Zhang Zhiliang lay face down on the ground, his face deathly pale, nearly scared shitless. Coming to his senses, he quickly yelled at the top of his lungs, "Don't shoot! I'm Zhang Zhiliang!"
He had originally planned to sideline Liu Tiezhu's authority and secretly have someone abduct Liu Tiezhu for a loyalty test. But before the plan could even begin, his own men had been gunned down by friendly fire. These subordinates were secretly trained by him, Jiang He, and the other two—each one battle-hardened, true experts. Staring at the corpses scattered everywhere, Zhang Zhiliang's heart clenched in agony.
"What proof do you have that you're Auditor Zhang?" Liu Tiezhu asked knowingly, shouting back loudly. In truth, when he heard the dense footsteps, he had already suspected it might be people arranged by Jiang He. What surprised him was that Zhang Zhiliang was leading them. The bullets hadn't killed Zhang Zhiliang, and Liu Tiezhu secretly regretted it.
"Liu Tiezhu, do you remember our conversation back at the military camp?" Zhang Zhiliang yelled, then recounted the dialogue from the camp.
"Everyone, stand down! He really is Auditor Zhang," Liu Tiezhu commanded loudly. Now that Zhang Zhiliang had spoken the conversation, it wouldn't make sense for him to order an attack. Soon, Zhang Zhiliang and Liu Zhigao emerged from the weeds with their remaining troops. Seeing this, Liu Tiezhu put on a shocked expression and walked over.
"Auditor Zhang, why are you here?" Liu Tiezhu asked.
Seeing Liu Tiezhu's demeanor, Zhang Zhiliang had no choice but to swallow his rage and gestured for Liu Tiezhu to step aside for a private talk. After walking a dozen paces, they stopped. Zhang Zhiliang studied Liu Tiezhu's face, and seeing no signs of pretense, he said darkly, "Ming Zhenglong deliberately fed us false information to test us. That bastard is so vicious—using hundreds of lives to probe our loyalty. I sensed something was off and brought people to salvage the situation, but this mess happened."
To be fair, Zhang Zhiliang's act was flawless. Both his expression and tone were without a single crack. If Liu Tiezhu hadn't already known Zhang Zhiliang's true nature, he might have bought the lies given his superb acting.
"Damn it, that bastard doesn't treat us like humans at all!" Liu Tiezhu cursed angrily. If they were putting on a show, he couldn't fall behind. Hearing this, Zhang Zhiliang felt a secret thrill. He knew Liu Tiezhu must be blaming Ming Zhenglong for this, or he wouldn't be so furious. Seizing the moment, Zhang Zhiliang pressed on, "Brother Zhu, the Ming family's higher-ups have never seen us as people. If we don't find a way to protect ourselves, we'll all die at their hands sooner or later."
Liu Tiezhu replied, "You're right, Brother Zhang. We need to think of self-preservation. But we're weak and isolated—our men are all trained by the Ming family. We don't have the standing to protect ourselves."
Hearing this, Zhang Zhiliang chuckled and said, "Who says we don't have the standing? It depends on whether you're willing, Brother Liu. Actually, Auditor Jiang, the other two, and I have all secretly built up troops. Right now, we have three hundred men, all carefully selected elites. If you're interested, Brother Liu, we can work together on something big."
At this point, Zhang Zhiliang stopped hiding anything. If Liu Tiezhu refused, he would immediately claim Liu Tiezhu had betrayed them and order his death. Liu Tiezhu was no fool—from the faint murderous glint in Zhang Zhiliang's eyes, he could tell the fox was ready to kill. If he hesitated or asked for time to think, he'd likely be shot down by these men. Under the Ming family's rules, whoever held more power commanded the action teams. If he couldn't give Zhang Zhiliang a satisfactory answer, he might die here tonight. After a moment's thought, Liu Tiezhu nodded decisively and said, "Brother Zhang thinks highly of me. From now on, I'm your man. If the Ming family treats us like dogs, why not rebel against them?"
Zhang Zhiliang smiled approvingly at this, then waved his hand and said, "The Ming family's strength is too great; it's not time to rebel yet. Let's lie low first, use the Ming family's resources to expand our power, and then take over the entire Ming family in one fell swoop."
"So what should I do next?" Liu Tiezhu asked, feigning enthusiasm.
"Use your authority to tamper with the Ming family's supplies. Also, secretly hold back some of the spoils from operations and transfer them to our base," Zhang Zhiliang said.
"Good plan. If the Ming family is heartless, don't blame me for being ruthless," Liu Tiezhu replied, keeping his expression neutral while cursing Zhang Zhiliang's ancestors in his mind. Tampering with supplies and withholding spoils were capital offenses under the Ming family. Zhang Zhiliang, having been in charge for so long, had never dared to touch the supplies, clearly aware of the risks. Now he was pushing Liu Tiezhu to do it, obviously setting a trap. If the Ming family caught wind, they'd deal with Liu Tiezhu immediately. Even if something went wrong, Zhang Zhiliang and the others could pin it on him. This was basically using him as a scapegoat. Given the situation, Liu Tiezhu knew he had no way out and could only agree verbally for now.
Seeing Liu Tiezhu so cooperative, Zhang Zhiliang gave him an appreciative look. "Brother Liu, from now on, we're brothers. We're in the same boat. I'll handle things for you behind the scenes. It's getting late—you should go deal with the Zhang family army."
With that, Zhang Zhiliang waved Liu Tiezhu off. After Liu Tiezhu left, Liu Zhigao said, "Old Zhang, what did you mean by that talk with Liu Tiezhu? Are you really planning to groom him?"
Zhang Zhiliang nodded. "Such a good pawn, of course we'll groom him. But we still need to test his loyalty. Only after he passes the test can we invest in him. The kid's sharp, but in the end, he's still young."
Liu Zhigao asked, "So what do we do next? With so many losses, it'll be hard to explain to Brother Jiang."
Zhang Zhiliang remained calm. "It was an accident—I didn't expect it either. Taking the Li family army's supplies back should be enough to satisfy Brother Jiang. It's late; we need to move quickly."
After their chat, the two led the remaining forty-plus men straight to the tent where the Li family army stored their supplies.
"What the... damn it!" Zhang Zhiliang and Liu Zhigao stared blankly at the empty tent. After a long pause, they both burst into curses. The massive tent had been completely cleared out—not a single bill left, not even a rat dropping for them.