The Boss Lady of Fengzeyuan Settles the Score; He Lifeng Jumped Ship, Cai Qi Trapped for 48 Hours! The Crown Prince's Backup Fled Overnight, the Hard-and-Fast Rules of the Fifth Plenary Session's "Overtime" Exposed! [Jiang Feng's Vision, Issue 517, 20261019]

This episode focuses on the power struggle in Zhongnanhai on the eve of the opening of the 20th CCP Central Committee Fifth Plenary Session. Amid internal and external troubles and a purge led by Wen Jiabao, Xi Jinping is facing a full-scale push to force him to step down. Key members of the Fujian faction such as He Lifeng are abandoning ship one after another, Cai Qi has been placed under control by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, potential crown princes Li Qiang and Ding Xuexiang are keeping their distance, and the top leadership is facing a life-or-death power transition.

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Hello friends, welcome to Jiang Feng Perspective. This past weekend, inside the Fengze Garden at Zhongnanhai in Beijing, things were in complete chaos. Old Xi took a distracted He Lifeng and the white-haired Zheng Shanjie to Ulanqab, Inner Mongolia, to clear his head for a day. He Lifeng, his old subordinate from the Fujian faction who has followed him for forty years, unexpectedly buckled under the pressure and passed on a message, urging his master on behalf of Zeng Qinghong to resign due to illness at next week's Fifth Plenary Session and enjoy his later years in peace. As soon as he returned to Beijing that night and closed the gates of Fengze Garden, he was greeted by his wife, the 'boss lady,' who was throwing cups and bowls in a fit of rage. Even more bizarre was that Sunday happened to be the Double Ninth Festival, and the CCTV News broadcast a special feature titled 'Painting a Happy Sunset,' calling for the elderly to be well-cared for and live happy lives. They even dug up old footage of Old Xi visiting a nursing home to fill the segment—you can taste the irony in that. On the special train during the day, his confidant was crying and begging him to step down and enjoy his retirement, while on the television screen that night, the propaganda department was playing old clips wishing him a 'happy sunset.' With only one week left until the opening of the Fifth Plenary Session on October 26, in a few days, more than 300 Central Committee members and alternate members will move into the Jingxi Hotel. Once the doors are locked, private visits, message-passing, and lobbying will be impossible. Therefore, from Friday night when Old Xi returned to Beijing until this Monday morning, it has been the most critical round for the major players in Zhongnanhai before the game is closed. According to common sense, with only one week left until the Fifth Plenary Session, the final draft of the plenary decision must be settled, the list of personnel to be promoted must be reviewed, and the tone of the speeches at the conference must all be decided by the top leader. If he truly held real power, this weekend should have been the time for Old Xi to make the final call behind closed doors in Zhongnanhai. However, according to the latest leaks from the Beijing red walls, Fengze Garden was in an uproar this weekend, and the 'boss lady' pointed at Old Xi's nose, erupting into a rare and fierce argument. Many friends might ask, when Mao Zedong was abandoned by his followers in his later years, Jiang Qing was at least loyal to him; how is it that with Old Xi, even his own wife, the 'boss lady,' dares to slam the table and glare at him? Let's put ourselves in her shoes: if you were the 'boss lady,' looking at the current dead end where you are surrounded on all sides, what would be the most infuriating and desperate thing for you? Is it that those provincial party secretaries below were replaced? What really makes the 'boss lady' hate that he fails to live up to expectations and makes her throw cups in anger is Old Xi's cowardly personality—acting like a tough guy when things are going smoothly, but turning into a coward the moment he faces a life-or-death crisis—which has step-by-step pushed them and their entire family to the edge of an irreversible cliff. Who is the 'boss lady'? She managed to work her way up from a grassroots singer, first making connections with Jiang Zemin's wife, Wang Yeping, and then lifting Old Xi into the central leadership. She relied on a spirit of daring to think and act. In her eyes, Old Xi has squandered a winning hand over the past few years, all because of three fatal instances of cowardice halfway through. Back at the closing ceremony of the 20th National Congress, Old Xi had already burned his bridges and publicly dragged Hu Jintao out of the venue. One of the 