Chapter 30: "Losing One's Mind and Going Mad"

  Due to Chiang Ching-kuo being influenced by Lin Feng at the time, he did not recruit Li Deng-hui as an aide, and Taiwan's agriculture also had no major development opportunities, which made Li Deng-hui stay in National Taiwan University as a professor without any chance to develop into politics.

  The leaders of the Taiwan Alliance planned a series of recent events, intending to use this action to create chaos and spark an island-wide democratic movement against dictatorship, forcing the authorities to lift the ban on newspapers and parties.

  Li Deng* finally found his way to embark on the political path after years of silence. If he can make a name for himself in this "democratic movement", regardless of whether it ultimately succeeds or fails, he will gain immense political wealth.

  Since he has already failed on the path of the Nationalist Party, why not try to take the political road through democratic movements? After careful consideration, Li Deng* felt that it was still in his interest to cooperate with people from the Taiwan League. In the end, he still took the same path as history, only this time all his actions would be exposed under the sunlight.

  In front of the teaching building of National Taiwan University's Law Department, a sea of students packed the area. Chen Shui-bian and Hsieh Chang-ting stood on the stage in front, speaking passionately: "Fellow students, we can no longer remain silent! We must learn from the May Fourth youth, learning their spirit of sacrificing for the country and nation. We will march, we will assemble, and we will proclaim our democracy to the authoritarian government. Fellow students, take action!"

  Chen * Bian waved his big hand and led the students of Taiwan University to rush out of the campus. The school security saw hundreds of students holding banners walking onto the main street, but did not dare to intercept them excessively, and quickly reported to the school leaders.

  Lin Feng had already ordered the troops to stand by when Chen Shui-bian and others began to assemble. As soon as Chen Shui-bian's group appeared on the street, they immediately merged with some social figures organized by other Taiwan League members, and the scale of this team expanded greatly in an instant.

  Li and Chen, walking in the front, seem to be spirited and even fantasize themselves as revolutionary leaders of the past. They are not worried about their lives being threatened, as they had already received guarantees from overseas Taiwanese leaders before coming, that at a critical moment, the US would step in to guarantee their personal safety.

  The procession was heading towards Zhongxiao East Road, where the government is located. However, they soon discovered something unusual. Li Deng* felt that it was too quiet around them, except for their group of people cheering and shouting loudly, there wasn't a single onlooker in sight, which was very abnormal.

  The Chinese people all like to watch a lively scene, but now this situation is clearly inconsistent with the actual situation, there must be a problem, or the government has prepared to take these people away.

  Li and Chen felt a little flustered at the thought, but as leaders of this operation, they couldn't possibly withdraw halfway, or else it would likely end in failure.

  The last two could only lead the crowd to the Executive Yuan with a hard scalp, and as they approached Zhongxiao East Road, they felt a tense atmosphere. The students who participated in the parade also found something wrong, and everyone lost their initial passion, and the group suddenly became cold and quiet.

  Just as everyone was about to approach the government's location, they suddenly found that the surroundings became lively, with footsteps everywhere. Everyone involuntarily stopped in their tracks and looked around, "Ah" The crowd couldn't help but take a cold breath.

  Only to see the procession surrounded by armed riot police, Li Deng* was also intimidated. He really didn't expect the government to take their small team so seriously. Originally, according to their plan, at most they would arrive at the Administrative Yuan entrance and confront the police, then look for an opportunity to create chaos and that's it. Unexpectedly, before they even reached the destination, they were surrounded by the police.

  At this time a government worker walked to the front of the crowd and said: "Fellow students, we hope you calm down, hurry back to school to study, believe in the government, don't be misled by others."

  Chen Shui-bian and others saw that everyone was somewhat retreating, so they quickly stood up and said: "As long as the government agrees to our demands, we will immediately return to school. First, lift the ban on parties and newspapers; second, pardon Taiwanese Alliance political prisoners; third, after this is over, do not hold us responsible."

  The staff didn't even look at Chen Shui-bian and continued to say: "You should go back now, the government will spare you because of your youth and ignorance. If you still don't understand, the consequences will be unbearable for you."

  Chen Shui-bian was also very nervous at this time, he carefully calculated and suddenly became ruthless, saying to Li Deng-hui: "Teacher Li, since we have come to this point, if the top allows us to create a bloody incident, let's go all out! After that, with Americans backing us up, no matter what, the government won't dare do anything to us."

  Li Deng* listened to Chen*'s words and remained silent for a while before saying: "Alright, let's do it. Organize everyone to prepare for the charge against the police."

  Then Lin Feng saw the demonstrators across the street start rushing towards him. Lin Feng sneered and ordered his men to take action.

  The riot police were indeed a professional team, dealing with these amateur personnel, and the scene was brought under control in less than ten minutes. All participants in the march were arrested.

  At the same time, with the cooperation of the intelligence department, the army, police and gendarmerie were fully mobilized to search for and capture exposed or hidden US-Japanese spies and Taiwanese separatists. For the next week, the people of Taiwan seemed to be living in the martial law era of the 1950s and 1960s again, with many neighbors being taken away without warning.

