Chapter 36: Regaining Control of the Army (Part 1)

  Apart from the Kong and Song families, there are many people in Lingling City who want Tan Xiao's life. For example, the Japanese, their desire to get rid of Tan Xiao is stronger than anyone else!

  Since Tan Xiao took office as the head of the Lingling County government, the anti-Japanese wave in Hunan, northern Guangxi, northwestern Guangdong and southeastern Guizhou has been escalating. The inspection and seizure of Japanese merchants' goods have reached an unbearable level for the Japanese! Almost all Japanese resource-based investments and trade have been disrupted. Many local tyrants are not patriots, but they find that looting Japanese people is still very profitable, and even if they provoke a diplomatic incident, they are not afraid, as it will definitely be borne by Tan Xiao in Lingling. If things get out of hand, they can always back down later. Therefore, these local forces taking advantage of the situation have begun to make things difficult for Japanese merchants uniformly, and even rob them completely. Now, the Japanese are protesting through diplomatic channels every day, and at the same time, they are advising their businessmen not to do business in the Hunan area for the time being.

  Tanaka Hisashi was under tremendous pressure, the Japanese secret service in Shanghai had given him a deadline to eliminate Tan Xiao, and for this purpose, he had been assigned four highly trained assassins - not those foolishly selected from armed elements, but real masters. These four people, apart from having received strict spy training, were themselves descendants of Iga ninja families, with very mysterious skills.

  Because Japanese companies in Lingling have been completely suspended, and Yamashita Kiyoshi and other Japanese people had a direct conflict with Tan Xiang, so this time Tanaka Hisashi and others did not land at the original place, just avoiding the surveillance of the Military Affairs Bureau.

  "Mr. Tien, it's clear now. Previously, Zhou Xiang was busy with overtime and couldn't be contacted. Today, she agreed to arrange a meeting between me and the high-level executives of Ye Yi Shi. I think I can get in!" Ye Yingxue reported to Tanaka Hisashi. Unlike before, they were speaking Chinese without any Japanese flavor. Due to the recent Sino-German cooperation project, the plan to infiltrate Ye Yi Shi was disrupted. Until the work was completely finished and all personnel had a unified mouthpiece, it was announced to the outside world that the work would be fully closed off in case of an emergency. Ye Yingxue finally got in touch with Zhou Xiang."

  "Uh-huh." Tanaka Hisashi was still as wooden and expressionless as ever, giving no hint of what he was thinking or if he was thinking anything at all. "What a beautiful woman... it would be a shame if she died like this..." Of course, Tanaka Hisashi was thinking something - his inner self was far from matching his wooden exterior. Since Tang Xiao had become the thorn in the side of the Japanese, killing him had become an objective worth any cost, even sacrificing personnel who had other missions to complete. Killing someone could sometimes be a simple matter - just shoot them point-blank when they least expected it. Perhaps the best way to deal with Tang Xiao would be to have Yezakura Mitsuki take care of him in the office area of Unit 731...

  Many things are contagious, such as falling in love. It seems that He Shaotang has now caught the bug and is experiencing the feeling of longing for love. At noon, he accepted an invitation from female agent Zhou Xiang to attend a dinner party, where he met one of her female classmates. He had known about Zhou Xiang's true identity as a special agent since the first day she arrived at Ye Yi Shi, because his uncle didn't want him to be blackmailed and had warned him.

  He Shaotang wasn't very interested in female special agents, he thought they were too dangerous and their careers had too many dark aspects. However, a certain Zhong Lushi's sister who chose to drop out because she didn't want to accept the "special training" targeting men still tempted him greatly: not all female special agents had to go through that kind of training, unless they were very beautiful. So when Zhou Xing introduced her classmate like this, he agreed to meet this sister who wanted to join Ye Yi's school.

  She's beautiful! A cold beauty, always with a slightly raised chin that gives off an air of haughtiness, making especially confident men want to conquer her... He Shao Tang, who had achieved success at a young age, was very confident; and what's more, he felt a strange sense of familiarity whenever he saw her, even though he was certain they had never met before. Was this fate? Her name was Ye Qing Rou.

  He Shaotang agreed to let Ye Qing enter the No. 1 Wilderness Regiment and arranged for her to work in his direct leadership's combat staff department, where she immediately started working! Moreover, he personally took her to familiarize herself with the work environment, going from one department to another. This was also a declaration of his: She is my person, don't you dare have any ideas about her!

