Chapter 246: To Make Money, He’ll Do Anything!
If he remembered correctly, the initial lottery draw yielded only twenty silver dollars, and the penicillin was calculated by the box, a total of twenty boxes.
Later, it became fifty silver dollars and fifty boxes of penicillin.
But now, silver dollars are calculated by the thousand, and penicillin is counted by the crate!
He checked, and one crate of penicillin contained a full fifty boxes, with each box being the system’s standard of twenty vials, meaning one crate had a full thousand vials!
Twenty crates, that’s twenty thousand vials!
In this era, that was absolutely a terrifying number.
“So, the quantity of items from the system lottery draw might be based on the underlying calculations of the items I possess?”
This wasn’t impossible; otherwise, it couldn’t be explained why it was like this.
“Whatever, never mind, it doesn’t matter.”
For him, the most important thing was still skills!
This was what he cared about most, and it was the foundation that allowed him to stand firm and fear no situation!
The rest were merely external possessions.
“But speaking of which, having so much medicine sitting idle in the space gathering dust isn’t good, and it takes up space.”
“And those weapons and ammunition, except for the ones that are too heavy and inconvenient to transport, send some out too, to free up space.”
Previously, he had stolen a thousand vials of penicillin from the little devil’s warehouse, and after saving Li Huaide, he gave them five hundred vials, leaving five hundred in the space.
Adding these twenty thousand, that made a total of twenty thousand five hundred.
So much medicine, not edible and not drinkable, and he didn’t dare dump it all on the black market, as it would too easily attract attention.
He wasn’t short of money anyway, so there was no need to take that risk.
But leaving it in the space was really too wasteful, so he thought for a moment,
“The base area is currently short on all kinds of supplies, especially medicine which is a lifesaver, so send it to the base area, which can further strengthen our friendship.”
With that thought, Cao Weida stopped a rickshaw and headed to Ruixin General Store.
Inside Ruixin General Store.
The previous ten-day city lockdown inevitably had a huge impact on Ruixin General Store; business had almost ground to a halt during those ten days.
But with the city gates opened, business gradually recovered.
Although Cao Weida had been preying on the little devils every night, making all the little devils in Beiping itch with hatred and pay more attention to citywide security, the city gates were not locked down again.
As a result, although there was still some impact—after all, checks at entry and exit were strict—Ruixin General Store’s business gradually improved.
With business picking up, Old Luo naturally became busy as well.
Watching batch after batch of various supplies being sent out, the smile on Old Luo’s face never stopped.
Most of these supplies were to be transported to the base area!
Being able to transport much-needed supplies to the base area made him feel extremely gratified.
Looking at now and recalling the past, to prepare even a little supplies, they had to take enormous risks that could expose them, even at the cost of comrades’ lives, and he felt somewhat unreal.
He and the underground party comrades in the shop were all eating well, dressing well, sleeping well, and even getting paid.
Many times he felt dazed: could underground work really be this relaxed and leisurely?
At that moment, a voice sounded by his ear: “Old Luo, busy?”
Hearing the familiar voice, Old Luo instantly looked up, and upon seeing it was indeed Cao Weida, the smile on his face bloomed even brighter:
“Oh, it’s the master! What can I do for you?”
“Nothing much today, just idle anyway, so I thought I’d come check the accounts.”
“I was planning to report to you in the next couple of days. The account book is in my room; it’s not clean with people coming and going outside. Master, why don’t you come inside for some tea, and I’ll bring the account book for you to look through slowly?”
“Sure, brew some of that pre-rain Longjing I sent before; I like drinking that.”
This tea was still what he had gotten from that sucker Liu Huai at the tea house across from Mingyue Dance Hall, a full pound.
He couldn’t finish it himself, so he sent two taels here for Old Luo to serve to those big shots.
The two entered the room on the second floor and closed the door. Old Luo’s expression turned serious: “Comrade Cao Weida, it’s very safe here. Is there something wrong?”
The words he said outside just now were for others to hear; he knew Cao Weida wouldn’t come to him just to check accounts—there must be something.
“Yes, there is something, but it’s not urgent, no need to be so serious.” Cao Weida smiled and pointed to the table and stools in the room: “Come, let’s sit and talk slowly.”
Hearing it wasn’t urgent, Old Luo’s expression relaxed, and he smiled: “Then I’ll go brew you a pot of tea first.”
In no time, Old Luo brewed the tea and poured a cup for Cao Weida.
Cao Weida picked it up, took a sip, and praised: “Didn’t expect it, Old Luo, you actually have this skill!”
“Hey, it’s all thanks to you. It’s been so many years, never this leisurely.” Old Luo chuckled:
“Nowadays, no worries about food or drink, no need to rack my brains probing for intelligence or anything. After work, with nothing to do, I just found something to pass the time, so I started learning to brew tea.”
