Black Flag Army

After Yuan Baimao left, Di Xiong was about to return to the office when Bian Zhimei suddenly walked into the living room, knelt down, and said to Di Xiong in tears: "Boss! Why didn't you agree to Director Yuan's request just now? I'm not worth 50,000 yuan at all!"

Di Xiong laughed and said, "That bastard Yuan Baimao was just talking nonsense, why did you take it seriously?"

Bian Zhimei said with a painful expression: "But you did give him a check for 100,000 yuan just now, which is 50,000 yuan more! How can I pay back this 50,000 yuan!"

Di Xiong laughed and said, "Who said I asked you to pay back the money? Let me tell you the truth! He can't get the money at all. My money is all in the Bank of Communications. Although I also have an account in HSBC, there is only one dollar on the account. The bad check was just a joke on him."

Li Fei and others breathed a sigh of relief when they heard this.

Bian Zhimei said, "What if he can't get the money and comes to you to settle the account?"

Di Xiong said: "It's impossible. He can't go back to Changping County. On the way back, he will meet a group of bandits under the command of One-Eyed Dragon and unfortunately die in the line of duty."

Bian Zhimei asked innocently, "How did you know he would run into bandits? Can you tell fortunes?"

Li Fei and the others all laughed, and Di Xiong also laughed and said, "You're right, I used to be a fortune teller."

Back in the office, Di Xiong took out a map of Changping County and drew a circle at a place called Tudi Temple east of Huangcaoling in Nankou Town. He said to Li Fei, "We'll send Yuan Baimao off here!"

Li Fei said: "I only need to bring ten brothers from the Death Squad to eliminate the twenty-one riders!"

Di Xiong shook his head and said, "The brothers of the Sharp Knife Society's Suicide Squad are more suitable for street fighting! Let the security team handle this kind of ambush! Besides, they all ride fast horses, it's too late for you to chase them now."

Leng Hanbing walked in and said, "I'll take some men on horseback and take a shortcut to catch up and start fighting!"

Di Xiong said, "Zhang Ade and the 'Yanjing Double Quick Guns' both died at your hands. You have done enough for the Justice Party. This time, let's give the opportunity to Captain Liu Zhendong! He is organizing a confrontation exercise between the security team and the patrol battalion at Huangcaoling, which is closest to the land temple. All he needs to do is make a phone call."

Li Fei said: "Although Yuan Baimao is a piece of shit, he is the chief of the police station. Killing him may cause big trouble."

Di Xiong said to Li Fei, "I have always used bribery as the main method for dealing with people in the white sect, but Yuan Baimao has gone too far this time, so I have no choice but to kill him!"

Since Leng Hanbing became the patrol battalion commander and Hong Tianlie became the president of the Sharp Knife Society, the positions of the captain and deputy captain of the security team have been vacant. Di Xiong set a question and asked the five squadron leaders to compete for the captain and deputy captain. After three tests in gunmanship, martial arts, and culture, the top two were selected. Everyone thought that Liu Zhendong and Ma Tiehan had the greatest chance of being elected. As a result, Liu Zhendong was elected and won the first place in all three competitions, and Ma Tiehan ranked second. Di Xiong was very surprised by Liu Zhendong's skills. He stepped forward to compete with Liu Zhendong in martial arts, but was knocked to the ground by Liu Zhendong in only seven rounds. This was the first time that Di Xiong was defeated in public. Everyone was very surprised and thought he would be angry, but Di Xiong was not angry. Instead, he appointed Liu Zhendong as the captain of the security team and the chief martial arts coach. After the news came out, many Jingwumen disciples came to join the Weili Company Security Team and the Nankou Town Patrol Battalion.

Liu Zhendong used to be nicknamed "Lightning Fox". He was also a disciple of Jingwumen, and he was one of the ten disciples taught by the founder of Jingwumen, Huo Yuanjia, ranking seventh. Therefore, his martial arts skills were much higher than those of ordinary disciples, Ma Tiehan. Two years ago, Huo Yuanjia was poisoned to death by Japanese doctor Akino Jiro in Tianjin. In order to avenge his master, he practiced his marksmanship hard, and finally seized the opportunity to shoot and assassinate Doctor Akino Jiro. The Japanese Concession police in Tianjin offered a reward of 1,000 silver dollars to capture him. He fled to Beijing, but was reported by his friends and was arrested and thrown into the prison of the East City Police Station. The director was going to hand him over to the Japanese in exchange for a reward of 1,000 silver dollars. Di Xiong learned about this from Ma Tiehan, took out 1,500 silver dollars to arrange for Liu Zhendong to be rescued.

Since Liu Zhendong shot and killed Akino Jiro with a rifle from 500 meters away, reporters hyped the incident up after it was reported in the newspapers. Some gossipy reporters called him the "Northern Gun King" because he was from Qingyang, Gansu, which was called Beidi County during the Qin and Han dynasties.

