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Chapter 180: Iron Blood Salvation Association (Part 1)

  According to the history textbooks of later generations, the period when Yuan Shikai ruled China was one of the darkest periods in the history of the Republic of China. The other was firmly occupied by a certain bandit named Chiang Kuo-tai.

  Of course, since it's a dark nature, something with dark attributes must have come out. The Gyeonggi Military Police and the Metropolitan Police Department appeared in ink.

  It's not entirely unjust to say that the Gyeonggi Military Police and the Metropolitan Police Department were not exactly good birds in history. When Wang Zhenyu was a child, he watched the serial painting "Yanzi Li San" and the Metropolitan Police Department was depicted as a group of bald-headed, meat-faced, white-vested, black-cloaked reactionaries riding three-wheeled motorcycles. Our revolutionary hero Yanzi Li San was indeed harmed by these bad guys who were extremely reactionary. However, it's true that the real Metropolitan Police Department was actually a meritorious team under the Northern Warlord government. After all, doing bad things also requires some ability, and they were even more evil under the leadership of Wu Bingxiang, an even more reactionary director.

  As for the first director of the Beijing Military Government's Law Enforcement Agency, Lu Jianzhang, it is no wonder that he was the uncle of the famous patriotic general Feng Yuxiang. Do you know why Feng Yuxiang failed in his Langfang Uprising and not only got away with it but also continued to rise through the ranks within the Beiyang system? Do you know why Feng Yuxiang, after being defeated in Sichuan, eventually surrendered to Cai E and became a subordinate, only to return to the Beiyang faction again later? It's all because of his good uncle. Wang Zhenyu listened and found out that this rule has been the same since ancient times. Lu Jianzhang was someone whom Yuan Shikai absolutely trusted, a confidant who was clever and resourceful, with exceptional courage and strategic thinking. This was particularly evident in his pursuit of revolutionaries.

  The Gyeonggi Military Police Command is the most terrifying existence among these two dark institutions. If the Metropolitan Police Agency still has half of its presence in the open, then the Gyeonggi Military Police Command is completely hidden in the dark, making it impossible to guard against.

  Historically, the Beijing Garrison Police Department was established in May 1912 by reorganizing the Beijing Defense Affairs Office of the Qing Dynasty. It was directly under the President and the original director of the Beijing Defense Affairs Office, Lu Jianzhang, was appointed as the head of the department. The Beijing Garrison Police Department was nominally responsible for maintaining law and order within and outside Beijing and Tianjin, but in reality it was similar to a central special agency. After Yuan Shikai's death on July 11, 1916, President Li Yuanhong ordered the abolition of the Beijing Garrison Police Department.

  In just five short years, they manufactured thousands of terrorist cases: Zhang Zhenwu case, Qiu Liang case, Zhang Peijue case, Lin Yimin case. The number of historical celebrities killed by them is more than the total number of professional football players in the Chinese Super League (no wonder the level of Chinese football has not improved). In Beijing and Tianjin, this department was synonymous with evil. During the Beijing Coup, which was defined by history textbooks as a self-directed performance by Yuan Shikai, Lu Jianzhang led 20-30 people to the Presidential Palace to defend Yuan Shikai, who was already stunned and helpless. As a result, after the incident, Yuan Shikai entrusted Lu Jianzhang with important tasks, authorizing him to train new troops while also granting his military-police-prosecution department special powers to act arbitrarily. Consequently, this institution became increasingly powerful, suppressing the Beijing Police Department and becoming the Brocade Guard of the Republic of China.

  The most credible account of the terror in this department comes from Feng Yuxiang, who lived in this department at that time. In his memoir "My Life", he gave a fairly neutral description of the Military Police Department: "After the establishment of the Republic, the new authorities, who had gained power through revolution, turned against the revolutionary society. Anyone with even a little revolutionary thought or sympathy for the revolution was arrested by the authorities on trumped-up charges or in secret, and thrown into prison to be dealt with arbitrarily. Sometimes they even resorted to assassination. Revolutionary elements within the army were almost completely eliminated. Young officers who studied hard, read books, liked to discuss current events, or liked to study national affairs were all regarded as revolutionaries and were eliminated. Although there were no door-to-door searches, detectives were everywhere, and people had to be extremely careful in their words and actions. Sometimes they would suddenly be arrested, leaving them bewildered. Under such circumstances, people thought that the Royalist Party, organized by the remnants of the Qing dynasty, was opposed to the revolutionary party and would not pose a threat. But this was far from the case. The Royalist Party was also not tolerated. A detective named Hao would often use this as an excuse to extort money. If he couldn't find any evidence, he would fabricate a letter and send it to a Qing nobleman, such as the Duke of Sui. Then he would wait outside the duke's gate and search for the letter when it arrived. He would use this as a pretext to accuse the duke of being a member of the Royalist Party and extort 100,000 taels of silver from him before dropping the matter. This was not a one-time thing; he would come back again and again to extort more money. In the end, the Duke of Sui and other nobles were forced to flee to Yuan Shikai and Lu Jiangdong to beg for their lives. The experience of these nobles was still relatively mild; ordinary civilians did not dare to speak out."

  Lu Jianzhang's comfortable days ended on March 17, 1914. After that day, he was transferred to be the commander of the Seventh Division of Beiyang and the director of bandit suppression, leading tens of thousands of troops to chase after Bai Lang. At that time, it was estimated that only Lu Jianzhang could deal with Bai Lang in Beiyang. And the one who replaced Lu Jianzhang as the head of the Military Police Department was Lei Zhenchun, the original commander of the Seventh Division who failed to suppress bandits. This was indeed a swap.

