Chapter 20: The Gate is like a Market (Part 1)

  As soon as Tan Xiao walked out of the "Mountain Dog Corps" headquarters, he saw Lin Wei coming towards him.

  Lin Wei didn't expect Tan Xiao to return directly to the grassroots unit, and even sat in the division headquarters in Lingling City for a while. After waiting left and right without seeing Tan Xiao, he asked the duty officer and found out that Tan Xiao had returned early in the morning to hand over his work and had already gone back to the base, so he immediately threw down the newspaper and rushed over.

  Lin Wei came to Lingling as the head of the attendant room, and it was impossible for him to simply observe a group-level battle. The real reason he came was mainly due to Yang Yongtai's reminder to the chairman about the 20,000 artillerymen. For Chiang Kai-shek, who had always been worried about Japan's full-scale invasion of China, Yang's words were like bursting his dream bubble! He couldn't continue to sleep on it. However, as a person who could control the power of the world, while feeling uncomfortable in his heart, he would also reflect seriously. In the end, he decided to let Lin Wei run an errand to Lingling after all, since the one who caused their concern was Tan Xiao. Moreover, regarding the many detailed projects of cooperation with Germany, he also wanted Tan Xiao, who had done in-depth research on military industry and new combat methods, to give him some advice. He directly asked Lin Wei to bring the materials to find Tan Xiao - Chiang Kai-shek, who had tasted the sweetness before, hoped to kill a good deal again through Tan Xiao's hands! Or, find cheaper British or French goods.

  Because Tan Xiao showed his super strong military capabilities in front of Chiang Kai-shek, especially the sentence from Seckt: This is the army I have always wanted to build for the leader, and this young man did it better than me! Therefore, this time Chiang Kai-shek let Lin Wei bring a lot of materials for Tan Xiao: First, Seckt's national army reorganization plan, asking Tan Xiao for his opinion. Second, the details of arms trade with Germany, including prices, also asking Tan Xiao for his opinion, but explicitly stating that they wanted to see if they could lower the price. Third, it was mentioned that last time in Lingling he didn't have time to look at and let He Yingqin inspect, Tan Xiao's reformed or invented weapons, the Military Affairs Department had successfully trial-produced them in Jinling Factory according to Tan Xiao's design drawings, and the effect of use in the Instructional General Corps was very good, planning for large-scale production; because it was learned that a group of German Erma factory gunsmiths were going to Lingling, so full authority was granted to Tan Xiao to negotiate with the German experts on gun production cooperation. Fourth, he was asked to submit a personal analysis report on his expectations for the Sino-Japanese war as soon as possible!

  Tan Xiao finished reading the four documents and was surprised: such a big thing as the reorganization of the entire National Army, actually asking him, the division commander, for his opinion? This is something that should be handled by the Minister of Military Affairs or above! He didn't know that this was due to Sekret's suggestion. Also, since Sekret was going back to Germany for medical treatment and had recommended his assistant Falkenhausen as his successor, but hadn't handed over yet, Chiang Kai-shek really needed someone who could provide counsel on a military level comparable to the German advisors. The second thing is easy to understand, it's about saving money, although there was severe waste and corruption within the National Army, Chairman Chiang himself was very frugal, so since Tan Xiao had good relations with England and France, he would of course be utilized. The third thing shows great trust in Tan Xiao, entrusting him with full responsibility for negotiating cooperation on a munitions factory, and it's not just that, but also trusting him with decisions regarding investment amounts, cooperation models, and the location of the factory. This also means that Tan Xiao has become a core member or even a decision-making member in the big matter of comprehensive cooperation with Germany. As for the fourth thing, Tan Xiao had long been prepared, writing a large amount of material just waiting for an opportunity to present it, didn't expect the opportunity would come so soon and was overjoyed! However, he still needs to integrate the scattered materials that were originally intended to be presented continuously to strengthen his impression.

  Just as he was about to start the four tasks, his deputy handed him a telegram, which was a notice that Bai Chongxi, the big boss of the Guangxi clique, would come over for inspection two days later!

  Bai Chongxi is coming? The framework is still quite large, just a notification, let me prepare and wait! Tan Xiao thought for a moment: Good, great timing! As for his impression of Bai Chongxi, the Chief of Staff during the War of Resistance, Tan Xiao can summarize it in four words: High vision, low ability! On a larger scale, Bai Chongxi did see some things, and his judgment on the Japanese army's next strategic target was quite accurate. However, his military tactics made Tan Xiao not dare to praise him: It seemed that either due to factional issues, Bai Chongxi couldn't truly let each army achieve his strategic goals, or he didn't understand his troops well, often having plans fail in execution. The classic evaluation of the National Army's plan by later military commentators: Genius plans executed by fools; probably has many examples related to this man. But Tan Xiao thought that if you're really a genius, you wouldn't always use fools, right? Maybe this time, taking the opportunity to knock some sense into him would be a good thing! - Probably being worked up by the four documents from the Chairman, Tan Xiao felt quite good about himself, having a bit of an "effortless" feeling, as if he could point out the way with ease.

