Black Flag Army

Chapter 147: The Fall of a Star General

In the evening, in the Beihai Hospital meeting room, Ji Fang said to Yuan Suifeng with tears in her eyes: "Dean Yuan! Is there really no hope for my husband?"

Dean Yuan sighed and said, "Commander Zhang has been ill from long-term overwork. His lungs have deteriorated. I am too old and incompetent! There is no way to save him. He will die in the next few days. Let's prepare for his funeral."

Ji Fang burst into tears after hearing this. Lu Cainiang and Ji Shanhong tried to comfort her. Ji Shanhong said to Yuan Suifeng, "Aren't you a miracle doctor? How could you not cure him?"

Yuan Suifeng said: "The name of a miracle doctor is just an exaggeration by the patient's family! I have never admitted it. I am a human, not a god!"

Zhang Zhenyang, like Leng Hanbing, had a smoking problem and was addicted. He would cough incessantly in winter. Before Leng Hanbing married Bai Xiuling, one of the three conditions proposed by Bai Xiuling was to quit smoking. Leng Hanbing gritted her teeth and endured with her tenacious will and quit smoking. Bai Xiuling also bought lung-clearing and throat-moistening Chinese medicine from the herbal medicine store and asked Leng Hanbing to drink it for a long time. Zhang Zhenyang did not quit, and Xifang did not persuade him to quit. Instead, she took the initiative to buy cigarettes for him, thinking that this was her care and consideration for her husband, which caused Zhang Zhenyang's cough to become more and more severe, from tracheitis to pneumonia, and finally to lung cancer. Even with the medical skills of the era before Di Xiong traveled through time, the cure rate of lung cancer was extremely low, not to mention the medical skills of 1918.

The Black Flag Army Headquarters, after receiving the news that the Black Flag Army had fully recaptured Temple Street, Di Xiong was not happy. He was very sad about the loss of more than 15,000 people. More than 9,000 people were killed, more than 6,000 were seriously injured and disabled, more than 8,000 Russian soldiers were killed, more than 20,000 were captured, and the enemy's main generals all ran away. After receiving the telegram from Beitang City, he looked even uglier.

Di Xiong said to Yang Lushuang: "Contact the Air Force to prepare a transport plane. I need to go back to Beitang City."

Wu Chunlei asked: "What happened?"

Di Xiong handed the telegram to Wu Chunlei and said, "Zhang Zhenyang, the Mohist of the Justice Party, is leaving. I must see him off for the last time!"

Wu Chunlei was shocked after reading the telegram, and then said to Leng Hanbing: "How lucky you are to marry Bai Xiuling! Otherwise, you might have ended up like Zhang Zhenyang!"

Leng Hanbing took the telegram, read it, and said in surprise: "I didn't expect smoking to be so harmful. Fortunately, Bai Xiuling forced me to quit."

When Zhang Zhenyang defected to Di Xiong in October 1912, Di Xiong had only one security battalion under him, and Leng Hanbing was the battalion commander. After Zhang Zhenyang arrived, he became the deputy battalion commander and actually commanded the entire battalion. After arriving in Suiyuan, Di Xiong's subordinates increased to a regiment, and Zhang Zhenyang was the regiment commander. When it was expanded to a brigade, he was the brigade commander. It can be said that Zhang Zhenyang had been the actual highest commander in the army since he went to Di Xiong's military camp, until Jiang Hongyu appeared. Di Xiong trusted him very much and made him a Mohist. He was also very loyal to Di Xiong. Unexpectedly, only six years later, this loyal star died.

Wu Chunlei said: "Let's go see him off too, okay?"

Leng Hanbing said: "He taught me a lot of military knowledge, I will go and see him off."

Di Xiong said, "If everyone goes to Beitang City, who will command here? Will we rely on Chief of Staff Jiang alone? You are the commander and chief of staff of the group army, and you cannot leave the battlefield easily. I will explain to him and his family, and they will understand."

Three hours later, Di Xiong, who brought only four guards, got off the plane at Beitang City Airport and went straight to Beihai Hospital, where he finally saw Zhang Zhenyang for the last time. Zhang Zhenyang could no longer speak and just made a few gestures with his hands. Only Ji Fang could understand what he meant.

Ji Fang explained with tears in her eyes: "He asked how the battle was going on the front line? Whether Temple Street had been recaptured?"

Di Xiong said: "We have won the victory and Temple Street has been recovered. Leng Hanbing and Wu Chunlei wanted to come to see you, but Temple Street has just been recovered and the remaining enemies have not been completely eliminated. The enemy may counterattack at any time, so I didn't let them come. Please understand!"

Zhang Zhenyang made a few more gestures, and Ji Fang said, "He said that he should be the one to say sorry. It was because he did not give up his bad habits and delayed the great cause of recovering Outer Northeast China. He felt guilty towards Commander-in-Chief Di!"

