The Twentieth Chapter: Night Washing the Evil Tyrant

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  After Huang Zuqin left, he was actually in the next room. Before Huang Zuqin came in, Han Zhen had already called Wu Tongjin and Luo Xiliang to come in.

  "Wu Tong Jin opened his mouth first: 'Lian Chang, this is not a trivial matter. If things go wrong, we'll be beheaded by our superiors. He mentioned it to me some time ago, and I didn't dare agree with him. How could you have agreed so readily?'"

  "Why not take it? The Cao family isn't anything good either, are they? Those three young masters of theirs, bullying men and oppressing women, tyrannizing the countryside. They don't even offer opium to the battalion commander and the regimental commander stationed there, and in Caojia Village, there are only four brothels, how many prostitutes were forced into it by the Cao family's father and son? Do you think I came here and didn't go out, so I really wouldn't know anything? Such an evil tyrannical family, if we don't destroy them, they will harm even more people. Moreover, their second young master is a military officer of the Feng Army, once the Feng Army has ideas about our place, it's not good to leave behind a good guide."

  Liu Mingjiu lit a cigarette and took a puff, looking at Wu Tongjin with a smile. In this era, it was very common for military officers to smoke opium, but Liu Mingjiu was glad that the original owner of this body he had transmigrated into hadn't developed an addiction yet. Although in his previous life, he had never dared to touch that stuff, he had heard that many famous and influential people ultimately fell because of it. But cigarettes were different, in his previous life, Liu Mingjiu was a true nicotine addict and drunkard, and when he came to this era, smoking cigarettes without so many impurities and additives, he quickly became enamored with them.

  "How can we do it without letting the top know that you've thought about it?" Luo Xiangliang asked with a worried face, looking at Liu Mingjiu who had an indifferent expression: "If this is not handled properly, your life will be in danger. If something happens to you, our current advantageous situation will be ruined."

  "Haha, Mule, if I don't think of a good way to do it, would I dare to take it on?" Liu Mingjiu looked at these two iron brothers who had truly begun to be loyal to him and coldly said out his plan.

  Luohai Liang and Wu Tongjin were stunned after hearing this, and it took them a while to react. They looked at Liu Mingjiu with a gaze as if they were looking at a stranger: "I'm telling you, Commander, I feel like I don't know you anymore. You're so generous to your brothers, I really can't believe this is your idea."

  Liu Mingjiu didn't say anything else, but just laughed "haha" loudly and fell onto the kang to drink tea. Luo Xiliang and Wu Tongjin left his room with puzzled faces.

  Three days later, at midnight, many of the artillerymen in Caojiazhuang had fallen asleep. The people in Cao's house had also entered their dreams. However, outside the village, in a field of wheat, a pair of people dressed entirely in black slowly approached the village. The artillerymen on the four earth towers around Cao's large courtyard were also drowsy and lacked any spirit.

  "'Ghostly Slip', you take your squad's brothers and get rid of the watchtowers on the west and north sides for me at the first moment, Old Wang, you take your brothers and get rid of the watchtowers on the east and south sides for me at the same time, remember, not a single sound is allowed." A masked black-clad man gave orders to the other two black-clad men beside him.

  Two minutes later, between the high sorghum and millet fields, two teams of black-clad men moved silently to the bottom of the four watchtowers, triggering a burst of barking from the village dogs. The Cao family's artilleryman on the watchtower opened his sleepy eyes, looked down, but the black-clad men had already moved to the bottom of the four-meter-high watchtowers. Seeing someone poking their head out, they all lay flat on the ground, motionless, with some wild grass and camouflage materials covering them. So, in the dark night, the artilleryman on the watchtower didn't notice anything unusual, leaned his body against the wall of the watchtower, muttered a few curses, and fell asleep again.