  This is absolutely good news for Wang Yaqiao who has ambitions in the Beijing-Tianjin region, but it's impossible for him to know about it now because he is busy recruiting and buying horses.

  There has never been such an opportunity to give oneself what one wants. As for myself, when I was making revolution in Anhui, it was a matter of having money or not, having people or not. Now looking back, failure is inevitable.

  "Ku Guang, Fang Zhenwu and Yu Yalong have sent a telegram saying they are on their way to Beijing." Xuxi Yong walked in with an excited face, still holding a telegram from Japan.

  Fang Zhenwu and Yu Yalong are none other than Wang Yaohua's trusted good brothers, all of whom are brave and knowledgeable individuals. The most important point is that they are all authentic members of the Tongmenghui.

  Wang Ya-qiao expressionlessly said: "Xi Yong brother, this is a good thing, but we still need to sort out the current situation first. This Iron Blood Patriotic Society, how can we play it so as not to disappoint Wu Long comrade (referring to Wang Zhen-yu) and not disappoint the party's expectations of us? This is our current problem."

  Xu Xiyong furrowed his brow upon hearing this: "This is indeed a bit tricky. I went to the Anhui fellow-provincials' guild in Beijing and found that while there are many people from Anhui in this city, few of them do manual labor. Compared to Shanghai, it's not just a little different - many of the hard jobs have been taken by people from Shandong. If we want to develop and expand our ranks, it might be somewhat difficult."

  Wang Ya thought for a moment and said, "Revolution shouldn't be divided by region, it's for the well-being of all people. If we have regional ideas in our hearts, this matter may really become difficult. However, to be honest, we still need to rely on a group of old comrades to take action. As for other places, comrades can serve as informants and use terror tactics, which is probably more appropriate. I've been exploring the situation in Beijing these days, and it's indeed different from Shanghai. The Green Gang here is not the same as Huang Laoban and Du Laoban in Shanghai, they are completely suppressed by the Beijing Police Department and cannot move. In secret, there is also the Beijing Military Government Law Enforcement Agency, so I've thought about it for a long time, before we have a complete network layout, let's not rush into action."

  Xu Xi Yong nodded slightly and said: "Got it, Jiuguang. I'll be careful. Once Yalong and Zhenwu arrive, we'll start recruiting soldiers."

  Wife, don't be too anxious, the 8th of the lunar month is just the beginning of the year. After eating Laba porridge for a few days, it's the 23rd; on the 23rd, sugar melons are sticky, on the 24th sweep the house, on the 25th make tofu, on the 26th go cut meat, on the 27th slaughter the year-old chicken, on the 28th send out noodles, on the 29th steam dumplings, and on the 30th night, make a big noise. On New Year's Day, go pay respects.

  Old Beijingers usually start celebrating the New Year from "La Ba" and continue until after the Lantern Festival.

  On the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, every family cooks Laba porridge. It is said that this day is the day when the Buddha attained enlightenment. In the past, Sakyamuni used his alms bowl to collect and transform five grains to satisfy his hunger. Later generations, in order to commemorate him, also use various types of rice and beans to cook porridge as an offering to the Buddha on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month every year.

  On the twenty-third day of the twelfth lunar month, also known as "Little New Year", every household holds a ritual to worship the Stove God. People offer Guandong sugar, clear water and hay in front of the Stove God's statue and send off the Stove God to "go to heaven". People respect the Stove God so that he can "speak good things in heaven and keep peace on earth".

  After the Lunar New Year's Eve dinner, people start preparing for the new year. Every household thoroughly cleans and prepares to welcome the new year. Door gods are pasted on doors, spring couplets on door frames, "hanging papers" on door lintels, and wheat straws in front of houses. Inside the house, windows are pasted with paper cuts and walls are pasted with New Year's paintings.

  Wang Zhenyu's first New Year in Beijing, of course, also started to get busy with New Year's things and followed his subordinates who came to Beijing to take office to clean up and so on.

  Zhao Yuting recently looked at Wang Zhenyu and blushed, but didn't know what Wang Zhenyu was thinking. Anyway, whenever he saw her, he would just chat and laugh, but never took the initiative to bring himself into the house. However, those guards and secretaries who followed him were all convinced that they would be great generals in the future, and even a normal joke couldn't be made without being cautious, making Zhao Yuting, who was already over 20 years old, feel suffocated. From the perspective of girls' nature, it's still hoped that their attractiveness to the opposite sex can be greater and better.

  Although the new year is approaching, Wang Zhenyu has been bothered by two things recently:

  The first is that this person from a later era also misses his loved ones in this era, especially Ye Zhiwen and his son.

  The second time was when he accompanied Xiong Lao to the Su King's mansion to pay his respects during the New Year, where he met Wang Zhenyu, the manager of the Su King's household. As soon as he saw this person, he felt a sense of foreboding. This person was none other than the buyer who had helped him complete the initial accumulation of capital through two arms deals. On that day in Hankou, he had hidden behind a screen and taken a sneak peek at the man, and with his exceptional memory, he had committed the man's appearance to mind.

  However, the person known as He Wuya had never seen Wang Zhenyu, so Wang Zhenyu himself did not have to worry about being exposed. But this person had met Ye Zuwen and others, and in the future, once the truth came out, even a fool could figure out the plot of the two military supplies based on Ye Zuwen's current status. Not to mention other things, but just the fact that he colluded with the Qing dynasty would immediately tarnish the halo of revolutionary heroism on his head. Think about how unfavorable this would be for the followers below, it makes one sweat.

  This man cannot be kept, Wang Zhenyu secretly made up his mind

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