Chapter 326: Recruiting Black Cloud Village? Military Control Commission? Jinyiwei?

Ping’an County, Heiyun Village, Qiaoyun Peak.

“Boss, I wonder what you think of my last proposal? Are you willing to accept the Party-State’s reorganization and become a true anti-Japanese team?”

In the gathering hall of Black Cloud Village, Xie Baoqing, the leader of Black Cloud Village, sat in the main seat. On Xie Baoqing’s right sat Liang Erhu, the second leader of Black Cloud Village with a beard and nicknamed Mountain Cat.

On the left side of Xie Baoqing sat a tall, thin and capable man wearing a short shirt and short hair. Behind him stood a rough man dressed similarly with a Mauser pistol on his waist.

The tall and thin man looked at Xie Baoqing and asked Xie Baoqing about the proposal he had made to Xie Baoqing some time ago.

Xie Baoqing listened to what the tall and thin man said, thought for a moment, and then said to him.

“Ma, Captain Ma… Excuse me for being blunt, you, you asked me last time whether I wanted to accept your reorganization… You only said that you were a member of the Guoguo Party… You haven’t told me whether you are from the Shanxi Suiyuan Army or the Central Army.”

Because Xie Baoqing suffered a disability when he was young, he always stuttered and did not speak fluently.

“Captain Ma, since you want to recruit our Black Cloud Village, you have to give us some benefits, right?

The imperial court even gave benefits to Liangshan Marsh when they recruited them. You can’t just get something for nothing, right?
And you should at least tell us which side you are on, right?
If you are Japs or traitors, and if we, the Black Cloud Village, accept your recruitment, wouldn’t we also become traitors?

We in Heiyun Village kill people and burn people, and do all kinds of evil. We rob the common people, we rob the caravans, we rob the Central Army, we rob the Shanxi Suiyuan Army, and we even rob the Japanese devils!

But there is one thing, we in Heiyun Village will never surrender to the Japanese and become traitors!
Captain Ma, you must be tired from running around among the gangs in Ping’an County during this period of time. Can you tell me who is following you?
Captain Ma, I, Shanmaozi, am a rough man. If you can’t say anything about Zi, Chou, Yin, Mao today, don’t blame me for treating you as a traitor.

As far as I know, except for the Eighth Route Army where there is a title of captain, the rest, whether it is the Shanxi-Suiyuan Army or the Central Army, are all company commanders, platoon leaders, regiment commanders, and battalion commanders.

And you, the captain… the little devils like to call you captain!”

After Xie Baoqing finished speaking, Shanmaozi on Xie Baoqing’s right continued Xie Baoqing’s words and spoke to the tall and thin man who claimed to be Captain Ma.

At the end of his speech, Shanmaozi pulled out his revolver from his waist and slammed it on the table. At the same time, several bandits outside the Juyi Hall also entered the Juyi Hall with guns in hand, their eyes fixed on Captain Ma and the man behind him.

The threat is palpable.

As long as Captain Ma and the man behind him made any unusual movements, Shanmaozi and the bandits who came in would directly shoot and kill them.

Captain Ma turned his head to look at the bandits who had entered the hall, and saw Xie Baoqing, who was sitting in the main seat, staring at him, and the hand of Shanmaozi opposite him resting on the Mauser pistol with the hammer already cocked.

Captain Ma knew that if he couldn’t reveal his identity today, he would probably never be able to leave Heiyun Village.

However, considering that he wanted to incorporate Black Cloud Village, there was no need to keep his identity secret from the bandits in Black Cloud Village. Or maybe his identity was not a secret at all, so it didn’t matter if he told it out.

Captain Ma immediately spoke to Xie Baoqing.

“I wonder if the big boss has heard of it, the Military Control Commission!”

“Military Control?”

Listening to what Captain Ma said, Xie Baoqing and Shanmaozi looked at each other, and then at Xie Baoqing’s signal, Shanmaozi spoke.

“Are you from some military control unit of some anti-traitor organization?”

Shanmaozi and Xie Baoqing didn’t know much about the Military Control Commission.

The Black Cloud Village is very powerful, but that is only aimed at the bandits in the Ping’an County area.

With the strength of Heiyun Village, they can show off in Ping’an County by relying on their familiarity with the terrain and the dangerous terrain of Qiaoyun Peak where Heiyun Village is located.

If one’s strength is limited, then what one knows is naturally limited as well.

As for what the Military Control Commission did, Xie Baoqing and Shanmaozi had only heard that some anti-espionage teams in North China were organized by the Military Control Commission, and they didn’t know anything else.

After listening to what Shanmaozi said, Captain Ma admitted it generously.

