XINJIANG PROVINCE
NORHTERN CHINA

ILI DISTRICT, AUGUST 20TH 1920
6 am
After the chant of the Muezzin, the Kazakh and the Chinese population in the town did move from their beds, preparing for work, or for go in Mosque for pray, Oskar Eriksson, yet shaved and dressed in his white jacked and green trousers with the red line, was passing trough the streets going to a meeting with Boris Annekov outside the town walls, in the encamptment of the cavalry of the Indipendent Orenburg Army.

Eriksson wasn't Russian, he a romantic mercenary and adventurer from the west, a gentleman of fortune as he love to say, and when in November 1918 the great war ended, he couldn't resist the temptation to rush for save a crumblin throne in danger, and even become a russian citizen and marry an aristocrat after the victory and the restoration...
And now he was in a dirty countryside, in a dusty village, wanted dead or alive by the reds, in company of a gang of assassins, orphans of the tsar, drug dealers, opium addicted (the same Eriksson had some problem with Morphine by 20 years almost but this never stopped his patriotism and nationalism, and when the great war broke out he decided to stop the abuse, and to enlist volunteer, but in Russia he falled against within the arms of the poison... ).
Walking trough the streets he was hailed by the peoples (a white man had to be treated properly...the various concessions and consulates had iron laws about the security of the westerners in China), smoking his Dunhill english pipe, charged with a good virginia tobacco, one of the few advantages the Whites had during this was, by now lost, was to be constantly resupplies of western goods by the allieds, like this excellent bright virginia pipe tobacco from the US.

Once passed the walls, Eriksson arrived in front of the emcampment, heading for the Iurt of Annekov, but he was stopped to enter by Orthodox religious chants, probably the morning mass, so he maked the cross sign, and waited outside...

After a few minutes Annekov arrived, asking for a lighter, a breakfast was prepared in the command's Iurt.

Eating some local bread and drinking black tea, Annekov sad "The local chinese governor isn't happy to have the Whites like hosts in his territory, but his forces aren't a real threat for us, and he seems disposal to parley."

Oskar Eriksson was drinking a black coffee, and answered "mmh... Good, maybe this can be useful to us..."

Then a group of Cossack officers told that the men make rumors, they wanna be paid, and are unsure about their destiny, so we decided to execute a raid in Bolschevik territory, to distract them, hit the enemy and make sure the reds feel our breath on their neck, that they don't consider us a bunch of defeated soldiers, and to ruin the diplomatic relations between the local chinese government and the Soviet Union... Only in that way we could hope to push the chinese on our side....



END FIRST PART OF THE FIRST EPISODE

September 1920, somewhere in Xinjiang...

The gramophone played Giuseppe Verdi's La Traviata at full volume, while the Chinese man tied to the chair fell to the ground with the whole chair, spitting out a few teeth after Igor's umpteenth punch, when he was put back on his feet the only thing he could see from the slits of his swollen and bloody eyes was Oskar's face shining a light on his face. What does your owner have in store for us? You can tell me, or you can tell him, Oskar said, pointing to Annenkov who stood at the door like a shadow with his arms folded to look at him. They had kidnapped a secretary of Yang Zengxin, the governor of Xinjiang, to interrogate him and probe his moves, but the unfortunate man had been not very talkative and his tongue had to be loosened in some other way... Igor the Russian threw a bucket of ice water on his face which was a mask of blood by now, because in the meantime the poor had fainted.... We could pull out his nails suggested Annenkov, when Oskar said "I need a break", going out of the tent, and lighting a cigarette, Annenkov followed him, in the last few weeks they had carried out several incursions into Bolshevik territory, capturing several thousand head of cattle, killing many red dogs, and evacuating several thousand white refugees who had poured into northeast China... But now it was necessary to find out the "Chinese", as the Cossacks of the army called him, the governor of Xinjiang, one of the major warlords in the area, Yang Zengxin, elderly but very determined, what he intended to do to them.... He was on very good terms with those red bastards across the border, and that didn't bode well... The Japanese were too far away, and Baron Ungern's Asiatic cavalry division was scattered somewhere in Mongolia, separated from the Altay Mountains by the Cossacks of the independent army of the Orenburg... They had to deal with Yang Zengxin on their own. They was discussing about what to do, when a chinese messenger with the insignia of Xinjiang, asking for the Ataman Annenkov arrived, the chinese messenger hailed both of them with a military salute, and he spoke like this: General Yang Zenxin offers you a gentlemen's agreement: there is no need for you to kidnap and torture our provincial officers, we will provide you with food, in exchange the Ataman's cavalry division will be discharged and accompanied to the nearest city, where the Ataman will also reside, you can recruit another one if you want among the white refugees and the local Mogola and Kazakh and Chinese population, and if you accept you can consider yourselves allies of the governor from this moment on... Eriksson and Annenkov looked at each other: it was a move by the old Chinese general to keep the Soviets quiet across the border, but the conditions were excellent, Bakich's army would remain intact, eight thousand men in all, and they could mobilize the cavalry division again when they thought it opportune, and nothing prevented them from continuing to carry out raids in red territory... Moreover, if the Reds had decided to come and hunt him down here in China, Yang's army, about 20,000 strong, would have been on their side, and in return they offered supplies, and porters.... It could have been done... However, it was necessary to have guarantees, and immediately set the record straight with the Chinese; Oskar entered the tent, and came out a few minutes later with the Chinese official with his hands tied behind his back and his face reduced to a mask of blood, drew his submachine gun from the holster, pointed it at his temple and fired a sharp shot, killing him on the spot, then spoke like this: Tell the governor that we accept his generous offer, but that if he or anyone in his clique,or any other group, attempt to betray us, he will die like this chinese on the ground by my hand.
And now offer this guy some tea! ordered Annenkov to the servants. The messenger left the camp for being the response to the governor immediatly after a tea, and a change of horse. This was for the moment the best political move the Orenburg gang could do here....

End of the second chapter