My Apprenticeship to Uncle Jiu: I Was a Warlord in the Republic of China

When the man was brought in front of Jiang Li, he bowed slightly as a gesture of respect, and then explained his purpose, "I am Zhou Tong, and I am here to say hello to County Magistrate Jiang on the orders of my family's Marshal Chen Xueming!"

Jiang Li didn't hesitate to ask with a trembling voice, "I don't know why Marshal Chen sent you here. Is there anything I can help you with?"

When Zhou Tong heard Jiang Li's words, he immediately smiled proudly and said, "My commander has 50,000 to 60,000 troops and has been recruiting talents."

"I learned that County Chief Jiang is a rising star who has made rapid progress in recent times, so I thought of winning over the Marshal to build a career together. I wonder what County Chief Jiang thinks?"

Jiang Li immediately showed "hesitation" upon hearing this, and then lowered his head to think. Zhou Tong did not urge him, nor did he wait for Jiang Li to speak. He just found a chair and sat down, and picked up the teapot to pour himself a cup.

Seeing this, Jiang Li became even more "anxious". After thinking for a long time, he seemed to have made up his mind and asked Zhou Tong, "Mr. Zhou, if I surrender to Marshal Chen, I wonder how he will treat me and whether my army will be incorporated into his army?"

Seeing that Jiang Li was already wavering, Zhou Tong immediately added fuel to the fire, "County Magistrate Jiang, put it down. My commander-in-chief said that if you surrender to him, he will not take a penny of your money or property. You will still enjoy endless wealth and glory under the commander-in-chief in the future!"

"So, there is no need to keep the troops you have!"

Jiang Li was very "conflicted" after hearing this. After thinking for a long time, he finally spoke, "I still hope to keep the army, even if only half of it can be left."

"I really feel uneasy these days without any troops at hand!"

But how could Zhou Tong agree to such a thing? So he presented the facts and tried to reason with Jiang Li, but Jiang Li still refused to give in.

After a long struggle, Zhou Tong was at his wit's end. Jiang Li finally showed his true colors. "How about Mr. Zhou go back and ask Marshal Chen, I will only keep two to three thousand troops. If Marshal Chen agrees, I will agree to do something big with him!"

Zhou Tong was at a loss at this point and could only go back in frustration.

After Zhou Tong left, Jiang Li immediately asked Jiang Youchi to send someone to contact Ma Baoguo and said that he was willing to join forces with him to deal with Chen Xueming.

That's right, this is Jiang Li's plan. It's just a trick. He will give Zhou Tong some ideas and let him run between two sides. He will take this opportunity to establish an alliance with Ma Baoguo. By then, Chen Xueming will start fighting on two fronts, which will surely not last long.

Since Ma Baoguo has been entangled with Chen Xueming for several years, he must be no incompetent and should accept his advice.

Things turned out just as Jiang Li had expected. Just two days later, Ma Baoguo received the news from Jiang Li and immediately agreed. He also shared with him the situation of Cheng Xueming's troops and some garrison locations.

It took another two days for Jiang Li to receive the news. During these days, he had assembled his troops and was ready to fight a battle with Chen Xueming at any time.

During this period, Zhou Tong naturally came again, but was stumped by the questions raised by Jiang Li again. He had no choice but to go back and ask Chen Xueming for instructions.

After the intelligence personnel brought back Ma Baoguo's exact reply, he also received the reward, which included the intelligence about Chen Xueming's military deployment.

After Jiang Youchi sent people to verify, the authenticity of the information was confirmed.

He had intelligence on the enemy and immediately found on the map the two routes that Cheng Xueming was most likely to send troops to attack.

So he sent a large number of people to these two places to conduct careful exploration to ensure that he could fully understand the terrain and veins of the two places.

When Zhou Tong entered Tengteng County for the third time, he found that the army had already assembled here. He immediately realized that he might have been deceived. This man named Jiang had never thought of surrendering to Marshal Chen.

So he immediately thought of slipping away to inform Chen Xueming, but his whereabouts had already been exposed, and he was caught and tied in front of Jiang Li after he ran a few steps.

"Mr. Jiang, do you know that my Marshal has tens of thousands of troops? If you dare to have evil intentions, my Marshal's army will kill all of your 4,000 or 5,000 men as soon as they arrive."

"By then, you won't be able to keep your money or property, and even your head won't be safe. It will be too late for you to regret it!"

Jiang Li laughed out loud upon hearing this. "What a joke! Everyone knows that Chen Xueming is fighting Marshal Ma Baoguo. Let alone 40,000 or 50,000 men, even if he could just transfer 4,000 or 5,000 men, it would be enough to change the situation!"

When Zhou Tong heard Jiang Li call Ma Baoguo "Marshal Ma", he immediately thought, "This Jiang must have defected to Ma Baoguo, otherwise he would never have the courage to be the enemy of Marshal Chen."

"And the time I spent making these trips was just enough for them to connect."

When he thought of this, he became extremely anxious, his brain started working frantically, trying to come up with various ways to escape.

But after thinking about it for a long time, he still couldn't come up with an idea. Finally, Jiang Li took the initiative to speak, "As the saying goes, when two armies are fighting, they don't kill the messengers. I won't kill you today."

"When Marshal Ma defeats Chen Xueming someday, I will naturally give you to him and let Marshal Ma thank you for buying us these few days!"

"Someone, come and hold this man down. Keep a close eye on him. Don't kill him!"

As for why he didn't kill this guy, it was actually because Jiang Li was still useful to him, and he didn't like to sacrifice him anyway.

He led the Taoist soldiers to the military camp, stood on the high platform and shouted to the five thousand people below, "Do you know why I gathered you together again?"

"That's right. We are going to fight again. This time we are going to fight Chen Xueming. He has 20,000 to 30,000 soldiers under his command. He relied on the large number of soldiers and horses to send people to bully me and asked me to disband the army and let him be his dog. He said that I could keep my property in exchange for that."

"But I refused. Do you know why?"

"Because I know that he can't treat you the same way I do. If he comes here, he will definitely steal your money and your land. Even your wife and children will not be saved if he takes a fancy to them."

Seeing the soldiers below becoming increasingly angry, Jiang Li continued to shout.

"So I rejected him. No matter who the enemy is, I will not abandon you for my own benefit."

"Do you dare to join me in declaring war on that big warlord?"

“Dare. Dare. Dare!”

Seeing that the underground people were very motivated to fight, he nodded with satisfaction. After a while, the crowd calmed down a little, and he pressed his hand to make the soldiers completely quiet down.

"I think everyone has heard that since ancient times, powerful armies have had names. We must have one too. I have decided that our army will be called the Anmin Army."

"Protect the country and the people, and draw the sword against all those who dare to oppress the people. Do you dare?"

The soldiers on the scene became excited upon hearing these words and drew their swords against all enemies who dared to oppress the people. What an inspiring slogan!

Seeing that the soldiers were eager to fight, Jiang Li stopped talking nonsense and directly ordered them to set off.