Chapter 5: Sharp Fangs and Claws

Sun Yat-sen left without even getting the chance to take a look at Yang Xiaolin's troops and territory. Yang Xiaolin understood that this was merely the initial step of preliminary cooperation, while comprehensive cooperation would only come after mutual trust had been established between both sides. What he needed to do right now was to develop and manage Gulu Mountain properly.

Only when investors felt that their investments could yield generous returns would they continue to invest. For Sun Wen, the goal was to make him feel that the hope Yang could offer him was by no means inferior to the south, so that Sun Wen would continue to tirelessly solicit funds on his behalf.

Yang Xiaolin remembered an overseas Chinese in America named Situ Meitang, who once told Sun Wen that his business in America didn't make much—around fifty or sixty thousand US dollars a year. If Sun Wen needed money, he should just send a telegram without needing to say much else, as telegrams were expensive. Sending the number one meant he wanted ten thousand; sending six meant he wanted sixty thousand.

Sun Wen had sent telegrams several times, and Situ Meitang always wired the money immediately upon receiving them without ever asking what the money was used for. Sixty thousand US dollars—at the current market price of five hundred dollars per heavy machine gun, that could buy over a hundred of them. Rifles cost thirteen dollars each, which could buy several thousand, and pistols could buy even more.

The most crucial thing was that Sun Wen had more than just this one major benefactor abroad. Overseas Chinese in this era were exceptionally patriotic, and many of them impoverished themselves to sponsor Sun Wen's revolutionary cause.

Yang Xiaolin truly found himself becoming increasingly wicked. This money was the blood, sweat, and tears of overseas Chinese, given to Sun Wen to change China, yet he was actually scheming to get his hands on this money. This made him feel somewhat heavy-hearted, as if something was pressing down on his chest.

In that case, he would just have to do things better—better than Sun Wen had done in history.

The first thing Commander Yang did was to establish a school. To reiterate: the children must not lose at the starting line, absolutely not!

The first school was a primary school, built in Baishan and registered under the name of the county yamen. Yang Xiaolin wouldn't dare to establish a "Gulu Mountain University" or a "Yang Ghost-Killer Private Primary School." If names like those were put out there, the school would be razed to the ground in less than three days. Besides, anyone hearing those names would immediately know they were training bandits, and even if no one came to attack it, probably very few children from respectable families would be willing to come here.

The magistrate was very supportive of this. Yang Ghost-Killer spending money to run a school genuinely surprised him, but this was a good thing: first, it benefited the country and the people; second, it counted as part of his political achievements. As for where the money came from—as long as he didn't say and Yang Ghost-Killer didn't say, who would ever know?

The school was a five-year system. Besides teaching students traditional literature and arithmetic like other schools, it also taught basic geography, history, and even physical education classes. They would start with one school and see how it went; if things went smoothly, Yang Xiaolin would establish schools across all regions within his sphere of influence. There would not only be primary schools, but also four-year middle schools, and eventually comprehensive universities in the future.

The first comprehensive university in the Northeast was founded by Feng Delin's son. Yang Xiaolin couldn't remember the son's name, but when he visited Gaojiatun last time, he saw that the boy was only around ten years old, so he figured that by the time he established a university, the boy would be of the right age to attend.

The second matter was the reorganization of the army.

Just as Yang Du had said, when Yang Xiaolin transformed from a bandit into a banner of resistance against foreigners, many people would come to join him. Gulu Mountain breaking the encirclement and suppression by Russian and Manchu Qing troops, forcing the Russian commander to return home, and getting Zeng Qi dismissed—this news acted like a shot of adrenaline injected into the hearts of the common people both inside and outside the Great Wall who were being bullied by the imperial court and foreigners.

During this period, every company welcomed a peak surge in recruitment. Every day, the outposts outside would catch quite a few people coming from various places to join them; some came in groups, while others arrived solo. Those arriving alone were mostly so-called martial arts heroes, either possessing exceptional kung fu or skilled marksmanship.

As for these newcomers, Yang Xiaolin first placed them in the lower-tier units because he couldn't be certain whether there were enemy spies among them, so he absolutely could not let them touch his core forces. He would have them brainwashed first, and then screen and test them afterward.

His initial organizational structure was set at twenty-five hundred men per regiment. Currently, his five regiments had not yet reached this headcount, and Yang Xiaolin did not want to fully staff the subordinate units just yet. The base area outside the mountains was not very large right now; if he were to suddenly expand to over ten thousand men, supplies would immediately become strained. This organizational structure was set up for future needs.

For now, each regiment only needed to establish a single battalion plus a regimental headquarters.

Then there were the two hundred bandits selected and trained by Nyerere inside Gulu Mountain. The intensity of their training shocked even Yang Xiaolin, but at the same time, their diet was exceptionally good. While the companies down the mountain could only guarantee a full stomach, these fellows on the mountain ate four meals a day, two of which included meat. With such high training intensity, nutrition had to keep up; only in this way could their physical fitness be improved.

Yang Xiaolin honestly didn't know what it took to be a qualified special forces soldier, so he just had them train with their lives on the line. Later on, when holding a grand military competition across the entire army, he would pull out those with good results to supplement the ranks.

A month later, Yang Xiaolin's forces reached five thousand men. At this point, he halted the recruitment, and most of those who came to join were politely turned away, unless they had exceptionally good physical conditions or special skills.

In the winter of 1902, more than thirty technicians from Nanyang set foot in the Changbai Mountains. When the heavy, feather-like snow covered the entire Changbai range, the sound of motors finally echoed within Yang Xiaolin's arsenal.

