Black Flag Army

On the night of the twelfth day of the first lunar month in the first year of the Republic of China, a mutiny broke out in Beijing. The slogan of the mutiny was to oppose the garrison commander-in-chief Duan Zhigui's withholding of military pay. This was originally a fake mutiny designed by Yuan Shikai's advisers, with the purpose of giving Yuan an excuse not to go to Nanjing to take office and directly take office as the provisional president in Beijing. However, under the instigation of the royalists in the army, the mutiny got completely out of control and became a reality. The soldiers looted most of the shops and houses in Beijing, and even Yuan's mansion was shot. Thousands of houses were burned, more than 800 people were shot and killed, and their bodies were lying on the streets. Countless people were injured.

Five soldiers broke into Xiheyan Street, first robbed Heji Pawnshop and Gaosheng Inn, shot and killed the owner of Heji who refused to pay, and robbed the two shops. Then they set their sights on Weili Restaurant. Because most of the houses on the street were very shabby, only these three restaurants were relatively well decorated. Many soldiers passing by looked down on this street, because there were too many more magnificent houses in Beijing than here.

The five soldiers who broke into the Weili Restaurant didn't expect that they didn't even get a penny, but lost their lives. They were attacked almost at the same time and turned into five corpses in an instant. The guns, ammunition and stolen property on their bodies became the spoils of others. After the things were searched, the five bodies were thrown on the street, and later the military police chopped off their heads and took them for credit.

Hong Tianlie proudly fiddled with a captured new-style Mauser rifle and said with a smile, "Boss Di is really amazing. He actually found out that there would be a mutiny tonight. Other businesses suffered heavy losses and lost their families, but our restaurant was completely unscathed. We also got five quick-firing rifles and property worth three thousand yuan."

Wu Chunlei also laughed and said, "With these quick guns, even if the Qinglong Society and the Ghost Shadow Gang come to attack us, our Xihe Society will be able to fight them."

Du Ma Gan said, "Brother Chunlei, you are exaggerating. The Qinglong Society is said to have more than 5,000 members and 800 thugs. It is the largest gang in the capital, and it has the support of the Royalist Party. How can we be their opponent with just a few of us?"

Zhang Heimian said, "Ma Gan is right. This time the Beiyang soldiers came in small numbers, so we were able to get rid of them. If more of them came, we could only do the second method that Boss Di said: hide in the cellar and let them rob the restaurant. The number of Xihe soldiers is still too small."

Leng Hanbing said gloomily, "Stop talking nonsense. Clean up the blood on the ground and put away the guns and property. The patrol police and military police will be here at any time to quell the riot."

After Hong Tianlie got out of the prison that day, he surrendered to Di Xiong and worshipped him as his boss. He was a straightforward person and thought that since Di Xiong had saved him, he should work hard for Di Xiong. So he became the first person to worship Di Xiong as his boss. After the Flying Eagle Gang was eradicated, Di Xiong thought that in order to gain a foothold in Beijing, he must establish his own organization. He hoped to establish an organization with ideals and goals. Only the army brainwashed by this organization could recover the lost territory in the north. However, the conditions were not ripe now, so he could only establish a gang first. Because the restaurant was along Xihe Street, this gang was named Xihe Club. Leng Hanbing was still a little hesitant at first, but after discussing with Wu Chunlei and Wu Chunfeng, he saw that they strongly advocated worshipping Di Xiong as the boss, so he agreed, and the three of them also joined Xihe Club. As for Bai Xiuling, she had long regarded herself as Di Xiong's man, so it goes without saying. In the morning, they helped in the restaurant, working as waiters or cooks. In the afternoon, Di Xiong taught them martial arts and marksmanship, and in the evening, he taught them lessons. Among them, only Bai Xiuling and Leng Hanbing had studied in private schools, and the others were illiterate. Di Xiong believed that they needed to learn cultural knowledge. Di Xiong taught them cultural and history classes, and Wu taught them arithmetic classes. The history classes taught by Di Xiong ranged from the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period to the end of the Qing Dynasty. The content of the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period mainly talked about the stories of Mohist chivalry and righteousness. The content of the Han Dynasty mainly talked about the stories of Huo Qubing's conquest of the Wolf's Lair and Dou Xian's carving of the Yanran Stone, as well as the stories of Ban Chao's pacification of the Western Regions and Geng Gong's defense of the lonely city, which made everyone excited. The content of the Qing Dynasty mainly talked about the history of the Qing Dynasty's loss of power and humiliation of the country, and the burning, killing and looting by the foreign powers, in order to inspire their patriotic enthusiasm and hatred of foreign powers. Leng Hanbing and Bai Xiuling learned very quickly because they had studied in private schools. Wu Chunlei and Wu Chunfeng also studied very seriously. Only Hong Tianlie and Zhang Heilian could not continue to study, but they liked to listen to stories, so they had to bite the bullet and study. Because the storytelling was wonderful. Di Xiong added a lot of personal ideas when telling the story. In the process of listening to the story, everyone gradually accepted the ideas of Mohism.

