Long Yun
Long Yun (née Naji Niaoti) is the former governor and warlord of the Chinese province of Yunnan from 1927 until the end of the Second Sino-Japanese War.
Early Life
Long Yun was born on November 27th, 1884 to a noble Yi family in Yunnan province. With the arrival of the Xinhai Revolution in 1911, Long Yun joined Tang Jiyao's Yunnan Army and made a name for himself, rising through the ranks to become corps commander. In 1927, however, he and Hu Ruoyu would coup Tang after the warlord attempted to overthrow the leadership of the Kuomintang and claim the leadership of the organization.
Long Yun nurtured Yunnan very carefully, improving the mines and the means of extracting the tin, tungsten, and copper contained within; building roads and highways through the mountains; introducing paper money and democratic government, and above all else, prioritizing a stable Yunnanese state.
Second Sino-Japanese War
During the Second Sino-Japanese War, Yunnan's stability served as a boon to the Kuomintang, which relocated a number of its institutions there during the conflict, introducing not only wartime industry, but also civilian infrastructure and extra-provincial cashflow and intellectuals. Long Yun served as commander-in-chief of the First Army Group during the war, retreating to Yunnan only after it became clear that the war was lost.
However, due to the mountainous terrain of Yunnan, it quickly became clear to the exhausted Japanese armies that to pacify all resistance in the region would be a fiscal as well as military drain, and so in exchange for stepping down from his position as governor of Yunnan, Long Yun's homeland would be allowed to persist.
Post-War and In-Game
After Long Yun was ousted from Yunnan and replaced by his cousin, Lu Han, he would continue to visit and advise his cadre, though Yun mostly took a backseat role in the affairs of Yunnan. Long Yun would slowly become more and more radical in his hatred of not only the Japanese, but also the collaborator-state of the Republic of China set up in its place.
As Lu Han modernized Yunnan following somewhat in the footsteps of his cousin, he began to sell out more to the Japanese, something forces under the National Protection Army faction acting inside of Yunnan despised-- however, because of their lack of an organized leader to rally around, the NPA more or less lost hope for their struggle to ever be heard.
Fortunately for the NPA, Long Yun would also begin to despite his successor's decision-making and would accept leadership of the NPA. One of his first actions would be, while his brother took a vacation, to seize power in Yunnan with the intent of restoring a free China; proceeding to launch an insurrection to overthrow the collaborationist Republic of China and free the country from Japanese dominance.
If Long successfully defeats the Republic of China, he will die shortly afterwards; if the NPA had high legitimacy, his lieutenants will then invite Sun Fo back home to serve as the Republic of China's new President.
Trivia
- Prior to the Toolbox Theory update, Long Yun was far more extremist and militaristic, being depicted as a complete madman, with some regarding him as a foil to Dmitry Yazov, or even that Yun was even more extreme. Additional old lore included Yun's NPA featuring "Last Chance Divisions" made up of captured foreigners forced to fight for the NPA with meager weaponry, a Devastation meter that would increase the longer the NPA took to overthrow China (which after reaching a certain point would result in Long Yun being couped by his lieutenants) and even having him described with Christian imagery.
- In real life, Long Yun died in the year 1962-- however, he will live until the NPA loses all of its momentum in TNO, meaning that through clever exploitation of the Great Asian War's mechanics, one could extend his life forever. This has spawned many jokes in the community calling Long Yun "too angry to die".