Chapter 166: Counterfeiting
Eight tons of quinine, that’s way too much!
According to the agreement, Gu Yansheng has to give ten hundred thousand US dollars per ton of quinine, so eight tons means eight hundred thousand.
Mitsui’s Sato Kenji prepaid four hundred thousand at the time, which means Gu Yansheng himself still has to cover four hundred thousand US dollars.
It’s too much pressure on funds.
The only option is to do Minister Zhou a favor, lend some more money to a few pharmacies, and earn some interest.
In the evening, Gu Yansheng arrived at the Huangpu River riverside. On the river at night, small boats were receiving medicine suitcases unloaded from the large ship.
Those were Gu Zhuxuan’s men, with the newly hired secretary Ma Shiqi directing.
The cargo ship entering Wusongkou would only be an empty ship. The eight tons of medicine would be unloaded before entering Wusongkou, and during the subsequent journey, it would be sent directly along the Suzhou River to the warehouse in West Shanghai.
With Mitsui’s documents in hand, the unloading was done openly, unafraid of running into Japanese inspection ships. Along the way, Wen Yan’s Inspection Department clearance was also prepared. He didn’t need to show up for the whole matter; all problems that smuggling might encounter were solved before they even arose.
Gu Yansheng called over representatives from several pharmacy owners to watch together. The bosses were all quite excited. Watching those suitcases of quinine loaded onto the small boats, it wasn’t about looking at medicine at all—their eyes showed no difference from looking at gold.
After viewing the medicine, they looked toward Qi Wuzhou. With an eye signal exchange, Qi Wuzhou instantly understood and negotiated with Gu Yansheng as the representative.
“Heh heh, Director Gu, you see, now our medicine has arrived. So about the next matters…”
“You want the money, right? I always do things fairly.”
Gu Yansheng turned to him and said, “The agreed price is the agreed price, no matter how you managed to get it—that’s your skill. I don’t care how much you earn or lose, but there’s one thing I need to remind you in advance.”
“Please go ahead.” The bosses all showed smiling faces and slightly bowed as they listened.
Gu Yansheng stated bluntly, “This deal involves very complicated matters. The information needs strict confidentiality, especially since your identities aren’t so clean. Don’t bring trouble on yourselves.”
“We know, we know. We guarantee it won’t leak out.” The bosses nodded with smiles. They’d been stirring up trouble in Nanyang, but now it was a case of people fearing fame like pigs fearing fatness—they absolutely couldn’t become famous.
Gu Yansheng glanced at them and waved his hand, telling Ma Shiqi to get the money from the car and give it to them.
The bosses were overjoyed seeing the money. They’d thought this Director Gu might pull a black eat black and not give it to them, or at least haggle over the price.
Unexpectedly, he truly kept his word and really paid. This four hundred thousand, plus the original loan, made the full eight hundred thousand without a cent short.
“Director Gu, thank you so much.” The group of bosses bowed deeply, grinning like flowers.
“Make money, I won’t stop you. But you need to hurry with the other medicines,” Gu Yansheng instructed.
“Yes, yes, yes! We’ll definitely hurry! We’ll set off again tomorrow to get medicine from Germany!”
The bosses were now full of ambition. Tens of hundred thousand US dollars per trip—this pirate life wasn’t so bad!
Of course, Germany still needed some respect. If they could buy normally, they would; they still had self-awareness.
Gu Yansheng let them go without troubling them.
Next, it was time for cleanup work.
The eight tons of quinine arrived too neatly. If it had come in scattered batches of a few hundred kilograms, it would be best if each pharmacy owner got their share, and then hiding a bit would be simple.
Now it was eight tons all at once—the quantity too large, and too many people knew, making it somewhat troublesome instead.
It was impossible to give all eight tons to Mitsui; he had to think of another way.
Gu Yansheng pondered this matter and called Ma Shiqi over: “We need to distribute this batch of medicine, but I also have to account to the Japanese. Here’s a problem for you: how to turn one ton of quinine into eight tons while ensuring it’s still quinine.”
