Black Flag Army

Chapter 137 Inspection of Chagan Town

Captain Tang said, "Although I am the company commander, I am not the sole controller of the Border Defense Company. The Black Flag Army has an inspector system. You have all met our company's inspector, Hai Dazheng. He has the authority to report directly to the Beitang City Supervisory Office."

Boss Gao said: "Hai Dazheng is indeed a fool who won't give in to anything, but it's not difficult to get rid of him. Car accidents, falling into the water, fires, street fights among hooligans."

Captain Tang said: "You only know that Hai Dazheng is the inspector, but you don't know that the Inspection Office has two inspectors in each company, one open and one hidden, one main and one deputy. Hai Dazheng is the deputy inspector in public, and the main inspector is hidden in the company. If Hai Dazheng has an accident, the main inspector will report it to the higher-ups immediately, and then our doom will come."

Boss Li asked, "Who is the hidden inspector? Can't we just find him and get rid of him?"

Captain Tang said, "I also want to know who it is, but I haven't found it after two years of searching. There are more than a hundred people in the company, and everyone looks like the hidden inspector. I'm almost going insane. Who do you think came up with this stupid idea? It's so bad that I can't do anything in private. Please take back the two generous gifts! My life is more important, brother."

Mayor Ding's face darkened and he said, "Captain Tang doesn't give face to the two bosses, and he doesn't give face to me either?"

Captain Tang asked, "Hasn't Mayor Ding read the Justice Daily these days?"

Mayor Ding said, "Of course I have seen it. Gu Xingzhi, the cruel official, went berserk and turned a simple extortion case into a major treason case. He killed 58 people in one go. It was too cruel."

Captain Tang said, "Originally it was a case of extortion, but when Kong Huanyan ordered an attack on the undercover Juzi and Mozhe, the nature of the case changed. As the supreme leader of the Justice Party and the commander-in-chief of the Black Flag Army, he was attacked on his own territory. If this isn't treason, what is it?"

Mayor Ding said, "Why don't you put the suspicious soldiers on duty during the day and the trusted soldiers on duty at night, and then let the opium trucks pass through the checkpoint at night?"

Captain Tang said: "This is not foolproof. If the hidden inspector disguises himself well enough, he will appear among the soldiers I trust. The most important thing is, where did Di Juzi and his group go after leaving Huermen? Chagan Town is too close to Huermen. If they come to Chagan Town, then you and I will have to meet in the interrogation room next time."

Mayor Ding said, "As superiors, how could they investigate so thoroughly? The White-Faced Hell King wanted to blackmail them, but he hit a wall. As a soldier, you can't be too timid."

Captain Tang said, "It seems that Mayor Ding doesn't know them well. Di Juzi was a detective from the Beijing Municipal Police Department. He solved several major cases in Beijing and helped Inspector Ma Hong become the director. This is what the Beijingers who were refugees in transit told me. Xian Mozhe graduated from the Intelligence Officer School and ranked first among the female students there. Although she has left the Intelligence Department, her ability to search for intelligence has not disappeared."

Mayor Ding said coldly: "No matter what, Captain Tang won't agree?"

Captain Tang said: "Gold bars are very tempting, but you have to be alive to enjoy them. I'm really sorry, brothers, I can't do anything!"

When Di Xiong arrived at the entrance of Chagan Town, he saw several refugees with pale faces walking towards him. He frowned and said to Xian Yuji, "Something is wrong. I felt something was wrong when I saw the skinny Zhang Quanfu on the road just now, but I didn't react. Now seeing these refugees who are obviously not full, I remembered that there is a relief station in Chagan Town. Each refugee is given two steamed buns and a bowl of meat soup. This is the standard I set personally. Why are there so many people with pale faces?"

Xian Yuji also reacted and shouted, "Someone is embezzling refugee rations and enriching themselves. There is something wrong with the mayor of Chagan Town. I'll go to the relief station to check!"

Liu Zhennan said, "I'll go take a look. Director Xian has been gone for quite some time. Let's rest here for a while. I'll be back soon. You guys wait for me at the tea stand in front."

Di Xiong warned: "Come back when you go, and don't do anything!"

Di Xiong and his companions were indeed tired, so they sat down on the stools at the tea stall. The stall owner was an old man with a head full of white hair, who was at least in his sixties. Di Xiong ordered a cup of tea for each person, but no one drank it.

Liu Zhennan came back soon. He said to Di Xiong, "The refugee food at the relief station has really been replaced. Two big steamed buns have been replaced with two corn breads. Corn breads are hollow, so six corn breads are equivalent to two big steamed buns. The broth has also been replaced with boiled water. Of course, the refugees are not full. I wanted to take action, but I remembered Juzi's instructions, so I held back my anger and came back."

