Black Flag Army

Chapter 130: 1 Piece of Roast Lamb

Di Xiong said: "You can't say that. Wu Zhong is capable and smart. It was his idea to attack Zhang Ade's mansion that year. He helped us get our first pot of gold and gradually developed our strength. In recent years, the scale of Beihai Group has been getting bigger and bigger, and it is indeed becoming more and more difficult to manage. It should be split into several companies, or he should be given more deputy general managers."

After Di Xiong contacted the transport plane at the airport, he told Jiang Hongyu: "After I leave, this place will be handed over to you. Don't attack anywhere for the time being. First consolidate the occupied territory. Also, beware of Ivanov in the east. He certainly doesn't have the ability to counterattack alone, but he may join forces with Enqin's tribe to counterattack. Also, treat the local residents well and don't provoke them to gather and rebel. I'll leave Ping Zhonghai and Ping Wenmo, who were recommended by Lan Jinping, to govern the place."

Jiang Hongyu said: "Don't worry, Commander-in-Chief. After you leave, we will only defend and not attack. We will wait until the five new recruit divisions have finished their training and have reinforcements before taking action."

Di Xiong and Leng Hanbing boarded a transport plane together. They were accompanied by the Second Division's Special Service Battalion, who were divided into three transport planes and escorted by twelve fighter jets. They flew back to Beitang City in just two hours.

At the Beitangcheng Airport, Di Xiong met Wu Zhong and Su Jinxu who came to greet him. Wu Zhong was obviously much older than the last time they parted. He was only in his fifties, but his hair was almost completely white, and his face had many wrinkles. He looked like a man in his sixties. It seemed that he was under a lot of pressure after the riot at the gun factory.

Wu Zhong held Di Xiong's hand and said, "I can finally breathe a sigh of relief now that you're back. Fang has been causing me so much trouble during this period of time."

In the airport lounge, Di Xiong asked, "What happened to the gun factory riot? What happened to this guy named Fang?"

Wu Zhongdao: "It's funny to say that. The cause was actually a piece of roasted lamb. The conflict occurred in the canteen of the gun factory. At that time, the canteen waiter gave the roasted lamb that should have been given to the American engineer Bunte to the workshop director Fang Haiqiang by mistake. Bunte was furious. He first scolded the waiter and tried to snatch the roasted lamb from Fang Haiqiang's plate. Fang Haiqiang refused to give it to him and ate the roasted lamb while running with the plate. Bunte chased him and caught him. The two men wrestled at the door of the canteen, and then other people joined in, triggering a melee between Chinese workers and foreign engineers."

Di Xiong said, "Isn't it just a piece of roasted lamb? The thing we have the most in the western part of Outer Mongolia is sheep. There are more of them than cattle and horses. This Bangte is too stingy. Can't he just ask the waiter for another piece?"

Wu Zhong said: "Although our mutton is very cheap, they are fighting for the most tender lamb loins. There is not much lamb loins in a whole sheep, which leads to tight supply. The canteen director is Tang Ruoping, the wife of the factory director Guo Zhiliang. She has stipulated that lamb loins are only for foreign engineers. Except for Guo Zhiliang, no other Chinese in the factory can eat it. This practice has long caused conflicts between Chinese and foreigners. Bonte believed that Fang Haiqiang violated his privileges, so he fought with him, and the conflict between Chinese and foreigners was intensified."

Su Jinxu said: "There are dozens of foreign engineers in the gun factory. Although most of them are highly skilled, there are also some who are just filling in the numbers. Bonte is one of them. He often drinks and makes trouble. Guo Zhiliang once planned to fire him, but other American engineers interceded for him. He couldn't save face and had to delay it."

Di Xiong asked Wu Zhong, "How did Guo Zhiliang handle this fight? Did he report it to you?"

Wu Zhong said: "There were many Chinese people in the cafeteria at the time, and many of them were from Fang Haiqiang's workshop. Of course, the foreigners suffered when a fight broke out. Several foreign engineers were injured. Deputy Director George was an American, so he lodged a strong protest to Guo Zhiliang. Guo Zhiliang put all the dozen or so Chinese workers who had fought, including Fang Haiqiang, in solitary confinement, and also removed Fang Haiqiang from his position as workshop director. Foreigners including Bonte were not punished at all. Guo Zhiliang wrote a document about the incident and the results of the handling and sent it to me. I was busy dealing with the meat processing plant and the salt factory at the time, so I didn't have time to read the document. By the time I remembered to read the document, the riot had already broken out."

Di Xiong said to Su Jinxu, "I remember that the Supervision Department had an inspection team lurking in the gun factory. They should have reported the details to you, right? Don't say they know nothing."

