Chapter 29: Cutting Grass and Eradicating Roots (2)

  "Boss isn't busy today! He can even spare some time to buy a pack of cigarettes." Taking the opportunity while buying cigarettes, Yu Hongbin asked.

  "Alas! Don't mention it, my legs are about to run off these past few days! Who has the leisure to smoke?! This cigarette was even bought for our Commander Zhao instead!" The puppet soldier complained.

  "Oh! So it was Captain Zhao who wanted it! He hasn't come to buy cigarettes from me for some time now! What official business can't Captain Zhao get away from again?" Yu Hongbin said with feigned surprise.

  "Hey! Now our Zhao Lianchang is really busy, sigh! Don't even mention it!" This fake soldier seemed to want to say something, but stopped again.

  "No wonder! Zhao Lianchang often comes to my place to buy cigarettes, but he hasn't come for a few days. He's an old customer of mine, so since you're busy now, bring back a few more packs for him! Otherwise, one pack won't be enough for him to smoke, and it'll save you from running back and forth several times." Yu Hongbin said, taking out five more packs from under the counter and handing them to the puppet soldier.

  "What's the point of saying that! When I came out, Zhao Lianzhang just said to take a pack!", The pseudo-army was busy putting the cigarettes in his pocket, and he pretended to be difficult, actually he just didn't want to pay for the cigarettes. He didn't even want to spend one packet of money, think about it, how could Zhao Zuofang's subordinate come out to buy cigarettes and possibly give him money?!

  "Ah! Is the officer being polite or looking down on me? If Zhao Lianzhang asks, just say I'm showing respect for him and thanking him for his previous care for our small shop." Yu Hongbin said with feigned respect.

  "Right! What brand of cigarettes does the officer smoke? Since it's a rare occasion, why don't the officer have a pack too!", Yu Hongbin asked hurriedly.

  "How can we face you!", the pseudo-military soldier hypocritically smiled and said.

  "What's the big deal! This small thing can't even enter your eyes, it's not worth respecting. In the future, if the superior takes care of my small shop, everything will be fine."

  "In that case, I won't be polite!" The fake soldier said with a smile.

  "Don't be polite, I don't have anything else decent here." Yu Hongbin said with a pretentious politeness. The fake soldier pretended to be very embarrassed and said, "Then give me that brand of cigarettes!" He pointed to a pack of cigarettes on the counter, and Yu Hongbin glanced at it, knowing that the fake soldier was trying to extort him. However, he still smiled and handed over the pack of cigarettes, then bent down to retrieve four more packs of the same brand from the drawer under the counter, making a total of five packs which he handed over to the fake soldier.

  "One pack is not enough for smoking! Let's have five packs!" Yu Hongbin said with a pretentious air of grandeur.

  "This is too polite!", the pseudo-army quickly took over and hypocritically said.

  "Don't be polite! Just say a few more good words in front of Zhao Lianchang and I'll thank you enough." "Definitely! Definitely!", the puppet soldier said, turning around and leaving the tobacco shop.

  "Take care! See you next time!" Yu Hongbin shouted with feigned enthusiasm.

  "Alright! See you later!", The pseudo-military soldier returned to the security team's headquarters with a pleased smile.

  At that time, the price of cigarettes was not low, ordinary soldiers would not easily buy cigarettes to smoke, only those with severe nicotine addiction would occasionally buy a pack. They spent most of their money on gambling and whoring, this kid suddenly extorted five packs of cigarettes, how could he not be happy? Thinking that if he smoked carefully, it would almost last two months.

  The fake soldier who bought the cigarettes happily hummed a tune as he entered the security team's compound. He first hid the cigarettes he had extorted, then went to deliver them to Zhao Zuofang.

  "How did you buy so many? It's good this way! Not enough to smoke!" Zhao Zuofang asked and then muttered to himself. Then he let the soldier go down. Originally, this fake army had thought of a good excuse, if Zhao Zuofang asked why he bought five packs of cigarettes, he would say that he was afraid there wouldn't be enough to smoke, so he bought a few more packs as backup. Zhao Zuofang would still have to praise himself for a while! Who would have thought that Zhao Zuofang had been thinking about how to become the deputy regiment commander these days, and wouldn't think of anything else?!

