According to declassified information, before the fall of Shanghai, Song Ziwen ordered a total of more than 1 million taels of gold to be withdrawn from the vault of the Bank of Eight Nations, which was originally intended to be transported to the rear to purchase weapons and equipment from the Soviet Union as an equivalent, but it was bombed by Japanese bombers on the way out, and its whereabouts were immediately unknown.

A tael of gold is equal to about an ounce, and a million taels is a million ounces.

As soon as he thought that this was likely to be a huge amount of gold of up to millions of ounces, Xu Rui's heart became uncontrollably eager, this was not his personal wealth fan, it was really too important for the Dameishan base area to have this batch of gold, because the base area was in urgent need of money now, a lot of money.

Don't look at the fact that there is still some money in the base area, there are still more than 200,000 jewels worth more than 200,000 yuan in the vault of Meishan Bank, as well as about 200,000 yuan of the ocean, but this amount of money is really nothing for a force with more than 2,000 people, because just raising troops will cost hundreds of thousands of dollars every year.

This is only for now, and in the future the army will be expanded, and the cost will be even greater.

The officers and soldiers needed money, including their uniforms, shoes, hats, and rations.

The biggest expense is still weapons and ammunition, damaged weapons need to be repaired, repairs will cost money, even if they open their own arsenal in the future, they also need to pay wages to workers, and the workers of the arsenal are not saints, they also need to eat and support their families, right? So, money is needed everywhere, and now there is simply not enough money in the vault.

Since the establishment of the base, Xu Rui has been thinking about making money, and the last time he made a small profit from Pucheng, it was just a solution to the urgent need, and he was not able to fundamentally solve the problem, but if he could get the large amount of gold that Song Ziwen extracted from the vault of the Bank of Eight Nations, he would almost be able to fundamentally solve the problem.

Not only because the amount of gold is extremely huge, but also because gold is an internationally accepted hard currency, even in times of peace, there is no concern of depreciation, and in war years, it will only appreciate in value.

If it is a fiat currency worth more than a million taels of gold, it is a bit unpleasant.

Don't look at the current national government's fiat currency is quite stable, but in two years, when the national government's foreign exchange will be exhausted, after being forced to announce the cancellation of unrestricted foreign exchange trading, the value of fiat currency will fall off a cliff, in less than a year, the value of the currency has fallen more than ten times, and by the end of the Anti-Japanese War, the fiat currency has already fallen into Xiang.

Fortunately, Song Ziwen withdrew gold from the vault of the Bank of Eight Nations, not fiat currency.

At that moment, Xu Rui said to Wang Husheng again: "Lao Wang, you testify, this bet is settled." ”

"Well, I will testify, and the financial agreement will be made." Wang Husheng is also very curious, what kind of secret is the secret hidden in Leng Tiefeng's heart?

Leng Tiefeng smiled and said: "Lao Xu, I bet that I didn't win against you before, but this time you lost, you may be able to buy machinery and equipment from Shanghai in two months and start an arsenal, but this weapon expert, how can you find it if you want to?" Hey, you're going to lose this time. ”

"Really? Maybe that's a deal. Xu Rui smiled, "I still believe in that sentence, there are always more ways than difficulties, and when our arsenal is built, weapons experts will naturally appear." ”

Leng Tiefeng said: "Then I'll have to wait and see." ”

Seeing Leng Tiefeng turn around and walk out, Xu Rui said again: "Veteran, don't be in a hurry to tell the three of them first, give them a surprise when the time comes, hey." ”

Leng Tiefeng didn't look back, just turned his back to Xu Rui and shook his hand.

"This veteran." Wang Husheng said with a smile, "It seems that I have entered the role of Captain Wolf Fang." ”

After a pause, Wang Husheng said again: "Lao Xu, do you really plan to let the veteran be the captain of the wolf's tooth?" ”

Xu Rui nodded and said: "The tough melon is not sweet, since the veteran likes to be the captain of the wolf tooth so much, let him be, and besides, I can see that the veteran is really not enthusiastic about the command of the battle array." ”

Wang Husheng said again: "What about the 3rd battalion?" Although He Shuya is a good seedling, he is still tender after all. ”

Xu Rui nodded and said: "The nerd is indeed a little too tender now, and suddenly putting such a heavy burden on him may not be a good thing, and we can't do what the seedlings are fueling, so for the time being, I will be the commander of the 3rd Battalion first, and after a year and a half, the nerd has already gotten started, and it is not too late to hand over the 3rd Battalion to him." ”

"I agree." Wang Husheng nodded, and said, "Are you really sure about the bet just now?" ”

"It's not difficult to build an arsenal, as long as we have money, we can buy machinery and equipment, but ......," Xu Rui paused here and said, "This weapon expert is really a bit troublesome." ”

Wang Husheng said: "Otherwise, I will call Wu Qian over, and we will ask him, maybe he will know some experts or professors who are proficient in weapon manufacturing." ”

"Forget it, domestic experts and professors can't count on it." Xu Rui shook his head.