Su Jinxu said: "They did report to me, but they acted too impulsively and wanted to quell the riot by their own ability. As a result, their identities were exposed and only one person escaped alive. After Fang Haiqiang was put in solitary confinement, his elder brother Fang Haisheng and his second brother Fang Haijian were both managers in the gun factory and had a certain prestige among the workers. They colluded with the workers to prepare for a strike, accusing us of saying that we were talking about expelling foreign powers and overthrowing the Beiyang government, but it was all lies. Now we let the foreign devils ride on our heads and bully others. How can we expel foreigners in the future? There was also Fang Haisheng's mistress Pan Yuyin, who was also jumping up and down and instigating many workers. The inspection team suspected that she was a Japanese spy. Under their instigation, more than a hundred workers rushed into the solitary confinement room, injured the guards, rescued Fang Haiqiang and the dozen workers, and then closed the factory gate and went on strike."

Di Xiong asked: "Didn't Guo Zhiliang negotiate with the workers at that time?"

Su Jinxu said: "We did talk, but they said that Director Guo was too low-ranking and not qualified to talk to them, and wanted to negotiate directly with General Manager Wu. However, General Manager Wu went to a salt factory in another place, and Deputy General Manager Hu Lin went to Daranza. They said that the two general managers deliberately avoided them. Director Guo quarreled with them at the negotiation venue, and the two sides clashed. Pan Yuyin first shot and killed one of Director Guo's guards. More than a dozen members of the guard brigade brought by Director Guo all died in the conflict. Director Guo was also injured and tied up. Fang Haisheng saw that so many people had died, and we would definitely not give up, so he simply opened the warehouse, took out weapons and armed the striking workers. The strike turned into a riot. The gun factory inspection team also attacked the leader of the group, but only killed the second-in-command Fang Haijian and injured Pan Yuyin. Most of them died."

Di Xiong said: "Old Wu was not in Beitang City at that time! The person in charge should be Lan Jinping. What was Lan Jinping doing?"

Su Jinxu said: "Lan Juzi received the news of the riot at the gun factory, and convened Chairman Li of the Sharp Knife Society, Liu Bao of the Guard Battalion, and Subuda of the Cavalry Division to hold a meeting with me. It was decided that the four parties would join forces to quell the riot as quickly as possible. She ordered Subuda to lead the Cavalry Division Special Service Battalion to attack from the back door, but was discovered by Pan Yuyin and was ambushed, suffering heavy losses. She also ordered the Cavalry Division Artillery Regiment to launch more than a dozen Krupp heavy artillery from the Simon Cannon Foundry in preparation for a strong attack. Fang Haisheng sent an envoy to say that if we attacked, they would blow up all the machines in the gun factory. We were all scared. No one could afford the price of all the machines being blown up. At this time, General Manager Wu returned urgently by plane and negotiated with Fang Haisheng's envoy. Fang Haisheng proposed that we use three transport planes to send them to Suiyuan."

Di Xiong asked, "Did Old Wu agree?"

Wu Zhong said: "We didn't agree. Their conditions were too harsh. They wanted to kill all the foreign engineers in the gun factory in front of them and demanded 200,000 dollars. For safety reasons, they wanted to take not only Director Guo but also Lan Juzi away."

Di Xiong asked curiously, "Why do you want to take Lan Jinping away as well?"

Su Jinxu said, "Because Fang Haisheng is Lan Juzi's crazy pursuer. He has pursued Lan Juzi many times but was rejected. He is over 30 years old and still a bachelor. His personality is extreme and perverted. Now that he is about to die, he still wants to satisfy his desires. Of course, we can't agree to it."

In the meeting room of the Justice Party building, all the Mohists in Beitang City arrived, even the new Mohist Cha Jingfeng who had just been discharged from the hospital.

After Di Xiong introduced the situation to everyone, he said, "I'll go to the gun factory to negotiate with them! This matter can't be delayed any longer."

Everyone was horrified and opposed it. Tian Mengxue said, "They have killed so many people that they have become bloodthirsty and turned into wild beasts. If you go, you will die in vain!"

Di Xiong said: "They know very well that if they kill me, they will not survive, so they dare not kill me."

Lan Jinping said anxiously, "This is too risky. If something happens to you, it will be devastating for the Justice Party. I would rather be a hostage in the gun factory and let that beast abuse me than let you take the risk."

Leng Hanbing said, "I'll go! I'm also a director of the Beihai Group and I'm qualified to negotiate with them. During the negotiation, I'll find the right opportunity to kill all of their leaders, so that we don't have to spend a lot of money to send them away by plane."

Wu Zhong said, "I'll go! As the general manager of Beihai Group, they originally asked me to negotiate. My life as an old man is worthless, and this is one of the few things I can do for everyone."

