1932: Playing with the Japanese Communist Party with a doll

Having already fallen out with Chiang Kai-shek, and then losing Peking, where else could the Northeast Army go?

Go fight Han Fuju or go fight Yan Xishan?!

However, those words were spoken by Marshal Zhang himself. If he failed to act upon the referendum results under his leadership, it would be a fatal blow to his political credibility!

From now on, no one will believe what Marshal Zhang says. How can he rule Peking, fight against the Japanese in Northeast China, or even gain a foothold in China?

Just when Zhang Xueliang, who was already 32 years old but still a little immature in politics, was anxious and didn't know what to do, someone next to him suddenly stood up and shouted

"Chairman Wu, the results of this vote don't comply with the relevant regulations of the Referendum Management Committee, right?"

"Um?

Everyone looked closely and found that it was Pan Wenyu.

噫?

What does this young man want to do?

Judging from what he said, he wants to deny the results of this vote?

My goodness, Zhang Xueliang was so embarrassed that he couldn't speak, how could he deny it?

Most people did not know this aide who almost never showed up. Seeing that Zhang Xueliang did not seem to have any intention of stopping the other party, they all looked over curiously, and many reporters even took up their cameras to take pictures of him.

If the Northeast Army really intends to renege on its debt, then this time the fun will be great.

Pan Wenyu didn't know that he had left behind a personal photo for the first time in history, allowing future generations to finally get a glimpse of the true appearance of this legendary party member. He just secretly groaned in his heart.

Under the Party Central Committee's order to "proceed with the election normally and not interfere too much," he was deeply involved in the organization and management of the referendum and did not do anything unnecessary.

Like Zhang Xueliang himself, he anticipated that Fujiwara no Kanezane would receive a high level of support, but felt that Zhang Xueliang would lose, so his original plan was:

Using the result of this vote, which stated that "although we won, Fujiwara no Kanezane was a great threat," Zhang Xueliang was made to deeply understand the importance of the "Three Represents," become more compassionate towards the people, and become more inclined towards Marxism.

In the end, who would have thought that Zhang Dashuai would lose even his pants!

Now, are we really going to follow the vote and ask Zhang Xueliang to get out of Peking and let the Japanese come in to rule?

impossible!

This was a huge blow to the morale of the Chinese people, would lead to more and more surrenderists, and would also be detrimental to the expansion of the Party's cause in Peiping.

Zhang Xueliang is definitely a better collaborator than Fujiwara Kanezane, right?

Fortunately, we had some reservations when we participated in formulating the voting rules, and there is still room to save the results.

Facing the contemptuous, inquiring, and doubtful looks from the crowd, Pan Wenyu shamelessly said:

"Chairman Wu, I accept the results of this vote, but I believe it is insufficient to determine the future administrators of the Beiping region.

"Um?

Like everyone else, Wu Peifu frowned deeply and raised his head slightly.

"Are you saying the results of this vote are fake and don't count? Are you, the Northeast Army, planning to renege on your responsibility? Or do you think there's something wrong with those of us involved in the referendum management?"

As soon as these words were spoken, all the staff of the referendum committee and all the external third-party supervisors, especially the college students, glared at Pan Wenyu.

What's the meaning?

Are you saying that I fabricated the data to prevent Zhang Xueliang from being elected?

What are you doing?

During this period, especially during the final seven days of voting, I didn't sleep well at all. I didn't dare to blink, staring at everyone, the ballot box, and the ledger, afraid that something might go wrong!

How dare you slander my reputation!

“No, no, no, Chairman Wu, colleagues, you still don’t understand.

Pan Wenyu waved his hands hurriedly:

"What I mean is that this result is certainly genuine, it's the result of everyone's joint efforts, and it fully expresses the political demands of some of the people of Peking, but it cannot determine who will be the future rulers of Peking."

"Why?

"Excuse me, Chairman, how many votes did we receive in this election?

"Didn't I just say that? It's about 50...

"So, how many people are there in Peking?"

"Um?

"Beiping has a population of approximately 150 million, but we only received 50 votes. In other words, only one-third of the population voted. Doesn't this meet the two-thirds requirement?"

"Two-thirds? What do you mean by three-thirds..."