25 seats on the Politburo was originally reserved for the 'boss lady.' She confronted Old Xi about this on the spot: 'Even Mao Zedong knew to let Jiang Qing into the Politburo. You, on the other hand, after dragging Hu away, suddenly got scared of a backlash within the Party and chickened out at the last minute, forcibly removing me from the Politburo list. If you had let me into the Politburo at the 20th Congress, today, when Wen Jiabao and Liu Jinguo want to audit my accounts, they would still have to pass the threshold of a Politburo Standing Committee vote. You were afraid of the stigma of your wife interfering in politics, but now look—you didn't manage to stop the interference, and you still ended up carrying all the blame.' After the 20th Congress, in order to help Old Xi seize military power, the 'boss lady' personally held the rank of Major General and sat on the Central Military Commission's Cadre Assessment Committee as a full-time member, vetting the promotions of generals across the military, and had her top aide, Zhong Shaojun, act as a supervisor in the CMC General Office. But what happened? In the spring of 2024, Zhang Youxia slammed the table at the August 1st Building and went on a rampage, demanding that Zhong Shaojun be kicked out. The 'boss lady' urged him to take the opportunity to take down Zhang Youxia, but Old Xi, who had never fought a day in his life, was scared off by Zhang Youxia's posture of a showdown and obediently sent Zhong Shaojun to the National Defense University as a political commissar, effectively pulling out the 'boss lady's' eyes and ears in the military with his own hands. From that day on, the 'boss lady' never stepped foot in the August 1st Building again. In the summer of 2024, at the Third Plenary Session, Old Xi suffered a stroke and was hospitalized, losing his military power. By January 20th of this year, after finally following the sinister advice of Chen Xi, Cai Qi, and Wang Xiaohong to set an ambush in the Central Party School lounge to assassinate Zhang Youxia and Liu Zhenli, according to the 'boss lady's' temper, since the arrow had been fired, there was no turning back—they should have just gone all the way and rounded up the Beijing elders and theater commanders in one fell swoop. But what happened? When Old Xi saw the military generals collectively silent and refusing to pledge loyalty, he hesitated and chickened out again. A shocking bloodbath that would have offended all the old military leaders to the death was turned into a half-baked mess by his own cowardice.

What is the result of all this cowardice and concession? It is that the boss lady's Shandong faction was uprooted by Wen Jiabao, and her number one money bag, former Xinjiang Party Secretary Ma Xingrui, who was involved in a case worth hundreds of billions, was expelled from the Party and public office and transferred to the judiciary at the end of June this year. Immediately after, just last month, two of her key Shandong faction generals in the regions, Tibet Party Secretary Wang Junzheng and Anhui Party Secretary Liang Yanshun, were both dismissed and removed from office by Wen Jiabao within two days. The direct trigger that caused the Fengzeyuan to completely explode this weekend was the CCDI's sudden official announcement on October 13th that Huang Qifan had been taken down. Liu Jinguo bypassed the Politburo and directly used the procedure that retired ministerial-level officials can be detained first if there is conclusive evidence. Huang Qifan holds all the secret accounts of the Xi family's white gloves in Australia. What makes the boss lady even more terrified is that it is already circulating in Zhongnanhai that Zeng Qinghong and those conservative elders, in order to save the Party, are planning to push the blame for the death of Li Keqiang at the Shanghai Dongjiao Hotel in October 2023 onto the unauthorized actions of subordinates under the guise of the wife's interference in politics. The boss lady was pounding the table and crying to Old Xi in Fengzeyuan, and the words had been made as explicit as possible: Ma Xingrui is gone, Huang Qifan is in, and the Fifth Plenary Session happens to fall on October 27th, the third anniversary of Li Keqiang's death. Hu Chunhua's liquidation team has even written down your seven deadly sins. You have no troops in your hands and no security bureau. If you are still clinging to your pride and refusing to admit defeat, or if you still want to protect those lackeys who do your dirty work, Cai Qi and Wang Xiaohong, and Hu Chunhua and the military turn against you on the spot, are you going to watch me become a second Gu Kailai or a second Jiang Qing, and go to Qincheng Prison to take the fall for your capital crimes?