When Xihehui was founded, there were only six of them, but it soon grew to more than a dozen people, including Wu Zhanggui, Zhang Heimian, Du Magan, Wang Shitou, Zhang Kuwa and Di Xiong's informant. Xihehui has two groups, one is the action group, responsible for fighting and assassination, Leng Hanbing is the group leader, Wu Chunlei is the deputy group leader, Hong Tianlie and Zhang Heimian are both in it; the other is the intelligence group, led by Tian Mengxue, Wu Chunfeng is the deputy group leader, Bai Xiuling and Li Laoshi are both members of the intelligence group.

Di Xiong did not participate in the ambush. He was sleeping at home, but the gunfire and shouting outside made it impossible for him to sleep, so he had to get up to prepare lecture materials for the next night.

A pair of soft hands reached out from behind and hugged his neck. Di Xiong smelled a faint fragrance and knew it was Bai Xiuling without turning around. Bai Xiuling asked, "What is it written?"

Di Xiong said: "The lyrics of a song, I hope it can become a military song of an army in the future."

Bai Xiuling read the words on the white paper, "The fertile land north of Heilongjiang covers an area of ​​one million miles. The Manchus lost sovereignty due to their incompetence, and the beautiful land became Russian territory. There are also Lushun and South Manchuria, and five hundred villages and forts have raised Japanese flags. The people of the northern border are in tears, and they look south to the royal army for another year. Today, we hold high the flag of justice, bravely take the lead in taking back the lost land, and we will not fear death and will be remembered for our loyalty and righteousness for generations to come!"

Di Xiong sighed, "From the Gengzi Year of the Guangxu Period to the present day, the northern lands of Vladivostok, Sakhalin Island, and Miaojie have been occupied by the Tsarist Russians for more than a decade."

Bai Xiuling said, "I thought you were just saying it casually that day to impress everyone. It turns out that you really have such great ambitions. But it's too difficult to achieve this goal, isn't it? You need a lot of money, tens of thousands of troops, countless weapons and ammunition, and you don't even have an official position now, which makes it even more difficult. Now that the Qing emperor has abdicated, it is the job of the Republic of China government to recover the lost territories. Can they take back these places?"

Di Xiong pointed at the gunshots outside and said, "Based on the Beiyang Army's military discipline and combat effectiveness, let alone recovering lost territory, even the existing territory may not be able to be maintained. During the Wuchang Uprising, various provinces declared independence, including Outer Mongolia. The provinces declared independence in order to oppose the Qing Dynasty. After the establishment of the Republic of China, various provinces cancelled their independence and obeyed the central government, but Outer Mongolia became truly independent. The Living Buddha Jebtsundamba called himself Ezhen Khan and, with the support of Tsarist Russia, he set up an army, equipped four cavalry brigades and two infantry brigades with Russian weapons, and the army was filled with a large number of Russian advisers and instructors. The Beiyang Army stationed in Kulun had only one patrol regiment, which would be difficult to defend once a war broke out. Yuan Shikai was obsessed with unifying the south and didn't care about Mongolia at all. In addition, he was always afraid of the two powerful countries of Japan and Russia."

Di Xiong added: "Although it is difficult, someone has to do it. If no one does it, the lost land will be lost forever. So I must do this, even if it costs my life."

Bai Xiuling looked at him in surprise and said, "You are so ambitious. I admire you very much. If you were to take back the lost land in the north, you would become a national hero."

Di Xiong said: "It doesn't matter whether you become a hero or not, but the first step is the most difficult. I don't know what the situation of the hotel is. Let's go and check it out later."

Bai Xiuling said, "If you really want to recover Outer Northeast China, Leng Hanbing can be your important helper. He is one of the survivors of the Hailanpao Massacre. His parents and grandparents were killed by the Tsarist Russians, and he vowed to seek revenge on the Tsarist Russians. He was born a hunter, has accurate marksmanship, and is very skilled. Three years ago, in order to avenge his second uncle who adopted him, he killed seven tyrants and bodyguards in Harbin overnight with only a hunting rifle. After joining the Flying Eagle Gang, he hid his abilities because he was ashamed of Zhang Zongqi's character."

