Chapter 1036
In the midst of upheaval, clouds rise and rain falls.
According to Li and Shi's previous idea, this meeting was meant to put Zheng Yaoquan in a tough spot first, then soften his approach, so that Zheng Yaoquan would obediently integrate into the North China Central Army system—you can even be the number three, but please stop messing around like this.
Therefore, the two of them deliberately squeezed together with Zhang Anping on the way here, asking Zhang Anping to make an exception for them.
After all, Zhang Anping was very public-spirited, and a gentleman can always be deceived by reason.
Zhang Anping naturally had no objections, stating that he had only one bottom line:
To defend Beiping, the people's livelihood must not be disrupted! The supply of essential goods must be subject to mutual supervision among the three parties. Zheng Yaoquan should not even think about profiting from this.
Apart from that, as long as it benefits the overall situation, he has no problem suffering some grievances!
But the result?
Since the establishment of the North China Suppression Headquarters, the Central Army has held countless irregular military affairs meetings, but this is the first time that such a large-scale absence has occurred.
But everyone has arrived, and those who were absent are also missing, so we can only bite the bullet and keep going.
But the theme had to be changed.
The theme was changed to mutual unity—in plain terms, the Central Army in Beiping was now divided, and our goal was to unite the core forces while persuading and recruiting those who had not attended!
Although the attendees outwardly agreed, they were all secretly thinking – the absence of the two army commanders and several division commanders clearly indicated a decline in the control of the two corps commanders, Li Shi and others, over the army.
The current emphasis on unity is highly likely a ploy to trade their interests for so-called unity.
In other words, the squeaky wheel gets the grease, while the baby who doesn't cry gets what Zhang Anping has to do.
This... I'm afraid it won't work!
……
So why were two army commanders and five division commanders absent from the meeting?
Is it really just because Zheng Yaoquan is a smooth talker?
of course not!
"Li Shi and his companion are completely bewitched by Zhang Anping and have lost all sense of direction!"
At a secret meeting of about ten people, a military commander angrily criticized:
"They talk about unity all the time! But what's the price they pay?"
"The Suiyuan Army rebuilt the 35th and 104th Armies, not only using up the General Headquarters' arsenal, but also exchanging a bunch of scrap metal for the American weapons in our hands!"
"It's entirely at other people's expense!"
This statement ignited the anger of the crowd.
"Fu Huabei could take over my motor transport battalion without a second thought—what good is his 35th Army, which is now equipped with a bunch of vehicles?"
"All the American artillery in my artillery battalion has been replaced with Japanese junk!"
Everyone was furious when they talked about being exploited by the Sui Army.
Why do they stick together?
This was to avoid being taken advantage of by the Sui army.
The results of it?
Now, Li Shi and his companion have been bewitched by Zhang Anping, and they keep compromising with the Sui Army. The motor transport battalion is given away without hesitation, the American artillery in the artillery battalion is taken away without a word, and even many of the elite soldiers have been swindled away.
They tolerated both old and new grudges.
For the sake of so-called unity, we tolerated it.
But now, all they want is to make more money from daily necessities—and as a result, Li Shi and Fu Huabei are suppressing them!
Since you are heartless, then don't blame us for being unjust!
In fact, the Central Army generals had been holding onto this resentment for quite some time, and logically, it shouldn't have erupted at this crucial juncture.
But who can blame them when Zheng Yaoquan is around?
Zheng Yaoquan's title of vice minister was sometimes utterly useless—for example, Zhang Anping could bully him at will—but at other times it carried immense weight, like right now—
He simply pointed out the grievances the Central Army had suffered during this period and expressed his willingness to fight for their interests. As a result, the generals of the Central Army changed their previous "weakness" and directly ignored Li and Shi's request to hold a secret meeting.
Of course, this is related to Zheng Yaoquan's title of deputy minister, but it is also related to past grievances.
When the Sui Army rebuilt the 35th and 104th Armies, it took a lot of good stuff from the Central Army, and the Central Army did indeed make sacrifices.
But did every division and every army make sacrifices?
No!
Even biological sons are treated differently depending on whether they are favored or not, let alone the military.
These people were the ones whom Li Shi and his companion disliked, and were the ones who were most exploited.
Using this as a starting point, Zheng Yaoquan subtly asked them, "The battle hasn't even started yet, but Li Shi and the other two have already shown that they don't take you seriously. What will happen if the Communist army launches a major attack on the city?"
The answer is: You absolutely must fill in the lines!
What if we can't hold on, and we have to make selective sacrifices?
The answer is still yes:
You adopted sons covered their retreat, letting their biological sons run away!
It was precisely because of these words that they chose to ignore Li Shi and his companion's orders this time.
So they formed a small circle, an alliance of "godsons".
And the leader of this alliance was Zheng Yaoquan.
So, did these military commanders and division commanders really trust Zheng Yaoquan?
surely not.