  The Guangxi warlord was actually always dissatisfied with Chiang Kai-shek. Although for now, they were still in sync with the Central Army in fighting against the Red Army, later on, they would still unite with Chen Jitang to oppose Chiang. If Tan Pingshan showed a supportive attitude towards the central government and could put pressure on him with his own troops, even making him worried, then it was possible that the Guangxi warlord would spend their own money to fully strengthen and reform their troops. Thinking about it, if they could improve the combat quality of the soldiers from the 7th army who fought bravely in the Battle of Shanghai despite being poorly equipped, and now the 15th army and the future 48th army by a large margin, strengthening their equipment tenfold, then their contribution to resisting Japan would be huge!

  He thought about the countermeasures, and Tan Xiao began to think about those four documents again. He felt that he had some ideas for all four things, but which one should he tackle first? Suddenly, he found it difficult to concentrate his mind, and his thoughts kept jumping from one thing to another. He picked up other reports on the desk: The report on collecting data on Japanese atrocities in Northeast China for He Shaotang - a task assigned during the return trip, unexpectedly, there was already a report just two days after returning. The ammunition factory's production report with an attached application for funding - due to the large amount of training, the ammunition factory, which produced bullets and shells every day, was a big spender, and a large sum of money had to be allocated every month. Just as Tan Xiao was thinking about whether he should check the accounts, his eyes were attracted by the next report - the development report on the rifle grenade launcher. Considering the diverse calibers of the National Army's rifles, a versatile launcher had to be designed, although he had come into contact with it in later generations, but after all, the rifle grenade launcher that fired live ammunition was still a relatively advanced weapon in the world at present, and China had never produced one...

  It's not easy being a teacher, he stretched his waist, after days of rushing around, as soon as he came back it was a huge amount of work. Annoying! Suddenly, Tan Xiao understood the reason why he felt annoyed: from the moment he entered Dong'an territory, his heart had been pounding, that feeling of getting closer and closer to Rong Hui was great!

  Someone once said, if a person is so busy that they don't even have time to see their loved ones, then they are truly busy.

  Tan Xiao was very busy, really busy, but he still managed to find time to see the people he wanted to see. He made a quick decision, changed into a cotton lieutenant's uniform, lightly opened the door and looked around, saw no one outside, and ran towards his car like flying.

  Tan Xiao, who was running wildly all the way, was like a big kid who had done something naughty: with the fun psychology of shaking off Lin Wei and other officials and many followers who were chasing after him, he stepped on the accelerator to the end, and in a gust of wind, he arrived at Rong Hui's home.

  He had only been here once before, the last time it was a rainy evening, and he hadn't gotten a very good look at Rong Hui's house. So when he arrived at what he thought was roughly the right location, he hesitated for a moment, until finally he recognized the window that had welcomed him with warmth and hospitality.

  Not long after the doorbell rang, the door opened and out came a black man - one who looked very much like the one in the comedy movie "The Gods Must Be Crazy" running around with a Coca-Cola bottle. What was even more unexpected was that the black man greeted him in Chinese: "Is General Tan?" After getting Tan's confirmation, the black man made a warm and enthusiastic gesture to invite him in.

  In these few days, the originally empty big house where only Rong Hui lived has been occupied by eight more people: a butler, a maid, a cook, a gardener and four bodyguards. All of them are black people, all of them belong to Rong Hui - nothing to do with Bai Deng.

  Ever since she followed Bai Dang into the arms trade, Rong Hui quickly realized that she needed people who were loyal to her, people who could take a bullet for her in critical moments. She chose those black people who had been oppressed in the colonies and couldn't even lift their heads: they couldn't tell apart yellow people from white people, anyway they were all whiter than themselves; most whites treated them as trash that could be disposed of at will, Rong Hui treated them like humans, so they worshipped her like a god! There were twelve such black people under her command. Absolute loyalty, absolute gratitude, to the point where they even learned some Chinese phrases.

  Tan Xiao really didn't expect that Rong Hui actually had her own private bodyguards - although there were only four, they were absolutely reliable. It wasn't until Rong Hui introduced them that Tan Xiao discovered the other tough side of his goddess in his heart.

  In front of Rong Hui, Tan Xiao regained his innocence and happiness, and started complaining happily that he was too busy with work to come over in time...

  If I were really just a spy who was detrimental to him... Rong Hui didn't want to think about it anymore, she didn't want to have any thoughts that looked down on Tan Xiao. Right, he just completely trusted me... she thought.

