Black Flag Army

Chapter 109: Russian Bandit Enqin

At this time, Wu Chunfeng hurried over and sent a piece of intelligence to Di Xiong, saying: "Considering the lack of troops, the Tsarist Russian government recruited the horse bandits Enqin and Shaksha and ordered them to attack Suwu City from the north. Enqin's army had more than 15,000 horse bandits. After Enqin accepted the recruitment, he refused to attack Suwu City and claimed that he would directly attack Beitang City to force our First Division to withdraw. The Tsarist Russian frontline commander also agreed."

Di Xiong said with a smile, "I didn't expect that Ma Bandit Enqin also understood the Art of War and the tactics of besieging Wei to save Zhao. Since they want to be our guests, we, as the host, of course welcome them."

Feng Anbang asked, "How many people are there in the other bandit group, Shaksha?"

Wu Chunfeng said: "Shaksha has more than 12,000 people, most of whom are local Mongolian Buryats. Their leader Shaksha is also a Buryat. They did not try to attack from the north when the eastern and western armies arrived. In this way, the number of opponents of the First Division increased to nearly 30,000."

Di Xiong said: "I believe Zhang Zhenyang can still stop the attack of 30,000 troops. I still have confidence in Zhang Zhenyang, not to mention that he has Wu Chunlei, Jiang Hongyu, Liu Zhendong and others to help him, and now there is Leng Hanbing."

Di Xiong, Feng Anbang and Liu Ruming discussed for a long time and decided that Liu Ruming, commander of the 1st Brigade of the Security Division, would lead the entire brigade to the Mongolian-Russian border to fight against the Ma bandit Enqin's troops. Subuda would lead the five regiments of the Independent Cavalry Brigade to go around behind the Ma bandit Enqin's troops, and after the battle started, they would raid the enemy's flanks and rear, attacking them from both sides.

When he returned to the Beihai Group office, he saw Wu Zhong, Lan Jinping, and Hu Lin waiting for him. It was obvious that the news of the Russian invasion made them nervous. Now the population of Beitang City has increased to 300,000, and there must be an administrative department to manage them. The Erdenet Palace Administrative Office, which was previously represented by Xian Yuji, is no longer suitable for management, especially since Huter died of illness last month and the management staff of Erdenet Palace has been disbanded. So the Beitang Municipal Government came into being, and Hu Lin, who was originally the deputy general manager of Beihai Group, served as the first mayor of Beitang City. The position of deputy general manager of Beihai Group was held by Tuo Qingyun, who also served as the director of Beihai Canning Factory. Tuo Qingyun was originally the deputy president of Beihai Bank. Because of the conflicts with Lan Jinping over business issues, he was no longer suitable to be the deputy president.

Wu Zhong was very worried and said, "Boss! The Russians have sent so many troops. Can Zhang Zhenyang stop them? The First Division has gathered all the elite troops of our Justice Army! If anything goes wrong, it will be troublesome."

Di Xiong smiled and said, "At first, I wanted to lead the army myself, and all of you senior executives opposed it. What? Do you regret it now?"

Lan Jinping said: "We have no regrets. Now Suwu City has gathered four Mohists, plus Jiang Hongyu. Almost all the best military talents of the Justice Army are there. Even if you go, you can't change anything. After all, you are not a god."

Di Xiong said: "This is the last counterattack of the Russians. If we can withstand this wave of attacks, Suwu City will definitely be ours."

Di Xiong knew that it was already October 1916 and the February Revolution would take place next year. Due to the great famine in Tsarist Russia caused by the war, strikes, uprisings or rebellions had spread all over Tsarist Russia in the second half of this year. The Young Nobles Party, the National Party and the Socialist Party were all launching uprisings, while the Poor Party and the Meng Party both belonged to the Socialist Alliance at this time and had not yet split out. Since the uprisings were small in scale, most of them were quickly put out by local troops and did not attract the attention of the top Tsarist government officials.

Hu Lin said: "I heard that the 'Bloody Baron' Ungern is coming to attack. The merchants and people in the city are panicking and have no intention of doing business or going to work."

Di Xiong said, "I have already arranged the troops in the war room. The troops to resist Enqin have already set out. I guarantee that Enqin and his men will not be able to attack Beitang City, let alone the county town below. Your municipal government must explain this clearly to the citizens."

Hu Lin nodded to show that he obeyed, and then said, "Chairman, I was wrongly accused of the Wei Ji Noodle House incident last time. I don't even know that Hu Tafang, and he and I are not related at all."

Di Xiong smiled and said, "You don't need to explain this. The Justice Party's Supervisory Office has already investigated it clearly."