Di Xiong said: "I can see his skills and abilities, but from the first time I met him, I found that he was somewhat hostile to me, and he still has it until now, although he tries his best to hide it."

Bai Xiuling blushed and said, "Because he has been pursuing me and I rejected him many times, but I chose to be with you, so he is a little jealous of you."

In the early morning, the troops of the Third Regiment looted enough property and left Beijing. Yuan Shikai then announced the suppression of the rebellion, dismissed Duan Zhigui, the commander-in-chief of the garrison who instigated the mutiny, and demoted him to a staff officer of the camp office. He appointed Deputy Commander Jiang Guiti and Director of Military and Political Law Enforcement Lu Jianzhang as the commander-in-chief and deputy commander-in-chief of the suppression of the rebellion. Jiang Guiti's Yi Army, Lu Jianzhang's gendarmerie and the police patrol team entered the streets of various urban areas to suppress the rebellion. At this time, the rioters had already fled, and some of the looted property was too heavy and was thrown on the street. Some beggars and ruffians took the opportunity to pick it up. As a result, they became victims of the suppression troops and were shot as rioters. Their heads were also cut off and hung at Caishikou for public display.

Unexpectedly, the next day, Jiang Guiti's Yi Army mutinied again, followed by mutinies and looting in Tianjin and Baoding's Beiyang Army, because they found that the Third Town's army had made a fortune by looting, especially when they heard that Cao Gun, the commander of the Third Town, had made tens of millions of dollars alone and had not been punished. They were jealous and followed suit, and they could no longer control it. Yuan Shikai lost confidence in the old army and had to decide to train a new army. The new army was called the Reserve Army, which was divided into five routes. Lu Jianzhang was the commander of the Left Reserve Army, which had five battalions. Lu Jianzhang appointed five battalion commanders, of which Feng Jishan was the former battalion commander.

At noon that day, as soon as Di Xiong walked into the restaurant, Shopkeeper Wu said to him, "Boss! Good news! There is a textile factory for sale in Nankou Town, Changping County. Boss Li, who runs a yarn factory, wants to buy it, but he doesn't have enough funds. Why don't you partner with him to buy the textile factory? Boss Li is an old customer of our restaurant. I know him well. You won't suffer any loss if you partner with him."

Since the mutinies happened two or three times in the first month of the lunar year, many merchants were unwilling to operate in Beijing and sold their shops at low prices. Di Xiong took the opportunity to buy two shops next to the Weili Restaurant and expanded the restaurant. But what he wanted to buy the most were textile factories, pharmaceutical factories and ironware factories. He asked his men to ask around for a month, but there was no news. Today, Manager Wu finally heard about the sale of the textile factory and quickly told Di Xiong.

Di Xiong was also very happy and asked quickly, "Where is Boss Li?"

Shopkeeper Wu said, "I'll arrange for him to wait for you in Box No. 1 upstairs..."

Di Xiong noticed that Manager Wu stopped talking halfway, with fear in his eyes. He looked behind Di Xiong. Di Xiong turned around and saw four Beiyang soldiers in grey uniforms carrying rifles walking into the restaurant, tapping on the table and asking for food and drinks.

Di Xiong's heart moved, and he asked Shopkeeper Wu, "Do you know them?"

Shopkeeper Wu said tremblingly, "They are the soldiers who killed Mr. Zhu. I didn't expect them to dare to come. They are really too arrogant. Do you think we should call the police?"

Di Xiong said, "Without any evidence, how can the police believe your one-sided statement?" He waved his hand and called Zhang Heimian, who was greeting the soldiers, over and said, "Take them to Box No. 2, and call Leng Hanbing over as well."

Leng Hanbing was washing vegetables in the kitchen. He walked over to Di Xiong and asked, "What do you want, boss?"

Di Xiong asked, "Do you still have the knockout drug you bought on the black market last time?"

Leng Hanbing said: "Yes!"

Di Xiong said, "The four Beiyang soldiers in Box No. 2 are the murderers of former Boss Zhu. Put some drugs in their food. After they are knocked unconscious, stab each of them. Ask Tian Lie to help, drag them to the backyard and bury them."

Leng Hanbing said calmly, "Yes!" and walked towards the kitchen.