In front of the gate of Hongmakan Village.
When everyone saw that Ren Zhanbiao unexpectedly killed Wang Shubao, the leader of the stronghold, they all pulled out the guys to avenge the leader of the stronghold.
"Wait a minute, brothers, please listen to me." Ren Zhanbiao said.
"Ren Zhanbiao, why did you kill the leader of the village when he treated you politely?" Sun Baojin said, "What else do you have to say?"
"Everyone, Wang Shubao respects me on the surface, but in fact, he has hidden evil intentions, is jealous of talents, and cannot tolerate me. I sincerely came to join the gang, but he deliberately made things difficult for me and humiliated me. I had no choice but to kill him. "I want to kill him," Ren Zhanbiao said, "As far as I know, this person is a drunkard and a womanizer. He only knows how to enjoy himself and does not care about everyone's life and death. Let me ask you, has he owed everyone several months of salary? Sent?"
"It's been six months since I've been paid," someone in the crowd replied.
"It seems that this kind of person only cares about himself and does not care about everyone's life and death. If everyone follows him, they will be killed by him sooner or later," Ren Zhanbiao said. "I propose that Instructor Ma Longtanma be the leader of the village and lead everyone to work together."
"Now that you have killed our village leader, what qualifications do you have to propose who should be the village leader?" Sun Baojin said.
"Then you want to test how fast my sword is?" Ren Zhanbiao swung the sword horizontally.
"Brothers, what Ren Zhanbiao said is not unreasonable. If we continue to follow Wang Shubao's decadence like this, we will die sooner or later. As things have come to this, I don't think we all need to fight to the death for this dead man," Ma Longtan hurriedly said He stopped and said, "However, I will never take the position of leader of the village. I have long been discouraged and I don't have the energy to worry about this."
"Instructor Ma is right, everyone, put them away and stop fighting." One-eyed Dragon Xia Houzhong said.
After everyone heard what they said, they put away their weapons.
"A country cannot live without a king, and a stronghold cannot live without a master. Ren Zhanbiao has outstanding martial arts, bold temperament, decisive killings, and rich strategies. I think we should recommend him to be the leader of our stronghold." Ma Longtan suggested. .
Ma Longtan's words played into Ren Zhanbiao's wishes.
"I agree too." The one-eyed dragon also said.
Ren Zhanbiao pretended to decline, and then said: "Thank you, Instructor Ma and Leader Xiahou, for your support. If I join Hongmakan, I will immediately pay you all the salary that the village owes you, and it will be doubled."
"Is this true?" someone asked.
"That's natural. Not only that, from now on, I promise to make everyone's pockets grow quickly, develop our village, and lead everyone to a good future."
When everyone heard that they were getting money, they paid double the money. Who could they work with instead of just having sex?
Besides, who can beat this bidder? They all fell silent.
"Congratulations to the leader of the Dazhai, congratulations to the leader of the Dazhai!" Ma Longtan and Xia Houzhong took the lead in shouting, and this Zhan Biao has secured the top spot in Hongmakan.
The next day, Ren Zhanbiao retrieved the money he had previously obtained from Qian Guizi and paid out double the amount of money he owed everyone.
Everyone was even more happy after they got the money. Who still wants to avenge Wang Shubao's death?
With the money, Ren Zhanbiao assigned Xia Houzhong to recruit soldiers and Ma Longtan as the chief instructor to train new recruits.
He, Sun Baojin and others were responsible for cracking down on the local wealthy landlords and amassing wealth. Pingquan Mansion was so big that there were many wealthy families.
In just a few months, the number of people in Hongmakan has grown from a hundred or so to more than a thousand, and it has become a large village that can be compared with Qingfeng Village and Heiyun Village.
On this day, Ren Zhanbiao was full of energy and held a meeting with everyone in high spirits. He said, "Brothers, how are you? Are your pockets much richer now than before?"
"The leader of Dazhai is wise!" everyone said.
Ren Zhanbiao laughed and said: "However, although we have a lot of troops now, our equipment is not good enough. I heard that Qingfeng Village has reached an agreement with Tsarist Russia and provided them with a large number of weapons and equipment, pistols, long guns, We have everything we need, including machine guns and even cannons, but we are far behind them. Do you have any good ideas?"
"They have big backers, how can we compare with them?" Xia Houzhong said, "We can only use money to buy equipment, and these things are very expensive. In other words, even if we have money, these new models It’s not easy to buy the equipment, and they don’t sell it, so we can only buy some inferior home-made weapons and equipment.”
"You're right, that's the situation," Ren Zhanbiao said, "If you don't have a good guy in our industry, you will only be bullied by others, and sooner or later you will be destroyed by others."
"Master of Dazhai, if that's the case, what do you think we should do about this matter?" Sun Baojin asked.
"In my opinion, Qingfeng Village has found Tsarist Russia as its backer. We also need to find a big backer." Ren Zhanbiao said.
"Master Dazhai, what do you mean, we also seek support from Tsarist Russia?" Xia Houzhong asked.
