Chapter Thirty-Five: Preparing to Take Action

  A line of text suddenly appeared on the suitcase, "Scanned unknown firearms and ammunition, do you want to enter the database?" Chen An then remembered the Hanyang rifle he had thrown in the next room.

  After agreeing to the input, however, production was not immediately organized, and Chen An still had to produce the military supplies needed by the Northern Army. In the options, he chose to produce Mosin-Nagant 1891 rifles, along with bayonets, with a total length of 1738mm and an empty weight of 4.22kg. With a burst of input production data for 400 units, Chen An looked at the screen with high hopes, determined to upgrade his production speed.

  "Drip sound, prompt again,"Energy is insufficient, production speed will be reduced by half, it will take about six days, please provide sufficient raw materials within half a day."

  Not enough energy again? Chen An was stunned, why is this thing so troublesome?

  Rushing down from the operating room, exiting the external arsenal, Chen An only then noticed that the red and green switch buttons had already appeared at the entrance of the arsenal's gate. It seemed that the briefcase had taken over the entire mountain's interior chamber and was continuously being renovated.

  Half a day later, Liu Shi, who had gained much experience, filled the suddenly empty arsenal with all sorts of raw materials. After everyone left, the red light on the arsenal gate lit up and it could no longer be opened.

  Just wanting to catch his breath and rest for a moment, Chen An handed Liu Shi a rough map and said lightly, "Shi Tou, have your men excavate two large caves at the two locations on the mountain, until they hit the metal bulkhead. The outer houses will be taken back, from now on the left side will serve as the raw material warehouse, and the right side will be the arsenal. The secret room in the middle of Chen's residence will be closed off."

  Born to be a hard worker, Liu Shi wiped some sweat from his forehead, hummed, and without saying much, took the draft and studied it carefully before turning around to arrange for the people in the Zhuangzi to start excavating. Chen An's mysteriousness made Liu Shi dare not be careless at all, so he still used the trustworthy people in the Zhuangzi, lest the secret leak out.

  After arranging the export matters, Chen An sent someone to find Koval again. "Are there any other power generation units on the Shanghai side? If so, can we purchase a few more sets?"

  Hesitating for a moment, Koval spread his hands and said helplessly, "Boss, I've communicated with three foreign technicians before. This high-power generator set is said to have only been brought by Nissenbaum in a stupid manner, and the rest are all small power experimental equipment that can't be used industrially."

  "And also, we don't have a business representative in Shanghai, even if someone happens to bring something from abroad, it's not possible to procure the goods on time." Kovar reminded.

  Yes, Chen An lacked talent at hand, and there was a shortage of people everywhere. Originally, he also wanted to select a group of young and strong men from Chenjiazhuang to specialize in business affairs. Probably due to the traditional reasons over the years, the people of Chenjiazhuang either accompanied the old master to engage in agriculture or followed Chen Anliu Shi to fight and kill, but no one was willing to engage in business, which also made Chen An rack his brains.

  Watching his own boss in distress, Koval said cautiously, "Otherwise, I have two German swindlers on my hands. Those who can be swindlers are very economically-minded. After being educated, one will stay in the headquarters and the other will be sent to Shanghai to set up an office, and then swap after a while."

  Chen An was somewhat uncertain, "What if they just give up?"

  "In our hometown, swindlers are very shameful. As long as they write a letter of apology and leave one person in the department as a witness, clearly warning them that if something happens, they will spread the apology letter and witness statement everywhere, plus the temptation of high salaries, they won't rebel. We also send other people to go together and monitor. Koval doesn't think so, as long as there is a large sum of silver to be earned, most foreigners are still very trustworthy."

  "Alright, it's settled then. You've arranged everything, but I require them to learn Chinese within six months. I don't want to hear any gibberish in their reports." After a moment of hesitation, Chen An made the final decision.

  Kovaldt rolled his eyes, what is bird language, can't I also speak as a bird man?

  Watching Koval hesitate and refuse to leave, Chen An asked strangely, "Is there something else?"

  With a somewhat embarrassed expression, Koval stuttered and said, "Boss, when are you going to pay me my wages?"

  Chen An suddenly realized, Liu Shi and others all had positions, started receiving salaries, and Koval finally couldn't sit still. Looking at Koval with a smile, Chen An thought to himself, this issue was indeed overlooked, everyone now has various positions, it's necessary to pay salaries, can't always have big pot meals.

  Chen An was very concise, "Koval, from next month on, you will also receive a salary according to the standard of the band's wages. Later, it will be gradually increased. I'll call Yue Er and ask her to help me sort out all the personnel in Chenjiazhuang, as long as they have responsibilities, they will be included in the salary and silver payment category." Chen An thought that he should find something for Yue Er to do, so she wouldn't be idle at home all day.

  Koval was overjoyed and immediately gave a mixed Chinese and Western-style flattering speech.

  Two Germans, upon learning that they could regain their freedom and obtain well-paying jobs with dignity, were overjoyed and immediately agreed to all the conditions, even volunteering to have half of their salary paid temporarily, with the remaining half held in a company-supervised bank account for payment at year-end.

