Chapter 11: The Duel of Cannons (Part 2)

  Although he knew he had become a little pig, business still needed to be discussed. Right, he had to remain calm! But the more he tried to calm down, the more chaotic Tan Xiao's expression became. Especially when he saw his father-in-law's strange eyes, he almost collapsed completely. The beauty's destructive power was so great!

  Rong Hui had seen many lechers lose their composure in front of her, but someone like Tan Xiao, who was completely at a loss, was really rare. However, she didn't find Tan Xiao repulsive; on the contrary, she felt a hint of pride: before coming, she had heard that this guy was very difficult to deal with, and he had fooled all the arms dealers in the Chinese market! Moreover, she could see that the young and still somewhat handsome commander in front of her was different from those who lost their composure at the sight of her: Tan Xiao's face turned red, just like a pure and innocent boy who saw the girl he liked for the first time, his face reddening due to shyness and simplicity. The heart rate that couldn't be hidden even made girls in the same youth period resonate instantly, and could also revive the soul of someone like Rong Hui, who had experienced many hardships and was almost numb.

  Rong Hui was not a naive girl, although she had once been in that state of mind. But since being sold to a vulgar merchant as a concubine at the age of seventeen in Shanghai, her innocent years were over.

  Unable to bear the torment inflicted on her body and mind by that middle-aged businessman, Rong Hui finally chose to escape - taking with her the old man's life savings. Alone, she arrived in Europe, in Paris. Paris was indeed beautiful, more so than what she had heard about it in Shanghai, but soon Rong Hui discovered that if you didn't have money, any paradise could turn into hell! Her money was swindled by a fellow Chinese student in Paris, and thus, she fell into hell. In hell, she met her current boss and lover, éric Bédard. This retired cavalry lieutenant colonel from a family of French marshals manfully pulled her out of hell. However, soon after, he pushed her into another hell: she became a socialite, or more bluntly put, a high-society prostitute!

  For the sake of her business, she has slept with many people from France's military, defense industry and financial sectors.

  Time's hardships have not made her wither or fade, but rather, she has become more radiant and pure after experiencing the frost and snow. Her elegant demeanor is increasingly captivating to all who lay eyes on her. The contradictory qualities of being both enchanting and innocent, combined with the fusion of Western and Eastern cultures, make her every gesture a manifestation of charm. Thus, she has become a sharp tool in Bei Tang's hands - a tool for dealing with men.

  Today, Bai Dang put on this sharp tool, just to use it at the right time... The problem is that now this situation is not what Bai Dang wanted to see: Tan Xiao seems to have lost interest or ability in talking business.

  Throughout the discussion about Schneider cannons, Tan Xiao was so confused that he repeatedly mixed up the concepts of mountain guns and field guns, even mentioning using infantry guns to shoot down planes at one point. Next, Tan Xiao said something that left everyone in stitches: "To be honest, I've basically decided to use your French Krupp cannons as the suppressive firepower for our troops..."

  When everyone was at a loss for what to say next, Rong Hui's soft and gentle voice rang out with a hint of laziness: "Before we even met, I heard that the Master is a world-renowned military expert in artillery, and indeed, it's not an exaggeration. But I'm really curious, how did you know that we have Krupp cannons?" Before anyone could react, she continued: "After the last war, we confiscated many German Krupps, which the French army has been using ever since. Recently, there's been a call to replace them with French-made cannons, but it's just a matter of national pride; in fact, these cannons are still very good. If they were sold at a discounted price, I'm sure the Ministry of War wouldn't approve."

  "Really? I thought you were going to sell... " Tan Xiao still responded stiffly and perfunctorily.

  "It's a pity to sell such good things, but this is a matter of national dignity. As a former member of the French Army, I would support selling those Krupp guns and replacing them with Schneider or other French cannons. Since General Tan has an interest in this, I still have some friends at the Ministry of War who can help." Eric Bedaux added: "The range and firepower are enough to make General Tan's enemies tremble!"

  Looking at Beidou's aristocratic disdainful expression and the distance between him and Ronghui, Tan Xiao felt very uncomfortable. Suddenly, he seemed to have recovered his composure: "The spoils of war from last time? Mr. Beidou, are you referring to that Krupp L/29? That antique French army is still using it with a maximum range of only six kilometers?" Tan Xiao pretended to be surprised: "Our country's imitation, the M1913, has a range of 8250 meters, and Japan's imitation, the Type 38, is even farther. Moreover, the shells are also heavier than the L/29 by 0.41 kilograms, with greater power! And these two imitations are one-third lighter, no, no, I'm not interested in these antiques unless you sell them to me as scrap metal!" Tan Xiao smiled and shrugged his shoulders.

