Chapter 448: Italian Cannon

A young waitress with a glass of wine in her hand timidly walked out.

This was her usual work. Logically, there should be no mistakes.

There were also no guests today.

To be precise, there were only two guests.

One was Chinese.

The other was British.

The Chinese was very young. The British was also very young.

They are sitting in the middle of the lobby.

It has just been cleaned.

Bodies have been removed. Blood has been washed away. Everything looks as if nothing has happened.

At least, Zhang Yong is very satisfied with the result.

Seeing the nervous beauty, Zhang Yong casually takes out a five-pound note.

Don't be nervous. The battle is over. Here's your tip.

Put down the drinks.

And then there's the food.

The customers have all gone from the Palace of Plenty, leaving only the staff.

For them, it doesn't matter who the enemy is.

Whoever takes over, they'll still be the ones doing the work. And maybe the new boss will even give them a big bonus.

So they tuck in.

The others are eating in another restaurant. Only Zhang Yong and Dickens are in the lobby.

Dickens is clearly starving. He doesn't care about being a gentleman. He dives in. Until he lets out a long belch and lets go of his knife and fork with a sigh of relief.

'It'll be light in two hours,'

'Yes. It's not safe to walk at night. After dawn, the consulate will send someone to pick you up.'

'Didn't you just say you were going to take me to the consulate?'

'It's not safe on the road.'

'Why?'

'The Japanese might ambush you on the road.'

'They dare to assassinate a British citizen?'

'Oh, no. They're not going to assassinate you. They're going to assassinate me.'

'Assassinate you? Why?'

'Because I've killed more Japanese.'

'How many did you kill? Three? Four?'

'More than a hundred, I think.'

'What?'

Dickens exclaimed in surprise.

More than a hundred Japanese? My God, you're still alive! You're still standing here!

Are the Japanese all useless?

Aren't they arrogant?

How come they haven't killed you yet?

'You're God's own son!'

'What do you mean?'

'That's what you Chinese say. Those who are lucky are God's sons.'

'Oh. I don't believe in God.'

'Of course. You Chinese don't believe in anything. If God gives them five eggs, they'll believe in God. But if the Buddha gives them a bucket of oil, they'll believe in the Buddha...'

'Although, but. You don't have to say it so bluntly.'

'I know a lot about you Chinese. I've been in China for a year and three months.'

'What a long time!'

'Of course! Oh, let's get down to business. Do you want the arms?'

'Did you smuggle them in?'

'Of course not. I have the proper paperwork.'

'Where was it issued?'

'The East India Company.'

'Hm...'

Zhang Yong raises his glass.

It is indeed legal. The East India Company.

Haha.

But it is not popular anymore.

The Japanese no longer take the East India Company seriously. The Japanese are seriously resistant to the East India Company.

Why?

Because the interests of the two sides conflict!

The Japanese want to seize the British market and weaken the British presence in Asia.

Asia must be the Japanese's Asia.

'What do you have?'

'Cannons!'

'What?'

Zhang Yong is taken aback.

He thought they were guns and ammunition!

Unexpectedly, this guy actually brought in cannons directly?

Look at the other person's face.

So young. In his early twenties. He really is fearless.

When others sell arms, they mainly sell guns and ammunition. You kid came up with cannons? That's a lot of ambition. You're trying to run before you can walk.

'Artillery! Fifty guns. Cash transaction.'

'What model?'

'Miss France.'

'The French M1897 field gun? 75 mm calibre?'

'Yes, that's it! So you know about it too! Then I don't need to explain. I'll tell you, it's absolutely an excellent gun! Perfect for you Chinese!'

'Indeed...'

Zhang Yong paused.

The other person hadn't exaggerated. This was Li Yunlong's Italian cannon. It was indeed very suitable for the situation in China at the time.

It was mainly portable and flexible. It didn't need to be towed by a car. It could go on any road.

When there were animals, they could be used to pull it.

When there were no animals, it could be pulled by manpower.

It didn't need a hard surface.

It didn't need a sturdy bridge.

It was small and easy to hide. It could effectively avoid bombing by Japanese aircraft.

The shells are also light. Even the weakest soldier can lift it with two hands.

For a 150-mm shell, you need two soldiers to lift it. That's a lot of work. You have to understand that at that time, Chinese soldiers generally had poor physical fitness. They didn't have much strength.

'Where did you get it?'

'Italy.'

'Oh!'

Zhang Yong nodded.

It really is a veritable Italian cannon.

Because at that time, the Western powers imposed an arms embargo on China. France was one of them. So it was not possible to buy field artillery directly from the French.

But arms dealers are always the smartest.

The Italians imported this field gun from France and resold it to the Chinese. The middlemen made a profit. Supposedly quite a lot.

Why was Italy able to sell it? Because it was not part of the arms embargo.

Sometimes you say the Italians are not clever enough. That's just nonsense.

