Chapter 15: Yelena's Conditions (New Book Seeking Attention)

  Fu Zuoyi's true intentions were not clear to Chen Feng, but with this award, Chen Feng could now openly expand his forces. Previously, he did not dare to bring out all of his troops, but now it was different. Fu had given him the organizational structure of a second-class regiment and sent him so many weapons and equipment, even though they were all old, discarded things from the 35th Army. Chen Feng may not have thought much of them, but they gave him a legitimate excuse to expand his forces.

  Chen Feng originally planned to withdraw a batch of troops from Daqing Mountain, but thinking that Daqing Mountain was a trump card in his hand, he absolutely could not move it unless it was absolutely necessary. In the end, Chen Feng decided to recruit more soldiers locally.

  The troops have won a great victory, and the recruitment has also gone well. In addition, Chen Feng's army salary is quite generous, with each person receiving 2 taels of silver per month, and there are also consolation fees for those who die or become disabled, so the second batch of 1,000 new recruits was quickly recruited.

  Chen Feng's security team is now a complete second-class team, with three infantry regiments, one cavalry regiment, one artillery company, one guard company, one engineer company, one communication platoon and one special warfare team, with more than 2,800 people in the whole team.

  The original recruitment of 1,000 new soldiers was not enough to make the entire security regiment fully manned, but Wang Qingya helped a lot. After three days of persuasion by Wang Qingya, the female bandit leader agreed to join the security regiment with her troops, but on one condition.

  "What conditions do you have, just say it, as long as you truly surrender, I will guarantee the safety of each and every one of you." Chen Feng said in a low voice, looking at the beautiful Russian woman in front of him.

  When Chen Feng learned that the leader of the horse thief gang was actually a Russian, he was also surprised. Later, from Wang Qingya's mouth, he learned that this Russian beauty was named Yelena, 23 years old this year. Her father was the commander of the Imperial Guard Cavalry Regiment during the Tsarist Russia period. After the October Revolution in Russia, the Tsar's rule was quickly overthrown by the newly established Soviet regime. Her father and many high-ranking military officers of the former Russian Empire were listed on the list to be killed. Under the circumstances, her father had no choice but to lead more than a thousand subordinates to escape from Russia and come to China. At that time, Yelena was only 3 years old.

  Three years ago, Yehelena's father passed away, and she took over the entire horse team. Under her leadership, the Sui Bei Horse Team not only was not annihilated by the Jin Sui Army but also expanded to twice its original size. However, unexpectedly, this time they were wiped out by Chenfeng's security team.

  Chen Feng believed what Yelena said was true, because from 1917 to 1924, after the October Revolution in Russia, a large number of White Russians fled to China. The number was extremely large, and Zhang Zongchang even formed a cavalry of over 10,000 White Russians. It's rare for someone like Yelena's father to escape to China and become a bandit.

  "If you want me and my subordinates to surrender to you, you must guarantee the safety of all of us." Yelena's Chinese was quite fluent, without any stiffness, but her face turned a bit pale when she spoke.

  She was also seriously injured in the battle a few days ago, her arm was shot by bullets, fortunately it didn't hurt the bone, but she lost a lot of blood, so the whole person looked somewhat wilted.

  "This is definite, I will guarantee all of your safety." Chen Feng said.

  "But I don't believe your promise, so you must give me a guarantee. I know what you want, to be honest, if it's just about cavalry, your troops are really too poor." Yelena was very clever, she knew that Chenfeng wanted her to establish a strong cavalry corps.

  "What guarantee? What kind of guarantee? If you don't believe in me, the commander, then no matter what guarantee I make, you won't believe it. Do you think such a guarantee has any meaning?"

  "I'll agree, as long as you promise to marry me and make me your wife. I'll lead all my troops in surrendering to you." Yelena said with a tone that brooked no refusal.

  "What, this is impossible, you should know that I have a fiancée, aren't you Westerners supposed to be monogamous? I won't agree to this, change the condition." Chen Feng immediately refused, one Wang Qingya was already enough for him to drink a pot of wine, if another female bandit came along, his family would be in chaos.

  "No, I won't change my mind. Although I'm Russian, I've grown up in China since childhood, and those Western etiquettes are completely foreign to me. I don't care how many wives you have; isn't it normal for Chinese men to marry multiple wives?" Yelena said stubbornly.

  "That's different, just like in Western countries, in our China we can only marry one legitimate wife, the others are called concubines, which is what Westerners call mistresses. A mistress and a wife have essential differences, if you want to become my wife that's impossible because I already have a legitimate wife, if I let you become my mistress, I'm afraid you won't be willing, right?" Chen Feng said.

  "What you said is very clear to me, but I don't mind. Whether it's as a wife or a lover, as long as you accept me, then I am your family. I think you will treat me well and also treat my subordinates well, won't you?" Yelena continued to say.

