"Internal Affairs" and "Diplomacy": The Life of King Demuchuk Donrup of Sunit Right Banner (19)
Wang Bingming
After the Japanese imperialists launched a full-scale war of aggression against China, they successively established a number of local puppet regimes in the occupied areas. After Wang Jingwei publicly surrendered to Japan, Japan supported him to set up a puppet Nationalist government in Nanjing in March 1940 as the central government to inherit China's "legal system" and merge various local puppet regimes into this puppet regime.
This raises the question of coordinating and determining the relationship between the Wang puppet regime and the German puppet Mongolian regime under Japanese manipulation.
In the spring of 1941, in accordance with the three principles of "good neighborliness and friendship, joint defense against communism, and economic cooperation" formulated by the Japanese Prime Minister, Li Shouxin, a puppet representative of Mongolia, signed a bilateral agreement with Wang puppet representative in Qingdao, whereby the "United Autonomous Government of Mongolia and Xinjiang" recognized the Wang puppet regime as the "new central government," and the Wang puppet regime recognized the "high degree of autonomy" of the puppet Mongolian regime.
King De was very dissatisfied with this bilateral agreement. He believes that recognizing Wang Puppet as the "central government," that is, recognizing Mongolia as a local government under his rule, is contrary to the idea of Mongolian independence and statehood that he sought, especially that Wang Puppet recognized the "independence" of the puppet Manchukuo, but did not recognize the independence of Mongolia, and that the Japanese let Wang Jingwei, who had taken refuge later, be above him who had "cooperated" first.
However, since King De was already secretly in contact with Chongqing at this time and planned to leave, he did not openly oppose this Wang puppet and the Mongolian-Xinjiang agreement. Moreover, when Wang Jingwei inspected and visited Zhangjiakou after the agreement was signed, he reluctantly came forward to entertain Wang Jingwei "accompanied" by Japanese advisers.
In February 1941, in order to participate in the commemoration of the 2600th anniversary of the Japanese emperor, King Tokutoku visited Japan for the second time, accompanied by Shoji Kanai, Li Shouxin and others.
During his stay in Japan, the Emperor visited and met with the Emperor and the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Minister of Land (Minister of War Hideki Tojo at the time) and other military and political officials, reported on the political situation in Mongolia after the merger of the three puppet regimes, and raised questions about future assistance.
At the same time, King De still did not forget the plan of gradually realizing the independence of Mongolia and the establishment of a state, and together with Wu Heling, who was still in Japan at that time, he proposed to Japan to set up two committees under the Mongolian regime: one was the "Mongolian Union Political Affairs Committee" which was in charge of the Mongolian people in various league flags, so that he could directly control it, and the other was the "Mongolian Xinjiang Autonomous Committee" which was in charge of southern and northern Shanxi, so that Japan would not have to control it and would not bother with it himself.
According to the original plan, King De was supposed to visit "Man" immediately after the visit, but he did not go to Beiping due to illness on the way.
In April 1942, King De and Li Shouxin visited the puppet Manchukuo for the third time to congratulate the 10th anniversary of the founding of the puppet Manchukuo.
Later, the puppet Manchurians sent officials of the Xing'an Bureau, Boyan Mandu, to Zhangjiakou for a return visit.
In the spring of 1941, Wu Heling returned from Japan. Through the activities of King De, Wu became the president of the Government Council.
Subsequently, Wu Heling began to assist the king of Germany in seeking "independent statehood". Wu Heling advocated the establishment of a "Mongolian autonomous state" as the first step, and began to make demands to the Japanese side in Zhangjiakou. At the outbreak of Hitler's war of aggression against the Soviet Union, the Japanese military allowed the internal name to be changed to "autonomous state", but the external name remained unchanged.
King De still wanted to insist on the establishment of an "autonomous state" of Mongolia, but Wu Heling persuaded and explained that it would be easy to get the Japanese side's consent to build a "state," and if he proposed to insist on building a "state," he was afraid that if it was delayed, the "state" would not be built. Wu Heling also said that although the meanings of the words "state" and "country" in Chinese are different, when translated into Mongolian, they are both called "Ao Luosi", and they can also be said to the Mongolian people.
