Chapter 25: Talk in Advance
"Fang Dafu, bring the person here!" Chen Xiao ordered.
"Yes!" Fang Dafu brought the person in less than a minute. Chairman Zhang Dawei walked into the room with trembling legs.
"Now let me introduce you to this person. He is the rich man I was talking about, the chairman of the Japanese maintenance association, Zhang Renyi."
Chen Xiao smiled and gestured to the wealthy but extremely frightened old man in his fifties.
That's it?
Ding Wei frowned, and his opinion of Chen Xiao dropped even more. He thought that what Chen Xiao meant by making a fortune was the grain seized in Zhangzhuang, which might be a little more than they expected, perhaps about ten thousand kilograms.
But now the New 1st Regiment has recruited some new soldiers. There are more than 900 veterans who broke through the encirclement, plus new recruits, there are still about 1,200 to 1,300 people.
If a soldier in training eats frugally, he will eat half a kilogram of food a day. If he eats normally, he will eat one kilogram of food a day. In other words, a new regiment consumes at least five or six hundred kilograms of food a day.
If they had opened up the training, they would have obtained at least 1,000 kilograms of food a day. Even if he had captured 10,000 kilograms of food, it would only be enough for the New 1st Regiment to consume in ten days. How could this be considered making a fortune?
Even if we save a little, consuming 500 kilograms of food a day will only last for about twenty days.
This Mr. Chen was praised to high heavens by Li Yunlong, but in fact, he was just a scholar with a rather shallow vision.
As for the other things he said, such as being good at shooting with guns, being good at cannon fire, being good at bayonet fighting, and being good at killing the enemy with bare hands, I think some of them are exaggerated!
But Li Yunlong is not such a person?
As old comrades-in-arms for many years, they know each other's personalities very well. Although Li Yunlong is a bit rogue, he is not someone who can tolerate any sand in his eyes.
Moreover, he had just seen the spirit and military quality of the New 1st Regiment during training, and they were all top-notch. They didn't seem like the tallest among the short ones!
Suddenly Ding Wei felt that he was unsure of the situation.
"How can this local rich man make a fortune?
Even if he relied on the Japanese, the fact that you were able to seize two Czech light machine guns and more than fifty rifles was already the best.
How else do you want to make money? Is there a secret we don’t know about?”
Li Yunlong didn't know why, but he trusted Chen Xiao from the bottom of his heart. He didn't think as much as Ding Wei did. He knew that this local tycoon in front of him definitely didn't have much money, but since Chen Xiao brought him here, there must be a reason.
Chen Xiao did not keep the secret: "Of course he did not have much money, even with the Japanese behind him, he did not get much money.
However, he knew another secret, and this secret was very lucrative!
A production line that can produce Czech light machine guns and Zhongzheng rifles, and a 7.92mm Zhongzheng rifle bullet production line.
Is this considered a fortune?"
Before he finished speaking, Li Yunlong and Ding Wei stood up with a bang and asked in surprise, "Production lines for Czech light machine guns and Zhongzheng rifles?"
Chen Xiao looked at their reactions with great satisfaction, and said proudly: "Old Li, do you know how many times I thought about your reaction when I heard the news on my way back?
It’s just as I imagined, very good! Hahahaha…”
Li Yunlong ignored his teasing and anxiously grabbed him: "Did you find out? Where is it?"
Ding Wei also looked anxious and wanted to know the answer.
"I asked!" Chen Xiao nodded, and then said to Zhang Renyi in a deep voice: "You tell me!"
"Yes, yes... um..." The plump old man was hunched over, looking awkward no matter how you looked at him, but everyone ignored him and only wanted to hear the news they wanted from him.
Suddenly Li Yunlong realized the problem, so he ordered his guards: "Huzi, go on guard, no one can be within 10 meters."
Ding Wei also reacted at this time and ordered his guard: "You go too!"
Then, Zhang Renyi was allowed to speak, and the frightened President Zhang slowly talked about how his son's classmate took the machines from the arsenal, hid in a mine, produced machine guns, sold them for money and escaped.
"Are you sure that the machine is still in the mine?
Do you know where the mine is?"
Ding Wei keenly grasped the fundamental issue and asked two questions.
Zhang Renyi quickly waved his hands: "How would I know? I have never seen that person, but my son knows.
My son helped to broker deals and sold a lot of machine gun ammunition, and together we made a lot of gold bars and dollars, and he knows it."
Li Yunlong asked again: "How do you know your son will know?"
Seeing the two Eighth Route Army officers questioning his son's ability, Chairman Zhang, who was a little timid at first, became a little tougher: "How could I not know! My family's two machine guns and dozens of new rifles were all left in the cave by his classmates, and I went to get them myself!
It’s a little short. I said the hole is full of gun parts, but it can’t be assembled into a gun. I didn’t tell you what parts are missing…”
Ding Wei asked again: "Where is your son?"
Zhang Renyi realized where he was when he heard this question. He softened again, and after a long pause he said, "I'm in Taiyuan, working as an interpreter for the emperor... no... for the devils..."
After saying this, he folded his hands and looked like he had resigned himself to his fate.
"Then why didn't your son report to the Japanese? Didn't he want to be promoted?" Ding Wei still grasped the key point and continued to ask.
"Er'er was a translator, but he didn't get a chance to be promoted, so he didn't want to do it anymore.
I said that if we find a buyer and sell the machine, we can get at least hundreds of thousands of gold bars.
Leave it to the Japanese, I'm not that stupid! "
After that, he pondered for a while and asked quietly: "Eighth Route Army commander, if I hand over these machines, will it be considered as redeeming myself for my crime?
If it doesn’t count, I won’t say anything, I don’t have many years left to live anyway!”
Li Yunlong and Ding Wei looked at each other, and then said, "Whether it counts as meritorious service or not, we can't say. Let's talk to the boss when we get to our headquarters!"
After that, he said to Chen Xiao, "It seems that I have to leave immediately . Bring this person to the headquarters and report this matter quickly. If it's too late, I'm afraid things will change!"
Indeed, after all, it can produce Czech-style light machine guns and a production line for the Zhongzheng rifle. This matter is too important to tolerate any delay or carelessness, so it is only natural for Li Yunlong to set off immediately and report to the headquarters.
So Chen Xiao nodded, but made another request: "Once you submit the report, I can't have any ideas about this thing.
But, I mean but, if you can't figure it out within two months, then I'm going to take action.
If you still can't take the production line back after I harvest the potatoes, I will take it myself.
But I'm not doing this to get rich myself, but to provide some property for the school. After all, I have to at least ensure that the school has machine gun and rifle bullets available for training.
I heard that in Guangxi, almost all schools have military training with real guns and ammunition, and their students become elite when they join the army.
I don't want my school to not have enough bullets for students to train with."