Di Xiong made the call and calmly said to Leng Hanbing, "We have a spy among us, otherwise Yuan Baimao would not have known about the underground military factory. It is the job of your Supervision Department to investigate the spy. You can't focus all your energy on the patrol camp. The spy must be found as soon as possible. A big tree can withstand the blows of rain, snow, ice and frost, but if there are borers inside, it will definitely be doomed."

Leng Hanbing said: "I will check it out now! I will give you a list of suspicious persons tomorrow."

Di Xiong called the iron factory director Guo Zhiming over and said, "The iron factory's production of munitions has been exposed. The machines for making rifles and bullets must be moved as soon as possible, tomorrow. Ask all the workers in the factory to work hard and work the night shift tonight to clean up the mess."

Guo Zhiming said: "Fortunately, the British asked for too much. The negotiation for purchasing the machines for making cannons and machine guns broke down. Otherwise, we would not be able to move all the machines tomorrow. Now there are only five machines, so it will be much faster to move them. But where should we move them to?"

Di Xiong opened the map and looked at it. He said, "I wanted to move to Zhangjiakou, but now it seems too close. Let's go to Baotou. The mountains there are high and the emperor is far away. With a batch of guns, you can dominate the area without having to worry about the government and foreigners. Besides, you are unfamiliar with the place, and you can't do it alone. I will find two people to cooperate with you. Li Laoshi from the Intelligence Department will be the chief of the Baotou Intelligence Station and be responsible for intelligence work. My guard Wang Shitou will be the captain of the ironware factory security team and be responsible for armed work."

Among the four informants that Di Xiong personally taught when he was a detective, Li Laoshi was the oldest and most experienced. When Wang Shitou was Di Xiong's guard, Di Xiong used the methods he used to train armed police in his previous life to train him and Zhang Kuwa. He was obviously smarter than Zhang Kuwa.

There are no houses around the dilapidated land temple, it is a desolate and secluded place.

"Bang!" A gunshot rang out, and Inspector Hong, who pretended to be dead, was shot again. The number of bodies on the roadside increased to 21, and no one escaped. Yuan Baimao's body was hit by at least ten bullets. Ma Tiehan searched his bloody body and found the check, lit a match and burned it. Liu Zhendong chewed cooked soybeans and used a rag to dip in blood to write a line of big words on a stone on the roadside: "The hero One-eyed Dragon of Miaofeng Mountain in Hebei killed the corrupt official Yuan Baimao here!"

Liu Zhendong is in his early thirties, with thick eyebrows, big eyes, and a strong build.

Ma Tiehan looked at the handwriting and shook his head, saying, "One-eyed dragon has done so many evil things, can he be considered a hero? He's more like a bear!"

Liu Zhendong said: "Only by writing it this way will others believe that it was done by the one-eyed dragon. If you were the one-eyed dragon, would you say you were a bear?"

Ma Tiehan shook his head, and Liu Zhendong laughed and said, "In order to put the blame on the one-eyed dragon head, we have to call him a hero for once."

Ma Tiehan said, "Seventh Senior Brother is the one with the best ideas. No wonder you can be the captain and I can only be your deputy."

Liu Zhendong threw a few more soybeans into his mouth and asked, "Are we injured or killed?"

Ma Tiehan said: "Only one brother was slightly injured. He fell from the top of the mountain. This was a surprise attack and they had no time to react."

Liu Zhendong ordered: "Take the captured horses, guns and bullets and return to Nankou Town immediately."

The next day was a cloudy day with a gray sky, which made people feel depressed.

Bai Xiuling walked into Di Xiong's office with a newspaper and said, "Brother! There is a war in Mongolia. Living Buddha Jebtsundamba announced the end of negotiations and tore up the agreement. The Outer Mongolian rebels captured Kulun. The Beiyang Army garrison was defeated in Bailing Temple and was driven out of Outer Mongolia. The rebels continued to move south and divided into three groups, attacking Suiyuan, Rehe and Chahar provinces."

Di Xiong raised his eyebrows, took the newspaper and started reading. After reading it, he put the newspaper down and said seriously: "From now on, our Justice Party has one more goal: to recapture Outer Mongolia! The Outer Mongolian Independence Army now has six reorganized brigades, more than a dozen security regiments, a total of more than 20,000 troops, equipped with a large number of new Russian weapons, and a large number of Russian advisers and instructors. The Beiyang Army only has one regiment in Kulun, and failure is inevitable. The hateful Yuan Shikai, who has hundreds of thousands of troops, declared that he would take back Mongolia through peace talks. Isn't this just a dream?"

Bai Xiuling asked: "Why should the Russians help the Mongols gain independence?"

