Chapter Fifteen: Deception and Cheating

  Huang Bingjie sat with his legs crossed, holding a pot of clear tea in his hand. He didn't like strong tea. That was the habit of northerners. People from Fujian and Guangdong liked light flavors. A cup of clear tea left a fragrant aftertaste, which was elegant.

  Huang Bingjie didn't look like an ordinary military supply officer, with a big belly and a sloppy appearance. He was Xue Yue's trusted aide and also from the same hometown, so this lucrative position couldn't be given to outsiders. The National Army had been suffering consecutive defeats, being beaten by the Japanese until they were fleeing in disarray. Shanghai, Nanjing, Hangzhou, all the way retreating, most of their weapons, ammunition, and heavy equipment lost.

  The devils have temporarily stopped their attack, and the National Army is catching its breath. The commander is reorganizing the troops with all his might. Most of the area north of the Yellow River has been lost, and the Japanese army has entered Shandong. Zhejiang and Jiangxi have become important places. If we let the devils occupy Hunan, China will be finished.

  This time, the commander-in-chief asked the Military Affairs Department to replenish weapons and ammunition. Minister He, who was usually stingy, did not make things difficult, but instead readily approved a large batch of weapons and ammunition. There were even German 37mm anti-tank guns, which were excellent for countering enemy tanks. Every unit wanted them, but there were only a dozen or so available.

  Huang Bingjie certainly understood Xue Yue's meaning, this is the key equipment, specifically called to tell him, without the commander-in-chief's order, not allowed to give any troops. Huang Bingjie felt that he was not greedy, this is anti-war material, must be worthy of conscience, as long as it is almost done.

  He half-closed his eyes and drank tea, calculating this time the troops were reorganized, basically all had to be redistributed with ammunition and weapons, and how much he could make from it.

  Whoever comes to receive equipment is not respectful to himself, and he will be satisfied. During this period, following the commander has also gained a lot of benefits. This is an anti-war, it's almost okay.

  Just sent away a man holding the order of the Eighth Army Group. Zhang Fakui is also considered a commander colleague, and naturally cannot be given face, despite this, there are still two hundred big oceans entering his waist pocket.

  The quartermaster who came to receive the equipment was very capable, making Huang Bingjie feel not bad. He hummed a few sentences of Pingtan he had just learned, feeling complacent.

  "The sentry at the 'Report' gate said: 'Reporting to the director, there is a temporary independent regiment coming to receive equipment.'"

  Huang Bingjie was somewhat impatient, and as soon as he heard the unit number, he knew it was a miscellaneous brand. The temporary independent regiment was just a local security team or a scattered army that had been reorganized, and even the commander didn't know whose troops they were. They actually came to receive equipment. He said coldly: "Let Vice Director Qian handle it, let them wait. Where is there equipment for them? The regular army hasn't finished distributing yet."

  The sentinel was just about to go out when his office door opened and a man came in. There was no report, no knock on the door. The sentinel was taken aback and said: "Get out, how did you get in? What do you take this place for?"

  The soldier hadn't finished speaking when he was slapped in the face, and his words were knocked back down his throat.

  Huang Bingjie suddenly stood up, and there had never been anyone who dared to hit him here. Even a lieutenant general would be polite when coming here. Who is this? Seeing the person who came in, he swallowed back his angry words. Because the officer who hit him was extremely young, and surprisingly only held the rank of upper captain.

  An officer with such a rank dares to beat people at the military supply depot, there are only two possibilities. One is that this person has mental illness and is fed up with life. The other is that he has an extremely hard background. But this officer doesn't seem to be mentally abnormal at all, so it must be the latter case. So Huang Bingjie didn't get angry, but calmly asked: "Who is this? How dare you be so arrogant?"

  It was indeed Jia Qin who arrived, he rushed here on horseback all the way, exhausted like a grandson. Walking hundreds of miles every day had almost killed him. He was also a company commander, now acting as battalion commander, not to mention his mother's car, but even a cow cart was not available.

  Diqin is worried that the devils will attack, and he has worked hard to gather his soldiers, but they don't even have weapons. If the bullets are divided up, each person won't even get five rounds, how can they fight? He tries to curry favor with Xu Supu and show off, finally getting the order, but as soon as he enters the door, he is infuriated - they won't let him in, saying there is no order.

  This is a military stronghold, and Diqin didn't dare to come recklessly. He ordered one of his companies to rest on the spot, and he only brought Diqi in with him. Because there were only two people, although Diqin did not show any documents, seeing the arrogant appearance of this little company commander, the sentry hurriedly went in to report.