Ma Shiqi recalled black market methods and replied, “It’s not difficult. If you can accept reducing the quinine’s medicinal effect, mix in starch, talcum powder, and gypsum powder into the quinine, and you can turn one ton into eight tons.
It could even become sixteen tons. Any more and the medicinal effect would be too weak.”
“Eight tons is enough. How’s the resulting medicine?”
“Quinine made this way has no major toxicity and won’t kill anyone. It just prolongs the treatment period, and malaria is prone to relapse.
Uh… it might also cause diarrhea, but there’s no way around that. As far as I know, talcum powder is something that must be used to dilute quinine, and its side effect itself is stomach discomfort.”
“Stomach discomfort? That doesn’t even sound like a downside. On the battlefield, a Japanese soldier with malaria getting diarrhea—that’s clearly acclimatization caused by weakened constitution after illness. Even normal people get acclimatization, let alone patients. What does it have to do with the medicine?” Gu Yansheng gave him a sidelong glance, his expression very innocent.
Ma Shiqi nodded with a smile: “It really has nothing to do with it. Who can say for sure what happens on the battlefield? And if it comes down to it, this bunch of businessmen’s goods were robbed from Nanyang gangs—who knows if the goods from Nanyang were genuine to begin with?
I think it’s very likely the Nanyang people mixed fakes into the medicine from the start.”
That’s right, as expected of a lawyer. Gu Yansheng liked this grandmaster’s disciple’s flexibility. “I’ll give you one ton of quinine to make eight tons. Can you do it?”
If not, Gu Yansheng would have to call back these businessmen—they definitely could.
“No problem. I can get a gang druggist to help make it. The raw materials aren’t contraband and are easy to get. But the medicine volume is too large; to fully blend the medicine and materials, hand-grinding is too slow for efficiency. I need a mixer. The new flour mill has mixers—that kind of machine will do. I need to use it for one night.”
“Use it freely.” Last year’s wheat wasn’t secured, and this year’s was still early, so the flour mill hadn’t started operations anyway.
Gu Yansheng admonished, “You can wear out the machine if you want, just keep the noise down. After all, the remaining medicine needs to be sold to the Nationalist controlled area. Don’t use big-mouthed people.”
“Don’t worry about that. The process doesn’t need many people—all experienced insiders. We’ve been smuggling for so many years; if there were such people in the troop, the Jiangbei Gang would have been wiped clean by the Japanese long ago.”
“Good, hurry up. Start work overnight.”
“Yes.”
With someone handling it, there was much less to worry about. Gu Yansheng still needed to visit Chen Mo.
He drove to Chen Mo’s residence in the concession.
First, he asked about the assassination. “How’s the matter with He Xingjian?”
“I had our group’s best trackers follow him for a few days. His whereabouts are easy to investigate—he’s either at a brothel or a ballroom, carousing all day. But he really has quite a few guards. He has six personal guards who never leave his side, and I also spotted 76 number people ambushing in the shadows. To make a move, we need to find an opportunity.
While tracking, my people also spotted a group—probably Shanghai District people. They’re also looking for an opportunity to assassinate.”
Gu Yansheng thought for a moment and said, “This matter still needs patience. Pursue a one-strike kill as much as possible. Otherwise, if He Xingjian gets spooked, it’ll be even harder to act later.”
“I know. Did you need me for something?”
“Yes.” Gu Yansheng explained the medicine matter. “I definitely won’t just hand the medicine to Mitsui like this. Do you have explosives? I’ll arrange transport later—you blow up the truck and medicine on the road for me. Needs to be powerful, so even what he picks up is unusable.”
“Of course we have bombs. For high power, TNT—this stuff can even blow up trains, let alone cars. I bought it from a French arms dealer. For eight tons of medicine, 40 kilograms of TNT is more than enough.”
“Prepare the explosives today. I might need them anytime. Once it’s time to deliver, I’ll notify you of the route.”
“No problem.”
The next evening, Ma Shiqi came to report.
“The medicine is already being repackaged. Expected to finish tomorrow.”
“Good.”
