Black Flag Army

On August 15, 1914, the Japanese government demanded that Germany withdraw its garrison in Qingdao and hand over Qingdao to the Japanese army, but Germany refused. After the First World War broke out in Europe, two major camps were formed, with Britain, France and Russia as the Allied Powers and Germany, Austria-Hungary as the Central Powers. They declared war on each other, and Japan joined the Allied Powers.

After being rejected by Germany, Japan declared war on Germany, with Kamio Mitsuomi as the army commander-in-chief, leading the 18th Division of 50,000 troops to attack Qingdao, and Kato Masayoshi as the navy commander-in-chief, leading more than 60 warships to fight together. Germany had less than 5,000 garrisons in Qingdao. They realized that Qingdao might not be able to be saved, so they took the initiative to propose to the Beiyang government to return Qingdao, Jiaozhou Bay and Jiaoji Railway to China. The Beiyang government controlled by Yuan Shikai did not dare to ask for it, but shamelessly declared neutrality and designated several counties around Qingdao as the Japan-Germany war zone, which increased hundreds of thousands of war refugees at once. But Japan did not appreciate it. After their attack from the sea failed, they suddenly landed from Longkou, Shandong, and attacked Qingdao from behind. This was completely beyond the war zone established by Beiyang. The Beiyang government could only make ineffective protests and dared not do anything else.

Because this incident was so shameful, Yuan Shikai ordered all newspapers in Beijing not to report it. The News Department of the Police Department strengthened supervision, but a newly emerged newspaper, "Justice Daily", reported the incident in detail, and published two comments on the front page. One was "The Ugly Face of the Beiyang Government", which scolded Yuan Shikai and the Beiyang Government for losing power and humiliating the country, and being worse than pigs and dogs. The other was "On the Neutrality of the Beiyang Government in the Battle of Qingdao and the Neutrality of the Qing Dynasty in the Russo-Japanese War". There was not a single dirty word in the whole article, but every word was as sharp as a knife, and every word was bloody, which made people applaud. After receiving the report, Yuan Shikai read the newspaper and broke out in a cold sweat. He ordered the two major spy agencies under the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Military Police Command and the Military and Political Law Enforcement Department, to investigate the matter. It turned out that the newspaper came from the British Concession in Tianjin.

The articles in the Justice Daily triggered massive demonstrations by people from all walks of life in Beijing and Tianjin to protest against the government's incompetence. The demonstrators held up banners that read "Fight to the death! Give me back Qingdao!" Yuan Shikai was very angry. He called the Minister of the Interior Zhu Qiqun to the Presidential Palace and scolded him, asking him to immediately investigate the matter and confiscate and destroy all the circulated newspapers within ten days, and to immediately execute the publishers. For this reason, Zhu Qiqun had to dispatch a large number of military and police officers to confiscate the Justice Daily sold in many stores in a nearly robbery manner, but for the newspapers sold in foreign stores, they could only buy them out with money. However, the source of the newspapers was not eradicated, and they could still be bought on the black market. The price of newspapers rose from one copper coin to ten copper coins per copy. Zhu Qiqun and his military police commander and law enforcement director were extremely anxious.

As the British Concession was involved, Zhu Qiqun did not dare to investigate in a big way, but ordered the Military Police Command to secretly send people to investigate, requiring that the British police station should not be alerted, but requiring them to get to the bottom of the incident within seven days. However, the Military Police Commander also knew that this matter was extremely difficult to handle, so he threw Zhu Qiqun's order intact to the Capital Police Department, claiming that it was the order of the Minister of the Interior. The newly appointed Police Chief Dong Huailiang received such a headache case shortly after taking office. Even so, he did not dare to say anything more. After all, he had not been in this position for long and would never dare to offend his superiors.

Because the newspaper came from the British Concession, Dong Huailiang did not dare to send people directly into the concession, so he came up with a plan to pretend to be a businessman to enter the concession for investigation. He immediately called a drug store in Beijing to cooperate with him in the investigation. They first sent a cooperation application to a British drug company in the concession, intending to buy a batch of Western medicines at a high price, and set the negotiation location in the concession on the condition of interest. A few hours later, the people from the business called Dong Huailiang back to say that the other party agreed, and sent someone to send an invitation letter, which allowed Dong Huailiang to implement the next plan. He planned to arrange seven policemen including himself to mix into the Chinese caravan for negotiations, and he would lead the team to investigate the location of the newspaper office of "Justice Daily". After all, this matter made the president angry, so he naturally did not dare to leave the matter entirely to his subordinates. In addition, the new official had three fires when he took office, and he really wanted to perform well in front of his superiors.

