Chapter Thirty-six: Preparing for a Severe Crackdown

  Gronyomov and Rezeman have been in the province for almost two months, they should have basically attended all the occasions where they should show their faces, it's time to call them back and make preparations for the battle of Fengtian in advance.

  With this thought in mind, Li Ruofeng stood up straight and walked quickly to the office of the Ministry of Works.

  The duty machine is not far from his command department, just downstairs. He didn't call the deputy officer to help him deliver messages, mainly related to the orders of Hellfire. For now, he doesn't want to borrow someone else's hands.

  The guard at the confidential department was even stricter than that of his commander's office. Along the way, there were at least three posts with six fully armed soldiers saluting and greeting him.

  Li Ruofeng smiled and nodded at the two soldiers standing at the entrance of the Ji Yao Ke department, making them excitedly look up and stand upright with pride.

  Entering this telephone exchange room mainly staffed by female soldiers, the sounds of "di-di-di" from telegraph machines, dialects from north and south through plug-in conversations, as well as the rapid footsteps moving to and fro, are all intertwined. Although it sounds chaotic, it looks orderly.

  As Li Ruofeng entered, all the female soldiers except those who were holding live objects stood up at their posts and saluted him.

  "Everyone is busy with their own things, don't mind me." Li Ruofeng waved his hand and walked towards Lin Xiuer who was coming towards him.

  "How did you come here in person?" Lin Xiuer asked in a low voice, apparently feeling a bit surprised.

  "I want to know about Gronimov and Rezmann's current situation, and also come over to take a look." Li Ruofeng whispered in her ear: "Take a look at my wife to see if she is slacking off."

  "Got it." Lin Xiuer gave him a glance, "Go to my office, I just finished organizing the telegram from Gromyko and others that was sent back recently, and was about to send it over to you."

  Li Ruofeng nodded and gestured for Lin Xiuer to lead the way.

  This office, exclusive to Lin Xiuer, was located in the innermost part of the Confidential Department. The door was a disguised mechanism that looked like a wall, and standing in front of it, one wouldn't know where Lin Xiuer pressed on the wall to make the entire wall rotate 180 degrees, bringing the two into a room about thirty square meters in size with green metal file cabinets lining both sides, lit by bright lights.

  Against the north wall was a European-style office desk, behind which stood a row of bookshelves. Next to it was a single-person folding bed. Beside the head of the bed was a 40-watt radio.

  Li Ruofeng sat down beside the military bed, holding a thick stack of files that Lin Xiuer had just taken out from the file cabinet on the west side.

  The document shows that Ma Zhongying has successfully taken down the three cities of Hami, and the government army led by Tian Song and Jin Shuren is in a stalemate. In addition, Xingxing Gorge is also under the control of the anti-government armed forces led by Ma Zhongying, and a battalion has been stationed there.

  Hami fell, making Jin Shuren extremely passive. He had already mobilized government troops to counterattack three times, but the effect was not great, and instead lost soldiers and generals, with more than 3,000 officers and men killed or wounded.

  It can be said that the eastern gate of Xinjiang is now tightly guarded by Ma Zhongying, who is currently leading his troops to rest and regroup, waiting for an opportunity to turn defense into offense and advance towards Turpan.

  The entire Xinjiang region under the control of Jin Shuren, except for Dihua, Changji, Tulufan, and Shihezi, the rest including Kuerle, Aksu, Artush, Yining, Kashgar, Hetian, Tacheng, Altay, etc. were basically occupied by local forces and fell into a state of anarchy.

  Those independent armed forces that are not under the jurisdiction of Jin Shuren all have more or less the shadow of British, Germans and Soviets behind them.

  Gromov has contacted the original White Russian army of around three hundred men who have settled in Tihwa, and if we attack Tihwa, these old Russians will definitely play a role in our internal and external coordination.

  Li Ruofeng closed his eyes, tidied up his thoughts, and after a moment of contemplation, said: "Send electricity to Gromov, Hellfire returns to its nest."

