The Twenty-Seventh Chapter: A Simple Love

  "Company Commander, look who's here?" Wu Tongjin said excitedly as he brought the head of "Xiao Linhu" and 53 captured bandits to the county town garrison headquarters. After returning to the 8th company and entering Liu Mingjiu's office, he said.

  Liu Mingjiu was lying on the table, looking at the battle report of the annihilation of the "Xiao Lin Tiger" bandits: 126 bandits were annihilated, including 28 killed (including two wanted bandit leaders), and 98 captured (including one wanted bandit leader); 117 rifles, 218 pistols, 6 light machine guns, over 900,000 bullets, and 224 war horses were seized; gold and silver worth a total of 17,700 yuan, jewelry and ornaments in 13 boxes, 31,000 stones of grain, 103 cattle, and 248 sheep. The losses on our side: three seriously injured, 61 lightly injured, all from the three cold weapon companies of the Security Regiment, with no deaths. When submitting the report, only 118 pistols, 20,000 bullets, 7,700 yuan in gold and silver, three boxes of jewelry and ornaments, and 11,000 stones of grain were submitted, while the rest was directly left to the public treasury of the Eighth Company. This became the first battle with over a hundred participants in which the Yi Army had no deaths.

  "Who came? What got you so excited?" Liu Mingjiu raised his head and looked at Wu Tongjin, who was sweating profusely: "It's already getting cold outside, how did you end up drenched in sweat? First go wipe off that sweat for me."

  Liu Mingjiu's words had barely fallen when a familiar girl's voice came from outside the door: "Huh, this is really official, and yet you always say there's no distinction between officials and soldiers. Doesn't this also involve giving orders?"

  As soon as the voice fell, a familiar face appeared in the room, it was Zhao Zhengyi's eldest daughter, Zhao Bilin. Liu Mingjiu saw Zhao Bilin appear and was also very surprised: "Hehe, how did you come? I didn't order anyone to come, he ran with sweat all over his head, I just feared that he would catch a cold."

  "Haha, I was just kidding, look at him taking it seriously." Zhao Bili suddenly changed her expression from the cold face she had when she first entered the room, turned around and looked at Wu Tongjin with a smile, continuing to say: "I told you, your stupid captain is easily deceived, didn't I?"

  Wu Tong Jin also took the towel handed over by security guard Han Zhen, wiped his face and looked at Zhao Bi Lin with a helpless expression; "You're not wrong, I'm wrong, okay? When can I be with you without being your puppet, you verify the length of the road, and I ran more than two miles."

  "What's wrong? Don't you want to? Alright, tomorrow I'll go to your house and tell Xiaofeng not to cook delicious food for you in the evening, and then not let you get on the kang." Zhao Bilin said viciously after Wu Tongjin finished speaking.

  "Alright, I'll take my wife out and make her your vanguard. I'm leaving, you go find Lian Zhang, he's here, I'll also help you verify that he's really a blockhead, there's no use staying here anymore." Wu Tongjin said, pulling the guard and the communication officer to quickly run out of Liu Mingjiu's office.

  "Ah, you..." Liu Mingjiu was about to speak, but found that Wu Tongjin had already rushed out of his office with Shen Fengyun and Han Zhen. He could only get up helplessly, pour a cup of tea for Zhao Bilin: "What play are you guys from? What brings you here?"

  Zhao Biling took over Liu Mingjiu's tea and took a light sip. She raised her head with a shy expression, completely different from her previous demeanor: "Can't I come visit you if nothing's wrong? Are you not welcoming me at all?"

  "No, no, how can we not welcome you." Liu Mingjiu saw Zhao Bilin's affectionate eyes and her face that had already turned pink on both cheeks, immediately turned around and quickly walked back to his own office desk. After sitting down in the chair, he continued to say with his head down: "Eight welcomes every relative who comes, of course, also welcomes you."

  "Relative? Haha, how did I become a relative of the Eight Trigrams?" Zhao Bihua heard Liu Mingjiu's words and laughed so hard that water sprayed out of her mouth. She immediately realized her mistake, quickly covered her mouth with her hand, and looked at Liu Mingjiu timidly without saying another word.

  Liu Mingjiu had already seen something in Zhao Bilin's eyes the last time he left the Zhao residence, but he didn't dare to confirm it. After all, he was reborn as a human and had already established himself at the age of thirty in his previous life, so how could he not see that a young girl might have feelings for him? However, this girl was the daughter of the person closest to him in this world, and he didn't know how long he would survive in this chaotic era, so how could he dare to think too much about it? Zhao Bilin fell silent, and Liu Mingjiu also didn't dare to say anything more. Even in his previous life, he was a man who appeared nonchalant on the surface but became shy when faced with true feelings. Unlike many men of that era who were flirtatious, whenever he saw a woman he liked, he would appear calm on the outside, but inside, he would be very timid.

  The room was quiet, with the two people lowering their heads and occasionally glancing at each other out of the corner of their eyes. Several times, their gazes met, bringing a flush to both of their cheeks and an acceleration of their heartbeats. Liu Mingjiu quickly thought of the best way to resolve this awkward situation, taking up the battle report and starting to read it.

