GBP Chapter 113 Everyone is doing business (seeking book recommendations and gifts)
Chapter 113 Everyone is doing business (seeking book recommendations and gifts)
I'm not good at fighting, but I'm good at doing business.
This is a statement that accurately describes the sentiments of most White Party officers at the time. (During the Huaihai Campaign, Huang Baitao's corps was delayed for two days in Xin'an Town to shut down the Commander-in-Chief's business in Haizhou, leading to their encirclement and annihilation. This shows how frantic they were in their pursuit of business.)
Because these people were too keen on doing business, some White Eagle officers who were in charge of the transportation and distribution channels of priceless Eagle aid materials were even dragged into the water by them, adapting to the local customs and doing their own business.
"Did Claire from the Flying Tigers do it too?"
(The Flying Tigers, also known as the Volunteer Air Force to Aid China, was disbanded in July 1943 and merged with other units to form the White Eagle United States Air Force Task Force in China. Colonel Claire, the former commander of the Flying Tigers, continued to serve as commander, but people still used to call this air force the Flying Tigers.)
The atmosphere in General Stevenson's office seemed oppressive and heavy. Having just taken off his glasses, he stared at the Lieutenant Colonel from the Army Department's Criminal Investigation Division, his brow furrowed as he asked incredulously.
"Yes. According to our investigation, Commander Claire, during the intervals between operations, transported a large amount of supplies completely unrelated to the operations from Sindhu to Yunnan Province through smuggling, false reporting, and adding additional flights. The specific amount is too large, so we can only provide a simple estimate."
As he spoke, the lieutenant colonel handed Stevenson a list.
Stevenson actually knew about some of the rumors about small businesses.
On the one hand, the White Eagle men were far away from home fighting the Japanese. To ease their homesickness, they had to give them some extra benefits, right? Could it all be just that meager salary?
On the other hand, as the saying goes, when in Rome, act like Romans.
This kind of small business is also beneficial for lubricating the relationship between the White Eagle and Qian Kingdom armies. Don’t you see that the White Eagle officers below quickly became friends with the White Party’s military leaders?
Therefore, Stevenson, who was unaware of the existence of words like "in cahoots" and "in cahoots" in the world, always turned a blind eye to them.
He just didn't know that even an air force commander like Claire was involved.
However, how did this small business activity attract the attention of the Criminal Investigation Department of the Ministry of the Army?
Confused, Stevenson put his glasses back on and picked up the list to read it carefully.
Fuel?
flour?
Cigarettes and liquor?
Cosmetics, stockings?
They were all insignificant items. All White Eagle pilots carrying out transport missions would secretly take some with them to exchange for money. This was very common in Europe and Asia.
Thinking of this, Stevenson curled his lips in disdain. Is the Criminal Investigation Department making a big deal out of nothing?
Westin's grand piano, a young prostitute from Sindhu?
Because these supplies are too heavy, the amount of ammunition transported is reduced?
Seeing this, Stevenson's fragile cerebral blood vessels were once again in danger of rupture.
According to the report, Claire opened a department store in addition to fighting, and sent a wide variety of goods to Qian Country by air.
"Are these people here to fight or to open a business!" he roared, his voice echoing in the spacious office, making the lieutenant colonel subconsciously tense up.
Stevenson calmed down for a moment, sighed, and sat down again tiredly.
He knew that this was no longer the corruption of a single officer, but a deep-rooted systemic problem.
The resources that should have been used to defeat the Japanese were actually used to make huge profits.
"Lieutenant Colonel," he said, calming down and regaining his usual composure, "I'm aware of the situation. I'll report it to the General Staff."
Stevenson knew that his superiors were trying to warn him, but he didn't want to make a big deal out of it. Otherwise, the lieutenant colonel wouldn't have come to him with the report, but would have gone straight to arrest Commander Claire.
The lieutenant colonel nodded and hurried out of the office, leaving Stevenson alone at his desk.
After a long time, he looked out the window with a complicated expression.
The junior officers who snatched vitamin pills from the soldiers' mouths, the middle and senior officers who made biscuits and sold them with the flour distributed as military rations, and the air force that airlifted prostitutes.
Together with these insects, when will we be able to launch a major counterattack and completely drive the Japs out of Southeast Asia?
Compared to these insects, Major General Zhang of Qian State, whom he had never met, seemed more pure.
He was a respectable and pure soldier. He started out as a group of defeated soldiers and continued to fight against the Fuso people. Now he was his biggest trump card in the counterattack against Pegu.
Major General Zhang's troops are so powerful, they certainly won't be like these insects, focusing their main energy on military affairs and not being distracted by business, right?
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However, Zhang Chi, whom Stevenson had been thinking about, was doing a booming business at the moment.
Of course, Zhang Chi did business not for personal gain, but to support his troops and subordinates.
Zhang Chi's behavior of using his own money to support the army is unique among the White Party, where everyone relies on drawing empty salaries and sucking the blood of soldiers to fatten their own pockets.
由于史蒂文森能空运来的只有各种步枪、机枪一类的轻武器，或者M1A1 75mm山炮、M2 105mm榴弹炮之类的不超过3吨的火炮。
Therefore, heavy weapons such as tanks, half-track vehicles, and self-propelled artillery had to be purchased by Zhang Chi himself using Silver Lion coins in the system.
The tens of thousands of Silver Lions earned from killing the devils were obviously not enough for Zhang Chi to buy M4A3 (105) medium tanks and other various supporting self-propelled artillery and self-propelled anti-aircraft guns at a unit price of Silver Lions.
If you want more tanks, you can only top up your account with real money. (The system only accepts precious metals. Silver or silver-containing currencies like dollars can be accepted, but paper money like kroner and john pounds cannot be accepted, even if the latter are actually worth more.)
So Zhang Chi set his sights on making money from the gasoline that cost 5 Silver Lions per barrel in the system mall.
At this time, because the Japanese completely blocked all seaports of Qian Country, oil became a hot commodity on the black market in Chuncheng as a strategic material.
How tight is the oil supply?
The Flying Tigers' report once mentioned that some ground crew members from the Qian Kingdom tried to use pipes to drain the fuel from their transport planes and sell it, and they also gave the pilots a hush money to let them count the extracted aviation fuel as flight losses, which would be paid for by the wealthy White Eagle military.
At this time, on the black market in Chuncheng, the price of 100 liters of gasoline was as high as hundreds of dollars, and when it was in short supply, it could even reach a high price of nearly a thousand dollars. It was no wonder that those ground crew members took the risk of being shot.
And 100 gallons (378.5 liters) of gasoline in the Zhangchi system only costs 5 Silver Lions.
Selling one barrel would earn you nearly 2000 oceans. If you put these 2000 oceans into the system, it would be 2000 Silver Lion Coins, which you could use to buy another 400 barrels of gasoline.
This cycle repeats itself over and over again, with one foot stepping on the other, and you can reach the sky just by selling gasoline.
So after gathering enough start-up capital, Zhang Chi bought 1 barrels of gasoline and placed them in his own system space. He secretly took a C-47 transport plane that traveled between Xinwangping Base and Chuncheng and arrived in Chuncheng.