  "If I have too many things on my hands, I'll...I'll do this." The dimples swirled proudly: "I will list all the things on a piece of paper, and then see which ones are important and need to be handled immediately, which ones are not important but must be handled, and then which ones are important but don't need to be handled immediately..."

  She would use especially soft expressions for all his suggestions; when he mentioned that he was not satisfied with something, she would smile and interject: "That's the kind of mistake only smart people make..."; when he felt proud of something, she would look at him with admiring or even worshiping eyes: "You're so great..."

  She is willing to use such an attitude, from a completely appreciative angle to cater to him, without any flattery, but only willing, and willingly submit.

  He felt that being with her made everything easy and fun, no matter what the topic was, and those annoyances brought from the office were all gone!

  Gradually, the topics were almost all discussed, and their speech rate also slowed down. The two people sat closer and closer, even feeling each other's breath... In an instant, everyone suddenly stopped talking.

  His mouth covered hers, her tongue entwined with his...

  "Knock, knock" came the polite knocking sound. A moment later, the black butler, Sula, with a hint of a mischievous smile, appeared: "General Tan, there's an officer named He Shaotang waiting at the door for quite some time now. He says if you don't come out..."

  Damn it! Tan Xiao started complaining about his good brother and timing was so accurate. He should be a director!

  At the last moment, as Tan Xiao had already walked out of the door, he turned back and pushed it open, saying deeply: "I love you!" Leaving behind those three words that would still enchant women for thousands of years to come, Tan Xiao left hastily with a sense of satisfaction at his own romantic and bold final move, and a body still burning with passion.

  "Are you looking for death, at the critical moment of life and death……" Although Tan Xiao had never liked to talk about too many women or emotional things with others, but at this moment, he was too happy after giving his first kiss! He wanted to find someone to share his joy! So after punching his good brother a few times, he still couldn't help but laugh and scold: "You little rascal grew a dog's nose, how did you know to come here!"

  "Brother, I won't come, should others come instead? That would be known to everyone!" He Shao Tang was also delighted and playfully teased. However, his next sentence gave Tan Xiao a fright!

  "The American soldiers have blocked the gate of the base!" He Shaotang continued.

  "What! Where did these American soldiers come from?!" Tan Xiao was bewildered and somewhat anxious.

  "A guy named Daken Rogers, with a convoy of cars, blocked the main gate to get in..."

  "Oh! That western cowboy!" Tan Xiao felt relieved: "Didn't give him a hard time, did you?"

  "How could he not? If it weren't for him saying later that he came to send a car for you, just his reckless behavior would have gotten all our soldiers killed! He was hit by the rifle butt several times!" He Shaotang laughed and said: "The general is formidable, letting so many Americans send a car for you!"

  "Poor cowboy... how many Americans? How much?" Tan Xiao jumped in fright again.

  "Four armored vehicles, eighty-two large military trucks, all fully loaded with something unknown, how many people do you think have come?" He Shao-tang said: "If it were in Shanghai, I would have thought the US Marine Corps had arrived!"

  Dai Ken Rogers, that shoddy arms dealer and excellent car salesman, brought Tan Xiao eighty-six cars!

  After seeing Tan Xiao, the cowboy first complained about the rudeness of the sentries, then he changed the subject: "Of course, from a disciplinary point of view, they are good soldiers! Just like you, Tan, you're a good soldier too!... Look what I brought for the general!"

  Fourth Wireless Commando Light Armor and Eighty-second Big Army Card!

  "My goodness! How did you do that?!" Tan Xiao's astonishment was not feigned, he admired the cowboy too much - would he really crash all the cars in the entire base?!

  In fact, it was almost the same and even more exaggerated: when he tried his best to let his past comrades, those American sailors, smash dozens of cars after they met a good opportunity: a supply ship came from the Philippines, carrying a batch of cars, including four two command vehicles. So he changed smashing cars to smashing ships: the supply ship and a submarine that was entering the dock for repairs "collided", and a large number of vehicles parked on the deck waiting to be unloaded were "smashed into the sea"!

  After the two captains signed, an "accident" caused by heavy fog and other reasons occurred, with conditions that in addition to 86 vehicles, a batch of weapons, medicines and other materials including military raincoats, military boots, steel helmets and so on fell into the water.

  "I know the general will need these things, don't you?" The cowboy said with a grin: "I've also brought my good friend from boot camp, he's now the captain of a supply ship, and he wants to discuss bigger business with the general!"

  Another cowboy named Jack Lawrence. He dared to bet with Rogers because he had a large batch of goods looking for buyers: after a big typhoon hit the Philippines, a row of naval warehouses was blown away, and then several military logistics officers decided to continue "storing" the goods that had been transferred in the warehouse. As a result, there were a lot of damaged or soaked goods. Now, several months have passed, and after many twists and turns, the documents for scrapping and random disposal are all crumpled in hand, but the goods have not been sold yet. Those despicable greedy insiders!

