Chapter 147: Firearms
The Cabinet is indeed wise; in just one day, Hase Jinagawa called Director Gu.
“Haha, the Cabinet has made its decision! The liaison officer in Shanghai will be Vice Admiral Tsuda Shizue from the Navy; the Army is completely out!”
Director Gu held the telephone and laughed as he asked, “Not our Ministry of Foreign Affairs?”
Hase Jinagawa laughed over the phone, “The Navy is fine too, as long as it’s not the Army, it’s easy to talk about. In fact, having the Navy serve as liaison officer is even better than us from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
If the Navy serves, it will form a check on the Army, whereas if we serve, we’d have to balance the interests of both the Navy and the Army, which is actually quite difficult.”
Not everything is better when you’re the top boss; after all, there’s still the Cabinet above Shanghai, with military priorities, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs doesn’t have that much right to speak.
“Vice Admiral Tsuda’s airplane will arrive in Shanghai tonight. If time permits, we’ll hold a welcome banquet for him tonight; come along then.”
“From what you’re saying, Vice Admiral Tsuda isn’t the Navy Commander in Shanghai?”
“No, he was originally already in the reserves, but now he’s been reactivated. The Cabinet feels that active-duty soldiers have biased interests and complex networks; someone like him who’s retired has simpler interests.”
“Okay, then I’ll have the other officials from the City Government prepare together.”
Director Gu hung up the phone, thought for a moment, and went to have coffee with Chen Mo.
Chen Mo is at least Du Yuesheng’s prized disciple and lives in a large villa in the Concession.
“Why did you come personally today? You could have just called me over.” Chen Mo served coffee.
“Later I still need to see Zhang Xiaolin; it’s on the way.” Director Gu took a sip of coffee and glanced at him, not knowing if the organization had made contact with him yet.
“To business: tonight, Japanese Navy Vice Admiral Tsuda Shizue arrives in Shanghai.”
Chen Mo’s eyes flashed, “Want me to assassinate? What time does he arrive? Any specific route?”
Director Gu waved his hand: “No assassination; I have a use for this person. But after experiencing the two previous Gendarmerie Commanders who arrived in Hong Kong and had accidents at banquets, I think we can make it a Military Statistics Bureau tradition: whenever a Japanese Army general-level official comes to Shanghai to take office, we always make some move to welcome them.
As for the target, it doesn’t have to be someone close to him; any prominent pro-Japanese personnel will do. That way, the Japanese can’t guard against it all, and it forms a deterrent.”
Chen Mo thought for a moment and nodded, “Alright, I get it. Tonight I’ll pick one to take out.”
“Be careful, don’t be reckless. If not, just kill a few Japanese the same way.”
“Got it.”
After finishing the miscellaneous matters, Director Gu asked: “How’s the matter of selling the goods going?”
“It’s already underway. Director Dai’s meaning is that Wan Molin can’t come back for now; he’s badly injured and will need to recuperate in Hong Kong for a while. His smuggling line is temporarily inconvenient, so supplementing our smuggling line is very important.
Didn’t Zhang Xiaolin and the others choose Hangzhou and Suzhou?
We’ll borrow a path and first open up this area in Anhui. In Southern Anhui, the Japanese and the New Fourth Army are fighting; these corner scraps are not appealing to Zhang Xiaolin and them, which perfectly matches the power of our small gang coalition.
And once we take Anhui, it’s very close to the Nationalist controlled area, making it convenient to transport any supplies then.
Get it set up first to reduce the losses from Wan Molin’s absence.”
Why Anhui again?
From what Director Gu knows now, his and Lu Bowen’s smuggling line definitely has to choose Anhui; that’s for the New Fourth Army.
Ding Mocun also chose Anhui; that’s for land transport of medicine to the Nationalist controlled area.
Now Chen Mo has also chosen Anhui.
Anhui’s local factions are all going to be sieved out.
In the process of them entering and grabbing territory, Anhui’s local factions are definitely going to have some cleaned out.