"No, you think, Tsarist Russia has reached an agreement with Qingfeng Village. If we go to Tsarist Russia to cooperate at this time, then they will definitely raise the price and list all kinds of harsh conditions to force us to accept. We can neither advance nor retreat. The dilemma is not good for us." Ren Zhanbiao analyzed.
"What the leader of Dazhai said is absolutely true," Xia Houzhong said.
"Therefore, I think we need to find a backer, but not Tsarist Russia." Ren Zhanbiao said.
"Who are you looking for?" Xia Houzhong asked.
"Looking for Japanese friends." Ren Zhanbiao said.
As soon as this statement came out, everyone was quite surprised and started talking about it.
"I object to this matter," Ma Longtan immediately stood up and said, "When I was an official in the imperial court, I had dealings with the Japanese. Their calculations were very sophisticated. If you take any advantage from them, They will definitely ask for a ten-cent reward from you, and will never make a loss-making deal. What's more, our equipment is poor, and we can find other ways to make up for it. It can be said to be a delicate disease, and once it gets involved with Japan, it will be a serious problem. , don’t forget, we have just been defeated in the Sino-Japanese War of Sino-Japanese War, so national justice must not be ignored.”
"What Instructor Ma said is true, and I also think it is inappropriate to cooperate with Japan." Sun Baojin said.
"I don't think it has anything to do with it. We are just business cooperation. We pay and they provide arms and equipment. What does it have to do with national justice?" Xia Houzhong said, "I agree with the suggestion of the village leader."
"What do you know," Ma Longtan said, "Once you get involved with them, you can't get rid of them even if you want. It's not as easy as you think!"
"If we don't cooperate with our Japanese friends, we may be wiped out by the government, Mongolian bandits or other traitors at any time. There is no need to delay. The situation is very unfavorable to us," Ren Zhanbiao said. "In order to survive, we can only focus on the immediate future. , I don’t care about so many things, Xia Houzhong!”
"Here, what are the orders from the leader of the village?"
"This matter will be left to you to take full responsibility. You can contact them and negotiate." Ren Zhanbiao said.
"Yes, Dazhai Leader, I promise to complete the mission." Xia Houzhong said.
Seeing that he didn't listen to his advice, Ma Longtan tossed his sleeves and turned to leave.
After Xia Houzhong went back and forth and bargained, he finally reached an agreement with the Japanese military stationed in Fengtian. Basically, it meant that Japan would provide Hongmakan with the various weapons and equipment it needed, and Ren Zhanbiao was required to do so in the shortest possible time. Unify all surrounding villages, including Zhong'an Fort, Tianjiazhai, Chenjiayu Security Team, Heiyun Village, Qingfeng Village, etc., and require them to fully obey the command and call of the Japanese Gendarmerie, serve them, and win over those who can be won over , those who really cannot be won over will be eliminated.
"Ren Zhanbiao, do you know what you are doing?" On this day, after Ma Longtan learned the news, he came to see Ren Zhanbiao, "We originally elected you to be the leader of the village because we hoped that you could bring food and clothing to the brothers. Wear, can protect the local people, and can lead everyone to do something good, but now that you have signed this agreement with Japan, you are equivalent to a traitor, a traitor, and a lackey, do you know?"
"Audacious! Bold!" When Ren Zhanbiao heard this, he couldn't help but get angry, "Ma Longtan, please pay attention to your words. Don't forget your identity and who you are talking to. Yes, I was able to sit on this I am the leader of the village thanks to your great help. However, look at what the situation of the brothers was before and what it is like now. Our current scale is more than ten times that of before. I have not treated my brothers badly. I have not disappointed everyone, I have already given you a sum of money and thanked you, everything I am doing now is for copycat."
"No matter what, you can't serve as a gunman for Japanese friends." Ma Longtan said.
"Of course I understand this truth. We just get what we need. We first obtain weapons and equipment and strengthen our own strength. You know the current situation better than I do. Without strength, we can only be at the mercy of others. "Ren Zhanbiao said, "As for what happens in the end, we will talk about it at that time."
"I'm afraid it won't be up to you then." Ma Longtan said.
"Don't worry, I have my own sense of discretion." Ren Zhanbiao said.
Ren Zhanbiao insisted on doing this, but Ma Longtan had no choice.
Sure enough, it didn't take long for the Japanese to send equipment to Hongmakan, including 500 pistols with 50,000 rounds of bullets, 1,000 long guns with 100,000 rounds of bullets, and 10 mountain cannons with 200 shells. After accepting the goods, we started planning the matter.
The persimmons picked the soft ones first, and they successively recruited and bribed the Sky Dragon Hu Yuanqing, the Earth Rat Jiang Sihai, the Siberian Tiger Jia Daya and several other small ones. The progress was very smooth, and when it was the turn of Jin Xiangyang of Zhong'an Fort, Xia Hou He went back and forth three times, but Jin Xiangyang refused to show his face and refused to let him in. No matter what he said, Jin Xiangyang was unwilling to surrender to Hongmakan, let alone accept Hongmakan's command and call.
When Ren Zhanbiao heard this, he fired up the fire, mobilized his troops, pulled the cannon, bombarded Zhong'an Fort, and captured Jin Xiangyang alive.
