Dai Li’s original name was Dai Chunfeng. He changed his name after failing to apply for the Whampoa Military Academy for the first time and took the exam again. A trainee of the sixth batch of Whampoa, Dai Li and his mother
[1] It is said that changing the name is also very interesting. To be particular, the fortune teller predicted that he would have two phoenixes rising to the sun, but the five elements were short of water, so the water in his name meant great fortune. At the same time, it was also to commemorate his friends Xu Liang and Wang Kongan (who later also played an important role in the military command) who took the exam together. Dai Li's name was taken from " Although you are riding in a car, I will wear a hat, and I will get off the car and bow to you when we meet the next day; I will walk, and you will ride on the horse, and when I meet you tomorrow, you will be here." This means that friendships are not based on high or low status. In commemoration of poor and low-ranking friends, the name Yunong was also changed at that time. It was the five elements in the name that replenished water, but since then Dai Li has gradually become famous. This is a story for later, and he did not escape the bad luck of dying in a heavy rain in the end. Dai Li's pseudonyms include Jiang Hanqing, Wang Tao, Shen Peilin, Hong Miao, etc. Shen Zui was the chief of the Shanghai Station and the director of Dai Li's General Affairs Department. He pointed out his boss's lackey loyalty to Chiang Kai-shek and said that he was willing to be Chiang's "pawn". Dai Li's own "hard work" seemed to reveal that he Willing to accept such inhuman treatment from his master. Dai Li himself was proud of being able to "uphold the leader's will and appreciate the leader's painstaking efforts." To his opponents, this conceit was an expression of Dai Li's fanatical allegiance to Chiang Kai-shek's belief that "there is public service but no self, and I have no public service." Like all servants of autocratic politics, Dai Li is a contradictory combination of strength and weakness. As a member of Chiang Kai-shek's inner circle, he held great power. However, his humility towards Chiang and his obedience to the leader ultimately proved his weakness in character. Dai Li is the commander-in-chief's most trusted subordinate and guard, and only obeys the commander-in-chief's orders. He conducts internal investigations for the Commander-in-Chief and is responsible for the Commander-in-Chief's security. Tai and his ubiquitous secret service organization were regarded as the medium through which informal "business" transactions were concluded between China and foreign countries, and they were very efficient. (Zhou Enlai, the Communist Party's liaison in Chongqing, once said that Dai Li controlled military communications, finance and foreign affairs through his secret organization.) ... His secret police organization was used to counter the control of the "CC" faction at the time. The party police under the command embodies one of the most basic policy principles of the commander-in-chief’s control of the Kuomintang, which is to achieve balance among various forces through restraint. He was a concrete symbol of the later Kuomintang's authoritarian tendencies. As a concrete symbol of Chiang Kai-shek's dictatorship, Dai Li also represented one of the most powerful organizations in the Kuomintang government - the Bureau of Military Investigation and Statistics. Chiang Kai-shek and Dai Li
In 1943, the American military attaché described the Military Reunification Bureau (MSB) this way: This organization is not listed on the list of Chinese government agencies, but it is one of the most powerful and important organizations in China. It is a high-level leadership organization within the Chinese military. Its leader, General Dai Li, perhaps had more authority than the other members of the Military Council. In fact, this bureau is China's spy agency, and according to reliable intelligence, it has more than 20,000 male and female members. One of its main functions is to combat communist activities. However, all espionage and intelligence work is carried out under its leadership. Many of its activities overlapped with those of the Military Operations Committee Intelligence Section, and the deputy chief of that section had direct links to the bureau. The bureau also controlled Chinese spies in Shanghai and elsewhere outside Kuomintang-controlled areas. Dai Li was one of Chiang Kai-shek's former officers at the Whampoa Military Academy. He was usually called "General", but it is said that he did not have a formal military rank. Well-informed sources say that in today's China, he has more power than anyone except the commander-in-chief. He was considered the only person who could meet Chiang Kai-shek at any time and anywhere. Dai Li (centre) and U.S. Chief of Strategies Novin Deng
So it's difficult to separate Dai Li's personal influence as the head of one of China's most powerful secret police from his close relationship with Chiang Kai-shek separate. In everyone's imagination, he at least represents the dark side of dictatorship; as Shen Zui said, he is a sharp sword for the commander-in-chief, but in the eyes of the people, he is Chiang's executioner. In fact, the independence that Dai Li may have enjoyed came from his personal intimidation, but conversely, that intimidation came almost entirely from his proximity to Chiang—plus his well-known and omnipresent eyes, ears, and minions. . Like all police chiefs, Dai Li's intimidating power came from the belief that he was everywhere. Some people in China and abroad believe: "As we all know, the Juntong is China's secret police, and compared with any spy network in the world, it has a larger number of agents and a wider geographical coverage." 1946 In , U.S. military intelligence estimated that Dai Li had 180,000 plainclothes agents—40,000 of whom worked for him around the clock. These agents wearing special uniforms and military uniforms include: 70,000 armed guerrillas, 20,000 Rangers, and the "Loyal Salvation Army" that the U.S. Navy considers to have 15,291 soldiers and 40,000 organized troops along the coast of China. pirate. These add up to a total of 325,000 actual or potential personnel working for the head of the secret police. Although he ultimately enjoys torture, cruelty itself is not the key to his intimidating power. Although he killed many people, he was not a pathological sadist. He didn't like doing it himself. When he ordered his assassins to carry out assassinations, he usually kept a slight distance from his plans. He undoubtedly takes a perverse pleasure in his power to kill others at a distance, but this is the unstoppable satisfaction of a mysterious Nemesis: Death is both far away and very close at hand.