  Tan Xiao's sudden recovery left everyone at a loss. Bei Dang, who had been boasting about blowing up the old L/29 Krupp, was speechless. Originally intending to take advantage of the opportunity to sell off the French military's stockpiled spoils and let the French military replenish their new Schneider guns, Cui Hui also suffered a blow. They even suspected that Tan Xiao had been pretending all along, waiting for the topic to turn to business before suddenly becoming difficult!

  When everyone suddenly fell silent, Tan Xiao continued to say: "Maybe the scrap iron is a bit too much, after all, they can still be fired, but as for buying and selling, my offer probably can't be higher than the British. That is to say, it can only be sold at a price slightly higher than the cost of smelting and transportation. If you are still interested, I might be willing to do business with you." He had an air of indifference.

  Bai Dang's mind jumped: Tan Xiao has already traded with the British! Bought some kind of British cannon at a very low price!

  He glanced at Rong Hui, with a look of appreciation in his eyes: If he could sell the old inventory of the French army as garbage, it would be better to buy their new Schneider. The question is, will Tan Xiao buy it?

  Tan Xiao certainly wants to buy, if the price is low enough. Although this gun has been surpassed by its imitators, in its original history, it really became a standard weapon for the National Army, and the usage was quite good - the situation of the anti-Japanese National Army was that as long as there were guns, the cheaper the better! Moreover, if he could get it at a very low price, then it would be impossible for the Germans to sell this outdated product to China at a high price in the tungsten sand barter trade, either they would have to lower the price or exchange for more advanced models.

  Unexpectedly, Pig Brother got an unexpected surprise! He actually had the opportunity to buy Krupp from the French!

  "I think the French military might be willing to sell those antiques to me at a garbage price!" Tan Xiao shrugged and continued: "Because the Germans are trying hard through a plan to exchange these outdated cannons for our country's tungsten sand. If the French side can sell this cannon to China at a very low price, there will only be two results. Either the amount of tungsten sand that the Germans can exchange will be greatly reduced, or the Germans will keep these cannons until next time they go to war with you and bring more advanced models to China!"

  "Next time a big war?! God, Commander Tan's imagination is really rich!" Beidan's expression became richer.

  "It's not imagination, it's the result of sandbox simulation." Tan Xiao continued with a shrug that had become a habit: "Can't the war that happened in Spain simulate what Germans will do after 20 years of armistice?"

  "Twenty years of armistice?... This is not peace, it's a twenty-year armistice! Damn it, this guy really is an expert on European wars, even the comments from French marshals on the Treaty of Versailles are so clear!" Bétain no longer dares to underestimate the little pig brother in front of him.

  "Does Monsieur Long mean that in order to crush the Germans, the French should...should let the Chinese take advantage?"

  "Mr. Bai, as a businessman, don't you want to sell more goods to the French army? Out with the old and in with the new! And as a Frenchman, don't you want the French army to have more advanced weapons to resist the invaders? Don't tell me that the Germans are no match for us! Last time you said the same thing, if it weren't for the 1.5 million-strong American army joining in, and if it weren't for that big flu epidemic, who knows what the outcome would be?" Tan Xiao retorted bluntly.

  "Maybe you don't agree, but this is a pretty good argument to convince your government's politicians. If used well, Mr. Béthune may not only become a world-renowned arms dealer, but also a national hero of France! Tan Xiao continued his speech: "If I were you, I would use all my influence, including my surname, to get everything that France obtained from Germany in the last war - cannons, rifles, machine guns, pistols, even bayonets and steel helmets - at the lowest price and most favorable conditions, such as interest-free loans, to China! It would be best if we could also get aid to build a large metal smelting base in China, so that China can deeply process tungsten, manganese and other metals that Germany needs most, cutting off Germany's cheap mineral sources!"

  Now feeling a bit at a loss, Eric Bedingfield has been replaced! He was completely stunned by Tan Xiao's speech! Tan Xiao spoke well, if this statement can be recognized by the French government, then he will likely become the executor of this plan, making a fortune through economic cooperation with China, arms sales, and replenishing the inventory of the French military itself. Even one day becoming a national hero! - - - - And these are not fantasies, at least Tan Xiao's speech is well-reasoned.

  "Hum! My surname!" The Frenchman was looking around and speaking hastily in order to regain his composure.

  "Yes, Marshal is our family's honor! However, the French government is not easy to persuade."

  "Of course, it's not easy. After twenty years of peace, the heroes from the last war have all grown old!... But you have an advantage, Monsieur Bedant. You are one of the Frenchmen most familiar with the situation in the Far East. If you interpret the Germans' economically and militarily cooperative relations with China from a patriotic French perspective, and mobilize all your connections in politics to support your views, I think you will succeed. Perhaps, your family will be proud that they have produced both a Marshal and a Prime Minister!"

