Chapter 725: Public Opinion War
At this time, the anti-aircraft artillery on the ground nervously turned the muzzle, but they did not dare to fire first, as if they were afraid of annoying the other party and being bombed themselves. The Kunpeng 3 bomber flew low over the city, but instead of dropping bombs, it dropped large bundles of paper. With the help of the wind, those pieces of paper were scattered all over the city.
Lieutenant Colonel Onx looked at the bomber that had flown away suspiciously, not knowing what they were here for, a piece of paper flew in front of Lieutenant Colonel Onks, and he subconsciously reached out to catch it. Lieutenant Colonel Onks, who looked questioning, lowered his head and looked at the piece of paper in his hand, and his face immediately changed.
"Let's go back to the Marshal's Mansion at once, immediately." Lieutenant Colonel Onx shouted and rushed into the car, and the driver hurried back to his position, and the car quickly started and headed towards the marshal's mansion as fast as it could.
"Mr. Marshal, Mr. Marshal, something is wrong." Lieutenant Colonel Onx walked into the marshal's mansion and ran towards Pershing's bedroom, shouting as he ran.
"Don't make a lot of noise, look like a little officer." Pershing reprimanded his adjutant, and he was also puzzled as to why the usually steady adjutant had a panicked expression.
"Mr. Marshal, something is wrong." Lieutenant Colonel Onks, already pale, gasped and handed the piece of paper to Marshal Pershing with a trembling hand.
Taking the piece of paper and looking at it, Marshal Pershing saw that it was a leaflet. The leaflet was beautifully printed and accompanied by a color picture, and Marshal Pershing glanced at it casually, and his eyes finally fell on the caption of the leaflet, 'Abandon the wounded and sick of his country, Pershing's ruthlessness'.
Seeing this title, Marshal Pershing's face could not help but change, and he looked down more carefully, and found that it was a description of what he had described in abandoning the wounded and sick of his own army and letting them die in the abandoned barracks. The article was very inflammatory, pointing the finger directly at him, and the article did everything possible to provoke, portraying Pershing as a ruthless general who did not care about the life and death of his soldiers, and the leaflets also slandered him for accumulating money, preserving his strength, trying to control the entire Boston Empire, and other crimes, so that Pershing felt that he was heinous.
"Where did this thing come from?" Pershing frowned, he found that the leaflet was more destructive than a bomb, so he had to collect it all and destroy it immediately, otherwise the morale of the army would be greatly affected.
"It was dropped by enemy planes and scattered all over the city, should we send someone to collect it immediately, and it is strictly forbidden to spread such news." Lieutenant Colonel Onx proposed.
Marshal Pershing shook his head and said, "It's useless, they must have dropped leaflets in many cities, and we can't ban them if we want to." I can't imagine that they are so ruthless, they don't accept these wounded and sick at all, and would rather wait for two months, let them die and then take over the territory, and by the way, they will yin us once. Now it is useless to explain and ban, we must confuse the public and immediately spread the propaganda in the army that they killed the prisoners. ”
Lieutenant Colonel Onx said: "But there are photos of their process and entering the barracks on the leaflets, which were taken by reporters, and looking at their thick winter clothes and the withered yellow grass and trees around them, it should be a recent thing." ”
Marshal Pershing said: "Won't you say that they are fake photos? Now, no matter how implausible it is, as long as you make up a reason and bite them to torture and kill the prisoners, you can stabilize the morale of the army. We don't need people to believe us, we just need to make everyone wonder. ”
Lieutenant Colonel Onx suddenly realized when he heard this, and he nodded and said, "I'll pass on the order immediately." ”
The leaflets dropped by the Chinese Air Force caused an uproar in the major cities of the Boston Empire, and they never imagined that the soldiers who fought hard for the country would be cruelly abandoned by the army after being injured or sick, and finally die in their own camps. Soon there were calls for Marshal Pershing to step down all over the country, and even many newspapers began to report on the incident, and some even attached leaflets sent by the Chinese Air Force to the newspapers.
Soon the military gave an explanation, claiming that this was a reactionary propaganda of the Chinese Empire, a deliberate attempt to sow discord, and that the soldiers had been tortured to death by the Chinese Empire after being captured. Originally, because of the public outrage over this matter, some people who supported Marshal Pershing did not dare to come out to defend him, but when the official explanation was issued, these people seemed to have found a theoretical basis, and they began to scold the shamelessness of the Chinese Empire in the newspapers, accusing them of smearing Marshal Pershing.
Despite official explanations, many remained sober and looked to the leaflets' photographs to claim that there was ample evidence that Marshal Pershing had abandoned the soldiers, not because they had been captured. Proponents immediately used the photograph as a forgery as an excuse to argue that it was a conspiracy of the Chinese empire and could not be used as a government at all.
Opponents asked how the photos were faked, but those supporters were not clear at all. Although the war of public opinion in the newspapers plunged the people of the Boston Empire into chaos, fortunately, the official explanation was given, which made everyone wonder, so that there was no sign of collapse of the domestic army.
When Pershing was finally relieved that the matter was resolved, the Chinese Air Force sent out new leaflets. The leaflets contained the confessions of several captured Boston soldiers, revealing the timing of their retreat and the abandonment of the sick and wounded. The Chinese army presented detailed evidence that the attack had been delayed due to the lack of troops due to the stabilization of the rear, and that they had begun the attack two months after Pershing's troops had withdrawn, and by this time the abandoned wounded and sick had long since died.
At the end of the leaflet, it was written, even if Marshal Pershing thinks that these people can be better treated, why should you abandon your former comrades, let alone without the other party's knowledge. In addition to the new leaflets, the Chinese Army opened its own radio station in the Boston Empire. Now the radio has long been widely used all over the world, and there is radio propaganda for propaganda, and there is no fear of misleading the people by the top brass of the Boston Empire.
Doubts about Marshal Pershing reappeared, and this time Marshal supporters were completely refuted, and the words on the leaflet were absolutely to the point, completely blocking any possibility of Marshal Pershing's justification. Such a thing as abandoning one's own wounded and sick is not allowed, no matter what the considerations, it is too hurtful to the feelings of the people.