But that’s good too; then in Anhui, both on the surface and in the shadows, there will be people who can help transport goods.
After bidding farewell to Chen Mo, Director Gu went to find Zhang Xiaolin.
“Boss Zhang, how much did you make this time?”
“Hahahaha.” Zhang Xiaolin laughed heartily as he came to welcome him. “Everything’s good: good grain, good prices; it’s just selling too slowly, and we still have to hide.”
“As long as there’s profit, it’s fine. How much did you collect?”
“Over twelve thousand tons.”
“That’s plenty.”
Director Gu sat down, and Zhang Xiaolin had someone serve tea.
Director Gu asked: “How’s the expansion going? A Japanese high official is coming to Shanghai; I might need to report on this.”
Zhang Xiaolin said: “Hangzhou and Suzhou are proceeding simultaneously. These two places are no small matter; the local forces are very stubborn. The local Japanese Army might have taken their bribes and are helping, but very lazily. Now we’ve advanced about halfway; the remaining territory they’re holding onto for dear life, and it still needs time.”
“Too slow. The Japanese don’t have that much patience. Even places this close take this long; when will we expand to the entire occupied area?” Director Gu thought and asked: “If you fully take these two places, what do you estimate the monthly revenue to be?”
Zhang Xiaolin calculated, “Both places are prosperous; the monthly profit from the two, at least 1.5 million Silver Dollars and up, probably no problem reaching 2 million.”
“I’ll think of a way on this and urge the Japanese a bit.”
“That would be great. If the Japanese are fully committed to helping us, we can definitely take them, and the sooner we do, the sooner we make money.”
Director Gu hummed, “I’ll do it as soon as possible. Right, I have one more thing today: do you know any arms dealers? Introduce a couple to me.”
Not knowing the progress on Chen Mo’s side, Director Gu took the opportunity to open up another line for himself.
“I definitely know some. What happened? Why do you need to buy arms?”
“Small matter, doing some grain business. The people below say that procuring from Anhui and Jiangsu, with bad harvests, there are many bandits on the roads. Buy some guns for them to protect the grain.”
Zhang Xiaolin snorted and magnanimously said: “Just a few pistols, right? I thought you wanted big stuff. Director Gu, just say how many you want; I’ll give them to you, no end.”
Director Gu chuckled lightly, “Wouldn’t that be too embarrassing? I can buy them myself. Not many needed; 50 should be enough, just a few dozen people.”
Zhang Xiaolin sneered louder, “Director Gu, you really don’t know the market. You want just 50 guns? Give Sha Shun a call, and he’ll get it sorted for you.”
“Does Sha Shun do a lot of arms business?”
Director Gu hadn’t expected this matter to loop back to Sha Shun.
“He has official British background, procuring from military factories in Germany, the United Kingdom, and Austria. Among Shanghai’s underground arms dealers, he’s in a class of his own.”
Zhang Xiaolin got up as he spoke, picked up the phone, and dialed, “Hey, Brother Sha Shun, get 50 German C96 pistols, yes, brand new ones, with 10,000 rounds of bullets, plus four Browning pistols; throw in some bullets, deliver to me here. Mm, good, thanks.”
“One phone call.” Zhang Xiaolin smiled casually and sat down. “Hand them C96 pistols, leaders get a Browning; the status distinction is clear. Director Gu, when the goods arrive later, just take them.”
“How much?” Director Gu smiled; finding the right person made getting these guns really easy.
“What money? Aren’t you embarrassing me?” Zhang Xiaolin’s face turned serious: “A new gun sells for 100 US Dollars on the black market; total just over 5,000. With bullets, not even 7,000. Me, Zhang Xiaolin, giving Director Gu some stuff—would I charge you for that? If word gets out, I’d lose face; Sha Shun would die laughing if he knew.”
Then Director Gu didn’t mention it; saving a bit is a bit.
Take the chance to ask about this business.