Let's circle back. Why did Old Xi come back burning with anger after taking a trip to Ulaanqab to clear his head on Friday, October 16? The official communique only named State Council Vice Premier He Lifeng and NDRC Director Zheng Shanjie as his companions. Outside the firewall, rumors spread that He Lifeng looked furrowed-brow and distracted the entire way, while Zheng Shanjie, usually fastidious about his grooming, didn't even have time to dye his hair this time. Most conspicuously, when Old Xi left Beijing, he didn't bring his chief of staff Cai Qi along. And He Lifeng happened to seize this opportunity of Cai Qi's absence and Zhou Hongxu's people being alone across the train car to deliver an ultimatum to Old Xi on the special train on behalf of conservative elders like Zeng Qinghong. Some might ask, among the six key figures of the Fujian faction—He Lifeng, Chen Xi, Cai Qi, Wang Xiaohong, Huang Kunming, and Zheng Shanjie—aren't they all staunch loyalists brought out of Fujian by Old Xi? How is it that on October 26, right on the eve of the Fifth Plenum, He Lifeng ran off to act as Zeng Qinghong's courier, urging his master to step down voluntarily, and even begging his master to hand over Chen Xi, Cai Qi, and Wang Xiaohong—these three Fujian faction brothers—as scapegoats? It is because disaster is imminent, and the debts owed by the two factions within the Fujian group are fundamentally different in terms of how they will die. The first group consists of Chen Xi, Cai Qi, and Wang Xiaohong. These three carry blood debts and life-and-death liabilities that crossed the bottom line of the CCP. The forced replacement of the Politburo list at the closing ceremony of the 20th National Congress and the forcible escorts of Hu Jintao out in public were orchestrated by Chen Xi and Cai Qi. On October 26, 2023, Li Keqiang suddenly died by swimming at the Shanghai Dongjiao Guest House, and the second day of this year's Fifth Plenum happened to coincide with the third anniversary of Li Keqiang's passing, with the aggrieved party and Hu Chunhaos liquidation team waiting to exact retribution. What's even more fatal is that on January 20 this year, an ambush was set in the Central Party School lounge to assassinate Zhang Youxia and Liu Zhenli. The school president, Chen Xi, provided the party school grounds and cover, Wang Xiaohong mobilized private armed forces from Southeast Asia to deliver the fatal blow, and Cai Qi detained people at the center and later forced the Politburo to endorse and cover it up. These incidents, especially the assassination of Zhang Youxia and Liu Zhenli, were unforgivable acts that broke the military's bottom line in the eyes of old military brass like Li Zuocheng. For such life-and-death debts, there is simply no possibility of just a toast and a demotion to a secondary role; the moment the Fifth Plenum showdown happens, these three will be the first batch to pay with their lives and be used as sacrificial banners for Li Keqiang, Zhang Youxia, and Liu Zhenli. What about the second group? That would be He Lifeng, Huang Kunming, and Zheng Shanjie. These three carry economic debts and unfinished projects. He Lifeng and Zheng Shanjie managed the money bags of finance and the NDRC for Old Xi, while Huang Kunming used to handle propaganda and now oversees Guangdong. Although these three made a mess of the economy and have dirty hands, as early as May this year, a precise characterization was leaked from Beijing's top echelons: He Lifeng only has a problem of greed for wealth, and Zheng Shanjie only has a problem of womanizing, which is completely different from the murder charges facing Cai Qi and Wang Xiaohong. Since the charges are different and all the cards in their hands have been confiscated by Wen Jiabao, how could this second group not hurry up and find a way out? Look at Huang Kunming: as early as September 6 this year, when the 2nd International Academic Seminar on Old Xi's Cultural Thought was held in Shenzhen, the Guangdong Provincial Party Secretary, as the host, was conspicuously absent, having already quietly cut ties. Why? Because Guangdong's Organization Department head, Discipline Inspection Commission secretary, and Shenzhen's party secretary and mayor were all replaced with their own people by Hu and Wen, turning Huang Kunming into a commander without an army in Guangdong. Look at He Lifeng and Zheng Shanjie: He Lifeng's henchman, Gansu Executive Vice Governor Cheng Xiaobo, suffered a mental breakdown and surrendered after being interrogated by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection several times, directly implicating He Lifeng. Zheng Shanjie's chief secretary, former NDRC Secretary-General Wu Hao, was also taken down by the CCDI long ago. In other words, at this very moment, all the leverage against He Lifeng and Zheng Shanjie is tightly held by CCDI Deputy Secretary Liu Jianguo. Their votes as members of the Central Committee will expire by the time the Fifth Plenum concludes on October 29. If they don't perform meritorious service to redeem themselves before the plenum vote, once Wen Jiabao and Hu Chunhao initiate the final settlement mode at the plenum, these three money managers will have to be buried alongside the blood cases of Cai Qi and Wang Xiaohong.