  "A French Prime Minister who once served in the French Army!" Pétain's heart was racing with excitement: Today has not been a wasted trip!

  "I went back to think, venerable sir, you are a very...very special person, I have to say, your insight exceeds the sum of all the politicians I've met in your country! Hope we can exchange more."

  "Of course, I'd be delighted! Here, at my brother-in-law's home and mine, our doors are wide open to you!"

  Although no business intention was reached with the French, both Tan Xiao and Bai Dang were very satisfied with today's meeting. Therefore, the French received the highest level of reception so far: a home dinner party.

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  Tan laughed at himself, he didn't expect that a brief encounter would make him fall deeply in love with Shu Jing, and he couldn't sleep all night, his mind was filled with thoughts of Rong Hui. Based on his past experiences, he could have guessed what kind of woman a charming girl following a foreigner should be, but he couldn't help but think about her. He designed countless pure backgrounds for Rong Hui, and finally focused on one fantasy: Rong Hui was an orphan who grew up in a Western-style convent, and that Erik Beden was a friend of the convent's principal, a kind-hearted philanthropist who brought little Rong Hui out of the convent and helped her succeed... Although he didn't believe it himself, when he thought this way, his heart finally felt better, and he vaguely fell asleep.

  Suddenly, a hurried knock on the door pulled him back from his wonderful dream of strolling hand in hand with Rong Hui to admire flowers. Because tomorrow was the last day of their annual leave, and they had been staying in the old city for several days, he was worried that the training would be relaxed if he stayed behind, so tonight he returned to the barracks to sleep. What kind of military situation required him to wake up in the middle of the night? Without warning, Tan Xiao felt a surge of tension, quickly got out of bed and opened the door.

  Subordinate reports someone broke into a one-kilometer warning zone and was caught, it's a Japanese!

  The Japanese man was locked in a guard post outside the perimeter fence of the training base, because according to regulations, no outsider is allowed to enter the base without military orders or special circumstances.

  He saw Tan Xiao, looked at the epaulette on Tan Xiao's shoulder, and the Japanese man in a suit immediately sprang up like a spring: "I am Great Japan..." "Slap, slap!" Two crisp sounds! Tan Xiao came up with two slaps, one left and one right. And before his hand had even withdrawn, he kicked out viciously with his right foot. A dull thud was heard as the Japanese man, who was half a head shorter than Tan Xiao, was kicked flying two meters back, landing on the ground with a thud. His hands instinctively wrapped tightly around himself due to the severe pain in his abdomen, his twisted face contorted in agony, and his mouth hung open, trembling violently - an extremely vicious kick!

  What a refreshing kick! Tan Xiao thought. Maybe it was because he was woken up from his sleep in the middle of the night and felt annoyed, or maybe it was because Rong Hui brought him a disturbed mood, Tan Xiao really wanted to vent. Those soldiers who had never seen Tan Xiao fight before were all shocked! The master's kick was so ruthless, and his moves were so pure and skilled!

  "Tell me, who are you?" Tan Xiao asked with a gloomy face.

  "I'm big..." "Bang, bang"...... "Boom!" The scene that had just ended was replayed again!

  Repeating again and again, until the Japanese man was slapped forty times and kicked twenty times, he lay on the ground gasping for breath and sobbing. Tan Xiao walked two steps forward and asked: "Do you know why you were beaten?" The Japanese man had lost many teeth, his face was already swollen to the point where it was unrecognizable which organ it was. He almost imperceptibly shook his head slightly, trying to open his mouth, but couldn't utter a word, only making two low growling noises in his throat like a dying beast.

  "I'm telling you! This is China! In Lingling! No one can claim to be superior in front of me! Claim to be emperor! Even if that monster Emperor of yours, born from two dogs, were here, I'd still slap him around!" Tan Xiao shouted at the little Japanese man. "Take him away for questioning! If he dares to mention one more character, one imperial character, I'll give him a slap in the face and kick him to death!"

  Before dawn, the Japanese man finally made a confession: The Japanese man was named Inoue Nozomi, a senior employee of Mitsui & Co. in Japan, who was ordered to meet with Tan Xiao to discuss the sale of artillery, waited for a day without seeing anyone, later found out that Tan Xiao's car entered the military camp at night and rushed to pay his respects, did not expect it to be dark and unclear signs, intruded into the restricted area...

  "Damn it, he's clearly being evasive! He didn't drive himself, and the area where the rickshaw driver didn't dare to enter isn't a restricted zone?! Can't see the signs?! Treat me like an idiot?! Tell him that I've seen through his evasion, give him ten lashes first, then get a confession from him for intentionally entering the area, make him sign it!

  Tan Xiao is very angry, the consequences are severe!

