Chapter Fourteen: Became Rich

  Looking at the numbers recorded on the paper, Qin Wei's eyes had already narrowed together, and he was so excited in his heart that he couldn't help but say: "We're rich, this time we really are rich, those little devils are really generous enough, now I can afford to hire three or five hundred people."

  Ma Hong looked at Qin Wei with a disdainful expression, but this guy seemed to have forgotten his own appearance when he saw these things before. At that time, his appearance was not much better than Qin Wei's.

  "92-style heavy machine guns 2, Type 77 machine guns 8, grenade launchers 10, two Japanese-made 81mm mortars, Type 38 rifles 300, Type 44 cavalry rifles 50, bullets 200 boxes, Japanese-made hand grenades 50 boxes, food 15,000 catties, 40 boxes of canned goods, frozen pork 1,000 catties, some bullets, some uniforms, some equipment." This inventory made Qin Wei smile from ear to ear, and his smile was so wide that it showed his back teeth.

  Looking at Qin Wei's happy expression, Ma Hong walked to Qin Wei's side and said softly: "Captain, there are still some things I haven't written down."

  Qin Wei was taken aback for a moment, then hastily asked: "Is there anything good that hasn't been written down? Speak up, you little scamp, have you secretly stashed away a small treasure trove?"

  "Ge Laozi's, Laozi hid a small treasury." Qin Wei's one sentence made Ma Hong so angry that he scolded in Sichuan dialect.

  "Alright, alright, buddy, it's my fault. You say it quickly, what else is there." Seeing Ma Hong's unpleasant expression, Qin Wei hastily apologized.

  Looking at Qin Wei's mischievous grin, Ma Hong said with a scowl: "You little brat are really lucky, this convoy actually has over 100 small yellow fish and more than 80,000 big ocean, I don't know what kind of thing the devils collected from who knows where, and you, a young man, got them all in one pot. Also, there are two strange weapons that we don't recognize, want to let you, a university student, take a look."

  After listening to Ma Hong's words, Qin Wei suddenly felt like a big smoker who had smoked enough opium, his face was so happy that his five senses were almost squeezed together, he was rich, really rich, this time he was really rich, the old man was lucky for the first time and got so many things, it was too enjoyable, damn it.

  "Haha, Old Ma, hurry up and give it to me. I keep feeling like I'm dreaming." Qin Wei is now so beautiful that he can't tell east from west anymore.

  Watching Qin Wei's behavior, Ma Hong was speechless and could only shake his head and sit down in the chair, staring at Qin Wei who was smiling foolishly at the numbers recorded on the paper.

  After a long time, Qin Wei finally came to his senses and thought about the gold and silver dollars. He asked Ma Hong uncertainly: "Old Ma, do you think those little devils will go crazy after losing so much gold and silver? What if they send troops to sweep us away?"

  Ma Hong, who had just lit a cigarette, looked at Qin Wei with a thoughtful expression and sneered: "Do you think the little devils are idiots? After suffering such a huge loss, can they not take revenge? If I were the commander of the Japanese army, I would be furious now, scolding loudly, and then mobilizing troops to give you a hard time."

  "It's also true, if there weren't so many valuable goods in the convoy, those little devils would at most report these things as war losses. But with so many valuables, even if they were to lose them all, it wouldn't be something that even their regiment commander could bear. I reckon that in a few days, those little devils will send troops to take revenge. Let me tell Chen Youde to get ready to take the blame for me." Qin Wei also furrowed his brow, thinking about the future development of things.

  It has to be said that Chen Youde is a genius at gathering intelligence, having established a simple intelligence network in such a short period of time. At this point, he had already left the security team and was listed separately, and under Qin Wei's instructions, he set up an Intelligence Agency directly responsible to Qin Wei.

  "Hmm, that's your focus, those little devils have always been ones to take advantage without suffering losses. This time we managed to wipe out a small squad on the highway, but then lost so many supplies and valuables. We must make them pay for this, let's plan our next move first." Ma Hong's face also slowly darkened.

  "Hmph, the little devils have arrived, and we don't need to be afraid of them. With our current firepower, even if we were to face off against a battalion of theirs, we wouldn't be at a disadvantage. And this winding Taihang Mountain is not like the endless Northeast or North China plains, where they can fully utilize their firepower advantage. If they really want to start a fight, I'll lead them on a merry chase through the mountains, wearing them down until they're exhausted, and then we'll devour them. My appetite is quite good now, and I'm not picky about what I eat." Qin Wei walked up to the table, slapping the white paper in his hand down heavily, his eyes gleaming with killing intent.

  "Captain, although our firepower can match a Japanese squadron, the quality of our personnel is really too poor. If we hadn't caught them off guard this time, their small team could have wiped out our entire squad. As it stands, we've still lost over 20 men, mostly new recruits." Ma Hong didn't quite believe Qin Wei's confidence - if these little devils were so easy to deal with, then why had they been driven back in Shanghai, Xinkou, and Beiping?

  Qin Wei was also silent for a moment after hearing this. The recent victory had made Qin Wei somewhat unclear about his own strength, but Ma Hong's reminder made Qin Wei realize that his strength was still very weak, and the training of personnel was not yet in place. The people under his command, except for those old soldiers, were all a group of farmers who had just picked up guns. It was indeed a bit difficult for them to have combat effectiveness in a short period of time.

  "Alright, let's not talk about this for now. I want De to focus all his attention on the little devils right now. Once they show any abnormality, we'll be ready immediately." It's not the time to be afraid anymore, fighting devils requires being prepared and vigilant.