Di Xiong said to the white-haired old man who was running the tea stall: "Old man! How long have you been running the tea stall here?"

The white-haired old man said in a hoarse voice: "Two years!"

Di Xiong asked again: "Do you know who is the director of the Chagan Town Relief Station?"

The white-haired old man said, "Ding Ergui, nicknamed Ding Bawang, is the son of Ding Caoteng, the mayor of Chagan Town."

When Di Xiong heard the nickname of the director of the Chagan Town Relief Station, his heart sank. It was impossible for such a good person to have such a nickname, and he was the son of the town mayor, which made the problem even bigger.

Xian Yuji sighed and said, "I was just visiting Chagan Town to revisit my hometown. I really didn't come here to investigate a case. I didn't expect to encounter something like this. If I hadn't been secretly investigating at the grassroots level, how could I have seen so many dark things? As a high-ranking member of the Justice Party, I feel ashamed of the people of Outer Mongolia!"

Di Xiong laughed and said, "Now that you put it that way, as a leader of the Justice Party, shouldn't I feel even more ashamed?"

Liu Zhennan said, "It seems that the facts are very clear. The father and son colluded with each other, embezzled the relief grain, and enriched themselves. I just don't know if the border defense company knew about this? If they knew, why didn't the inspector report it to the higher authorities?"

Di Xiong said, "It's impossible that all the inspectors are clean. Isn't the deputy head of the inspection team of Huermen also a member of the Kong family gang? Now that this kind of thing has been discovered, we can't go to the town government anymore. Let's go to the border defense company camp in Chagan Town. I don't believe that all the more than 100 people in the company have been dragged into this."

After Captain Tang sent Mayor Ding and the two businessmen away, it was already dark. He returned to his single dormitory and saw that the food the guards had brought from the canteen was cold, so he turned on the coal stove to heat it up before eating. At this time, someone knocked on the door. Captain Tang knew it was the guard Xiao Zhang from the rhythm of the knocks, so he said, "Come in!"

It was indeed Xiao Zhang who came in. Xiao Zhang said, "Captain! A big man came to see Inspector Hai Dazheng. You asked me to keep an eye on him last time. If there is any situation, please report it immediately. I am here to tell you."

Captain Tang was shocked when he heard this and asked quickly, "What's the man's last name? What does he look like?"

Xiao Zhang said, "I think I heard him say his last name is Liu. He is tall, with a dark face and big eyes."

Captain Tang took out a copy of Justice Daily from the bedside box and pointed to a photo in the newspaper and asked, "Is this the person?"

Xiao Zhang looked carefully for a long time and said, "That's the guy!"

Captain Tang cried out in a choked voice: "Liu Zhennan is here. He is Juzi's personal guard. Juzi must be nearby. Go find Hai Dazheng quickly. If Hai Dazheng says something bad about me, it will be all over."

He opened the door impatiently and rushed out, almost bumping into Hai Dazheng who had just walked out the door. Hai Dazheng smiled and said, "Where are you going, Captain Tang?"

Captain Tang was stunned for a moment, not knowing what to say. Xiao Zhang said, "Captain Tang wants to talk to you about something!"

Hai Dazheng said: "You are well-informed. I believe you know that Juzi and Director Xian have arrived. Come with me to greet them!"

Captain Tang saw a big man standing behind Hai Da, looking at him vigilantly. The big man was indeed Liu Zhennan. Captain Tang had seen him before when he was training in the recruit company in Bei Tang City.

Captain Tang and Hai Dazheng walked to the gate of the military camp together, opened the gate, welcomed Di Xiong, Xian Yuji and the others in, and invited them to the guesthouse. Captain Tang called the canteen quartermaster to go to the street to buy some meat dishes to treat them to a sumptuous banquet. Di Xiong waved his hand and said, "No need! We have already eaten. Now we need to transfer some soldiers from you to arrest Ding Caoteng and Ding Ergui. Originally, this matter should be the responsibility of the police station, but the Daranza police station is too far away. We don't want to wait, and we only want to arrest two people, so we want to borrow your men, is that okay?"

When Captain Tang heard that they were going to arrest Ding Caoteng and his son Ding Ergui, he was stunned.

Xian Yuji, who always liked to read people's faces, said, "Captain Tang looks very embarrassed! He must be close to Mayor Ding."

When Captain Tang heard this, he shuddered and sweat broke out on his face. He hurriedly shouted, "Report to Director Xian! Mayor Ding and I have only had meals together a few times. We don't have much friendship. Even if we do, it cannot exceed our loyalty to the Justice Party! I will personally lead people to arrest the Ding family father and son now!"

Di Xiong looked at Captain Tang and said seriously, "Besides this matter, don't you have anything else to tell me?"