  Dai Qin is not a fool, he understands these doors very well. Later generations are the same, wanting to go to which department to do something, sometimes can't even get in the door. It was then that Dai Qin understood a truth "Yan Wang Ye is easy to see, but it's hard to see the little ghosts".

  When facing these kinds of people, the more honest you are, the more you'll be taken advantage of. They're just riding on others' coattails. A truly powerful person wouldn't bother to offend important people for their sake. As they say, "kick the dog and look at the master", but a dog is still just a dog.

  Later, Zhai Qin had a certain understanding of the corruption of the Nationalist Party. He hadn't eaten pork but had seen pigs walk. As the chief of staff of the war zone's forward enemy command post, he wasn't afraid of anything; this wasn't his father coming to make connections from behind. He saw the sentry go in to report and bring Zhai Gui in with him.

  The sentinel's front foot went in, and Zhai Qin's hind foot followed. The others who saw it didn't know what was going on, of course no one would care.

  Dai Qin burst into Huang Bingjie's office, not caring about the guard's protests. Seeing that the lieutenant colonel didn't shout for backup, Dai Qin knew he had misjudged him.

  Dí Qín deliberately put on an arrogant air; "Deputy Commander of the Advance Enemy Command Post, temporarily reorganized independent regiment, Dí Qín."

  Huang Bingjie, who was originally arrogant, did not get angry when he heard the number and position. The direct unit under the forward command headquarters? This is simply impossible, the war zone has a direct unit, how can the forward command headquarters have a direct unit? Temporary compilation, or an acting regimental commander, with a military rank of senior captain, what a mess. The more this was the case, the less Huang Bingjie dared to offend him easily, and he didn't even ask to see his ID, waving his hand to let the sentry go out.

  Don't even mention the sentinel, who is this person and how can he be so arrogant? Not even the director said anything, it seems that I was beaten in vain, and I had to withdraw obediently.

  Huang Bingjie seemed as if nothing had happened and calmly said: "Commander Zhai, what about the orders from the Front Command?"

  Dai Qin really didn't, he followed Xu Supu closely and didn't go to the command center first, what orders were there? Had to say: "No, you call the General Command Center to ask, it was Xu Chief of Staff who let him come."

  Huang Bingjie was also Xue Yue's confidant, of course he knew the relationship between Xu Supu and the commander. This is simply an order to him, but without understanding the identity background of this person, Huang Bingjie did not object, his heart was already angry, but still picked up the phone to call the forward enemy command post.

  Huang Bingjie quickly hung up the phone, but Xu Supu didn't answer it himself, instead letting other staff members relay the orders to equip a second-rate regiment. This still left Huang Bingjie perplexed - was that all? With such a hard-won relationship, why only equip a second-rate regiment?

  The equipment of the A-type and B-type troops is actually similar, only the number of people is different, but the actual difference is huge. The central army is basically equipped with Type-A equipment, while the miscellaneous troops are equipped with Type-B equipment, and the amount of ammunition and light and heavy weapons is vastly different. Since they were given Type-B equipment, it's not a direct-line unit. But looking at this captain who is acting as the regiment commander wearing a brand new Central Army uniform, he should be from a direct-line unit.

  Dai Qin also didn't know what Xu Supu was talking about, this is completely a scam, because he wanted to rely on the other family's big tree, not the other way around. It was just a one-sided relationship, and there was basically no connection between them, it can be said that they had already forgotten each other.

  He didn't speak, Huang Bingjie was at a loss and had to ask: "Commander Zhai, the General Staff Department ordered that you be equipped with a second-class division, but how many people do you have, where are you stationed, how will you transport them, when will you take away your weapons and ammunition? I don't know any of these things, so what should I give you?"

  Diqin never served as a soldier and didn't understand these rules, how could he have thought of this? These days training with Zhao Kai also learned some things, but nothing can be anticipated in advance. Being asked by Huang Bingjie like this, it's quite embarrassing.

  He knew how many people were in a group, but didn't know the difference between Type A and Type B. When he heard Huang Bingjie ask this way, he was delighted to find that it wasn't fixed, so of course he couldn't say less.

  Dí Qín based on his own compilation, a regiment is seven hundred people, four regiments are two thousand eight hundred people. He didn't dare say too much, so he said: "Two thousand five hundred people."

  There were only over a thousand people, not even two thousand. Suddenly reporting an extra thousand people made Diqin feel a bit guilty. However, Huang Bingjie didn't say anything, he just took out a form and started filling in numbers.