  Lin Xiuer didn't ask much either, picked up the microphone and started broadcasting on the radio next to the campaign bed.

  "Call back the Hell Fire and who will be in charge of monitoring Ma Zhongying's work?" Lin Xiuer asked after sending the telegram.

  "Taking down Hami, Ma Zhongying is already a deeply isolated army. Without our logistical support, he can't stand in Xinjiang at all. Therefore, it's not necessary to use too many tricks on him for the time being. Let him struggle first. Hellfire belongs to attacking forces, letting them defend and monitor would be a waste of great talent.

  Li Ruofeng handed over the materials in his hand to Lin Xiuer, saying: "I let Hellfire enter Xinjiang mainly to let them explore the current situation of various forces in Xinjiang, and also to help Ma Zhongying. Now that the strategic intention has been achieved, leaving them with Ma Zhongying would be a waste of resources."

  "I really don't understand why you're messing around with a bunch of foreign devils, do we lack people under our hands?" Lin Xiuer walked to the file cabinet, locking up the documents as she said: "Aren't you afraid they'll cause trouble for you? After all, if it's not one of us, their hearts must be different."

  Li Ruofeng lay comfortably on the camp bed, resting his head on a neatly folded military blanket, and smiled: "In this world, pure soldiers are the best partners. Gromov, Rezmann, they are all pure soldiers, so I'm not worried about them betraying me at all. Besides, Xiuer, I really lack people now. In my mind, the ideal Hellfire Corps should be a special unit with a scale comparable to a German army division. The current Hellfire is still far from it in terms of scale and strength."

  At this time, the red signal light on the radio console lit up, and Lin Xiuer hurried over to receive it.

  The telegram was simple, with only two words: "Obey orders."

  "You won't suddenly order the Hellfire to return for no reason, and what kind of trouble are you planning to stir up? The entire Ganzhou is now in a state of disrepair, you'd better not make more enemies and create unnecessary troubles." Lin Xiuer asked with concern.

  "You wouldn't think I'd want to take action against Ma Bufang of Qinghai, would you?" Li Ruofeng asked with a knowing smile.

  "With your temperament, you won't easily tolerate a strong enemy like Ma Bufang lurking around you all the time." Lin Xiuer took out another stack of documents from a cabinet and handed them to Li Ruofeng, saying: "From Lianzhou to Suizhou, the entire Hexi Corridor has become a large construction site. If we don't eliminate the threat of Suinan, it will be difficult to have a stable and peaceful development environment."

  Li Ruofeng lay down and took over the materials, flipping through them while saying: "Ma Bufang doesn't have the guts to turn against the Nanjing National Government yet, although he knows we are a thorn in the heart of the Northwest Ma family army. Neither he nor Ningxia's Ma Honggui or Lanzhou's Ma Hongbin dare to openly challenge the River West Provincial Government with force, because that would give the Nanjing government an excuse to further infiltrate the northwest. You know, our President Chiang has always been resentful of not being able to plant his trusted followers in the several provinces of the northwest."

  However, in the recent period of time, there have been frequent small-scale bandit raids along the borders of Su'nan and Jin'chang, which have caused great security risks to passing merchant caravans. Intelligence shows that these bandits are backed by Qing Ma and Ning Ma. Lin Xiuer said with a furrowed brow.

  "Hmm, this situation indeed deserves attention." Li Ruofeng sat up from the bed, "Didn't Sun Zhen and others say that the recent suppression of bandits had achieved great success?"

  "Previous suppression campaigns eliminated the habitual bandits that had been entrenched in the Hexi Corridor for many years, but now emerging are new horse bandits that have no lair and roam everywhere." Lin Xiuer said with a sudden smile: "Both of our families are from a bandit background, think about it, from ancient times to the present, which dynasty or government has been able to completely eliminate banditry?"

  Li Ruofeng narrowed his eyes, which were as cold as a forest, "Others may not be able to do it, but under my rule, I can definitely make it happen! Whether it's the horse bandits in the northwest or the beards in the northeast, if I want to eliminate them, they will have no way out!"