Film and Television World Life Record

Before the outbreak of the War of Resistance against Japan, the principal originally intended to address these long-standing problems and had indeed achieved considerable success. After the outbreak of the war, these efforts had to be halted, and the focus shifted to appeasement and winning over the people.

Generally speaking, as long as you have troops and strength, and as long as you don't nominally oppose us, you'll be given a pretext, big or small, to win them over and appease them.

Li Mu's security force is currently the most powerful armed force in the Nanyang area. Given this, as long as one is willing to spend money to bribe officials, obtaining a nominal title is not a problem.

Li Mu happened to be quite wealthy.

After spending two more days in Nanyang, he returned to Wuhan and, through Muwu Trading Company, began to find people to grease palms.

With this matter arranged, the acquisition targets for pig bristles and tung oil were also achieved. Especially the tung oil; in the past two or three months, he has acquired a large portion of the tung oil that was stockpiled and unsold domestically.

When he returned to Singapore, he sold pig bristles and tung oil, and now he had an extra four million eight hundred thousand US dollars.

The large quantity of tung oil is mainly due to its high demand and limited availability in China and abroad, which caused prices to soar. In addition, the large amount of stockpiled domestically gave him an opportunity.

However, given the current domestic supply, it will be impossible to collect such a large quantity of pig bristles and tung oil in a short period of time.

Over the next period of time, with the assistance of Far East Trading Company, Li Mu began to purchase various supplies. After spending three million US dollars, Li Mu's 60,000 cubic meter system space was finally filled.

Before leaving, Li Mu had a detailed chat with Su Ming, the head of Far East Trading Company, to discuss future development issues.

As the situation evolved and some of his ideas changed, Li Mu felt he should pay more attention to the development of the Far East Trading Company. In the future, the Far East Trading Company would be crucial to his overall strategy and plans.

After leaving $300,000 in the Far East Trading Company's account, Li Mu and Su Ming recruited a group of middle and senior managers, including people from mainland China, local Chinese, local natives, and some blond-haired, blue-eyed British and Americans.

According to the plan, Far East Trading Company will set up offices and branches in North America, South America, and Australia, places unaffected by the war and rich in resources, to facilitate the procurement of various raw materials and supplies.

On the other hand, offices and branches should also be set up in Europe. Even though there will be fighting there in two years, at least there will be two years of peace, which will facilitate the procurement of various weapons, machinery and production lines.

After settling things down here, Li Mu returned to China.

Just then, good news came from Muwu Trading Company: the matter was settled, even though it cost them 300,000 yuan, equivalent to more than 200,000 silver dollars.

But for Li Mu, this amount of money was nothing; reputation was the most important thing.

With this title, many things become much easier.

After staying in Wuhan for two days, leaving half of the goods in the space for sale, Li Mu then took a speedboat back to Nanyang.

Before he even arrived at his destination, he could see a group of his men joyfully welcoming him from afar at the dock.

Li Mu waved his hand and said, "It's just a name for external purposes. Things should remain the same as before. We can't be arrogant and make ourselves a laughing stock."

The crowd replied in unison, "Yes, Commander!"

Li Mu disembarked from the speedboat.

"Let's go, don't just stand there, go back."

A group of people surrounded Li Mu as he walked back.

Knowing that Li Mu was returning, a banquet had already been prepared, and they toasted and celebrated properly.

Early the next morning, Li Mu convened a meeting with all his officers.

Seeing the joy still on everyone's faces, Li Mu glanced around and said, "Alright, the issue of legitimacy is resolved, and the celebration has been held. Let's leave it at that and get down to business."

Everyone's expressions turned solemn as they replied, "Yes, Commander."

Li Mu said, "Now that we have this authority, our scope of activities is no longer limited to just a few nearby counties, but has expanded to the entire region."

"As the security force in Nanyang, we also have the obligation to protect the territory and its people, and to maintain peace and stability in the region."

After a pause, Li Mu asked, "Does anyone know how many people live in our Nanyang region?"

A young officer stood up and said, "Commander, I saw some statistics in one of our local newspapers last year. The population of our Nanyang region was around 5.1 million last year."

Li Mu smiled and said, "Very good, sit down! Our Nanyang region has always had fertile land and a large population. Henan Province is a populous province, and Nanyang's population has consistently ranked first in the province. It is a rare treasure."

"From now on, the safety of such a large area and such a large population is in our hands."

Everyone straightened their chests.

Li Mu continued, "The Nanyang region has always been mountainous and plagued by bandits, with the situation being extremely serious. It's only in the nearby counties, where we are stationed, that the situation is somewhat better."

"You've been reorganizing and training for a while now. If you want to train soldiers properly, you can't do it without some bloodshed. It's time to make some moves. Let's see what they're really made of."

Everyone immediately rubbed their hands together, eager to get started. After training for so long and having such good weaponry at their disposal, they were itching to get their hands dirty.

"Commander, give us your orders, and we'll go wherever you point."

"Commander, which one do you suggest we start with?"

"Commander, just you wait and see. We'll make sure every single one of the bandits in the Nanyang area is caught."

Li Mu nodded, gesturing, and Liu Peiming, who was next to him, picked up a document and stood up.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I have an official record here of some of the major banditry incidents that have occurred in our region in recent years. I will read it to you."

