In the blink of an eye, it was December 1, 1923, twenty days since He Rui's government had declared itself the Central Government of China. December 1st fell on a Saturday. In the Northeast, Sunday was the weekly rest day. Factories that followed the statutory schedule would also cease work on Saturday afternoons; after lunch, everyone would clean and organize the factory, hold a brief meeting to arrange tasks, and basically clock out before 4:00 PM.

In the Beijing-Tianjin and Zhili regions, which were the first to stabilize, crowds poured out of their homes, shops, and factories in every city that hosted foreign concessions and garrisons, standing by the roadside to watch the truck convoys pass.

Each truck carried three condemned prisoners on each side, almost all of them foreigners. Their hands were tied behind their backs, and white execution placards were stuck into their bindings. Two police officers held each prisoner by the shoulders and arms, forcing them to lean out of the vehicle. In this posture, the crowds on the street could clearly see the placards reading "Condemned Criminal [Name]" with a large character for "Behead" (斩) at the top. The "Behead" character had been ticked with a crimson brush—according to Chinese tradition, this meant these fellows were definitely going to lose their heads.

The people had suffered enough from the oppression of foreign aggressors over the years. Not a single person stepped forward to drape them in red silk or offer them farewell wine. Instead, spit and angry curses flew directly at the condemned.

There were also foreign newspaper reporters by the roadside, bundled up tight to avoid revealing their foreign identity. They tried their best to snap photos with their cameras, but their actions quickly gave them away. People immediately started shoving them, though the police maintaining order stepped in to stop any private brawls. Once the foreign reporters were temporarily safe, the police glared at them with extreme displeasure before continuing their duties.

The foreign reporters were seething with nationalist sentiment. They took photos from the best angles they could find, aiming to capture the boiling nationalist emotions of the Chinese people as powerfully as possible. They hoped their photographs would provoke a hardline response from Western governments against China—preferably sparking a war.

The New Republican Government did not stop the foreign reporters from working, but simply continued to maintain order. After the parade through the streets, the trucks drove to various designated open grounds where gallows had already been erected. In the cold wind, the thick, sturdy nooses on the gallows swayed back and forth.

Seeing that they were actually going to be hanged, the military men among the condemned prisoners immediately broke down. An officer shouted, "You cannot hang us! You cannot subject soldiers to hanging!"

"You cannot subject soldiers to hanging!" In a reception room at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the capital, the French Minister was protesting loudly.

Opposite him sat three reception staff from the Ministry. One was Li Shiguang, formerly the Director of the France Office in the Northeast Government's Bureau of Foreign Affairs, now the Chief of the France Section in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. One was a recording clerk, and the third was Assistant Yan Huiqing. Yan Huiqing watched the agitated French Minister, trying hard to adjust his own mindset to keep up with the attitude required of the current Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Section Chief Li Shiguang smiled. "That is true. France uses the guillotine. If you agree, Mr. Minister, we can suspend the execution of the French prisoners and immediately build a guillotine for them."

Yan Huiqing nearly burst out laughing. for a veteran diplomat like him, this was an abnormal reaction. Yet Yan Huiqing realized he was actually beginning to get used to this abnormality, beginning to handle the current situation with the habits of the New Republican Government.

France, after all, loved the guillotine. The old Yan Huiqing could never have considered the problem so thoughtfully, nor offered such friendly assistance within his power to French diplomats.

It was evident that the guillotine indeed reminded the French Minister of his motherland, and he was moved by it. A few seconds later, the French Minister's face turned crimson, and he almost jumped up to shout.

Section Chief Li Shiguang said to the orderly, "Please go brew some coffee. Turkish style."

In the gap while the French Minister was catching his breath and swallowing, Li Shiguang said kindly, "Mr. Minister, I have read your country's masterpiece, *The Count of Monte Cristo* by Monsieur Dumas. In the book, the Count says that only those who drink Turkish coffee truly understand life. Do you like Turkish coffee?"