Zheng Yaoquan's incompetence was already evident at the previous military meeting, so how could they have high expectations for him?
However, not having high expectations does not mean that Zheng Yaoquan, the leader of the alliance, is useless—as the deputy minister of the GFB, he is indeed the most suitable person to take the blame at certain times.
With Vice Minister Zheng Yaoquan at the forefront, they could reasonably refuse unreasonable orders that would lead to bloodshed later, and when abandoned, they could reasonably change orders that would result in certain death or death, based on Zheng Yaoquan's authority.
Otherwise, these conflicts wouldn't have erupted now, nor would they have waited until now!
Zheng Yaoquan was well aware of these people's ulterior motives, but it was precisely by exploiting these ulterior motives that he managed to win them over.
He had no choice!
Without winning him over, he would be all alone, only holding the intelligence system in his hands, and subject to the constraints of Zhang Anping, the "nemesis of officials," and would have no real say in the North China Suppression Headquarters.
Therefore, he could only willingly be used in order to use them in return.
With the support of these people, Zheng Yaoquan was now the legitimate number three in Beiping—far better than accepting Li Shi's offer of a position as a fake number three.
Moreover, with his growing influence, what difference is there between Zhang Anping and an ant in his eyes?
This is... momentum!
A dignified and upright position.
But Zheng Yaoquan seemed unaware of one sentence:
In the end, who knows who's using whom?
……
Sister Qian is currently giving a general summary of the current work progress.
The context at this time is:
After the list of war criminals was released, Fu Huabei, who valued his reputation highly, unilaterally suspended contact with our side.
Our side was naturally unwilling to abandon the core guiding principle of peacefully liberating Beiping, but we did not rush to continue contact with Fu Huabei. Instead, we did various other things.
Sister Qian summarized the work progress in order to determine whether there was a possibility of contacting Fu Huabei again.
During a military meeting of the North China Suppression Headquarters, Zheng Yaoquan unilaterally attacked Fu Huabei, attempting to force him to concede by presenting a list of communist sympathizers. The specific reasons are unknown, but Fu Huabei resolved the situation through Zhang Anping.
[Following the military affairs conference, an internal meeting was held within the Central Army, which was absent by Zheng Yaoquan and several high-ranking officials.] [An internal divisional meeting was held within the Suiyuan Army. Intelligence agents discovered that several Suiyuan Army generals had been secretly contacting our forces. At the meeting, many Suiyuan Army generals frankly admitted to having contact with our side. Fu Huabei showed no interest in investigating further, suggesting he might also be interested in contacting our forces.]
Zheng Yaoquan secretly met with some commanders and division commanders of the Central Army. The specific content is unknown, but it is certain that the Central Army in Beiping has already split.
During the compilation process, these four pieces of information were singled out by Sister Qian. After summarizing the progress of her work, Sister Qian reviewed these four pieces of information again and, without hesitation or thought, instinctively identified the core key points:
Zhang Anping!
She was absolutely certain that Zhang Anping had done something behind the scenes again—splitting the Central Army was the focus of underground work in Beiping. Sister Qian had thought there were several opportunities before, but Zhang Anping had stopped them all.
Now, unsurprisingly, the Central Army has split up, which must be the work of Zhang Anping.
"This guy..."
Sister Qian smiled knowingly. With Anping around, work was really, really easy!
After filing the intelligence, Sister Qian reviewed the current progress of the work.
Judging from the current progress, the basic elements for resuming peace negotiations with Fu Huabei are in place, but Sister Qian is somewhat hesitant.
In negotiations, whoever takes the initiative first is always at a disadvantage. Fu Huabei unilaterally terminated the negotiations first, and now that we are going to him again, will he take advantage of us?
The superiors back home are waiting for my judgment. If my judgment is submitted and affects the initiative in the negotiations, then I will be a sinner!
While hesitating, Sister Qian suddenly laughed self-deprecatingly.
Ask Anping about this!
Judging from Anping's perspective, his judgment is unlikely to be wrong.
Perhaps it was a coincidence, but just as she made her decision, Ma Xiaowu knocked on the door and came in:
"Sister Qian, the waiter at the teahouse is asking if you want some soy milk."
Sister Qian wasn't a native of Beiping, so naturally she wouldn't go out of her way to "seek torture" by drinking so-called douzhi (fermented mung bean juice). It was just a code—a code for Zhang Anping to meet her.
"I'm going out."
……
The two met at a teahouse.
For a period of time, teahouses and similar places were basically closed.
However, as Zhang Anping "anti-communist" led to the arrest of a large number of powerful and wealthy individuals under the pretext of being communist sympathizers, the public supplies they had hoarded were distributed in an orderly manner under the joint management of the three parties, and commercial establishments such as teahouses naturally reopened.
What's even more ridiculous is that, despite the fact that Beiping was besieged and people were suffering, there were countless people in the teahouses engaging in lively discussions.
