Chapter 35 The Store Manager's Conspiracy

  Having bid farewell to his beloved Tan Xiao, he devoted all his energy to work, and apart from the crazy training of the troops, he now had an extremely important "face project" to plan: a military exercise to be presented to Hitler.

  Benefiting from those later exercise shells with a large amount of brightening and responsive agents, which were also patented by "Dongfang Eyesnake", and the performance of his most elite troops. He had successfully intimidated the Germans. However, facing Hitler's visit, it was impossible to have another ambush-scale exercise to cope with it! How could there be no coordination between infantry and artillery, or even air and land? Such an exercise would take almost three months to prepare in later times, but now he had less than a month, which was very difficult! Moreover, the troops participating in the exercise were not just the First Division, and the venue of the exercise could not be in the familiar environment of the Lingling training base. It was too hard to come up with good results!

  The Xiang Army troops who were resting in the rear had already begun to reorganize and train, while other troops were gathering. Tan Xiang's workload was piling up, although his staff team had basically taken shape, he still felt it was not enough. As for the training strength, it was even weaker, and the troops that he could really rely on were only around 5,000 to 6,000 people. If these people were dispatched to other troops to help with training, then the training quality and progress of the First Division would be compromised. If they were not dispatched, then other troops would find it difficult to understand his training goals, and would be unable to grasp the details well, truly instilling advanced tactical awareness.

  Fortunately, at this time there were two troops that could be borrowed and rushed to the scene first: the Central Instruction Corps and the Tax Police Corps. The officers and soldiers of these two troops were all of extremely high quality, like the Tax Police Corps, which consisted of soldiers with a middle school education or above, while the Central Instruction Corps was even more formidable, with not only high-quality soldiers but also platoon leaders who were basically young military officers graduated from the Central Army University, and had received regular military theoretical training and a large amount of basic training.

  The Taxation Police Corps, although it was originally from Soong Tse-ven's faction, was forcibly annexed by Chiang Kai-shek last year. The current commander is Huang Jie, the original commander of the Second Division. Since Huang Jie is now focusing on the activities of the "Blue Shirt Society", Chiang Kai-shek intends to let Tan Xiao take over the Taxation Police Corps and directly incorporate it into the Field Army sequence like other Hunan troops. Being able to take over such a powerful army, Tan Xiao was naturally extremely delighted!

  In this once powerful army that was renowned throughout the country, Tan Xiao had an idol-like figure in his later years - Sun Li-ren! Although he was a soldier of the Liberation Army in his later years, when it came to modern military idols, Tan Xiao admired Sun Li-ren the most. This was because Sun Li-ren's military achievements were mainly from foreign wars, and his glorious record of annihilating an entire Japanese division in Burma was something that other generals of both the Nationalist and Communist parties could not match. His "Sun-style drill" which combined American military concepts with Chinese national conditions to create elite troops far surpassed those of other units. In one assessment where 48 units participated, his Taxation Police Fourth Regiment took seven out of the top ten places in shooting! It can be said that the "Sun-style drill" and Tan Xiao's training methods from his original time-space had a similar yet different approach; if you exclude Tan Xiao's experience from crossing over, his military talent was far inferior to Sun Li-ren's.

  Now, Sun Liren's materials are in Tan Xiao's hands, which makes Tan Xiao very conflicted: according to Chiang Kai-shek's intention, the entire Taxation Police Corps should be thoroughly centralized, but Sun Liren is obviously a die-hard loyalist of the Song family and has a close private relationship with Soong Tzu-wen. He usually looks down on the Central Army generals from Huangpu. But if he wants to "abolish" him now, Tan Xiao will never do it. How to control this person is a big problem: he is highly talented and arrogant; another point is that he shows no mercy in fighting against the Communist army: during the encirclement of the Soviet area, he once took over the defense of Qiulin with a single regiment, replacing Liu Zhi's 83rd Division, which was unable to hold on. In the Northeast China campaign after the War of Resistance, he defeated the Northeast China Field Army in four battles, forcing them to flee. After the Battle of Dehui, the Communist army spread rumors that "as long as we don't fight against the New First Army, we are not afraid of the Central Army's million soldiers". If Chiang Kai-shek hadn't stopped the attack himself, the Communist army would have retreated into the Soviet Union. Such a fierce general, Tan Xiao would be overjoyed to have him join his troops! But he had just beaten Soong Tzu-wen, who was now recovering from his injuries and hiding in his house in Lingling, not daring to come out.

