The History of 14K's Development (Continued)
"Understood, Mr. Choi Fat. I'll go contact those old devils with the 'He-prefix gangs." Brother Fei held a cigarette but didn't light it, then turned and left the office.
After he left the office, the bodyguard who had been silent in the corner finally spoke up, "Mr. Choi Fat, Ah Li just gestured outside, and Mr. Chen from number 14 has arrived at the factory."
Li Caifa, cigarette dangling from his lips, walked outside. "I'll go greet Mr. Chen myself."
Upon arriving at the factory office area, which bore a sign for a rubber processing plant, three cars were already parked smoothly outside. A dozen or so capable-looking young men stood ramrod straight around the perimeter. Li Caifa walked up the iron staircase to the first floor, and the people in the three cars began to disembark. From the middle car, a middle-aged man in a suit, around thirty years old, stepped down. As he straightened up, Li Caifa had just completed the last step. The two looked at each other, and Li Caifa greeted him with a hearty laugh, extending his hand to Mr. Chen: "Brother Zhongying, long time no see! I haven't been to my Lichi for drinks and music lately. Is it because Lichi doesn't meet your standards?"
The visitor was none other than Chen Zhongying, the Incense Master.
In the spring of 1949, with the liberation of Nanjing and Shanghai imminent, the Kuomintang in the Guangdong Liangguang regions of South China was on edge and in a state of panic. Mao Renfeng, the head of the Kuomintang Juntong, planned ahead and set out a strategy of "comprehensive infiltration, establishing roots, combining internal and external forces, and making a comeback." He instructed Ge Zhaohuang, the head of the Military Statistics Bureau Second Division Guangdong Station, to intensify contact with the Hung Mun organizations in various parts of Liangguang and Guangxi, absorb and utilize them, and go into hiding to await orders from his superiors.
The reason Mao Renfeng personally selected Ge Zhaohuang was that Ge Zhaohuang had destroyed the Wuzhou Overseas Chinese Hung Mun Southwest Headquarters in Guangzhou, which was controlled by Japan intelligence, as early as 1945. He killed many Collaborator were actually part of the fake Hung Mun and were supported and trained by the Japan. Ge Zhaohuang had also established an organization called the Hung Mun Loyalty and Righteousness Association. When he killed people, Ge Zhaohuang shouted the slogan of eliminating traitors for the ancestors of Hung Mun and protecting the law for the martyrs of Hung Mun. Although he had never formally entered the Hung Mun mountain gate, he had done a good deed for Hung Mun. Both of the Hongmen mountain leaders in Liangguang and Hung Mun had a good impression of Ge Zhaohuang.
However, no matter how much goodwill there was, Ge Zhaohuang's Hung Mun Loyalty and Righteousness Association was not the orthodox Hung Mun. It had none of the mountain sect formulas, mountain leader diagrams, tokens, or oral instructions, which made it impossible for members of other Hongmen Hung Mun to acknowledge Ge Zhaohuang's status in the Hung Mun.
Therefore, Ge Zhaohuang could only try to contact the real Hung Mun mountain organizations in Liangguang and Guangxi. In Guangdong, it was Hung Mun Heavenly Treasure Mountain, and in Guangxi, it was Hung Mun Great Hong Mountain.
However, the Heavenly Treasure Mountain Blood-Soaked Hall of the Hung Mun, which originated in Foshan, Guangdong, had already been in Hong Kong for many years when Ge Zhaohuang went to Guangzhou to accept and absorb members of the Hung Mun. He even held Hung Mun conference in Hong Kong. Black Bone Yan, the Fifth Brother of the Red Flag of Heavenly Treasure Mountain Blood-Soaked Hall, became a figure like the founder of the Hong Kong He-prefix gangs.
Unable to use the banner of the Hung Mun Heavenly Treasure Mountain Blood-Soaked Hall, Ge Zhaohuang could only contact the Hung Mun Great Hong Mountain sect in Nanning, Guangxi. At that time, the leader of Great Hong Mountain Hung Mun Lan Zhuocai, a retired Kuomintang general. Although Lan Zhuocai was a legitimate member of the Hung Mun, he lacked money, influence, and prestige. Therefore, Great Hong Mountain did not have much influence in Nanning, Guangxi. Ge Zhaohuang personally met with Lan Zhuocai, intending to take Great Hong Mountain Hung Mun. He was willing to pay enough cash to send Lan Zhuocai to Hong Kong to live in seclusion. After Lan Zhuocai agreed, he gave Ge Zhaohuang a legitimate Hung Mun identity and passed on the position of leader of Great Hong Mountain to Ge Zhaohuang. After that, he left safely for Southeast Asia.