Sister Qian and Zhang Anping sat by the window. She smiled and said to Zhang Anping, "I used to think it was a bit outrageous of you to choose a seat in a teahouse, but looking at it now, I can only say that I was ignorant!"
“It’s because people from Beiping are optimistic—” Zhang Anping waved his hand and then got down to business:
"At this morning's military meeting, Fu Huabei rejected one thing."
Sister Qian listened intently.
"Zheng Yaoquan originally planned to make a deal with him, in order to gain control of civilian supplies by letting go of a group of Sui Army communist sympathizers."
"But Fu Huabei did not agree. Instead, he lured me into the game, letting me take over the thorough investigation of the Sui Army generals' communist sympathies. He also joined forces with Li Shi and others to fundamentally thwart Zheng Yaoquan's attempt to interfere in civilian supplies."
As Zhang Anping recounted his story, Sister Qian's gaze remained fixed intently on him:
"You did this?!"
"How could you use something so serious as bait?!"
Zhang Anping awkwardly touched his nose. Did he seem so audacious in Sister Qian's eyes?
Okay, you read that right.
Sister Qian lowered her voice, clearly annoyed:
"Have you thought about the future? I told you before, some of our comrades suggested including you on the list of war criminals. A couple of days ago, when we were preparing the supplementary list of war criminals (the second batch of war criminals), many comrades agreed to include you!"
"Some comrades felt that your dedication to the public good in Beiping regarding the supply of essential goods was admirable, but in the end, they removed you because your rank was not high enough!"
Although Sister Qian was furious, Zhang Anping knew that she was doing it for his own good. Some things leave a trace once they are done, and this adventure could very well become a future minefield.
"Don't worry, I know what I'm doing—Zheng Yaoquan is just a grasshopper in my palm, no matter how much he jumps around, he's still in my hands!"
"From the very beginning, it was destined that he couldn't turn things around."
Sister Qian said angrily, "Stop grinning! The closer we get to the end, the more careful you need to be, understand?"
"Understood, understood—Comrade Chongwen, I mean, what did you glean from this matter?"
Zhang Anping resorted to his usual tactic of changing the subject.
What flavor did you taste?
"You mean Fu Huabei's reaction to this?"
“Yes—” Zhang Anping nodded: “Think about it, as the person in charge of the Sui Army, Fu Huabei is actually happy to see me have a bigger conflict with Zheng Yaoquan!”
"If Zheng Yaoquan were to take control of essential supplies, given his personality, he would surely cause Beiping's current prosperity to vanish completely!"
Given my personality, I would inevitably have a complete falling out with them, leading to many unpredictable conflicts.
But he didn't do that! Although he still lured me into the situation, his real intention was to stop Zheng Yaoquan from interfering in his affairs!
With Zhang Anping's explanation, Sister Qian suddenly understood:
"You mean, he actually cares a lot about the people's livelihood in Beiping?"
Zhang Anping nodded and added:
"He was a warlord, and he had all the flaws that warlords have, that much is undeniable."
"However, he was also a Chinese, and a patriotic general!"
"He had the bad habits of a warlord, but he also had the noble sentiments of a patriotic general in his heart!"
Sister Qian nodded slowly, agreeing with Zhang Anping's view. At the same time, she understood why Zhang Anping was willing to take the risk—this test would allow him to gain a clearer understanding of Fu Huabei, which would also help in negotiations.
"you……"
Sister Qian didn't know how to evaluate Zhang Anping's actions.
Zhang Anping's plan proved that his previous hesitation was unnecessary—although Fu Huabei was a warlord, he ultimately cared about the people, and now was undoubtedly the best opportunity to restart negotiations.
There's no need to worry about who takes the initiative first and who becomes passive – both sides are actually moving in the same direction. The current focus should be on resolving Fu Huabei's doubts about our Party.
After a long time, she could only emphasize:
You need to learn to protect yourself!
Zhang Anping smiled and then talked about the current work progress.
"Big sister, the split within the Central Army is now a foregone conclusion. With Zheng Yaoquan as a thorn in our side, the Central Army will never stick together again. Next, have Jiang Si'an and Xu Zhongyi speed up their work so that the lower and middle-ranking officers can see through the true nature of these bastards."
"Only by completely eliminating their selfishness can these 200,000-plus troops not be easily incited after the peaceful liberation in the future."
Sister Qian gave Zhang Anping a complicated look. She had always thought that bringing Zheng Yaoquan to Beiping was a mistake, but seeing Zhang Anping's current ability to manipulate events at will, and seeing Zheng Yaoquan acting like Zhang Anping's puppet, following his plans step by step, she had to admit:
This was truly a stroke of genius!
"Anping, when do you think Beiping will be peacefully liberated?"
Zhang Anping thought for a moment:
"The Huaihai campaign should be completely closed in now—once the Huaihai campaign is closed in, I estimate that our army will choose to use force to achieve peace."
"Once this move was made, the peaceful liberation of Beiping was a situation that no one could change!" (End of Chapter)