Black Flag Army

The next morning, Bai Xiuling woke up from her coma and looked at Leng Hanbing who was hugging her body. Leng Hanbing was sweating profusely. She saw that Leng Hanbing finally did what he had always wanted to do last night, and more than once. Bai Xiuling said, "Do you really want to marry me? Or do you just want to have fun and then dump me when you get tired of it?"

Leng Hanbing said: "Of course I want to marry you. I have only loved you all along. You are the most important woman in my life. How could I possibly do something like that and then abandon you?"

Bai Xiuling said: "If you can agree to my three conditions, then we can get married!"

Leng Hanbing asked: "What are the three conditions?"

Bai Xiuling put forward three extremely harsh conditions, and Leng Hanbing agreed to all of them.

On that day they held a simpler wedding than that of Di Xiong and Lan Jinchun. They didn't even invite any friends. The only people who attended the wedding were Leng Hanbing's guards Tang Liang and Leng Yue, and Bai Xiuling's two female guards.

During the potato harvest season in July, 80,000 acres of potatoes out of the 110,000 acres of fertile land controlled by the Justice Party had a bumper harvest, with an average yield of more than 2,000 kilograms of potatoes per acre and a total output of more than 100 million kilograms. The food crisis was finally over, and good news also came from western Outer Mongolia. The Second Brigade of the Justice Army seized control of the Uvs River.

On December 21, 1915, Yuan Shikai, the president of the Republic of China, announced that he would take the throne, change the country's name to the Chinese Empire, and decide to officially ascend the throne on New Year's Day 1916. After the news came out, the whole country was in an uproar. Just four days later, on December 25, Cai Dongpo, the former governor of Yunnan, announced the Yunnan Uprising to oppose Yuan Shikai's enthronement. With the support of generals such as Tang Jiyao and Liu Cunhou, he took office as the commander-in-chief of the Anti-Yuan National Defense Army.

In the meeting room of the Justice Party in Beitang City, Wu Chunfeng, deputy director of the Intelligence Department, informed the Justice Party leaders in the meeting about the domestic situation after Yuan Shikai proclaimed himself emperor. He laughed and said, "Yuan Shikai was tricked by his eldest son. Yuan Bo spent money to print fake foreign newspapers and showed them to Yuan Shikai, saying that all foreign powers supported him to be emperor. Yuan Shikai actually believed it. He didn't think about the fact that since he came to power, he has completely ruined himself with the Qingdao incident and the Twenty-One Demands. He has made the country look like the end of the dynasty. Who would support him to be emperor except for those who flatter him? Even the big guys like Duan Hefei of the Beiyang Army did not support him."

The director of the Intelligence Department, Tian Mengxue, is pregnant and about to give birth, so she has taken maternity leave. The Intelligence Department is now in charge of Wu Chunfeng.

Leng Hanbing said, "This is good news for us. Ever since Kulun abolished the throne and negotiated with Beiyang, they were worried that the Beiyang Army would attack us, so they had to prepare for war. Now they have their own civil strife and have to deal with the National Protection Army in the south, so they will definitely not come. We must now concentrate our efforts on taking over all the areas in western Mongolia, then develop the economy, accumulate strength, and prepare for the future recovery of the Beihai Lake area."

Zhang Zhenyang said, "After Yuan Shikai proclaimed himself emperor, people from all over the country responded to the National Protection Army. Even Lu Zhankui, the bandit leader in Suiyuan, called himself the commander-in-chief of the Suiyuan Province Anti-Yuan National Protection Army. Xiao Qingzhi, who was bribed by us before, had been a bandit in Chahar for several years, but now he has become the commander-in-chief of the Chahar Province Anti-Yuan National Protection Army and has sent people to buy weapons and ammunition from us. We, the Justice Party, should also do something for the great cause of anti-Yuan, right?"

Di Xiong said: "I'm afraid I have to say something that may spoil the fun. It is not convenient for us to get involved in Yuan Shikai's affairs. This is a domestic war after all. Those who die in the war are all Chinese. Our main enemies are the Japanese and the Tsarist Russians. The general direction is still to fight against foreign forces. Many of our humiliations are brought by these foreign forces. Our goal can only be to recover the lost territories in the north. Moreover, the current situation is very unfavorable to Yuan Shikai. Even if we do not take action, Yuan Shikai's failure is certain."