  "Ah! This 'Wu Tai Shan' is still quite something!", Zhao Zuofang lit a cigarette, leaned back in his chair and took a deep drag. These past few days had been exhausting for him, but he still hadn't run out of cigarettes. He was used to smoking Wu Tai Shan, and found it hard to adjust to other brands. Now that he could finally smoke his old brand again, he should take a good rest and enjoy a cigarette.

  Unconsciously, he had already smoked three in a row. Perhaps it was because this time he endured for too long, and also because the number of cigarettes he bought this time was sufficient. He didn't care about these anymore.

  As he watched the fake army enter the security team's compound, Xie Guangyuan immediately returned to the tobacco shop, and together with Hong Bin and Wang Guoquan, they packed up their things and left the city. They knew that this plan had succeeded, and Zhao Zuofang was not far from death. As long as he smoked those cigarettes, he would die soon.

  In fact, the cigarette had already been tampered with by Li Xinmin. As an excellent bodyguard and one of the strongest warriors who had protected national leaders, how could such a small matter as poisoning be difficult for him? Zhao Zuofang was easily dealt with, and the fourth squad leader Yu Hongbin led team members Xie Guangyuan and Wang Guoquan back to their temporary base in the southern part of the city.

  At this moment, in the office of the head of the security team, Lu Li was discussing something with Wang Xiujin.

  "Captain! I think Captain Zhang's death is somewhat suspicious!", Wang Xiujin expressed his doubts to Lu Ri.

  "Oh! What did you find?" Lu Ri asked in puzzlement.

  "Earlier, the liaison officer we captured said they would send someone to assassinate Captain Zhang and Deputy Captain Lan. But I've been staking out that contact point for several days and haven't seen anyone go there to make contact. This situation doesn't seem right!" Wang Xi-jiu analyzed.

  "Not bad! They must have gone to the county town to contact them, unless you suspect that they didn't even contact the liaison point? Did they kill Zhang Tuanzhang and abduct Lan Fu Tuanzhang?" Lu Li asked very tensely.

  "It's possible, is it?! If I had a choice, I'd rather it was Liu Hei Zi and his gang who did it, the ones I'm afraid of... Don't forget that you and I are also..." Wang Xi Jiu said up to here and didn't continue speaking.

  "Hmm! Not bad, indeed there is a great deal of suspicion." Luri said very affirmatively.

  "We must be more careful when we go out from now on!", said Wang Xijiu.

  "Tighten the interrogation of those few captives! Pay special attention to that contact point and implement strict surveillance there!", Lu Li instructed very seriously.

  "Yes!", Wang Xiujin replied respectfully. As for Lu Ri, Wang Xiujin was also not very convinced in his heart, but his previous position was not as high as Lu Ri's, so he didn't have the qualifications to compete with him. The reason he followed Lu Ri so closely was that he wanted to contend for the deputy captain position. People tend to go to higher places, water flows to lower places, who doesn't want to stand out? They surrendered to the devils and became traitors, isn't it because they wanted to be officials and enjoy wealth and glory? Want money? Have money! Want women? Have women! Otherwise, they wouldn't have taken such a great risk to surrender and become traitors.

  This Wang Xiujin is very cunning and treacherous, the liaison point of the Eighth Route Army was discovered by him. They discussed here how to deal with the Eighth Route Army, but they didn't know that they had already been targeted, a assassination operation against them has begun.

  Wang Xijiu had a good friend, the daughter of a landlord. For his own safety, he specially set up his home in an alley next to the gendarmerie. In his view, the devils' gendarmes were his best bodyguards, and this place was much safer than other places. He was afraid that the Eighth Route Army would settle accounts with him, so every time he went out, there would be three or five bodyguards following him, making it very inconvenient for them to take action against him. It was easy to take action outside, but if they wanted to retreat safely, it would be very difficult.