All the heavens begin with the love in the courtyard.

Bai Jingqi's plan was also proceeding in an orderly manner. The second step was to train about ten elite members of the Black Family Army from among the fifty people.

The third batch in the future will be trained from two hundred people to form more than twenty elite members of the Black Family Army. This training will continue for ten years!

Chapter Fourteen: The First Sino-Japanese War

Training the second batch of Black Army soldiers was much easier than the first. The place was spacious enough, and the training programs could be increased. In addition, there was money and manpower available. Everything was much better than when Bai Jingqi had to do everything himself two years ago.

Bai Jingqi also formulated a strict set of confidentiality regulations. Anyone who revealed the truth about Liujia Village must be physically destroyed. Any children brought here would be blindfolded and brought into Liujia Village by donkey cart, where they would spend the next two years.

Two years later, these individuals will undergo a series of practical tests. Ultimately, based on their test scores and daily training performance, the elite of the elite will be selected to join the Black Family Army.

With such a large group of children, food and daily necessities were still a big problem. In order to cover up the abnormality of Liujia Village, Bai Jingqi also selected some adult laborers from the market or the beggars on the roadside. These people helped them cook, purchase ingredients and do a series of other activities on a daily basis.

When Bai Jingqi was making his selections, he tried to choose men and women who were childless or without children. He didn't care about their age, only that they were dutiful. Those who weren't dutiful would naturally end up being physically destroyed.

Of course, Bai Jingqi adopted a combination of kindness and severity towards these laborers. Those who could stay quietly here were provided with food, clothing, housing and transportation by him, and they also received an annual salary. He also promised to take care of them in their old age and see them off when they died.

For those who are lazy and try to cheat or even take advantage of the situation to make a quick buck, there is only one outcome: they will disappear without a trace. Daily tracking and surveillance are part of the training program for these kids.

Even during training, some teenagers with the wrong mindset or other intentions ended up being buried in the wilderness. In this chaotic world, Bai Jingqi never considered pity as a necessary thing.

Meanwhile, the six members of the Black Family Army also began to appear in Liu Family Village as instructors. They would not appear here under their real identities. They were more than capable of training these newbies according to the training manual that Bai Jingqi had given them.

Bai Jingqi was also the instructor of these six members of the Black Family Army. In addition to daily training, he also began to lead them to carry out some Robin Hood-like activities in the capital, which was naturally part of their training.

Despite some bumps along the way, daily life in Liujia Village has finally returned to normal.

Since Old Master Bai passed away, there has been virtually no one in the Bai family to take care of Bai Jingqi. Bai Wenshi is currently pregnant and can't control him either, letting Bai Jingqi run wild and rarely coming home.

Ever since Bai Jingqi challenged Hu Zitou to a duel in front of Bai Wenshi and ended up kicking Hu Zitou away with both feet, Bai Wenshi realized that she had been worrying about this son for nothing.

As the Qing Dynasty gradually declined and various contradictions arose, Emperor Guangxu, who had developed his own ideas, began to employ some truly talented and capable individuals, including Ji Zongbu. Thus, in early 1888, Ji Zongbu went to work in the Grand Council.

Now that Mr. Ji has a position, he doesn't have much time to teach Bai Jingqi anymore. He comes to the Bai family about once a week, but occasionally he's too busy with official business to come even once a month. So Ji Zongbu's martial arts skills and talents have finally found a place to be put to use.

Emperor Guangxu's petty actions also allowed Kang Youwei and a series of other activists to rise to prominence on the historical stage. Unfortunately, this group of royalists only knew how to talk big and ultimately ruined the country.

Mr. Ji's absence gave Bai Jingqi even more excuses. He claimed he was at his teacher's house and hadn't been home for days on end. In Bai Jingqi's view, the Bai family could maintain the status quo, and his true purpose would be when chaos came in the future.

If he were put in charge of Baicaotang at this time, he might not be as good as Master Bai. Nowadays, wealthy families do business by paving the way with money and connections. Bribing superiors and subordinates is the only way to succeed. If Bai Jingqi had to act like a grandson and deal with those dead eunuchs in the palace, he would rather train those boys.

Eight-year-old Bai Jingqi is already almost 1.5 meters tall, half a head taller than normal children. As a result of his training since childhood, he is developing into a large and thick-waisted man, which is detrimental to his future image as a handsome young man.

In the early summer of 1988, Bai Wenshi gave birth to a girl, named Bai Yuting. After having a baby girl, Bai Wenshi paid even less attention to Bai Jingqi, and of course, she couldn't care less anyway.

Three years passed in the blink of an eye, and in 1891, eleven-year-old Bai Jingqi had lost his youthful innocence and was no longer immature. He was all dark-skinned and always dressed in tattered clothes, wandering the streets and alleys of the capital like a coal miner. In Bai Jingqi's own words, he had grown up to be a waste.