After Ge Zhaohuang obtained the position of the leader of Great Hong Mountain, the first thing he did was to move Great Hong Mountain from Nanning, Guangxi to Guangzhou, Guangdong, and officially open the altar at 14K Baohua Road, Xiguan, Guangzhou. He renamed Hung Mun Great Hong Mountain to Hung Mun Hongfa Mountain and possessed the Hung Mun hall, water incense, mountain head formula and mountain head map representing the orthodox identity of the Hongmen mountain head, Hongfa Mountain, Loyalty and Righteousness Hall, Pearl River Water, and White Cloud Incense.
Ge Zhaohuang transformed from a fake member of the Hung Mun into the leader of an authentic Hung Mun mountain. Following Mao Renfeng's instructions, he opened his mountain gates wide, recruiting Kuomintang remnants and various underworld figures to expand the power of Hongfa Mountain.
Unfortunately, the Kuomintang remnants managed to gather a considerable number of troops, but before they could begin implementing their infiltration plan, the People's Liberation Army had already swept through the enemy lines and occupied South China. Seeing that things were going badly, Ge Zhaohuang, along with his confidants including the Incense Master Hall Master the Outer Eight Halls, fled to Hong Kong in disgrace on the eve of the liberation of Guangzhou. At that time, many Kuomintang soldiers who had joined Hongfa Mountain also fled to Hong Kong with Ge Zhaohuang.
Because Hong Kong strictly prohibited illegal activities such as the Hung Mun Triad Society at the time, all local gangs operated under the guise of community organizations. Hongfa Mountain also adapted to local customs, no longer referring to himself as Hung Mun, but instead saying that he came from the 14K.
Before Ge Zhaohuang could establish himself in Hong Kong and revitalize Hongfa Mountain, the British colonial government expelled him to Hainan Island on charges of engaging in illegal secret activities, forbidding Ge Zhaohuang from re-entering the country. In his haste to leave, Ge Zhaohuang only had time to pass on the leadership of the mountain to his unruly 20-year-old son, Ge Zhixiong, in the presence of several key members, and appoint his confidant Chen Zhongying as the strategist Incense Master to manage Hongfa Mountain's affairs before being expelled from Hong Kong.
Unable to return to Hong Kong, Ge Zhaohuang could only try to escape to Taiwan from Hainan Island, hoping to obtain financial support from the Kuomintang for the Hong Kong 14K. However, the Kuomintang, seeing that the 14K had no further use, was only willing to provide nominal support, allowing the 14K to publicly declare that the Kuomintang was their backer to intimidate their opponents, but providing no material or financial support whatsoever.
Without the Kuomintang's material and financial support, and without his identity within the Juntong, fighting for Kuomintang and seeking backing from the underworld was of no use to Ge Zhaohuang. The entire Hongfa Mountain was abandoned like a chamber pot. After hitting walls everywhere, Ge Zhaohuang suffered a stroke in anger and was in a sorry state. It was Chen Zhongying who managed to secretly bring Ge Zhaohuang back to Hong Kong from Taiwan after his stroke.
Ge Zhaohuang was unable to take charge, and Ge Zhixiong was too young and incapable of controlling the Kuomintang deserters in the 14K. Chen Zhongying, who had served as Ge Zhaohuang's adjutant and received systematic military training, became the true leader of the 14K. In Hong Kong, he led a group of Kuomintang remnants in forming alliances and maneuvers. First, he joined forces with the Chiu Chow Gang gang to seize territory from the Eastern Guangdong Gang, and then turned against the Chiu Chow Gang and started fighting. These Kuomintang deserters could not go to Taiwan, nor could they go to the mainland. Hong Kong was their only foothold, so they all risked their lives to go there. In addition, they all had some battlefield experience and repeatedly achieved excellent results in fierce battles. In just two years, they had already made the 14K famous in Hong Kong.