At the beginning, they were on the wrong side. But they quickly corrected that. In the end, they were still one of the victorious powers.

How dare you say they weren't clever?

They bet on both sides. They won't lose no matter which side wins. A sure thing.

Oh, and back to the Italian cannon...

During the Battle of Pingyang, Li Yunlong used this Italian cannon to blow up his wife. It's a good cannon. It just costs a bit to maintain.

'Fifty cannons?'

'Yes. Each cannon comes with 500 rounds of ammunition.'

'500 rounds?'

'Yes. All for 500,000 taels of silver.'

'That's expensive.'

'Not expensive, really. A gun and shells together cost only 10,000 taels of silver! Where else can you buy them at this price?'

'Expensive,'

Zhang Yong shakes his head.

In fact, the price really wasn't expensive.

10,000 taels of silver for a 75mm mountain gun. It seems expensive. But that was the market price at the time.

A Czech-style light machine gun equipped by German troops cost thousands of taels of silver.

Even if domestic arms factories tried to copy them, the cost would still be several hundred taels of silver. It was no exaggeration to say that the military burned through money.

Think one million taels of silver is a lot?

In fact, it wasn't even enough to equip a division, and it was still just a militia division with rifles.

In any case, a 75mm mountain gun was definitely worth ten thousand taels of silver. The German 105mm howitzer sold for more than one hundred thousand taels of silver. That was expensive.

The thing about German stuff is that it's good. The only downside is that it's expensive. The Führer himself can't afford it.

If the price of the Tiger and King Tiger could be halved, the Führer could last at least two more years.

'Where is it?'

'I can't tell you that.'

'Is it in the hands of the Japanese?'

'Of course not. How could I possibly hand it over to the Japanese?'

'They didn't torture you?'

'Yes.'

'But I don't see any injuries on your body.'

'They sent two women to deal with me every day. Every day they made me so weak. I couldn't go on, and they fed me medicine. What was that if it wasn't torture?'

'Did they use whips and candles?'

'What?'

'Nothing. It was a truly terrible punishment. You didn't confess?'

'Of course not.'

'If it were me, I'd send two strong men...'

'To torture me?'

'Not necessarily torture...'

'What was it then?'

'Nothing. You rest. Your people from the British Consulate should be here in the morning.'

'I don't want to sleep. I hate sleeping now more than ever. Just tell me, do you want the cannon or not? If you really want it, I can sell it to you at cost price. 450,000 silver dollars.'

'300,000 will do!'

'300,000? No, no, no, that's impossible...'

'I can't afford it.'

Zhang Yong shakes his head. Shrugs his shoulders. Spreads his hands.

I'm being sincere. But I really don't have any money. My entire fortune is 300,000 taels of silver.

The thing is, I can't really use this cannon.

I'm from the Fuxing Society.

I'm not a German-armed soldier.

Does Boss Dai still dare to secretly possess 50 cannons?

That would be something.

Once the bald guy over here gets wind of it, Boss Dai will probably be executed. It's definitely a capital offence.

'Then help me find a buyer.'

'What's in it for me?'

'Of course. According to market practice. Anything over 500,000, we split 50/50.'

'400,000.'

'No way. I'd be losing money.'

'What about your original buyer? Didn't you take a deposit?'

'I only took 50,000.'

'Who's the buyer?'

'I can't tell you that. Really. You know the rules. If I reveal it, I'll never be able to work in this industry again.'

'You want to continue?'

'Of course. Why not?'

'The Japanese can catch you once, they can catch you twice...'

'And then you'll come to my rescue!'

'I...'

Zhang Yong froze.

Damn. This Englishman's thinking...

Captain Jack isn't as smart as you. And you expect me to rescue you a second time?

I'll be honest with you. This time, it was all a coincidence.

You happened to be at the Furui Palace. I happened to attack the Furui Palace. You almost didn't make it out.

And you expect there to be a next time?

Next time the Japanese capture you, they won't send two women every day, they'll send two sumo wrestlers...

Contact the buyer...

It doesn't seem impossible. The Commander-in-Chief will definitely want it.

This 75mm field gun has excellent performance and is very suitable for the Chinese army. It is especially suitable for the German armoured division.

Five hundred thousand silver dollars is really not expensive. The Nationalist government can definitely afford it.

The problem is, how do we report this?

He can't just send a telegram to the Commander-in-Chief, can he? It's too exaggerated to even think about it...

Shakes his head.

Let's put this matter aside.

He generally doesn't bother thinking about things he can't handle.

Send Dickens to bed.

At a little after 7am, a report was received that the British Consulate was arriving.

'Ask them to come in!'

'Yes!'

Soon afterwards, the British arrived.

Zhang Yong glanced at them casually. His eyes flickered. Unexpectedly, he saw Mei Lu.

Hey, she actually followed the British.

Weird...

Who exactly is she?