Chapter Twenty-Four: A Turn for the Better

  When the "Ring Giant" Adam from that one thousand and one night threw Caishen to Tan Xiao's face, at first glance, Tan Xiao really couldn't recognize who he was - his two eyes were squeezed into a slit by the swelling on his face, his whole body was covered in bloodstains, and his trembling fat body looked like a maggot!

  Tan Xiao's hand clamped down on Kong Xiangxi's chin, lifting his head: "Speak! Who sent you?! If you don't confess honestly to me, I'll castrate you!"

  Kong Xiangxi's face twisted in pain, he suddenly realized what had happened to him, and Tan Xiao hadn't even recognized him! He opened his mouth, which was split into several pieces from the beating, and said: "I... I... I am Kong Xiangxi!"

  After listening to what he said, Tan Xiao carefully identified it and looked at the "M" next to him, trying his best to hold back his laughter and suppress the urge to squeeze him to death. He quickly ordered his subordinates to send him to the hospital.

  At this time, He Shaotang came in: "Report to the master, the situation has been fully controlled. The identities of those attackers are being investigated. In addition, the German delegation arrived ahead of schedule. Vice Yang has set out to meet them. I just sent someone to inform them to go directly to Yangjiao Tan and not send them into the city..."

  The German delegation arrived ahead of schedule! Tan Xiao's brain flashed: "Shao Tang, after Vice President Kong finishes his physical examination, arrange for him to rest at the Xiangxiang Pavilion!" He Shao Tang went to carry out the order, and Tan Xiao quickly called over Tang Fan to pass on a secret order to Peng Hanbai: heavily guard Vice President Kong's safety, do not allow anyone to approach the Xiangxiang Pavilion, detain any suspicious individuals who get close, and cut off all contact between the pavilion and the outside world!

  Tang Fan had just left, and Bai Chongxi walked in: "General Tan is so hospitable! As soon as I, Bai, arrive, it's a festive welcome with firecrackers!" A face full of smiles, yet also a face full of disdain!

  Damn it, what a thing! Tan Xiao looked at him with a big smile and came in, opening his mouth to dig: "What? Are you scared, Deputy Director Bai?" Tan Xiao asked. "Don't worry, nothing's wrong now!"

  Bai Chongxi, with his head held high and proud, was furious when he heard this. Tan Xiao didn't take him seriously at all!

  "Cut! The gunfire and rain of bullets are too much for Bai Mou to handle. Is this all just a small skirmish?"

  "That's good, since Deputy Director Bai is fine, Tan Mou can rest assured. Tan Mou still has some foreign friends who were frightened and needs to go see them, excuse me!" Tan Xiao didn't let White Chongxi finish speaking, snatched the conversation and handed him over to Wu Sheng, who rushed over in a hurry, and left with Rong Hui, "M" and others to go to the hospital! It made White Chongxi so angry that he was about to ascend to heaven and become a Buddha!

  At the hospital, de Gaulle had just finished removing the bullets and was bandaging himself. Fortunately, no one died, otherwise the joke about the freedom of the French people would have been taken too far. In his original timeline, had de Gaulle ever come to China? Tan Xiao wondered to himself. As a matter of fact, the Frenchmen in the hospital were currently the least free: Pétain was still receiving emergency treatment, and de Gaulle had to lie on the bed.

  De Gaulle is now very anxious - the contact with his secret organization in Asia has been completely cut off, and even his personal bodyguard is dead. He has no one by his side, and he still needs to lie in bed for a while. He thought of Rong Hui, the only French citizen he knew in Lingling. So, he wrote something simple in French and asked the nurse to give it to Rong Hui.

  "Darling, Charl wants to have a private talk with me..." Tan Xiaohe and "M" left the ward.

  "Rong, you used to be one of our 'vigilants', now and in the future should still be!" De Gaulle looked at Rong Hui seriously: "Because I have decided to suggest that the organization support your loved one, my friend General Tan Xiao as the spokesperson for the French Republic in China!"

  Rong Hui walked out of the ward, already unable to suppress the excitement in her heart, and directly kissed Tan Xiao, passionately kissing him, making the people present look away in embarrassment.

  From this moment on, Rong Hui became the person in charge of the French anti-German organization "Vigilant" in the Far East! As soon as she left the hospital and verified the information with the relevant contact persons, she would have the right to command a secret organization of about two hundred people to carry out any activities. Moreover, she had the right to allocate funds from twelve bank accounts exceeding six million US dollars! But she also had an urgent task: to go to Vietnam to set up an arsenal - a branch of the Oriental Cobra, because de Gaulle knew that Tan Xiao had set up an arsenal in India and asked her to set one up immediately in Vietnam as well. After all, in de Gaulle's eyes, Tan Xiao belonged to France.