As for Zeng Qinghong, why was he also in such a hurry to have He Lifeng pass a message forcing Old Xi to step down? Because Zeng Qinghong knew better than anyone that his muddling-through cards were about to expire. On August 28 of this year, the conservative faction led by Zeng Qinghong manipulated the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress to remove Zhang Youxia and Liu Zhenli from their positions on the Military Commission. Then, on September 21, cooperating with Old Xi, they pinned routine corruption charges on Zhang and Liu at the Political Bureau, expelled them from the Party, and even downgraded the historical resolution of the Fifth Plenary Session into a mere decision. Zeng Qinghong did this not to protect Old Xi's bid for another term, but out of fear that Hu Chunhua, under the pretext of clearing Zhang and Liu's names, would launch a Gang of Four-style massive purge and casually confiscate the trillions in overseas family wealth of the conservative faction. Yet Zeng Qinghong did not expect that by sacrificing Zhang Youxia and Liu Zhenli, he would drive veteran military figures like Li Zuocheng and others entirely over to the side of Hu Jintao and Hu Chunhua. Immediately afterward, on October 13, Wen Jiabao struck down Huang Qifan, the white glove who laundered money for the Jiang family, the Wu Bangguo family, and the Xi family. Zeng Qinghong saw it all clearly: Wen Jiabao was killing a chicken to scare the monkeys, warning the conservatives not to shield Old Xi anymore. If at the Fifth Plenary Session Old Xi still dared to stubbornly refuse to surrender the posts of Military Commission Chairman and General Secretary, or still harbored pipe dreams of playing tricks like having Li Qiang take over as General Secretary and Ding Xuexiang as Premier while he ruled from behind a curtain, Wen Jiabao would drop civilities and turn hostile, and Hu Jintao would immediately order Li Zuocheng, who was holding down the fort at the Military Commission, to launch a kinetic strike, taking down the Old Xi faction and the shield-protecting conservatives alike within an hour. Therefore, the message Zeng Qinghong had He Lifeng convey to Old Xi was actually the final deal jointly handed over by the conservative and economic factions: quickly and voluntarily resign from the posts of Military Commission Chairman and General Secretary on the grounds of illness at next week's Fifth Plenary Session, in exchange for the elders letting you make a soft landing in the Hua Guofeng mold without pursuing accountability for the First Lady. As for the blood debts owed by Li Keqiang, Zhang Youxia, and Liu Zhenli, Chen Xi, Cai Qi, and Wang Xiaohong must be handed over as scapegoats to be sacrificed as the flag-bearers of the new Gang of Four. Only by handing over these three individuals would the conservative faction dare to block Hu Chunhua's comprehensive purge for you at the plenary session. The question then arises: do Chen Xi, Cai Qi, and Wang Xiaohong, remaining in Beijing, have any cards left to counterattack? Would they dare to bite back at Old Xi? The answer is that they do not have a single troop-mobilization card left in their hands. Not only can they not counterattack, but they wouldn't even dare to bite Old Xi; they can only bind themselves tightly to Old Xi with zero confessions. If they dared to open their mouths to the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and bite Old Xi by proving that the bloody incidents at the Dongjiao State Guest House and the Central Party School were directed by Old Xi, then once Old Xi's towering tree falls, the very first people Hu Chunhua's purge team and Li Zuocheng's Vietnam War faction would slice into a thousand pieces would still be the three of them.

Now, after listening to He Lifeng's endless nagging all the way back to Beijing, how on earth will Old Xi handle these two factions? Old Xi has always been a bully to the weak and a coward to the strong, exceptionally fond of his own life. In his heart, he knows better than anyone that the guns are entirely in Hu Jintao's hands, the promotion dossiers of the Organization Department are in Shi Taifeng's hands, and the black dossier files of the Discipline Inspection Commission are in Wen Jiabao and Liu Jingguo's hands. Those two hundred members of the Central Committee are all fence-sitters watching which way the wind blows; who would dare to defy the bayonets of the military and Huang Qifan's fate just to protect Old Xi? The only bargaining chip Old Xi has left in his hand is whether, before the conclusion of the Fifth Plenary Session on October 29, he is willing to sign the document voluntarily resigning from his posts as Military Commission Chairman and General Secretary. If he signs, according to the Party Constitution, it is called a normal adjustment, leaving the Party with a shred of dignity; if he does not sign, Hu Chunhua will immediately throw out the seven major crimes, trigger the plenary session's two-thirds impeachment procedure, and Li Zuocheng's troops will march right in to make arrests, making it impossible to protect even the First Lady. True to his consistent character of burning bridges after crossing them and betraying others, his grim-faced expression in Ulanqab was not because he was agonizing over whether to protect Cai Qi and Wang Xiaohong, but because he finally realized that even Zeng Qinghong's conservative faction and He Lifeng's economic faction had completely jumped ship. Upon