  This time, the blow to "Xiao Lin Hu" was due to Liu Mingjiu's early arrival at Linglong Tower, where he had secretly planned a special infiltration team. The young man who guided Luo Xiang and others in the mountain village was one of its members.

  He, from a later generation, was of course very clear that people in this era, although some had heavier and more selfish desires than his own era, but there were still many more loyal and grateful people in this era. Money and emotions are the ultimate unbeatable treasures. The people in this group, from the day they joined, became one of the highest-paid groups under Liu Mingjiu's command. Each person would receive 50 silver dollars every month, plus their families were well taken care of by Liu Mingjiu, so how could they not risk their lives for him? Therefore, within these six months, Han Xinfeng, Mu De, and Luo Xiliang often discovered that the security team, the eighth company, and the police station would suddenly have people who were well-trained, physically strong, loyal, and had a good personal relationship with Liu Mingjiu, who would quit or apply to return to their hometown and never come back. Once these reports reached Liu Mingjiu, he would quickly approve those people's departure.

  These people were actually the private infiltrators selected by Liu Mingjiu. Liu Mingjiu also gave them a name, called "Qianlong Xiaozu". These people only used some original communication methods learned from their troops in later generations to keep in touch with him, such as leaving messages at designated locations, using secret languages and codes. Within half a year, he had already sent 42 members of the "Qianlong Xiaozu" into the nearby 36 bandit groups and the Zhao family faction. The young man in the "Xiulin Tiger" mountain stronghold was the sixth person selected by Liu Mingjiu for secret training and sent to the stronghold as "Qianlong No. 6". Most of the reports submitted to the headquarters also came from the reports and summaries of the "Qianlong Xiaozu" members.

  This time, after defeating "啸林虎", the various mountain strongholds around also spread the news and were deeply shocked by the name "小飞龙" again. With only over 500 people mobilized, the battle was ended in just half an hour, with zero casualties. Although "啸林虎" showed cowardice when encountering "镇三江", he had been roaming freely in Hot North and Liaoning South for ten years, and his strength was not ordinary. However, he was defeated by Liu Mingjiu's men in such a short time. Such combat power, how could those bandits not be shocked?

  The news was deliberately exaggerated by Sun Congzhou and others, and after it reached Liang Cunhua in Chaoyang and Jiang Guotie in Chengde, the high-level officials were also shocked. The Yi Army had always been brave and good at fighting, but a battle with over 100 casualties and no losses was still unprecedented. Jiang Guotie personally sent telegrams to Liang Cunhua and Sun Congzhou, wanting to meet this outstanding young talent from the second generation of the Yi Army in person.

  This time, the "Xiao Lin Hu" who was annihilated was also a major offender with a bounty of 2,000 yuan from the Rehe Military Governor's Office. However, his other family members did not make it onto the wanted list. Liang Cunhua and Sun Congzhou did not dare to skin them again this time, but instead handed over the reward according to the Military Governor's Office's bounty to Wu Tongjin. For one bandit, 30 yuan was given, Liu Mingjiu handed over 38 people, plus various rewards from above, the public treasury of the Eighth Regiment increased by another 8,000 yuan.

  "Commander, it's time to eat." A voice suddenly appeared in Liu Mingjiu's ear as he was concentrating on the report and thinking about things. Liu Mingjiu raised his head and saw his guard, Han Zhen.

  "Oh, it's noon already, the team leader might have another task for us. Hehe, he's treating us like a trump card." Liu Mingjiu said as he stood up.

  Suddenly remembered Zhao Bilin was still here, turned to look, Zhao Bilin had already leaned against the sandalwood chair extorted from a wealthy family and fallen asleep. So quietly walked to Zhao Bilin's side, took the coat hanging on one side and gently covered it over her body. The smiling action startled Zhao Bilin awake.

  She opened her eyes to find Liu Mingjiu's gentle, watery eyes staring at her, his smile on his face like an elder looking at his own child. Zhao Biling suddenly shied away and stood up: "What are you doing? Trying to scare someone to death? Not making a sound, thinking of doing something bad?"

  "Haha, do I need to wait for someone to come in before I can think of doing something bad? Sorry about that, I was too busy reading the report and neglected you." Liu Mingjiu was startled by her actions, but quickly straightened up and continued with a smile: "You didn't even bring a change of clothes to sleep in, it's already late autumn, if you catch a cold Zhao Aunt will kill me!"

  Zhao Bili was actually joking, and when Liu Mingjiu said that, she also smiled slyly: "Gotcha, what's wrong with you, why are you so hungry?"

  "Don't come until lunchtime, Han Zhen won't be calling me, I'm still reading the report, how would I be teased by you?" Liu Mingjiu said, making a Western gentleman's gesture, looking at Zhao Bilin and continuing: "My Zhao young lady, please go to the cafeteria for dinner."

  "Haha, where did you learn this from? You're quite the standard British gentleman!" Zhao Bihua couldn't help but laugh as she followed Han Zhen's lead and walked towards the 8th company's cafeteria in front of Liu Mingjiu.