In this way, the "Mongolian Autonomous State" was proclaimed on August 4 of that year. However, it only hung up a sign, and neither held a ceremony or ceremony, nor publicized it to the outside world.
When planning to build a "country", King De once wanted to take "Chengde" as the name of the year, taking the "Cheng" of Genghis Khan, the "virtue" of King De, and the meaning of King De inheriting the virtue of Genghis Khan. Before the "country" was built, the era name was abandoned.
In June 1942, in order to implement the division of Mongolia and Han and make it easier to manipulate and drive, Japan carried out an institutional reform similar to the plan proposed by King De on his second visit to Japan, and set up the "Xingmeng Committee" to be in charge of the affairs of the Mongolian people in the league banner, the Ministry of the Interior to be in charge of the affairs of the Han people in counties and cities, and the Muslim Committee to be in charge of the affairs of the Hui people.
In order to prepare for the "independent establishment of the state", King De once wanted to pass the "Xingmeng Committee" to artificially create a pure Mongolian area and a pure Han area in the mixed Mongolian and Han areas, that is, to move the Mongols south of the Pingsui Railway to the north of the railway, and the Han people in the north of the road to the south of the road.
He also wanted to move the young people of the Tumut Banner to the pure Mongolian area in batches to learn Mongolian and Mongolian languages, "to avoid the assimilation of the Han people." Because some Mongolian officials did not agree with it, they were afraid of causing big trouble, so they failed to do it.
Later, the Japanese advisers presided over the implementation of the demarcation of Qi counties in the Chahar League (in the past, the flag counties were basically staggered, and the Mongolian and Han residents in the same area were in charge of the "humanism"), which was strongly approved and supported by the German king.
King De persuaded some of the Mongol Banner chiefs who refused to shrink their territory because of this, saying that they would rather lose some places now, so that they could cut off the migration of the Han people and maintain the purity of the Mongol Banner Zone.
In terms of the administration of Mengqi, after King De supported Wu Heling to become the premier, he did the following things: Wu Heling was still the president of the livelihood association, the original livelihood association was reorganized, and the department of Holysia (cooperatives) was added.
In all banners, "Holicia" was organized to buy livestock skins and furs and to distribute daily necessities, and it was stipulated that each Mongolian citizen would invest at least 10 yuan and at most 3,000 yuan. Wu Heling and his cronies ran "Holysia" and made a lot of money from it.
Because King De was very supportive of Wu Heling, the Japanese side once doubted whether the two had an "economic relationship" and asked Tao Ketao about this, and Tao Ketao replied that the two had a political relationship, "not yet an economic relationship", so the matter was stopped.
King Dewang also supported Wu Heling to set up a Mongolian preparatory school for studying in Japan, with Wu Heling as the principal, recruiting Mongolian young people to focus on learning Japanese and Japanese, and sending them to Japan to study after a period of tutoring. This school is privately run and government-aided, and most of the funds are subsidized by the puppet Mongolian government, and a small part comes from individual donations.
King De transferred the 50,000 yuan "Mongolian Education Revival Fund" left over from the period of the puppet Mongolian Union Autonomous Government and the 50,000 yuan allocated to him by the Ministry of Military Affairs for personal disposal to Wu Heling as the school's fund. King Toku's support for Wu Heling to open this school was aimed at cultivating talents who would be loyal to him, and to win the support of Mongolian intellectuals, and to win the favor of the Japanese side as a concrete expression of promoting "Mongolian-Japanese goodwill."
The "Mengqi Ten-Year Construction Plan" formulated and piloted by Wu Heling has also been supported by King De. The "Plan" envisages the establishment of "Mongolian New Villages" in Mongolian Banner in phases and batches, with the location of the Flag Office as the central new village, forming the political (Flag Office), economic (Holysia), cultural (central primary school) and military (security force) centers of each Banner.
In 1943, three "Mongolian Flag Construction Teams" were organized to start the construction plan in the Sunite Right Banner of the Xi League, the Yellow Banner of the Chameng League, and the Siziwang Banner of the Umeng League. All construction funds were allocated by the Xingmeng Committee, and the Mongolian banners were not allowed to bear the burden.