Zai Tao in Fengtian City had also achieved his initial results. Historically, although Zai Tao had always wanted to establish a military academy and build an army when he was in the Northeast, he never succeeded because the Manchu Qing court didn't have much money. It was only later, after Zai Tao left the Northeast, that Zhao Erxun managed to do it.

Now, because of Yang Xiaolin's influence, he had actually pulled it off.

The foreigners inquired every single day whether the Yang Ghost-Killer had been wiped out, declaring that if the Qing government lacked the capability to eliminate this band of bandits, they would dispatch their own troops! This genuinely terrified the Empress Dowager. Foreign intervention was no laughing matter; they could turn Beijing into scorched earth and leave not a single intact tile across the entire Northeast—that was the ancestral dragon vein of the Great Qing, after all. Therefore, the Empress Dowager gave Zai Tao her utmost support.

Naturally, Zai Tao would not credit Yang Xiaolin for his current success. Looking at the squad of Qing soldiers in front of him, already equipped with domestically produced rifles copied from German designs, his mood was immensely pleasant.

The Qing garrison in Fengtian City was now vastly different from before. In the past, Qing soldiers wasted their days and visited brothels at night, but now it was different: during the day, the Qing soldiers trained, and at night, they attended lectures given by Germans. After a period of time, Zai Tao could already feel that the soldiers standing before him were different. Leaving aside the equipment, just their spirit and morale alone left him thoroughly satisfied.

A battalion of Qing soldiers, numbering over five hundred men, equipped with eight heavy machine guns—such firepower was second to none not just in the Great Qing, but across the entire world!

With a smile on his face, Zai Tao walked a circle around the squad of Qing soldiers, then returned to Zhao Erxun's side. "Lord Zhao, this prince's troop training is no less impressive than Yuan Shikai's, wouldn't you say?"

Zhao Erxun lowered his voice and replied, "Indeed. His Highness the Beile is brilliant and martial, truly the pillar of our Great Qing."

Zai Tao laughed heartily. "Brilliant and martial I dare not claim—that belongs to the current Empress Dowager. However, this prince has said it before: training this army is just to show certain people, so they will stop yapping all day long that the Great Qing is about to perish, and stop assuming that only Yuan Shikai has the ability to turn the tide!"

Zhao Erxun said nothing. Ever since he entered Fengtian, Zai Tao had constantly brought up Yuan Shikai, and it was evident that this prince held deep dissatisfaction toward him. Zhao Erxun also knew that many people were dissatisfied with Yuan Shikai now. The two things Yuan Shikai had done had practically offended everyone: first, he betrayed the Hundred Days' Reform, offending the Westernization faction; later, during the Boxer Rebellion, he remained sitting on the fence and even signed the so-called self-protection protocols with the foreigners, which offended the conservative faction. Therefore, current Yuan Shikai possessed nothing besides the army in his hands; he was simply cowering in Shandong, keeping a low profile.

If the Manchu Qing didn't still need that army to save face, Yuan Shikai's days would probably have ended long ago. Now, Zai Tao training an army in the Northeast carried a strong undertone of wanting to eliminate Yuan Shikai.

This was a court struggle, and Zhao Erxun knew he could afford to offend neither Zai Tao nor Yuan Shikai, so he tried his best to steer clear of the topic. Whenever Zai Tao brought it up, he would change the subject. "Beile-ye, another telegram came from Beijing this morning, asking when Your Highness plans to dispatch troops."

Zai Tao sat down in his chair. "Dispatch troops? It's still too early."

Zhao Erxun asked, "Then how shall we reply? Prince Chun is urging quite pressingly over there."

Zai Tao snorted. "Zai Feng is just standing there talking without lower back pain! If that Yang Ghost-Killer were easy to exterminate, he would have been wiped out many times over. The terrain of the Changbai Mountains is inherently complex, coupled with the fierce nature of that gang. If we want a guaranteed victory, we will need at least another half year."

Zhao Erxun hesitated. "My Lord, isn't half a year a bit too long? It won't be easy to explain things to Prince Chun."

Zai Tao said, "Originally, this prince wanted three years, and now it's been cut to one year—is that still considered long? If it doesn't work, let Zai Feng come do it himself, and I'll give him five years!"

As he spoke, he stood up again. "It's not that this prince looks down on Zai Feng; although we are brothers, while he excels at sucking up to the Empress Dowager, when it comes to training armies and fighting wars? This prince would spot him ten lengths."

Zhao Erxun naturally refused to pick up on these words and deferentially retreated to the side. Suddenly, as if recalling something, Zai Tao asked, "By the way, what have the Russians been up to lately?"

Zhao Erxun replied, "No particular movement, they're just fortifying their strongholds every day."

Zai Tao felt a surge of anger. "What's this? Are they really planning to overstay their welcome in the Northeast? Do they think that withdrawal indemnity can be taken for free? Sooner or later, this prince will teach them a lesson. I've already ordered heavy artillery from Germany, and I'm going to form an artillery corps! When the time comes, I'll flatten Gulu Mountain directly and let the Russians see whether their fortifications can withstand my bombardment!"

Having said this, he suddenly paused, wearing a thoughtful expression. After pondering for a moment, he said, "That doesn't add up either. You tell me, the Russians are not the type to swallow losses, and they suffered heavily at both Gulu Mountain and Gaojiatun last year. There's no reason for them to do nothing at all, right?"

Zhao Erxun responded, "My Lord is right, but... what could they possibly be plotting?"

Zai Tao fell silent, because he couldn't figure out what the Russians were plotting in their hearts either. (Seeking support! Seeking recommended votes!)