  Tan Xiao was not in the office building at this time, he was facing a large pile of documents, and when his brain started to feel dizzy, he chose to transfer - this was a method taught by Rong Hui. When you are at a loss for what to do with some things, go deal with other things, and it's best to choose something that makes you happy. So, he is now doing something that everyone loves to do: counting his recent wealth growth. He was training in the corner of the base, watching the soldiers train while listening to Wu Sheng's report: "Recently, the various minerals seized can be sold for over 800,000 yuan, and we also got three manganese mines, two lead-zinc mines, one silver mine, one tungsten mine, and one coal mine... We confiscated fourteen mines directly owned or indirectly controlled by the Japanese, and recovered various goods worth approximately 32 million yuan. Additionally, there were various guns, ammunition, and other items..."

  "Firearms and ammunition? How many are there? Exceeding the legal limit?"

  "Of course, almost every mine was able to collect more than ten times the amount of military explosives stipulated by law, and eight radio transmitters were also collected, all of which are prohibited items..."

  "Alright! Make all of this public, and for those Japanese company personnel who have been found to be in violation of the law, charge them with espionage and put them on trial. Also, get the Military Affairs Department to come up with some evidence, we must make these Japanese people pay a heavy price! And let He Shaotang take charge of this work, just announce that since more than half of the Japanese companies have been found to be engaging in espionage activities, we will restrict their investment in Hunan's mineral resources. As for how to restrict them, no need to say it out loud, just drive them all out!..." Tang Fan was quickly taking down every decision that Tan Xiao made.

  At this time, Tan Xiao saw a staff officer hurrying over from the office area and was taken aback: Wasn't there an unexpected guest? With such a restless and uneasy feeling, unable to sit or move, last time it was Chiang Kai-shek who arrived.

  "Report to the commander, General Guan Linzheng of the 25th Division has arrived at Lingling headquarters and requests an audience with the commander!"

  "What? Guan Linzheng has arrived? The 25th Division is known as the "Thousand Mile Colt" in the National Army, and it once fought a bloody battle with the Japanese Eighth Division for three days at the Great Wall. It's one of the few iron armies in the National Army that can fight hard battles to the death. But to say that they can arrive so quickly from the Great Wall to Lingling is really astonishing! Tan Xiao hastily ordered someone to prepare vehicles to rush into the city, and wondered: Can the 25th Division really fly?"

  It wasn't until they arrived at the camp that they realized it was the 25th Division's regimental commander and less than twenty staff members, guards, and orderlies who had come by transport plane. As for the "Thousand Mile Horse" division, it turned out that they hadn't even moved!

  "I, the 25th Division Commander, bear the heavy responsibility of defending the North China defense line. It's really hard to move south, so please don't blame me, Director Tan. This time, I brought some backbone troops from the army to receive reorganization and this troop still needs to stay in the north to keep an eye on the Japanese... " Guan Linzheng reported with a swaggering attitude. Looking at his demeanor, he really didn't put Tan Xiaoxiang, the General Chief of Staff and Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Reorganized Army, in his eyes!

  Tan Xiao's heart suddenly rose with a surge of unnamed fire: Aren't you just a Huangpu first-term? I'm now a general, and your lieutenant general has only been promoted for less than two days, how dare you be so presumptuous! Just about to erupt, Tan Xiao suddenly had an epiphany in his mind: This batch of troops waiting to be reorganized are basically the central army's direct lineage, with many generals like Guan Linzheng among them! Indeed, relying on himself, who has risen to general in less than half a year, can he suppress them? Now Chiang Kai-shek is still personally commanding various units to fight against the Red Army in Yunnan and Guizhou, while He Yingqin is mainly in charge of affairs in Beiping. The task of reorganizing the army has been handed over to Tan Xiao, but now it seems that the difficulty of this task is much greater than imagined: just these unruly old generals can make it very difficult for Tan Xiao to move - the 25th Division is openly defying orders! If we talk about crimes, they could be killed! But can they be killed? Looking at the group of "backbone" troops brought by Guan Linzheng, not to mention Du Yiming and Zhang Yaoming, who are not even here, just looking at their attire, except for a few staff officers, it's probably just the guards! Guan Linzheng is intentionally making things difficult for Tan Xiao! Moreover, this might be a collective protest on behalf of these troops waiting to be reorganized! After all, this time the army will be streamlined and downsized, many people will have to be demoted or laid off, I'm sure many people are not happy about it! In Tan Xiao's original plan, the 25th Division was one of the main forces used to deceive Hitler, but now the exercise plan has been severely impacted, not only that, but the entire reorganization process will also be discounted, let alone the quality of the reorganization. What should be done?!