The next day, the Chinese caravan, mixed with several policemen, arrived at the border area of ​​the concession and handed the invitation letter to the British police for inspection. Soon, they were allowed to pass. Soon, the caravan arrived at the meeting place of the other party's pharmaceutical company, but this meeting itself was a cover. Dong Huailiang only used this opportunity to come to the concession to investigate the "Justice Daily". After instructing the boss of the business company to extend the negotiation time as much as possible, he left the venue with his subordinates.

Afterwards, Dong Huailiang ordered his men to act separately to find the "Justice Daily" circulating inside the concession. He also acted alone and went to the more suspicious newspapers to track down. About an hour later, Dong Huailiang learned from the owner of a newspaper that the "Justice Daily" came from a remote printing factory, and the owner of the printing factory was British. This surprised Dong Huailiang because a British printing factory actually printed newspapers in Chinese. With such doubts, Dong Huailiang knocked on the door of the printing factory. After bribing the receptionist, the other party invited out the boss who was responsible for printing the "Justice Daily". The other party was a middle-aged man in his fifties with gray hair. He called himself John. After Dong Huailiang took out two gold bars and gave them to the other party and said that he had some questions to ask, the other party gladly accepted them.

Dong Huailiang had also studied abroad and could barely communicate in spoken English. He asked in his broken English: "As a British, why did you print the Justice Daily entirely in Chinese? Which newspaper company did these newspapers come from?"

John took out his pipe and took a puff, then said with a smile: "Sir, these Chinese newspapers are not from the Tianjin newspaper office, nor are they from somewhere nearby. The source of the newspapers is very far away. They come from a city in Suiyuan Province in China, called... Baotou. Yes, they are from there."

Dong Huailiang was even more surprised when he heard that the newspaper came from Baotou, because transportation and communication were still not very convenient in this era. It would take several days to travel from Baotou to Beijing even with the fastest railway. And the things written in the newspaper basically happened within two days. Could it be that someone had foreseen it? Or did they plant spies in Japan? Dong Huailiang couldn't confirm it. After finishing his wild thoughts, Dong Huailiang continued to ask: "Mr. John, where is the source of the Baotou newspaper? The content of this newspaper criticized our company. We must track down its location."

John stood up and began to pace back and forth. He closed his eyes and was silent for a while, as if he was thinking about something. Soon he slowly said: "Sir, there is one thing I need to correct. The city of Baotou is not the source of the newspaper. That city can only be regarded as a transit station. The source is not in your China, but in Mongolia. I heard from the printing factory branch in Baotou that the originals of these newspapers were transported by an airplane flying the flag of Tsarist Russia. As for which city in Mongolia the plane came from, I am not quite sure."

Dong Huailiang was a little annoyed by the attitude of this foreigner. The other party spoke ambiguously and the source of the newspaper was still unclear. He suppressed his anger and continued to ask questions: "This newspaper contains a lot of nonsense and has been listed as an illegal newspaper by our government. May I ask why you are still printing it?"

John could hear Dong Huailiang's unhappiness, and he said with some disdain: "I'm just a businessman. Of course, my main goal is to make money. I didn't spend a penny to get this newspaper. The Mongolians paid me to print it. I only need to use the machine to print and I can make money. Why should I refuse such a thing? As for the content of the newspaper, I don't care at all. Anyway, the content on it has nothing to do with Britain. If you want to ban it, just ban it in your territory. I don't care. But you have no right to interfere in my printing. After all, the Chinese police have no right to interfere in the affairs of the concession."

After saying that, he stood up and walked out of the room without looking at Dong Huailiang again. Dong Huailiang saw that the other party had seen through his identity and knew that it would be difficult for him to obtain more relevant information, so he hurriedly left the printing factory.

That afternoon, Dong Huailiang reported the intelligence he had to the gendarmerie headquarters, and then the news came to Zhu Qiuqun layer by layer. Hearing that the source of the newspaper was so complicated, he felt a little strange, but he did not have time to think about it. He immediately ordered someone to send a telegram to Pan Juying who was far away in Suiyuan, ordering him to find out the source of the newspaper.

At this time, Pan Juying was in distress. This spring, he received the news that Di Xiong had left Baotou, and immediately sent troops to seize Baotou. However, he did not expect that Baotou was occupied by Yan Xishan's Jin Army first. The two sides even exchanged fire for this, and Pan Juying was forced to give up Baotou. At this time, he received an order from Zhu Qiqun and had to bow to Yan Xishan again, hoping to get Yan Xishan's help again to find out the source of "Justice Daily".

Two days later, a telegram from Taiyuan was sent to Zhu Qiuqun, which roughly said that the "Justice Daily" came from Erdenet, Mongolia. Due to the long distance, the relevant source was difficult to verify.