“But there’s something a bit unusual. My men below told me: this evening, brothers running boats saw a group of black ghosts come ashore, sneaking around—not looking like good people, and quite a few in number.”
“Nanyang people chased over?” Gu Yansheng immediately linked it to them.
“I think so too.” Ma Shiqi nodded. “They took such a big loss, very likely followed that group of thugs’ ship all the way to Shanghai. That group of thugs landed an hour earlier, on the beach around Jinshanwei.”
“How many?” Gu Yansheng thought and asked.
“Saw about twenty or thirty, unclear if more arrived before or after. The boat-running brother didn’t pay much attention at the time—smuggling through there is normal anyway. But once ashore, this group of black people stood out, and since my people knew the businessmen robbed Nanyang goods, they took note.”
“Mm.”
Gu Yansheng had to think about this. These people staying in Shanghai wasn’t good.
If they really found the druggists and killed a few, no one would work for him. The druggists’ lives still needed protecting.
“Alright, change of plan.” Gu Yansheng looked at Ma Shiqi and said, “Two things. First, in West Shanghai, find a warehouse near the riverside that’s easy to escape from.
Second, hurry and finish packaging the medicine. Once done, store the goods in that warehouse, then get two large trucks and park them by the warehouse, fill them with fuel.”
Third, these black ghosts arriving in Shanghai will definitely look for the druggists and thugs. Find someone to contact the black ghosts, tell them you know the medicine’s whereabouts, take some money and give them real clues to the factory.
Then very friendly-like tell them the real boss behind this batch is Japanese, with huge force.
If they want to take the goods away, they’d better hurry, because this batch is urgently needed by the Japanese Army on the frontline. The warehouse won’t hold it long—Japanese might ship it to the frontline anytime.
The black ghosts definitely won’t easily believe a local. They’ll want to verify. Have your person lead them to verify.
Time this verification for evening. Once verified, they’re very likely to want to haul it away, but heavy guards make it hard to rob that night. They’ll discuss plans and look for a chance to rob.
We won’t give them thinking space. The next day, we deliver—let them rob.
Your people won’t catch up.”
Ma Shiqi understood. “Alright, I’ll go arrange right away.”
“Be fast, do it simultaneously.”
“Got it.”
Ma Shiqi began directing his men into action. Three-legged toads are hard to find, but two-legged black ghosts clustered together were even more eye-catching than a lightbulb.
Gu Yansheng still needed to find Chen Mo.
“Something came up—the black ghosts chased over.”
Chen Mo listened in surprise and laughed. “They’ve got some guts. Tough characters, but are their brains clear? Is Shanghai a place they can covet? How do you want to handle it? I’m just looking for some fun.”
Gu Yansheng smiled and said, “Plan change. Tomorrow I’ll call the Japanese to receive goods. You all assassinate as usual everywhere, happen to spot Japanese and medicine, open fire and shoot—kill or drive off the Japanese, whatever. Ignore the black ghosts, don’t touch the goods, let them go.”
“Understood, I’ll handle it. So still place the bomb?”
“Of course. Goods can’t end up with Japanese ultimately, but change the location. Put the bomb on the ship the black ghosts came on—blow up the whole ship, done and over.”
“Feasible, but we don’t know the ship’s location.”
“Simple. Before they rob, the ship will wait by the shore. From warehouse to shore, tomorrow send people along the coastline to find it—definitely there. There should be black ghost guards on the ship, even on shore. Shouldn’t be hard.”
“I have a better idea.”
“Let’s hear it.”
“Instead of finding the ship, make them deliver the bomb onto it.”
Gu Yansheng let out an “oh” and raised an eyebrow. “Put the bomb in a medicine suitcase, let the black ghosts rob it onto the ship—that achieves the same effect. Assassination is indeed your expertise.
But if they fail, and the medicine falls to Japanese, they open it and find a bomb—how to explain?
Black ghosts planted it? In such a rush, opening suitcases to plant bombs—isn’t that too bold?
Plus I guess you’d use a timed bomb, and the timing’s hard to control.”
Chen Mo nodded with a smile: “I’ll follow your lead.”