  Tan Xiao was a bit at a loss, but he knew that he couldn't kill Guan Linzheng, and absolutely could not kill! This one killing might completely destroy his own future - offending Kong Xiangxi and Jiang Jieshi would still allow him to use himself, but if he offended the entire Huangpu system, then even if Jiang Jieshi admired him, he could only put him aside.

  "General Guan has been working hard all the way, how is it? Do you still feel energetic?" Tan Xiao asked.

  Guan Lin was a bit confused: "What does Tan's army mean..."

  "Tan has never been comfortable sitting in this office, he likes to stay on the military training ground. If not, please move over there and discuss while watching!" Tan Xiao proposed. It can only be like this, let the various anti-Japanese propaganda in the training camp move this Japan-hater, let the soldiers' excellent performance make him willing to cooperate with the army; let the Germans' respect for themselves earn this tough guy's respect! It can only be so, and cannot be forced! Tan Xiao thought of a good strategy in his heart, while also feeling a belly full of grievances: he is a general after all! How humiliating...

  On the way to the training base, the two people in the car didn't say much, each lost in their own thoughts. Tan Xiao was thinking about how he could make this batch of proud and arrogant generals really obey him from now on, while Guan Linzheng's mood was more complicated: before coming, as one of the first batch of training officers, they had contacted each other and didn't know much about Tan Xiao's background; although there were many rumors about Tan Xiao, it was estimated that he was indeed a talented person, but how capable could a nominal ninth-term rapid student be? Even the Germans admired him? Was the Central Propaganda Department intentionally creating rumors to help him? So, everyone unanimously nominated Guan Linzheng, the most senior and highest-achieving big brother, to explore the situation and suppress Tan Xiao's prestige at the same time! As for Guan Linzheng himself, he was opposed to this military training because the order he received was "to be transferred to the southwest to suppress bandits, first to Lingling to reorganize"! Although Guan Linzheng didn't have a good impression of the Communist Party, it was no problem for him to fight the Red Army, but he and the Japanese people on the opposite side of the defense line were sworn enemies! Tens of thousands of loyal and brave soldiers had died in the Great Wall line, now letting him give up North China and return to suppress bandits, he was unwilling in his heart.

  Tan Xiao dragged Guan Linzheng to the military training ground, and Guan Linzheng felt uneasy in his heart. He couldn't figure out what this nominal junior brother wanted to do. Moreover, Tan Xiao had just swallowed that rude remark whole, which made him even more uneasy. After all, Guan Linzheng knew that Tan Xiao was authorized by Chiang Kai-shek to negotiate with the German delegation on matters related to the arsenal, although it was only a negotiation for an arms factory. The fact that Chiang Kai-shek trusted him enough to let him take charge alone was evident. Now, Tan Xiao's calm and collected demeanor in swallowing his anger made Guan Linzheng feel a bit apprehensive - wasn't he being played by a sly old fox?

  It's not just these two people who are rushing to the military training base. There are also Gui Yongqing and He Shaozhou, who have already arrived at the gate. As soon as they entered Zeroling, they called Tan Xiao to inform him that he was going to the camp, but the staff member who answered the phone told Tan Xiao that he was in the training base. So they hung up a call to the training base, which was answered by He Shaotang, and confirmed that Tan Xiao was at the training base before rushing directly to the base. On the way, they passed by Tan Xiao; when they arrived at the base, Tan Xiao had already gone to the camp.

  Gu Yongqing's Central Instruction Corps was the first to arrive, as they had priority in transportation and route arrangements. If not for having to attend to He Jian, they would have reported yesterday. Gu Yongqing is different from Guan Linzheng; he had received instructions from He Yingqin beforehand to come early and help Tan Xiao gain face and intimidate other generals. Although he himself was not very convinced of Tan Xiao, he still had to execute the task entrusted to him by He Yingqin: after all, he was He Yingqin's nephew-in-law. Of course, in helping Tan Xiao, he also had his own plans: he wanted to pull Tan Xiao into the Revival Society and make a fortune during the military reorganization!