The French Minister was truly stunned. The diplomat before him had somewhat rough skin and lacked the rigid, posturing appearance of a traditional Chinese scholar-official; his gestures actually carried the ruggedness of a soldier. But such a man actually understood French culture. The intense contrast made the French Minister lose the will to apply the tactics that effectively intimidated officials of the old Republic. Those tactics were likely useless here.

Seeing the French Minister cease his loud protests, Li Shiguang made a gesture of invitation and said, "Mr. Minister, I have never been to France, so I do not know if the descriptions in the book are true. However, in reality, the French government has not recognized the New Republican Government, so there are no diplomatic relations between us. This meeting is purely a private one. Therefore, you may express yourself to your heart's content to complete your mission procedures. I understand this perfectly and am willing to wait for you to finish your procedures. So, you may continue your performance now."

Yan Huiqing felt that all his past diplomatic experience had been in vain; he felt both delight and a sense of loss. The French Minister was also a sensible man. Facing the neither humble nor arrogant Section Chief Li, he decided not to act like a clown anymore. He sat down on the sofa opposite and asked unhappily, "There will be consequences for your killing of French soldiers."

Li Shiguang masked his anger with a smile. "Mr. Minister, if China stationed troops in France, and those troops murdered French civilians and were to be executed, what would your mood be?"

The French Minister had never imagined China stationing troops in France; the mere thought made him fly into a rage. "What did you say?"

Li Shiguang's smile was forced; his eyes held no mirth, and his gaze was sharp. This expression made it seem as if Li Shiguang was wearing a mask of ill intent. Amidst the French Minister's rising unease, Li Shiguang put away his smile and said seriously, "Then, Mr. Minister, you can completely understand my current mood."

When Li Shiguang spoke words full of nationalist sentiment with a normal expression, the French Minister actually found it much more acceptable. After all, France had only finished the Great War in Europe a few years ago, and the emotions that had once boiled throughout France allowed the Minister to understand the feelings of the New Republican Government diplomat opposite him very well.

Li Shiguang did not want to threaten the French diplomat, so he switched back to gentle language. "Your Excellency, as diplomats, why should we get angry over some heinous criminals? That only turns diplomacy into a laughingstock. If you have any doubts about the trial content, you can check the legal documents. China is a civilized country; we will not kill people out of emotion like those executed beasts."

The French Minister knew very well what the French garrison and the police in the concessions had done. Since the French government had no intention of going to war with the He Rui regime, the Minister didn't mention those people again. He asked sternly, "What about French merchants and commercial institutions?"

"Oh? Have legal French personnel in China been infringed upon? Could you provide a list? If there is a list, I will contact the relevant departments to have them investigate. Please rest assured, law-abiding French citizens legally in China will not suffer illegal infringement."

"Is that true?" The French Minister's tone remained stern.

Li Shiguang laughed out loud. "Mr. Minister, this is not the era when the French captured ship after ship of black people from Africa and transported them to the Caribbean to be sold as slaves. It is now 1923; Haiti has been independent for over a hundred years. You are now in civilized China—why do you always feel like you are still in a barbaric era? In civilized China, whether Chinese or foreign, legal rights will naturally be protected."

Yan Huiqing sighed inwardly; so this was how historical knowledge and verbal sparring should be used. He watched as the French Minister, having received such a refined yet fierce rebuke, finally softened his attitude completely. At this moment, the orderly brought in the Turkish coffee. The French Minister took a sip, and his brow involuntarily smoothed out.

The characteristic of Turkish coffee is that the coffee beans, roasted with spices, must be ground very finely—finer than flour. When brewing, it is mixed with sugar, chocolate, and other spices, making it extremely fragrant and rich. The coffee served indeed had such quality, proving that Section Chief Li Shiguang was not simply playing word games. This surprised the French Minister somewhat.

After drinking the coffee, seeing he really couldn't scare the New Republican Government, the French Minister finally asked the core question. "Where will your country's southward-advancing army set its endpoint?"

Li Shiguang answered frankly, "We are going to unify China. The endpoint is naturally the border."

"And then?"

