Chapter 4: The Busy Happiness (Part 1)
Cheng Jiaji calmly picked up the several hundred dollars on the table and said something that was beyond Chen Jing's expectation: "Brother Chen, I will do my best to let you get the command of the brigade that Du Qi wants to form. But I have a condition, you must help me with one thing, I want the 8th battalion, please also lend me your assistance." When saying this, Cheng Jiaji's tone was firm and unyielding, clearly indicating that this condition was non-negotiable.
Chang Jing's face had just cracked a smile, but it immediately froze on his affable-looking face. This wasn't just because of what Cheng Jiaji said, but more importantly, he discovered that when Cheng Jiaji spoke those words, his eyes flickered with an all-too-familiar gaze. It was a raging flame, filled with yearning and longing for power. He understood perfectly well that the only thing dancing in this flame could be an ambition identical to his own. In this moment, he felt like he had never truly understood this young man, who appeared to be a refined gentleman on the surface but was actually five years his junior. It was laughable that he had previously thought he could manipulate this somewhat clever but politically naive youth with ease.
"Also, I'd like to ask Brother Chang to take over the Du Qi team and support three hundred old soldiers. I'm sure Brother Chang won't refuse this small request." As soon as he finished speaking, Cheng Jiaji turned around and left, not giving Chang Jing any chance to retort. This move fully demonstrated that he had Chang Jing in his grasp. These words and Cheng Jiaji's actions left Chang Jing stunned on the spot, completely petrified.
And had to accept the threat-like request from Cheng Jiaji, after all, Chang Jing knew in his heart that it would be easy for Cheng Jiaji to ruin everything if he wanted to, and all he needed to do was whisper a few words in front of Xia Furen. Being unable to succeed but able to cause trouble is originally the strong point of people like Cheng Jiaji, which is also why he came today with good words and several hundred dollars. In Chang Jing's philosophy, it's best to maintain a harmless relationship with people like Cheng Jiaji. However, he never expected that this spoiled brat from a military family would have such a strong desire for military power.
Cheng Jiaji's face was filled with a self-satisfied smile as he hummed and sang his favorite tune, "Cang Hai Yi Sheng Xiao", all the way back to his residence. This left the sentries from his unit who encountered him along the way utterly perplexed, wondering what treasure Vice Director Cheng had gotten his hands on this time, or if he had come up with some new clever trick to embezzle military rations.
It just so happens that Cheng Jiaji's fortune today is indeed not bad, he has just made a profit of 300 taels from Chang Jing, and now he has received an invitation letter. Looking at the name on the invitation letter to Wu Zhen's best wine tower, Bell Tower, tomorrow night, it was signed by Wu Zhen Chamber of Commerce President Wu Shouren, Cheng Jiaji knew that he would have another windfall.
The origin of this matter is still to be traced back to the procurement system of the 66th Division, which was the same as most Chinese troops at that time. The military supply department of the 66th Division would purchase staple and non-staple food for military use without paying on the spot, but instead using a kind of military ticket with the official seal of the military supply department to account for the amount, and then settle the accounts uniformly at the end of each month.
The logistics officers of the 66th Division were even more thorough in their play. They directly entrusted all procurement to the Wu Town Chamber of Commerce, and whatever was needed, they would send someone to the chamber to place an order, and at the end of the month, the chamber would settle accounts with the logistics department directly. This approach had two obvious advantages: one was that it freed up the officers of the logistics department from tedious daily chores, allowing these public servants to devote more time to caring about the lives of ordinary working women; another was that it made management more convenient and eliminated the problem of a small number of people privately receiving kickbacks without organization or discipline. The profits shared with the chamber were distributed among all members of the logistics department according to their labor, of course, in accordance with China's thousands of years of habit, where the greater the official's power, the greater his achievements, and even if subordinates achieved something, it was still attributed to the superior's wise leadership. Of course, this method could not completely eliminate private kickbacks, but compared to the previous situation where benefits were unevenly distributed, it was relatively fairer. This approach was proposed by Cheng Jiaji.
At this time, Cheng Jiaji suddenly thought that in a few days it would be the end of the month for accounting, and he thought that Wu Hui, the president of this Chamber of Commerce, would not find himself just to invite him to drink. It's easy to guess that with Cheng Jiaji's character, he wouldn't be satisfied with just sharing some small money with his colleagues. He even sold military supplies from warehouses that weren't directly under his management, let alone the food and other goods he was in charge of purchasing. At this time, what Cheng Jiaji lacked most was money, but his purpose for wanting money had changed greatly compared to before. In addition to his old goal of making a living, Cheng Jiaji's main use for money now was to support the army he was preparing to build. Napoleon said that people are motivated by two things: fear and personal gain. As someone who thought that doing some ideological work would make the army invincible, Cheng Jiaji wanted to have an army with real combat power. His only way to do this was to use money to build an army with a certain level of combat power, as what he had left behind before was not enough. With this in mind, Cheng Jiaji decided that tomorrow he would try to get some benefits from the Chamber of Commerce. He fell asleep suddenly, after all, he had experienced too many things and his nerves were numb from excitement. The fatigue after the excitement made him enter a dreamland in an instant.
The second night, in a decorated private room with a strong European flavor on the second floor of Bell Tower, Cheng Jiaji was having a drink with a slightly stout middle-aged man, but the atmosphere at the table was somewhat discordant.
The president of the Wu Town Chamber of Commerce, Wu Shouren, is not a wealthy landlord type. He is now 46 years old and was one of the first batch of government-sponsored students to study law in the UK during the early years of the Republic of China. After completing his studies, he worked as a judge at the Higher Court of the province for several years before returning to the county to become the president of the County Court. Due to friction with his superiors over a lawsuit, he was dismissed and took over the family business, Yongding Warehouse, which had been passed down from his father.
Because he had seen big scenes outside, his mind was quick and clever. This business made him prosperous and thriving. Yongding Warehouse was already one of the largest businesses in Wuzhen, and over the years, he had managed to make it the number one merchant in Wuzhen, and even in the whole county, there wasn't a second warehouse like Yongding Warehouse.
He is a westernized new-style figure, except for the fact that he has five concubines in addition to his traditional Chinese wife. In all other aspects, he is very westernized and treats even his own servants with a smile on his face, without any of the haughty airs of old-fashioned people. He almost never loses his temper in this small town.
But today Wu Shouren almost couldn't hold back his discontent and had a falling out with Cheng, the deputy director who was said to have a big background and had always gotten along well with him.