returning to Beijing, the only move left for Old Xi is to surrender power at the Fifth Plenary Session, let Hu Chunhua enter the Standing Committee and take over the Military Commission, co-opt Han Shengyan, Yang Zhibin, Wang Gang, and Zhang Shuguang into the Central Military Commission, and at the same time unhesitatingly push forward Chen Xi—who has already been detained—along with Wang Xiaohong and Cai Qi—who have already been sidelined—to take the fall for all the black pots, in exchange for Hu Jintao nodding to spare the First Lady. Speaking of this, there is a passage you simply must hear; it is a masterpiece of irony. On January 12 of this year, Old Xi delivered a harsh warning at the Fifth Plenary Session of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection. On October 15, just the day before he took He Lifeng to Inner Mongolia, the propaganda apparatus controlled by Cai Qi published this passage in Qiushi magazine. In the article, Old Xi gnashed his teeth as he cursed, saying that some people constantly talk about political loyalty and the

Hearing this, some friends might ask: since the Fujian faction has split in two, and Cai Qi and Wang Xiaohong are about to be thrown overboard as scapegoats, doesn't Xi Jinping still have Li Qiang, the number two of the Zhejiang faction, and Ding Xuexiang, who started as a top secretary? If Xi retreats behind the scenes and lets these two chief stewards stand at the front as puppets, couldn't he muddle through next week's Fifth Plenary Session? You might say that is exactly what Xi is planning. According to inside information from Beijing, just this October, Xi used intermediaries to propose his final compromise plan of retreating behind the scenes to conservative elders like Zeng Qinghong. You all remember the Wall Street Journal suddenly leaking news a few days ago that Xi's health was failing during his visit to the U.S. in late September, and he requested the White House to set up a private lounge that even Cai Qi was not allowed to enter? That was actually a trial balloon deliberately released by Xi's team. Xi took the opportunity to set conditions for the elders: since everyone says my health is poor and my energy is failing, I can consider the overall situation at the plenary session and resign as General Secretary of the CCP Central Committee. However, the position of General Secretary must not be handed to Hu Chunhua; it must be given to my number two, current Premier Li Qiang. At the same time, Executive Vice Premier Ding Xuexiang would succeed as Premier of the State Council. As for myself, in order to stabilize the international situation and the military, I would retain the positions of Chairman of the Central Military Commission and President of the State until the 21st National Congress next year. If things went according to his plan, with Li Qiang, who started as a secretary, as General Secretary, and Ding Xuexiang, also a former secretary, as Premier—two "little daughters-in-law" who have never had the courage to independently steer the ship—standing at the front to take the blame, while Xi himself tightly grips the gun of the Military Commission Chairman and the head-of-state title of President, retreating to the Fengzeyuan to rule from behind the curtain, he could survive the storm of these few months. Once the old elders' energy fades, he could turn the tables at any time. His plan was calculated perfectly, but he never expected that neither Li Qiang nor Ding Xuexiang would be willing to take the two big hats of General Secretary and Premier. Not only did they refuse, but they ran faster than rabbits.

First, look at the number two, Li Qiang. On the morning of Saturday, October 17, Li Qiang was still in Beijing, finishing his congratulatory speech at the World Traditional Medicine Conference. He didn't even dare to drink a cup of hot tea before turning around, boarding his special plane, and flying straight to Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan. He then went to Tajikistan for the SCO Prime Ministers' meeting, and then to Moscow to meet Mishustin. He was gone for six full days, not returning to Beijing until October 22. Friends familiar with diplomatic calendars might say, "You are being unfair; the SCO Prime Ministers' meeting and the regular China-Russia Prime Ministers' meeting were fixed diplomatic schedules set for mid-October long ago. How can you say Li Qiang was deliberately slipping away?" This is because everyone is looking at the surface calendar and not seeing the time difference inside Zhongnanhai. The SCO Prime Ministers' meeting and the China-Russia meetings were indeed old business on the calendar, but think about it from the other side: why, when the Politburo set the date for the Fifth Plenary Session on September 21 last month, did Li Qiang and his group insist on not setting the plenary session in mid-October, but specifically choosing October 26, after Li Qiang's six-day visit? More importantly, in previous years, the Premier would always stay in Zhongnanhai to have a final alignment with the top leader before an overseas visit. But this time, just as Xi rushed back to Beijing from Inner Mongolia on Friday night, anxious to discuss the succession and scapegoat plan with Li Qiang, Li Qiang wouldn't even stay in the Fengzeyuan for an extra hour. Early Saturday morning, after reading the speech for the medicine conference, he didn't even look back as he dove into his plane and slipped away.

