Chapter 277
Chapter 277
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Translator: crow
Chapter 277
Chapter Title: Chinese Protests (2)
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The wave of protests boiling like wildfire across China was led by young university students.
They blamed the incompetent Nationalist regime and Chiang Kai-shek for China being trampled by foreign powers and toyed with by warlords.
“Chiang Kai-shek, step down!”
As the people's demands grew more intense, Chongqing found itself backed into a corner.
No matter how many troops and police they mobilized, suppression proved futile.
Eventually, some of the soldiers and police sent to quash the protests joined the demonstrators of their own accord.
The wavering of the regime's last bastion—the military and police—signaled that the collapse of Chiang Kai-shek's government was imminent.
Chiang Kai-shek resorted to his final measure: declaring martial law.
“As of this moment, to end the national unrest, I declare martial law.”
The martial law declaration meant unleashing the military for ruthless suppression.
Chiang Kai-shek issued orders to field units to prepare for crackdowns.
Even the warlords agreed with him on this issue.
‘If these greenhorn protesters who only know how to rile up the masses seize power, they'll just meddle in everything. In this situation, supporting Chiang is the right move.’
As the warlords and Chiang's direct subordinate generals mobilized their forces, brutal suppression operations began across China.
People died in droves everywhere, but the protesters' momentum didn't break easily.
“Democracy grows by feeding on blood. Fellow citizens, remember Argentina standing tall against the military! If we confront the authoritarians like they did, China too can enjoy freedom and democracy.”
Despite the hardline crackdown, the protesters' spirits held firm.
The United States lent its support as well.
High-level U.S. diplomats openly showed their backing by mingling near the protesters.
“The Americans are openly supporting the protesters?”
As the situation spiraled to its worst, the Chiang regime began crumbling from within.
“Your Excellency, I fear I can no longer serve you. My apologies.”
Even high-ranking Nationalist officials started submitting resignations and abandoning Chiang.
Yet Chiang clung desperately to power.
He had lost it once before, which made his attachment to it all the stronger.
“Your Excellency, perhaps it's time to let it all go.”
“No. If not me, who will safeguard China? This country still needs my leadership.”
Chiang brushed off the pleas to resign from his aides and son.
But his resolve didn't last long.
“You can't suppress them? What kind of nonsense is that?”
“My apologies, Your Excellency. The troops aren't obeying orders.”
With even his loyal central army shaking, the military could no longer sustain the crackdown.
Chiang, who had held out to the end, had no choice left once cornered this far.
How could he suppress the protests when the army itself was in open defiance?
“Is this truly how Chiang Chung-cheng's era ends?”
“Your Excellency has fulfilled your historical mission. That's all there is to it.”
After repeated persuasion from his aides, Chiang announced his resignation.
“If stepping down is what it takes to end this nation's chaos, then I shall do so.”
The protesters erupted in victory cheers all over the streets.
“We won!”
“Chiang's dictatorship is over!”
Immediately after declaring his resignation, Chiang fled to Japan with his family and closest aides.
The group that took over right after Chiang's resignation was the Democratic Alliance, organized by protest leaders.
To criticize Chiang's rule, the Democratic Alliance formed a government led by multiple figures—an oligarchy of sorts.
“A government with not one head but over ten? How's that even supposed to function?”
Amid skeptical reactions from neighboring countries, the Democratic Alliance began establishing order centered in Chongqing.
After all, as the new regime backed overwhelmingly by the Chinese people, its control far surpassed that of Chiang's government.
Chongqing immediately began pressuring the warlords.
“Obey. This isn't the 'central' government's decree—it's the command of the unified Chinese people.”
The warlords dared not defy the new orders from Chongqing.
Who in their right mind would stand against twenty million protesters?
Chongqing swiftly began reclaiming the tax rights and other authorities that Chiang had lost over the years.
The problem was North China.
The warlords there, heavily influenced by Korea, made no secret of their refusal to obey Chongqing.
“Sichuan is Sichuan, North China is North China. Why should we listen to outsiders? Every time we do, chaos ensues. We're not falling for it twice.”
“What?”
The North China warlords acted as if the Chinese people's demands meant nothing to them.
This attitude deeply offended the Chinese people.
“Why are those North China bastards acting like that? It must be Pyongyang pulling the strings behind the scenes.”
The Chinese pinned the North China warlords' defiance on Korea.
They already harbored ill feelings toward Korea for its meddling on the mainland.
Thinking Korea was now reaching into North China to block reunification only fueled their rage.
Korean intelligence astutely read the mood.