Captain Tang said, "Chief Ding also teamed up with two big opium dealers to smuggle opium in and sell it. He offered me 20 gold bars, but I refused."

Di Xiong breathed a sigh of relief and said, "It seems that you can still be saved! Today I will give you a chance to redeem yourself by doing meritorious service. If those two cigarette dealers are still in Ding Caoteng's house, arrest them together."

Captain Tang stood up and saluted, saying, "I will obey orders!"

Captain Tang led a platoon of soldiers, Liu Zhennan and Di Chun to arrest the man. Di Xiong continued to talk with Hai Dazheng in the guesthouse. Di Xiong asked, "Since you knew Ding Caoteng had embezzled relief grain, why didn't you report it to the higher-ups?"

Hai Dazheng said: "I went to Daranza City last month to report to the supervision team there. Who knew that the team leader was in cahoots with Ding Caoteng, who had been paying tribute to him. On my way back, I encountered an ambush and nearly died in a car accident. I had to endure it. During this Huermen purge, the team leader was also found to have accepted bribes from the Kong family and was replaced. When I was about to report to the new team leader, you had already arrived."

Xian Yuji said angrily: "How can such a piece of trash be appointed as the head of the municipal inspection team? How did Su Jinxu and his team choose this person? They must be held accountable!"

Di Xiong smiled bitterly and said, "I also know that Su Jinxu is not suitable to be the director. He proposed to resign last time, but no one has replaced him as the director! The person who is really suitable to be the director must go to the battlefield. I really have no choice. How about you help me think of a solution?"

Xian Yuji pouted and said, "You are more than ten times smarter than me. If you can't think of a solution, how can I possibly think of one? Stop joking."

Captain Tang arrived at Ding Caoteng's house and knocked on the door. It was Boss Gao who opened it. He was very happy to see Captain Tang and said, "You finally figured it out... Hey! What are you doing with so many people?"

When he found something wrong, he was knocked to the ground by the soldiers who rushed over with the butt of their rifles, and then tied up and took away. The soldiers rushed into the Ding Mansion and had a brief exchange of fire with the Ding Mansion servants. Among the dozen servants, less than half resisted. After three were shot dead, the rest knelt down and surrendered. Ding Caoteng, Ding Ergui, and Boss Li were all tied up and taken away, and Ding Caoteng's wives and concubines were also detained.

In the military camp, Di Xiong did not use torture, so Ding Caoteng honestly admitted that he had embezzled 50,000 yuan in relief grain funds. It was only three months since the incident. Ding Caoteng took all the charges and asked to spare his son Ding Ergui's life. He said that his son was only following his orders and the crime was not punishable by death.

Di Xiong said, "In three months, you have only made 50,000 yuan, which is life-saving money for refugees! You deserve to die. Your son has done many evil things in Chagan Town. His sins are serious and he should also be executed!"

Ding Caoteng, who was kneeling on the ground with his hands tied, became anxious when he heard that his son was going to be executed. He stood up and shouted loudly, then rushed towards Di Xiong and wanted to butt Di Xiong with his head, but was kicked to the ground by Liu Zhennan.

Tuo Qingsong, the new supervisory group leader of Dalanza City, was ordered to rush to Chagan Town to interrogate the case of corruption and smuggling. According to Di Xiong's request, the case was sentenced severely and quickly. The father and son of the Ding family, as well as boss Gao and boss Li were all executed on the spot.

The next morning, Di Xiong and his party flew back to Beitang City. When they entered the office in the afternoon, Wu Zhong held up a copy of the Justice Daily and said to Di Xiong, "An old friend of ours has passed away and gone to the Western Paradise."

Di Xiong asked, "Who is it?"

Wu Zhong said: "One of the ten great elders of Beiyang, Lu Jianzhang! General Manager Lan's ex-husband."

Di Xiong asked, "Did he die of illness or was he killed?"

Wu Zhongdao said: "He was assassinated by someone sent by Xu Shuzheng. It is said that when the Beiyang Army and the Southern Protection Army were fighting, he always jumped out to make trouble. In the name of peace talks, he encouraged some Beiyang Army to abandon their positions and cities, which angered the Anhui warlords headed by Duan Qirui. Xu Shuzheng sent someone to Tianjin to assassinate him."

Di Xiong asked, "Isn't Xu Shuzheng in Outer Mongolia? Why did he return to China?"

Wu Zhong said: "He always flew back and forth between Beijing and Kulun. He never spent more than three months in Kulun. Duan Qirui regarded him as his think tank and always consulted with him on matters."

Di Xiong said: "1918 was an eventful year! The Anhui warlords headed by Duan Qirui were fighting in the south while fighting for power with President Feng in Beijing. They set up the Anfu Congress and sidelined President Feng. It seems that the president of Beiyang will be replaced again. This time I hope the new president will be Xu Shichang."