All the heavens begin with the love in the courtyard.

To this end, Xiao Wazi set traps several times in an attempt to wipe out the Black Family Army, but all of them ended in failure.

The assassination ultimately could not change the overall situation. After a month-long assassination, of the seventy new recruits of the Black Family Army, less than forty remained. The rest all perished in Liaodong.

The Black Family Army was finally exposed because of this assassination. The Japanese man tricked and captured five members of the Black Family Army. However, they were just teenagers who had been trained for two years. Some of them could not withstand the cruel torture and eventually revealed the names of the Black Family Army, including the name of their leader, Master Hei Qi.

That's all they can tell you, because each batch of Black Family Army soldiers is trained in different mountain villages. Except for the instructors, who are from the previous batch of Black Family Army soldiers, all other personnel are newly replaced.

The fourth batch of 600 young recruits eventually trained 70 elite soldiers. After two years of training, these 70 soldiers did not know many of the secrets of the Black Family Army. In fact, after these five were arrested, Bai Jingqi personally infiltrated the Japanese army camp and ended their lives.

However, the Black Family Army's reputation and some training secrets were eventually exposed, especially when five members of the Black Family Army were assassinated in the military camp, which greatly angered the Japanese.

Not only did the Japanese not only issue high bounties in the Liaodong area, but they also offered 500 taels of silver for capturing a member of the Black Family Army and 100,000 taels of silver for capturing the bandit leader, Black Seven.

Unfortunately, due to the tense situation, Bai Jingqi sent the remaining thirty-seven men back to Yanjing on the eve of New Year's Day. He also transferred ten well-trained elite members of the Black Family Army back to Liaodong.

His original purpose in staying was to assassinate the officials from both sides who were preparing to negotiate peace with the Japanese, but at the last moment, he abandoned the assassination plan because he saw Mr. Ji Zongbu in the Qing delegation.

Mr. Ji was the security officer of the Qing delegation, fully responsible for protecting the delegation. He himself served as Li Hongzhang's personal bodyguard, which was the reason why Bai Jingqi ultimately chose to give up.

He didn't want to reveal his true identity too early; after all, his power was still too weak.

Therefore, he ultimately chose to give up. Except for the spies he had planted, everyone else returned to the capital, which is why he returned to the Bai family on New Year's Eve.

He had already planned it out. Starting in 1895, he would assume the identity of the head of the Bai family and use that identity to begin his elaborate scheme. The chaotic world was about to descend, and his stage was only just beginning to unfold.

Chapter Fifteen: Taking Control of the Bai Family

The emergence of the Black Family Army ultimately triggered some butterfly effects in the world.

In the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, the Qing army suffered more than 19,000 casualties.

In this world, the Black Family Army's month-long assassination campaign resulted in the deaths of several Japanese officers, including a major general who was a proponent of war. As a result, in this world's version of the First Sino-Japanese War, the Qing army's casualties ultimately exceeded 22,000.

Bai Jingqi assassinated three hundred Japanese soldiers, and the Japanese retaliated by killing three thousand more Qing soldiers. This is one of the butterfly effects that led to this outcome.

After the First Sino-Japanese War, the Qing government signed the Treaty of Shimonoseki, which has been infamous for centuries.

The Qing government paid the Japanese 200 million taels of silver as compensation for their military expenses.

The Qing government ceded Taiwan Island and its affiliated islands, the Penghu Islands, and the Liaodong Peninsula to the Japanese.

The Qing government opened treaty ports such as Beijing, Shashi, Chongqing, Suzhou, and Hangzhou to the Japanese.

Furthermore, it allowed the Japanese to invest and set up factories in treaty ports.

The scope of inland waterway navigation rights, including the Yangtze River, the Xijiang River, the Wusong River, and the Grand Canal, has been opened.

The Qing government will bear the entire cost of the Japanese garrison location and the required military expenses of 30 million taels!

