in Taiwan, Deng Wenyi said in his later years that due to the seriousness of the case, he personally drafted and submitted the "Secret Report" documents back then. Except for himself, no member of the secret investigation team approached the "Secret Report".And if there was no leak of the "Secret Report", the "big fire case" trend would probably not have rolled up, and the factional structure of the Kuomintang would also change. A long time later, with the publication of a batch of Chiang Kai-shek's secret files in Taiwan, people learned that the person who deliberately leaked the "Secret Report" to the media was Chen Lifu, the leader of the CC department.

After Chen Lifu surfaced, a corner of the truth about the "Nanchang Fire Case" also emerged.At that time, the Blue Shirts Club was gaining power, and the CC department seized the trend of public opinion at that time, trying to bring down the Blue Shirts Club, and even directly put Xu Peigen and Deng Wenyi to death. In addition to dismissing Deng Wenyi's post, Chiang Kai-shek immediately sent cadres to the United States to visit aircraft manufacturers to find out whether Xu Peigen received kickbacks during his tenure, "to set the record straight and restore the impact."At this time, Yang Yongtai, a representative of the Department of Political Science who has had a feud with Deng Wenyi for many years, suggested that the "operator" should not be a member of the CC regiment or the Central Committee.Under Yang Yongtai's suggestion, Dai Li was chosen as the "operator".

As the "Fifth Encirclement and Suppression" was about to succeed, the news that Ruijin was imminent began to become a new focus of public opinion.The once-familiar term "Nanchang Airport Fire" has finally become rare in the streets and alleys... Nanchang and Nanjing have returned to calm.After the fire, the power building of the Blue Shirts finally began to collapse slowly and irreparably. Among the Whampoa comrades in Chiang Kai-shek's inner circle, Dai Li's more direct rival was Deng Wenyi.We have seen that Deng Wenyi was a "fanatic" of Chiang, whose staunch anti-Communist attitude brought him to the point of constant spit and nonsense.In the Whampoa circle, he was considered the craziest advocate of the "Qing Party". Because of his contribution to Chiang Kai-shek in the "April 12" coup, he was appointed as the commander-in-chief's attendant.He was determined, even if Jiang sometimes treated him badly, he always stood behind the leader and served his master devoutly.He actively raised funds among other Whampoa students for the publication of Chiang Kai-shek's articles, and at the same time vigorously printed various "communist suppression" manuals, such as ""Bandit Suppression" Handbook" and ""Bandit Suppression" Major Documents".

Before 1932, Deng Wenyi's position in the chamberlain was crucial to controlling anti-communist spies.The daily reports organized by Dai Li were always sent to the sixth group in the attendant room, which was controlled by Deng Wenyi. After 1932, Deng took control of the Investigation Section of the Nanchang Camp Headquarters, but the arson case at Nanchang Airport in the summer of 1934 challenged Deng Wenyi's authority. A military plane that was being repaired at Nanchang Airport caught fire, and the flames spread to the camps and buildings at the airport, burning down the entire airport, which was the base where Chiang Kai-shek continued to bomb the Jiangxi Soviet.Deng Wenyi's Investigation Section was ordered to investigate the case.At the same time, the rumors in the Shanghai press circles were that the arson was done by officials of the Aviation Bureau in order to cover up their embezzlement of state funds.But Deng's investigation team found no basis for this statement, so they sent a telegram to Nanchang, and the telegram was intercepted and disclosed to the press.

Shanghai newspapers immediately published a summary of the leaked document and accused Deng Wenyi of accepting bribes from the aviation bureau to cover up the truth about the entire airport arson case.Although Deng Wenyi himself claimed that this was a conspiracy created by his opponents to control the Aviation Bureau, he could not prove his innocence to Chiang Kai-shek. public office.Dai Li immediately took over Deng's anti-espionage role, merging his Secret Service with the relevant section of the Nanchang camp, and he finally put his subordinates on the regular military supply system.