Cao Weida smiled but didn’t say anything modest.
After all, it was indeed the fact; without him, Old Luo would still be living in daily fear and hiding.
The two chatted idly for a couple of sentences, then Cao Weida got to the point.
“I came to find you about a few things. First, as you know, I was forced to join the Military Statistics Bureau. That old ghost Dai Li found out I have connections with Japanese army officers in Beiping, so he wants me to establish a covert transportation line.”
Old Luo didn’t speak; he wasn’t in a hurry, quietly waiting for Cao Weida to continue.
The Military Statistics Bureau and the underground party were both secretly establishing transportation lines, but there were slight differences.
For the underground party, intelligence transmission was only a small part of the transportation line; its greater role was to secretly transport supplies to the anti-Japanese base area.
No choice, the base area was really too poor.
Not poor in money, but poor in supplies.
While the Military Statistics Bureau’s transportation line was more for transporting inward: besides intelligence transmission and personnel transport, it was sending radios, cipher equipment, weapons and ammunition, medicine, communication equipment, etc., to occupied territory, to better obtain intelligence and create destruction and chaos in occupied territory.
So, there was no fundamental conflict of interest between the two, and it didn’t greatly affect their supply transport.
Cao Weida said worriedly: “I’m just afraid this transportation line isn’t established for the war of resistance, but for some people’s get-rich dreams!”
This wasn’t Cao Weida worrying needlessly; such behavior did exist in the Military Statistics Bureau!
Some corrupt elements turned the transportation lines built with the lives of countless heroic anti-Japanese martyrs into tools for their personal gain!
Red wine, cigars, cigarettes, even opium—whatever had high profit!
For making money, they’d do anything!
Completely disregarding the safety of the nation and people!!
Old Luo fell somewhat silent; as the saying goes, the one who knows you best isn’t your friend, but your enemy!
After years of open and covert struggles with the Military Statistics Bureau, how could the underground party not know what the Military Statistics Bureau was like?
He knew Cao Weida’s worry was very likely to become reality!
But he didn’t know what to say.
Tell Cao Weida not to establish the transportation line?
Not to mention they might not actually transport those things; even if they did, if Cao Weida dared to stop it, would those Military Statistics Bureau higher-ups obsessed with get-rich dreams let him off?
Tell him to establish it?
What if it could only transport those things—wouldn’t that be aiding and abetting evil?
So, he fell silent.
Seeing him not speak, Cao Weida urged: “Old Luo, you’re the senior; you’ve been in this line for so long, surely you’ve thought of more than I have. Help me out with an idea.”
“.” Old Luo smiled bitterly; how was he supposed to comment on this?
Whatever I say is wrong!
After a long while, he helplessly considered and said: “Comrade Cao Weida, the transportation line still needs to be built, but you can find a way to hand over control to others after establishing it.”
“That way, you can distance yourself from it as much as possible.”
Don’t think that if you take the blame for the leadership, they’ll remember your kindness.
They might on the surface, but if things are exposed, there has to be a scapegoat, and Cao Weida, with no connections or background in the Kuomintang, is the perfect fall guy.
The Military Statistics Bureau has no humanity!
“Alright, I’ll follow your advice.” Cao Weida smiled inwardly; his real intention in saying this wasn’t actually to get advice from the other.
His real intention was to inform the Communist Party in advance: I’m going to establish a transportation line for the Military Statistics Bureau, but I’m unwilling; I only agreed under duress.
Now that the goal was achieved, he moved on to the second matter:
“A few days ago, I discussed something with that little devil Ono Shiota; Beiping City’s grain has always been in short supply.”
Hearing Cao Weida’s words, Old Luo couldn’t help sucking in a breath of cold air, his face shocked:
“This matter, that little devil Ono actually agreed?!!”
He found it absurd, even suspecting his ears were faulty.
That was grain for the front lines!
“What’s impossible about it.” Cao Weida chuckled, “Since the Solomon Islands campaign declared failure, the Japanese army has completely lost control of the southwestern Pacific islands, their maritime transportation lines cut off by the US military, and strategic resource supplies in dire straits.”
“The little devils originally had few local resources, completely relying on invading other countries to plunder, sustaining war with war.”
“Now with sea control stripped away, the little devils have completely lost the qualification to sustain war with war, and logistics have fallen into semi-paralysis.”
“Little devils without logistics support are tigers without teeth; they might rampage at first, but in the long run, they absolutely can’t hold out.”
“Even if the Yuzhong battle is worrisome now, showing signs of falling, so what? The national anti-Japanese fervor is high; the loss of one city or place doesn’t greatly affect the overall war situation!”
“Anyone with a brain knows the little devils’ tail can’t stay long; why not hurry to grab some benefits and welfare for yourself and your family?”