  Tan Xiao looked at the large pile of materials, it was clear that if he wanted to deceive Hitler, both of the two troops participating in the exercise were indispensable. If they didn't require these troops to fully understand tactics, but just for the sake of the exercise, then a month's training should be enough for such high-quality troops. However, in Tan Xiao's plan, his own Wild First Division, plus these two troops, would only account for half of the total number of people participating in the exercise. Where could he find the rest? Tan Xiao knew many of the National Army generals by name, but not their detailed combat capabilities. After some thought, he decided to add the 25th Division led by Guan Linzheng, considering both ability and face-saving for each army. As for the 2nd Division led by Huang Jie, Tan Xiao originally didn't want to use it. He knew little about Huang Jie, except that during the resistance against Japan, he had disobeyed orders and retreated, resulting in the National Army being forced to blow up the Huayuan Port. However, Huang Jie had a thick resume, having saved Chiang Kai-shek twice, so his face couldn't be ignored! It was frustrating to have troops you didn't want to use but had to, while the usable troops were not enough.

  Tan Xiao was in Lingling City, making Hitler and the National Army generals scratch their heads, when Sun Liren, who had been having a hard time deciding what to do, was about to arrive in Lingling. He came so quickly because his benefactor, Song Ziwen, had asked him to come as soon as possible. Of course, Song Ziwen's purpose in summoning him was to deal with Tan Xiao!

  Song Ziwen and Kong Xiangxi, who have now gained their freedom, are still in Lingling, but they have changed their residence - they would rather die than enter He Shao's Xiangguan again.

  Now, in the study of their temporary "new home", a meeting is being held. There are not many people attending, all of whom are absolutely trusted by the Song and Kong families, and the host of the meeting is Song Meiling, who rushed over secretly!

  There is a person who even Chiang Kai-shek would give way to, now the meeting has become a trial for Tan Xiao: Song Ziwen and Kong Xiangxi naturally wouldn't go too far, they just briefly mentioned what happened in the past few days - after all, it's embarrassing to be scolded by others. But Kong Lingkun was different, he cried and scolded Tan Xiao severely, with many vicious curses mixed in, even Song Meiling had to interrupt him several times!

  Kong Lingkuan cried and made a fuss, then saw that the attendants of both families had no intention - even the masters were being taken away, how dare they offer any advice! Kong Lingkuan started to scold: "You damned Tan family dog! Even their good friend is a bitch! In the past she was with a Frenchman, but this Tan family's woman stole him and treated him as a treasure! One day when I meet her, I'll play her to death!..."

  "How dare you! Don't you worry about offending others' ears even if your mouth is dirty!" Song Ailing was truly furious, she had no idea where her son learned so many dirty words growing up in the strict Confucian household of the Kong family.

  "I'm telling you, Kong Lingkuan!" She said seriously to her son: "You can do whatever you want, but don't touch any woman with the surname Tan, whether it's that arms dealer or the daughter of the security chief! Otherwise, I'm warning you, even gods won't be able to save you! ...Alright, now this matter is clear. Hmph, both the Kong and Song families have been bullied to the point of collapse. What do you all think?"

  The subordinates and staff looked at me, I looked at them, but none of them dared to speak easily.

  "Mother, let's go to our uncle's place and tell him, search his house! Exterminate his clan!"... Still, it was Kong Lingkan who broke the deadlock.