This humiliating treaty was unfair and unequal in every clause, yet Li Hongzhang still signed it on behalf of the Qing court. Ji Zongbu, who was standing to the side at the time, clenched his fists tightly, his eyes filled with tears.

Li Hongzhang signed more than thirty unequal treaties in his lifetime, becoming a well-known "paperhanger" in the late Qing Dynasty. The reason why he signed these treaties is because of Li Hongzhang.

Because this Li Hongzhang was the most likely to compromise, he was a well-known peace advocate in the late Qing Dynasty, and the Qing government's representative for negotiations appointed by the Japanese was Li Hongzhang.

After his death, this Li Zhongtang left his descendants tens of millions of taels of silver and thousands of acres of land, which shows that he made great contributions to the Qing court over the years!

In addition to the conditions stipulated in the Treaty of Shimonoseki, the Japanese also made a demand during this negotiation: the Qing government must hand over the Black Family Army and its leader, Black Seventh Master.

This request left the Qing delegation baffled, as there was not a single member of the Black Family Army in the Qing army.

After further investigation, the Qing government learned that Hei Qiye and his Hei Family Army had assassinated more than 300 Japanese soldiers in Lushun last year, including more than 20 officers, including a major general.

Most importantly, when the Japanese soldiers faced those Black Army soldiers, they were often assassinated inexplicably. Sometimes, while walking, a child who looked to be thirteen or fourteen years old would walk towards them, carrying a carrying pole, and looking almost no different from the local children who were working.

But just as they were passing each other, the child's carrying pole suddenly turned into a sharp knife. The child was incredibly fast, and his assassination technique was always a one-hit kill, never needing a second strike. He knew the vital parts of the human body very well. Once he succeeded, the little devil would quickly change his appearance and disappear, making him impossible to track down.

Most of the Black Family Army's losses were from traps set by the Japanese later on. Even though they were traps, the Japanese suffered heavy losses, ultimately sacrificing 300 soldiers to kill just over 40 Black Family Army soldiers.

These members of the Black Family Army are all around thirteen or fourteen years old, with the oldest looking no more than eighteen. At such a young age, their assassination skills are so superb, and they are also adept at infiltration. This is an absolute thorn in the side of the Japanese.

At first, Xiao Wazi thought this unit was the Qing government's army, but later learned from insiders that there was no Black Family Army or assassination organization of thirteen or fourteen-year-olds in the Qing government's army.

The Qing court was also greatly shocked upon receiving this news, as they had never heard of a Black Family Army before. After the Japanese soldiers handed over the interrogation materials to the Qing delegation, the Qing government immediately sent a telegram to the capital.

The interrogation materials mentioned that the Black Family Army trained more than 600 people in a mountain village called Wangjiagou, more than 40 miles south of Beijing, for a period of two years.

Moreover, the twenty instructors who trained them were elites who could fly through sand and stones and were proficient in all eighteen martial arts. In addition to physical training, they were also skilled in training assassination and infiltration.

After receiving this material, the Qing government dispatched several thousand Qing soldiers overnight to Wangjiagou, but of course they found nothing but an empty, dilapidated mountain village.

The intelligence provided by the Japanese pirates regarding the Black Family Army actually shocked the Qing court no less than the Japanese pirates themselves, and they were even more wary of this mysterious force called the Black Family Army. After all, during this war against the Japanese pirates, the Qing court had come to realize that the Japanese pirates were not to be trifled with.

This Black Family Army was able to assassinate more than 300 soldiers in a month, including a major general. Most amazingly, they even infiltrated the Japanese army camp and eliminated five traitorous members of the Black Family Army.

If the Black Family Army were to infiltrate the palace and assassinate the Empress Dowager and the Emperor, wouldn't that be an easy task?

So how could the Qing court not be afraid?

Unfortunately, these five members of the Black Family Army were just greenhorns who had only been trained for two years. The only secret they knew was Wangjiagou. So not only did the Qing government miss their target, but the Japanese also couldn't figure out who the Black Family Army really was.

