Chapter 7: Two Pieces of Good News

Group C hurried along at a leisurely pace, and in the end they failed to arrive before one o’clock.

As they neared the village, a sharp crackling erupted like firecrackers on New Year’s Eve. Xu Zhongyi was still dawdling when the impatient Chen Ming kicked him aside.

“The teacher has already engaged them! Move!”

At the critical moment, the man who normally followed Yu Xiuning’s lead finally showed some backbone. Yu Xiuning did not dare delay either and hurried toward the village.

Yet by the time the village came into sight, the gunfire had stopped.

Xu Zhongyi chose that moment to say, “Could it be that the teacher lost?”

“Shut up!”

Zeng Moyi scolded him like a raging lion, then quickened her pace.

When they finally reached the village, all five were utterly bewildered.

They had watched with their own eyes as several of their colleagues strode into the village—openly, brazenly, and right in front of the village gang’s armed men.

What was going on?

All five wore the same expression of confusion.

Qi Peilin, who was organizing the gang’s armed men as they surrendered their weapons, spotted them and hurriedly waved them over, signaling for them to come in.

Xu Zhongyi entered with his heart in his throat. Reaching Qi Peilin’s side, he asked in a low voice, “Old Qi, what happened? How did it end so quickly?”

“If it hadn’t ended this way, how would you have preferred it to end?” Qi Peilin shot back.

Xu Zhongyi was rendered speechless. In any case, this was nothing like what he had expected.

“Madam!”

Qi Peilin abandoned Xu Zhongyi and trotted excitedly over to Zeng Moyi.

“The teacher is incredible! Absolutely incredible!”

Sun Dapu, who was busy nearby, saw Qi Peilin ingratiating himself with Madam and immediately shouted in displeasure, “Enough talking! Get them somewhere to rest first!”

That only left Xu Zhongyi and the others even more confused.

At that moment, they ran into Li Beihan. Seeing the five latecomers, Li Beihan gave a cold snort and ignored them entirely.

You were nowhere to be seen when the fighting started, but now you’ve come running over. Just wait until I report this to the teacher!

Chen Ming was mortified. He shot Xu Zhongyi a furious glance. It was all because this fellow had deceived his Yu Xiuning.

Zeng Moyi was worried about Zhang Anping and did not take offense at Li Beihan’s rudeness. Instead, she asked, “Li Beihan, is your teacher all right? Where is he now?”

“There.”

Li Beihan pointed toward a distinctive building standing in the distance.

Zeng Moyi hurried toward it, and the other four followed.

The moment she entered the hall, she saw Zhang Anping.

He was lounging in a chair, while a man lay sprawled at his feet. The man’s face was covered in blood, making it impossible to tell who he was. Around Zhang Anping, several gang leaders were bent over, listening attentively.

A pile of weapons lay in the center of the hall. On either side, dozens of gang members crouched with their heads hanging low. Three others were being bandaged, groaning softly. Zeng Moyi noticed that the three men had all been wounded in exactly the same place.

Only then did she truly relax. But immediately afterward, disbelief took hold of her.

How had so many armed gang members been subdued so easily?

Zhang Anping had just finished giving his orders. When he saw Chen Ming and the others enter, he called out at once, “Chen Ming, Yu Xiuning, take this man away and interrogate him. I want to know who holds silent shares in his operations, and how he distributes the profits.”

Chen Ming and Yu Xiuning acknowledged the order.

“Xu Zhongyi, this is Qu Yuanmu. He will be in charge here from now on. You’ll coordinate with him.”

“Yes, Teacher,” Xu Zhongyi replied.

Zhang Anping turned to Qu Yuanmu. “You’ve been involved in the gangs yourself, so you should know how to purge his inner circle. If you’re worried about taking the blame, would you like me to kill them for you?”

Cold sweat poured down Qu Yuanmu’s face.

Gangsters were not strangers to killing, but no one had ever spoken of murder so casually, as though discussing the weather. He hurriedly said, “Master Zhang, don’t worry. I know what to do.”

“Come to the warehouse at Balichiao tomorrow night. I’ll take you to meet that man.”

The man Zhang Anping referred to was naturally the true power behind the Heng Society: Du Yuesheng, a later-generation figure who had nonetheless become as famous as the other two great tycoons.

Du Yuesheng had an extraordinary relationship with his maternal uncle, while his own position was lofty enough that he probably would not even notice a minor underling like Zhang Anping.

Unfortunately, Zhang Anping had just dealt with the man’s disciple. There was no way he could resolve the matter himself.

He could only bring out his maternal uncle.

Who in this world didn’t have someone backing them? Was Du Yuesheng the only one who did?

Before coming to Shanghai, Zhang Anping had already told his maternal uncle to cover for him. If he did not step in now, who would?

