Once again, Li Jishen sat cross-legged, watching as his ministers filed into the council room. He eyed each of them carefully as they entered, none had seemed visibly ill at ease, a promising sign of their progress. None, that is, except perhaps Lei Zhong. He appeared slightly worried, Li Jishen could almost see a light sheen of sweat on his forehead and he kept his hands behind his back, perhaps to conceal shaking. As soon as all the ministers had sat down, Li Jishen immediately turned to Lei Zhong.
“Lei Zhong, you appear ill at ease. Do you have distasteful news to report?”
Lei Zhong stiffened and his eyes took on a semi-wild gaze before he sighed and slumped, casting his eyes down to the center of the circle in which he sat. “Yes, somewhat. The people of Guangdong are still not at ease with the Clique. We have mollified a small portion of them, but over 18% of the population can be considered dissenters. Not only that, but we cannot take advantage of the old Guangdong territories to their full potential.”
“And what do you propose we do to rectify this situation? Must I remind you that war is surely coming, and we must be fully prepared? And why did you not bring this up when I convened the Guangxi Council last month?”
“Apologies, sir. I had not realized at the time that the Guangdong territories were still being recalcitrant, my spies out amongst the people all disappeared overnight and I only realized when I personally went to visit the region.”
“Hmph, very well then. You have served me well in the past, I will not punish you, this time. Now answer my other questions, what do you propose?”
“We must overproduce on consumer goods, this never fails to quiet the populace. However, this does not address the base issue that the Guangdong territories are still identifying themselves with Guangdong, rather than Guangxi. I propose a policy of winning them over to Guangxi, though it will be a gamble whether or not this works. If it does not, we may be faced with even more unrest. If it
does work, however, then we may see several Guangdong territories beginning to identify with Guangxi instead. It is quite literally based on a toss of some celestial dice.”
“Do you believe it is worth the risk?”
“Yes. The benefits of success outweigh the consequences of failure.”
“Very well, then. Implement your plan. Bai Chongxi, how is the army?”
“The last division arrived on the border just an hour ago, sir. We now have every unit in our army on the border, nothing remains in the interior.”
“Can you give me the full order of battle as it stands now?”
“Yes, I can. Here it is.”
“Hmm, yes. I see some of our units are well experienced. How did this come about?”
“Many of these men saw action in one way or another during the earlier clashes between Mao Zedong and Chiang Kai-shek.”
“Ah, of course. I also notice that we have two divisions with the same name, one of them in your own corps.”
“We do? I shall have to remedy that as soon as I return to my headquarters.”
“Yes, indeed you shall. How goes the indoctrination of these soldiers?”
“That, sir, is a question for Li Zongren.”
Li Jishen shifted around to face Li Zongren. “Well?”
“It is going fairly well. In the past month I have taught the basics of motorized reconnaissance to all units. I have proceeded on to basic infiltration tactics, but have not yet progressed far with these yet.”
“Do you believe the army will be taught this doctrine before war?”
“Sir, that depends on when the war begins. I am doing my best and, if Heaven wishes, the army will have this doctrine fully at its disposal before war.”
“Understood. Now, let us see a map of our territories.”
The map of Guangxi Clique, with counters denoting independent units, on February 11, 1936.
Everyone shifted closer to the map in the center of the circle as Li Jishen took a stick and began pointing around the map. “As you can see, at the moment we hold our frontier in strength, but the southern beaches are all unguarded. Remember this fact if the Japanese ever recommence their aggression against us. However, our freedom to advance will be limited by our small army. Li Zongren and I have been discussing a plan of attack for whenever war should come, and we have decided that we would need an alliance with Yunnan to be able to stand a chance of actually marching deep into Nationalist territory. Wang JingWei, do you think that we’ll be able to ally with Yunnan?”
Wang JingWei jumped a bit at hearing his name spoken, but quickly recovered. “Yes, our ties with Yunnan are very close. We simply need the money. If we overproduce the consumer goods as Lei Zhong wishes, we will get that money, though we may also trade for it. Once we have the money, it is a simple matter of proposing the alliance to Yunnan, they are sure to accept it. The money, of course, will go to bribery for control of their military, as I am sure Bai Chongxi will wish to direct their forces himself for maximum advantage.”
Li Jishen looked at Bai Chongxi, who nodded his agreement. Li Jishen also nodded. “Very well then, make it happen. I want Guangdong dissenters pacified and preferably even fully integrated into Guangxi, I want an alliance with Yunnan. I also want this ‘spearhead’ doctrine completed. You are all dismissed.”