“That’s right, it’s our Military Control Commission. Our Military Control Commission has organized many anti-espionage teams in North China and launched many anti-espionage operations…”

“In addition to exterminating traitors, our Military Control Commission is also responsible for collecting intelligence.

You all know about the last Shangdang Campaign launched by the Eighth Route Army. The Eighth Route Army was able to achieve such great results that time, and our Military Control Commission made great contributions to it.

It’s just that due to some special reasons, our Military Control Commission cannot openly claim the credit for these achievements.”

Captain Ma knew that Shanmaozi and Xie Baoqing were just bandit leaders, two country bumpkins, and they definitely didn’t know much.

Therefore, Captain Ma directly recounted a long list of deeds, and even shamelessly attributed a large number of things that were not done by the Military Control Commission to the Military Control Commission in order to deceive Xie Baoqing and Shanmaozi.

Although Xie Baoqing and Shanmaozi didn’t know many of the things Captain Ma said, they still knew about the Shangdang Campaign initiated by the Eighth Route Army, which Captain Ma mentioned at the end.

After all, the Shangdang Campaign initiated by the Eighth Route Army was not just a fight with the Japanese in Shangdang.

In Fu’an County next to them, the Eighth Route Army and the Japanese were also fighting. Fu’an County, which was occupied by the Japanese, was forcibly taken away by the Eighth Route Army.

Later, the Eighth Route Army carried out a large-scale anti-bandit campaign in Fu’an County, and the bandits in Fu’an County fled on a large scale.

Ping’an County next to Fu’an County was naturally the first choice for those fleeing bandits. Taking this opportunity, Heiyun Village absorbed a lot of bandits and even got some good things, thus greatly increasing its strength.

Therefore, Xie Baoqing and Shanmaozi knew about the Shangdang Campaign launched by the Eighth Route Army as mentioned by Captain Ma.

After hearing Captain Ma say that the Military Control Commission had contributed to the Eighth Route Army’s Shangdang Campaign, Xie Baoqing and Shanmaozi’s attitudes became friendly again.

“You all get out… Brother Mama, are you from the Japanese side?”

Xie Baoqing’s attitude also became friendlier. He no longer called Ma “Captain” or anything like that, but just called him “brother”.

After hearing what Xie Baoqing said, the other bandits in the Juyi Hall immediately turned around and left the hall.

Seeing that Xie Baoqing’s attitude became friendly, the other bandits in the Juyi Hall also left the hall, and Captain Ma felt relieved.

He was really worried that Xie Baoqing and Shanmaozi, the two bandit leaders, didn’t know anything and would just mistake him for a traitor and shoot him. Then he would die unjustly. Shanmaozi reset the hammer of the Mauser pistol in his hand and asked Captain Ma.

“Brother Ma, we all know something about the Shanxi-Suiyuan Army, the Central Army, and the Eighth Route Army, but we are really not clear about what this Military Control Commission is… I wonder if Brother Ma can explain it to us?
After all, if we accept the offer of amnesty, we have to find a good way. There are four or five hundred mouths in the mountain village, and it takes a lot of food to feed them. “

Although Captain Ma had talked to Shanmaozi and Xie Baoqing about surrendering last time, it was just that Xie Baoqing and Shanmaozi led their men down the mountain to rob and they just happened to meet Captain Ma.

The two sides just had a brief conversation, and Xie Baoqing and Shanmaozi didn’t know the true background of Captain Ma and others.

In the first few years, both the Shanxi-Suiyuan Army and the Central Army tried to recruit Heiyun Village, but at that time Heiyun Village itself was quite powerful, and the conditions offered by the Shanxi-Suiyuan Army and the Central Army did not seem suitable to Xie Baoqing.

In addition, the life in Heiyun Village was relatively comfortable at that time, so Xie Baoqing never considered being recruited, nor did he want to be recruited.

But after the Japanese invaders attacked, the number of passing caravans decreased. In addition, the Japanese invaders, the Shanxi-Suiyuan Army, the Central Army and the Eighth Route Army were fighting in this area, and most of the people ran away.

Life in Heiyun Village became difficult, and the Japanese would send people to attack Heiyun Village from time to time.

At the same time, Xie Baoqing was getting older and he realized that being a bandit was not a good idea.

So for various reasons, Xie Baoqing also began to think about being recruited.

But now in Ping’an County, there are only the Eighth Route Army and the Japanese invaders.

Both the Japanese and the Eighth Route Army tried to recruit Xie Baoqing.

Having surrendered to the Japanese and become traitors, Shanmaozi and Xie Baoqing did not want to be pointed at and called traitors after their death.