As soon as he said this, Wu Peifu suddenly remembered a certain clause in the "Peking Referendum Management Rules (Trial Version)" and his eyes widened!

"In order to fairly and impartially express the true will of the people of Peking, more than two-thirds of the people must participate in the vote for the results to be valid."

Wow, I didn't read the rules carefully before because they hurt my eyes. I found out they are waiting here!

...With only 50 votes, assuming there wasn't a single duplicate vote, 50 votes can only represent a small portion of the population of Peking, not all of it. How can such a vote be considered a valid result?

Under the astonished gaze of Wu Peifu and others, Pan Wenyu continued to talk, and even secretly changed some concepts:

"Moreover, of these 50 votes, only 28 supported the one from the north, while 19 supported Commander Zhang. In other words, about two-fifths of the people supported Commander Zhang, and most of them came from within the city, which is one-half.

"There are a total of one million people in Beiping. In other words, at least 500,000 still support Commander Zhang. Using only the current number of votes to determine Beiping's future administrators doesn't truly reflect the wishes of the people of Beiping, does it?

"So, I think..."

Of course, there's a huge loophole in Pan Wenyu's statement. If one were to follow his calculations, Fujiwara no Kanezane's votes would have been 50 outside the city plus about half of those inside, totaling nearly 100 million!

But because they were all spoken face to face, and the sentences were so roundabout, they confused everyone who was not very good at math and logic.

Even Zhang Xueliang himself didn't fully understand what Pan Wenyu was saying, but like everyone else, he understood the core meaning of his words:

Although the voting data is true, it can only express the thoughts of a part of the people in Peking, and cannot express the common will of all the people in Peking, so the result is not countable.

The crowd in the audience started talking.

There is some truth to this.

Although getting 50 votes this time was indeed beyond expectations, the total number of votes was still only one-third of the total population of Peking. Who knows what the other two-thirds of people were thinking?

We can't use this one-third (which is definitely not possible in practice because of duplicate voting) to represent all the people of Peking, right?

This is obviously unfair and unjust!

Since we want democracy, it should be democracy for all, not for a small group of people to represent everyone;

Otherwise, what's the difference between this and dictatorship?

Not only those who supported Zhang Xueliang and remained neutral thought so, but those who supported Fujiwara Kanezane also did not jump out to refute it.

If Fujiwara no Kanezane were a Chinese, they would certainly have the courage to cheer for him and denounce Pan Wenyu's nonsense with all their might, and they would have received public support from many people.

But the problem is that Fujiwara no Kanezane is Japanese!

Before the Japanese became completely inhumane, the people of Northeast China generally hated the Russians more than the small East Asia. However, the people of Peking, who had experienced the "destruction of the Beiyang Fleet" and the "Eight-Nation Alliance's invasion of China", did not think so.

It's fine if the foreigners bully us with their powerful ships and guns, but the damn Japanese slaves actually dare to ride on the head of our Celestial Empire and show off their power!

No one wants to be labeled a "traitor," especially when the target is the Japanese!

This is so disgusting!

Even those who are called "traitors" now have to use the "Three Represents" and other rhetoric to defend themselves!

Actually, many people voted for Fujiwara no Kanezane, not only for political considerations, but also for a "broken jar" mentality, similar to how the Ukrainian people later voted for Ze Sheng to come to power:

Since it's already so bad, I can just close my eyes and pick someone I haven't seen before and whose reputation sounds good. It can't be worse than the current one, right?

In this case, it's fine to ask them to secretly vote for Fujiwara no Kanezane, but it would be too difficult to ask them to stand up publicly and bravely defend the voting results.

It has only been less than two years since someone started interfering in this country, so his appeal is not that strong.

Wu Peifu frowned and asked:

"So what do you want to do?"

“I think this vote can be seen as a rehearsal, allowing us to prepare for a larger-scale vote, a real referendum in Peking.

As he spoke, Pan Wenyu pulled out a photo he had taken of a businessman with the "Five-Star Oriental Republic Citizen Identity Card":

"At the very least, we can learn from what happened in Northeast China and conduct a large-scale census of Beijing to determine the actual number of voters. We can then issue ID cards to everyone and have them vote based on their ID cards. This is the only way to ensure that the voting results are fair and just.

M

This time, both Wu Peifu and Zhang Xueliang understood Pan Wenyu's true meaning:

A delaying tactic!

