In April, the orioles fly and the grass grows. Even in the northern desert, tender green blades drilled out of the ground, dyeing parts of the land a vibrant green.

The Northeast Army's cavalry units did not trample the grass; instead, they chose to traverse the gravelly ground whenever possible. Many cavalrymen were arriving in Outer Mongolia for the first time. In the imagination of the officers and soldiers, Mongolia was a vast grassland. However, reality was different. Compared to grasslands, bare desert was the appearance of most areas in Outer Mongolia.

Crossing these lands did require a detour, but it avoided a lot of mud.

The main force did not march in a long snake-like formation but advanced sequentially by battalion and company. Cavalry liaisons shuttling between units, along with the wireless communications possessed by each regimental headquarters, kept the entire force at a very stable interval.

Starting from Heilongjiang, they arrived at their destination, the capital of Outer Mongolia, in just three days. The entire region of Outer Mongolia had a population of less than a million, and the capital felt more like a town, not even qualifying as a county seat. Moreover, it was covered with yurts and didn't even have a city wall.

As soon as the cavalry unit arrived, there were no Mongolian cavalry coming out to meet them in battle. Only a small squad of cavalry came forward to inquire. Upon learning it was Zheng Sirang, they immediately replied, "So it is General Zheng mentioned in the telegram. Please, please come in."

This made the Chief of Staff anxious, and he hurriedly held back Zheng Sirang, who was preparing to go. Many plans had been made when setting out this time, but none included Zheng Sirang leading his guards to meet the Prime Minister of Outer Mongolia, Badamdorj.

Seeing the Chief of Staff's anxious look, Zheng Sirang laughed, "Send a telegram to the Military Commission immediately, explaining the situation."

Only then did the Chief of Staff relax. Before long, the telegram was delivered to He Rui. The three radios contacting Zheng Sirang's unit were on 24 hours a day, maintaining information transmission at all times. After reading the telegram, He Rui annotated: "Agreed."

Chief of Staff Hu Xiushan, who had formulated the plan, asked, "Chairman, isn't Outer Mongolia's reaction too weak?"

"No matter how bad the Mongolian princes are, they have seen machine guns and cannons. With the plan you made, do you think the Mongolian princes have a chance? Or do they think that by taking Sirang hostage, they can force us to retreat?"

Hu Xiushan thought for a moment before nodding slightly, "Chairman, perhaps I underestimated the vision of the Mongolian princes, thinking they might not have the ability to understand the times."

"You are not wrong. Once Russia's strength recovers, these princes will show another face. What we need to do is seize this time and increase the construction of the economic cycle with Outer Mongolia as soon as possible."

Wireless waves crossed the distance from Fengtian to Zheng Sirang's location at a speed of 300,000 kilometers per second. Seeing the decoded message, the Chief of Staff sighed, "Commander, you must be careful."

Zheng Sirang replied easily, "It is you who must be careful. Whether those Mongolians dare to act rashly depends on whether our military appearance is disciplined and majestic. If the Mongolian princes feel we are vulnerable, they will definitely strike. It's all up to you outside."

After speaking, Zheng Sirang, wearing his field-gray service uniform, took two guards and went straight to the location of the Mongolian Prime Minister. It was a huge yurt, and two rows of gorgeously dressed headmen were already standing outside the door.

Walking through the passage between the two rows of Mongolian headmen, Zheng Sirang entered the yurt and asked in Mongolian, "Which one is Prince Badamdorj?"

The person in the center paused, hurriedly stood up, and walked in front of Zheng Sirang with bow-legged steps. This person was short, and his facial skin presented the sauce-purple color common in the Mongolian region.

"General Zheng..." Saying this, Outer Mongolian Prime Minister Badamdorj had a look of surprise on his face. "Have we met?"

Hearing the other party say this, a smile appeared on Zheng Sirang's face. He said in Mongolian, "My father was a bodyguard of the Huiyou Escort Agency. I once met the Prince with my father when I was young."