Everyone was arguing at the meeting, so they had to vote and finally decided that Wu Zhong would go to negotiate, but he would be accompanied by Leng Hanbing and Liu Zhendong. After Di Xiong learned about the riot at the gun factory in Nerchinsk, he took it very seriously, so this time he not only brought Leng Hanbing back, but also brought Liu Zhendong back.

The next morning, Wu Zhong, wearing the bulletproof vest given to him by Di Xiong, entered the heavily surrounded gun factory accompanied by Liu Zhendong and Leng Hanbing.

The workers who rioted in the gun factory all knew the general manager of Beihai Group and took the initiative to make way for them. After Wu Zhong entered the factory gate, he walked along a cement road in the middle of the compound towards the central building of the factory.

At the third-floor window of the Red Center Building, Fang Haisheng, Fang Haiqiang, and Pan Yuyin were using binoculars to watch Wu Zhong approaching slowly. Pan Yuyin was injured, with gauze wrapped around her neck. Fang Haisheng said proudly, "Wu Zhong finally showed up. It seems they are anxious. The gun factory is under our control. Every day of suspension of production means they lose tens of thousands of dollars. They can't afford such a huge loss, so they have to come to negotiate. We must not give in during the negotiations."

Pan Yuyin's face suddenly changed, and she screamed, "Not good! The two followers behind him are Liu Zhendong and Leng Hanbing, the two most powerful masters of the Black Flag Army. Send someone to stop them immediately. Don't let these two people enter the central building. Only Wu Zhong is allowed to come in, otherwise we won't talk anymore."

Fang Haiqiang also said: "Sister Pan is right! We can't let the cold-blooded devil and the northern gun king in. Once these two evil stars come, no one will survive."

Fang Haisheng said to a guard standing by the door: "Xiao Li! Go down immediately and tell Wu Zhong to ask Leng Hanbing and Liu Zhendong to retreat. This is a prerequisite for negotiation!"

After hearing this, guard Xiao Li hurried downstairs to pass on the order.

At this time, Leng Hanbing had stopped beside a truck and took out a telescope to observe. Liu Zhendong also took out a sniper rifle. Not only did Fang Haisheng and his friends know Leng Hanbing and Liu Zhendong, but Leng Hanbing also knew them. Before leaving, Su Jinxu took out photos of the three people and asked them to look through them carefully. Fang Haisheng and his friends thought that the other party would play tricks during the negotiation, but they didn't expect that Leng Hanbing and Liu Zhendong had no intention of negotiating with them.

Leng Hanbing said to Liu Zhendong: "Eight o'clock! Target number three!"

Before he finished speaking, Liu Zhendong fired a gunshot! Pan Yuyin screamed and fell backwards heavily. Fang Haiqiang saw a big gash on Pan Yuyin's chest, blood gushing out, and he was about to die. He was terrified.

Behind the sandbag fortifications on the first floor, dozens of rioting workers opened fire at the same time. Liu Zhendong and Leng Hanbing were protected by a freight truck and were not hit by any bullets. Only Wu Zhong was hit by several bullets, but he was not injured because he was wearing a bulletproof vest. He quickly retreated behind a pile of cargo boxes.

Leng Hanbing said: "Eleven o'clock! Target number two!"

Fang Haisheng quickly hid behind the wall and found his brother Fang Haiqiang standing there in shock. He quickly shouted, "Run!"

Just as he shouted, gunshots were heard and Fang Haiqiang fell on the white desk with his head exploded, his blood staining the desk red.

Fang Haisheng cursed: "What a cruel and cold-blooded devil! The Northern Gun King! I will fight you to the death, blow up the factory, and die together!"

He bent down and reached for the phone, preparing to order his men to blow up the factory and kill Guo Zhiliang. At this moment, he heard the sound of window glass breaking, and a rocket warhead emitting white smoke entered the office.

Fang Haisheng shouted, "Rocket!", and then there was a loud "bang" and the whole office was blown away.

Leng Hanbing put down the smoking rocket launcher in his hand and said coldly: "This Fang Haisheng! Does he think we can't deal with him just because he hides behind the wall?"

Xiao Li, who had just walked down the stairs, looked back and saw the blown-up office. His face turned pale and he knelt down shaking all over.

Di Xiong commanded the special forces battalion and the guard battalion to launch an attack from the front and back. Since all the leaders were dead, most of the workers surrendered, and the few who resisted were shot dead.

Di Xiong walked into the bloody central building and said to Wu Zhong beside him: "This civil strife has brought us too much loss! We must hurry to resume production. That American, Bonte, must be fired and cannot stay. And that Tang Ruoping can no longer be the canteen director. Guo Zhiliang has been demoted to deputy factory director and has been punished for his crimes."

Wu Zhong said: "I am also responsible for this matter! I ask the boss to punish me!"

Di Xiong said: "What is your responsibility? The responsibility lies with me. The burden I have put on you is too heavy. It is time to lighten your burden."