In recent years, things have been relatively peaceful in the capital. It is common for wealthy families to enjoy operas and music and take concubines, and for the sons of officials to walk their birds and visit brothels. However, in other parts of China, things are getting worse and worse, and missionaries from various countries are becoming more active in China.

In previous years, Britain sent troops to Tibet. Eventually, the Qing government recognized that Dhemengxiong was under British protection. Britain then occupied Dhemengxiong and extended its reach into Tibet.

The domestic environment was also deteriorating, and the conflict between foreign missionaries and local forces intensified once again. In 1891 alone, there were incidents such as the Wuhu Incident, the Danyang Incident, the Wuxue Incident, and the Yichang Incident. After these bloody conflicts between foreign missionaries and local people, the Qing government's final handling of the situation angered the Chinese people.

The Qing government's final decision on these cases was to compensate the foreigners and execute the civilians who led the riots. The compensation for these cases alone amounted to 126,000 taels of silver, 120,000 taels of silver, 175,000 taels of silver, and 65,000 taels of silver respectively.

The adage "backwardness invites aggression" remains true throughout history. The Qing Dynasty established a modern navy, and Zhang Zhidong in Hubei built the Hanyang Ironworks and gun factories. However, these assets were controlled by foreign powers from the very beginning.

Bai Jingqi's Black Family Army's first batch of reserve trainees has also begun to enter the training ground. This batch of trainees will train in three nearby mountain villages, with a total of 200 people. After the second batch of 50 people graduated last year, 11 new members of the Black Family Army were selected. Thus, the Black Family Army now has a total of 16 people.

Over the past three years, Bai Jingqi has pursued a low-key development strategy. In addition to finding three small villages within dozens of miles of the outskirts of Beijing as his base, he also purchased six houses in different locations within Beijing. Most of these houses are in remote areas and are not expensive.

Every three months, the Black Army he trained would conduct a real battle. These battles mostly involved cleaning up the homes of wealthy families or the residences of deceased eunuchs in the palace. Each cleaning operation brought back thousands of taels of silver. In addition to these small-scale operations, they also carried out targeted assassinations of gang leaders from all walks of life who were deeply resented by the people.

In short, the Black Family Army's current operations are still within the civilian population. Bai Jingqi plans to expand the scope of his mission targets after the next batch of Black Family Army members are selected, including some princes and nobles, ships transporting official silver in the surrounding area, and even some foreign leaders in embassies.

Bai Jingqi's former reputation as a child prodigy has faded into obscurity due to his laissez-faire attitude over the past few years. He rarely even cares about the Bai family's affairs. Indeed, the Bai family has been declining year by year, and its business has gradually shrunk.

I heard that this year's income is less than 100,000 taels. The main reason is that Boss Bai is not very sensitive to money. Many of his accounts, big and small, are in a mess. When he calculates them at the end of the year, many accounts don't add up.

Besides these, the expenses for favors and bribes in the palace are increasing, and people are even unaware that the court has been paying too much to foreigners in recent years. Now, the Imperial Medical Academy is even starting to run into debt when purchasing medicines.

Business in the palace was declining year by year, just like the Qing Dynasty itself.

That same year, Bai Jingqi's Black Family Army first encountered firearms. Through a priest in the western suburbs acting as an intermediary, he arranged for Wang Er, using his gang's identity, to purchase a batch of guns.

There were fifty rifles of various series, ten pistols, and more than ten thousand rounds of ammunition. Most of these junk were breech-loading single-shot rifles. There were two types of pistols: flintlock pistols and revolvers. These were also the standard weapons commonly used in the Qing Dynasty's army.

Foreign arms dealers don't care who the buyer is; as long as the money is right, everything is easy to do. They're happy when Chinese fight Chinese.

In Bai Jingqi's eyes, these weapons were indeed junk, but he couldn't buy better weapons now, and weapons of this era were just like that.

The purpose of buying these weapons is naturally to train the Black Family Army to understand and use firearms. Moreover, in the next few years, he will purchase more firearms to familiarize everyone with this future weapon of death.

In the future, every member of the Black Family Army will possess exceptional marksmanship, and Bai Jingqi will select some individuals with a talent for firearms to train in gun modification and design.

In a few years, when Bai Jingqi takes control of the Bai family, he will use the Bai family as a front to do things that benefit the Black Army, spreading the Black Army's influence throughout the capital and even expanding outwards.

Bai Jingqi held a rifle in one hand, raised his hand and fired a shot at a target a hundred meters away. The target fell to the ground with a thud, and several young people next to him looked at the rifle in Bai Jingqi's hand with curiosity.

Looking at the gun in his hand, Bai Jingqi finally managed a smug smile. Guns were his true trump card.

Time flew by, and it was the end of 1894.