Drag! Drag it down first!

Whether it’s a census, establishing a universal ID system, or holding a true referendum, it’s extremely time-consuming and labor-intensive;

The Northeast began planning as early as May last year, even using the power of the United States, but still has not completed the identity census and ID card production of the entire population;

With the weak strength of Peking, which can't even figure out how many villages are under its jurisdiction, it will take at least a year or two... no, at least 3-4 years for these things to happen.

However, as long as there is a buffer time, Zhang Xueliang has many ways to restore his reputation and that of the Northeast Army, impose some "benevolent policies" and gain more support;

Besides, people tend to forget things quickly. After a few years, how many people will still remember the recent series of tragedies that forced Zhang Xueliang to shoot himself in the foot?

It can even be said with certainty that even if Zhang Xueliang and the Northeast Army did nothing during this period, as long as they stopped desperately seeking death, their support rate would definitely be higher than it is now!

Seeing that Wu Peifu and many others showed hesitation, Pan Wenyu struck while the iron was hot.

road:

Chairman Wu, I believe that we are all Chinese, and Peking, after all, belongs to the Chinese. We may be temporarily weak, but we cannot simply give Peking up, right?"

These words touched Wu Peifu.

Although he worked as a spy for the Japanese when he was young (during the Russo-Japanese War), that doesn't mean Wu Peifu likes the Japanese. He just hates the Russians even more:

After the "September 918th Incident", Wu Peifu jumped out to accuse Zhang Xueliang and Chiang Kai-shek, and promoted anti-Japanese and national salvation everywhere. Although political factors accounted for the majority, there were also certain emotional factors.

Yes, given the Japanese's insatiable greed, if Peking were really handed over to them, would Wu Peifu have any chance of success in the future?

Is it difficult to judge whether Zhang Xueliang is easier to deal with or the Japanese?

In this case...

Wu Peifu, who was already dissatisfied with the outcome (few people voted for him, and the result favored the Japanese), saw that someone else had taken the lead and shouldered the responsibility, so he decided to go along with it.

Looking at Zhang Xueliang again, the latter quickly cast a subtle look at Marshal Wu, indicating that any conditions could be discussed later. He nodded and said:

“You have a point, please let me discuss this with the others for a moment.

Most of the members of the referendum committee were Zhang Xueliang's followers. How could they possibly object to such a proposal? They quickly made a resolution:

Since the number of voters was too small and did not meet the basic requirement of two-thirds, the voting results will be temporarily retained. The referendum committee will cooperate with the Peking Municipal Government to count the population, redraft the rules, etc., and will restart the referendum at an appropriate time.

After the results and subsequent decisions were announced, let's not talk about what people in Beijing were saying. Zhang Xueliang and others were very grateful to Pan Wenyu:

"Dong Zhou, thank goodness for you, otherwise..."

"Commander, there's no need to talk about my affairs.

Pan Wenyu, who had made great contributions, did not feel proud at all, but instead looked even more worried:

"You need to be prepared to deal with external pressure, especially from the north. With such a good opportunity, I'm not sure how they will react..."

Before the Northeast responded, Nanchang and Yulin received the intelligence first.

..This referendum is causing a stir.."

Wu Hao was a little unsure how to evaluate the Peking referendum.

Zhang Xueliang, the Northeast Army and the political system in Peking were really incompetent. If the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China had not ordered all party organizations and members in Peking to put aside all work and fully participate in organizational management, there would have been much more problems with this referendum than we saw.

That would be fine, but then after the results came out, they actually denied it?

Although it was Comrade Pan Wenyu who started it, Zhang Xueliang obviously also intended to default on his debt, but his means of default might be even more brutal.

Now, through a referendum election, the naked social division has been laid out in front of us, and in the end, the promise was broken. I'm afraid that there will be a big chaos in Beijing.

In addition, judging from all the circumstances before and after this referendum, Comrade Ma Shiwu’s question can be partially answered.

"If we want to achieve people's democracy, then giving each person one vote and letting them decide national affairs by voting, is that democracy? If so, is this method feasible? If not, can it be improved?"

The answer is that it is indeed "democratic", but the fact is that this approach of "universal direct election" has been fully proven to be ineffective, at least for the time being.