"In 1923, a bandit group of over 100 people broke into Nanwangzhai, killing 18 people and kidnapping more than 30. They burned down more than 100 houses! Two months later, another bandit group of over 100 people broke into Shiqiao Town, burning, killing, and looting in more than ten villages and towns, kidnapping more than 200 people, and burning down nearly 100 houses!"

……

"In 1929, the notorious bandit leader Wang Tai broke into Shedian and occupied the town for 18 days. After burning, killing, and looting, he took away more than 1000 hostages... In 1931, bandits Cui Erdan and Wei Guozhu led more than 1000 bandits to break through the North Gate of Nanyang City. In five days, they burned, killed, looted, and wantonly destroyed houses, taking away more than 900 hostages!"

……

"It wasn't until our security regiment was established that the banditry in the nearby counties eased somewhat, but the situation in the entire Nanyang region remains quite severe."

As Liu Peiming read out the stories of banditry one by one, everyone was a little surprised. They hadn't expected that the Nanyang area had experienced so many banditry incidents.

This is only what has been recorded; the small-scale banditry, such as robbing, murder, and robbery, is countless.

They all turned to look at Li Mu: "Commander, give the order!"

"Commander, tell me what to do!"

"Commander, please issue the combat order to ensure complete eradication."

Li Mu gestured to Liu Peiming, saying, "You led the team to collect this information, so tell everyone about it."

Liu Peiming saluted: "Yes, Commander!"

"Gentlemen, more than a month ago, the regimental commander instructed me to take some brothers to investigate the bandits entrenched in various places. Now I will give you an overview of the situation."

“In our entire Nanyang region, there are dozens of bandit gangs, most of which are small in scale, ranging from a dozen or so to dozens or even hundreds.”

"Among them, four bandit groups were relatively powerful."

"Firstly, there is the group led by Yang Xikui, whose main power is in the northwest of Nanyang, with more than 700 men under their command!"

"Secondly, in the northeast of Nanyang, Song Wanlin's gang had about 1000 people; Zhang Laowen's gang had about 2000 people; and there were several other forces with about 400 people each! These people were all connected and colluded with each other, and could be regarded as a gang, which was also the largest bandit group in the Nanyang area."

"Thirdly, between Nanyang and Dengzhou, there are about 1000 bandits led by Chen Simai."

"Fourth, Lao Wangtai's gang. This gang of bandits has no fixed abode and travels to various places for a long time. The number of people varies, sometimes a hundred or so, sometimes more than a thousand. They frequently commit crimes and are one of the more active gangs now."

After Liu Peiming finished his introduction, Li Mu glanced around and said, "Alright, now issue the combat mission."

Everyone perked up and immediately sat up straight.

Li Mu said, "The First Battalion will wipe out the bandits led by Yang Xikui."

The battalion commander ordered him to stand up, salute, and say, "Yes, sir!"

Li Mu said, "Second and Third Battalions, you are tasked with clearing out the bandits led by Song Wanlin and Zhang Laowen in the northeast of Nanyang. This is the largest bandit group in the Nanyang area. I'm entrusting it to you."

The second and third battalion commanders stood up, saluted, and said, "Yes, Commander!"

Li Mu continued, "The Fourth Battalion, the bandits led by Chen Simai, are now in your hands."

The fourth battalion commander stood up, saluted, and said, "Yes, sir!"

Li Mu glanced at the Fifth Battalion Commander: "Fifth Battalion, this gang of bandits led by Old Wang Tai is now in your hands."

The fifth battalion commander stood up, saluted, and said, "Yes, sir!"

Li Mu stood up and looked at everyone, saying, "Also, of the seven companies directly under the regiment, except for the guard company and the communications personnel who remain at the regimental headquarters..."

"The cavalry company, machine gun company, medical company, engineer company, and reconnaissance company will each send some personnel to join your respective bandit suppression teams, depending on the situation."

"Alright, everyone go back and prepare. We'll set off tomorrow and try to wipe out the bandits in Nanyang in one fell swoop."

Everyone stood up and said, "Yes, Commander, we guarantee to wipe out the bandits in Nanyang."

Li Mu nodded in satisfaction, turned and walked out of the conference room. A room full of officers followed him out, preparing for battle and departure.

Chapter 416 Commissioner of the Administrative Office

After the order to launch the operation was issued, nearly 3,000 people set off the following day to carry out a campaign to eliminate bandits in the Nanyang area.

Original German-made weapons, no less powerful than the principal's elite elite troops. With such powerful firepower to suppress bandits, any bandit who dared to fight head-on was swept aside by the overwhelming firepower.

The bandits were stunned and terrified by the overwhelming firepower. They could only act like bandits, fleeing back to their mountain stronghold, which, after all, had some defensive capabilities.

These bandits weren't unfamiliar with military suppression campaigns. As long as they returned to their mountain stronghold and relied on it, the army generally couldn't defeat them. After a period of time, they would naturally withdraw.

However, they were wrong; the firepower of the security regiment was far superior to that of those ragtag troops.

The so-called fortified village might be able to withstand bullets and some outdated homemade cannons. But a volley of 80mm mortars, firing dozens or even hundreds of shells in a minute or two, would render the fortified village utterly ineffective.

Faced with such intense firepower, the bandits had no discipline whatsoever; they were either blown up or ran away in panic.

Many bandits had to hide in remote mountain ravines to escape pursuit.

In just over a week, the four largest bandit gangs and strongholds in Nanyang were completely wiped out. In addition to capturing some, a group of bandits also escaped into the deep mountains.