Chapter 102 House rules

Dai Li was Chiang Kai-shek's secret stand-in, and he ruled over his spies like the traditional "patriarch" of a wealthy family.Dai Li repeatedly emphasized that this organization is a "big family" and emphasized the importance of exemplary team spirit.He stated that he would personally take responsibility for the life and death of his subordinates in exchange for their loyalty and dedication to the work of secret agents.In a brainstorming meeting held by the Secret Service in early January 1935 by the West Lake in Hangzhou, although the operational techniques, espionage methods, and organizational forms of the KGB or the Gestapo were adopted, Dai Li refused to accept their organizational spirit.Dai Li emphasized that Chinese secret agents must be based on the Chinese concepts of "benevolence" and "righteousness", "loyalty" and "filial piety". "Our comrades are united on principles of benevolence and righteousness, and our collective solidarity is forged through loyalty and duty."

Dai Li was the head of this secret organization, and he demanded absolute obedience and complete dedication from his students and subordinates.On the other hand, the traditional patriarchal status shows that Dai Li treated the "noble guests" in his court with the over-gratitude of an aristocratic master.Dai Li often quotes the old saying "a man can be killed, but not humiliated", and tries to show his kindness and care to the elite field agents, senior officials and scholars who come and go around him. Those who come out) and subordinates require absolute obedience and complete dedication, and restrain them with extremely strict discipline.

Dai Li punished those who violated his rules in three forms: verbal warnings, confinement, and shooting by firing squad.Despite his etiquette, he was a highly irritable and sarcastic man, perhaps a result of the dissonance between his mock humility and his instinctive will.He often loses his temper, and when he gets angry, he will curse and scold his subordinates for breaking his "house rules".These rules represent orders issued by the patriarch to his family to guide personal conduct, including bans on gambling and mahjong, but most famously, a ban on marriage during the War of Resistance.According to Oliver Caldwell:

Dai Li quoted a sentence in the "Hanshu": "The Xiongnu is not destroyed, why should the family be?" In order to prohibit the men and women of the military command from marrying inside or outside the bureau before the Japanese were driven out of China. To enforce his rules, Dai Li set up a complex surveillance system within the Secret Service.A large number of personnel were assigned to internal inspector positions under the inspector's office led by Ke Jian'an, and their duties were repetitive.This chain of command obviously goes straight to Dai Li himself.All internal surveillance agency reports are personally reviewed by Dai Li, regardless of the reporter's rank.Anytime someone violated the "family rules," they were reprimanded, and internment in Dai Li's prison or concentration camp was often the result.There was no limit to the length of detention, and although Dai Li was very polite to the "gentlemen," no one, not even the most senior in his organization, escaped punishment.