When Di Xiong heard this, his heart ached and tears flowed down his cheeks. He said, "I have never blamed you. Everyone has shortcomings. I have many shortcomings too and have made many mistakes. I am actually not worthy of being the commander-in-chief."

Xian Yujie, who also came to visit Zhang Zhenyang, looked at him nervously, worried that he would let something slip and say something he shouldn't.

At this time, Yuan Qingguo, the chief physician of the Internal Medicine Department, said, "The patient needs to rest. Can Commander Di and the others please go out first?"

Di Xiong, Xian Yujie and others had to leave the ward.

At twelve o'clock that night, Zhang Zhenyang, former commander of the First Army of the Black Flag Army, stopped breathing at the age of 38.

The next morning, Di Xiong personally presided over Zhang Zhenyang's memorial service. All the tycoons and scholars in Beitang City came, just like when he got married. Ji Fang fainted from crying several times at the memorial service. She regretted very much that she did not persuade Zhang Zhenyang to quit smoking.

After the memorial service, a Justice Party meeting was held. At the meeting, Di Xiong issued an order that all high-level and middle-level Justice Party members were not allowed to smoke in the future. Those who were addicted to smoking must quit, otherwise they would be dismissed from all their positions. This order was supported by most of the high-level members, especially the female high-level members.

Wu Chunfeng, who had just held a cigarette in his mouth, quickly took it out and threw it into the trash can next to the table along with the cigarette box in his pocket.

Di Xiong asked Tian Mengxue, "After I left Beitang City, did the Intelligence Department receive any important news?"

Tian Mengxue said, "After you led the main force into Outer Northeast, Kulun City almost attacked us. Yan Shichao was bribed by the Japanese and persuaded Xu Shuzheng to take advantage of the situation. Fortunately, Zhe Qixiang, who was bribed by Sun Xiaotie, strongly opposed it. In addition, their internal opinions were not unified to begin with, and Qu Tongfeng was also against it, so the matter ended in nothing."

Di Xiong said: "This incident actually sounded a warning to us, that is, we must not be careless in our defense against the eastern part of Mongolia. Xu Shuzheng now has three more divisions of troops under his command, so his ambitions are naturally bigger. The military power of the Beiyang government is not in the hands of President Xu, but in the hands of the warlords. These warlords will turn against us at any time, and will never let us go just because we have changed from an illegal army to a legal army."

Wu Chunfeng said: "Beijing did show unfavorable trends towards us. After we recovered Khabarovsk, the envoys of the United States, Britain and Japan expressed strong protests to the Beiyang government, demanding that the Beiyang government immediately issue an order to order our Justice Army to stop attacking Temple Street and withdraw from Khabarovsk. Some pro-Japanese members of the Beiyang Congress gave speeches in the Congress, trying their best to discredit our Beihai Province and vote to remove the commander-in-chief and Governor Wu from their posts. After we received the urgent telegram from the Beijing Intelligence Station, we consulted Wu Juzi and remitted one million yuan in public relations fees to the Beijing Intelligence Station to bribe the members. In the end, the Congress voted with less than two-thirds of the support rate and failed. Yin Quan, the head of the Beijing Intelligence Station, also found several eyewitnesses of the Outer Northeast Massacre that year, and went to schools and downtown areas to tell about the tragedy that year, which aroused everyone's anger. The four major universities in Beijing jointly held a massive demonstration, and citizens also joined in to protest against foreign powers interfering in China's internal affairs and the weakness and incompetence of the Beiyang government. Under the strong pressure of public opinion and bribery, the resolution requiring us to stop the attack and withdraw from Khabarovsk was not passed in Congress."

Xian Yuji said angrily: "I didn't expect that we won the battle! We still have to give money to those greedy congressmen."

Tian Mengxue said: "Japanese agents are not idle either. They have recently secretly contacted the new governor of Suiyuan, Cai Chengxun, and sent him money and beauties, hoping that he would send troops to attack the southern part of Beihai Province. According to the intelligence officers who broke into the Japanese embassy, ​​the agents under Doihara Kenji not only looked for Cai Chengxun, but also the governors of Chahar and Ningxia, and even the governors of Gansu and Xinjiang provinces. The governors and governors of various provinces have not yet taken action against us, not because they are not tempted by money and beauties, but because they are shocked by the brilliant achievements of the Black Flag Army. Therefore, the commander-in-chief would rather fight slowly in the front and must not lose. If the front loses, the warlords of various provinces will immediately pounce on us like wolves."

Wu Zhong said: "You can't bribe congressmen more than once. The Japanese are also paying money to bribe them. Giving money from both sides has made their appetites bigger and their asking prices are getting higher and higher. After all, our money didn't just fall from the sky. It was the hard-earned money of hundreds of thousands of workers from the Beihai and Weili companies, or the spoils of war earned by the lives of soldiers at the front."

