Chapter 16: Farsighted (Part 1)

  With the end of this family meeting, Li Chengyi soon handed over all the family affairs to Li Ruofeng, waiting for a suitable opportunity to formally pass on the position of patriarch to his only beloved son.

  Li's Fort is more like a town than a fort. Located at the foot of Panlong Ridge, sixty miles east of Qiqihar, it was built on the mountain, with its eastern side facing the water. The ten-meter-high ancient wall made of bluestone winds along the mountain, and it's hard to see the end at a glance, with an extremely majestic momentum. Li's Fort was not built by one generation, but was carefully planned and constructed by several famous architects over five or six generations.

  The entire castle unfolds along two central axes, with a front yard*, symmetrical in east and west, with thousands of doors and windows, winding paths leading to secluded areas, each family has its own courtyard, which is both an independent courtyard and connected by gates. It reflects the grandeur of a large family. Standing on the wall of the castle at the back mountain, looking east to the Wuyuer River, and west to Qiqihar. The entire castle follows the terrain, with layered buildings and courtyards stretching to the top of Panlong Ridge. The houses are all made of gray bricks and tiles, with exquisite stone carvings on the roof and walls, although they do not have the grandeur of a royal palace, but the scale and momentum are still shocking.

  As usual, whenever there's a joyful occasion, the entire village would be decorated with lanterns and streamers to offer congratulations and blessings. And Li Ruofeng, the young master of Li Family Village, was getting married, so it was even more grand and lively.

  The festive atmosphere of red and colorful decorations still lingered, but Li Ruofeng seemed to have forgotten that he was still a newlywed groom. He quickly entered work mode, issuing over a dozen commands within three days, causing the entire Li family, including his elder brother overseas, to revolve around him.

  Fourth Uncle Li Chengxiao, the day after the family meeting, set off with a few trusted men to return to Guannei. The Fourth Tiger and Biaozi had been following Li Ruofeng for some time now, making him handy, and at Li Ruofeng's request, they did not return to Beiping again, but instead stayed as young masters' attendants.

  Li Ruofeng didn't keep people waiting, after discussing with Da Gu and Xiao Gu, Li Fengzhi took the lead, first setting up a medium-sized garment factory in Qiqihar to prepare for Li Ruofeng's specially made military uniforms.

  However, he did not dare to engage in large-scale industrial activities within the Northeast region because he was well aware that with his current resources, defending Heilongjiang would be a pipe dream. He did not think that he could resist Japan's national war efforts with his own strength, and all his efforts now were just to make it possible for him to constantly harass and bleed the Japanese in the future when the war breaks out, playing the role of a qualified terrorist.

  Don't take terrorists lightly. I ask you, which terrorist organization doesn't have a robust funding channel, tight organizational planning, accurate intelligence sources, and cruel training methods?

  The Northeast will only become one of the main battlefields and will never be his great rear.

  From a strategic perspective, Li Ruofeng had already made up his mind on this matter.

  But according to the location of the site, it has not been determined yet. This is also one of the difficult problems that have been bothering him for several days.

  Although it is impossible to build a heavy industry and its supporting industrial system, it is still necessary to build small-scale "shanzhai" enterprises such as gun manufacturing and repair factories, bullet and artillery shell manufacturing and reloading plants. Therefore, the selection of this base location is very particular, but considering many factors comprehensively, the most important one is that the location of the base must be far away from the place where the Kwantung Army is heavily stationed.

  It's been seven years since the full-scale outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War. If Li Ruofeng can come up with ways to cause more trouble for Japan domestically during this period and provide reasonable suggestions to the Japanese Army and Navy Ministries in different ways, this time can be extended. Therefore, it can be said that the time for building a base is still sufficient.

  Li Ruofeng weighed the pros and cons repeatedly, and finally locked his target on Xinjiang before Shengshi Cai rose to power.

  Only in Xinjiang, the mountains are high and the emperor is far away, the National Government's power cannot reach. Since the outbreak of the war against Japan in 1937, the Japanese army has never launched a large-scale offensive in Xinjiang. Moreover, considering the current strength of domestic warlords, Sheng Shicai is relatively easy to handle, a soft persimmon.

  With the land and mineral resources that Xinjiang possesses, although large-scale development in this era is limited by transportation channels, self-sufficiency is still more than sufficient.

  The most important thing is that when the time comes, we can wave the great flag of the Northwest Army to infiltrate Xinjiang and gain the support of the National Government in politics.

  The elders at home seem to be very envious of Zhang Dashuai's reputation for being able to make a name for himself in the Northeast with his whiskers, and if we can get a title like Northwest King, I believe it will surely delight them.

  Recalling Ma Zhongying's oath in the early summer of 1931 in Su Prefecture (now Jiuquan), with less than 5,000 troops, he marched westward and killed his way into Xinjiang, causing Sheng Shicai to flee everywhere. This historical record made Li Ruifeng even more determined to take over Xinjiang.

  Li Ruofeng made up his mind and immediately sent a telegram to Fourth Uncle, asking him to increase the number of personnel in Su Zhou and Di Hua as much as possible, and expand the scale of business there.

  He then took Lin Xiuer, Four Tigers and Biaozi with him, following Lin Shouren to Tie Qi Zhai.

