Chapter 27: Guests Arrive at the Government Office

  Li Ruofeng easily captured Jinchang and Liangzhou, which naturally delighted Ma Zhongying.

  Of course, I was surprised at the same time, and I became more and more apprehensive about Li Ruofeng's strength.

  Having a fierce tiger uncontrolled by one's side, who can sleep well?

  Li Ruofeng was able to easily infiltrate the Hexi Corridor, and actually controlled Ganzhou, Jinchang, and Lanzhou, to a large extent, taking advantage of the emptiness of the northwest military's scattered forces.

  Furthermore, Ma Zhongying was eager to expand his power and sought talent like a thirsty man, but ended up "inviting the wolf into the house", resulting in the vast majority of military power in Hexi Province being controlled by Li Ruofeng, and had no choice but to accept the surrender.

  After taking down Jinchang and Liangzhou, Li Ruofeng immediately gathered his subordinates to stabilize the local politics and economy on one hand, and to plan for the capture of Lanzhou on the other.

  Ma Zhongying's rapid expansion threw Lanzhou into a state of panic. Gansu Provincial Chairman Ma Hongbin, on the one hand, arranged for his eight senior officials Yang Si, Zhang Wei, Pei Jianzhun, La Shijun, Zhao Yuanqin, Wang Tinghan, Wang Zhen and Li Chaojie to intensify public opinion and exaggerate the situation of the Red Western Gansu Province. On the other hand, he hastened to contact Ma Hongkui, urging him to bring troops to reinforce as soon as possible.

  Ma Hongbin was appointed as the chairman of Gansu Province by Chiang Kai-shek, but his orders sometimes couldn't even get out of Lanzhou. At that time, Gansu was in a state of great chaos after the departure of Feng Yuxiang's army, with various local warlords occupying different areas. Ma Zhongying and others were in Zhangye and Jiuquan; Ma Bufang's subordinate Ma Jun was in Liangzhou and Jinchang; Ma Tingxian was in Tianshui; Lu Dachang was in Longxi, Tao, and Min; Chen Guizhang was in Pingliang; Huang Degui, Wang Fude, and Li Guicheng were in Guyuan. Chiang Kai-shek gave them various titles to counter Feng Yuxiang. As a result, each warlord controlled their own territory and did not belong to any higher authority. They levied taxes and acted as they pleased.

  Feng Yuxiang's remaining troops had only one division left by Ji Hongchang, with Lei Zhongtian as the division commander. Later, it was expanded into a division and Chiang Kai-shek also gave it the temporary number of the 8th Division, with Lei as the division commander, stationed in Lanzhou.

  Lanzhou's military strength at this time was only Ma Hongbin's Temporary Seventh Division and Lei Zhongtian's Temporary Eighth Division.

  Lei Zhongtian's temporarily formed 8th Division did not listen to Ma Hongbin's command, and the only troops Ma Hongbin could mobilize were the temporarily formed 7th Division.

  The troops temporarily compiled into the 7th Division were not as good as those of Ma Bufang. Its organization: The 19th Brigade was led by Ma Yulin, with the 1st Regiment led by Ye Chengzhang (later promoted to Cavalry Brigade Commander) and the 2nd Regiment led by Ma Yingtu. The 20th Brigade was led by Ma Xiancheng, with the 1st Regiment led by Ma Zanliang (also serving as the Northern Route Security Commander) and the 2nd Regiment led by Ma Kaigi. The directly affiliated Engineer Battalion was led by Ma Zhong, and the Artillery Battalion was led by Ma Purun. The total number of troops did not exceed 15,000 people.

  It was at this time that Chen Lifu brought Ye Bei and other national government officials to Lanzhou by plane via Xi'an.

  The arrival of Chen Lifu made Ma Hongbin feel much more at ease, and he exaggerated the extent to which Ma Zhongying had become "red" in order to request that the Central Government send troops to surround him, warning that if this was not done the consequences would be unpredictable.

  Chen Lifu comforted Ma Hongbin on one hand and sent someone to contact Ma Zhongying on the other.

  Ma Zhongying received a telegram from Lanzhou and immediately replied with a warm welcome to the special envoy of the Nanjing National Government to come to Hexi Province for inspection of government affairs and people's livelihood.

  As astute as Ma Zhongying, he naturally knew that getting recognized by the Nanjing Central Government was crucial for his expedition to Hexi Province. At the same time, he also realized this was an excellent opportunity for him to settle scores with Li Ruifeng.

  The foundation has been laid, and Li Ruofeng no longer plans to hide behind the scenes. From the intelligence network owned by his family, he received news that his actions in recent years have successfully caught the attention of high-ranking officials in the National Government. So he began to reorganize his troops according to his own established thinking.

  Li Chengxiu also quickly arranged personnel to enter Lanzhou and Jinchang, integrating the local economy of these two places.

