Why Does Wen Fu Have So Much Power Over Everyone?

In the tragic events that led to Yiku's death the reader see's a desperate Winnie beg for Wen Fu to bring her to the hospital but he refuses in front of all of his drinking and gambling buddies. Winnie remarks how his buddies seemed to want to help her but Wen Fu dismissed them in anger. Why would his buddies not stand up to Wen Fu if they thought a child was going to die? I think the center of this lies in the fact that some how Wen Fu has wormed his way to leader of his group. When we first see Wen Fu interact with other pilots he is the life of the party yelling loudly and everyone looked up to him in awe. I think the reader can discover why he came to this position through his relationship with Winnie. Even if it part of chinese culture Wen Fu is commanding and wants to have absolute control over Winnie. Through mind games like the cabbage incident and openly cheating on her he has asserted his dominance over Winnie and has almost broken her. Now if you take this philosophy to his buddies you can see why he came to be in power. He needs to be in control and he does not just do this through kindness to his buddies but also fear. When playing cards earlier in the book he openly rips into a young pilot and then just acts like nothing happen. While all the men might laugh it off the men will remember that instance when they talk to Wen Fu. Also, the men might actually believe he was a war hero while the reader knows that Wen Fu got his scar from a car crash. People might actually think he was actually fighting the Japanese and was injured for the sake of China.