  Gou Dan was sent by Li Ruofeng to a secret training camp deep in Xiao Xing'an Mountains, where he would undergo six months of rigorous training and assessment.

  A week later, Lin Shouren, Li Ruofeng and others appeared on horseback at Heihe.

  The Heihe River is located in the northern border of Heilongjiang Province, adjacent to the Daxing'an Mountains. It faces Blagoveshchensk, Amur Oblast, Russia (Heihe City) across the river and serves as an important border town with relatively developed border trade.

  Two days later, Heihe Garrison Command.

  Ma Zanshan, dressed in the uniform of a lieutenant general of the Northeast Army, warmly received Lin Shouren and his entourage.

  As the commander-in-chief of Heilongjiang Province's cavalry, Ma Zhanshan had always been eyeing the Iron Rider Fort with envy. As a cavalryman himself, he was in a dilemma about whether to eliminate or tolerate this force of over a thousand elite horse bandits.

  In this era, having guns is the king of the grasslands. Ma Zhan Shan lives in seclusion within the Black River territory, and every single one of his soldiers are his most trusted men, how could he bear to use his elite troops to engage in a fierce battle with Tie Ji Village? After careful consideration, he still thinks that raising the flag of surrender is the best strategy.

  Besides, the Huanggutun incident, Zhang Zuolin and Wu Junsheng both died, after Ma Zhanshan received this news, he immediately made a ruthless remark, towards the Japanese it was a public and private hatred, must be avenged. Therefore, he still had to guard against the little devils making trouble behind his back.

  Now that Lin Shouren has come over to join him in person, he naturally welcomes him with pleasure.

  For Ma Zhan Shan, Li Ruo Feng still admired and respected this famous anti-war general from the bottom of his heart. Having the opportunity to meet with such a great person, he certainly wouldn't let it slip away easily. So, he spent some effort persuading Tai Shan's father-in-law, which finally allowed Lin Shou Ren, the head of the Iron Rider Fort, to put aside his pride and personally bring him to Hei River to pay respects to Ma Zhan Shan.

  "Lin Daren is a great man, and I have known you for a long time! This time, Lin Daren has come in person, Xiu Fang (Ma Zhan Shan's courtesy name is Xiu Fang) feels very pleased." Ma Zhan Shan grasped Lin Shou Ren's hands, which were full of calluses, shaking them up and down with force, his expression extremely sincere, with a strong sense of humility.

  "It's an honor, General Ma." Lin Shouren replied calmly, shaking hands with Ma Zhan Shan: "Thanks to the general's appreciation, how could I dare not follow? It's just that some family matters have been settled recently, and it has kept you waiting for a long time."

  "As long as the Lin family's brave warriors are willing to join the army and serve the country, no matter how long it takes, Xiufang will also be willing." Ma Zhan Shan kindly pulled Lin Shouren to sit down in the two armchairs in the center of the reception hall.

  "Lin's family, these two are..." Ma Zhan Shan looked at Li Ruofeng and Lin Xiuer standing behind Lin Shouren with a courteous gesture.

  "Little daughter Xiu Er, little son-in-law Ruo Feng." Lin Shouren introduced.

  "Talented men and beautiful women, pearls and jade united, a dragon and phoenix among people!" Ma Zhan Shan laughed: "Don't stand, sit down, sit down."

  "Thank you for the compliment." Li Ruofeng unexpectedly gave Ma Zhanshan a standard military salute, then sat down straight, with his hands stretched out and lightly placed on his knees.

  "Oh? Young Master Li, aren't you also from a military background?" Ma Zhan Shan looked at Li Ruo Feng with some surprise.

  "My son-in-law is a top graduate of the Japanese Army Academy, and has just returned to China after graduation." Lin Shouren smiled and replied on behalf of Li Ruofeng: "To be honest, this time I came to join General, was deeply influenced by my son-in-law."

  Ma Zhan Shan heard this and became even more interested in Li Ruofeng, asking: "What do you mean by that?"

  Lin Shouren replied solemnly, "He has been in Japan for many years and is very familiar with the national conditions of Japan. This time he returned to China, it was because he sensed that the Japanese had ambitions to plot against our three northeastern provinces, and were about to launch an invasion of the Northeast, strongly advising me to prepare our military and make early preparations."

  "It's rare to have such insight and vision, it's really hard to come by." Ma Zhan Shan nodded and said: "Since General Zhang was killed by the Japanese in Huanggutun, I knew that the Japanese had big ambitions and would eventually take up arms against our three northeastern provinces. It's also because of this reason that we hope Lin will return to the government as soon as possible and work together to resist foreign enemies!"

  "The general felt that with the strength of the Japanese army, once the war started, how many chances would the Northeast Army have to win?" Li Ruofeng asked solemnly.

  Ma Zhanshan stared at Li Ruofeng with piercing eyes and asked back: "What do you think?"

  "With the strength of 300,000 troops from the Northeast Army, if we can unite as one, it's not impossible to win. Li Ruofeng fearlessly stared back at Ma Zhanshan and replied firmly: "However, judging from Commander Zhang's current performance, I'm very pessimistic! The Northeast will definitely be unable to hold on!"

  "Then why are you still going back to prepare for war?" A hint of doubt flashed in Ma Zhan Shan's eyes.