  Although Li Ruofeng's business economic policies differ from Ma Zhongying's new policy, the two have similarities in some aspects.

  Especially in terms of land policy, Ma Zhongying did not completely follow the Soviet model proposed by Zhang Shaoxia, Wu Yingqi and other Communist Party members, killing landlords, rich peasants and capitalists with one stick. Instead, he only took suppressive measures against local evil gentry and despots who were hated by the people, and used gentle strategies to ask enlightened landlords to reduce rent and taxes in order to alleviate the burden on farmers.

  Allowing peasants to own land was a common policy implemented by Li Rui and Ma Zhongying in their respective domains. It was also the reason why Li Rui did not use violent means against Ma Zhongying and his forces.

  The arrival of Chen Lifu forced Li Ruofeng's Lanzhou to abandon its plan to attack and concentrate on dealing with Chen, the imperial commissioner sent by the highest authorities.

  Li Ruofeng still had some understanding of Chiang Kai-shek's governance policies and political means, knowing that as long as he didn't touch Chiang's "reverse scales", Chiang would basically adopt a policy of appeasement and division towards those local warlords who had already gained a foothold.

  Negotiation, of course, is about each other's interests. To maximize one's interests at the negotiating table, having a good hand is undoubtedly the best choice.

  Li Ruofeng has never worried about having no cards in his hand.

  On April 21, Chen Lifu and his entourage arrived in Ganzhou.

  Ma Zhongying-led forces in Gansu province held a grand welcoming ceremony.

  Among them, the most eye-catching was the guard of honor composed of 300 young warriors with similar height and physique, deliberately formed by Li Ruofeng.

  These guards were carefully selected by Li Ruofeng from his existing subordinates. They are all around twenty years old, about 1.8 meters tall, and weigh around 75 kilograms, with regular features and no scars on their faces.

  Three hundred warriors, divided into three hundred-man phalanxes, stood in a straight line, forming a single line even when viewed from the side. Each person wore brand-new Northwestern Army uniforms, with a row of German Mauser 98 rifles and bayonets polished to a shine.

  Each battalion was equipped with six heavy machine guns, eight 60mm mortars, four 81mm mortars and eighteen Browning light machine guns.

  This time, in addition to Li Lifu, Ma Hongbin and Chen Cheng also came. As military observers, Chen Cheng and Ma Hongbin were deeply shocked by the quality of soldiers and equipment displayed by Ma Zhongying's troops.

  As Ma Zhongying's only companion, Li Ruofeng, dressed in the uniform of a Northwest Army colonel, had aroused Chen Lifu's great interest from the moment he saw him.

  For this mysterious figure who is known by name but not seen in person, Chen Lifu has been paying attention to him for almost a year.

  As a result, Chen Lifu spent most of his time talking to Li Ruofeng on the way, unintentionally leaving Ma Zhongying aside.

  This scene also made Ma Zhongying secretly shocked. Because he didn't expect that Li Ruofeng had actually received attention from the Nanjing government long ago. He even suspected now whether Li Ruofeng was a chess piece deliberately arranged by the Nanjing Central Government to infiltrate and penetrate the Northwestern forces.

  With Ma Hongbin's astuteness, he naturally also saw the subtlety of this, and it turned out that the current Ganzhou was not a single entity. From now on, his mind was even more determined.

  Li Ruofeng and his subordinates were all wearing the standard uniform of the Northwestern Army, which was clearly different from Ma Zhongying's self-made Gansu Ningxia Gray Uniform.

  Ma Zhongying's disappointment naturally also fell into the eyes of Zhang Shao Ya, Wu Yingqi, Huang Wenzhong and others.

  Li Ruofeng's sudden rise to power left Zhang Shaoya, Wu Yingyi and other Communist Party members somewhat caught off guard. They had always thought that the military power in Ganzhou was in the hands of Sun Zhen and Zhuang Yu, but they had no information about Li Ruofeng.

  Once Ma Zhongying lost power, the Hexi Corridor fell back into the hands of the Kuomintang's reactionary forces, and these Communist Party forces would inevitably be purged by the reactionary armed forces. At this time, the Soviet regime in Ruijin, Jiangxi was facing Chiang Kai-shek's first encirclement campaign, and the situation was extremely grim.

  The situation in Gansu has some parties rejoicing and others worrying.

  Under Chen Lifu's subtle hint, the welcoming ceremony came to an end. Li Ruofeng pushed aside Ma Zhongying and invited Chen Lifu and Chen Cheng into the commander's office for a confidential talk.

  Li Ruofeng's temperament, demeanor and modest tone of conversation won the favor of Chen Lifu and Chen Cheng.

  Before Chen Lifu came, he didn't expect Li Ruofeng to be so easy-going. He had thought that judging by Li Ruofeng's family background and experience, he should be a proud and arrogant young man, but unexpectedly he was humble and courteous.

  Actually, Chen Lifu would never understand Li Ruofeng's thoughts.