  Chen An, who was explaining the salary clause to Yuèr, heard Koval's reply and immediately had a new idea.

  The former German swindler Klauser luckily drew the first lot and became the head of the Shanghai office of the Northern Industrial Company. At the same time, Klauser also undertook another mission, registering a Northern Bank in his name as an affiliated bank of the Northern Industrial Company. As for the registered capital of the Northern Bank, it would be available next month when the big guns arrived in Shanghai for trading.

  As the actual holder of all assets, Chen An waved his hand and Lin Yue'er became the general manager of Beifang Bank.

  Another German, Laine, was sent to Chongqing to set up an office there and was responsible for purchasing iron, copper, nickel, tungsten, walnut wood, cotton, grain, and other raw materials. He even recruited refugees who had lost their homes due to the disaster and sent them one after another to the North China Industrial Company. Foreigners doing business were absolutely more convenient than Chinese people doing business. Chen An was straightforward in his approach, doubting those he didn't use and using those he trusted without hesitation.

  Zhao Si also formally established a business office in Hanzhong, putting the procurement of grain, coal, chromium ore, and recruitment of migrant workers on the surface. Anyway, Chen An is now a mobile official title, and with the governor's convenient instructions, he can be considered an official merchant with a backing. However, in Shaanxi, Chen An added a rule, strictly prohibiting the recruitment of migrant workers with a history of being a "knife guest" into the company.

  Kowal was confidently directing the newly recruited workers to build a factory, and also brought two or three Chen An's specially entrusted water conservancy experts from Lanzhou to inspect the terrain around Yuleguan, preparing to build a floating bridge over the Bailong River, and even considering building a steel bridge directly. The people of the South Gang noticed this foreigner's actions, but did not dare to act rashly.

  Chen An didn't believe that such a major event wouldn't stir up the nerves of the Southern Gang, and once the pontoon bridge was established, the iron chain bridge below would instantly lose countless tolls. How could it not drive them mad? Now is the perfect opportunity to take advantage of the situation and eliminate both gangs along the upper and lower reaches of the river. After a few months of training new soldiers, Chen An's confidence had grown significantly, and he gazed coldly at this place.

  Ten days later, a large batch of brand-new water droplet bullets was issued to the new recruits who had been trained for more than a month. Along with the issuance, each person received 150 rounds of round-headed bullets. Although the new military drill regulations stipulated that each soldier should carry no less than 50 rounds of ammunition.

  But Chen An personally tried it out and found that increasing the amount of ammunition to 150 rounds was no problem at all, so he naturally increased it to full capacity.

  Chen An's guess was correct, the new military drill regulations stipulated that it was because of the influence of Li Junmen at that time, and felt that such ammunition equipment was too luxurious, in order to save money and reduce the carrying capacity, without considering the problem of sustained combat effectiveness of the Beiyang New Army. What Chen An did not know was that the 150-round carrying capacity coincidentally coincided with the regulations of the German ** team.

  Chen Jiazhuang's godly marksmen all emerged from being fed excessive bullets, and Chen An naturally didn't want his Beiziyuan to tarnish this excellent tradition. Thus, the command that everyone thought was somewhat crazy - to fire at least ten live rounds every day - became an unshakeable rule under Chen An's insistence.

  Later on, in order to complete this overly dull command, Chen An's troops had no choice but to come up with various tricks to use up the bullets, such as running and shooting, concentrated fire, mountain shooting, competitive shooting, etc. As a result, shooting guns became a basic requirement for the officers and soldiers of the Northern Army. After the army was regularized, this absurd command was replaced by more reasonable training standards.

  Soon, Shanghai, Chongqing and Hanzhong established telegraph connections. The first batch of six Japanese-style 75mm field guns and matching 600 rounds of ammunition were formally packed and shipped after a delay of half a month. Soldiers from the first battalion of the Beiziyang Camp, who were about to finish their three-month new recruit training, were divided into a guard force, plus twenty guards from Chenjiazhuang, led by Liu Shi, fully armed and responsible for escorting the shipment.

  The southern troops looked on with an indescribable expression as the vehicle fleet carefully crossed a pontoon bridge built over a relatively calm section of the river northeast of Yumenguan.

  Lin Yushan's intelligence officer sent a message that the leaders of the Southern faction held an overnight meeting to discuss countermeasures, and many gang members in the gang were noisy and demanded that the floating bridge be burned.

  The next day, Wang Hongxun of the Boat Gang urgently sent someone to deliver a message to Chen An's hands. The leader of the South Gang invited the Boat Gang to attend a secret meeting, and it was said that the North Gang had also been invited.

  Chen An still had a more detailed intelligence provided by Lin Yushan, before that, the Southern Gang had found many local officials to request the abolition of the floating bridge, but they were all politely declined. The leader of the Southern Gang even brought heavy gifts to the county government, only to be dismissed by the magistrate on the grounds of being bedridden with a serious illness and unable to receive guests.

  Alas, you really can't see the situation clearly. It's already been so many months without taking action, and obviously, the ship has already defected. You still want to resist stubbornly, then don't blame me for being ruthless in dealing with you. A wolf-like expression appeared on Chen An's face.