Di Xiong said: "Of course the Russians would not give them weapons and instructors for nothing. In order to please the Russians, Living Buddha Jebtsundamba ceded 500,000 square kilometers of Mongolian land, including Maimaicheng (Kyaqtu) and Tannu Uriankhai, to Russia. Maimaicheng is the largest commercial city in Mongolia, and Tannu Uriankhai has rich gold and silver mines."

Bai Xiuling said: "It seems that this Jebtsundamba Khutuktu is just a dog of the Russians!"

Di Xiong said: "The Intelligence Department is going to place spies in Outer Mongolia, so be prepared in advance."

Although he knew that Outer Mongolia would be lost, Di Xiong was still very sad when it really happened. Now his security team and patrol battalion only had more than 500 people. It was impossible to recover Outer Mongolia with such a small force. He could only send intelligence personnel to set up an intelligence network.

Bai Xiuling said: "This place is too far from Mongolia, it will cost a lot of money!"

Now the intelligence network of the intelligence department under his command has penetrated all departments of the Beiyang government, foreign companies and major gangs, with hundreds of people and monthly expenses of more than 10,000 silver dollars. The profit of Weili Company is only more than 30,000 yuan per month, most of which is created by the iron factory and the pharmaceutical factory. The iron factory produces hundreds of rifles and thousands of bullets every month, and the sales volume is in short supply. The militia, bandits and gentry are all buying guns and bullets on the black market. The iron factory was originally preparing to buy new machines to produce cannons, pistols and machine guns.

Di Xiong said: "National interests are above everything else. It is worth it even if it costs a lot of money!"

Di Xiong knew that five years later, the February Revolution broke out in Russia and civil war spread throughout the country. The three factions of the Royalist Party, the Socialist Party and the Bolshevik Party fought each other for supremacy. The civil war lasted for four years. It was the best opportunity to recover Outer Mongolia and the Greater Khingan Range.

Leng Hanbing walked into Di Xiong's office and said, "Boss! The Supervision Department conducted an investigation as you requested and found three suspicious persons."

Di Xiong asked, "Which three people?"

Leng Hanbing said, "Bian Zhimei, a cleaner at the company headquarters, Ma Tiehan, deputy security captain, and Qu Sheng, workshop director of the ironware factory and captain of the Sharp Knife Club. Qu Sheng often flatters Hong Tianlie, so Hong Tianlie made him the captain of the Sharp Knife Club's propaganda team."

Di Xiong laughed and said, "Bian Zhimei is just a cleaner and doesn't know the secrets of the military factory. How could she be a suspect?"

Leng Hanbing said, "Bian Zhimei used to be a textile worker at Fengji Textile Factory. Last year, when the Ghost Shadow Gang pretended to be Beiyang rebels and attacked the textile factory, she was raped by a dozen gang members because of her beauty. She was too embarrassed to stay at Fengji Factory, so she changed to work at East Asia Textile Factory. She was spotted by the chief supervisor Kawashima Koji, who falsely accused her of stealing things from the factory and forced her to be his mistress. Later, Kawashima Koji gave her to Ichiro Yokota as a plaything. Last month, for some reason, she left the East Asia Factory and came to apply for a job here. Since the staff was full, she begged and refused to leave, so we let her work as a cleaner. She is responsible for cleaning your office. If she eavesdrops on our conversation while cleaning, it is not difficult for her to know the secrets of the ironware factory."

The canteen of Weili Textile Factory was open for lunch, and many female workers came to get food. Bian Zhimei also came. When Bian Zhimei went to the canteen to get food, she always kept her head down and was very careful, but a female worker with an ugly face and black spots stopped her.

The ugly-faced female worker said, "Hey! Isn't this the sweetheart of the general manager and director of the East Asia Textile Factory? Why is he working as a cleaner here instead of enjoying his life at the East Asia Textile Factory?"

Bian Zhimei heard the other female workers whispering, "Vixen!" "Shameless!" "Stinking whore!"

Bian Zhimei had been scolded like this before at the East Asia Textile Factory. She didn't expect to be scolded again here. It was as if she had returned to the East Asia Garment Factory, but it was different. At the East Asia Garment Factory, she stood out like a crane among chickens, but here, she was not noticeable in the crowd, because the food in the micro-profit textile factory was good, the income was high, and there was hot water for bathing in the dormitory. Women all loved beauty, and they would buy cosmetics and clothes if they had extra money. After taking a bath and putting on makeup, many young and beautiful women appeared among the female workers, no longer with unkempt hair, dirty faces, pale faces and thin bodies.

Some people even stood up for her. Workshop director Ji Fang said to the female workers, "Don't scold her. She is already pitiful enough. Does she want to be abused by the Japanese? The Japanese threatened the lives of her family. How could she, a woman, resist?"

When the female workers saw the workshop director speaking, they fell silent.