However, having suffered such heavy losses at the hands of the Black Family Army, the Japanese were naturally not going to let the matter rest. They demanded that the Qing court pay an additional three million taels of silver and intensify its pursuit of the Black Family Army.

After the Qing delegation returned to Beijing, they reported the matter to the court. However, the Qing court held two different attitudes toward arresting the Black Family Army. The old witch was worried about her own safety, so she asked the relevant departments to intensify the search for the Black Family Army.

When Emperor Guangxu heard about the Black Family Army's achievements, he was extremely excited. He not only forbade the arrest of the Black Family Army, but also tried to secretly recruit them. However, in the end, he didn't even manage to capture a single one.

In this war against the Japanese, the pro-war faction was led by Emperor Guangxu, while the pro-peace faction was naturally led by the old witch. After the defeat in this war, Emperor Guangxu's power was completely wiped out, and he was once again reduced to a puppet.

On New Year's Eve, after Bai Jingqi announced his takeover of the Bai family, apart from the third son of the Bai family who objected, the eldest son of the Bai family and his adoptive father did not object.

Although Bai Jingqi is only fifteen years old this year, Bai Laoda followed his father's last wish and handed over the Bai family to Bai Jingqi. Besides, he was really not cut out for this. The Bai family's situation has been getting worse year by year, as everyone can see.

Bai Wenshi and Bai Yingxuan were naturally overjoyed. Regardless of whether their son could manage the Bai family well, as long as he returned to the Bai family to manage household affairs, he would definitely not run away again. With the outside world in such chaos, the things reported in the newspapers every day made Bai Wenshi's heart tremble with fear.

Bai Wenshi had already planned that in two years, she would find a wife for Bai Jingqi to keep him tied down. No matter how difficult life was for the family, being together was the best thing.

But Bai Wenshi was clearly overthinking things; his son was no longer the same person he appeared to be.

Bai Jingqi's other identity, "Black Seventh Master," is now the underground emperor of Beijing. It's no exaggeration to say that he not only controls the entire beggar circle in Beijing, but also has spies in various factions and organizations. Controlling the beggar circle provides his Black Army with a continuous source of recruits, while controlling other factions allows him to gather information about all sorts of things in Beijing.

Besides these, Master Hei also has a Black Family Army of over one hundred men under his command. These hundred-plus men are Master Hei's true trump card.

Shortly after the Spring Festival in 1895, Bai Jingqi announced that he had taken over the Bai family. The first thing he did after taking over the Bai family was to investigate the amount of assets of the Bai family.

This investigation has given us a thorough understanding of the Bai family's true strength. The Bai family's assets are mostly physical assets and businesses in three branches across the country. The largest part of these assets is medicinal herbs. The total value of the precious and common medicinal herbs that the Bai family has accumulated over the years exceeds one million taels of silver.

This is just the amount of medicinal herbs. The other cash savings exceed 300,000 taels. This is the Bai family's savings accumulated over the years. Most of this money is deposited in various banks to earn interest, and some is even in foreign banks as a precaution.

Besides these, the Bai family also has other assets worth hundreds of thousands of taels of silver. In total, the Bai family's assets now exceed two million taels of silver.

Nowadays, there should be no more than twenty wealthy families in the capital with total assets exceeding two million taels of silver. Bai Jingqi never expected the Bai family to be so wealthy. No wonder the family has been declining year by year, and even owes the palace more than 400,000 taels. Yet the Bai family can still live a life of luxury. This is the true foundation of a century-old family.

Even two million taels of silver was not enough to fill a gap in the Qing Dynasty's coffers. In February, Li Haijun signed the Treaty of Shimonoseki in Japan, which paid more than two hundred million taels of silver in reparations. This was more than the total assets of a hundred Bai families.

A few years later, Li Hongzhang signed another humiliating treaty in Beijing, the Boxer Protocol, which was even more outrageous. The indemnity exceeded 450 million taels of silver, and with interest, it exceeded 980 million taels. Moreover, the amount of money burned, killed, and looted by the Eight-Nation Alliance in Beijing was an astronomical figure.