  "To be honest, your conditions are very tempting, but I'm afraid I won't be able to agree with you because my mother is very strict with me and she probably wouldn't agree to me marrying you." Chen Feng said frankly.

  "Must be because of your fiancée?"

  "How did you know?" Chen Feng asked in surprise.

  "It was your other lover who told me, but I think your mother would agree." Yelena said confidently.

  "Because she is your mother, a mother's love is always great, but this greatness only applies to her own child. You having a mistress is unfair to your fiancée, but marrying me would give you an elite cavalry, rapidly increasing your power, which would be beneficial for you and your family. I think at this time, your mother not only wouldn't oppose it, but would even welcome me." Yelena analyzed.

  "What you analyzed is not unreasonable, but I don't think your role will be as great as you said. You should know that among your subordinates, only less than 200 people are truly capable of fighting, the rest are all old, weak, sick and women. Even if they were all willing to stay in my army, it would only be an additional reinforced company at most. It's impossible for my army's strength to surge. Moreover, I also have doubts about your cavalry command ability. More than 1,000 elite cavalrymen being annihilated by more than 1,000 infantrymen, such a team is of no attraction to me." Chen Feng said.

  Yeh Elena thought for a moment and said, "What you said is right, but I can tell you that this time I was too careless and underestimated you, so I fell into your ambush. Moreover, the cavalry you annihilated were only a part of my troops. The Senbei Horsemen have been roaming the grasslands for over 20 years, do you think there are only a thousand or so cavalry?"

  Chen Feng had also considered this issue, the horse thieves of Sai Bei had been rampant in the northern provinces for decades, and their reputation was not much smaller than that of Yan Dashi. However, Chen Feng felt that the actual strength displayed by this group of horse thieves was too weak, simply unable to withstand a single blow. He had thought that he had only encountered a paper tiger, but now hearing what the woman said, there should be more to the story.

  "Oh, so you're saying you still have troops that I haven't annihilated?" Chen Feng asked.

  "You know, whether it's horse bandits or local bandits, they all have their own survival rules. Have you ever seen a place gather tens of thousands of local bandits? No, there isn't one, because a single place can't support that many bandits, and gathering tens of thousands of bandits would easily attract a large-scale siege by government troops. We're the same, our cavalry operations are loud and don't need tens of thousands of people, just a few thousand is enough to attack an ordinary county town, and ten thousand cavalry can even launch a surprise attack on a provincial capital. If a horse bandit group with more than ten thousand people appears on the grasslands, it will definitely trigger a full-scale siege by the government..."

  "So you've dispersed the troops under your command to zero, scattered across the entire grassland, and then gather again when necessary, is that right?"

  "Yes, so this time you've destroyed is just a small part of my troops."

  "How many of your scattered troops are still outside?" Chen Feng asked.

  "Three cavalry regiments, nearly three thousand men in total." Yelena said.

  Chen Feng took a deep breath, damn it, that was close! Fortunately, Yelena only brought one cavalry unit this time. If she had brought all of them, his security team would probably have been wiped out in one battle, and he himself wouldn't have ended up well either.

  Seeing Chen Feng's astonished expression, Ye Herlena smiled and said: "Two years ago I had a total of eight cavalry regiments, each with 1,000 men, which only refers to the troops that can fight. Unfortunately, we fought a battle with the Shanxi Army, although the Shanxi Army did not gain an advantage, but our losses were even greater, and the troops were left with less than half of their original strength. In order to prevent being annihilated by the government army, I had to divide the troops into 4 cavalry regiments scattered across the grasslands."

  Helena continued, "Actually, your luck is really good. The cavalry team I lead is not weak in strength, but just recently we had a battle with the security team of Xinghe County and another battle with a Mongolian tribe in the north. Our troops suffered significant losses, although we have made up for it, all the new recruits are inexperienced, our combat effectiveness has decreased greatly. In addition to the mistake of intelligence and underestimating the enemy, that's why you had the opportunity to take advantage of us. Otherwise, now the two of us would be in each other's positions."

  "Where are your cavalry troops now? Can you get in touch with them?" Chen Feng said with a frown.

  "Don't worry, as long as I'm not dead, they won't take the initiative to attack your troops. I think the news of my capture has already reached their ears, and now they must be surrounding this place. To be honest, I admire you, you are the first man to conquer me, your command level is very high, I don't want my troops to conflict with yours, that would only lead to mutual destruction. Therefore, as long as you agree to marry me, both I and my troops will be yours." Yelena said.

  "I can marry you if I want to, but only if my mother agrees. If she nods her head in approval, I'll carry you into the house on a sedan chair."

  "Alright then, it's settled!"

  "It's settled in one word!"

  ......