  "It's the only thing we can do now, by the way, I told you earlier that we captured two guns, neither of us knows what they are, let me ask you if you've heard of them." Ma Hong extinguished the cigarette in his hand and asked Qin Wei, whose face was somewhat heavy.

  "Huh, unfamiliar weapons, what good things can these little devils have? Just Type 38 Arisaka, Type 99 rifle, and Type 92 machine gun, what else?" Qin Wei asked with some curiosity.

  "I didn't know that, anyway the muzzle of that thing is as thick as a child's arm, let's go take a look quickly." Ma Hong didn't care about anything else, he simply raised his hand and grabbed Qin Wei's arm, pulling him out.

  "Hey, old horse, don't pull me, I'll go with you, won't I?" Qin Wei was thus pulled and dragged by Ma Hong to the outside of the warehouse.

  As soon as the two men opened the wooden door of the warehouse, they saw a wall filled with weapons and ammunition. On the ground of the warehouse, in addition to the two 92-style heavy machine guns, there were also two long-barreled guns, each about two meters long, with three brackets, and a large magazine inserted into the gun body. The long barrel shone with a cold black light, looking exceptionally powerful.

  When Qin Wei looked at this weapon in front of him, his mouth once again formed an "O" shape.

  This gun, no, should say this cannon, Qin Wei really recognized it, isn't this the little devil's 97-style 20mm anti-tank cannon?

  How did this thing appear in Shanxi? Isn't it supposed to be affiliated with the Japanese Kwantung Army? And isn't it still in the testing phase? Didn't it officially equip troops until February 1938?

  Qin Wei walked around the two cannons for several laps, scratching his head in confusion, unable to figure out how these things ended up here.

  Ma Hong on the side was a bit anxious and loudly asked Qin Wei: "Captain, don't you recognize this gun? You should say something."

  Qin Wei took a look at Ma Hong who was getting a bit anxious and smiled, "Who told you this is a gun? Let me tell you, this is a cannon."

  "This is a cannon, Captain. Are you kidding me? This is clearly a gun!" Ma Hong was getting unhappy, this was obviously a rifle, how could the captain say it's a cannon? Was he trying to fool him?

  "Haha, Old Ma, this is a cannon, that little devil's 97-style 20mm anti-tank gun. This thing should still be in the testing phase, how did it directly go onto the battlefield? It's quite strange." Qin Wei explained to Ma Hong about the origin of the cannon.

  "Wow, this is really a powerful cannon! This thing is used to deal with tanks. No wonder the muzzle is so thick! With this, we're not afraid of those little devils' tanks anymore." Ma Hong was thrilled when he heard about its origin. At that time, China didn't have any specialized equipment to deal with Japanese tanks, and most of the time they relied on cluster hand grenades and sacrificing lives. Sometimes, losing an entire squad of soldiers might not even be enough to take out one of the enemy's tanks. Who knows how many lives this thing will save?

  No matter how Qin Wei questioned how the weapons that would not be put into battle until next year at least came to Shanxi, the combat report of General Ling's battle was now placed on the desk of Lieutenant General Shimo Tsunesaburo, commander of the 40th Brigade of the Japanese 20th Division.

  "Hachigaya, what's going on with Moriki Ichiro? We're about to launch an attack on the Chinese army in the Changzhi area, and yet something like this happens on his transportation line. The gold and ocean dollars entrusted by Mitsui Zaibatsu for transport, as well as the two latest anti-tank guns from the Kokura Army Arsenal for field testing at the front lines, have been hijacked! What's going on? How can I explain this to the Army Ministry and General Kawagishi?"

  "Kogawa-kun, does our intelligence department have any news?" asked Yoshio last month.

  "Report, General. We still don't know which unit is responsible for this. In the recent period, there has been no news of large-scale movements from the Central Army, Shanxi-Suiyuan Army or the Eighth Route Army. To annihilate an elite squad like ours would require at least a battalion-level force from the Chinese army, but recently there hasn't been any news of large-scale actions by the Chinese army."

  "Oh, so you're telling me that it was a group of Chinese bandits who defeated the elite troops of the Imperial Army? You don't expect me to believe that a group of the Empire's finest soldiers were taken down by a bunch of bandits?" said Kōzuki Yoshio with a scowl on his face.

  "General, our intelligence system is currently verifying the information we've gathered and I believe we'll have news soon. You should know that the situation in southeastern Shanxi province is extremely complex right now, with various forces intersecting and crisscrossing each other in this region. Our intelligence system can't accurately grasp the situation in this area either, please forgive me, General."

  "Alright, Ogawa-kun, I hope you and the Intelligence Division can verify this matter as soon as possible, give a report to General Kawagishi and the Army Department, so we can avenge those excellent Imperial soldiers, can't we? Ogawa-kun." Yoshio Tsukamoto walked up to Ichiro Ogawa's side and patted his shoulder.

  "Hai, General, I will not betray your trust." He said with a heavy bow and replied loudly.

  Yoshio nodded in satisfaction last month and waved his hand to indicate that Ichiro Ogawa could go down.

  Looking at Koichi Ogawa exiting the door, Yoshio Kojima slowly walked to the window and said in a low voice: "No matter who you are, as long as you oppose the Great Japanese Imperial Army, we will definitely eliminate you with the most severe means."

  At this time, the moonlight in the sky is so clear and cold.