These are all things happening in this era. How could Bai Jingqi, living in history, not be angry?

Besides, I have the ability to change my destiny, so I must do what I am capable of.

After taking office, Bai Jingqi began to clean up some of the Bai family's unprofitable businesses and started selling off some fixed assets to try to recover cash. He knew what kind of calamity the capital would suffer five years later.

Bai Jingqi's actions sparked controversy among many members of the Bai family, because as soon as he took over the family business, he sold off the ancestral property, which was simply outrageous. As a result, Bai Laosan started causing trouble again.

This time, Bai Jingqi wasn't going to tolerate Bai Laosan anymore. But since he was his third uncle, he couldn't go too far. So one day, Bai Laosan went to a brothel and got into an argument with a customer. In the end, the two fought, and Bai Laosan had several ribs broken. One of his legs was also stabbed hard by the other man's knife.

And so, Master Bai was completely unable to cause trouble and had to stay in bed for half a year.

The second thing Bai Jingqi did was to cut off the supply of medicinal herbs to the palace and send his eldest uncle to the palace to plead poverty, saying that the Bai family was struggling to make ends meet and had to sell their ancestral property. He also said that if the palace didn't repay the money, the Bai family would be unable to survive.

Although the Qing government paid indemnities year after year, it was not short of money. Last year, the old witch celebrated her sixtieth birthday, which cost hundreds of thousands of taels of silver. At that time, the First Sino-Japanese War was still raging, and the Qing government suffered repeated defeats, with thousands of soldiers killed in action. However, the old witch still wanted to watch opera and asked to watch opera for three days, making the absurd request that "watching opera for three days and delaying all other matters".

The Bai family's medicines were renowned throughout the Qing Dynasty. Apart from the Bai family, no other pharmacy could meet the palace's medicine needs, including the quality of their products.

Bai Jingqi wished the palace would issue an imperial edict to exempt the Bai family from their imperial service badges. Then the Qing Dynasty would only have about ten years left. This was like Wang Xiaoer celebrating the New Year; each year was worse than the last, and the debts would only increase, eventually dragging the Bai family down.

The third thing Bai Jingqi did after taking over as head of the family was to open several new businesses, including a security escort agency and a pharmaceutical research institute.

The escort agency was established to provide cover for the Black Family Army and to facilitate the future business of the White Family.

Regarding the drug research institute, Bai Jingqi wanted to develop the Bai family's ancestral business in a new direction. He wanted to organize some professional talents to research more drugs for treating external injuries. In the coming decades, the First World War, the Second World War, and even the warlord conflicts in China, the demand for drugs would be astronomical.

Compared to the Bai family, with such favorable conditions, they could do much more. In fact, in recent years, he has been thinking about the future development direction of the Bai family. Perhaps the real path for the Bai family's development is to develop it into a global pharmaceutical giant.

The Black Family Army, on the other hand, is the future protective force of the White Family. With medicine in one hand and a Gatling gun in the other, do you dare to submit?

With the Bai family's businesses as cover, the Black Family Army disappeared without a trace, like fish entering the sea.

The Black Family Army's new training camp plan will still proceed, but this time, Bai Jingqi will try to develop in places further away from the capital. The fifth training camp will recruit three thousand young beggars, from whom two to three hundred will be selected as reserve members for the Black Family Army.

After this training is completed, the sixth batch will no longer be recruited. After the selection of the fifth batch of members is completed, the number of personnel is temporarily sufficient. In the future, he will change the selection method, which is to establish an academy.

In the future, he will not only select elite special forces soldiers who excel in individual combat, but he will also need more technical talents. He will establish a private school to select talents, which will be more discreet and comprehensive.

Those selected for the future will be selected from both sides: those with technical skills and liberal arts backgrounds will work in special departments of the Bai family's pharmaceutical company, while those skilled in martial arts will join the Black Family Army. This dual development approach will allow them to better prepare for the future.