Wu Zhong also echoed, "Indeed, we don't have the spare capacity to transfer so many troops to the country. We have not yet controlled many areas in western and southern Mongolia. Once we send troops, the supply lines will be quite long. Once they are cut off by Mongolia or the Beiyang Army, the troops heading to the country will become isolated. In addition, once we are involved in the war, we will fight directly with the Beiyang Army. At that time, we will be trapped in the quagmire of war, and the economic blow will be quite heavy. Our financial situation has not been very good recently. Kulun has also become cunning recently, and they specialize in attacking our supply stations at night. We have lost a lot of supplies, and it is no longer enough to support the army to fight in the interior."

Lan Jinping listened to their discussion and seemed to be a little worried. She had offended Di Xiong because of Bai Xiuling's matter before, and knew that Di Xiong might take the opportunity to retaliate against him. At first, Lan Jinping was really scared, so much so that there were serious mistakes in the bank's work, and she was defrauded of a large loan. She was severely warned by the Supervision Department and was forced to pay the loss out of her own pocket. It was not until Lan Jinchun told her that Di Xiong was just scaring her that she was no longer afraid. After she paid the money, she did not dare to vent her anger on Di Xiong, so she went to find problems with Di Xiong's other subordinates. When Wu Chunfeng was punished too lightly for his lifestyle problems, it was Zhang Zhenyang who interceded for him, which made her hate Wu Chunfeng and Zhang Zhenyang. She secretly united Tian Mengxue and Gu Xingzhi, two women, to focus on investigating the problems of the two of them. As a result, she really found a lot of problems. After all, when people's official positions become high, it is easy to breed corruption, and there are still few people who are truly self-disciplined. Wu Chunfeng's lustful behavior has not improved. He has found many lovers in the past few months. During her maternity leave, Tian Mengxue bought a foreign camera and arranged for her men to take many indecent photos of Wu Chunfeng. Since Di Xiong did not take Wu Chunfeng's lifestyle seriously before, Lan Jinping directly sent the photos to Xu Meixi anonymously, hoping to make their couple's life uneasy. At the same time, Gu Xingzhi spread the news to the female workers in the factory, causing Wu Chunfeng's reputation to become worse and worse this year. Unexpectedly, Wu Chunfeng and Xu Meixi did not care about this matter. Zhang Zhenyang was also not a perfect person. The main problems found were bribery and nepotism. Due to previous experience, Lan Jinping did not tell Di Xiong the news, but handed the evidence to Leng Hanbing through Gu Xingzhi. After receiving the evidence, Leng Hanbing asked the third section of the Supervision Department, that is, the Anti-Corruption Supervision Section, to set up a special task force to investigate Zhang Zhenyang's case.

Now listening to them discussing Yuan Shikai's claim to the throne, Lan Jinping's expression was quite indifferent. Ever since she asked Di Xiong to come forward and eliminate the spy company sent by Lu Jianzhang, her fate with Lu Jianzhang has ended. She does not plan to go back to China, and she does not care what China will become. In addition to Lan Jinping, Li Fei was not interested in this meeting because he was only interested in killing Japanese. In recent years, there have been too many warlord melees in China. Just for the fight for Suiyuan, the three warlords fought many times. In Li Fei's view, it was just another warlord melee, but on a larger scale. During this year, Li Fei attended fewer meetings because he often asked for leave, saying that the work at the police station was too busy. There were rumors that he had become addicted to gambling, but no one knew whether it was true or not.

Hearing Wu Zhong say that there is no way to send troops to the country, Bai Xiuling seemed unhappy. She said: "We fled all the way to this place because of the oppression of Yuan Shikai's government. Now they are doing evil things and dreaming of becoming emperor, which makes the warlords in the south oppose him. If we just sit back and do nothing, wouldn't it be too cruel? In my opinion, the opposition is in the south and we are in the north. If we attack the Beiyang government from both sides, won't they collapse?"

Leng Hanbing said: "You are thinking too idealistically. The corruption of the southern warlords is not much better than that of the northern warlords. They are also not of one mind. Public opinion cannot overwhelm Yuan Shikai. Both sides still have to decide the outcome with guns. It may be another civil war with a long stalemate. I just don't know who will win. If the Beiyang government can be overthrown, it will be a good thing for us."

Liu Zhendong said: "I have heard of Cai Dongpo. I saw his name in the newspaper when I was in Beijing. It is said that this man is quite capable in fighting. At least he is better than the White Star Party who can only shout slogans. Even if he fails, he should be able to last longer than the 'Second Revolution'. However, there are reports that this man is ill and in poor health. If he suddenly dies of illness during the war, that would not be a good thing."