But as for joining the Eighth Route Army… Xie Baoqing felt that the Eighth Route Army had too many rules and life was too hard. Even if he was willing to live that kind of life, his brothers under him were not willing to do so.

No playing with women, no smoking opium, no money… Many of his brothers couldn’t stand this kind of life.

Therefore, Xie Baoqing was not very willing to join the Eighth Route Army.

As for the Shanxi-Suiyuan Army and the Central Army, Xie Baoqing was even more unwilling.

At the very beginning, some bandits in Ping’an County defected to the Shanxi-Suiyuan Army and the Central Army, ready to join them in fighting the Japanese.

As a result, those bandits were sent to the front line by the Shanxi Suiyuan Army and the Central Army to serve as cannon fodder.

Seeing this situation, Xie Baoqing was worried that he and his brothers would become cannon fodder. How could he be willing to join the Shanxi-Suiyuan Army or the Central Army?

Originally, Xie Baoqing planned to continue being a bandit and take things one step at a time.

However, the Eighth Route Army’s attack on Fu’an County directly affected Xie Baoqing’s thinking.

After the Eighth Route Army captured Fu’an County and cleared out the Japanese and puppet troops in the county, the first thing it did was to suppress the bandits.

Either accept the reorganization of the Eighth Route Army or be wiped out by the Eighth Route Army.

If the Eighth Route Army is forgiven for its past mistakes, then Xie Baoqing is not against accepting its reorganization.

However, the Eighth Route Army only accepted those bandits who had not killed people for no reason and had not committed any major mistakes.

Those who have killed ordinary people and have blood debts on their backs will not be let off.

On the other hand, many people in Heiyun Village have blood debts on their hands, even though Xie Baoqing doesn’t usually rob or anything in the villages near the village.

But Shanmaozi brought a lot of people to Fu’an County to rob, and there was even a massacre in the village.

In other words, even if Heiyun Village was willing to surrender to the Eighth Route Army, the Eighth Route Army would still conduct an investigation of Heiyun Village. When they found out that Heiyun Village had massacred the village, he, as the leader, would definitely be shot by the Eighth Route Army.

On the other hand, in Shangdang, so many Japanese soldiers were killed by the Eighth Route Army, so Xie Baoqing believed that it would not be long before Ping’an County would also be taken down by the Eighth Route Army.

By then, these bandits in Ping’an County will have few places to escape and can only wait for the Eighth Route Army to mop up their forces.

So Xie Baoqing began to think about joining the Shanxi-Suiyuan Army or the Central Army.

If he is a bandit, the Eighth Route Army can wipe him out, but if he becomes the Shanxi Suiyuan Army or the Central Army, the Eighth Route Army will have no reason to fight them.

Xie Baoqing knew something about the conflicts between the Eighth Route Army and the Central Army.

So after meeting Captain Ma, Xie Baoqing did not immediately reject Captain Ma’s invitation to join the Guo Party’s army as he had done in the past. Instead, he chose to consider it and agreed to give Captain Ma an answer today.

However, if you want to recruit, you also need to know which force you are being recruited by and what are the backgrounds of those who recruit you?
If the other party is just an ordinary company commander or regiment commander, Xie Baoqing doesn’t want to be a cannon fodder.

So under the instruction of Xie Baoqing, Shanmaozi began to inquire about Captain Ma’s background.

If Captain Ma is just an ordinary little person and the Military Control Commission behind him is just an ordinary force, then Xie Baoqing needs to continue to think about it.

Captain Ma listened to what Shanmaozi said, looked at the probing look in Xie Baoqing’s eyes, understood what the two were thinking, and immediately spoke to Xie Baoqing and Shanmaozi with a proud smile.

“The first and second in command, I wonder if you have heard of the Jinyiwei?”

“Jinyiwei? Is that the unit that the old emperor used to have under his command?”

Listening to Captain Ma talking about the Jinyiwei, Shanmaozi thought for a moment, and remembered the Jinyiwei in the story he heard from the storyteller in the county town, and replied to Captain Ma.

After listening to Shanmaozi’s answer, Captain Ma nodded.

“Yes, it is the Imperial Guard that the emperor used to manage personally.

In other words, they are the emperor’s personal army, which was called the Yulin Guard in the past, and they are the pillars of the country.

Our Military Control Commission is such an existence. It is directly under the jurisdiction of the commander-in-chief and only obeys the commander-in-chief’s orders.

At the same time, our power is also very great. No matter who is on the other side, they have to be polite when they see our Military Control Commission!
To use the storyteller’s words, our Military Control Commission has the power to execute first and report later!
“Big boss, second in command, as long as you nod and accept our military’s recruitment, then from today on, you can directly join our military and become a unit under our jurisdiction!”

(End of this chapter)