  There are not many buyers who can afford to buy such a large batch of goods. The buyer he had previously contacted had some internal problems and delayed the delivery, which scared them away. When Rogers asked him to think of a way out, he suddenly had an idea! He found: A warlord who controlled the entire Chinese opium market, he was certainly interested and capable of buying such a large batch of goods!

  This is a big business! But what if those things were really severely damaged in the typhoon? Tan Xiao didn't dare to make up his mind at first: 5,000 Springfields Model 1903 rifles, 100 naval 12.7mm dual-purpose machine guns, 40 twin-barreled 20mm anti-aircraft guns, 4,000 steel helmets, and a large amount of ammunition are the main items; there are also some other miscellaneous military goods. The total price is one million US dollars.

  It's really worth it! But, of course not, one million dollars.

  At this time, Tan Xiao thought of Rong Hui again. She was also an arms dealer, international in scope, and perhaps she could find out about the situation with that batch of supplies.

  Then, Tan Xiao arranged the reception for this batch of American soldiers and returned to the rare European-style mansion in Lingling City that Rong Hui had just bought under He Shao's astonished gaze.

  Still reluctant to get up, indulging in the brief entanglement of the afternoon, lazily leaning on the sofa where they had sat, Rong Hui was surprised and delighted to see Tan Xiao again.

  "That batch of stuff you mentioned... I knew that the Americans were spreading rumors about selling it a month ago, but I didn't expect them to find you. It turns out they wanted to sell it to Mexico." Rong Hui was somewhat surprised that Tan Xiao was actually there to discuss business, but this wouldn't make her unhappy - she was more than happy to share her resources with him: "The quality of this batch should be fine, it's been stored away safely without any damage. However, as far as I know, the reason they didn't sell it in the end was because there were internal disputes over the spoils, and someone reported it, so the US Navy Department sent people to investigate once."

  "It's strange that it's being sold again now?" Tan Xiao thought to himself. As for the situation of the international arms market, Tan Xiao didn't understand much except for the prices.

  "I'll send another telegram to check, and I estimate we'll have the result tonight." Rong Hui smiled slyly, her two dimples becoming even more mischievous.

  "If they're trying to find an opportunity to make a move after covering up for a while, then someone from the Navy Department must be helping them drag it out, but it won't last long... " She began to reveal another side: "Two million, at most no more than three and a half million dollars! Including transportation, it's the delivered price!"

  At normal arms market prices, just 5,000 Springfield rifles, each with 500 rounds of ammunition, would cost $200,000!

  If it can be bought down, it's really good! The Arisaka Type 99 uses the same cartridge as the US M1903 Springfield that he is currently using!

  "Will the news have to wait till very late?" he asked, though he was in no hurry, merely seeking an excuse to linger; his eyes betrayed him.

  "It shouldn't be too late... can wait to get it..." She replied softly. Actually, no need to make excuses, just want to stay and stay... Her gentle and affectionate gaze looked at him, her face slightly flushed...

  "My wife... her Chinese cooking is just so-so, want to try my skills?" She had a sweet and charming expression: "But the flavor is a bit sweet... Suzhou cuisine, can you get used to it?"

  "I actually like sweets... your lips are sweet..." He said such ambiguous words for the first time, feeling a bit embarrassed, but not pretending - that was his true feeling.

  His mouth covered hers again, her tongue entwined with his...

  Her hands were around his neck, and even through their clothes, she could feel his strength and heat...

  His hands wrapped around her waist, crossing slowly upwards, like a devout believer praying in front of the Virgin Mary...

  "Knock, knock", came Surana's annoying knocking sound!

  Damn it! Twice a day!! Don't tell me it's that He Shao Tang again!!!

  "That officer named He Shaotang is here again..." Su La's wicked smile grew even more wicked. "He says if you don't come out..."

  I won't let this despicable director off the hook! Tan Xiao didn't want to let him off easily like last time. "If there's nothing... I think I'll come back to eat... Suzhou cuisine." Suppressing his anger, he said these words with deep affection and kissed Rong Hui goodbye - in front of Su La, at the very last moment, he wanted to tell this equally detestable guy who he was!

  With an irrepressible excitement and a furious anger, Tan Xiao almost rushed into He Shaotang's car...

  He Shao Tang's sudden words froze his fist that was about to strike.

  "Sir, the Japanese have pulled up artillery and blocked the entrance to our base!"

  The beheading at the execution ground described in the last chapter actually took place near the present-day Sun Yat-sen University South Gate on Xin Gang Xi Road, Guangzhou suburbs, and became an unforgettable terrifying memory for one of my elders who was forced to watch.