At this time, in the trading city on the Mongolian-Russian border (called Kyakhta by the Tsarist Russians), the bandit leader Enqin, who had a yellow face and a big beard, was sitting at the largest Shanxi merchant restaurant in the city. He was sitting at the dining table, eating and drinking sumptuous food, while listening to a Chinese man telling the story of Wei Wei to save Zhao during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period in China. The Chinese man's name was Ping Fugui. He used to be the deputy captain of the guard brigade at the East Asia Textile Factory run by the Japanese in Yanshan Town, Beijing. Later, all fifteen Japanese in the East Asia Textile Company were killed. He was fired for dereliction of duty and expelled from the company. He was also arrested and tortured several times by the Beiyang government police department. They suspected that he was an accomplice of the assassin. His family spent all their savings to bribe the prison guards to release him.

After Ping Fugui was released from prison, he found life difficult, so he joined the local gangster organization Gelaohui. After a few years, he became a small leader. Unexpectedly, the gang leader offended the Police Chief Dong Huailiang when they were fighting for a woman in a brothel. The Gelaohui in Beijing was immediately eradicated by the Police Department. Ping Fugui luckily escaped and fled to Suiyuan with the refugees. Tempted by food, he actually made his way to Beitang City. On the way, he joined the Green Gang of Hu Tafang. After Hu Tafang's gang was caught by Di Xiong, Ping Fugui, who was in charge of watching the house, jumped out of the back window and escaped before the police entered the house. He fled all the way north across the Mongolian-Russian border. When he met the horse bandit Enqin's tribe, he was almost starving to death, so he surrendered to Enqin.

This was the first Chinese who came to Ungern’s service and he could speak Russian, so Ungern accepted him.

Ping Fugui said in Russian: "...Qi General Tian Ji wanted to send troops to Zhao's capital, but military advisor Sun Bin said that Wei's elite troops were all in Zhao's capital. We would be very tired after the long expedition, and the Wei army would be well rested, which would be very disadvantageous to us. It would be better for us to attack Wei's capital directly. The Wei army besieging Zhao's capital would surely come back to support. We would set up an ambush in a dangerous place, and we would surely defeat the exhausted Wei army. Tian Ji followed his advice, and later the Wei army commander Pang Juan really came back to rescue, and the ambushed Qi army was defeated."

Ungern laughed and said, "You Chinese are indeed cunning. You used such a sinister trick two thousand years ago. Unfortunately, the Chinese have become stupider now. We are always defeated by the Russians. It is too easy to win the war with you Chinese. It is boring. You told a good story!"

He put down the wine bowl, took out a gold bar and threw it to Ping Fugui, who quickly caught it and thanked him repeatedly.

Shalenk, the chief of staff of the Enqin army, said: "Commander! It's a good thing that the Chinese have become stupid! Only God can help us to capture Erdenet this time. I heard that there are countless treasures and beauties there."

Before joining the Ma bandits, Shalianke was an Orthodox priest. Although he is now the chief of staff of the Ma bandits, he still talks about God all the time.

Deputy Commander Gregory said: "Commander, don't underestimate the Chinese defenders in Erdenet. They are different from the previous Qing army. This is a real army with pigtails cut off. The casualties they caused to the government army in Irkutsk show how powerful they are. Although part of their troops stayed in Irkutsk, there must be some elite troops guarding Erdenet. I heard that they also have planes. I am worried that this will be a tough battle."

Enqin said, "Don't be afraid! There is a way to avoid their planes. We can hide during the day and come out at night. Planes can't see us at night. We are cavalry. It's only a hundred kilometers from Kyakhta to Erdenet. If we move fast, we can reach Erdenet overnight."

Shalenk quickly objected, "We can't rush to Erdenet overnight. If we do, the troops will be too tired. When we reach the city, it will be dawn and the enemy will send out planes to bomb us. We won't be able to capture Erdenet."

Enqin said: "Then we will divide it into two night marches. When we hide during the day, we must be careful of the enemy's reconnaissance aircraft and not be exposed."

Gregory said: "From here to Erdenet, most of the land is yellow sand. Give each cavalryman a yellow cloak, and they can avoid the enemy reconnaissance aircraft."

Shalianke said: "But the enemy still has ground troops. What if the enemy's army intercepts us at the border?"

Enqin said: "Bypass them. We are cavalry and cannot fight them in a positional battle. If it doesn't work, we can send a detachment to lead them away. The border is so large, and most of Outer Mongolia is sparsely populated, so we can definitely avoid them. If we encounter herdsmen or caravans, kill them all."

Enqin said the four words "kill them all" in a very normal tone, and Ping Fugui shuddered when he heard it.