Hearing this, Badamdorj nodded repeatedly, "So you are the descendant of Bodyguard Zheng. You look exactly like him."

Zheng Sirang smiled slightly, not caring whether what this Mongolian Prime Minister Badamdorj said was true or false. After all, this guy had met so many people, how could he remember so clearly? Moreover, in this place, Mongolia, what mattered was strength, not favors. He smiled and said, "Does the Prince know about our Northeast Army taking back the Chinese Eastern Railway?"

Badamdorj knew Zheng Sirang was stating the strength of the Northeast Army. Facing such a threat, he smiled broadly, "I heard about it. Marshal He captured tens of thousands of Russians, and Russia dared not make a sound. It really gladdens the people's hearts! We Mongolians respect heroes the most. When everyone speaks of this, they praise Marshal He as a hero."

Zheng Sirang immediately took a step forward, "In that case, why doesn't the Prince come out with me to see what the cavalry of this great hero, Marshal He, looks like?"

Outer Mongolian Prime Minister Prince Badamdorj knew the style of the troops sent by He Rui this time. Before He Rui marched, he had sent cavalry to deliver the orders of the Republic's President Feng Guozhang and Premier Duan Qirui. The content of both orders was the same: informing Outer Mongolia that since the Russian Tsarist government was finished, the "Sino-Russian Declaration" signed by the Republic of China and Tsarist Russia was void, Outer Mongolia's autonomy was cancelled, and He Rui would manage Outer Mongolia's military and political affairs.

It wasn't that there were no hotheads in the Mongolian tribes. Upon learning that He Rui was actually coming, they shouted about raiding He Rui's troops. However, up to now, the hotheads had indeed gone out, but no fighting had occurred at all.

According to various reports, the marching, camping, and deployment of the troops led by Zheng Sirang were all orderly. Especially the intervals between various units were very reasonable; attacking any single unit would lead to being pincered. Moreover, those troops all carried artillery. Upon seeing approaching Mongolian cavalry, they would unleash a barrage of shelling.

The purpose of that shelling was not to kill, but to demonstrate power. Dozens of shells were fired quickly, blasting gravel into the air. Those hotheads also knew not to hit rocks with their heads.

The reason Outer Mongolian Prime Minister Badamdorj chose to stay in the capital to await Zheng Sirang was also based on Mongolian tradition. Once he led his people to run away, he could not expect to suppress other tribes in the future. There was never a lack of people in Mongolian tribes who cooperated with the strong.

So Badamdorj laughed loudly: "In that case, let me go and see the military appearance of the army that defeated the Russians."

Two hours later, the intense sound of guns and cannons finally stopped. The pungent smell of gunpowder smoke was blown by the wind, flowing past the Mongolian dignitaries watching the exercise. Outer Mongolian Prime Minister Badamdorj could no longer smile at all, staring coldly at the field where the exercise had ended.

Zheng Sirang did not stop. He ordered men to bring over a dozen sabers. These sabers were all finalized after European combat experience. The Northeast Army soldiers carried over a table and placed stacks of copper coins on it. Zheng Sirang drew a saber and slashed casually. The saber cut a stack of copper coins directly in half, and the momentum of the blade did not diminish, cutting directly through the board of the field table. The other copper coins just jumped vertically from the shock but did not fall.

This display of swordsmanship drew bursts of cheers from many Mongolian tribal headmen. Everyone was knowledgeable; with this skill used in cavalry combat, Zheng Sirang could already be called rarely encountering a rival.

Zheng Sirang smiled slightly, changed to another saber, and slashed down again, with the same result. After cutting through all the stacks of copper coins, Zheng Sirang smiled at the Mongolian tribal headmen: "Our army's sabers are all of the same quality. I give them to you gentlemen as a meeting gift."

Waiting for the headmen to accept the sabers with complex expressions, Zheng Sirang then smiled at Outer Mongolian Prime Minister Prince Badamdorj: "I wonder what the Prince thinks of Marshal He managing Outer Mongolia's military and political affairs?"