* * *

Although jianghu figures in films and novels were usually depicted as tough and unyielding, that was clearly the result of artistic embellishment.

Take Liu Fengqi, for example. Chen Ming and Yu Xiuning had merely put him on a simple torture bench, and the man had already broken, confessing everything about his silent shares and profit distributions.

Worried that Liu Fengqi might be playing tricks, Chen Ming deliberately asked him several other questions, then repeated the original questions. Only after confirming that his answers matched twice did he finally let him go.

“You dare call yourself a match for my teacher? The Party Affairs Office subjected my teacher to the full treatment, and he didn’t even make a sound!”

“You’re nowhere near his level!”

Chen Ming served Liu Fengqi a devastating verbal blow.

Liu Fengqi felt utterly wronged. He had never intended to oppose Zhang Anping. Zhang Anping was the one who refused to let him off!

* * *

Zhang Anping did not remain behind to help Qu Yuanmu take over. He merely took Liu Fengqi with him.

Qu Yuanmu did not ask Zhang Anping for assistance either. In that respect, the two sides understood each other perfectly.

The Special Group left the village in six trucks. Once they reached the outskirts, Zhang Anping and Zeng Moyi transferred to a sedan, while everyone else rode in the cargo trucks.

That shameless fellow Xu Zhongyi wormed his way into the sedan. Though Zhang Anping complained about him incessantly, he still handed over the driving to Xu Zhongyi.

Less than two minutes after setting off, Xu Zhongyi could not resist asking slyly, “Teacher, we won! And winners take all! Why didn’t we empty the warehouses? I specifically went over to the accounts office and had a look. Several safes were packed full! If we didn’t take the warehouse supplies, we should at least have carried off a few safes from the accounts office!”

This was not merely Xu Zhongyi’s idea. More or less, everyone had thought the same way. They had beaten Liu Fengqi, the local boss, and installed a new leader in his place. Surely they ought to take the money and goods as well?

Zhang Anping glanced at Xu Zhongyi.

“Do you know where this is?”

Xu Zhongyi blinked. “Shanghai?”

“You know this is Shanghai, yet you still ask such a question? Do you know how many people’s interests are tied up in this business? The military, government, police, gendarmerie, and intelligence services—every system has beneficiaries! Do you think the things here belong to Liu Fengqi? Wrong. They actually belong to all those impeccably dressed grandees behind the scenes!”

“Liu Fengqi is merely the man who acts openly on their behalf.”

The enterprise appeared to belong to Liu Fengqi, but the people behind him were the true owners.

According to the testimony Chen Ming and Yu Xiuning had extracted from Liu Fengqi, only half a percent of the total profits actually reached his hands.

That was right—just 0.5 percent.

Roughly seventy percent of the profits had to be fed into the network of interests spanning the military, government, police, gendarmerie, and intelligence services. Of the remaining thirty percent, half went upward to honor his master, Du Yuesheng. Of the final fifteen percent, another five percent had to be set aside to feed the various wolves waiting along the route.

Only ten percent reached Liu Fengqi.

And even from that ten percent, half had to be used to support his subordinates.

In short, if they had touched the salt in the warehouses or taken the money from the accounts office, the gang’s armed men would certainly have had no objection. After all, none of it belonged to them.

But the powerful men of Shanghai would never have sat still.

To them, the current Special Group was no different from an ant. That was why Zhang Anping had not touched a thing. He had merely demanded tribute—or rather, profit-sharing—from the Shanghai district at twice the previous rate.

This cut directly into Qu Yuanmu’s interests. As long as Qu Yuanmu himself had no objection, the grandees would not care in the slightest who was in charge here.

Naturally, Zhang Anping was not worried that Qu Yuanmu might betray him in the future.

At present, the Shanghai Special Group was still a tender, inexperienced fledgling. But once Qu Yuanmu had grown strong enough, the Shanghai Special Group would have grown into a fully developed powerhouse as well. If Qu Yuanmu ever showed signs of disloyalty, Zhang Anping could simply crush him.

Xu Zhongyi had not yet been tempered by experience in the military intelligence service’s logistics division and did not understand these intricacies.

Still, Zhang Anping believed that after coordinating with Qu Yuanmu for some time, the man would come to understand them. With a little further polishing, that notorious “shopboy” who emboldened people merely by reputation would emerge.

Zeng Moyi understood only part of what she was hearing. But the shopboy was the shopboy for a reason: he immediately grasped how deep the waters ran.

His thoughts, however, were unusual.

“Teacher, once we establish a firm foothold in Shanghai, will we be able to claim an even larger share?”

Zhang Anping merely smiled without answering. He neither confirmed nor denied it.

* * *

After returning to Shanghai, Zhang Anping told Xu Zhongyi not to go to the Balichiao warehouse yet. Instead, he sent him to find a long-distance telephone office.

