Chapter 255: Explanation 8

Narration (analyzing the principal's handling): The principal cannot be completely without resentment toward Li Yuxuan's Badong "small moves" and his vaguely "uncooperative" attitude. Yet this is precisely a moment to employ talent, and he also needs to appease a capable direct-line figure like Li Yuxuan. Thus an appointment that appears to promote but subtly demotes, moves the tiger from the mountain, and also carries a test is issued: Li Yuxuan is appointed Governor of Badong Province while still retaining his post as Division Commander of the Third Division, but he is ordered to lead his troops back to Badong, truly straighten out the region, genuinely absorb and reorganize those "defecting" warlord forces, and consolidate Kuomintang rule there.

(Scene: close‑up of the appointment document. Li Yuxuan accepts the appointment, expression calm, gaze deep.)

Narration: This appointment is clever:

1. It gives Li Yuxuan real power and a region: "You wanted to work in Badong, right? Now you officially get the title and duties."

2. It moves him away from the political centre: far from Jinling, Modu, Jiangcheng and the core stage of the party‑cleansing storm, preventing him from witnessing too much bloodshed and thus developing greater resistance or acting irrationally.

3. It tests his loyalty and ability: Are those warlords truly defected or merely pretended? Can he open a situation amid complex local forces and truly bring the Kuomintang under control of this area? This is a practical test of Li Yuxuan's political skill and loyalty.

4. It isolates his troops: taking the elite Third Division away from the centrally controlled zone and placing it in relatively remote Badong also benefits the principal in more calmly reorganizing other troops and consolidating his own authority.

Li Yuxuan understood all this. He calmly accepted the appointment. For him, this might also be an opportunity: a place far from the bloody core, to practice some of his governance ideas locally, while preserving a relatively independent space for himself and his troops. He again led the Third Division westward to Badong, this time as the legitimate "Governor" and "Stability Director."

Act Five: Badong Thunder, the warlords' end.

(Scene: Li Yuxuan establishing the provincial government in Badong, holding meetings, receiving gentry, reorganizing public order, promoting education and water works—animation or schematic. At the same time, he dispatches intelligence personnel to closely monitor the movements of those "defecting" warlords.)

Narration: Li Yuxuan's administration in Badong initially balances conciliation and reorganization. He reduced some oppressive taxes, opened several Xinshi Xuetang and simple hospitals, repaired roads, trying to win popular support and establish the new government's authority. But regarding those warlord heads who nominally defected yet still kept troops, controlled local taxes, and pretended compliance while secretly resisting, he remained highly vigilant and took a hard line. He demanded that warlord forces must accept point reallocation, reorganization, officer retraining; local finances must be uniformly remitted to the provincial government.

(Scene: warlord heads secretly convene, furious at Li Yuxuan's reforms, believing they hit their fundamental interests, decide to "strike first".)

Narration: Li Yuxuan's measures undoubtedly struck the warlords' cheese. Their original "defection" was only a expedient, hoping to change flag and continue as local tyrants. Now Li Yuxuan moves seriously, confiscating their military and financial power, which they cannot tolerate. Several of the biggest warlord heads conspire, believing that although the Third Division is strong, it is still foreign, unfamiliar with terrain, and Li Yuxuan, a "scholar governor", may not truly dare to act. They decide to unite, under the pretext that "Li Yuxuan is marginalizing the locality and intends to annex", to launch a preemptive attack, hoping to drive out or eliminate the Third Division while it is still unstable.

(Scene: warlord troops gather, launch an attack on the Third Division's defensive zone or the provincial capital. Smoke rises again.)

Narration: However, they greatly underestimated Li Yuxuan's resolve and the Third Division's combat power, and even more the tactical preparation Li Yuxuan had made. Li Yuxuan had long anticipated that these local warlords would not easily submit, and had plans for possible conflict. When the warlord allied forces launched the attack, the Third Division did not hold the city but, under Li Yuxuan's personal command, employed battle methods forged during the Northern Expedition, integrating German tactical essence, to go on the offensive, breaking them one by one.

Narration (describing battle, reflecting Third Division tactics):

Precise intelligence and rapid mobility: using reconnaissance and local forces inclined toward the central government for intel, the Third Division's main force, before the warlord allied forces could complete encirclement, rushed at full‑march speed to strike their main line.

Concentrated firepower and focused breakthrough: reenacting Northern Expedition tactics, concentrating artillery and automatic fire, launching a fierce assault in a chosen direction, quickly crushing the enemy before them.

Flanking maneuver and psychological shock: elite squads boldly infiltrate, harass the warlord rear, create panic, shake their morale.

Political dismantling and capture of the chief: simultaneously issue a pacification notice, declaring only the chief evildoers will be punished, the rest will be coerced, and exploit the contradictions among warlords to divide them. Under the military strike, warlord units quickly defect or disperse.

(Scene: battle animation schematic, highlighting the Third Division's swiftness and the warlords' collapse. Time stamp: the battle lasted only a few days.)

Narration: The result was unsurprising. In less than a week, the so‑called "Badong Allied Forces" crumbled. Major warlord heads either fell in battle or were captured; most of the remaining troops were incorporated or disbanded. Li Yuxuan, with lightning speed, thoroughly eradicated the warlord fiefdoms in Badong, truly placing the land under effective control of the Kuomintang central (or rather his own) authority.

Video ending (scene: Badong returns to calm, provincial orders flow smoothly. Li Yuxuan stands on a hill that has just endured fire, overlooking the land, expression not joyful but contemplative.)

Narration: The Badong campaign, Li Yuxuan again proved his outstanding military command ability, and also displayed his decisive, unflinching side when necessary. He is not a pedantic scholar; when he judges the opponent to be a tumor threatening national unity and local peace, and swords are already drawn, his counterattack is thorough and efficient. This victory greatly solidified his position in Badong and proved to the principal his ability to handle complex local issues.

Narration: Yet behind the victory lies an even deeper loneliness and contemplation. He "persuaded" the warlords with guns, but can the fragmented and civil‑war shadows over Huaxia truly be eradicated by guns? He avoided the party‑cleansing in Jinling and Modu, yet in Badong he had to conduct another "purge". The "national unification" and "army outward" he pursues are in reality always entangled with various forms of internal conflict.

(Scene: camera pulls back, Badong's mountains and waters shrouded in dusk. Subtitles appear: Li Yuxuan's Badong years are the key period when he transformed from a purely military commander into a local governor and political figure, also the first time his inner conflict of loyalty and righteousness publicly surfaced in a major event and he tried to find a way out. Though he could not completely escape the era's vortex, he secured for himself and the Third Division a relatively independent, and somewhat productive, span of time.)

Narration (preview of next episode): After pacifying Badong, Li Yuxuan earned the reputation of "capable minister", and temporarily stepped away from the core political storm. But a tree that wishes stillness cannot stop the wind. The smoke of the Central Plains War is about to spread, the iron hooves of Japanese invaders are already stirring in the northeast. Li Yuxuan and his Third Division will inevitably be drawn into a larger historical torrent. What new test will his relationship with the principal face? We'll discuss next time.

(Ending music starts.)

Closing remark: In history, people's choices often have no perfect answer. Li Yuxuan's "Badong journey" is an effort to find room for action and inner consistency within the cracks of the era. It tells us that sometimes "leaving" is not retreat but a way to uphold certain bottom lines in another form; and necessary "hardness" may be the means to clear a path and achieve staged goals in a complex situation. The balance of this is the embodiment of political wisdom and personal belief. See you next time.