Shalenk said, "But where can we find so many yellow cloaks to give to our men? There are more than 10,000 of them!"

Ping Fugui said quickly, "I know there are several weaving shops run by Chinese people in Maimaicheng, as well as a printing and dyeing factory. We can buy all the cloth in their warehouse and then take it to the printing and dyeing factory for dyeing!"

Enqin was surprised and said, "Buy? We are horse bandits, how can we buy things?"

After saying this, he burst into laughter, and the other officers followed suit, as if buying things was a very ridiculous thing.

Ping Fugui asked carefully, "Haven't you already surrendered? If you surrendered, you will become the government army, right?"

Enqin pointed at the bearskin hat on his head and said to Ping Fugui: "Like this hat, you can wear it when it's cold, but you must throw it away when it's hot. Do you understand?"

Ping Fugui smiled and said, "I understand, Commander."

Ping Fugui actually didn't understand what he meant, but he was afraid that if he didn't explain it clearly, Enqin would regard him as a fool and scold him, or even whip him, so he had to explain it clearly. This is also the helplessness of being a small person. You can't show intelligence when you should be stupid, and you must not show stupidity when you should be smart.

On the evening of October 21st, the airport in Suwu City was brightly lit with torches, and six transport planes were parked steadily at the airport. Leng Hanbing led more than 300 people from the Security Division Special Service Battalion out of the plane door and marched out of the airport in an orderly formation. When Leng Hanbing saluted Zhang Zhenyang outside the airport, he heard Zhang Zhenyang say, "Old General Liu Chengliang has trained the Security Division well. Our army has added a powerful force."

Wu Chunlei punched Leng Hanbing in the chest and said happily, "It's great that Brother Di sent you here. We brothers can fight side by side again. This way, special operations will be even more powerful!"

Leng Hanbing asked: "Has the main force of the enemy arrived?"

Zhang Zhenyang said: "The army in the west has not arrived yet, and the army in the east has arrived with one brigade, and two more brigades will arrive tomorrow. This morning, we had an aerial battle. All 36 of our fighters were dispatched, and the enemy's 50 were also dispatched. We shot down eight of the enemy's fighters and three bombers, and lost seven of our own. We didn't gain much advantage. If we only count the fighters, it's almost a draw!"

Leng Hanbing asked: "What is the name of the other commander?"

Jiang Hongyu, who was in charge of intelligence work, said: "Tomugov, commander of the Chita Defense Army and commander of the cavalry division."

Leng Hanbing said: "Send out the special forces battalion led by me tonight to kill him."

Zhang Zhenyang smiled at Wu Chunlei and said, "Your brother is indeed a skilled and courageous man. However, the commander of the Chita Defense Force is still on the way. The earliest we can take action is tomorrow night."

Wu Chunlei said to Leng Hanbing, "Brother, you just arrived, take a rest for a night. Tonight, the canteen has beef stew with potatoes, steamed fish soup, and fish caught from Beihai Lake. I don't know what kind of fish it is, but it tastes very fresh. Just for this fresh fish, we must take back Beihai Lake. It has completely collapsed in the hands of the Russians."

Walking on the streets of Suwu City, Leng Hanbing saw many yellow-haired, blue-eyed Tsarist Russians doing coolie work, moving stones, digging trenches, and building bunkers. There were about four thousand people, including many young women.

Leng Hanbing asked curiously, "Are these people all prisoners? How come you captured so many prisoners?"

Wu Chunlei said: "Only some of them are prisoners, the others are here to find work on their own initiative. As long as they are given three meals a day, they don't even want wages. Because of the war, the fields of Tsarist Russia were left fallow, and the government was frantically collecting military rations. There was famine everywhere, and many people starved to death. When they heard that we had food here, they all came to work. They also said that if the work was done and they were given food, they would be willing to fight for us."

Leng Hanbing asked, "They are willing to fight their government forces just for food?"

Wu Chunlei said: "I asked them the same question. They said that they hated the Tsarist government even more than we did. They were all poor people living at the bottom of society. There were poor people like them revolting all over the country, but they lacked weapons and were always suppressed by government forces."

Leng Hanbing said: "No wonder Brother Di said that the Tsarist government has reached its end. Don't worry that after occupying Beihai Lake, millions of Tsarist Russian troops will rush over."

Wu Chunlei said: "Now our enemies are coming from three sides, with a total force of nearly 30,000. The disparity in numbers is huge. Commander Zhang said that he plans to arm some of the poor Russians to help us fight and reduce the pressure caused by the difference in forces. But we have to send a telegram to ask Brother Di for instructions before we can make a decision!"