Chapter Thirty Northern Camp

  Back at the inn, Chen An was drunk and lay on the bed with no strength, sleeping until noon the next day before waking up.

  Lin Yushan rushed in and woke up Chen An, who was still a bit dazed, telling him that there were guests visiting.

  Chen An was confused, having just arrived in Lanzhou, what guests were there?

  Lin Yushan, who was laughing and crying at the same time, quickly pulled Chen An up, called for a servant to prepare hot water for bathing, and only then informed him that it was the Lanzhou Magistrate and the alternate Lanzhou Prefect who had come to visit.

  Chen An immediately sobered up, seemingly recalling that it was at yesterday's banquet where he had invited them to visit, originally just a casual remark, but ended up getting drunk until now.

  "Yu Shan, you go ahead and book a good table for wine and wait, I'll be there soon after I'm done washing up. Just tell them I've just woken up from a hangover." Chen An immediately instructed, these two are great talents, can't be neglected. Peng Ying Jia Lan state is easy to say, but Yang Zeng Xin, a candidate for Lan state governor, also appeared on the list of the Governor's banquet, which is worth paying attention to.

  After taking a hot bath, Chen An shook his head and slightly cleared his mind. He hurried to the private room to apologize to the two distinguished guests. Lanzhou Dao was an official of higher rank than him, yet he still accepted the invitation, which was truly giving face.

  Peng Yingjia and Yang Zengxin were very casual, chatting with Lin Yushan was effortless, and when they saw Chen An, they burst into loud laughter.

  After drinking a few cups of old wine, Chen An straightforwardly said to the two men, "You two brothers, if there's anything that needs my help, just give me an order. As long as I can help, I'll definitely do my best."

  Peng Yingjia and Yang Zengxin exchanged a smile, also without pretension, and directly said that each of them happened to have something that required the help of Caishen (the God of Wealth).

  Originally, Gansu established a foreign affairs bureau this year, temporarily managed by Peng Yingjia. However, Gansu is poor and lacks good commercial buildings, factories, and mines that would be willing to relocate there. It's said that Chen An will soon introduce foreigners as bosses of the Northern Industrial Company, so Peng Yingjia has been paying close attention, hoping that Chen An can persuade the Northern Industrial Company to set up more factories and shops in various places, making an effort to contribute to Gansu's industrial and commercial development.

  As for Yang Zengxin, it was even simpler. Last September, Yang Zengxin was ordered to establish the Lanzhou Military Academy to cultivate new-style army officers for the imperial court, but except for a large piece of land, everything else was lacking - money, people, and instructors. Yang Zengxin almost turned white-haired with anxiety, and that's when he thought of coming to Caishen Temple to make some offerings.

  The first one is easy to handle, Beifang Industrial Company was not limited to one industry from the beginning and must expand various businesses. It's just like adding flowers to brocade for Peng Yingjia. The second one is difficult, even if you have a lot of money, you can't spend it recklessly everywhere, otherwise others will find excuses to come to your door and cause trouble.

  Yang Zengxin naturally knew the difficulties of this matter, especially when Chen An came up with a two-river dividend idea, which made it even more difficult for him. Immediately, Yang Zengxin put on a smiling face, raised his cup to toast, indicating that what was said earlier was just a joke and didn't need to be taken seriously. Chen An is now the god of wealth in the Gansu government circle, who dares to offend him easily? Otherwise, if you don't give enough year-end gifts, your wife and children will scold you to death.

  "It's not like there's no way." Chen An held his wine cup and thought for a long time before frowning and saying.

  Yang Zengxin looked at Chen An with a surge of hope.

  "I'm not supposed to be in charge of the six battalions' patrol battalion, especially since there's one that needs to be reorganized, which requires a large number of lower-ranking officers. Can't we set up a branch school in Jiezhou as well, affiliated with the Lanzhou Military Academy, but with all matters handled by myself, and Lanzhou having no right to interfere? The Military Academy can at least assign three foreign instructors to the Jiezhou branch school, and I'll sponsor the Lanzhou Military Academy with 10,000 taels each year." Chen An slowly expressed his thoughts.

  It's also true that there aren't many talented people under me, so an organization is needed to speed up the cultivation. Others' cultivation can't be trusted, but one's own cultivation won't go wrong, right?

  Yang Zengxin quickly calculated and only raised his head after a while, "There are only eight foreign instructors in the Lanzhou Military Academy, six Japanese and two Germans. If you want, I'll give you those two Germans, it's better than having them look at each other with disdain in the school hall."

  "Just two Germans." Chen An replied in one breath. The Japanese didn't want it either, so he might as well give them some face.

  The matter was settled, and everyone suddenly felt a sense of relief. They started urging each other to drink again, and as a result, all three of them got drunk. Lin Yushan had no choice but to open two more rooms in the guest house, sending Daotai and the acting governor to rest for a while before returning to the government office.

  By the third day, the governor's office had sent a notice to all local governments in Gansu that the new appointment of Chen An as the commander of the two rivers had been spread throughout the province. The news that the new commander would divide the profits of the two rivers among all officials above the rank of fifth grade had also quietly circulated within the official circles, and suddenly everyone in the Gansu government remembered the name of Chen An, the commander of the two rivers, and also firmly remembered the Northern Industrial Company related to him. Who offended me? I will be at odds with whoever it is.