  Kui Yongqing is relatively flexible in his dealings, with a good head on his shoulders, and has studied in Germany, making him one of the most knowledgeable among the Huangpu generals. However, he is too clever for his own good, lacking perseverance, and is greedy. As Minister of Military Affairs, He Yingqin would not engage in corruption or bribery, but at that time, the National Army's internal situation was such that if you didn't take bribes, you wouldn't have money to deal with many situations. Therefore, Kui Yongqing was actually the frontman for He's system of taking money. He controlled the Central Instruction Corps and was also the director of the Central Military Academy's Officer Training Class, which meant he had a grip on the future of new junior officers, naturally leading to countless bribes; added to this, he had previously been involved in embezzling spoils of war during the Eastern Expedition, sending them back to his hometown in Jiangxi and being sentenced to death. As a result, people were quite brazen in offering him bribes. Since learning from He Yingqin that Tan Xiao's negotiations with Germany had achieved great success, securing large amounts of aid and investment for China, he had already begun to covet this. This time, he came with the intention of forming an ironclad alliance with Tan Xiao, voting in favor of his German aid plan.

  As for He Shaozhou, he came to take office: Due to Tan Xiao's multiple positions, he was preparing to resign as the director of the Lingling Artillery Training Base and let He Shaozhou take over. At this time, He Shaozhou also had another identity: First Deputy Commander of the Taxation Police Corps. Since Huang Jie concurrently served as the commander of the Second Division, it was Gu Dinghua, the deputy commander, He Shaozhou, the first deputy commander, and Wang Gongliang, the second deputy commander, who came to reorganize the taxation police corps this time.

  In the past, the First Division was just an ordinary division and didn't seem to have much of a future, so He Yingqin only wanted to cultivate it as one of his own branches. But now things are different: Chiang Kai-shek's intention is to reorganize all six divisions of the Xiang faction into the First Field Army, with Tan Xing as the army commander, not He Jian! This means that Tan Xing has already reached the position of a high-ranking minister in Chiang Kai-shek's mind. The Lingling Artillery Training Base now has more artillery than all other units in the country combined, making it clear that this is where the next generation of Chinese artillery will be nurtured, not the Nanjing Artillery School. If we don't send our own people to take over, we'll miss this opportunity! He Shaozhou studied artillery while studying in Japan, which was a perfect fit; therefore, He Shaozhou's appointment to Lingling was a deliberate arrangement by He Yingqin, even causing some dissatisfaction with Chen Cheng.

  They arrived at the training base and didn't see Tan Xiao coming to greet them, but instead it was He Shao Tang. Only then did they realize that the heavily guarded motorcade they had encountered on the road was Tan Xiao's entourage heading out to inspect the troops. They couldn't help but laugh at how they had been led on a wild goose chase. However, when they found out that Tan Xiao had gone to inspect the 25th Division because of Guan Linzheng, Gui Yongqing and He Shaozhou couldn't help but furrow their brows: as fellow classmates from the first batch of Whampoa Military Academy, they knew this "Shaanxi Cold Wokou" all too well. This man not only had a high level of combat skills, but also had a temper that was both stubborn and hard to deal with, and he had a talent for offending people: he had once offended Chen Cheng with just one sentence, saying "Chen is no good at fighting". Earlier, after receiving the order to reorganize the army, Guan Linzheng had sent a telegram to Gui Yongqing asking about Tan Xiao's situation, but Gui Yongqing hadn't revealed much. After all, it wasn't suitable to directly inform lower-level units about the actual nationwide military reorganization being carried out under the name of "bandit suppression and military reorganization", especially not units on the front lines. They had known when they arrived that the 25th Division hadn't set out yet, but now Guan Linzheng was already in Lingling, clearly not buying Tan Xiao's account!

  As for Tan Xiao's sudden house arrest of Kong Song and his violent beating, as pillars of the Hei system, they naturally knew about it. Now they suddenly care more about Guan Linzheng than Tan Xiao: Guan Linzheng so openly defied military orders, with Tan Xiao's style of handling things, he wouldn't immediately kill him off, would he?! Thinking of this, the two were drenched in sweat and hastily called the headquarters to inquire about the situation, only putting down their heavy hearts when they learned that Tan Xiao had already gone to the training base with Guan Linzheng.

  Now many people are rushing to the training base: before Tan Xiao arrived, another one came, Sun Liren!