Li Fei said: "If we can't buy them off with money next time, then we can only use force to intimidate them. I suggest that we select a few of the most pro-Japanese congressmen and kill them. I will lead the action team to Beijing. The method we used to intimidate the British Minister to China, Sir John Jordan, worked well."

Jordan was the most vocal envoy to the Beiyang government in protesting. However, a few nights ago, his favorite pet parrot was killed and its body was thrown on his bed. When he woke up in the morning and saw it, he was so scared that he almost went crazy. After calling the police, the Beijing Police Department said that they could not solve the case. He stopped protesting to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Di Xiong said, "It's war time now, all the action masters have gone to the front. It's impossible for you to go alone without an assistant! Unless I go with you."

As soon as he said this, others immediately objected, and Di Xiong had to give up.

In the evening, Di Xiong returned home exhausted. After brushing his teeth and washing his face, he lay down on the bed and wanted to sleep. Lan Jinchun pulled him up, brought him a basin of hot water, and wanted to wash his feet. Di Xiong hurriedly refused, saying that he would wash it himself and would never let his pregnant wife serve him. After he finished washing, Lan Jinchun allowed him to go to bed.

Di Xiong sighed and said, "Having such a virtuous wife is a blessing I earned in my previous life!"

Lan Jinchun smiled and said, "It's obviously the blessing you earned in this life. What does it have to do with your previous life?"

Di Xiong said: "I am really too tired today. If you have no problem today, I will go to sleep."

Lan Jinchun said: "There is only one question!"

Di Xiong said: "Then ask quickly!"

Lan Jinchun said: "Mr. Zhou's novel "Diary of a Madman" is being serialized in the Justice Daily. I don't understand a lot of the content in this novel. Can you explain it to me?"

Di Xiong said, "I really can't help you with this. I can't understand it either. You're right to say you can't understand it, because this is Mr. Zhou's diary written in the tone of a madman. If you can understand it, then wouldn't you also be a madman?"

Lan Jinchun punched him lightly and said, "But what's the point of Mr. Zhou writing these things that others can't understand? You must know it, but you deliberately didn't tell me. Tell me now!"

Di Xiong was unable to sleep because of her, so he had to explain to her: "Most of the content of this novel is meaningless nonsense. In order to fool the Beiyang government's censorship agency, there are only a few useful sentences hidden in a lot of meaningless nonsense, such as saving the children, benevolence, morality, and cannibalism. The Beiyang government's censorship agency was tired of reading this nonsense, so they simply approved it."

Lan Jinchun said: "Why did Mr. Zhou publish his novel in the Beiyang government's magazine first? If he published it here, he wouldn't have to be so evasive."

Di Xiong said, "Mr. Zhou's ideas are beyond your and my imagination. Can we go to bed now? I still have a lot of things to do tomorrow!"

After getting permission, Di Xiong finally went to bed.

The next morning, when Di Xiong just arrived at the office, he saw Wu Chunfeng waiting for him there with a piece of intelligence in his hand, looking nervous.

Di Xiong smiled and said, "When I see you like this, I know there is bad news. Don't be afraid. If an enemy comes, we will fight him. If a flood comes, we will block it with earth."

Wu Chunfeng finally relaxed his expression and said with a smile: "Brother, you are so calm! Of course I am not afraid. This is really bad news. Kolchak has returned early. You originally thought that he would withdraw his troops in October next year. Obviously, we occupied his lair and hurt him. He came to settle accounts with us with 500,000 troops in advance. Of course, I know that brother will definitely have a way."

Di Xiong said: "Since we cut off the Siberian Railway, it will take them half a year to reach Outer Northeast. The Chief of General Staff said that we can capture the entire Outer Northeast in three months. Now it has been almost a month, and we have also captured two cities. Half of the land of Outer Northeast is in our hands. But Vladivostok is more difficult to attack than we imagined. It is a port city. Foreign powers can support it from the air and sea. We also have to seize the coastal areas north of Vladivostok to prevent the enemy from landing from our rear and copying our retreat when we attack Vladivostok."

Lan Jinping was reading documents in the office. When she saw Di Xiong coming in, she became a little nervous. She had a secret that she had been hiding from Di Xiong, so she felt guilty. Lan Jinping asked, "What do you want to talk to me about?"

Di Xiong said, "Zhang Zhenyang unfortunately passed away due to illness! We have lost a great general, and coupled with the losses on the front line, we are now seriously short of senior generals. This time when I return to the Outer Northeast Front, I intend to take you with me."

Lan Jinping was surprised and asked, "Why do you want to take me with you?"

Di Xiong said, "Because you are a female Guiguzi, not only are you good at business, but you are also very good at making plans in war. It would be a waste to keep you in the rear. Bring you to the Khabarovsk headquarters, where you can play a greater role."

Lan Jinping said in horror: "You are not going to take advantage of the war to kill me, are you?"