Chapter 10 "Closing" (Part 2)

  For Gao Shiying's exaggerated numbers, Cheng Jiaji and Wen Songyuan had not been in the military for a long time and did not understand the situation. However, Yu Juncai, who had been in the military for nearly ten years and was familiar with various tricks, naturally would not spoil everyone's excitement at the moment of victory. But when Gao Shiying mentioned the number of Japanese troops annihilated, a faint smile appeared on Yu Juncai's lips, revealing that he had already seen through the secret. Gao Shiying was not an ordinary person and could see that Yu Juncai had discovered his trick in the battle report. He didn't mind Yu Juncai exposing this point, believing that "everybody lifts the fancy sedan chair" was a principle that old military men like Yu Juncai would understand. So he smiled at Yu Juncai, who nodded slightly in response, and for a moment, there seemed to be a sense of mutual understanding between them.

  Cheng Jiaji was now too preoccupied to pay attention to the undercurrents between his two subordinates. At this moment, he was most concerned about two issues. One was how his superiors would reward and promote him and his subordinates. This issue didn't worry him too much, as the current war situation was so intense that even from the perspective of boosting morale, the military authorities wouldn't neglect them. Moreover, this victory was a solid fact that no one could deny.

  The second issue was where he could get a large sum of money immediately. This was the real problem that made Cheng Jiaji feel some difficulty. To be sure, this battle had resulted in over 300 casualties in his unit alone, and the cost of burying them and paying compensation would not be small. These expenses were governed by established rules, which was fine. The difficult part was that during the emergency, he had promised a substantial amount of reward money to his soldiers, which far exceeded the previous amount. A rough calculation showed that it wouldn't be less than 5,000 yuan. However, Cheng Jiaji's current financial situation was also tight, and he couldn't afford to pay out such a large sum at once.

  Cheng Jiaji didn't want to lose the trust of his subordinates, and he understood that after the battle of Dawangzhuang, he had gained some real power. These soldiers who had fought alongside him against the Japanese would be the backbone of his future forces if he treated them well. After this brutal battle, which made people wonder how they survived, Cheng Jiaji's desire for power and wealth became even stronger. Since coming to this world, he had never yearned for these things that could save his life and realize his ideals as much as he did now.

  He had already made up his mind not only to give the soldiers who followed him into battle against the Japanese the white silver dollars he promised but also to buy guns, cannons, and even go to Europe to purchase machinery to manufacture guns and cannons. In short, he would do everything possible to rapidly develop his own strength in a short period.

  It all boils down to money; without a large sum of gold taels and silver dollars, Cheng Jiaqi's plans cannot be realized.

  However, Cheng Jiaji is not entirely helpless on this issue. Earlier in front of the Mountain God Temple, he had an immature plan, otherwise, he who has always hated the Japanese to the bone would not have let Jiang Feng catch them alive.

  He didn't have much confidence in whether this plan would work or not, and once it was implemented, its risks were also difficult to predict, so he couldn't make up his mind for the time being.

  He had just let Ma Sanbao go to privately invite General Shao, who was serving in the war zone headquarters, to come over. This General Shao is also a character, he came from Baoding Military Academy's fifth period and was originally the chief of staff of one of Sun Chuanfang's divisions, later surrendered to Han Fuqu in Shandong and served as a senior advisor to the Shandong Provincial Government, it is said that he was quite trusted by Han. After Han Fuqu was arrested by the highest authorities in Kaifeng, this man changed his identity again and became a major general advisor of the Fifth War Zone.

  Xie Gao Can is a well-known figure in the entire Fifth War Zone, with extensive connections and acquaintances. Although he appears to be a high-ranking officer in the headquarters, in reality, he is a high-level intermediary who specializes in helping military commanders, division commanders, and general commanders with their needs and requests, while taking a cut from these transactions, making a fortune!

  This time, he also came to Dawangzhuang with Xu Canmou, and on the way, he didn't put on airs as a high-ranking military officer, and got along well with Cheng Jiaji and others. He even took the initiative to introduce his business projects to Cheng Jiaji, including buying Japanese guns and prisoners at high prices. At that time, Cheng Jiaji did not discuss it in depth with him, but only sighed in his heart that there was nothing strange under the sun, and a lieutenant general would actually do such business.

  At this time, in order to get the urgently needed money, Cheng Jiaji had no choice but to think of this way. He decided to have a good talk with General Gao first.

  Half an hour later, Cheng Jiaji and Gao Shiqi were accompanying Xie Gaocan to drink tea in the flower hall of the branch department with three other talented people.

  "Hao Ran, let's get straight to the point, I've only taken a two-hour leave and I still need to rush back to cross the river later." Xie Gaocan was a middle-aged man with a more dignified and elegant demeanor than Chang Jing. Perhaps it was because he was a military man at heart, but Xie Gaocan's personality was still relatively straightforward.

  "Thanks, big brother, for being so straightforward. I won't hide anything either. Honestly, this battle has cost me a lot of blood money, and to recover, I'll need a large sum of cash. Fortunately, we've got some spoils from the battle, and I'd like to ask you to help us sell some of them to alleviate our urgent needs. Please quote a price first, and let me discuss it with my brothers who have shed blood for these things!"

  Cheng Jiaji said it couldn't be clearer, you first quote a price, if it's reasonable then that's best, otherwise we'll just forget about this deal, our family will never lose out on the price.

  Cheng Jiaji is still narrow-minded, others like Xie Gaocan are professional in this field, they won't do malicious things to kill new customers, that's a stupid thing to do. You should know that the most important thing for people in Xie Gaocan's line of work is reputation, if you lose that, how can Xie Gaocan be well-known throughout the fifth war zone?

  Xie Gao took out a palm-sized, elegantly bound edition of the Supreme Leader's Quotations wrapped in red silk from his pocket and handed it to Cheng Jiaji.

  Cheng Jiaji opened it and was immediately stunned.