Chapter 18: The old village leader Sun Guizhi comes to join

In the winter of 1923, three major events occurred in Nantai County. The first was a rare heavy snowfall in ten years, which alleviated the severe drought; the second was that the guardian Chen Zikun led his troops to wipe out the largest pole in the county. Since then, merchants have traveled to Daqingshan to kill the tiger's mouth and no longer have to pay for the road.

The third thing is also the most important thing for the county people. The Office of the Guardian Envoy recruited thousands of bandits, and the soldiers restored the public security of Nantai County to the level of the early years of the Republic of China. When talking about the Guardian Envoy, Lord Chen, regardless of whether it was a well-known gentry or a plain-headed commoner, they would praise him.

Gai Longquan's reputation was not to be blown away. He raised his arms and shouted, and the bandits in the county surrendered. Nowadays, most of the bandits were forced to go to Liangshan. As a result, under the encirclement of the government troops, the living space became smaller and smaller. Even the "white wolf" surrendered, so why did they persist? So, in addition to some habitual bandits who committed too much sin, the whole county rushed to surrender. The troops of the Seventh Mixed Brigade quickly expanded to a huge size of 4,000 people.

Chen Zikun was worried that he could not manage so many soldiers and horses at all. At best, he was just a dropout in the military academy and did not have the experience of managing thousands of soldiers. Fortunately, with Chief of Staff Yan assisted, the work of recruiting bandits was orderly and reasonable.

Gai Longquan recruited a total of 3,688 bandits, and the number of people was enough to form a brigade, but the quality was not so good. Only half of them carried guns, and the old were old and the young were young. Even so, Chen Zikun still sealed Longquan as promised as possible and became the commander of the second regiment of the 7th Mixed Brigade, Su Qingyan became the chief of staff of the second regiment, and brothers Ganzi and others became battalion commanders. For a time, the tailor shop and shoemaker in the county town were busy, tailoring tweed uniforms and big leather boots for the commanders. The blue-gray tweed materials were sold out, and the goods had to be transferred from the provincial capital urgently.

After so many bandits were incorporated, Chen Zikun's troops expanded rapidly, and nearly 5,000 troops were found overnight. However, various problems followed. First of all, the shortage of food and salary. For so many soldiers, the monthly military salary costs were 50,000, not counting the expenses of military uniforms and pickles. Secondly, there were shortage of guns and bullets. The bandits' guns and guns were varied. The former Qing Dynasty's guns, Muser, the German Mauser, the Golden Hook, and Manlisha, Austria, were less than five types of calibers. It would be fine if the guns were messy. More than half of them had no guns at all. They could only carry red tassel guns and ghost-headed knives when they were in the exercise. In addition, there were a shortage of barracks, so there were so many people in the city. Even if they could, they would not dare to station in the city.

The barracks are easy to deal with. Just use adobe stone to temporarily build barracks outside the city. As long as they can shelter from wind, rain and cold, manpower is ready-made, and raw materials cannot be spent a lot of money, but military pay and food are really not available.

If you don’t have the power to be a family, you don’t know how expensive it is. In the past few days, Gong Zijun, the logistics director of the Office, was so worried that he was one or two. He was a rich young man. Although he studied in a university in the provincial capital and had a lot of ink, he still lacked experience in handling such complicated matters. Fortunately, Su Qingyan, the chief of staff of the Second Regiment, assisted by the side, and the burden was greatly reduced.

Su Qingyan was a scholar. He not only served as a military advisor in the Ganzi, but also served as a Grain Station. The Grain Station was responsible for logistics and was very familiar with his business. But a good wife couldn't cook without rice. The county had no food, money, and guns, so he had no choice.

The bandits who had just surrendered were unstable and could mutiny at any time. Yan Su advised Chen Zikun to increase taxes, but was rejected by Chen Zikun. The money raised last time had not been repaid yet, so how to borrow it again? It is easy to borrow it and repay it, and it is not difficult to borrow it again. Adding taxes at this time is equivalent to destroying your reputation.

Chen Zikun was a horse thief in Guandong. He knew the psychology of bandits. Not worrying about the lack of people but not the unevenness was the unstable factor. He took off his major general's uniform, changed into a coarse cloth uniform, and casually tied a belt around his waist. He moved to the military camp outside the city with the guards. When the soldiers saw the guards' commander and the woe to the woe and woe with them, they naturally stopped and stopped.

On New Year's Day in 1924, Nantai County was calm and the people did not pass the tradition of the Gregorian years. They just lived like normal days. The military camp outside the city first showed its scale, and the officers and soldiers of the Seventh Mixed Brigade composed of bandits were stationed here. After the colonel commander Gai Longquan chopped up a few black sheep with a guillotine, the originally scattered military discipline became quite like that.

An old beggar in rags came at the gate of the military camp. He couldn't get up after sitting on the ground. The sentry came to chase him, but the old man said, "Your Guardian and I are relatives."

The sentry did not dare to neglect and hurriedly reported to the chief. The adjutant Zhao Yufeng came to hear the news and looked at the old man contemptuously. Seeing that although he was dressed in sloppy, his eyes were shining brightly. He clearly came from a martial artist. He said, "Old guy, we have no parents, so where did we get relatives? What are you doing?"

The old man said, "My name is Sun Guizhi, I come from Shandong. My nephew and the military guards are friends of Eight Bibles. They are as close as brothers. I am also a relative of Marshal Chen."