  When Tan Xiao learned of this result in Rong Hui's whispered words mixed with hot kisses, especially when France wanted to support him as the spokesperson for France in China, he was speechless! He never thought things would evolve into this outcome!

  "Tan, what's your take on what happened tonight? Who was behind it?" "M" asked. They were now on their way out, in Tan's laughing car.

  "Just now, there was a secret report. During the autopsy, some discoveries were made... it's Japanese." Tan Xiao said. In fact, when the incident first occurred, Tan Xiao's first feeling was that the Japanese did it - due to his original emotional inclination, he directly ignored the consideration of the Xiangxi Guerrilla Troop!

  Japanese! ? "M" did not think that in his concept, the Japanese should not take action when there are British and French personnel present, regardless of whether their target is Tan Xiang, Kong Xiangxi or Bai Chongxi. However, if this is true, the Japanese knew they were present and still took action, then it means that Britain and France are no longer worthy of Japan's respect or consideration! He overlooked one point: the Japanese simply did not know they were there! Who would have thought that the normally secretive Japanese spy organization would take action without knowing who was present at the scene?

  "Does Mr. Mack not believe that the Japanese will pose a threat to British citizens?" Tan Xiao now knew that this Mack, or someone with another name, was a top figure in an organization equivalent to France's "Vigilante". So he wanted to instill more anti-Japanese concepts into the British people. "Mack, if you were Japan's decision-maker, what would be your next colonial or aggressive target? What would you do?"

  "Of course it's China." Mack spread his hands: "Sorry, Tan, I can only tell the truth."

  "Hmm, China, and then they send out their national troops to fight with the 450 million Chinese people in those mountains and plains?" Tan Xiao asked: "Do you think they can occupy and conquer China?"

  "Perhaps, heaven knows, but within the protection of the British Empire, such as in Guangdong, they won't dare to be unruly," said "M". In this era, "M"'s view represented ninety-nine percent of the British people, and the remaining one percent were political critics who held opposing views to any mainstream idea and their fans.

  "If I were Japanese, I would do this." Tan Xiao said with a smile: "On the basis of now, add some intimidation or other elements to China, and then I will go to invade Australia! There are the minerals that Japan needs most, various metals, chemical materials, and oil, and there are very few people there..."

  "M" stared at Tan Xiao like he was a monster.

  Rong Hui also felt that her lover's words were too astonishing this time. In her concept, European powers such as the UK and France were not countries that Japan dared to move against.

  "Do you think Japan dares to provoke Britain? What's the reason?" "M" was indeed a good listener, even if he didn't agree with the speaker's views.

  "It's the European war, or more precisely, World War II! When Germany launched its tanks, Britain didn't have the energy to take care of the Far East. Do you think Japan raised such a large navy to deal with China?" Tan Xiao asked.

  This is a very reasonable explanation for Japan's construction of a massive fleet to counter European powers. Japan's fleet was indeed too powerful, except for Europe or the United States, which Asian fleet would it be used against?

  "M" suddenly felt that Tan Xiao's words were no longer a joke, at least, Tan Xiao's reasoning was very logical.

  "If Japan occupies Australia, they can easily keep an eye on South America. During the Qing dynasty, the Manchu people thought they were the celestial empire and didn't respond to Brazil's immigration request; but Japan has moved hundreds of millions of people there, think about it, with so many Japanese in South America, why doesn't Japan find a stepping stone to connect with them?

  Not finished yet, Tan Xiao continued: "To conquer the world, one must first conquer China. Has Mr. Ma heard this sentence? Japan wants to conquer the world! Moreover, given China's current strength, it may not be completely conquered, but it may be coerced or compromise with Japan, either way, it would be the beginning of Japan's conquest of the world. They can even ignore China because China poses no threat to them, they can directly take Australia!"

  "M" is now very impressed with Tan Xiao's imagination and reasoning ability, of course, he also hopes that Japan will not have someone with such a great imagination!

  "The authority of the British Empire is not to be challenged!" "Mr. Bean" seemed to have lost his words, he shouted out that sentence which was often said by the envoys in the Qing Dynasty. But he immediately felt a bit out of place, so he simply fell silent.

  "I think, Mike, the sentence you just said is usually shouted out when Britain is threatened, isn't it?" Tan Xiao didn't care about "Douzi's" emotions: "There's nothing that only one person thinks of and others can't understand. I think Japan must have people who hold the same thoughts as me."

