What is the concept of £30,000 in this day and age? If you are a businessman, you can build a medium or large spinning mill, and if you buy ordnance, you can buy the latest tube-retreat 75-mm guns to arm a battalion, or about 6,000 new rifles.

But in the face of the huge amount of money that Sato Jiro suddenly took out, Zhao Dongyun frowned slightly, and secretly guessed Sato Jiro's intentions in his heart!

Is it to bribe yourself? Want to send yourself into the army?

Although Jiro Sato came to Liaoxi to engage in secret diplomacy, but he is a soldier in the end and does not like to talk to those diplomats, he can't talk about business for a long time, he took out this check and did not let Zhao Dongyun guess for a long time, but quickly said: "I heard that the production of the Fuyuan Machinery Factory under the name of General Zhao has increased greatly in recent years, and our army has consumed a lot of combat ammunition in recent days, so the country entrusted me to order a batch of ammunition!" ”

Sato Jiro said it simply, but Zhao Dongyun was still frowning after hearing it!

Jokes, even if Japan's domestic ordnance production is low, it has not reached the point where it needs to import ordnance and ammunition from China, and although there are still shortcomings in Japan's military industry, it is also limited to new artillery and other heavy weapons, and in the production of light weapons and consumable ammunition, although Japan's own output cannot be compared with other powers, it is not a big problem to supply the Japanese army to fight in the northeast.

Moreover, now that the war has just begun, the Japanese themselves are fighting very smoothly, and although the ammunition consumption is also high, it has little impact on them.

Historically, the Japanese army's logistical supply was poor, on the one hand, because the war lasted for a long time, and the fighting was too fierce, which led to a surge in the consumption of ammunition, and at the same time, the Japanese army completely relied on sea transportation to supply hundreds of thousands of troops to fight, which led to the shortage of logistics supply for the front-line troops.

In other words, the problem is the same as that faced by the Russian army's supply shortage, which is because of the problem of capacity, not the problem of production capacity.

What's more, now that Japan's book is not facing the problem of logistics shortage, at this time Sato Jiro said that Japan's ammunition is short and wants to buy weapons and ammunition from Fuyuan Machinery Factory?

What are you kidding, you must know that last year, Beiyang also purchased large-scale arms from Japan, although the Fuyuan Machinery Factory was established, and its output in China surpassed the Hubei Gun Factory to become the first in China, but compared with the output of Japan's military enterprises, it is nothing to mention.

Even if I am short of ammunition, I will go to Germany, the United States and even the United Kingdom to buy it, so why won't I come to the Fuyuan machine factory!

But the seemingly impossible is happening now!

As a secret agent sent to Liaoxi by the Japanese military department, it is impossible for Sato Jiro's identity to talk nonsense, let alone take out a check for 30,000 pounds and shake it in front of Zhao Dongyun's eyes.

While Sato Jiro said, he also put the check on the table: "If the Fuyuan Machine Qì Factory can supply ordnance to our army in large quantities, then there will be a larger order in the future, and this is just a deposit!" ”

Zhao Dongyun had many thoughts flashing through his mind, all kinds of messy ideas, such as the outbreak of the Russian Navy's small universe, which cut off the Japanese army's sea supply line, and the logistics supply of the Japanese army fighting in the northeast was difficult?

Or did you say that the arsenals in Japan were blown up by Russian spies? Or is it just an earthquake or something that destroys their entire military industry?

Or is it simply bribing himself to turn a blind eye to their activities in western Liaoning and other regions?

Or did the Japanese themselves discover their arms trade with the Russians, and in order to cut off the Russians' arms supply, they wanted to buy all the weapons in their hands first?

When many thoughts flashed by, Zhao Dongyun also regained his normal expression, this time he did not directly take the check for 30,000 pounds, although the money looked dazzling, it was not so easy to take.

"Oh, if your army needs to buy ordnance, you can go directly to Tianjin, how did you find me here?" Although the factory is located in Tangshan, the company's headquarters is in the British Concession of Tianjin.

Jiro Sato was still smiling: "If I go to Tianjin and place an order directly, then how can you make money, general?" ”

As soon as he heard this, Zhao Dongyun: "Oh, Mr. Sato, this is?" ”

Jiro Sato continued to smile: "General Zhao, if we can, we hope to be able to buy 5,000 shells from you every month!" ”

As soon as he heard this number, Zhao Dongyun's face changed suddenly, this Sato Jiro didn't say more, didn't say less, but said 5,000 rounds, and this number is exactly the number of shells that Zhao Dongyun provides to the Russians every month!

Damn, this Japanese really knew about their military trade with the Russians, and now they are coming directly to the door!

Zhao Dongyun looked at this Sato Jiro again, and a lot of thoughts flashed in his heart!

