Warlords: Rising from the Northwest Border and Sweeping Across the Powers

"Tomorrow at noon, arrange for the soldiers of the first company of the first battalion to take the leaders of these two gangs of bandits to the Caishikou of the county town and execute them in front of the people!"

Qin Huaiyi reminded: "Captain, Wang Damazi is easy to deal with, but Lu Guoquan is the cousin of County Magistrate Ma Jiawei. If we do this, I'm afraid this old man will not give us a good face."

Su Zhengyang said in a resolute voice: "If Ma Jiawei pretends to be confused, I will not bother him for the time being. If he dares to show his teeth, I will not give him the slightest face. We have people with guns in our group now, so we don't need to look at anyone's face."

In this era of warlords, the security group under Su Zhengyang was already considered a qualified small warlord force, and was well-equipped and powerful. Nowadays, guns are the only way to win, and Su Zhengyang did not take the local tyrants in Sanjiang County seriously.

The next morning, the security team posted notices all over the county.

Many people gathered in front of the notice. A middle-aged man read aloud: "On July 7, the security group carried out a bandit suppression operation in the vicinity of Sanjiang County, successfully eliminating the bandit troubles in Qingfeng Mountain and Shuizhaigou, and killed a number of bandits. At noon today, the Qingfeng Mountain bandit leader Lu Guoquan and the Shuizhaigou bandit leader Wang Mazi and their gang will be executed at Caishikou, east of the county seat."

The people were suddenly in an uproar. A middle-aged man who used to do business in Yanlin Town said, "You don't know that Lu Guoquan is a bully in Yanlin Town. I heard that he has a relationship with our County Chief Ma. How dare this security team touch him? I think it's all nonsense."

"That's right. All the previous security chiefs are on the same page with the Ma and Du families. I don't believe that the new chief Su dares to go against them."

"My son is a soldier in the security corps. I heard that Captain Su is a really good man. Who knows, maybe what is written in this notice is true."

"Let's go to Caishikou at noon and take a look. Then we'll know if it's real or not, right?"

"Mr. County Governor, something bad has happened. Please take a look!"

Secretary Yu looked panicked as he handed the notice he had just torn off to Ma Jiawei. Ma Jiawei angrily put the teacup in his hand heavily on the table.

"Why are you so flustered? Is the sky falling?"

"The sky hasn't fallen, but your cousin, Lu Guoquan, has been captured by the security team. I heard he will be executed at Caishikou at noon!"

"what?"

Ma Jiawei took the notice, put on his glasses, read it carefully, and his face turned gloomy.

"You are such a good fellow, Su Zhengyang. You openly told me that you were going to wipe out the bandits in Fengshan, but you actually secretly captured my cousin. I will never forgive you."

"Call Su Zhengyang to me right now. I want to ask him how he does things!"

An hour later, Su Zhengyang, wearing a neat security corps uniform, walked into the county government office with Liu Gangding.

In the office, Ma Jiawei threw the crumpled notice in front of Su Zhengyang and said with a cold look: "Captain Su, shouldn't you give me an explanation? When Deputy Captain Liu came last time, he kept saying that you were going to Fengshan to suppress the bandits, so I approved your action. But why didn't you act according to the action report, but instead went to Qingfengshan and Shuizhaigou to eliminate the bandits in these two places!"

Su Zhengyang said with a puzzled look: "Ma County Magistrate, these are all bandits who rob and loot, and do all kinds of evil. It doesn't matter who we kill first."

"But the military action report you submitted to me said that we were going to Fengshan to suppress the bandits. You are disobeying orders from your superiors!"

Su Zhengyang ignored the extremely angry Ma Jiawei and threw the military action report he had prepared in his arms to him and said, "County Magistrate Ma, please take a good look. This report directly mentioned the bandit suppression operation, but it did not say where the bandits were to be suppressed."

Ma Jiawei impatiently opened the report and took another look at it. As expected, it said that the security team was going into the city near Sanjiang County to suppress bandits, but it did not specify which bandits they were going to suppress. At the bottom of the report, his seal and signature were still vivid in his mind, like a loud slap in Ma Jiawei's face.

Ma Jiawei raised his head, narrowed his eyes, looked at Su Zhengyang and said, "You are playing tricks on me, are you? You are trying to make a feint to the east and attack in the west, are you? In the whole Sanjiang County, everyone knows that Lv Guoquan and I are cousins. You have to give face to the Buddha. You went straight to Qingfeng Mountain, arrested Lv Guoquan, and executed him in public. This is a slap in my face!"

Su Zhengyang pretended to be surprised and said, "How come the county magistrate is related to Lu Guoquan, a bandit who kills people and burns people? How come I didn't know? Look at you, County Magistrate Ma, is it necessary to be so angry? It's not worth it to get yourself hurt by anger."

Ma Jiawei suppressed his anger and said, "Now, immediately, release Lu Guoquan!"

Su Zhengyang shook his head and said, "Mr. County Governor, there is such a scum among your relatives. I helped you to clean up the mess. It's fine if you don't appreciate me, but how can you blame me? Scum like Lu Guoquan should be killed by everyone. The notice has been issued, so how can you let him go?"

"I don't care what method you use, just release him immediately, or I will make you pay for it."

"County Magistrate Ma is so protective of Lu Guoquan. Could it be that Lu Guoquan went up the mountain to become a bandit because of your instructions?"

"What nonsense are you talking about!"

"I found an account book in Lu Guoquan's stronghold. It clearly records the amount of money he gave you every three months. No wonder Lu Guoquan was arrested and County Magistrate Ma was jumping up and down as if his father had died. After all, blocking someone's financial path is like killing his parents."

Ma Jiawei lost his mind and picked up the teacup and threw it at Su Zhengyang, but he completely forgot that the teacup contained extremely hot tea. Ma Jiawei's fingers were burned instantly, and the teacup fell to the ground with a bang and broke into two pieces.

"Su Zhengyang, let me tell you, this is Sanjiang County, not your Su family's Jiangbei, and certainly not a place where you can do whatever you want. If you don't release Lu Guoquan today, I will make it difficult for you to take a single step in Sanjiang County!"

Su Zhengyang showed a hint of sarcasm and said, "This really opened my eyes. The highest administrative chief of Sanjiang County, Magistrate Ma, who is the parent official, actually colluded with the bandits who harmed the local area. As for Lu Guoquan, I can't let him go. Magistrate Ma, if you think that I, Su Zhengyang, am a nuisance to you, feel free to use any tricks you have. I will take them on."

Ma Jiawei was trembling all over and gasping for breath. The current Su Zhengyang was completely different from the Su Zhengyang who was very polite to everyone he met and always had a smile on his face when he first came to Sanjiang County. He even dared to ignore himself.

"Okay! Okay! Okay! I'll see how long you, Su Zhengyang, can keep being so arrogant! I'll immediately send a message to the higher-ups and remove you, Su Zhengyang, from your position as head of the security team."

Su Zhengyang retorted disdainfully: "My letter of appointment was issued by the Northern Frontier government itself. Even Guo Linhui has no right to remove me from my position. It's not that I look down on you, but with your background and connections, you are far from being able to control me."