  "The British will think of ways to maintain their interests." "Bean" said lightly, understanding that Tan Xiao wanted to steer his thoughts towards helping China. Why was he doing this? He wanted to become a leader... no, he wanted to become a "father of the nation"! This was M's understanding of Tan Xiao's behavior. However, M also thought that Tan Xiao's analysis was reasonable. Such a person was not suitable for being manipulated as a puppet, he was too wise... But if the crisis really would evolve into such a great disaster - now it seems very possible. Then, is it necessary to have such a strong leader to change things?! It was clear that if China were in Tan Xiao's hands, he definitely wouldn't be conquered by Japan or compromise with Japan.

  "Tan, you're not only an excellent soldier, but also a sage of the times!" "M" was considering his words: "The British Empire has always been different from other countries. We bring civilization and culture to our colonies. You can look at Canada, Australia, and Hong Kong... we are not aggressors, we just want more places to enter civilized society, we help them..." "Douzi" had a serious expression with a hint of humor: "But we also need the support of the people from those places that are about to enter civilization. Tan, I have to say, you're leading the entire Chinese society into civilization, so I hope you can be on our side when the British Empire protects civilization!"

  What the hell kind of logic is that!……But now isn't the time to show off. "Mr. Mike, do you think a strong commander with nearly 20,000 troops can make a difference?" Tan Xiao didn't mind jumping into the topic or trap set by "M" as long as their goals were focused on the same thing.

  "You're too clever, Tan!" "M" laughed: "Soon your troops will reach the number you need! As long as you genuinely protect British interests in China from being harmed!..... Alright, as long as you are willing to cooperate, the entire British Empire can support you!...... By the way, do you know that warlord Chen Jitang?"

  On the same evening, Tan Xiaocheng became the designated interest agent for both England and France!

  If someone is so busy that they don't even have time to see their lover, then they are really busy... Tan Xiao doesn't know who said this sentence, but he remembered it. Now he wants to change the sentence a bit: originally after experiencing such an exciting gun battle, taking advantage of the super strong secretion of adrenaline, what should be done tonight is clear. However, no way, the first round of talks with the Germans starts in the morning, so they need to prepare something. It's not possible at Rong Hui's house, as the willpower of the two is not strong enough in a certain aspect, so they head to the military camp together. Now Tan Xiao wants to change that sentence to: If someone is so busy that they don't even have time for **, then they are really busy...

  The next morning, representatives of China and Germany met at the old hotel where the security guards were originally stationed. The engineers from Elma Factory found themselves relegated to supporting roles: high-ranking officials from the Ministry of National Defense and some unknown department occupied all the seats, and they could only follow a military officer named Liu Taihe to visit the ordnance factory.

  The Chinese side had a very streamlined team: Tan Xiao, Rong Hui, He Shao-tang, and Yang Qing who accompanied them.

  The Germans this time came up with the initiative to propose building a non-ferrous metal smelting plant in addition to the arsenal: they launched a counterattack against the French, who provided China with tungsten alloy smelting technology, and allowed China to move up the value chain in lead, tin and other metal processing - every year, the French transported large quantities of crude tin ingots from Guangxi.

  Soon, the issue came to pricing: now that the bartering method had been settled, China could purchase at will within a quota of 100 million without having to wait for the export of equivalent goods to be settled. However, there was a hitch in the pricing of materials to Germany, and the original standard agreed upon by Kong Xiangxi with Germany had to be changed. This directly resulted in the Sino-German cooperation still being on paper. The arrival of this German delegation was due to Hitler's direct intervention, giving them great decision-making power. Because as a poor country, Germany is now facing a surge in tungsten prices, not to mention strategic reserves, which are simply not enough!

  "Germany's friendly attitude towards China, the various forms of assistance and support provided to China, my fellow countrymen and I are all very grateful. However, this does not mean that in trade between nations there should be unreasonable pricing..." Tan Xiahui was embarrassed: "Gentlemen, let's take a look at how much these cannons cost!" He took out the letter of intent for Kong Xiangxi to purchase 150mm German-made cannons for the Nanjing Artillery School and showed it to the representatives.

  "At this price, if you want to buy the same thing, I'll provide as much as you need!"

  "...This is what Director Kung has agreed to...By the way, I heard that Director Kung is also in Lingling, why didn't he attend?" A German representative wearing gold-rimmed glasses replied. Obviously, he was a German accomplice of Kong Xiangxi's corruption.

