Black Flag Army

Di Xiong said, "Only those who have endured the most hardships can become the best. When you finish the three-month recruit training, you can enjoy life. When the time comes, you can ask for leave and go back. I will personally cook a meal to welcome you. When our army grows in the future, I hope you can become the commander. Chen Xianglian is also waiting for you to come back. Don't let us down."

After Wu Chunlei left, Di Xiong said to Wu Chunfeng, "You should have heard what Captain Feng said during dinner just now. There are many broken machines in the arsenal of the Ordnance Bureau. Some of these machines should be repairable, but they are public property, so no one will feel bad if they break down. Your main task now is to find a way to get in touch with the people in charge of the arsenal, buy these machines at the price of scrap metal, and then find a repairman to repair them. Then our company can produce guns and ammunition."

Wu Chunfeng was smart and good at gathering intelligence, so Di Xiong promoted him to the position of manager of the intelligence department. Wu Chunfeng said, "Manager Wang of the Arsenal is related to the new security guard Li Fei. I can ask him to take care of it. It should be no problem."

Early in the morning, Di Xiong put on a tight suit and went jogging. He ran from Xihe Street to the textile factory in Nankou Town. It was just working time and workers were entering the gate one after another. The Weili Company building was also located in the textile factory compound. Di Xiong opened the bag he was carrying, took out his suit and put it on, then walked into the gate.

The guard at the gate saluted him and said, "Good morning, Chairman! Manager Leng, Captain Hong, and the two factory managers are waiting for you in the conference room!"

The conference room was very clean, and the yellow lacquer tabletop was polished to a shiny finish, but the smell of cigarettes was choking. In fact, only Leng Hanbing smoked, one cigarette after another, very aggressively. Although Hu Lin and Li Jingfa were very dissatisfied, they did not ask him to put out his cigarette butt. They all knew that Leng Hanbing was one of Di Xiong's four important confidants, and his identity in the company was a director and supervisor, so they did not dare to offend him. Moreover, Leng Hanbing always had a gloomy face, as if everyone owed him money.

After Di Xiong wiped his sweat with a towel, he walked into the meeting room and smelled cigarettes. He immediately ordered Hong Tianlie to open the window for fresh air and told Leng Hanbing to put out the cigarette. Leng Hanbing put out the cigarette without saying a word.

Di Xiong said to Hu Lin: "My time is very tight, please speak quickly if you have anything to say!"

The factory manager, Hu Lin, was in his thirties, with a fair complexion and glasses. He said, "Last month, the textile factory had very good sales. After deducting various expenses and workers' wages, we made a net profit of more than 2,000 silver dollars. But this month, I'm afraid we won't make that much money. The price of fabrics in the market has plummeted. If this price continues, we may even lose money."

Di Xiong asked, "Have you checked the reason?"

Hu Lin said, "I checked. Recently, the East Asia Textile Factory in Yanshan Town of our county has put a large amount of cheap cloth on the market. All the cloth stores in Beijing are fully stocked, causing the price to plummet. The East Asia Textile Factory is run by Japanese Ichiro Yokota. It has more than 3,000 machines and nearly 4,000 workers, nearly ten times more than us. Yokota is selling at a low price and deliberately wants to squeeze us out. He has used this method to squeeze out other textile factories in the past. After those factories went bankrupt, they bought the factory buildings and machines at a low price, and then raised the market price of cloth, making a lot of money."

Hong Tianlie shouted, "The Japanese dare to mess with our company. I will take a few brothers to kill Yokota tonight and burn down the warehouse of the East Asia Factory. Let's see how low the price can be sold."

Di Xiong saw that the two factory managers were looking at Hong Tianlie in surprise. The Japanese were rampant in Beijing. The Beiyang government and the underworld were very afraid of them. No one dared to kill the Japanese except the disciples of Jingwu Sect. He smiled and said to them, "Hong Tianlie was just talking in anger. He would talk nonsense when he was anxious. You don't have to take it seriously. Just keep talking."

Deputy Factory Director Li Jingfa said: "I have investigated and found that during the First Month Mutiny, the group of soldiers who looted the textile factory were actually the Ghost Shadow Gang in disguise, and the Ghost Shadow Gang's boss behind the scenes was none other than Ichiro Yokota. Although our textile factory is small and has few employees, and the price of our goods is no lower than others, the people of Beijing are willing to buy our goods because our goods are made in China and theirs are made in Japan, which creates competitive pressure on the East Asia Textile Factory. In addition, the workers at the East Asia Factory have low salaries and heavy workloads, and Japanese supervisors often beat and abuse female workers at will. On our side, we have high salaries and less pressure, and we never beat or abuse female workers. Just as we resumed production last month, a group of skilled female workers from the East Asia Factory, including Gu Damei and Lu Cai Niang, jumped to work in our factory. This is one of the reasons why Ichiro Yokota wants to deal with us."

Di Xiong said, "I know about this matter. I will find a way to solve it. You can go back to the factory to take care of production."

After the two factory managers left, Di Xiong scolded Hong Tianlie severely, and then said: "They are the senior management talents I invited. They are the factory manager and deputy factory manager of Weili Company, but they are not from Xihe Association. If you say something nonsense, they will think we are a group of murderers and arsonists, which will scare them away."

Hong Tianlei was unconvinced and said, "According to what the boss said, are we just going to let others slaughter us like this?"

At this time, Tian Mengxue and Wu Chunfeng opened the door and walked in, finding a place to sit down.