The signing of the Treaty of Shimonoseki in 1895 made the world powers fully realize the strength of the Qing Dynasty. Thirty years of achievements in the Self-Strengthening Movement were defeated by a small island nation. The hundreds of millions of taels of silver in reparations made countless powers green with envy. Why could this little Japanese swindle the Qing court's silver? We, the world powers, also had to get a share. So the world powers began to sharpen their knives and prepare to slaughter the sheep...!

Li Hongzhang, the Grand Secretary, had just signed the Treaty of Shimonoseki. Seeing that the Qing court had no money, he had to borrow money from various countries to compensate the Japanese. In the end, only Russia was willing to lend money, but it came with conditions: "I have my eye on that corner of Northeast China. I want to build a Far East Railway. Let's sign the contract!"

Chapter Sixteen: Bai's Pharmaceutical Company

In 1895, after Bai Jingqi took over the Bai family business, Bai's Pharmaceutical Company sold off seven ancestral properties and many other fixed assets in just six months.

Furthermore, they have begun to reclaim many of the Bai family's external investments from previous years, such as funds from loans made by money shops, which are expected to mature within the next few years.

The Bai family has stockpiled medicinal herbs and medicinal wines over the years, filling several large medicine warehouses. Rather than letting those foreign devils profit from them, it would be better to convert them into cash. So Bai Jingqi did not hesitate to start selling them off one by one. There is still time, so he can sell them slowly and there is no rush.

In the first half of the year alone, Bai Jingqi recovered more than 500,000 taels of silver. Seeing that the Bai family seemed to be in a really bad situation, the palace reluctantly paid 170,000 taels of silver. Of course, the purpose was still to get the Bai family to continue providing the palace with medicinal materials.

The Bai family currently has nearly a million taels of silver in cash, but he spends it like water. The Guardian Escort Agency, established in May, cost more than 80,000 taels of silver. These expenses were mainly used to establish branches in the areas from the capital to Tianjin, Hebei, Shanxi, and the northeast. The first phase of the escort agency had more than 350 people.

All the guards were equipped with long guns, and the leader was also equipped with a pistol and a special bayonet made by the Black Family Army. The leader was basically an elite member of the Black Family Army, and the guards were mixed in with the Black Family Army at a ratio of ten to one. Most of the other guards were recruited and selected locally, and the personnel were of varying quality. In the eyes of outsiders, such a security escort agency was a genuine ragtag army.

During the late Qing Dynasty, the escort agency business was extremely popular. In the capital, there were eight famous escort agencies, including Huiyou, Yongxing, Zhicheng, Zhengxing, Yiyou, and Guangxing. Li Hongzhang's residence was protected by Huiyou Escort Agency. Many large merchants and official families in the market had escort agencies for protection.

The newly established escort agency, Weishi Escort Agency, did not cause any major disturbances. The only thing that was somewhat impressive was that the escorts of Weishi Escort Agency were equipped with long spears instead of the more common long swords. It was normal for the Bai family, which was large and wealthy, to be equipped with long spears. However, that was all there was to it. The annual expenses for maintaining so many people were considerable, and ordinary wealthy families could not afford it.

New security escort agencies are common in the capital. Many such agencies are established every year. However, as the situation becomes more and more chaotic, these agencies generally do not survive for more than three years. In the past, most security escort agencies had martial arts masters who were highly skilled and could not be approached by three or five people. Now, they can be dealt with with a single shot. Times have changed.

However, Bai Jingqi doesn't need them to have much combat power for the time being. He only needs to train them and plan some transportation routes in several provinces. After all, the Bai family's medicinal herb procurement business is mostly in the north. In the next few years, they should familiarize themselves with the routes and build good relationships with some local forces so that in the future, when there is war, they can try to ensure that the procurement of medicinal herbs is as smooth as possible.

There are two purposes for establishing the escort agency. The first purpose, of course, is to hide the Black Family Army. The Guard Escort Agency will appear as the legitimate protective force of the White Family.