Chapter 49 Special High Class

  "Excuse me, sir, may I have a word with you?" As expected, as soon as Lu Dashi made a move to inspect the horse carriage, the man in black immediately bowed and saluted Cao Ziyong. It seemed that he had already figured out who was in charge. With a glance at Lu Dashi, Cao Ziyong walked proudly to the front of the man in black, eager to hear what else he had to say. What he cared about most was how much more money this guy could take out.

  As expected, the man in black walked over to Cao Ziyong, immediately putting his hand into the pocket of his tight-fitting jacket, as if he was going to pull out something. This action scared Cao Ziyong half to death, and he quickly took a big step back, while pulling out his gun and shouting loudly, "Hey, what do you want to do? Take your hand out and hold it where I can see it!" It wasn't that Cao Ziyong was cowardly, but rather that just a few days ago, there was someone who looked refined and courteous, yet directly pulled out a handgun from his pocket and shot half of the guards on duty at the card room, before calmly walking away. Cao Ziyong had been frightened by this incident, as he was the company commander in charge of guarding the card room that day.

  Cao Zixiong pulled out the money, and the man in black was also startled by him. After hearing Cao Zixiong's shout, he realized what was going on and immediately took his hand out of his pocket. Afraid that the other party couldn't see clearly, he deliberately raised his hand high, but his right hand was holding a green leather certificate. After Cao Zixiong calmed down, the man in black walked steadily to Cao Zixiong's front and handed over the green leather certificate in his hand, "Boss, please do me a favor."

  Cao Zixiong had already put the pistol back in its holster and took over the document with an embarrassed expression. The green leather cover of the booklet did not have any words, only a red circular seal was printed on it. Cao Zixiong was somewhat unexpected, looked at the black-clad man, saw that he didn't show any displeasure, but just gestured for him to open the document and look at its contents. The eyes of the black-clad man seemed to have cast some kind of spell, making Cao Zixiong feel uneasy as he opened the booklet. Inside the document was a photo of the black-clad man, along with some winding text mixed with Chinese characters, Cao Zixiong knew this was Japanese writing, he had seen it once in Uemura's letter, and the character "zi" was the same as in the document. Cao Zixiong only recognized the two words "Military Department" from those few lines of Japanese text.

  With a "pa", Cao Ziyong suddenly had an epiphany, immediately closed the document and handed it back with both hands. No matter whether this black-clad man was related to the Japanese or not, he couldn't afford to mess with him. The black-clad man didn't get angry, but only smiled slightly, took back the document from Cao Ziyong's book, and whispered in his ear: "Brother, I'm from the Zhangjiakou Garrison Command. This time I came out on official business. Except for the driver of this convoy who was hired, everyone else is our people. The boss is a special high-ranking person, you know what to do now?"

  Cao Zixiong's legs went soft, and if it weren't for the black-clad man who caught him, he would have fallen to the ground. What was the Special High Course? Others didn't know, but Cao Zixiong understood very well. Originally, Cao Zixiong had a nephew who wasn't studying hard at school in Zhangjiakou, instead following some poor students to participate in demonstrations and marches. As a result, he was caught by the Special High Course. When Cao Zixiong received news of this and asked Shangcun to find the Special High Course, his nephew had already been beaten to his last breath. He died on the way home before they could even bring him back, and it was only because of Shangcun's guarantee and the face he gave Cao Zixiong for spending ten gold bars that they were given the body; otherwise, they wouldn't have even returned the corpse.

  Cao Zixiong was just relying on being a local, wearing the Hwang's cooperative army uniform to ensure the safety of his family of over ten people, and taking advantage of the card on the main road to make some money. He wasn't an iron-clad traitor, those things had nothing to do with him. Lu Dashan, who was still confronting the convoy at the card, also felt something unusual about his brother, and immediately walked over with a handgun, "Brother, what's wrong? Why are you all sweaty? You'd better speak up!"

  After being shaken by Lu Dashi, Cao Ziyong finally caught his breath and grabbed Lu Dashi's hand. His lips trembled for a long time before he managed to say, "Brother, let go, quickly let go! We'll talk about other things later, but first, please release this convoy." Cao Ziyong's unusual behavior made it difficult for Lu Dashi to accept, but out of respect for Cao Ziyong, Lu Dashi released the convoy and no longer gave them any trouble.

  "Big brother, what's going on? You'd better tell me!" Lu Dashi handed over other matters to a squad leader under him and followed Cao Ziyong, who was still in shock, back to the inspection station house. He couldn't wait to ask. In his opinion, such a fat sheep as the convoy just now is not common, and his own big brother must have been afflicted with some kind of madness to let go of such a good opportunity. The brothers under him had opinions too, if Lu Dashi hadn't treated them well before, someone would have started shouting earlier.

  "Go close the door first." Cao Ziyong took out a pack of cigarettes from his pocket, lit one and took several puffs before calming down. "Dashan, those people just now were from the Zhangjiakou Garrison Command, led by the Special High Police Department. They said they had some mission. These are not people we can afford to mess with, it's better to pretend we didn't see them. I reckon they'll pass through our place again on their way back to Zhangjiakou. You go and warn the brothers downstairs, if anyone doesn't keep a low profile and provokes those people, I won't take responsibility. Whoever stirs up trouble will have to clean up their own mess."

  "Big brother, you can rest assured, as long as it's the North-South miscellaneous goods convoy, I'll let my brothers let them pass." Lu Dashi only then realized that his sworn big brother had just been afflicted with what kind of demon. It turned out to be someone from the Special High Department. He also knew about Cao Ziyu's nephew's affairs and had helped out during the funeral procession. He knew that Cao Ziyu was not on good terms with this Special High Department.

  Actually, Lu Dashi and Cao Ziyong were both deceived. The roadside grocery store was a non-existent business, except for the goods on the horse cart which were real, and the driver was an old hand who was hired. The people escorting the carts were all fake, they were Zhao Zhi and his gang. Zhao Zhi, disguised as the shopkeeper, stayed in one of the horse carts. The black-clad man who met Lu Dashi and others was Meng San, who could pretend to be anyone he wanted. These hooligans who used to make a living on Tianqiao were most skilled at dealing with officials, reading people's expressions was their forte and their way of making a living. For small fries like Lu Dashi and Cao Ziyong, it wasn't even necessary for Zhao Zhi to take action, Meng San alone was enough, not to mention they also had fake documents from the Gendarmerie Command.

  The horse bells rang non-stop, the team drove quickly towards the sunset, and they had already left the territory of Zhangjiakou. In just a few more days, they would be able to enter the territory of Shanxi. What kind of situation awaited Zhao Zhi and his men, no one knew. However, all those in the know were full of confidence, relying on the weapons hidden in the carriage compartment. How could they be afraid, especially with Zhao Zhi leading them? This group had already gathered their strength, ready to turn Shanxi upside down.