  Sun Liren had entered Lingling in the morning, he was just a regimental commander and did not have the qualifications to report directly to the headquarters, but before entering Lingling, he received a telegram informing him that he could go to the training base to see Tan Xiao at any time. Tan Xiao wanted to see him! So he went straight to see Song Ziwen, both to visit old friends and to feel out the situation. When he arrived, it happened that the Kong-Song family had just finished the "Tan Xiao Conference". He saw the unhealed scars on the faces of Song Ziwen and Kong Xiangxi, and was shocked: Are there still people in China who dare to beat up these two "big men"!?

  His tax police team was raised by Soong Tse-ven with surplus salt taxes, and Soong's favor to him was not trivial. Sun Liren saw his patron and friend being bullied like this, of course, he was indignant! He immediately expressed his intention to go back and bring his fourth regiment into Lingling City to serve as a bodyguard for Kong Xiangxi, and also expressed his intention to find a way to teach Tan Xiao a lesson.

  Song Ziwen was delighted to see Sun Liren's attitude, so he vaguely revealed the strategy of Song Meiling against Tan Xiao to Sun Liren, letting him be at ease and wait for an opportunity to act. However, after witnessing Tan Xiao's arrogance, he thought it was not bad that Sun Liren suggested bringing the Fourth Regiment to block Tan Xiao's bodyguards. Of course, the whole army had to follow the orders of the commander-in-chief, but secretly sending in a company or two would be no problem, so he personally went to the Fourth Regiment to receive the troops. Meanwhile, Sun Liren directly headed to Tan Xiao's Wild First Division training base: since Tan Xiao had summoned him, he could go straight to the training base after arriving at Lingling. Although it was unclear why Tan Xiao wanted to see him and how he knew about him, Sun Liren decided to take a bold approach and see what Tan Xiao planned to do with him! After meeting Song Ziwen, Sun Liren felt that Tan Xiao had summoned him because he was a close follower of Song Ziwen, perhaps planning to drive him out immediately. Well, come on then, let's see how you can deal with me, Sun Liren!

  Sun Liren unexpectedly met his direct superior He Shaozhou at the base of the First Division in the wilderness! He Shaozhou, in addition to coming to Lingling to take over as the director of the artillery training base, is also the first deputy commander-in-chief of the Taxation Police Corps, and Sun Liren's Fourth Regiment happens to be under He Shaozhou's direct jurisdiction!

  "It's all over!……" Sun Liren secretly thought it was not good: he was clear about the close relationship between Tan Xiao and He Yingqin, and now the deputy chief of staff of the 1st Division, He Shaotang, was actually the cousin of He Shaozhou. Tan Xiao specifically called him, the regiment commander, to the training base, and even brought his direct superior, probably to hand over command and get out! Sun Liren's heart sank, but he didn't say anything, after all, with someone else holding the knife handle, whether to kill or behead was not up to him.

  He Shaowu was quite surprised to see Sun Liren here: Huang Jie's telegram to Sun Liren did not go through He Shaowu, who was on the march, and he didn't know. He Shaowu understood Sun Liren's abilities, and he knew even more about his relationship with Song Ziwen. When it became clear that Tan Xiao had specifically instructed Huang Jie to inform Sun Liren to come directly to the training base, He Shaowu was also confused: Was Tan Xiao trying to eliminate the influence of the Song faction in the military at the first opportunity? ...It's too possible! With Tan Xiao's intelligence, he couldn't not be aware of his current mortal enemy relationship with the Kong and Song families, but this was too hasty! Moreover... He Shaowu still appreciated Sun Liren's talents, and to cut off his future in the military like this, He Shaowu himself felt some reluctance.

  Tan Xiao received a notification from the messenger on the way: Gui Yongqing, He Shaozhou and Sun Liren have all arrived at the training base waiting for Tan Xiao to return!

  So many people have come?! Tan Xiao looked at Guan Linzheng beside him, the latter also didn't expect that so many people would suddenly arrive, and was still digesting the meaning of this message.

  "Good! You've come at the right time! It saves me from having to take care of you one by one!" Recalling how he had single-handedly taken down the German coalition and seized the opportunity to severely punish Bai Chongxi, Tan Xiao's heart suddenly swelled with heroic passion: I'll take down all of you arrogant and fierce generals in one go!

  (Author: Fresh out of the oven, just finished this morning, now busy writing the next volume, next week will be on the recommended list again, seems to be a higher level of recommendation, thank you very much to book friends and editor for their love for this work, I guarantee daily updates! Everyone's encouragement makes me, an amateur writer, seem to have a new development goal...... Maybe one day, you'll find that your votes created a new professional online writer, haha! Thank you again!!)