  The gunners could never have imagined that the god of death was approaching them at a rapid pace. Just as they were about to re-enter their dreams, several iron hooks caught onto the railing on the edge of the watchtower's earthen wall, and then several black shadows quickly climbed up the earthen wall, throwing down more ropes, and a group of people quickly climbed over the only three-meter-high earthen wall. The gunners still didn't know what was happening, and they were confusedly strangled or stabbed in the throat by these men in black, without even having time to make a sound before going to see King Yan.

  The black-clad man who was hiding in the valley and giving orders soon saw a few flashes of light on the watchtower, which was a pre-arranged signal for success. He turned around and gave another order: "Old Luo, lead the clean-faced tiger's squad to rush to the main gate, Old Li, lead your squad to quickly go to the back to prevent anyone from escaping, we must not leave any survivors, but we need to injure Miss Huang without killing her."

  Two men in black clothes responded with a soft "yes" beside him, and then two teams of men in black clothes quickly emerged from the cornfield and the sorghum field. One team rushed towards the front gate of Cao's mansion, while the other team ran swiftly towards the back of Cao's mansion. At this time, the four artillerymen guarding the gate heard the sound, opened their eyes to see a group of people running towards the gate, some were so scared that they lost their voices, and one clever and experienced person immediately rang the large bell in front of the gate.

  But it was too late, before he could shake a few times, a man in black had rushed to his front, and with just one glance, he stabbed a sharp dagger into his throat. The gunner only felt a sharp pain in his throat, wanted to shout but couldn't make a sound, then saw a stream of blood shooting out from his own throat like an arrow. After that, he followed the other gunners to meet King Yan.

  "The big shopkeeper, the gate has been taken down." The person called "Old Ding" by the leader of the black-clad men solved the three cannonmen outside the gate in less than half a minute and dragged a young cannonman who had been scared to death in front of the leader. "As you requested, I left this live one behind, this kid is so scared he's peeing his pants."

  "Go, let him open the door and say it's to warm up with hot water. If he doesn't listen, I'll kill him right now." After the leader of the black-clad men gave the new order, the young gunner who had been scared out of his wits was pushed to the front gate, where one of the black-clad men held a shiny dagger to his neck and knocked on the door several times.

  "What's going on? It's the middle of the night, what are you knocking for? Can't you just quietly ring the alarm bell outside instead? You're disturbing Master and the others. I'll have your skin if you don't behave! Why are you knocking on the door at this hour?" A loud, discontented voice came from inside the gate.

  The young gunman, who had already been scared out of his wits, was held at knifepoint and could only pretend to be calm as he said towards the door: "I'm freezing, Old Zhang, I want to drink some water."

  "Is that another little brat? You little bastard, don't you dare take the night road, if you do, your mother will have something to worry about." The voice inside was saying with great dissatisfaction while opening the door. Just as he was about to scold some more, he found himself unable to speak again because a bright dagger had quickly stabbed into his throat the moment he opened the door. All he saw was a group of black-clad men rushing in through the door before he lost consciousness.

  After the black-clad men opened the door, the young gunner also failed to escape their clutches. The dagger that was originally placed on his neck quickly slid down and cut off his neck, leaving only a long trail of blood behind.

  Then a group of black-clad men rushed to various corners of the Cao family's mansion. After a burst of gunfire, the guards and artillerymen on the kang had not yet reacted when they were shot dead by the black-clad men who rushed into the artillery room. A few alert artillerymen pulled out their pistols from under their pillows, but before they could fire, they were all shot dead on the long kang by the swift and fierce black-clad men.

  A gunshot rang out, and the entire Cao family compound immediately fell into chaos. Black-clad men rushed into the courtyard, and members of the Cao family were dragged to the center of the yard and shot dead on the spot. The eldest young master and third young master of the Cao family were killed with a single knife by black-clad men while they were in bed with their concubines. The two concubines didn't even have time to scream before they too were killed by the black-clad men.

  The bloodbath lasted for nearly half an hour, after which the leader of the group shouted "Withdraw!" and they quickly retreated from the Cao family compound, disappearing as suddenly as they had arrived.