King De, Wu Heling and others believed that the Mongolian Banner was their political capital and base area, and that the construction of some strongholds in the Mongolian Banner could be used as capital and conditions for the Japanese to make a comeback and continue to rule the Mongolian Banner region in the future, even if the Japanese were defeated.
In addition, King De did his best to maintain the original feudal hereditary rule system in Mongolia. After the Japanese imperialists created the puppet state of Manchukuo in Northeast China, they changed the original hereditary Zasak system in Eastern Mongolia to the system of appointing flag commanders, but in the puppet Mongolian territory, they vigorously maintained the original feudal system.
At a Mongolian conference, Shoji Kanai officially announced that he would "respect the existence of the current Zasak banner system."
Therefore, when the Eastern Uzhumuqin Banner Zasak was dismissed for his rebellious conquest, which aroused the opposition of the banner people, King De still allowed his young son to succeed Zasak.
After becoming the head of the League, the monk Zasaklinqin of the Central Banner of the Urat League petitioned for his infant son to succeed Zasak, which was also approved by the King of Germany.
As the head of the puppet Mongolian regime, King De actively defended and assisted the Japanese imperialist colonial rule in the region. At the beginning of the establishment of the puppet Mongolian regime, it declared "preventing communism" and "suppressing communism" as its basic political program.
In his public speeches, King De often stressed the need to "guard against the Communists," and when the puppet Mongolian army "went on an expedition," he often instructed the officers leading the troops to work hard to complete the task of "suppressing the Communists." The army and police of the puppet regime actively cooperated with and assisted the Japanese army in attacking the base areas of the Eighth Route Army and the areas ruled by the Kuomintang, and assisted the Japanese police and special organs in brutally suppressing anti-Japanese organizations and activities.
Within the puppet regime, on the one hand, a large number of Mongolian feudal upper-class and Han old bureaucrats, politicians, warlords, and bandits were recruited; on the other hand, the real power of the organs of the puppet Mongolian Xinjiang government and the banners (counties) of the leagues (provinces) was in the hands of the "Japanese" deputy ministers, participating officials, and advisers.
On the economic front, the vast majority of banks, mines, and companies (corporations) under the puppet regime's jurisdiction were directly controlled by Japanese officials. Not only are important resources such as finance, electricity, transportation, coal mines, iron ore, and animal husbandry controlled by the Japanese, but also food, oil, tobacco, flour, cement, bricks, timber, and matches were also controlled by the Japanese.
After the puppet Mongolian government promulgated the opium control decree at the behest of Japan, it set up various institutions to openly purchase and sell opium, resulting in tobacco fields and tobacco houses all over the urban and rural areas. Local government offices have openly set up state-run casinos to loot money and poison the people.
In the area of culture, education on enslavement and assimilation has been practiced, Japanese classes have been generally set up in primary and secondary schools, and some secondary schools have taught Japanese longer than Chinese and Mongolian, and such groups have also been set up such as the "Mongolian Xinjiang Association for the Advancement of Asia" and the "Mongolian Association for the Promotion of Asia" to vigorously advocate and inculcate the idea of respecting and pro-Japan.
After Japan launched the Pacific War, King Toku, in his capacity as chairman of the "Mongolian Xinjiang Government," issued two "Teachings on the Rejuvenation of Asia," announcing that he would "exert his total strength," "fulfill his responsibilities," "ensure public order and enhance production," "go all out to support his allies (Japan) and cooperate in the war," and "establish a sphere of common prosperity in East Asia."
In order to strengthen the order of colonial rule and fully support the needs of the Pacific War, the puppet Mongolian and Xinjiang governments further set up police teams and Jingxiang teams in various localities, implemented the law of protecting armor and sitting together, forcibly carried out the "exhortation" (forced requisition) of grain and grain, and carried out the campaign of donating machinery, copper, and iron, and wantonly looting and expropriating them.
Under this cruel rule, oppression, and plunder, the masses of the people were extremely humiliated and resentful, impoverished and miserable.