And what about Ding Xuexiang, who stayed in Beijing? He was even more remarkable, staying behind closed doors all weekend, acting like an ostrich hiding its head in the State Council, not daring to show his face in Xinhua News Agency reports or the Xinwen Lianbo. Why? Is it that Li Qiang doesn't want to be the top leader, or that Ding Xuexiang doesn't want to be the legitimate Premier? Of course not. It is because these two old foxes, who have spent most of their lives climbing the ranks in the officialdom, know better than anyone that taking the hat handed over by Old Xi at this moment is not receiving a crown, but a death warrant—a human shield to take bullets for their master. Everyone is familiar with the history of Hua Guofeng taking over in 1976; that was with Ye Jianying, Li Xiannian, and Wang Dongxing—people who held military power—standing behind him. Today, if you don't have the nod from the gun barrels, trying to take over from Old Xi is purely seeking death. Today, if Li Qiang and Ding Xuexiang open their eyes and look outside the gates of Zhongnanhai, in whose hands are the gun barrels? Look at the former Chief of General Staff Li Zuocheng, who suddenly appeared with a dark face at the National Day reception on September 30 to show his stance, and look at Zhang Shengmin, who is in charge of daily operations in the Central Military Commission, and the newly appointed Air Force commanders in the major theater commands—none of them are Old Xi's people. Even more fatal is the signal of a military showdown that appeared on October 16. That day, the very same day Old Xi hid away in Ulanqab, Inner Mongolia, Qiushi magazine and the China Military Online simultaneously published a high-profile signed long article by the Political Work Department of the Central Military Commission, titled "Forging a World-Class Military with the Spirit of the Long March." In this murderous article, the Military Commission's Political Work Department, controlled by Hu Jintao's Air Force faction, wrote in black and white eight characters: "Reborn from the fire, molting to be born anew" (浴火重生换羽新生). What does "molting to be born anew" (换羽新生) mean? The traditional character for 'Xi' (習) has the character for 'feather' (羽) on top and 'white' (白) on the bottom. In the secret language of the generals across the military today, "molting" (换羽) means replacing that 'feather-headed' Old Xi. Some friends might ask, the term "molting to be born anew" was used by the military newspaper once during the 2017 military reform, so how is it a new signal? The problem lies precisely in the context. In 2017, it was about military reform and changing organizational structures, but this time, the Military Commission's Political Work Department, ten days before the opening of the Fifth Plenary Session, wrote it in an article commemorating the Long March, and what it discussed immediately before and after was the Zunyi Conference. Under the subheading "Forming a Strong and Powerful Leadership Core," the article specifically pointed out that the Zunyi Conference ended the rule of "Left" dogmatic errors in the Central Committee and effectively established the leadership position of Comrade Mao Zedong in the Party Central Committee and the Red Army. When things are said to this extent, what is the difference from directly flipping the table? What did the Zunyi Conference do? It was during the plenary session that it stripped the supreme military command on the spot and replaced the supreme commander of the Party and the Red Army. To the ears of the generals across the military, the Military Commission's Political Work Department openly shouting about the Zunyi Conference and "molting to be born anew" on the eve of the Fifth Plenary Session is essentially slapping their cards directly onto Old Xi's face. The old military heads and the commanders of the major theater commands have only one bottom line for Hu Jintao: no matter how the civilian system colludes during this Fifth Plenary Session, Old Xi must hand over the position of Chairman of the Central Military Commission. Once you see through this military card of "molting," you will understand why Li Qiang chartered a plane to slip out of the country overnight and why Ding Xuexiang refuses to show his face at all costs. Who would dare, at this time, to act as a puppet for a Military Commission Chairman who cannot even enter the gates of a military camp? The bayonets of the entire military would be the first to pierce whoever does.