  Huang Bingjie was extremely angry at Di Qin's arrogance and felt that it was already a concession not to have driven him out, let alone offer him a seat.

  Dai Qin ignored all that and sat down on a sofa, carefully sizing up the somewhat thin military officer. It seemed this guy held real power, and he would have to deal with him frequently in the future, so it was best not to make things awkward between them.

  In the future, when you work, although the general manager values you, if you don't get along with the lower-level employees, you won't be able to achieve anything. Especially financial personnel, they are in charge of the money. This military officer is that kind of person and cannot be offended.

  Dai Qin could tell that Huang Biao was from Guangdong province by his accent, and Xue Yue was also from the same place. These National Army generals were still familiar to Dai Qin. Xue Yue was from Shaoguan, Guangdong, it seemed like a local connection, or maybe even a familial relationship. This was guanxi, something Dai Qin understood clearly.

  He suddenly said: "Director Huang is from Shaoguan, Guangdong."

  Huang Bingjie was taken aback and raised his head, saying: "How did you know?"

  Dí Qín said: "My family is from Hunan, but my mother is a Hakka person. When I heard Director Huang's accent, I felt very close to it and it should be not far from my grandfather's house."

  "Huh?" Huang Bingjie raised his head and said: "But I couldn't tell from your accent."

  Diqin was delighted in his heart, Laozi and Shaoguan Ba Ganzi had nothing to do with each other. It turned out that the original Di Yingfei was indeed from Chenzhou, Hunan Province. But who is he? He didn't dare go home just because he couldn't speak Hunanese or Cantonese.

  Even Zhai Gui had suspiciously asked, "Young Master, how come your accent has changed?" He could only say that he had suffered a head injury and only remembered Mandarin, forgetting his local dialect. Whether such a lie could deceive the people at home, Zhai Qin didn't know either.

  Seeing that it piqued Huang Bingjie's interest, Zhai Qin began his plan. Of course, in Zhai Qin's words, the Hakka people from Guandong were all merits. Relying on what he knew about those posthumous evaluations and combining them with business tactics to build relationships, Zhai Qin finally made it impossible for Huang Bingjie to find the door.

  It wasn't long before the two men started calling each other brothers. Zhai Qin and Huang Bingjie learned a lot of Cantonese, of course, because they were always on the outside running around, learning all sorts of languages, but never having been to Shaoguan, they didn't know Hakka.

  Since we are fellow countrymen, many things have been known to Zhaiqin. No wonder no one suspected when I falsely reported over a thousand, it's not strange that such things happen. This was just an oral order, without written instructions, generally only people with connections would do this, the military supplies department wouldn't care, they just followed orders. Besides, during the reorganization of troops, the military system wasn't standardized yet.

  In general battles, no one would say nonsense. If you say there are 10,000 people and ask me to fight against 10,000 people, how can I fight? Isn't that sending myself to death? So no one will exaggerate. There's no chance to get paid for doing nothing during wartime.

  When Zhai Qin received the equipment list, he immediately curled his lips. Huang Bingjie was also straightforward: "I said, Brother Zhai, don't be dissatisfied. Since we are from the same hometown, I have given you the equipment of a first-class regiment, which is unprecedented."

  Dai Qin said, "I understand that. I'll remember the favor. Don't worry, our relationship is such that if there's anything good, I won't forget you. It's just that this equipment isn't suitable for me, can I exchange it?"

  Huang Bingjie thought Di Qinxin was being too picky and asked strangely "How can you change?"

  Dai Qin said: "I don't want these cannons, I also don't have an artillery company. Replace them with machine guns, I don't want heavy machine guns, all replaced with light machine guns. Also, give me more short rifles, fewer long rifles are okay."

  Huang Bingjie looked at Di Qin like a monster, all the troops that came here wanted heavy machine guns and cannons, but Di Qin didn't want them. He asked strangely: "Why?"

  Diqin had his own ideas and could only say: "Tactics are needed."

  Before Huang Huangbing could speak, the sentry at the door shouted: "Director Li has arrived."

  A man came in from outside, looking like a senior colonel. Huang Bingjie quickly stood up and saluted. Zhai Qin could see that this person was very important, even Huang Bingjie was saluting with great respect, so he also stood up and saluted. The man asked: "Director Huang, who is Zhai Qin?"

  Diqin took a step forward and said: "It's me. Are you looking for me, sir?"

  The wounded man smiled and said: "Commander Xue has an order for you to go to the General Command Center."

  Diqin was taken aback and asked: "What's going on?"

  "This Staff Officer Li was stunned and furrowed his brow, saying: 'I don't know'."