In the exercise just now, Prince Badamdorj saw with his own eyes that the level of the Northeast Army's cavalry and infantry exercises far exceeded that of the Mongolian cavalry. Especially since the Northeast Army fired at least two hundred shells during the exercise, turning the land used as a target range into a field full of craters as if it had been plowed.

As for bullets, who knew how many were fired? Those wooden human targets that were set up were beaten to pulp.

If this ammunition were given to the Mongolians to use, it would be enough to fight a dozen internal battles. And the exercise troops brought out even more ammunition, showing that the consumption of the exercise counted for nothing at all.

Hearing Zheng Sirang's inquiry at this time, Outer Mongolian Prime Minister Badamdorj steeled his heart and replied readily: "Since it is the Great President's order, we naturally must obey!"

Zheng Sirang knew the initial establishment of prestige was complete, so he smiled: "In that case, we are one family again!"

Wireless telegrams transmitted the latest news to Fengtian. He Rui was not surprised. Because the troops led by Zheng Sirang were only the vanguard, He Rui was already prepared to establish five command headquarters for Inner and Outer Mongolia plus the three Northeast provinces. Behind Zheng Sirang, another division was setting out to enter the Outer Mongolia region to begin constructing garrisons. If those in Outer Mongolia could not see the situation clearly, naturally, they could only be wiped out.

At this time, He Rui did not need to preside over this; Heilongjiang Military Region Commander Xu Chengfeng was in charge. He Rui had made another preparation here. Ishiwara Kanji and others, as members of the fourth batch of the Japanese officer corps observing the war in Europe, had returned. These guys had currently arrived in Kwantung Leased Territory. Ishiwara Kanji sent a telegram requesting to come and visit He Rui.

Over the years, the correspondence between He Rui and Ishiwara Kanji had been quite dense, writing seven or eight letters to each other every year. Some of He Rui's latest articles and parts of the Northeast's development reports would also be sent to the 'Future Society' established by Ishiwara Kanji in Japan.

Now that aspiring Japanese youths were coming to visit, He Rui was filled with joy.

Calling his secretary, He Rui asked, "Are there any decent Japanese restaurants in Shenyang?"

The secretary thought for a while but couldn't think of any, so he could only say, "Chairman, I will go check."

"Good, check clearly. If there are, prepare to place an order and have them prepare Japanese dishes."

The secretary was quite meticulous in this work, "Chairman, what if there aren't any?"

He Rui thought for a moment, "If not, contact Noguchi Nobuo, whom Mitsui Yasuki left behind, and ask him to help think of a way."

The secretary continued to ask, "Chairman, must we use Japanese dishes to entertain? I think our Chinese cuisine is more delicious than Japanese cuisine."

"Still use Japanese dishes. I told those youths that China and Japan should be friendly. If they can't even eat a Japanese meal in China, wouldn't it seem like empty words?"

"This..." The secretary couldn't understand for a moment.

He Rui knew that among the comrades now, many had quite high nationalist sentiments, and exclusionism naturally came from instinct. He Rui explained, "Is being able to eat Japanese food in China the same thing as the presence of foreign soldiers on Chinese territory?"

The secretary was stunned, but quickly understood the difference between the two, so he put down the grudge in his heart and went to arrange according to He Rui's instructions.

He Rui sighed slightly in his heart. He also had years of strong nationalist sentiments, and even now, He Rui still had strong patriotic thinking. When killing invaders, He Rui wouldn't bat an eyelid.

But He Rui would not hate other countries because of patriotism, because there was no logical relationship between the two. He Rui didn't like eating Japanese cuisine, nor did he like mythologizing Japanese cuisine. So what needed to be fought was blind worship of foreign things, or merchants using information asymmetry to engage in commercial deification.

As for Japanese cuisine, eat it if you like, don't eat it if you don't. If choosing a meal could trigger nationalist sentiments, it only proved that one's heart was too weak.