  Seeing that everyone had no idea, Song Ailing thought for a long time before speaking: "Now this Tan Xiao, in Sanmei's husband's eyes, was quite impressive at the time, and he even got a large amount of military supplies from the Germans. I heard he also got a lot of money. Hmph, just two days ago, he broke through the siege with flying troops to rescue him. I estimate that now, whoever wants to move Tan Xiao will have no chance... Reporting to the authorities can only make it difficult for your uncle, and this madman is still holding the apology letters from your father and uncle. If he really goes all out and publishes this in the newspaper, then our two families will be afraid of being pelted with rotten eggs whenever we go out!"

  "Mom, are we going to tolerate this good-for-nothing...” Seeing his mother's stern gaze, Kong Lingkan swallowed the rest of his words.

  "Our two families, the Kong and Song, have never suffered such a great loss! If we swallow this loss and don't even dare to take revenge, then we might as well not show our faces in politics and business again! However, a gentleman takes his time when seeking revenge. It's not something that needs to be done immediately!" Song Ailing said: "The biggest obstacle standing in our way right now is not someone else, but rather Sanmei's husband. So we need to think clearly about how to remove this obstacle." She paused for a moment, looking at the tense expressions of everyone present, and knew that they had misunderstood her. She smiled and continued: "Sanmei's husband is protecting him for three reasons: firstly, this person is loyal to him; secondly, he has just achieved a great success in foreign affairs, solving his urgent problem; thirdly, he currently has the means to do so. If these three conditions change, then it's hard to say what will happen!"

  "Can this loyalty also be changed at will?" Kong Xiangxi asked, but seeing that his wife seemed to resent him for interrupting her speech, he remained silent.

  "We must first remove the root of the problem! ... Isn't Ziwen always thinking about building railways? Well, it's a good thing that benefits the country and the people, why not do it?" asked Soong May-ling.

  Kong and Song were so clever, they suddenly realized: Ah, now the National Government has money in hand, but as long as this railway is built, it will cost tens of millions, let alone one hundred million marks. Even if it's ten billion, as long as several railways are started at the same time, within a year, the finances will naturally become tight again. In this way, Chiang Kai-shek must win over the Jiangsu and Zhejiang financial groups again; besides, if this railway is led by Song Ziwen to build, Kong Xiangxi as Minister of Finance, after two railways are built, it's estimated that the 20 million extorted by Tan will be back! Hehe, aren't you good at getting money from foreigners? Good! Get more, we're waiting for your money!

  "Madam is out, one against two!..." Kong Xiangxi's long-lost smile appeared: "What a pity for that Tan fellow..."

  "Who says it's over?" Song Ailing said: "This is just a trick to remove the fire from the cauldron! The second trick is to release the captive on purpose!"

  Everyone remained silent and waited for Song Ailing to continue speaking.

  "This Tan Xiao is not a fool, he's clever! Everyone sees that he doesn't get along with He Jian, and I heard he recently offended Bai Chongxi too. Hmph, it's said that Sun Du of the Guizhou army also has many complaints about him behind his back... but he can still win over the favor of his superior! Now, he's offended both our families, and Third Brother-in-law won't be able to protect him, he's finished for sure. A commander who makes enemies on all sides is someone you can trust? Who wouldn't rebel against him? It's impossible for someone like that to be loyal! Even if he had a strong army in his hands, not one ally, not one piece of territory, what could he do?

  "So we should give him some conditions to rebel," Song Ailing continued, "such as territory, such as allies and so on..."

  "This, is this okay? Besides, how can you give it like that?" Song Ziwen was somewhat perplexed.

  "Isn't he the director of the Xiangling Line now? I heard he has a good relationship with Yang Chuanqing, so let's make him closer to Yang Chuanqing and give him an ally! Then, Ziwu, you can build the railway in his defense zone and have him participate in it. This way, he will have military power, civil administrative power, and even local financial power all in his hands. What do you think Yang Chuanqing will do?"

  "Yang Changqing? What does this have to do with him?" Song Ziwu still couldn't understand, he felt that letting Tan Xiao participate in the railway construction would make it difficult for them to embezzle money in between, but it was still not very comfortable.