“Is the arms business good now?”
“Too good.” Speaking of business, Zhang Xiaolin got excited. “Think about it: in this chaotic world, what’s the best thing to sell? Guns!
Japanese fighting China, Chinese weapons are no good. If it’s foreign arms, they’re all better than what China produces itself.
Take this Browning.”
Zhang Xiaolin beckoned, had his men bring one for Director Gu to see.
“Kuomintang senior officers love wearing this Browning; gifts are Brownings. They use Belgian imported originals. Ask the Belgians; know how much?”
“How much?”
“Pre-war, 30 Silver Dollars was enough.”
“So cheap?” Director Gu was surprised. “You’re saying this price is buying directly from Belgium, right?”
“Yeah.” Zhang Xiaolin nodded. “Official procurement price is that. But now with war, guns can’t be normally procured. On the black market now, for one new gun like this, no less than 300 Silver Dollars.”
“Ten times.” Director Gu murmured and nodded.
Zhang Xiaolin chuckled: “Key is it’s light; how heavy is a gun? One ship from overseas can carry how many? Like Sha Shun—as long as his shipment isn’t intercepted by Japanese at Wusongkou, the patrols at the International Settlement wharf might as well not exist for him.
Flipping one ship of goods? Starts at hundreds of thousands of US Dollars?
If carrying big stuff, like Czech light machine guns, on black market one is 3,000 Silver Dollars, ridiculously expensive, and often out of stock.
Now Yan’an wants guns, Chongqing wants guns, gangs want guns; even rural folk want one.
It’s just that we don’t qualify to connect with them; otherwise, I’d want in on this business too.”
Director Gu nodded slightly; sounds like good business. Doing business for the organization—what business isn’t business.
Reselling arms has always been an essential source of military expenses for any organization or force.
Zhang Xiaolin smiled: “Let me tell you something fun, Director Gu: do you know how many people in Shanghai’s black market are selling guns?”
“A lot?” Director Gu glanced sideways.
“Not many people, but interesting: before, when the Kuomintang was here, the Kuomintang sold; now Japanese are here, Japanese are selling.”
“Japanese sell too? How do they sell?” Director Gu found it novel.
“Come, come, let me show you my collection.”
Zhang Xiaolin enthusiastically took Director Gu upstairs.
“Take a look, my firearms collection.”
Director Gu looked at the room full of guns. Good grief, it’s a firearms museum.
“Hanyang rifles, Chiang medium rifles, Type 38 Arisaka rifles.”
Director Gu picked up this Japanese military rifle.
Zhang Xiaolin introduced: “Sold by Japanese soldiers themselves, only 80 Silver Dollars each.”
“So cheap?” It’s a rifle after all; Director Gu was shocked.
Zhang Xiaolin sneered: “No fighting around Shanghai; they don’t need these guns. I’ve asked those Japanese soldiers who come to sell.
They occasionally go outside the city to practice shooting on Loyal and Righteous National Salvation Army and bandits, then report their guns damaged or lost, bribe the quartermaster with ten or twenty Silver Dollars to register, get new guns, resell to us, and pocket 60 Silver Dollars—worth several months’ salary.
Japanese privates are dirt poor; monthly salary just 6 to 8 bucks.
If someone really dies on the battlefield, strip their gun, plus captured bandit guns sold to us—practically giving them away.
But these second-hand dealers don’t really like taking these guns.
These guns are different; no market around here.
Agents prefer small guns; who takes such a big thing for assassination? Can’t sell many.
Yan’an folks want them, but they’re poor, can’t afford.
Plus these guns are too big; difficulty transporting out of the city is much higher than small guns. If not for some Japanese soldiers forcing sales for cash, we’d have stopped taking them long ago.”
Truly fucking surreal. Director Gu examined the gun; if supply was enough, 80,000 Silver Dollars is 1,000 guns, 800,000 Silver Dollars—the entire New Fourth Army could be equipped.