Thus, Dai Li's ability to remain withdrawn and mysterious made him unpredictable and thus more treacherous and dangerous in people's eyes. Almost no one knows the exact current situation of Dai Li. He has residences and hiding places all over China, and his route and whereabouts are always concealed. An American who traveled with him once told me "He never let anyone know where he was going from one moment to the next, and before he went anywhere, he always spread rumors. That he was going to X land, and then he always went to land Y”. In the city, his people always called people to say that he was on his way, knowing that the phone calls would be bugged; at the same time, Dai Li went to another place. Because of the wiretapping, he prohibited his office from scheduling appointments for him over the phone. The Americans found that their requests for an interview with him had to be sealed in envelopes, and their replies delivered in the same way. He can even hide himself from others. Journalist Epstein recalled a meeting the Kuomintang held for him before he went to Yan'an to interview the Communist Party. The meeting was chaired by General He Yingqin, who was considered by the Americans to be the most trusted by Chiang Kai-shek. The Kuomintang's Japanese intelligence expert Wang Bensheng was also present, as was Dong Xianguang. It was only at the end of the meeting that Epstein remembered the presence of a fourth man, barely noticed in the back of the room. The man had dark skin and an unkempt beard. Although he did not necessarily look sinister, he looked like a toad to Epstein, so he was naturally Dai Li. His dark skin also made a strong impression on others, including his future deputy "Mary" Mellors. In appearance, Dai Li appears to many Americans to be more Latin American than Chinese. He is short, stocky, and dark-skinned. Someone said "He's a bit like Batista". He wore ordinary wartime clothes: usually black riding boots, a plain blue uniform, and an outdated European hat. The most striking thing about his appearance are his hands. "They're weird but cute," an American once told me. "They are no bigger than my three fingers. You see him sitting at the desk, wearing a silk Chinese robe, with a sly smile on his face, and suddenly the hands like Chinese porcelain dolls appear. If you had seen it before Thinking that he is a cruel person, he seems even more sinister now. "Others can feel that his appearance is weird and deformed, and they can also feel that Dai Li is proud of this feature. The sombre drabness of his clothing enhanced this, while at the same time adding to his deliberate anonymity. Because of this, even though he often entertained guests—particularly in Chongqing, where his banquets in the horse palace or tiger palace of his mansion were famous among Americans for their exquisite tableware, superb coffee, and Napoleon brandy—he Life is actually quite simple. For example, in Nanjing, he was famous for not caring about his living conditions. The house at No. 53 Ji'e Lane used straw mats instead of carpets. The two-story house he rented near Fenglin Bridge in the French Concession in Shanghai was also very ordinary. It was similar to the small Steed he owned at the time. The Baker car is equally unremarkable. Therefore, although some people think that he made a fortune, especially from the war windfall, others think that apart from making deals with others, including his men, he is fundamentally not interested in money. Most people think that Dai Li's wealth is huge, but no one knows how much it is. He claimed to be working for Chiang Kai-shek's government for free, which made his personal income very mysterious. Some say his income came from secret deals with his enemies. U.S. Air Force pilots once said that it came from opium, saying that they took off from Chengdu in the west to transport mercury to the northern provinces in exchange for opium, and then handed it over to Dai Li. But as others have pointed out, Chiang Kai-shek showed no mercy to anyone or anything associated with opium, and Dai Li's loyalty to Chiang and his principles was always beyond reproach. According to Bishop Megan, as the head of the anti-smuggling agency (under the Ministry of Finance at the time), Dai Li's position made it extremely easy for him to understand (and profit from) illegal transactions and smuggling activities. However, Megan, who was well-informed about the situation in China at the time, believed that Dai Li himself was not involved in any such activities. Dai Li's obsession with secrecy and anonymity gave his power another hallmark: so-called invulnerability. The Colliers magazine article that made him legendary in the United States repeatedly mentioned Dai's deft evasion of arrest, time bombs, and Japanese capture: "Dai Li's impeccable account soon became part of his personal legend. " Another American writer once described how Dai Li escaped capture by 159 enemy plainclothes men "in his usual way of disappearing"; even when it was reported that he died in a plane crash, he could still play the game of death without being injured. A vellus hair. "No one knows how many times Dai Li's enemies tried to capture or kill him, and he played tricks on death again and again, resulting in him enjoying a legendary reputation for invulnerability." Despite Dai Li's withdrawn and secretive character, he still managed to survive in all walks of life. Have a wide circle of acquaintances and friends. Most of them were of use to him, including men from the Old Guard, but also important military officers, bankers, overseas businessmen, Shanghai gangsters, and leaders of Sichuan secret societies. Zhang Shizhao, the editor-in-chief of "Su Bao" and "Jiayin" weekly, was also a good friend of him. He also wrote a tribute to Dai Li at his funeral in 1946. Interestingly, some of his friends are Buddhists or Catholics. Among Catholics, Dai Li's friends included China's Cardinal Tian Gengshen, the French bishop in Chongqing, and Chinese Catholic priest Yu Bin. His relationship with Yu Bin may include business contacts.