  "Of course it's related, didn't Yang Changqing massively replace local officials in Jiangxi and promote a large number of people from the political science department?" Song Ailing asked: "Then who did he offend?"

  "Of course it's those two Chen brothers... I heard CC wants to directly..." Song Ziwen suddenly stopped, he understood.

  Tan Xiaojun grasped both military and civil governance, he must have dealt with local officials, definitely used his own people, which would have conflicted with the central party department. If Yang Yongtai was added to this, it would inevitably become a situation of Tan's faction fighting against the CC clique!

  CC thought of killing Yang Yongtai, he had inside information, it was not a rumor. After all, CC had a large number of special agents and assassins at his disposal, some things that the Kong and Song families couldn't do conveniently, they could do very easily! If they could facilitate an alliance between Yang and Tan, this was a very likely thing, Guiyang had already spread the word that Chiang Kai-shek said that what he was most pleased with now was the harmony of officials! So the struggle between Yang and Chen would drag Tan Xiaolu into it, with CC's consistent style, they really dared to kill Tan Xiaolu! What's more interesting is that if CC really killed Yang Yongtai, then Tan Xiaolu would definitely take action! This move might be a counter- assassination, both sides would not give up until one of them died! And once Tan Xiaolu took action, the political science department after Yang Yongtai's death might all turn to Tan Xiaolu. Chiang Kai-shek could tolerate a martial artist with an army but would be wary of a powerful military group plus a group of capable intellectuals! This was not just a case of "luring the enemy in with a trap"! At least it should be added that it was a case of "shifting the disaster to Jiangdong" and "borrowing a knife to kill someone"!

  Right! Stir up Tang Dynasty and CC fight! One has an army and one has special agents, just like a fish dying together with the net!

  "At critical moments, as long as there is an opportunity, I don't mind using slightly more drastic measures..." Song Ailing said: "As long as we can get the two families to fight each other, we can even go and set fire!... But now, we need to help Tan Xiao implement military control in the Lingling area, drive out the people from the Central Party Department. The railway is a great excuse, wherever it passes, military control will follow! As long as this plan goes ahead, Yang Changqing will definitely support - this is what he has always advocated for and done. Moreover, he admires Tan, so they will definitely form an alliance. Let's have Ziwu propose the suggestion to designate the railway route as a special zone under military control, making it look like we're putting aside past grievances and taking the initiative to show goodwill..."

  "So it was like this!" Song Ziwen admired his sister's calculation with all his might!

  "It's not over yet! There's one more trick, if it works, it'll make my brother-in-law very disgusted with him!" Song Ailing showed a triumphant expression: "This will fall on that woman named Rong Hui!"

  As soon as the name Rong Hui was mentioned, Kong Lingkan's expression turned fierce: "Right, we'll make sure everyone knows about it, spread her dirty past everywhere and let all know! Let them all know that Tan found some kind of trash, made his brother-in-law oppose him, and stopped helping him!"

  "What are you talking nonsense again?" Song Ailing was very unhappy with Kong Lingkan's words.

  "With the way you're acting, I reckon Tan's family will deal with you before they even get to Chen's family! Don't get excited every time that woman is mentioned! I'm warning you again, don't confront Tan's family head-on, he'll kill you!" After Song Ailing scolded her son: "That poor woman isn't of a lowly birth? Let's give her a good status then!"

  "Big sister, you don't mean to let Sanmei recognize her as a goddaughter again, do you?" Song Ziwen asked: "And then join forces with that woman to do business and find opportunities in between?"

  "You! That's all you can think of?" Song Ai-ling smiled and said: "It is recognized as a goddaughter, but not the third sister!"

  It seems like a triumphant move, but Soong Ching-ling hesitated and didn't reveal the answer: "Guess who I let recognize?"

  "Mom, you..." Kong Lingkan suddenly revealed a very strange gaze at his mother.

  "Ying Ling... you're not..." Kong Xiangxi suddenly understood his son's answer, and he also suddenly felt that it should be this answer. Like the thoughts of the father and son, unexpectedly, everyone agreed unanimously.

