Chapter 162: Pressure
“One more shot.”
After an utterly ordinary high official group photo, Gu Yansheng and He Xingjian sat down to continue chatting.
They chatted about the war situation in Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Shanghai, chatted about some inside stories of the Military Statistics Bureau, chatted about officialdom in Shanghai.
“Division Chief, the quartermaster has arrived.”
“Alright, Commander He, then let’s go down.”
Gu Yansheng called over the Head of General Affairs, “You just accompany the National Salvation Army quartermaster to buy some vegetables and meat, mainly meat, buy a lot, procure twenty or thirty big fat pigs.
Enough?”
Gu Yansheng looked toward He Xingjian.
He Xingjian immediately laughed, “Enough, it’s been so long without seeing meat, if they can eat meat, what would they have to be dissatisfied about?”
“Alright, then that’s it, let’s go, let’s go, can’t wait.” Gu Yansheng was very eager to go out of the city to shoot guns.
In this regard, He Xingjian was the expert, and it was rare to have a chance to show off in front of Gu Yansheng, so right there in the car he took out a gun and explained to Gu Yansheng how to use guns and how to shoot accurately.
“The gun is a bit lackluster, cannons are more fun, tell me about cannons.”
“Alright, then I’ll tell you about cannons.”
The car drove out of the city for an hour before reaching the main camp.
Upon arriving at headquarters, He Xingjian was greeted by various subordinates, looking very impressive.
“Now outside Shanghai City there are two battalions, over a thousand men, the rest of the troops are still scattered around, the flags change on the city walls, the Japanese still don’t fully trust me to pull all ten thousand plus men outside Shanghai City.”
He Xingjian walked along while smilingly explaining the army’s scale here to Gu Yansheng.
Gu Yansheng didn’t care about these things, he was here to fire cannons.
“Anyway, as long as there are cannons, just don’t tell me we have to keep running, this one-plus hour journey has nearly shaken my butt to pieces.”
“Hahahaha, there are, mortars, cannonballs as you please, guard!”
After setting up the position, the artillery commander began teaching Gu Yansheng to fire cannons.
Does this little thing even need you to teach?
Haven’t you heard that sharpshooters are fed bullets, artillerymen are fed cannonballs, Gu Yansheng just fired away as much as he wanted.
“Load the shell.”
“Bring over some more cannonballs for me.”
“Damn, this tree didn’t grow right, it didn’t even hit where my shell landed.”
“Covering fire, blast that tree for me.”
The artillery commander felt heartbroken, the family fortune saved up from usual frugality was all squandered by this young master from Shanghai.
The key is, if you hit accurately it would be fine, but this shooting style is pure waste of cannonballs, these are all money.
Liu Xiaolou was taking photos, responsible for shooting handsome photos of Gu Yansheng, he secretly glanced over, the artillery commander ran off to complain to He Xingjian.
“Commander, where did this young master come from? This is no way to squander, 10 silver dollars per shell, the cannonballs he’s fired exceed what we fire in a month.”
“Young master?” He Xingjian gave him a sidelong glance, hands behind his back, smiling faintly as he watched Gu Yansheng fire cannons.
“This is a high-level from SH City Government, in the future a high-level from Nanjing Government, in terms of rank, not necessarily lower than mine, I’m telling you, let alone 10 silver dollars per shell, even 100 per shell, however many he wants to fire, you have to let him fire that many.
If the inventory runs out, even if you send a telegram right now, you still have to pull cannonballs from elsewhere to let him fire to his heart’s content, one word from him can decide whether your next month is eating meat or eating shit.”
“That impressive?” The artillery commander’s expression changed instantly, feeling that Gu Yansheng’s back while firing cannons was indeed handsome.
He Xingjian smiled and said: “Otherwise, what do you think I’m accompanying him for? Finding someone with a hobby you can cater to, this is luck, this is pandering to his interests, in the future he’ll be in charge of our military supplies, if you can’t find a way in, others will deal with you officially, even withhold supplies, you know how much loss that would be here?”
“Yes, yes, yes, hey, Mr. Gu, firing too well, one more shell to open our eyes!”