As we mentioned before, Xi's physical and mental energy are failing, and even his backup successor Li Qiang has run away. On the other hand, eighty-four-year-old veteran of five administrations, Wen Jiabao, was energetic and extremely shrewd this weekend. Did Cai Qi miss Xi's special train to Inner Mongolia because he was resting at home over the weekend? Absolutely not. According to sources from inside the Beijing Red Wall, the moment Xi's special train rolled out of Beijing, Wen Jiabao set up a grueling 48-hour marathon of interviews and interrogations for the remaining Cai Qi inside Zhongnanhai. Back in the day, when Mao Zedong purged Zhou Enlai, he used this exact bloodless method. Early Friday morning, Wen Jiabao invited Cai Qi into a Zhongnanhai meeting room under the guise of the CCP Central Committee's decision-making and consultative bodies grasping major issues and discussing major issues. Officially, it was to check the preparations for the Fifth Plenary Session. Wen Jiabao sat for only ten minutes, slowly reading an opening statement: "Comrade Cai Qi, the Fifth Plenary Session is about to open. Today, please provide a comprehensive explanation to the coordination body regarding four areas of your work: the General Office of the CCP Central Committee, the Central Secretariat, the Central National Security Commission, and the Central Party School, which you took charge of concurrently this June. In particular, you must explain the security deployment records from the day of the sudden incident at the Central Party School seminar on January 20. Each topic will be discussed for a full day, and you will sign the meeting minutes on the spot to confirm them." After reading this, Wen Jiabao stood up and left. Liu Jinguo did not even bother with polite pleasantries; his eyes fixed on Cai Qi, pressing him on a single matter: "Comrade Cai Qi, when I asked you to verify this summer, you insisted that taking measures against Zhang Youxia and Liu Zhenli at the Central Party School on January 20 was a formal decision of the Political Bureau Standing Committee, and that you were merely acting on orders. At the time, you even used state secrets as an excuse to refuse showing documents. Very well, now the Fifth Plenary Session is about to review the report on confirming the disciplinary actions against Zhang and Liu. According to procedures, it must be archived. Please hand over the original formal resolution of the Political Bureau Standing Committee prior to the January 20 operation today, along with the personal signatures of all seven members of the Standing Committee, to be placed into the document file of the Fifth Plenary Session." This single sentence turned Cai Qi's face pale white on the spot. Why? Because on January 20, the day of the assassination attempt against Zhang Youxia and Liu Zhenli at the Central Party School, it was actually Cai Qi, Wang Xiaohong, and Chen Xi who acted first and reported later, committing a dark deed. Only afterward did they temporarily summon several members of the Standing Committee and PRC Vice President Han Zheng to a small meeting room at the Central Party School, forcing a coup to retroactively complete the paperwork. At the time, the five people sitting in the room—Li Qiang, Zhao Leji, Wang Huning, Ding Xuexiang, and Li Xi—were all so frightened that their faces lost all color; none of them dared to express a stance, and not a single one signed the document. Now Zhao Leji is at the National People's Congress and Li Xi is at the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI), busy cross-referencing with Zeng Qinghong and scheming on how to make Cai Qi bear the entire explosive thunder of unauthorized brutal harm against a Vice Chairman of the Central Military Commission without formal procedures. Where on earth would you expect Cai Qi to conjure up an original document with the personal signatures of the seven members of the Standing Committee at this time?

What made Cai Qi even more despairing was that, taking advantage of the weekend while Cai Qi was trapped in the room by Liu Jinguo demanding the original signed document, Meng Xiangfeng and Zhou Hongxu had already locked the roster of delegates, seating charts, and ballot printing rights for the Fifth Plenary Session into the coordination body's safe, replacing all inner and outer guard posts at the Beijing Xiyuan Hotel with Zhou Hongxu's staunch old subordinates. Meanwhile, Public Security Minister Wang Xiaohong was also cornered in the Ministry of Public Security compound by a CCDI inspection team this weekend for round-the-clock talks, monitored closely by new Vice Minister and Beijing Public Security Bureau Chief Qin Yunbiao, completely reducing him to a figurehead commander who could not mobilize a single soldier. According to the strict rules of the Party Constitution, the co-opting of Political Bureau members and Military Commission members requires a majority vote, while disciplinary actions against Central Committee members require a two-thirds majority. The 20th Central Committee originally had 205 members; over the past few years, the number of Central Committee members from the military and localities confirmed to have fallen from grace has exceeded 50, a full quarter. As soon as the plenary session opens, it must first retroactively confirm the expulsion of Party membership from a batch of Xi's cohorts, followed immediately by alternate members of the Central Committee stepping up to take their full positions based on vote counts, claiming their voting devices on the spot. This weekend, Shi Taifeng's Organization Department of the CCP Central Committee and Liu Jinguo's CCDI worked overtime to precisely clean up the queue for replacements. Anyone ranked ahead among alternate members who belonged to Xi's staunchest loyalists—such as former Hefei Party Secretary Fei Gaoyun and former Shenzhen Mayor Qin Weizhong—was precisely sniped by Liu Jinguo recently and kicked out of the replacement queue. Instead, those who moved up by succession and were about to obtain formal ballots at the Beijing Xiyuan Hotel were staunch old subordinates of Hu Chunhua, such as Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region Chairman Bao Gang. By this weekend, Liu Jinguo had neatly packed the personal integrity files of Central Committee members, detailed lists of overseas relatives' assets, and the list of white gloves confessed by Huang Qifan—who was just taken down on October 13—into the archive bags at the Beijing Xiyuan Hotel. Any Central Committee member who failed to see the situation clearly and dared to cast the wrong vote would find their destination to be Huang Qifan's detention room after the meeting adjourned. In Hu Jintao's view, Xi's political credit was already a negative value; if he regained his breath, he would silence you. Therefore, the strategy laid down by Wen Jiabao this time directly used the bayonets of the People's Liberation Army to control the venue, cooperating with ironclad CCDI dossiers to force Xi to completely surrender his posts as Chairman of the Central Military Commission and General Secretary in accordance with Party Constitution procedures. Which of the Central Committee members was not a shrewd person refined in official circles? Raising their heads to look at Xi with his livid face on the podium, then lowering their heads to touch the integrity files in their pockets that had been thoroughly investigated by Liu Jinguo, and glancing through the windows at the live-ammunition garrison guards outside the courtyard, would there be even a shred of a notion left in their minds to be buried along with Xi?