  "What's wrong with you all? All of you are wrong...!" Song Ailing finally spoke out her answer: "I let Chen Biqun recognize Rong Hui as her goddaughter!"

  "Ah!" Song Ziwen slapped his thigh: "Great! Wonderful!"

  Wang Jingwei was Chiang Kai-shek's political opponent, a destined opponent. On January 28, Wang Jingwei was the one who shouted anti-Japanese slogans the loudest, so Chiang Kai-shek had to be patient. When Chiang Kai-shek advocated for war, Wang Jingwei advocated for peace. At the time of Sun Yat-sen's deathbed, it was Wang Jingwei who drafted the Premier's last words, so he always thought he was the rightful successor to the Premier. He even once wanted to use the "Assassination of Liao" case to capture his arch-nemesis Hu Hanmin at that time. Later, when Chiang Kai-shek took control of the National Government, Wang Jingwei discovered that this former ally was actually his greatest enemy. More importantly, not only did Wang Jingwei consider Chiang Kai-shek his greatest political opponent, but Chiang Kai-shek also saw him in the same way!

  Wang Jingwei knew where he lost to Chiang Kai-shek - he had no army! The Guangdong-based military, Chen Jitang, with whom he had a close relationship, had already become an independent regime and would not listen to him. The 19th Route Army, which had been dispatched earlier to fight against Japan, had even had its designation revoked by Chiang Kai-shek and was disbanded. However, Wang Jingwei did not give up on grasping the military, he always sent representatives to contact Yan Xishan and others, hoping to use other people's armies to overthrow Chiang, without considering whether overthrowing Chiang would bring about a "Yan Jieshi".

  If someone reveals some of Rong Hui's situation in front of his self-proclaimed wife and makes some hints, then Chen Bijun will find an opportunity to get close to her and the possibility of recognizing Rong Hui as her goddaughter is very high!

  There are people who can talk to Chen Bijun and make her willing to listen! The Kong family has them, the Song family also has them!

  A woman from a humble background, had always dreamed of marrying the most promising young general of the Republic of China. If at this time, the wife of the head of the State Council wanted to recognize her as a goddaughter, and there were others who were pushing for it, would she decline? Even if she wanted to decline, could she?! Rong Hui now has a French identity background, and Wang Jingwei's relationship with the French is also very good. When traveling in Europe, they have to live in Paris. As long as he thinks this is something worth doing, they will definitely create opportunities!

  As soon as Rong Hui became Wang Jingwei's goddaughter, Tan Xiao's loyalty in Chiang Kai-shek's heart would inevitably drop several levels! Song Ziwen suddenly had a strange vision: the wedding march was playing loudly, and Tan Xiao, dressed in formal attire, walked down the aisle with Rong Hui, who was wearing a white wedding veil, on Wang Jingwei's arm. Meanwhile, Chiang Kai-shek stood by, gritting his teeth in anger!

  When Tan Xiang's loyalty has decreased, when a large number of officials appear around Tan Xiang, when Tan Xiang starts to form cliques and participate in political struggles, when Tan Xiang already has his own territory... When Tan Xiang already has the ability to occupy the mountain alone against the central government and has this possibility, will Chiang Kai-shek still protect him? If at this time the Nanjing government's finances are in crisis and need the support of Kong Song, if Kong Song and CC have joined hands at this time... They directly want Tan Xiang dead!

  Song Ziwen suddenly felt that he had already seen Tan Xiao's way of death. Yes, there are many ways to kill someone, using a knife or a gun is the method of barbarians, civilized people with education and status would not stoop to such methods! The Song family and the Kong family are all civilized people with high social standing, so they do not use knives or guns to kill! He exchanged a smile with Kong Xiangxi, then cast an admiring glance at Soong May-ling.

  "Alright, the rest is just trivial matters for Qixing Company, too many, I won't bother with them, you all continue to discuss and settle..." Song Ailing finished analyzing and planning how to deal with Tan Xiao's situation, stood up and left the study alone.

  The boss of Kung's old shop is surnamed Song!