‘If we play this right, we could create quite the spectacle.’
Buoyed by the success of ousting Chiang, Chinese university students decided to protest Korea's unjust interference.
“Boycott Korean goods!”
“No, smash their cars, radios, TVs! That's how we'll make our discontent known.”
The students hauled Korean products from shops and set them ablaze or smashed them.
In one comical incident, a Korean TV refused to break.
“They're smashing our products? If they're paying for them themselves, who cares?”
The Korean press dismissed the protests as insignificant.
“These tactics won't make the Koreans bat an eye.”
“We need a sharper approach.”
As the students pondered how to make the Koreans back off, someone poured fuel on the fire.
“Let's go to the Korean embassy and deliver our message right to their faces!”
“We need to teach those bastards a lesson so even Pyongyang wakes up.”
‘The Korean embassy?’
To the blood-boiled students, it sounded reasonable.
A few took the lead, and the crowd psychology swept up the rest as they surged toward the Korean embassy.
The police guarding the embassy walls were helpless.
“Hey, you can't do this.”
The students hesitated briefly upon reaching the embassy walls.
But when a few started climbing, the rest followed the crowd's momentum.
“Over, over.”
The students ignored the police trying to stop them.
In the early hours of June 5, 1967, thousands of Chinese university students scaled the walls of the Korean embassy.
*Click.*
A few among the protesters snapped photos.
Korean marines, ordered not to provoke the Chinese if possible, couldn't hold back the flood of students.
The Chinese students stormed the embassy, seizing the staff.
In the process, the Korean embassy staff endured all sorts of humiliations.
“You imperialist scum. Feeling enlightened yet?”
Staff were beaten with shoes and forced to hold signs saying “I am an imperialist” while paraded in mockery.
Female staff faced sexual harassment too.
The Chinese Democratic Alliance was completely unaware until later, when they learned the students had attacked the Korean embassy.
“These fools are trying to ruin the country on purpose.”
“First, send someone to those idiots and get them to release the embassy staff.”
The Alliance hurriedly dispatched senior officials to calm the students.
“We understand your feelings, but this only hurts us. Let's wrap this up here.”
As the dawn adrenaline wore off, the students realized their actions weren't trivial.
Crowd psychology fades with time.
The students obediently left the embassy at the Alliance representatives' urging.
Xu Xinliang, representing the Alliance, went to the Korean ambassador and offered a courteous apology.
“We apologize on behalf of the government for the shock this incident caused.”
The Korean ambassador scoffed at Xu's apology.
Xu felt uneasy at the cynical response.
And that premonition soon became reality.
“Korea has declared our ambassador persona non grata and ordered his expulsion.”
It was tantamount to severing diplomatic ties.
“Summon the Korean ambassador.”
“The Korean ambassador has already left for home.”
Withdrawing one's own ambassador and expelling the other's.
It was a measure taken right before war.
Only then did the Alliance recall Yi Seong-jun's temperament.
In the past, Yi had waged war against China twice—a warmonger.
With a pretext in hand, he could start a war.
It was exactly the kind of stunt Yi Seong-jun was capable of.
Something 'common sense' would rule out, but Yi wasn't some senile old fool.
The Chinese trembled in fear.
In truth, the man who had terrified China, Yi Seong-jun, had no intention of starting a war over Chongqing.
‘This isn't the age where a mere embassy attack sparks war.’
It wasn't the heyday of imperialism when great powers ran rampant.
So, a 'smart' response was needed.
“Impose a naval blockade on China.”
Nothing more, nothing less—just seal China off by sea.
Wasn't that the perfect level of 'showing anger' toward China?
As Korea blockaded China's South China Sea coast, the Chinese government appealed to the international community.
“Following the Soviets, now Korea is acting with imperialist aggression. How long must we tolerate such outrages?”
The U.S. chimed in.
“Korea’s maritime blockade of China is the worst outrage a great power can inflict on a weaker nation.”
Pyongyang responded with a smirk.
“Is that so?”
Korea presented evidence of the embassy occupation and assaults on its staff.
The international community was stunned by China's actions.
“Uh, well. Occupying a diplomatic mission is a bit...”
Even with sympathy for China, defending the seizure of a diplomatic compound was a stretch.
China was left defenseless in this reversal.
The tide of the game had swung back toward Pyongyang.
But Washington wasn't just sitting idle.
“If the sea's blockaded, we punch through by land.”
To open a path for the new Chinese regime, the U.S. turned its gaze south.
There lay the ideological battlefield where liberalism clashed with communism: Vietnam.