"And then we defend the border."

The French Minister stared at Li Shiguang for a moment before continuing, "But friends in diplomatic circles seem to have a different view on this, specifically the British."

"Heh. Mr. Minister, the iron law of British diplomacy is that there are no permanent friends, only permanent interests. I am slightly surprised that you use the term 'friend' to refer to the British diplomatic circle. Judging by various events up to now, the Anglos do not thank France."

Yan Huiqing saw a clear change in expression on the French Minister's face; Li Shiguang's words had struck a chord. The French Minister took another slow sip of coffee before asking, "So, Your Excellency He Rui will order the army to stop at the border?"

"No." Li Shiguang shook his head.

The French Minister's gaze instantly sharpened. He heard Li Shiguang continue, "After our field army arrives at the border, it will not stay on the border. The defense of the border is naturally for the border defense troops; why use a field army?"

"Then what about France's interests in China?"

"France's concessions and garrisons constitute a military threat to China; we do not accept such a threat. As for legal interests that comply with the laws of the New Republican Government, we protect all legal interests."

Since the two sides had not established diplomatic relations, every word Li Shiguang said could only be taken as his personal opinion. Even so, the French Minister communicated with Li Shiguang very seriously. Without such 'private exchanges,' the French Minister would have to rely on imagination to write reports for Paris.

By the time the French Minister left, he did not speak again about the bunch being hanged.

Meanwhile, the condemned prisoners on the gallows were twitching unconsciously in the midst of execution. The death row prisoners who hadn't yet reached their turn were pale as paper, trembling uncontrollably. Some military men, knowing they could not survive, desperately requested to be shot rather than hanged.

For a soldier, the difference between firing squad and hanging was not the duration of pain. Being shot by a firing squad was respect for their identity as a soldier. In Europe, hanging was the punishment for criminals. For a soldier to be hanged proved that he was like a rapist or murderer—a villain who had committed crimes intolerable to society, whose crimes meant he could no longer be allowed to live in the world. The difference between being executed for defeat and being hanged for crime was heaven and earth.

But the New Republican Government was executing these people precisely because they had committed crimes of murder, robbery, and rape; how could they possibly grant them a firing squad?

The Chinese populace cheered at the criminals twitching like dead fish on the gallows because evil had finally been punished, and justice had been served.

To let more people understand for a longer time why these people had to be executed, the new government also posted execution announcements in prominent locations on city streets. Although those foreign reporters stopped to read the execution announcements, they did not photograph or record them. For this bunch of reporters, they would rather pretend they had never seen such announcements.

The foreign reporters took photos of the Chinese people cheering at the gallows, trying their best to frame the shots so that the empty nooses were positioned near the necks of the execution officials. Compositionally, this gave the viewer a visual suggestion that the noose was being prepared for the Chinese executioner.

In these aspects, the experienced foreign reporters indeed displayed a standard far beyond their Chinese peers.

The executions went on for three days. By December 4th, the gallows were empty, but most were not dismantled. This round of hangings was only for criminals with simple cases, even though the Northeast Government had been collecting evidence for the past few years and had dispatched over a thousand judges and several thousand staff members to handle the cases this time. But over the past decade or so, foreigners had committed too many crimes in China, many of them gang-related. Even with ten thousand people working, the cases couldn't be fully clarified in a short time. Whenever a case was concluded later, the gallows would continue to be put to use.

At this time, the vanguard of the Northeast Army, now renamed the National Defense Force of the Republic of China, had already reached the north bank of the Yangtze River. Although they did encounter some resistance along the way, in the actual experience of the National Defense Force, this resistance could only be described as weak or even negligible. So much so that the headquarters staff following the troops south felt this wasn't fighting a war, but an armed parade.

The National Defense Force had originally attached great importance to the attack on Shanghai, but the actual combat disappointed everyone. The so-called Jiangsu-Zhejiang Revolutionary Army had three divisions that dug trenches and prepared artillery positions, deploying some things that could be called field guns. The few dozen cannons of the three divisions of the Jiangsu-Zhejiang Revolutionary Army played absolutely no role; their artillerymen did not understand artillery warfare, so they were easily destroyed by the National Defense Force's 120mm heavy artillery.