When Zhao Yufeng saw that he had a name and surname, he went to the office to report the matter. Chen Zikun was shocked when he heard this. Sun Guizhi was Uncle Sun Meiyao, the old leader of the carriage in Dugu. Why did he suddenly come to Nantai? Something must have happened. He didn't bother to change his clothes, and went out of the military camp in a coarse cloth uniform of a second-class private, and personally welcomed Sun Guizhi.

"Old master, it's really your old age." Chen Zikun recognized Sun Guizhi at a glance and hurriedly stepped forward to pay his respects. Sun Guizhi was crying and couldn't speak.

Chen Zikun said: "Hurry up and help the old man to the office."

The two sentries stepped forward and carefully helped Sun Guizhi to the office room like helping his father. They made hot water to wash their faces, prepared rice and made tea, and served them well. Sun Guizhi washed her face, ate, and became much more energetic. She drank tea and picked her teeth and said, "I did not see the wrong person. Boss Chen is a particular person."

Chen Zikun said: "I don't know why the old man came?"

Sun Guizhi said: "I'm here to give you a gift."

Seeing that he had nothing, Chen Zikun gave gifts shamelessly, he said, "How do you say this?"

Sun Guizhi said: "The head on the old man's neck is worth five thousand oceans. Boss Chen took it and presented it to the Yanzhou garrison tent, and then he can get five thousand oceans."

As soon as this said, Chen Zikun was shocked and suddenly stood up and said, "Sun Meiyao has something to do!"

Sun Guizhi burst into tears: "Half a month ago, Zhang Peirong, the governor of Yanzhou, set up a Hongmen Banquet at the Zhongxing Coal Mine Club in Zaozhuang. He first blinded Sun Meiyao's eyes with a lime bag, and killed him by knife. His head was chopped off and put it in a gasoline barrel. He was everywhere. The brothers of the newly-organized brigade disarmed and escaped. I left in time and escaped. I lost my life. It was me who harmed Meiyao's nephew. It would be meaningless to live in this life. It would be better to be a favor and give it to Boss Chen. It would be better to have a friendship."

Chen Zikun was stunned. Sun Meiyao died like this. It was only half a year before he committed a thriving case. He was secretly executed by the government. Although his death was expected, he was still a little sad when he thought of such a lively hero who died tragically under a lime bag.

After a long time, Chen Zikun said leisurely: "A person cannot be resurrected by death. The old village leader does not have to blame himself too much. If you work hard to receive the reward, you don't need to say anything else. If you have a bite of food, you are old. Let's do it. Stay there for now and find a way to go back to your hometown when the wind continues."

Sun Guizhi thanked her so much and followed the orderly soldiers. Chen Zikun was in a very upset sitting in the office room. He couldn't even calm down after smoking a few cigarettes. Sun Meiyao's fate reminded him of himself. Although this was not comparable, Sun was a bandit with no background and was Wu Peifu's direct descendant, but in this chaotic era where even the president could spend money to buy, who could guarantee that he would not lie under the guillotine tomorrow?

When he was bored, the door of the public office suddenly opened. Logistics Director Gong Zijun came in with a smile: "The military guard, there is a happy event!"

"Oh, are you going to get married?" Chen Zikun said.

"No, it's a telegram from Shanghai, transferred from the provincial capital." Gong Zijun presented a long strip of telegram paper with holes. This is the case with private telegrams, and you need to translate them yourself.

Chen Zikun said: "What are you talking about above?"

Gong Zijun said: "I came over halfway through. Manager Mu said he bought 10,000 new American-made foreign guns, but the contents behind it have not been dug out."

Chen Zikun's eyes lit up: "Flip quickly."

"Okay." Gong Zijun held the code book and finally translated the full text. It turned out that this was a telegram sent by Mu Yichen from Chuntian Foreign Company. The report said that he and the United States had reached a preliminary agreement to purchase 10,000 stock rifles at a cost price - each ten dollars. The funds for purchasing the gun were loaned from Bank of America. Things were progressing rapidly and Chen Zikun urgently needed to make a decision.

This is really great news. You should know that the price of a Mauser rifle is about 100 Yinyang, and the American rifle purchased by Mu Yichen is only 20 yuan to Yinyang, which is several times cheaper than the normal market price! Ten thousand rifles are enough to arm the army of two divisions. The most important thing is that you don’t have to pay a penny for this batch of weapons. God knows where Mu Yichen has such great skills.

At this moment, Chen Zikun, who was blinded by surprise, immediately said: "Reply, let Mu Yichen do things cheaply, and there is no need to ask for instructions in everything, so as not to delay business opportunities."

"Yes, I'll do it now!" Gong Zijun rushed over. Chen Zikun sat on the chair and thought for a long time before he came back to the taste. Just saying that it was stocked with American rifles, it didn't mean what model, caliber, or quality it was. Mu Yichen was also a military person who didn't understand military affairs. If he made a batch of broken copper and iron recovered from the European battlefield or old antiques from the Civil War, he would be a big loss.

At the same time, in an office room at Sassoon Building, Bund Road, Shanghai Public Concession, Mu Yichen, in a suit and tie, lay exhausted on the sofa chair, holding a thick contract in his hand. This was the result of his hard work in the past few months. Before Chen Zikun's call, he had signed the contract, because such generous conditions were really rare.
Chapter completed!