This news made Zhu Qiqun very embarrassed, because Mongolia was actually controlled by Tsarist Russia. Although Russia participated in the World War and mobilized many troops to Europe, Zhu Qiqun heard that there were still many Tsarist Russian troops left on the border between Mongolia and China, which was a troublesome matter that could not be provoked. Zhu Qiqun had to ask Yuan Shikai for instructions, but Yuan Shikai was overwhelmed by the various problems caused by the war between Germany and Japan. After the demonstrations were suppressed, various attacks on Beiyang officials emerged one after another, and even Yuan Shikai's goddaughter was beaten. He had long forgotten about the newspaper. After listening to Zhu Qiqun's report, Yuan Shikai ordered them to stop here and not offend the Tsarist Russians. As a result, the Beiyang government did not resolve the issue of "Justice Daily".

But although the Beiyang government did not pursue the matter, the Japanese did not let it go. They sent people to question Zhu Qiqun and obtained his investigation information. This newspaper not only accused the Beiyang government, but also scolded the Japanese government, which made the Japanese side quite angry. Yoshida Ryozo of the Black Dragon Society also sent people to investigate the "Justice Daily". Based on Zhu Qiqun's intelligence, Yoshida Ryozo found out that Di Congmo, the boss behind the aircraft factory that was attacked last time, left Baotou in March and took away thousands of people when he left. According to the local people in Baotou, the destination of that team was Erdenet, which made Yoshida Ryozo suspect that Di Congmo had occupied Erdenet. Combining the previous aircraft factory incident between the two sides, Yoshida Ryozo concluded that "Justice Daily" was published by Di Congmo.

Yoshida Ryozo was furious when he thought of this, and began to make a plan to get rid of Di Congmo. He planned to send an action team to Erdenet to assassinate him. It happened that a young man with superb shooting skills from the Black Dragon Society was transferred to Beijing. This man was called Kawasaki Ken, who was only 25 years old this year. It was said that he had received long-term shooting training. Yoshida planned to send him as the leader of the action team. But Yoshida changed his mind and decided to learn from the lesson of the last aircraft factory and be more cautious, so he called the Japanese garrison headquarters in Tianjin, invited the commander and the chief of staff to drink, and asked for their help.

The Tianjin Garrison Command had a secret service department, which was full of Japanese agents who had received formal military training and were much better than the gangsters like the Black Dragon Society. Commander Kojiro Sato recommended the chief of the secret service department, Masao Fukushima, to Yoshida Ryozo. Yoshida Ryozo told Masao Fukushima about the Justice Daily. Masao Fukushima believed that this matter did damage the interests of the Empire of Japan and agreed to send an intelligence team into Erdenet to cooperate with the Black Dragon Society's actions.

At the end of August, the Tianjin Garrison Special Service sent out a 12-member intelligence team, led by Xiang Yue Fangzi, codenamed Gray Pigeon. Xiang Yue Fangzi's Chinese name is Fang Xiaoyue. Yoshida Ryozo also sent out a 7-member action team, codenamed Viper Action Team, led by Kawasaki Ken, to assassinate all the high-ranking members of the Justice Party.

At this time in Beitang City, Di Xiong summoned the new president and editor-in-chief of Justice Daily, Lin Yishui, to his office. He said to Lin Yishui, "The first issue of Justice Daily, which President Lin published this time, was a huge success and shocked all walks of life in Beijing. According to Beijing intelligence personnel, even professors at Peking University praised your comments!"

Lin Yishui said, "I only wrote "The Ugly Face of the Beiyang Government", but the other article "On the Neutrality of the Beiyang Government in the Battle of Qingdao and the Neutrality of the Qing Dynasty in the Russo-Japanese War" was written by Director Lan. Her writing is more exciting than mine! I plan to hire Director Lan as a special commentator for the newspaper. I wonder if the chairman will agree?"

Di Xiong was a little surprised and asked, "Who is this Director Lan you are talking about? Why do you need my consent?"

Lin Yishui said: "It's your fiancée, Miss Lan Jinchun!"

Wu Zhong, who was sitting at the desk opposite Di Xiong, said, "When Lan Jinchun was a teacher at the middle school of Zhengqing School, she was very popular among students because of her talent and wonderful lectures. Principal Bai promoted her to be the director of the middle school, so President Lin called her Director Lan."

Di Xiong exclaimed: "The little girl has grown up and can actually write such a wonderful review article!"

Wu Zhong said worriedly, "Boss! We are not yet firmly established in Beitang City, so is it appropriate to write an article to provoke Yuan Shikai?"

Di Xiong said: "Although we have arrived in the so-called Mongolia, we must not forget that we are members of the Chinese Justice Party. We must intervene in anything that harms China's interests. Although we cannot kill those Beiyang officials, we must show our presence in public opinion and let the people at home know that in the distant Outer Mongolia, there is a group of Chinese who are defending the interests of the Chinese people regardless of danger."

Lin Yishui said: "The chairman said it well! It really boosts the Chinese people's ambitions!"