  After a week of continuous arrests, the situation gradually returned to normal, but the political terror atmosphere on the island did not dissipate. As foreign countries, especially the United States, continued to condemn, the atmosphere on the island became increasingly tense.

  "Nowadays our pressure is very great, the American devils and little Japs are blocking my home's gate every day, demanding we release the captured people as soon as possible. Recently, the US warships stationed in Ryukyu have also been active frequently."

  Chiang Ching-kuo spoke slowly and deliberately to Lin Feng about the current situation, Lin Feng narrowed his eyes and said: "Don't bother with them, we will have a war with them sooner or later. Now that the US has gradually discovered our departure from its control, they are now supporting Japan and the Philippines to counter the rising China. The spies and Taiwanese separatists we captured must die, those ordinary people can be educated. Next, we need to fight a battle of public opinion."

  The Americans soon used the resources in their hands to attack the Taiwanese authorities as a dictatorial government, arbitrarily arresting democratic figures and ordinary people on the island. The Taiwanese people were in the midst of "White Terror".

  Subsequently, major European media reported on the "democratic movement event" that took place in Taiwan. Li Deng-hui and Chen Shui-bian became famous, becoming "democracy fighters" in the eyes of Europeans and Americans, while the Taiwanese authorities became synonymous with "dictatorship" and "violence".

  The US pulled together a group of allies to prepare for sanctions against Taiwan, but in the end, they found that there was no aspect that could be sanctioned. The only area where the US can exert pressure on Taiwan is food, but this too has become unworkable since the easing of relations between Taiwan and mainland China.

  In the end, the US didn't impose any sanctions either, after all, it still imports oil from Taiwan. Soon, Taiwan announced the outcome of handling the entire incident, which further confirmed that Taiwan is under the rule of a dictatorial warlord.

  In late November 1973, the Taiwan Supreme Court handed down a verdict, sentencing the persons in charge of twelve law-breaking factories to more than ten years' imprisonment and fines exceeding NT$5 million; some serious cases were sentenced to life imprisonment or death.

  Those Taiwanese separatist elements were exposed one by one, and their conspiracy was spread through the media by Lin Feng. The island's people suddenly discovered that those seemingly dignified law school teachers and students turned out to be Taiwanese separatists. Moreover, these Taiwanese separatists disregarded the health and safety of the island's people, colluding with some unscrupulous businessmen, resulting in a large number of inferior products flooding into society. As these dark secrets were exposed, the Taiwanese separatist organization on the island became like a rat crossing the street, with everyone shouting to beat them. Even the leaders of the Taiwan Alliance in the United States were implicated.

  These Taiwanese organizations and their behind-the-scenes masters spare no effort to discredit the Taiwanese authorities in order to reverse the passive situation, especially with Li Dengwu's surrender, Chiang Kai-shek and his son, as well as Lin Feng, were all described by Western media as extremely evil and depraved.

  However, the Taiwanese independence organizations within Taiwan have thoroughly become notorious terrorist organizations. The most unfortunate ones are the law schools of universities in Taiwan, with about 80% of them being implicated in this movement. From a philosophical point of view, everything has two sides, good and bad. After this incident, the Taiwanese independence elements on the island were basically eliminated, and the external forces also recognized that they had lost the possibility of achieving anything on the island. However, this incident also brought some negative impacts, with many intellectuals who had studied in Japan and the US leaving Taiwan. Fortunately, Lin Feng has advanced technology, otherwise, the departure of these people would greatly weaken Taiwan's scientific research capabilities.

  Taiwan quickly returned to calm, after all, the lives of ordinary people are forever about oil, salt, sauce and vinegar, everything else is false. The least happy about Taiwan's rapid return to calm is Japan, since the Diaoyu Islands incident, relations between Taiwan and Japan have gradually become tense, especially with the formal production of oil in the Diaoyu Islands, Japan has hated it to the bone. Now, with the failure of the actions planned by Japan and the US, Japanese politicians also discovered that since the mainland and Taiwan's relations eased, Japan has been at a strategic disadvantage.

  To change this unfavorable situation, Japanese people with insight proposed that Japan can only take the initiative in future wars by occupying the Ryukyu Islands. To achieve this strategic goal, the Japanese government sent a large number of officials to actively lobby the US government, hoping that the Americans would hand over the Ryukyu Islands to the Japanese.

  The Americans also wanted to hand over the Ryukyus to Japan, but since they had just established diplomatic relations with China, they could not openly hand over the Ryukyus to Japan, after all, there were treaties signed by previous allies. However, behind the scenes, the United States has begun to arrange for the Japanese to establish military facilities in the Ryukyus, and this action was immediately met with strong opposition from China, both the mainland central government and the Taiwanese authorities strongly opposed Japan's occupation of the Ryukyus, and once again reiterated that the Ryukyus are China's inherent territory, any country attempting to split or occupy Chinese territory will be subject to military retaliation by the Chinese government.