  Although it was a bloodbath, several people were left alive: the two daughters of the eldest young master, aged 11 and 6; the two concubines of the third young master; another male servant; and several long-term workers. The three wives of the second young master were all killed in this massacre, as well as their three young sons, who were all slaughtered without exception.

  The next day, the Cao family's mansion was exterminated overnight, with 108 out of 118 people killed, shocking the entire Rehe and southern Liaoning region. The surviving mouths, two young concubines of the third young master of the Cao family, insisted that this was done by Ma Hu Zi from Chaoyang, as most of the perpetrators' accents were from Chaoyang and Xinmin. As a result, all forces attributed this case to Wang Xiao Jia Zi, the bandit leader who was secretly active in Jianchang.

  Just as the news came, the Caojia Fortress security team rushed to see the tragic scene of the Cao family's extinction. Meanwhile, in the Linglong Tower Battalion, another scene was unfolding. Luo Xiliang took stock overnight and reported that a total of 115 people from the entire battalion were deployed, with three injured and no deaths or disabilities. The next morning, they knocked on the door of Huang Zongsheng's town hall. According to Liu Mingjiu's instructions, Wu Tongjin reported to Huang Zongsheng that 132 people had been deployed, with 43 injured and no deaths or disabilities. Huang Zongsheng also fulfilled his promise and handed over a bank draft of 32,000 yuan to Ding Shaquan.

  The Cao family massacre, Liu Mingjiu also let his subordinates loot the Cao family's cellar and silver warehouse, and took back six large boxes of various valuables. After counting at noon, there were 21,600 yuan in cash, 885,000 yuan in bank drafts, and other gold bars and jewelry worth at least 100,000 yuan. This means that they looted and recovered a total of 240,000 yuan. During the action, Liu Mingjiu only told his subordinates that it was a "blood-washing operation" aimed at training troops. He distributed 200 yuan to each of his brothers, while squad leaders received an additional 200 yuan and team leaders received an additional 500 yuan. Over a million yuan became the secret military funds of the Eighth Regiment.

  The Cao family massacre shocked Jiang Jie, who was hiding in Chengde, and he ordered Liang Cunhua, the commander of the 2nd Division of the Left Wuwei Army, to assist Deng Zhisheng, the county magistrate of Jianchang, in solving the case quickly. He also ordered the 18th Regiment to strictly guard against and investigate to prevent Wang Xiaozhu's bandits from infiltrating into Rehe to commit crimes. At the same time, he commanded the Second Division stationed in Chaoyang to speed up the elimination of Wang Xiaozhu's bandit group within the territory of Rehe.

  In the Fengtian Army, Zhang Zuolin also personally sent someone to interrogate Wang Xiaozhu, with whom he had some connections since his early days. After asking the person in charge of the stick gang active in Chaoyang and Jianchang, Wang Xiaozhu confirmed that it was not his people who did it. However, Zhang Zuolin, who was also from a green forest background, would not believe Wang Xiaozhu's "sophistry". He immediately became angry and sent troops.

  Suddenly, the two armies of Jiang Jie and Zhang Zuolin launched a full-scale campaign against Wang Xiaozhu's forces in Xinmin, Beipiao, and within the territory of Rehe. Meanwhile, the 8th Regiment stationed at Linglong Tower was still living a carefree life under Liu Mingjiu's leadership, with no one daring to expose the reward money according to Liu Mingjiu's strict orders.

  No one would have thought that the shocking case of the extermination of a family would be caused by the recently famous Balong. All levels were busy going to hit Wang Xiaoyan, while Linglong Tower and Balong restored their usual calm surface. Liu Mingjiu was willing to lend a hand to help the Huang family destroy the Cao family, not just because of a simple monetary relationship. The evil deeds of the Cao family were the main reason for their extermination, and Liu Mingjiu was more of a thought of punishing the evil tyrant.