It was New Year's Eve, and tomorrow would be 1895. In front of the Bai family's gate, Bai Wenshi stood at the gate, looking around for a long time, but still couldn't see any trace of Bai Jingqi. Bai Yingxuan, her adoptive father who was standing outside the gate, stepped over to Bai Wenshi with some dissatisfaction and earnestly advised her.

"Go back. You've been standing at the door all morning. Don't you know Jingqi? He said he'd come back at the end of the year, but who knows if he'll even come back?"

Bai Wen shook off her husband's hand and snorted.

“This child is growing up, I can’t control him anymore. Why don’t you, as his father, do anything about it? He’ll be fifteen next year. This child spends less than three months a year at home. With things so chaotic outside, what if something happens to him? What will I do? Who will take care of you in your old age?”

Bai Yingxuan was speechless after his wife's words, and could only hold her hand and stand at the door to wait together.

Bai Jingqi has rarely returned home in the past two years, mainly because his family simply can't control him anymore. Bai Jingqi, who is not yet fifteen years old, is already 1.75 meters tall and has the physique of an adult. Moreover, he has a lot of his own opinions. The year before last, he moved out on his own under the pretext of studying away from home. Bai Wenshi couldn't stop him. This year, she heard that he had left the capital. Bai Wenshi is more and more worried every day.

But Bai Jingqi is already fifteen years old. His former status as a child prodigy has long become a joke, because this kid has never even taken the imperial examination for children, let alone become a pillar of the nation.

Anyway, Bai Wenshi doesn't expect Bai Jingqi to achieve great things in the future. She only hopes that the child can be safe and sound, and that he can return to the Bai family at the age of sixteen to take charge of the Bai family and be the head of the Bai family in peace. She would be satisfied with that.

At the beginning of this year, Bai Wenshi kept urging Bai Jingqi to come home for the Spring Festival at the end of the year, which reassured Bai Wenshi. But now it's almost New Year's Eve, and the couplets and lanterns at the door are making the Spring Festival atmosphere in the Bai family increasingly strong, but she still hasn't seen her son. Bai Wenshi can't get over this hurdle in her heart if she doesn't see her son.

It was already morning, and everyone in the family was urging them to have dinner. Even a strong woman like Bai Wenshi couldn't help but shed tears again. After wiping away her tears, she finally gave up and was helped by Bai Yingxuan. Just as they were about to walk home, a black horse galloped like lightning down the street outside the gate. With a shout of "Hurry!", the horse came to a steady stop at the entrance of the Bai residence, puffing out white breath.

On the back of the black horse was a young man in blue. He was big and round, with a strong and straight body and thick, long eyebrows like swords. If it weren't for the short downy hair at the corner of his mouth, which revealed that he was not very old, one would think he was a grown man.

The sound of the horse startled Bai Wenshi, who had just turned around. She turned back and saw the young man on horseback. Her joy was hard to hide, and she quickly went forward and called out.

"Jingqi, Jingqi!"

Seeing his mother's anxious expression, Bai Jingqi smiled, dismounted with a standard dismounting motion, and quickly stepped forward to support his mother's hand.

Bai Wenshi stepped forward and gently stroked Bai Jingqi's chest and face. Seeing her son's weathered face, she couldn't help but burst into tears again, shouting loudly.

"You brat, where have you been? You haven't been home for a whole year! Do you even remember you have a mother at home? Waaah, you brat, you're never home...!"

Bai Jingqi helplessly leaned on his mother, who was a head shorter than him, while his father, seeing his son, was so moved that he secretly wiped away tears.

Hearing the commotion outside, the bearded man and a group of servants from the Bai family crowded over to see what was going on. When they saw Bai Jingqi return, they all hurried over to pay their respects. Bai Jingqi smiled and tossed the horse reins to the bearded man, then half-embraced his mother as they entered the house.

Back in the main hall, more than a dozen members of the Bai family, young and old, were crammed into one room, waiting for dinner. When they saw Bai Jingqi return, everyone hurriedly greeted him with smiles. Bai Yuting even went up and hugged her older brother's hand tightly.

Although Bai Jingqi has rarely returned home in recent years, his prestige among his brothers and sisters has always been that of the leader. Regardless of age, everyone has to call him Seventh Brother. This is because Bai Jingqi already had the title of Seventh Master Bai when he was only six years old. From a young age, all the children in the family were completely subdued by Bai Jingqi.

Although Bai Jingqi wasn't the oldest among the group of children, his physique clearly made him a full twelve years taller than these pampered young masters. When he sat down at the table, everyone looked like children.

Bai Jingqi rushed back on New Year's Eve, which indeed added a touch of festive joy to the Bai family. After the banquet began, Bai Jingqi held up a wine glass and went to Bai's grandfather, saying respectfully.

"Uncle, you've worked so hard for this family all these years. This glass of wine is for you!"