Di Xiong said: "When you look at the problem, don't just look at the warlords in the south and the White Star Party overseas. There are also many problems within the Beiyang government this time. I think Yuan Shikai's declaration of emperorship this time is a very serious bad move for him. Last year, his former ally, the Progressive Party, was liquidated by him. People like Xiong Xiling and Liang Qichao became Yuan Shikai's opponents. It is said that Cai Dongpo was persuaded by Liang Qichao to raise the banner of rebellion. In addition to them, Duan Qirui and Feng Guozhang, the strongest in the Beiyang Army, also began to alienate Yuan Shikai. Duan Qirui was originally the Chief of the Army, but now he has resigned due to illness, and Feng Guozhang has been hiding in Nanjing, and no matter how Yuan Shikai calls him, he will not respond. If these two Beiyang bosses betray Yuan Shikai, then the Yuan family will really be doomed."

Zhang Zhenyang said: "According to Boss Di, the Beiyang government may be heading towards division? Then shouldn't we send troops even more? The so-called supply line problem is actually not difficult to solve, as long as the aircraft can provide escort."

Wu Zhong immediately retorted: "Brigade Commander Zhang, I should have said that sending troops is not as easy as you think. Don't ignore the Beiyang army just because we can bully the Mongols recently. When we dispatched planes in Suiyuan, it attracted the attention of the Beiyang government. Now the Beiyang government also has a lot of planes. According to the intelligence station in Baotou, since the assassination of Hioki Yoshi, the Beiyang side has strengthened its defenses against us and required the troops in Suiyuan and Chahar provinces to step up patrols and prevent refugees from crossing the border into Outer Mongolia, lest we become stronger because of the refugees. Pan Juying recently deployed many trenches, mines and barbed wire on the border. They have not reduced their precautions against us at all. Now there are very few refugees crossing the border."

Di Xiong said: "Brigade Commander Zhang, I can understand your desire to return home, but as Mr. Wu said, we have many difficulties in returning to fight now. Many objective problems make us unable to go to war with the Beiyang government. We are destined to be spectators in this war. However, we can support them in public opinion. We can find a way to scold Yuan Shikai in this month's "Justice Daily". In addition, we can send planes to airlift some weapons and ammunition to Lu Zhankui in Suiyuan and Xiao Qingzhi in Chahar. Of course, they have to pay for it, and we can give them a 20% discount on the price."

Seeing that Di Xiong was determined not to participate in this war, Zhang Zhenyang did not say anything more. At this time, Xian Yujie suddenly said: "The Beiyang is involved in a civil war this time, and I guess they don't care about Kulun. I think this is a good time for us to attack Kulun. They have been entangled with us for so long, it's time to completely eliminate them."

Liu Zhendong said: "I'm afraid this is not so easy. Kulun has recently set up a lot of anti-aircraft guns and built a lot of bunkers, and they seem to realize that they are reaching the end of the road. The army has begun a large-scale contraction, and almost all the main forces have returned to Kulun City. After Wutai was detained by Yuan Shikai during the negotiations in Beijing, the Kulun military is basically controlled by Danbijian alone. Recently, he has been searching and killing Han people in the city according to the instructions of the Japanese. Many Han businessmen who were released were also killed by the Mongolian government with other excuses. It is now very difficult for the intelligence team to find out information."

Wu Zhong said: "I think the main thing is to expand our territory first. In recent months, our previous territory has been consolidated. The county security corps and militia have increased a lot, but there are more and more horse bandits. The supply station problem mentioned earlier was largely caused by horse bandits. I propose to launch an expedition recently to occupy all unoccupied areas in the northwest, and carry out a large-scale bandit suppression at the same time."

Xian Yujie said: "I don't think it's appropriate to do this. If we occupy the northwest region directly, we will push the border directly to the Russian side. Although Russia is still engaged in the world war, as far as I know, they have deployed a lot of troops on the border. If we have a conflict with the Russian army, it will be very dangerous. So I still think we should take Kulun first and then consider expanding our territory."

Di Xiong said: "Kulun is the Mongolian's last face. If we take down Kulun now, it means that we have nominally completed the rule of 1.5 million square kilometers of Outer Mongolia. This is something that China, Japan, and Russia cannot tolerate. They will unite and send heavy troops to encircle and suppress us. Now we only have four brigades in the first and second lines. How can we stop them?"

Leng Hanbing said: "Yes! Even if we take Beihai Lake now, we can't touch Kulun. Attacking Kulun would be a war of annihilation. China, Japan and Russia would be extremely shocked. Moreover, the Kulun government has nominally submitted to the Beiyang government."