The artillery commander quickly stepped forward, praising Gu Yansheng’s cannon skills on one hand, while slyly providing some advanced artillery techniques on the other, determined not to let Gu Yansheng realize he was being taught, all of it completely due to Mr. Gu’s talent, a natural cannon god.
Gu Yansheng learned while firing, anyway skills don’t weigh you down, such an opportunity is actually quite rare, to use cannonballs without restraint only happens when others are flattering you, and the other party has to be an army big shot.
Besides, if he didn’t use them, who would these cannonballs be saved to fire at later? The New Fourth Army?
Better for him to blast them away.
“Commander He, you fire a few too, let’s compete.” Gu Yansheng held his waist and drank water.
He Xingjian also came over to join in.
Liu Xiaolou didn’t even need Gu Yansheng to say anything, the atmosphere was right, he very professionally took several photos of He Xingjian from multiple angles.
Right in the middle of firing, the Japanese Army came over on small motorcycles, thinking there was a battle somewhere, but finding out it was them playing, then everyone played together.
After playing, He Xingjian had the subordinates who went out to hunt game return.
There wasn’t much in the main camp to entertain Gu Yansheng with, just canned goods and dry rations, only some game had a bit of freshness.
Gu Yansheng also got to know He Xingjian’s staff officer team, familiarizing some faces.
Headed back.
The next day, Gu Yansheng made a telephone call to Gendarmerie Headquarters, urging them on the matter of clearing out drug dealers from out-of-town gendarmerie teams, then took the delivered photos to find Chen Mo.
There were actually many photos, but not a single one could be left with Chen Mo, only let him look.
“After we got back last night, it was already pretty late, He Xingjian still wanted to take his gang down to the ballroom to drink and find women, the opportunity should be there, patiently look for it.”
Chen Mo carefully memorized the people and nodded, “Alright, I got it, you don’t need to worry about the rest, I’ll handle it.”
“Best to tell me before acting, if there’s really something, I can help.”
“Alright, I’ll observe first.”
After explaining to Chen Mo, Gu Yansheng took all the photos away, still needed to go find Shen Linshen.
Spring clothes were already ready to pick up.
Gu Yansheng mentioned He Xingjian’s situation.
Shen Linshen nodded, “I saw the defection in the newspaper, I’ve already notified the New Fourth Army side, He Xingjian’s defection situation is very bad, in the occupied territory of Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Shanghai area, the main force responsible for enemy rear operations is our people and the Loyal and Righteous National Salvation Army.
According to what we’ve grasped, the Loyal and Righteous National Salvation Army overall is just over twenty thousand men, this time half are gone, next when the Japanese Army frees up hands, our pressure will be even greater.
Luckily there are guns, otherwise this wave would really be tough.”
Gu Yansheng came specifically for this meaning, the situation behind enemy lines is very bad.
“How’s the gun smuggling situation on Sha Shun’s side?”
“Already shipped out, Sha Shun really has some tricks, from what I know, the guns were placed on ships from the British Swire and shipped out, the Japanese at Wusongkou didn’t inspect at all.
If I haven’t guessed wrong, Swire will directly deliver the goods to Swire Wharf in Wuhu, this is Swire company’s own industry.
The telegram hasn’t come yet, by time calculation it shouldn’t have reached Wuhu yet, in another two days or so.”
Gu Yansheng hummed, “Swire cooperates with the Japanese Chamber of Commerce, some ships are responsible for transporting coal from Wuhu to Shanghai, Sha Shun has British military background, Swire is again the official British company, the Japanese now still don’t dare offend the British too much, good news.
I have two more things.”
Gu Yansheng said: “First, Traitor Zhou wants me to establish a newspaper company in West Shanghai, it might become the official newspaper of the Wang Puppet Regime in the future, even if not, it will be Traitor Zhou’s mouthpiece.
This kind of newspaper company should come into contact with quite a few confidential matters, and have many information sources, you can ask the organization if they’re interested in inserting someone, I can control the hiring time.”
“This is a good opportunity.” Shen Linshen thought for a moment and nodded, “The organization will definitely be interested, and Shanghai originally has newspaper company talent, have him resign and interview at your newspaper company, experienced and reasonable, and no need to let him know your identity.
I’ll report later, what else?”