  Chen An continued to stay in Lanzhou for three more days before setting out for Jiezhou to prepare to take over the Xunfang Camp. Before that, he had Lin Yushan secretly go ahead and gather information about the various Xunfang camp leaders, deputy leaders, etc., while arranging for people from Chenjiazhuang to serve as his personal guards.

  Finally arrived in Jiezhou, Chen An sent someone to inform the government office of Jiezhou Prefecture and directly stayed at the largest inn. He notified the five patrol battalion commanders to come to Jiezhou for orders.

  The rank of the guerrilla is higher than that of the prefect, so there's no need to take the initiative to visit. Although civil officials look down on military officers from the bottom of their hearts, Chen An is after all the god of wealth, and the prefect of Jiangzhou took the initiative to sit for a while before taking leave.

  When meeting with subordinates, Chen An did indeed get a taste of being an official, receiving a batch of gifts. Although they weren't very valuable, it was Chen An's first time receiving gifts, wasn't it? In the past, he was always the one giving gifts.

  It is said that there are five touring camps, but except for the two counties of Jiangzhou and Wenxian, which have one touring camp stationed in each, the rest are scattered and stationed. For example, the northwest has two counties with one post each, and the Guandai is stationed at Yanmen Pass; the northeast has three counties with one post each, and the Guandai is stationed in Huixian County; there is also a post stationed in Xiguan, temporarily under the command of Jiangzhou Camp; the post at Baima Pass belongs to Jiangzhou Camp, while the two posts at Biku Matou belong to Wenxian Camp.

  In fact, there were only four battalions with thirteen companies of cavalry and infantry, still short of one battalion with two companies of cavalry and infantry. As for how many men and horses these thirteen companies actually had, only heaven knows. At least the two companies at Bìkǒu didn't even have a hundred men, Chen An saw it with his own eyes.

  The manager of Wenxian Camp was frightened when he learned that the bandit was Chen An, as the loss was too great. Since Chenjiazhuang was nearby, they naturally presented the most valuable gift, which shows how rich and prosperous Biku is.

  Having accepted a subordinate's gift, one naturally cannot be too stingy. After a round of old wine, everyone quickly became sworn brothers.

  The next day, Chen An only said one sentence that everything remains the same, then sent a red envelope and had everyone return to their posts. It was just a meeting, since everyone was very understanding, there was no need to make a big deal out of it, anyway Chen An currently didn't have enough manpower to fill these positions.

  Adding the newly increased one camp and three teams, Chen An still had two vacancies with five teams of people, enough to form a large camp of over 500 people, now even the soldiers were not enough.

  Wenxian's Guandai accompanied him back to Chenjiazhuang. Chen An decided that the patrol camp number under the jurisdiction of Jingzhou Youji Guan would not use the character "Chen", but instead use the character "Bei". Moreover, the garrison of Jingzhou Youji was placed in Chenjiazhuang, which left several Guandai stunned.

  All the way, Chen An praised Wenyuan's camp commander a few words, as a result, he almost couldn't find his way north, and actually patted his chest to voluntarily cut off Bi Kou Xun Fangying into a post, and returned the empty post to Youji Yamen to train new recruits. Of course, Chen An understood in his heart that this was just Wenyuan's camp commander showing goodwill, originally they were eating an empty salary for a post.

  In this way, Chen An's Ji Province touring detachment, which belonged to the Northern Character Battalion, Sixth Battalion, and 18th Sentry, had two battalions and six sentries directly under his control.

  Back in Chenjiazhuang, he sent off Wenxian Guandai who almost refused to leave, and Chen An rushed straight to the armory.

  Hǔ zǐ shǐ zhōng shǒu zài jūn huǒ kù mén kǒu. Chén ān shàng qù xióng bào le yī xià, méi yǒu shuō shén me guì hua, zhǐ shì dīng zhǔ hái shì yào tā chū lái le, cái néng chè tuì zhàn pò.

  The arsenal gate slowly opened.

  A flash of metallic luster dazzled Chen An's eyes.

  Chen An was slightly distracted, and the structure inside had been completely altered.

  Damn it, how did I finish it? Holding his head and thinking hard for a while, Chen An still couldn't understand how he finished the suitcase and finally gave up thinking about it.

  The entire mountain cave space was artificially divided into two compartments. The front compartment still looked like the original excavation, while the rear compartment was a three-room flat house made of metal material. There were large doors on both sides that opened and closed, but only a small door in the middle room. Chen An's hastily installed electrical wires and carefully excavated ventilation holes were gone, but the air was not at all turbid.

  Every entrance has two rows of signs. On top is a blinking lamp with red and green lights, each taking up half the space. Below are two buttons for opening and closing.

  Chen An walked to the small door in the middle, saw that the flashing light was green, and pressed a button with his index finger. The metal door opened silently, revealing only an operating table inside, on which was the mysterious suitcase. It seemed that there was still a large space behind it, completely blocked by a metal partition.

  Curiously, Chen An opened the large doors on both sides one after another and found that the left side was all messy raw materials, while the right side was clean and empty, apparently the left room was a raw material room, and the right room was an ammunition product room.

  Excited Chen An walked back and forth in the arsenal, so happy that he forgot everything, causing him to overlook a prompt on the suitcase screen for a long time, which naturally covered it up. There was only one sentence on it: "Please note that the automatic vehicle bay has been fixed. If you want to move it, it will be downgraded to secondary permission."