What frightened the Xi faction even more was the timetable for seizing power at the Fifth Plenary Session, pre-arranged by Wen Jiabao through the CCP Central Committee office. According to the latest inside information leaked from behind the Great Firewall, at the Political Bureau meeting on September 21, for the official document prepared in advance—the decision on several major issues regarding the persistent promotion of comprehensive and strict governance of the Party—Wen Jiabao allocated only a half-day formality session on the morning of October 26 on the four-day agenda. The remaining three and a half days were entirely dedicated to closed-door Party rectification, the rebuilding of the Central Military Commission, and a supreme personnel showdown, all presided over by the decision-making and coordination organs of the CCP Central Committee. According to the rules, Party elders of these coordination organs such as Wen Jiabao, Li Ruihuan, Zeng Qinghong, Wang Yang, and Liu Yuan would attend the Fifth Plenary Session throughout. Although the elders did not have voting rights, during the closed-door plenary sessions and the nightly group discussions, Wen Jiabao possessed the absolute authority to speak at any time, guide the agenda, and demand that every Political Bureau member pass muster and make self-criticism. After transitioning to the Party rectification agenda on the afternoon of the 26th, upon the tearful persuasion of his wife at home and the message from Zeng Qinghong brought back by He Lifeng on the special train, old Xi voluntarily offered to resign from his posts of Chairman of the Central Military Commission and General Secretary of the CCP Central Committee to the plenary session, citing that the sequelae of his stroke made him unable to bear high-intensity work. Immediately following this, with a majority vote of the plenary session, Hu Chunhua, nominated by Hu Jintao, was co-opted into the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau and took charge of the Military Commission, while four full generals were simultaneously co-opted into the Central Military Commission. If old Xi was willing to sign voluntarily, the elders would leave him half a shred of face, allowing him to keep his wife, while only sacrificing and making scapegoats of Chen Xi, Cai Qi, Wang Xiaohong, and a few other Fujian gang cronies who did the dirty work. If old Xi still refused to see the coffin before shedding tears upon arriving at the Jingxi Hotel and rejected voluntary resignation, then Hu Chunhua, head of the provisional liquidation group for the old Xi clique, would immediately stand up, unite Central Committee members like Shi Taifeng, Chen Xiaojiang, and Zhang Shengmin, and launch an impeachment motion to the plenary session on the spot. The list of the seven major crimes of old Xi's 14-year rule, which Hu Chunhua's liquidation group had just packed into document bags this weekend, would be read aloud word for word inside the grand auditorium of the Jingxi Hotel. At the same time, Liu Jingo would slam the irrefutable evidence of violations of discipline and law by Chen Xi, Cai Qi, Wang Xiaohong, He Lifeng, and Huang Kunming directly onto the plenary table. Once anyone in the venue dared to make trouble or disobey orders, with a single order from Li Zuocheng at the Military Commission, the troops of Zhou Hongxu and Zhu Chuansheng were guaranteed to complete combat operations within an hour, directly taking down the old Xi clique on the spot in the manner of crushing the Gang of Four.

To completely cut off old Xi's last shred of fantasy about dragging things out to muddle through the four-day session, Wen Jiabao had already laid down a final hard rule to Zhou Hongxu's conference service group this weekend: the Fifth Plenary Session would establish overtime, and there must be white-and-black written voting results that complied with the procedures of the Party Constitution. If by the afternoon of October 29 the resolutions on supreme personnel adjustments and the reorganization of the Military Commission had not yet been voted on, the plenary session would not be allowed to adjourn. With only seven days left until the opening of the Fifth Plenary Session on October 26, the sound of arguments in Zhongnanhai's Fengzeyuan still echoed, the new locks of the CCP Central Committee office had been bolted shut, and the lights of the Xishan command post burned brightly all night. In these final seven days, will there still be earth-shaking, sudden changes? Let us wait and see. Thank you all for watching. Don't forget to click the pinned link below the video to check out Jiangfeng Vision's black ointment and cold compress eye patches. Welcome to like, subscribe, and share with more friends. This is Jiangfeng Vision, and we will see you tomorrow.