It's not that Xu Rui looks down on domestic experts and professors, because at that time, China's domestic humanities were still good, and a large number of writers and scholars had emerged, but in the field of natural sciences, it was frighteningly barren, and there was almost no one who could stand up to the scene, and even Qian Xuesen was still studying in the United States.

Wang Husheng also felt that there was not much hope, so he didn't say anything more at the moment.

At this time, Xu Rui didn't expect that a young weapons expert would appear soon.

(Dividing Line)

Because he was going to leave for Damei Mountain the next day, David came to the arsenal in Hanyang overnight and wanted to convert a small pistol from the arsenal.

David was a trainee reporter of the Associated Press, and he could greet the Wuhan camp of the Nationalist Government through the US Legation, and for the Nationalist Government at that time, the affairs of the Americans, no matter how big or small, were all a matter, so after receiving the greeting, Chen Gongbo, the minister of industry at the time, personally accompanied David to the arsenal.

Although Chen Gongbo is a big traitor who is ashamed of the world, at this time, he has not defected to the enemy.

Regardless of political and ethnic positions, Chen Gongbo is actually a capable person, otherwise, it would not have been possible for this guy to change so many camps in just over ten years, first as a representative of the First National Congress of the Communist Party of China, and then as a member of the Central Executive Committee of the Second National Congress of the Kuomintang, then as an anti-Chiang representative figure, and then as a guest of Chiang, and then as the second person in Wang's puppet government, but this last political speculation finally suffered a tragic Waterloo, not only cost his life, but was also nailed to the pillar of historical shame forever.

Although Chen Gongbo was very knowledgeable, first graduated from Peking University and then studied for a master's degree at Columbia University, he had no enthusiasm for natural science, so after accompanying David into the arsenal, he soon left under the pretext of leaving David, a distinguished guest of the American Legation, to a small technician of Hanyang Ordnance Industry.

This technician at the Hanyang Arsenal is a technomaniac.

At the beginning, he was not too enthusiastic about entertaining David, just because this was the task personally assigned by Minister Chen, so he had to receive it, but after accompanying David into the workshop, especially after seeing David's skillful operation of machinery and equipment for a series of processing, technician Zheng Jiakang immediately became interested.

I saw David first turn a long steel ingot that he carried with him into a circle, and then hollow out the middle with a boring machine, and then mill and polish it inside, David was extremely skilled in operating the machine, and soon processed the previous long steel ingot into a barrel, and then took out a pen from his pocket and tried to load the barrel into the pen.

"What are you?" Zheng Jiakang was dumbfounded, "Do you want to make a pen gun?" ”

David looked back at Zheng Jiakang blankly, he couldn't understand what Zheng Jiakang was saying.

Zheng Jiakang hurriedly called an engineer who knew English to help translate, and after listening to the engineer's translation, David nodded and smiled: "Yes, because the place I am going to tomorrow is surrounded by Japanese troops, although I am an American, the Japanese may not dare to do anything to me, but it is always right to be careful." ”

David listened to Stilwell's suggestion and decided to go to Dameishan to do an interview with Xu Rui.

But to go to Dameishan, you have to go through the Japanese army's defense area, so I want to bring a pen gun to talk about self-defense, although such a pen gun actually doesn't play a big role, but it's better than nothing, isn't it? At least at critical moments, this pen pistol can still play some role.

Cheng Ka Hong was not interested in any of this, he was interested in David's craftsmanship.

Although David just missed a hand just now, Zheng Jiakang could still feel that this American was a very powerful old fitter, and asked at the moment: "Mr. David, I want to ask, what level of fitter are you?" ”

While using a tool to draw the barrel of the gun that had just been machined, David casually compared a six with his right hand.

Zheng Jiakang's eyes immediately glared at the boss, a sixth-level fitter? Didn't this Yankee say that he was a journalist, how could he still be a sixth-level fitter?

You must know that even in the Hanyang Arsenal, sixth-level fitters are rare.

The old fitter grade is divided into eight grades, the eight-level fitter is already the highest level of fitter, the spare parts processed by the eight-level fitter, its precision is even more than that of the automatic lathe processing, for example, the new Chinese rocket, the screw processed by the lathe is not good, only the screw made by the eight-level old fitter can be used.

Although there are still two levels of difference between the sixth-level fitter and the eighth-level fitter, they are also very good.

However, as the chat deepened, what surprised Zheng Jiakang even more was still to come, he found that this Yankee was not only a sixth-level fitter, but also knew a lot about various firearms, such as the locking device of the Makqin heavy machine gun and the ammunition supply principle of the German-made MG34 general-purpose machine gun.

"Mr. David, how do you know so much."

"It's nothing, guns are my hobby."

"Then how did you become a journalist?" Cheng Jiakang was puzzled.

David shrugged his shoulders and said helplessly: "Hobbies are hobbies, work is work, hobbies can't bring me income, but work can bring me a decent income, doesn't it?" ”