  "Kong Changle has been frightened, and I have taken him under my protection. He will not be attending the meeting!" Tan Xiao said loudly in a domineering tone: "The conditions of the meeting, the signing of the results, everything is up to me! Does anyone else have any questions?!"

  "Protecting? ... Frightened?" These are all very vague meanings, especially the former, which often has a soft ban meaning. The Germans have begun to rethink China's bottom card, could it be that Kong Xiangxi has already been...

  "Well, all right, we understand, General Tan, what's your suggestion?"

  "We all know what happened last time in Nanjing. The British and French supplied me with a lot of cannons at very low prices to sabotage the friendship between our two countries. But if they continue to sabotage, why does China still want to buy military equipment from Germany? ... Why do you provide L/29 cannons to China instead of newer models? Why do you sell 1924 rifles to China instead of K98k? Why do you sell Maxim machine guns to China instead of MG34? ... Please remember! We are friends, so why not offer the best things or prices to friends? We can accept L/29, we can accept 1924 rifles, and we can accept those old Maxim machine guns left over from the last war, but only at scrap prices! Just like the British sold me P-14 for around $10, and the Americans sold me Springfield 1903 for around $10. Why? Because they were stockpiling! The Americans want to replace their Springfield rifles with... uh, something called Garand, I think. And the British are replacing all their Lee-Enfield rifles! But our friends, German friends, you're replacing your K98k! And you want to sell us 1924 rifles for $36?..."

  Tan Xiao's offensive was getting more and more intense, making it hard for the Germans to parry. They found that Kong Xiangxi was really lovely in comparison! But they had to endure the attack, as their domestic tungsten reserves were almost depleted, and the international market was rising every day!

  After crushing the last bit of German pride, Tan Xiao took out a stack of mimeographed documents and ordered his subordinates to distribute them to each member of the German delegation. This was his Sino-German cooperation plan, which he and Rong Hui had drafted overnight, and which had been printed by the staff department just in time for the meeting. As he worked, Tan Xiao couldn't help but miss the days when they had computers and photocopiers.

  This is a brand new plan: Germany's assistance to China shifts from the original military supplies to industry and mining. In the plan, Tan Xiao listed the main mineral resources that he remembered in Hunan, Guizhou, Sichuan and other places that are relatively well-known and now within the central government-controlled territory with relatively good transportation conditions. He proposed a way for Germany to invest technology and equipment for mining, and for both parties to share the mined minerals according to a certain proportion. After setting a basic annual share for Germany, the sharing period can be extended based on the difficulty and cost of mining. As for industry, it focuses on heavy industry, metal industry, chemical industry, and of course, military industry.

  As for the original military procurement focus, it was only briefly mentioned, and the price standard was greatly reduced: For example, the Mauser 1924 was priced at only $10! However, the procurement list also showed China's level of purchasing sincerity: The varieties covered all German inventory from World War I to the present, including steel helmets, and even the M16, 17, and 18 that the German army was preparing to replace were listed! From this list, it is clear that as long as the price is low enough, China will make a purchase! However, it also told the Germans: Don't play tricks! We are familiar with your family's background! This list was made possible by Rong Hui, who is extremely familiar with European military equipment and the equipment of various countries!

  Due to the drastic changes in the plan, the German delegation was caught off guard and both sides had no choice but to adjourn. After agreeing to reconvene in the afternoon, Tan Xiao hastily left for the munitions factory. He still wanted to meet with those engineers who were all rushed to the munitions factory. Originally, Tan Xiao only intended to give the Germans a warning, but he sensed that something unexpected might happen again. His trip to the munitions factory was to verify his own thoughts.

  At this time, Kong Caishen was raging in the Xiangxiang Building! He is the only person in the country who knows about the quantity of German goods coming to China this time! He knew that these people had the right to sign contracts on the spot, the right to decide prices and other trading conditions on the spot, and more importantly, there were people among them who came to renegotiate rebates with him! But now, he was locked in a villa claimed to be Deputy Chief of Staff He Shaotang's - - - - - He Shaotang had taken over as the head of Lingling, and Tan Xiao had given Xiangxiang Building to him, and he had accepted it gladly.

  Kung Hsiang-hsi was now at his wit's end. The soldiers, seeing him in a rage, locked the door and kept their distance. Tan P'ing-shan had gone too far! In order to get business for his own woman, he had actually dared to detain the Vice-President of the Executive Yuan!

  Kong Xiangxi swore an oath: he must go to Chiang Kai-shek's face and tell the truth - this huge corrupt worm!