Di Xiong said, "Of course not. Yokota's warehouse still needs to be burned, but the Japanese have hundreds of troops stationed in Dongjiaomin Lane. The Beiyang government has always been afraid of them, so we can't confront them head-on. We can only burn it in the name of the Qinglong Society. Yesterday, the "Minfeng Newspaper" said that Li Lianying, the former eunuch chief of the Qing Dynasty, died of illness. This guy served as the chief eunuch for decades and received many bribes from ministers such as Zeng Guofan, Li Hongzhang, and Yuan Shikai. After his death, he left a large sum of money and property, which fell into the hands of his godson Zhang Ade. It is said that it is worth millions of taels of silver. Although it was extorted a lot by the police and military police, there should be a lot left. We lack funds to open the ironware factory, so let's take this ill-gotten wealth."

Tian Mengxue reminded, "Zhang Ade is a backbone of the Royalist Party and a financial sponsor of the Qinglong Society. His mansion is heavily guarded and he always brings at least four bodyguards with him when he goes out. When Li Lianying was still seriously ill, several of his godsons fought over his property. Some of them died violently on the streets, and some disappeared mysteriously. Zhang Ade was able to become the final winner in this battle. He is definitely not a simple person."

Di Xiong asked Wu Chunfeng: "Didn't you buy off informants in the five major gangs? What are the characteristics of the Ghost Shadow Gang's actions?"

Wu Chunfeng said: "They acted at night, wore black scarves and masks, and their weapons were Japanese swords. The leader had a pistol."

Di Xiong said: "We will attack Zhang Ade's house under the identity of the Ghost Shadow Gang and buy a few more Japanese swords to bring with us. The Qinglong Society has suffered a loss, so of course they want revenge. Then we will burn down Yokota's warehouse under the identity of the Qinglong Society. In this way, Yokota and the Ghost Shadow Gang will believe that it was the Qinglong Society who did it, and they will only seek revenge on the Qinglong Society."

Tian Mengxue reminded again: "Zhang Ade has a master around him, known as the Yanshan Double Quick Gun. The Flying Knife Party sent someone to assassinate him last time, but failed. All three assassins died. Zhang's mansion has been attacked by gangs and bandits many times before, but all failed."

Di Xiong said, "I know. I will ask the Intelligence Department to conduct a detailed investigation and then formulate a detailed action plan. When we take action, I will lead the team myself. The Qinglong Gang has already asked for protection money from our hotel last time. Sooner or later, they will cause trouble for us. It is better to provoke a conflict between the Ghost Shadow Gang and them first and weaken their power."

Hong Tianlie said happily: "With the boss taking action personally, success will come immediately."

Di Xiong did not realize that due to the success of a series of actions such as eradicating the Flying Eagle Gang and killing the Beiyang soldiers, he had begun to underestimate the enemy, and this time the opponent was much stronger than the previous ones.

Wu Chunfeng said, "According to the boss's instructions, I have bought several broken machines from Manager Wang, including broaching machines, boring machines and milling machines. I only spent more than 500 yuan, which also included the red envelopes I gave him. I also hired several gunsmiths and repairmen from the arsenal at high salaries to repair the machines at the ironware factory, but the machines are not matched. For example, for rifles, there are those that produce barrels and stocks, but not those that produce gun bodies. The machines that are not available have to be imported from foreign companies, and the cheapest imported machines cost more than 10,000 yuan. This is because Martin, the manager of the German company, did this for his friend Sean. Sean often treated Martin to drinks, but in fact, it was all our intelligence team's money that was spent."

Di Xiong said, "It seems that we have to start with Zhang Ade. Our ironware factory only makes farm tools and knives on the surface, but in fact we are going to make guns and ammunition. In the future, we will use them for our own use and sell the surplus. The arms business is one of the four most profitable industries! But without a lot of money, there is no way to import machines."

Hong Tianlie asked: "What about Yokota Ichiro? Should he be killed?"

Di Xiong said: "We can't kill Yokota for now. If we kill him, the Beiyang government will definitely investigate thoroughly under the pressure of the Japanese, and we will all die if we are found out. Because our current strength is too weak, we can't even defeat any of the five major gangs in Beijing, let alone the Japanese. When we are strong enough, we can kill as many Japanese as we want."

Bai Xiuling woke up from her sleep and found no one beside her pillow. She saw that the light in the study was still on, so she knew that Di Xiong had not slept yet. She put on a coat and went over, and saw Di Xiong drawing a map of China.

Bai Xiuling asked curiously, "Don't bookstores sell maps? Why do you have to draw your own?"

Di Xiong said: "Because the maps in the bookstore are not accurate, especially the Outer Mongolia area is more vague, not as good as the British and Japanese maps, but foreign maps are all in foreign languages, so I had to buy several maps, learn from their strengths and make up for their weaknesses, and draw one myself."

Bai Xiuling said, "There is a question I have wanted to ask for a long time. You are now a boss with a monthly income of thousands of dollars, why are you still frugal? You never go to high-end places, and you always buy bargains. The most expensive coat you have is only ten dollars, and I bought it for you. You may say you are stingy, but you are very generous to your subordinates. Whether it is the employees of the textile factory or the restaurant, their income is higher than that of their peers. Other bosses with the same income as you spend hundreds of dollars every month just on food, drink, whoring and gambling. Why do you have to make yourself suffer like this?"

Di Xiong laughed and said, "You mean, I should go to brothels, casinos and opium dens frequently like Li Jincai and Li Jinfa?"

Bai Xiuling smiled and said, "With a beauty like me serving you, you shouldn't go to brothels. They are too dirty and it will be troublesome if you get sick. But you should still go to other high-end places. You should know that many bosses make deals there. If rich people don't seek pleasure, what's the point of living?"