Bai Yingyuan was surprised when Bai Jingqi suddenly came to toast her. She quickly stood up and clinked glasses with her nephew, who was the same height as her. The two of them drank it all in one gulp.

After finishing his drink, Bai Yingyuan realized that his nephew's sudden toast was unusual; there was a hidden meaning in his words!

In reality, the Bai family has been declining year by year. Their business has shrunk drastically. Apart from the Baicao Hall business, many other businesses have been shut down. Even the Baicao Hall business has been taken away by other competitors. The reason is that the eldest son of the Bai family is too weak-willed. Whether it is being a person or doing business, he is all about being muddleheaded.

With so many messy accounts, the Bai family's business naturally got worse and worse. In addition, the Bai family had always been in the business of the imperial court. With the collapse of the Qing Dynasty, the palace had become a place where people were deadbeats. The debts from the year before last were only paid off this year. The debts from last year and this year were only a small amount. The amount of silver owed was hundreds of thousands of taels. How could the Bai family's life be good?

Sure enough, after Bai Jingqi toasted Bai Laoda, he picked up his glass and addressed the Bai family members.

"Today, I would also like to take this opportunity to tell you something. My uncle is getting old and his energy is waning. Starting tomorrow, I will officially take over the Bai family's business. From now on, I will make all the decisions on the accounts, big and small. This year's allowance will be doubled. We will not pursue the past. New Year, new beginnings, let's start everything from the new year!"

After finishing his business, Bai Jingqi continued.

"Come on, everyone, let's have a drink together and hope the Bai family will have a better future!"

After saying that, he drank it all in one gulp.

However, not a single member of the Bai family raised their glass. After hearing Bai Jingqi's words, everyone looked bewildered and shocked. They hadn't expected that Bai Jingqi would announce such a thing as soon as he got home, which left everyone astonished.

Bai Jingqi's words particularly displeased Third Master Bai, who was already sitting there. This little brat not only refused to toast him, but also blatantly announced that he would take over the Bai family's business.

How old is he? He's just a kid who hasn't even grown his hair yet. Okay, maybe he has grown his hair, but over the years, because the eldest brother has been in charge of the Bai family, he has made a lot of money off them. If this kid takes power in the future, what will he get out of it?

Therefore, he was the first to oppose this!

Thinking of this, Bai Laosan slammed down his chopsticks, stood up, and said to Bai Jingqi.

"I don't agree to this! The Bai family business has always been managed by the eldest brother. You don't know anything about this, and you're never home. Now that you've come back, you want to take over the family business. I won't allow it!"

Bai Jingqi gave Bai Laosan a cold look, and then said.

"I'm not here to ask for your consent, I'm just informing you!"

After saying that, he lifted the corner of his clothes at his waist, revealing a short gun inside. This sight immediately changed Master Bai's expression. He became timid and stopped talking, sitting in his chair with a pout, clearly still very unhappy.

Bai Jingqi didn't care whether they agreed or not. The reason he decided to take over the Bai family ahead of schedule was not because the Bai family's business was shrinking, but because he had to speed up his own plans and use the Bai family as a shell to complete some of his own arrangements.

In 1894, the First Sino-Japanese War broke out, and the Qing Dynasty was forced to declare war on the Japanese. As a result, it suffered a crushing defeat and was forced to sign the Treaty of Shimonoseki, which not only ceded a series of territories, including the Liaodong Peninsula and Taiwan, but also paid an indemnity of 230 million taels of silver.

If Bai Jingqi was merely suppressing his hatred, then in November, after the Japanese captured Lushun, they carried out a four-day, three-night massacre, resulting in over 20,000 deaths.

At that time, Bai Jingqi was in Lushun. When the First Sino-Japanese War broke out, he had already deployed the Hei Family Army to the Liaodong area to investigate the situation.

In November, the fourth batch of trainees completed their two-year training. Among the 600 people, 70 new members of the Black Family Army were selected and he took all 70 of them to Liaodong.

The original plan was to let these newbies experience real war and bloodshed, so as to put them to a test.

As a result, after Bai Jingqi arrived in Liaodong, he witnessed the Japanese invaders landing in Lushun and massacring the people. That scene deeply affected Bai Jingqi.

Watching the people of Lushun being slaughtered by the Japanese like pigs and dogs, with women and children not spared, and corpses strewn all over the streets.

Bai Jingqi finally couldn't hold back any longer and ordered seventy newly joined Black Family Army rookies to carry out an assassination operation against his lone Japanese soldiers.

During the month-long assassination, more than 300 Japanese soldiers were killed, including nearly 20 officers, the highest-ranking of whom was a major general named Nishihiro.

This assassination shocked the entire Liaodong region. In retaliation, the Japanese slaughtered thousands of Qing soldiers they had captured.