Chapter 99: This Price
Looking at their excited expressions and holding the welcome telegram personally drafted by Liu Xiang and Feng Tiankui that the secret service camp received yesterday, he knew that he had done the right thing.
"Uncle Chen, there is no need. In fact, the commander and I are not short of money or arms in the short term. What Sichuan lacks are entrepreneurs with business acumen and commercial vision, and even more so, equipment. I brought hundreds of thousands of dollars with me this time. Our commander asked me to buy it. I plan to buy equipment. I also suggest that you save your money to buy complete sets of equipment, whether it is textiles, printing and dyeing, leather, machinery, chemicals, mining, etc., Sichuan is in great need of these industries."
"So you're still going to watch it?"
"To be honest, I have no idea about the arms market. We need hundreds of sniper rifles, but they are not available in Sichuan."
"A sniper rifle, is that a hunting rifle with a scope?"
Chen Jingfang laughed.
"I don't know if there is one. Let's go and have a look."
Peng Hua'an, the Chinese comprador of this foreign company and a friend of Chen Jingfang, came to greet him at the door early in the morning.
Zhou Xiaoshan didn't notice Peng Huaan, but instead noticed the foreigner next to him.
He had a huge six-pointed star embroidered on his chest and a typical hooked nose, and he was afraid that others would not know that he was Jewish .
"Let me introduce you to my good friend, David Peng from Delyang."
"Zhou Xiaoshan, the adjutant specially appointed by Commander Liu Xiang of the Sichuan Army."
The boy saluted out of habit first, then stretched out his hands for a handshake.
"Hello, gentlemen."
"Hello, Adjutant Zhou. Mr. Chen has already told us the purpose of your visit. Please come in."
The house rented by this foreign company has a small warehouse behind it, where people also live. The valuables of the foreign company are all placed in this warehouse. It is adjacent to the embassy district and has the best security situation in Peiping. It is obvious that it is a place with a high rent.
"Hua'an, Adjutant Zhou needs a batch of hunting rifles equipped with scopes? I didn't even look at the list you gave me the day before yesterday."
"Yes, but they are the latest model from Germany. It is said that the Germans are going to use them as national standard equipment. There are not many of them. I remember there were more than 100 in total, but only more than 60 with scopes. They were brought here with the goods as sales gifts. As you know, these guns are bought by generals or enthusiasts for collection."
The warehouse of Del Trading Company is not small, with three floors, and all his weapons are stored in the basement.
"Adjutant Zhou, to be honest, we heard that Chairman Chiang liked this Mauser 1924 very much, so we rushed it from Europe. Who knew that they bought the blueprints and started making them in Jinling and Gongxian? This batch of rifles can't be sold at a high price."
Zhou Xiaoshan understood it all at once.
The Zhongzheng rifle originated in Germany, and the special forces battalions had hundreds of them.
In fact, his special forces battalion liked this kind of robbery the most. He heard from Qin Guoliang that many foreign companies at that time followed Chiang Kai-shek's hobby and shipped a lot of goods from Europe.
But the warlords in various places did not buy it.
In addition, Jinling, Shanghai, and Gongxian can produce their own products, so the price drops very quickly.
However, this type of gun is still very popular in Sichuan.
After all, it is much better than the old Sichuan-made slide. Liu Xiang's arsenal did not produce many rifles, which were not enough to meet the equipment needs of the entire Sichuan warlords. Even the West China Machinery Institute focused on machine gun production. Liu Wenhui's factory did produce rifles, but the cast iron barrel it used was likely to explode if it fired a few more shots.
In particular, Commander Feng of his own 66th Division also had a special liking for Zhong Zheng.
"You are Mr. Chen's friends, so I won't say anything empty. There are 2,800 rifles that can equip two regiments, including 30 7.9 caliber Czech rifles, 100,000 rounds of German-made bullets, and 20 boxes of German-made grenades. The original price is 150,000 yuan. You can take 80,000. As for the more than 100 G98s and dozens of scopes, I'll give them to you."
After deducting the cost of bullets and machine guns, the average price of each gun in this batch was less than 20 yuan, which was cheaper than the Sichuan-made rifles sold by Liu Xiang.
The grenades and 98K were given as gifts.
If this batch of arms were sent to Yongzhou, Feng Tiankui would be willing to sell everything he had to buy it, let alone 80,000 yuan, even if it was more than 300,000 yuan.
If he didn't buy this batch of arms and sent a telegram back, he would definitely be scolded to death by that hot-tempered superior.
It’s easy to guess that this batch of German products is very much to Feng Tiankui’s liking.
The gun Qin Guoliang bought on the black market cost more than five times this price.
But Zhou Xiaoshan was a little depressed. He was busy all night yesterday, but it was all in vain.
This is not something that was priced in. It's almost gold plus silver dollars. In the morning, Zhang Zhenhe came to report the value of the gold and silver, and it was this price. How could such a coincidence happen in the world?
Thinking of those antiques, Zhou Xiaoshan felt that they were hot potatoes. If he sold them now, not only would the antiques from the turbulent times not be fetching a high price, they would also easily flow overseas.
In particular, there is a set of small chimes and a tripod with inscriptions.
I don't know where the thief and traitor got it.
Zhou Xiaoshan himself didn't know much about it and didn't even dare to exchange it for money.
In case the source of the antiques is known by collectors in the circle, they will report it to Song Zheyuan through the 29th Army.
In the territory of Peking, the local tyrants followed the clues to come up, and the special forces battalion was in trouble.
Just as Chen Jingfang was about to speak, Zhou Xiaoshan raised his hand.
"I believe Mr. Chen's friends will not cheat us. Eighty thousand is eighty thousand. I won't bargain. Zhenhe, pay."
Both the guns and the ammunition can be used interchangeably with the existing equipment of the 66th Division. Chen Jingfang saw the officers of the special forces battalion almost drooling at the sight of the ammunition, so he wanted to buy some as a gift for the 66th Division.
"Uncle Chen, this batch of goods is very much to our commander's liking. If he knew I didn't buy it, he would scold me to death."
Chen Jingfang thought about it and it made sense. There was still a long way to go, and he would have plenty of opportunities to go to Sichuan and repay Feng Tiankui's favor.
"Brother Hua'an, Del Trading Company has closed down. I am going to live in Sichuan. Are you interested in coming with me? We can join hands and find a way to make money there."
"David doesn't want to go back to Europe, so he wants to see where Brother Jingfang is and see if he can get a job."
Peng Huaan himself has no worries about finding a job, he wants to help this foreigner who has done him a favor!
A foreigner, and a Jewish one at that, Chen Jingfang was a little hesitant.
"David is a very good person. If he hadn't helped me, I would have been unable to survive here. He is completely trustworthy. The whole of Europe is now anti-Semitism. He has applied for American citizenship, but the United States is in an economic crisis and he is unfamiliar with the place!"
"Has Mr. David obtained American citizenship?"
The foreigner was not very tall, and he looked quite honest when he nodded his head. He did not have the arrogance and domineering attitude of Sir Langdon at all.
Besides, if a Chinese colleague helps to endorse the book, this person’s character should be trustworthy.
"What salary do you want? Are you willing to go to Sichuan with us?"
David made the number two gesture, but this person looked quite good, so Zhou Xiaoshan didn't understand .
Peng Huaan next to him laughed.
"Mr. David came here with the old boss of this company, Mr. Del. After Mr. Del passed away, his son sent a fool from Europe to run the Far East branch, which suffered huge losses. Mr. David's salary was also reduced from eighty dollars to twenty dollars a month. Occasionally, we make a little money by speculating according to market fluctuations, but it's nothing more than a few extra bonuses."
