Chapter 177 Dai Li's death

Dai Li may have considered Wen Qiang's proposal, but not only was he too late to go to the United States before the scheduled Chongqing conference, but he was anxious to return to Shanghai to see if the divorce certificate of lover Butterfly had been reported to the court in order to marry the movie star.He also plans to fly from Shanghai to Chongqing to remove Li Shizhen from the Central Police Academy, and prepare to host the first commemorative ceremony for the establishment of the post-war military reunification on April 1. On March 16, Dai Li flew from Peiping to Tianjin with the crew of special plane No. 222, where he stayed overnight.But the next day the weather deteriorated.Dai Li ignored the pilots' concerns and insisted that they fuel up in Qingdao and fly to Shanghai.If the weather is bad, they will land in Nanjing, and if Nanjing is not good, they will fly directly to Chongqing.In addition to Dai Li and the crew, the other eight people on the plane were: Gong Xianfang, Director of Military Command and Personnel; The cryptographer, and Dai Li's friend Huang Shunbai. The 222 special plane took off from Qingdao at 11:45 am on March 17, 1946.

While they were in the air, the radar-less pilots learned that the Shanghai airport was raining heavily.So he turned to Nanjing, but there was also torrential rain, thunder and lightning.The Air Force sent 4 planes to navigate, but the clouds were too low for them to get in touch with plane 222.The pilot sent two signals to the ground: the first time, the special plane No. 222 was preparing to return; the second time: it was still planning to land in Nanjing. At 13:13, the aircraft signaled that they were landing.Then contact was lost. Daishan Village is located in Ma'anshan, Jiangyin County, southwest of Nanjing, about 20 miles away from Banqiao Town. On the afternoon of March 17, the sky just after the thunderstorm was particularly gloomy and depressing, with dark clouds permeating the grass-covered hills.Shortly after lunch, villagers in Daishan heard the unusually low sound of plane engines hovering over the ground covered with three-foot-high treetops.Soon, nearby residents saw a plane crash into a tree, and then rushed for another 200 meters with inertia, and then hit a mountain top. After a loud explosion, there was a huge flame.

Apparently the villagers in Daishan were unable to immediately report the accident to Nanjing.However, the authorities have already estimated that the situation is not good.The weather has just improved, and the Aviation Committee, China Aviation and the US Navy are working together to conduct a search.At 20:00 local time, the American aircraft discovered the wreckage of the special plane 222.Later that night, the military commanders who rushed to Daishan easily found the wreckage of the plane in the Ma'anshan area, but no one survived. News about the plane crash was suppressed for 5 days.Dai Li's death was not announced until March 22, when Li Chongshi, the chief of staff of the military command, had the opportunity to investigate the crash site. Ta Kung Pao was particularly careful not to draw conclusions prematurely:

The "Declaration" is not so hesitant: Although it was announced that Dai Li had died in an accident, rumors to the contrary immediately spread.First, it is believed that his death was not an accident. "Central Daily" reported on March 24: According to information disclosed by relevant departments, General Ye Ting, an important Communist Party leader who was released not long ago, was also on the plane.During the flight, Ye Ting and Dai Li reportedly got into an argument and drew their respective pistols, and the ensuing shooting set the plane on fire.Others said that the plane crash was sabotaged by the Communist Party.

Another speculation is that the OSS planted a bomb on the plane.The idea is that a fuse for one of the barometers in the plane had been rigged so that it exploded at an altitude of 5,000 feet.However, while Stanley Lovell got it wrong on important details like the origin of Plane 222, the OSS inventor of espionage supplies firmly believes that Dai Li was murdered in this way: But the more common account is that Dai Li didn't get on the plane at all that day, but instead faked his own death to thwart his enemies. Lester Walker, writing in Harper's magazine, introduced Dai Li to the American public as "China's Spy King".Regarding Dai Li's death, he wrote:

But a large amount of evidence shows that the charred body found in the wreckage, missing his right hand and right leg, is Dai Li's body.Juntong's own investigators had identified their superiors based on special dental plates, fragments of woolen underwear, and a 38-caliber short-barreled automatic pistol that Melos had given him in Chongqing four years earlier.Just like Shen Zui said to Hu Zongnan who had heard many rumors: "We told him that after many investigations, it was confirmed that no one murdered him. It was indeed due to the weather that the driver accidentally crashed into the mountain and crashed."