Chapter 48: Chapter 46: Entering the City

Seeing the villagers growing more and more excited, Su Jie dropped his final bombshell and announced the benefits of joining the Security Department.

“Those who now wish to sign up for the Security Department, come here to the right-hand side to sign your name, and after screening, you can become a member of the Jieke Security Department.

At the same time, I solemnly declare that anyone who joins the Security Department, if a family member falls ill, will receive medical coverage from Jieke Company, children can attend school for free, and enjoy a monthly salary of 4,000 Hua Yuan.

If you are injured in combat assigned by the Security Department, the company will subsidize your salary, and in the event of death, in addition to substantial subsidies, your family will be taken care of by Jieke Company. We will see to the elderly until their last moments and raise the children.

The sole purpose of establishing the Security Department is to protect the employees and property of Jieke Company and to combat all organizations and forces that seek to harm Jieke Company, including the Mande United Army I mentioned earlier. Are you willing to join?”

Upon hearing this, the villagers, previously fueled simply by enthusiasm, became even more excited.

Such a salary was nearly ten times what they used to earn.

With the other benefits and treatments added, even those villagers who initially wanted to back out were now eagerly signing up.

Even if it meant serving in the military for the Chan Country Government, it couldn’t compare to these terms.

It’s just risking our lives, after all!

Since they had nothing to lose and there was money involved, who would be afraid!

Suddenly, the registration spot almost burst with the crowd of villagers.

Queuing up were not only young men but also middle-aged uncles and women in their forties and fifties.

In terms of warfare, the Chan Country has always had a fierce culture. Being a multi-ethnic country, the conflicts among different ethnic groups over so many years have long embedded warfare into their bones, so there was no psychological burden or fear whatsoever.

“Don’t be nervous, now it’s our turn to control Mande City, it’s others who should be afraid.”

Su Jie stepped down from the stage and, noticing the fear in Liu Yingying’s heart, naturally reassured her.

“Are we going too far with this?”

Liu Yingying didn’t doubt Su Jie’s ability, but she was still struggling to adjust to the fact that Jieke Company, which she thought was just a regular business, was now taking on the major task of overthrowing the local warlord’s rule.

“Everyone else wants to plunder our assets, are we not allowed to fight back?”

Su Jie patted Liu Yingying on the shoulder and chuckled, “Look at these villagers, enthusiastic about joining our Jieke Security Department; this already proves we are on the right path.”

Liu Yingying hesitated for a while, finally nodding slowly.

Even if she wanted to oppose it now, it was already impossible. Su Jie’s will was not something she could influence.

“Su Jie, you are right,”

biting her lip, Liu Yingying made up her mind.

“You will see my success, and soon, this place will become Jieke Company’s territory, to take and to rule as we see fit.”

Touching Liu Yingying’s delicate face, Su Jie did not hide his ambition for the Mande City area.

Watching Su Jie’s confident and ambitiously lit eyes, Liu Yingying felt her heartbeat quicken unexpectedly, finding the man before her even more charismatic.

………

After Jieke Company announced the establishment of the Security Department, within just three days, it had swept through hundreds of villages and towns around Mande City.

Previously, Jieke employees who bought Poison Insect in the countryside transformed overnight into recruitment officers, using loudspeakers to canvass the streets and alleys.

Hearing the news, applicants to join flowed in continuously, and every recruitment station in the townships was packed with villagers.

After three days of screening, eight thousand young and able individuals officially became employees of the Security Department, and this was the result of a stringent selection process.

If they were let loose, the number would have doubled.

The rapid actions of Jieke Company were too swift; before the Mande United Army could react, the Jieke Security Department had already been established.

And right after its establishment, the newly-formed Jieke Security Department, after brief training, received orders to eradicate the longstanding cancer of the Mande United Army in Mande City.

Suddenly, on the muddy roads leading to Mande City from various villages, old tractors, vans, and three-wheeled vehicles were crammed with people.

Members of the Jieke Security Department, dressed in blue uniforms and armed with spears, carrying homemade guns, and holding detonators, sat in the dump beds of tractors, forming long lines converging from all directions toward Mande City.

…

In front of a police station in Mande City.

A few policemen were stunned, watching as the endless, mighty procession of tractors approached.

The black smoke spewing from the tractors lingered and rose, nearly covering half the sky. From a distance, it looked like a steel torrent made up of tanks.

“What’s going on? What are they trying to do? Are they staging a rebellion?”

A policeman, full of confusion and disbelief, wondered; yet before he could figure it out, a volley of gunshots rang out.

Bang bang bang!

The range and accuracy of the homemade guns were too poor. The security members in the dump beds of the tractors only aimed roughly, and the bullets flew off to who knows where.

Unfortunately, these policemen were not elite forces; on the contrary, they indulged in eating, drinking, gambling, and prostitution on ordinary days and were only placeholders. At the critical moment of life-and-death combat, they simply lacked the courage to draw their guns.

“Don’t shoot, don’t shoot, don’t kill us! We surrender, we surrender.”

A group of policemen lay trembling on the ground, offering no resistance until the barrier was broken through and a large number of Jieke Security members disarmed them.

“This is for the times you bullied people.”

A group of Jieke Security members grabbed the policemen; some of whom had previously been bullied and extorted. Naturally, it was time for a beating, which left the policemen howling like ghosts and wolves.

After this minor episode, the vast army of the Security Department marched mightily into Mande City.

The residents of the city were equally baffled, then saw with their own eyes, under the guidance of some Jieke employees, how the Security members coordinated and stormed into gambling dens, brothels, opium factories, fraud parks, and several mansions of the powerful and rich.

All of these were the properties of Wen Bo, as well as those officials in cahoots with him.

Having dominated Mande City for many years, Wen Bo had become something akin to an emperor.

The number of people colluding with him in Mande City was countless, and these businesses had been expanded and strengthened by him, turning into money trees sustaining the Mande United Army.

There weren’t many people guarding these properties, and the weaponry was outdated, with few firearms.

For Wen Bo saw himself as the Emperor of Mande City, wondering who would dare to provoke him.

Therefore, when members of the Security Department arrived, those fraudsters and bouncers in the gambling dens were flabbergasted by the sheer number and fierce onslaught of the Jieke Security Department.

Even though the Jieke Security members were armed only with homemade and hunting rifles, and even though they were also a disorganized crowd, the two sides’ ineffectual combat still easily overwhelmed and even directly led to surrenders from the majority.

In just a few short hours, Mande City had been completely taken over by the Security Department.

Besides Wen Bo’s enterprises, other strategic locations such as the local power station, government buildings, TV stations, airports, and granaries were also seized.

The number of various captured individuals, mostly Wen Bo’s henchmen and colluding officials, tallied up to seven or eight hundred people.

And only by then did Wen Bo, stationed far away in the military barracks, receive the news and explode in fury.