Does " by maintaining the fiction of his recovery" mean "by lying about his non-existent recovery"?

Context:
Whatever his shortcomings he had therefore died as a patriot
and his people had foiled the Japanese plot to seize control by
maintaining the fiction of his recovery. I was already back in
Peking when some weeks later his death was announced. The
Young Marshal told me also how the Japanese had sent Baron
Hayashi on a mission of condolence after which he secretly
presented the same document and asked for Chang's signature.
Chang Hsueh-liang described how he shut his eyes on refusing,
expecting to be shot. These details throw light on the "Mukden
Incident" three years later a similarly faked railway accident,
and the barefaced rape of Manchuria.