The military trade between himself and the Russians can be said to be extremely secretive, and even many high-level generals in the third town do not know, only themselves are involved in the whole process, Zhao Dongping of the Ordnance Department, Lu Shuanggun, Shi Yang, others may be involved in this matter, but they are only involved in one of the links, for example, the person responsible for escorting the shells from Tangshan to Jinzhou, the officers and subordinate soldiers who lead the team only know that these ammunition are purchased by the third town and the Jinzhou patrol battalion, And they don't know exactly what kind of ordnance there is.

After arriving in Jinzhou, these ordnance will enter the ordnance warehouse of the third town, and then Zhao Dongping will take a part of it, and then transport it to the vicinity of Panshan to Lu Shuanggun and Shi Yang, and finally the troops of these two will be responsible for transporting it to the periphery of Fengtian to be accepted by the Russian army.

Although there are not many people involved in this process, there are such a large number of ammunition circulating between Tangshan-Jinzhou-Fengtian every month, and it is normal for outsiders to be aware of it, and it is not difficult to find Zhao Dongyun's head if you dig further.

Anyway, both Japan and Russia are trying to win over the Chinese forces represented by Zhao Dongyun in western Liaoning, and both sides are also unwilling to involve China in the war, so there is little chance of making a big fuss, in Zhao Dongyun's original speculation, whether the Russians found out that they provided logistical support to Japan's own spies or that the Japanese themselves found out about their trade with the Russians, he directly denied it.

But he didn't expect that this day, after he found out about this, he did not file any diplomatic protests, but directly found his side, and the first shot was 30,000 pounds!

Is this to take or not to take?

If you don't take it, it will almost send a clear signal to Japan, that is, Zhao Dongyun holds an anti-Japanese position, and if the Russo-Japanese War is won in the future, and Japan takes control of the interests of the South Manchurian Railway and the Liaodong Peninsula in Russia, Zhao Dongyun wants to stay in the Northeast for the rest of the country, and I estimate that he will stumble every day.

If you take it, it will mean the end of the military trade between yourself and the Russians, and the Russian army will not get the supply of artillery shells from itself, which will make the already terrible logistics supply of the Russian army even worse, and then the hope that the Russian army can drag Japan for a longer time will be disappointed.

Seeing that Zhao Dongyun didn't speak, Na Sato Jiro continued: "General Zhao, don't worry, our army will give the best price for this batch of ordnance!" ”

The implication is that they will offer a higher price than the Russians!

After saying that, Jiro Sato took a sip of tea, and he was confident that he could reach an agreement with Zhao Dongyun to purchase ordnance, thereby cutting off an important source of ammunition supply for the Russian army.

A few months after Sato Jiro arrived in Liaoxi, he soon discovered that Zhao Dongyun was close to the Russians and was not as strong a supporter of Japan as outsiders claimed.

However, he also found that most of Zhao Dongyun's series of actions after arriving in Jinzhou revolved around two things, the first was to expand the army, and the second was to make money.

Considering that the ordnance provided by Zhao Dongyun to the Russians was expensive, almost more than 50 percent more than the price in the international market, this made the Japanese himself believe that this Zhao Dongyun took a huge risk to conduct military trade with the Russians for money.

In addition, Zhao Dongyun was also very cooperative with the Japanese himself to launch an operation in western Liaoning, so he sent Jiro Sato to come and try to directly buy Zhao Dongyun by throwing money.

Anyway, Zhao Dongyun is in the arms business to make money, so it is the same if they buy it at a higher price in the future, so as to avoid other unpredictable diplomatic turmoil.

But he didn't expect that there were deeper political reasons for Zhao Dongyun and the Russians' arms trade!

Zhao Dongyun was silent for a long time before he said: "If your army is indeed short of armaments, then it is not impossible for my side to sell some ammunition to supply your army to fight, but this price!" ”

Sato Jiro also showed a straight color when he heard this, and then raised three fingers: "No matter how much the original price is, we will increase the price by 30%!" ”

Zhao Dongyun nodded, he was still quite satisfied with the price, although the two of them did not say anything about the trade between Zhao Dongyun and the Russians in the middle of the words, but many things do not need to be said directly, everyone just knows it. This original price is not the usual ex-factory price, not even the international market price, but specifically refers to Zhao Dongyun's offer to the Russians, if I want to snatch this batch of ammunition from the Russians, and I have to make Zhao Dongyun willing not to cause other diplomatic turmoil, it is impossible not to increase the price.

The price of the shells that Zhao Dongyun sold to the Russians is almost 1.5 times the ordinary price, and now if he raises the price again, then Zhao Dongyun will almost earn a shell by selling a shell!

Although the content of this meeting was simple and did not last long, it involved a lot of things, and finally after looking at Zhao Dongyun's 30,000 pound HSBC check, he walked out of Zhao Dongyun's headquarters with satisfaction.

He wouldn't know that Zhao Dongyun would immediately call Zhao Dongping over as soon as he left!