Two thousand troops of the crossing vanguard took small boats and quickly crossed the Yangtze. Meanwhile, the 120mm artillery ravaged the Jiangsu-Zhejiang Revolutionary Army's defensive works on the riverbank.

The National Defense Force landing troops thought they would have to conduct infiltration operations against the enemy infantry positions using squad and platoon tactics. Unexpectedly, the infantry of the Jiangsu-Zhejiang Revolutionary Army, under the coercion of their officers, actually charged out of their trenches with rifles, launching an attack on the National Defense Force's positions.

During the post-battle interrogation of prisoners, Lieutenant General Zhong Yifu, commanding the southward troops, finally understood. It turned out the commanders of the Jiangsu-Zhejiang Revolutionary Army believed their troops wouldn't hold up under heavy artillery bombardment and would rout, so in a desperate move, they ordered a charge.

However, at the time, the National Defense Force had no idea what was going on. Thinking the enemy was extremely fierce, they struck with a heavy hand. Machine guns, mortars, and field guns swept across the enemy forces.

The three divisions of the Jiangsu-Zhejiang Revolutionary Army each had a true standing strength of less than 4,000. Before this battle, they had conscripted men to bring the numbers up to 5,000. The officers knew very well their troops could only fight when the wind was at their backs; the newly conscripted soldiers couldn't face a tough fight. So, they set up supervising machine gun positions in front of the second trench line.

Not long after the charge began, the frontline troops came crying and shouting back in defeat, charging wildly towards the rear. The supervising team still had the will to fight at this point and, under officers' orders, began strafing the deserters.

The foremost deserters were cut down like wheat; the supervising team created the record for the most killings within the Jiangsu-Zhejiang Revolutionary Army. Then, the supervising team saw the deserters, who had barely stopped, turn their heads to face the direction of the enemy National Defense Force, only to be immediately swallowed by dense artillery fire.

Only after seeing the power of the artillery shells with their own eyes did the supervising team truly understand that the enemy they faced was one that could defeat the Japanese Army, and that the Japanese reputation was by no means unearned. Every shell blew several or even a dozen Jiangsu-Zhejiang soldiers to pieces; under artillery fire, all flesh was fragile.

After realizing what a Great Power-level war looked like, the supervising team threw down their weapons, screamed, and scattered in all directions. Even the officers of the supervising team ran.

Confirming through binoculars that the enemy had fled, the Northeast Army didn't dare to pursue with full force immediately. It wasn't until they got onto the enemy positions, saw the weapons discarded all over the ground, and picked them up to check—real guns, loaded with bullets, ready to use—that the troops understood the enemy was truly incompetent.

The pursuit battle was short and powerful, completely resolving the enemy force within two hours. Conversely, ferrying the main force of 10,000 men across the river took a whole day. At this time, Shanghai city remained relatively stable; the citizens actually had quite some expectations for the Northeast Army.

Zhong Yifu had not yet crossed the river. Seeing the somewhat low spirits of his comrades, he encouraged them loudly, "Latest news: the British and American Yangtze Fleets are currently still in the Yangtze. Comrades, this plate of dumplings is waiting for us to eat our fill! They owe so many debts of blood; dying ten times over wouldn't be enough. Getting killed by us on the battlefield is actually their lucky break!"

This was confirmed news Zhong Yifu had just received; most comrades in the headquarters didn't know. Hearing that there were actually British and American fleets to fight, cheers immediately erupted among the comrades who had just fought a lackluster battle.

"Not a single foreign warship will leave the mouth of the Yangtze alive! Kill!" Zhong Yifu's roar echoed inside the canvas tent of the command post.

In the Northeast Army era, before dismissing from every training session, they would often shout the word 'Kill'. Zhong Yifu had shouted it out, and the comrades raised their arms and shouted together, "Kill! Kill! Kill!"