Because it was through Yu Bin that Dai Li was able to carry out intelligence collection activities under the control of the Northwest Station of the Military Commission in a local Catholic church in the Henan-Shaanxi-Gansu border area. But Dai Li's larger circle of friends went beyond simple religious or non-religious distinctions, especially as he achieved fame. He later also established relationships with football star Li Huitang, reception queen Chen Yunshang, Nanjing's "Jieguo Daily" leader Gong Debao and Peking opera actor Yan Huizhu. Of all the members of Shanghai's café society, Dai Li's most notorious friend was Tang Shengming, who often accompanied the secret police on their visits to brothels and casinos. Dai Li's romantic life in Shanghai is also part of his appearance. Regarding this, Tang once said: "Dai Li is a strange man. He simply cannot do without the charm of women." Perhaps this is why Tang Shengming asked his wife Xu to film the movie. The reason why celebrity Hu Die was introduced to Dai Li. Hu Die later became the mistress of the spy chief during the Pacific War. These friends, especially those who wrote the various biographies that followed General Mellors's memoirs about the Sino-American Cooperation Institute and were published in Taiwan, described Dai Li's image differently. A large number of books praising Dai Li have emerged, including biographies written by Qiao Jiacai, Mao Zhongxin, Liu Peichu and others. Zhang Jungu, a Taiwanese writer who has devoted his life to describing "Water Margin" heroes in modern northern China, compiled a biography of Dai Li based on secondary materials and interviews with former military commanders, portraying the secret agent leader as a " An ardent patriot" with a "fiery" loyalty to his leader. Dai Li's mind was thorough and meticulous, and he ruthlessly discerned any traces of subversive behavior, yet he was generous and tolerant of his friends and subordinates. In the late 1930s, a colleague who was close to Dai Li described the secret police leader to Zhang Jungu: Mr. Dai is really a very rational and emotional person. Because he has been wandering since he was a child, he has had many contacts with people from all walks of life. He has the broad scope of ordinary people, and at the same time, because he studied diligently and read many ancient Chinese books, he was able to combine the spirit of Confucianism, Buddhism, and chivalry. Mr. Dai's subordinates all respected and feared him. Even if they were punished by him, they never complained or held any grudges. Even today, 22 years after his death, they still have no complaints against him. All of Dai Li's old partners emphasized that their leader had a strong memory and high energy. It is said that he could stay up for days and nights without appearing tired at all. And even when tired, he can immediately detect a situation or a person's movements and then try to make the best of the situation. So his men believed that concealing the truth from the secret police chief would be futile under any circumstances, since he would be able to expose the deception without exception. Moreover, his resolute leadership style and graceful magnanimity have repeatedly proven his decisiveness, ability and talent to influence the situation. Kuomintang general Hu Zongnan summed up Dai Li's personality in these words: "Yunong, a man who prides himself on being the Sun Wukong, believes that he can catch the moon in the sky, and there are almost no difficulties that he cannot overcome. His greatest strength is his understanding of the world, and his greatest weakness He is willful, impatient, and unable to keep secrets." Despite this careful description of Dai, one cannot reconcile his heroic image among Kuomintang supporters with his reputation among his sworn enemies, the Communist Party. Many of his supporters even believe that if he had not died in the crash on March 17, 1946, the Communist Party of China would not have won the civil war). We have seen in "Red Rock" the later Chinese People's Republic of China's description of Dai Li and the military officers as cruel and ruthless sadists. Upon Dai Li's death, left-wing journalists immediately accused Dai of assassinating prominent political leaders such as the leader of the China Civil Rights Protection League, raping and torturing countless defenseless women, and massacring thousands of young Chinese who opposed Chiang Kai-shek's brutal dictatorship. “The world of secrets is a morbid world that seduces men and women who wonder about their true identities and who feel safe only under the cloak of secrecy…which connects them to a reality of rational cause and effect. Isolated from the world, it may also make them think that because they understand things that others don't know, they have the ability to do whatever they want without the restrictions of ordinary people." Whenever we remind ourselves of this, these are completely opposite to Dai Li. The description will undoubtedly arouse doubts. The particularity of the secret world may just explain Dai Li's suspicious image, but this ambiguity should not make us give up our obligation to understand Dai Li, because he at least represents a specific aspect of modern Chinese consciousness. In particular, as one Chinese revolution overthrew the imperial system and another was about to come, if we regard General Dai's political thought and practice as merely a reflection of the spirit of the times, then this effort should not be a rhetorical task. Those political upheavals produced a culture of violence fueled by the brutal practices of the underworld and fueled by the trembling imagination of impending revolution. Amid all these twists and turns of history, Dai Li was only a crude reflection of his distorted time.
Adopt me o(∩_∩)o