At the end of the meeting, those who favored war were told to stand up. Among those who stood were Liu Xiang, military commander of Sichuan province in the west of China, which would within months become the center of China’s resistance. Liu had offered troops from his native province, declaring that over 5 million of them could be conscripted within two years. Also standing was Yan Xishan, another bitter military rival of Chiang, but one who now accepted his arguments that the war must come. And then there was Wang Jingwei, the man who had for so long tried to keep China out of a conflict
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