Long-distance calls were inconvenient in those days. Unless the matter was urgent, a telegram was more economical.

But this call had to be made. If he did not make it, Du Yuesheng would probably come looking for trouble.

“Maternal Uncle, it’s me.”

Director Dai was stunned. If he remembered correctly, his nephew had left only the day before yesterday.

And now he was already calling?

Something must have happened.

Director Dai asked in a deep voice, “What is it? What trouble have you caused?”

Zhang Anping gave an awkward laugh. “Maternal Uncle, I have two pieces of good news to share with you.”

“Go on.”

“First, you can temporarily suspend the Shanghai Group’s funding. I probably won’t need any money from the organization for the next few months.”

Director Dai was momentarily stunned.

Was his nephew really that capable?

Zhang Anping continued, “On the way here, my Transport Group was ambushed and robbed. I dealt with the matter today. For the foreseeable future, someone will be paying me and the Shanghai district the same level of tribute. Judging from the Shanghai district’s current size, even if we expand threefold, we still won’t need monthly funding from headquarters.”

“Excellent!” Director Dai nodded approvingly, though his expression had become frighteningly dark.

The same tribute as the Shanghai district? Even after tripling in size, they would not need funding?

That damned Shanghai district!

Director Dai clenched his teeth. How much funding did the Shanghai district receive every year? His own force had only ten times as many men as the Shanghai Group!

Zhang Anping secretly rejoiced. This little report would probably leave Chen Moqun unable to defend himself.

In truth, Zhang Anping had quietly changed the meaning of the words. Tribute was paid to an individual, not to an organization. The reason it was paid to an individual was that the payer sought the protection of the organization behind him.

But Zhang Anping was playing the part of a naive newcomer. He simply assumed that the tribute was being paid to the organization.

There was nothing wrong with that, was there?

“And the second piece of good news?” Zhang Anping gave another awkward laugh. “Through my efforts, you’ve gained an opportunity to reminisce with an old friend.”

Director Dai: “...?”

“Explain yourself!”

“I heard that you have an extraordinary relationship with Boss Du. Why don’t you give him a call? Tomorrow night, I’ll visit him at 88 Wageni Road in the French Concession.”

What sort of mind did Director Dai possess?

To put it bluntly, even his hair follicles were empty. How could he possibly fail to understand what Zhang Anping meant?

“You touched one of Du Yuesheng’s people?”

“Heh-heh. His disciple. Maternal Uncle, he was the one who provoked me. You can’t blame me! He controls the salt routes and makes illicit profits, and on top of that, he sets traps for people. Do you know how vicious this fellow is? He deliberately arranges for shipments of salt to be loaded onto trucks hired at exorbitant prices to come to Shanghai, then sends men to intercept them halfway and confiscate the cargo and the vehicles.”

“That’s how my Transport Group got cheated. Both trucks were seized. I went to demand their return, but the fellow was blind to the situation. He shamelessly refused to admit fault or return the trucks, insisting that I pay a fine. Naturally, I couldn’t swallow that insult, so I taught him a lesson. I have him with me now.”

By the end, Zhang Anping sounded thoroughly aggrieved.

“I hadn’t even arrived in Shanghai, and I was already given such a welcome! It’s outrageous! The gangs in Shanghai are far too hostile!”

Director Dai said nothing. He was carefully weighing Zhang Anping’s words.

There was certainly some exaggeration in them. But without question, Du Yuesheng’s disciple had provoked him first. Otherwise, Zhang Anping, who had only just arrived in Shanghai, would never have rashly attacked the local gang forces.

After a pause, Director Dai said, “At least you were clever enough to come to me after causing trouble. I’ll notify Boss Du. Tomorrow night, go see him in my nephew’s name. You’re the junior in this matter, so mind your words.”

Zhang Anping asked cautiously, “What if Boss Du refuses to show you respect?”

“The man isn’t dead, is he?”

“No. I shot him once, but it hit his leg. He won’t die.”

“Then there’s no problem. He’ll show me respect.”

Director Dai sounded utterly confident.

It was not as though he had never crossed paths with Old Du before. Back when the Sanxin Company was operating, Du and the others had thought him ignorant and tried to take the lion’s share of the opium trade. They had been stunned when he turned the tables on them.

The Green Gang was no longer the Green Gang it had once been!

“Thank you, Maternal Uncle!”

Zhang Anping’s voice was filled with delight. Director Dai could not help laughing and shaking his head.

He was young after all. He still lacked the depth and composure of experience.

After hanging up, however, Zhang Anping’s expression darkened.

He was still a nobody. The slightest bit of trouble forced him to invoke the powerful figure behind him.

At that moment, Xu Zhongyi felt nothing but reverence for his teacher.

He had to learn how to give reports like that.