  "Jing Shang Wang, what are you looking at?! Want to jump into a well?! This little Japanese guy's name is practically suicidal!"

  After Tan Xiao's subordinates retreated, he began to calm down and think: The Japanese want to sell me arms? Aren't the relations between our two countries very bad? Haven't the Japanese always been trying to restrict arms from entering China? What's going on?!

  Tan Xiao didn't know that in reality, Japan had been actively promoting arms sales to China: from old military equipment retired from World War I to domestically produced guns and cannons, even entire production lines. In the eyes of the Japanese, selling ordinary military equipment with low technological content to China, especially to those unruly warlords and anti-government armed groups, not only brought huge profits but also served as a good means to hinder Chinese unification. The reason for blocking other countries' arms from entering was mainly a strategic move to protect their market share. Therefore, Japanese arms dealers were more active in China than the total of all European countries combined, a situation that didn't end until the German company Merck took over the Sino-German barter trade and China stopped buying arms through foreign firms. In his view, those Japanese close to the military camps were spies! How could Japan's intelligence agencies be so formidable and notice him so early?! Tan Xiao was secretly shocked and also very puzzled. No way! He had to personally investigate carefully!

  During the interrogation, Tan Xiao checked all of Ijima's personal belongings and found that he indeed came to discuss business: in his briefcase there was a strongly worded proposal to temporarily equip the 23rd Division with Japanese artillery. The proposal was done at a very high level, listing comparisons between the current main equipment of the National Army's artillery and similar models of Japanese artillery, with very detailed annotations - it was exactly the kind of material that Tan Xiao had been trying to get his hands on but couldn't find a way to collect. Who would have thought that the Japanese would deliver it themselves!

  However, after Tan Xiao carefully read through the materials, his mood became extremely heavy: the comparison of heavy firepower levels between China and Japan was too disparate! Moreover, he even came to a conclusion: the heavy firepower level of this era's Japan was not inferior to that of European and American powers. For example, Japan's 92-style 105mm field gun was actually the longest-range field gun of the same caliber in this era! The Type 92 infantry cannon with a 70mm caliber, which was very famous in China for invading weapons in later generations, was simple, practical, lightweight, and had a higher firepower than many 75mm mountain guns and field guns. In addition, various Japanese-made cannons that imitated German, Italian, and French models were all able to surpass the original objects of imitation in terms of gun weight, range, and ammunition power! The varieties of large-caliber artillery were also completely similar to those in Europe, and their performance was not inferior. This fully demonstrated that Japan's metallurgy and metal processing technology had already reached a very high level in the world. If there was anything to pick at, it could only be said that there was a lack in terms of quantity. In particular, compared with European powers, there was a significant gap in the number of heavy artillery equipped in the same unit troops, and many powerful heavy guns were not even equipped in many troops, but only formed independent artillery regiments with such gun types. This was caused by Japan's poor resources, which had nothing to do with technical level.

  What made Tan laugh with worry was that he recalled the main war cannons of the Japanese invasion troops in the later generations, mainly equipped with various calibers such as the 41-style, 38-style, and 92-style. Without exception, they all had almost comprehensive advantages over the National Army's equipment in terms of range, ammunition power, accuracy, and firing speed. More importantly, these Japanese cannons were generally lighter than the same type of cannons used by the National Army, which means they were more adaptable to the poor transportation and combat environments on the Chinese battlefield! With an absolute lead in numbers, how could this battle be fought?

  As a veteran who had seen the firepower coverage of the enemy in later generations, Tan Xiao was too clear about the lethality of heavy weapons to infantry. Unconsciously, Tan Xiao's eyes showed a faint glimmer of tears, and his mind flashed back to this scene: those two or three soldiers with different caliber rifles, wearing Tony steel helmets or cloth hats, Chinese soldiers counting the few bullets in their bullet belts, shouting out that sentence "The country is dead, I die!" Fearlessly rushing towards the invaders...

  An inch of mountain and river is an inch of blood! Looking at this set of data on the Japanese artillery, Tan Xiao finally deeply understood how much tragicness and helplessness was contained in a simple sentence.

  In the duel of cannons and cannons, China is undoubtedly unable to compete. The only things that can make up for the gap are iron backbone, steel-cast spirit, and countless selfless sacrifices!

  "I may not be able to change everything, but I can at least do something!" Tan Xiao said to herself.

  "Bring in that Inoue Sōsuke!" Tan Xiao thought it was really necessary to meet this Inoue Sōsuke.

  As I write this, I am reminded of an old man I met in Heshan, Guangdong many years ago, who had fought against the Japanese and survived. He told me about a heroic battle in Guangxi where over 500 men charged forward with more than 100 broken guns, and only six of them survived...