Just when Lincoln swallowed his anger and sent Pu Anchen to decide to formally stop the war with the Chinese, Li Yongji was also bargaining with Zhang Xinda with a headache, and the reason was that Zhang Xinda had no money to buy equipment.

"How can there be no money? Not to mention the luxury goods such as gold, jewelry, and jade that were given to you before, let's just say that the later grain, seafood, wood, ores and the like can also be exchanged for a lot of money, and now that the weather is getting warmer and the river is about to thaw, I am about to hit Pittsburgh in one go, and at this juncture, you told me that I have no money to buy oil and equipment? What about playing with me? ”

"Boss, you really don't know how expensive firewood and rice are." Seeing Li Yongji's angry appearance, Zhang Xinda smiled bitterly, "Yes, you did give me a lot of gold jewelry and other luxury goods before, these things are indeed enough according to the theoretical value, but the problem is that it is the theoretical value, not the actual value."

The reality is that there is a certain amount of demand for luxury goods in modern society, and if it exceeds this amount, the price will fall, not to mention, and things like gold and jewelry will also be restricted by the international community.

I'm not you, you're calling for wind and rain over there, I'm Nima just a little rich South African army-arms smuggler here, or the kind of person who doesn't come to the stage very much, people like me, I can't do too much, everyone can still allow me to survive, if I cross the line, a lot of people will kill me.

If you think about it, there are so many diamonds and gold in Africa, but you can see that the African countries that mine gold and diamonds, except for South Africa, how many are really rich?

To put it bluntly, the key is that diamonds and gold are no longer the bulk necessities of modern society, but industrial products or luxury goods, and their actual value is limited.

Not to mention the narrow market for diamonds and jade. Even if it is relatively hard gold, not to mention that the price is not high, and it cannot be shipped unlimitedly, it must be subject to international market supervision.

Let me put it this way, in the modern international market, gold is no longer an international currency, it cannot be used as currency circulation, that is, it cannot directly buy materials, and must be exchanged for the corresponding international settlement currency, such as the US dollar. RMB, in order to purchase new corresponding supplies.

Just like now, I basically buy domestically produced arms and other materials, so I have to exchange gold and the like for RMB in order to buy domestic goods, but the fucking South African government restricts my gold shipments, and I can't sell gold at will.

To go. It's okay to be private, but it's too risky. Moreover, our motherland is too soft, although they can turn a blind eye to smuggling, but the risk is all borne by me, and they don't want to bear it at all. How can I do this?

You know, the smuggling of gold and jewelry in Africa is now quite strict, with my current strength. I can't do it alone from the South African government, and if I did, I would have been eaten and wiped out a long time ago. ”

"How so?" Li Yongji frowned. "Didn't you say you have the support of domestic bigwigs? And he is also the boss of South Africa, how can he be afraid of this? ”

"It's true that I have the support of domestic bigwigs, but you know, in terms of our domestic strength and urine, the support for me is quite limited, not to mention compared with the Yankees, even Russia can't compare." Zhang Xinda shook his head, "Thanks to South Africa's recent good relations with our domestic and the largest trading partner, I have taken refuge in the South African government, coupled with domestic support, this can be mixed up, but in this way, I also have to abide by some of South Africa's bottom lines, and go crazy to the outside world. The act of stealing gold jewelry is definitely not allowed. ”

"You said so much, do you mean that you can't realize what I gave you before?"

"It's not that it can't be realized." Zhang Xinda shook his head, "But the speed of realization can't be so fast, we must take our time, and we can't break the international market for these things." You know, whether it's gold, or jewelry, the market for these things is very limited, it's so small.

Once there is suddenly a large number of things in the market and begin to impact the market, then those vested interests who control this industry will quickly unite to investigate, and they will not be able to run away at all. Next, as you can imagine, they're going to rally against me, an unruly person. At that time, it will be absolutely useless to rely on the motherland, and even they will join forces to suppress me.

You don't know yet, our country is not only the world's largest gold producer, but also the world's largest consumer, but there are many bigwigs in China who control this thing and strictly control the market for this thing. If nothing else, let's just say that you once plagiarized the name of Dai Mengde Jewelry, that is ...... You should understand. ”

"I understand, you mean that you are not allowed to ship goods at will in China for money?"

"Yes." Zhang Xinda smiled bitterly, "Let's be honest, my current gold jewelry is basically owned by China, or I have been accused, of course, they are quite kind, let me join their international art appreciation club."

Well, this club sounds quite literary, right? In fact, it is an internal guild in China that controls gold and jewelry, and its role is similar to that of OPEC in the oil industry, anyway, it is a small circle that regulates the gold jewelry market in China, so as not to have any stunned young people who will ship goods to destroy the market in order to make quick money, do you know what I mean? ”

"But in that case." Li Yongji was puzzled, "You can sell all the inventory to them at a low price, and then directly exchange it for arms and other industrial products, isn't it?" In this way, the country should like it, right, doesn't the country like gold jewelry? ”

"Hey, it's weird, it's weird, we don't count it in China." Zhang Xinda shook his head, "Things like gold and jewelry, it's not that our domestic family has the final say, and other bigwigs like the United States are also closely monitoring this thing." If nothing else, just say that the United States is the largest country in gold reserves, you should understand, right? ”

"I don't understand." Li Yongji shook his head decisively.

"Damn, did you do it on purpose?" Zhang Xinda was dissatisfied, "Don't you know that the United States is the real black hand that manipulates the world gold market?" If I dare to open up a large amount of gold to the country, the Americans will definitely not rest assured, and the country does not want to offend people because of this, plus South Africa does not want to, so I really can't ship at will, even if it is shipped, it can only be in small batches. out of the situation without affecting the international gold market.

Gold is like this, not to mention jewelry and jade in the smaller market, the market itself is very small, don't look at the value is quite high, but many are priceless, not to say that there are many people rushing to buy, but the demand is very small, especially high-end jewelry, but it is deliberately depressed demand to maintain high prices.

Let me put it this way. Once I throw out a large number of high-quality jade jewelry without limitation, someone will call me every minute to warn me that if I don't know what to do, let alone jointly ban me, it is possible to send a killer to kill me. ”

"Okay, forget that, I know your difficulties." Li Yongji said, "But I basically didn't give you gold and jewelry later, but replaced it with regular products such as grain, timber, ore, and seafood." It's not hard to ship, is it? ”

"That's right, the batch of things you sent later wasn't too difficult to sell." Zhang Xinda nodded, "Especially that batch of grains and vegetables, which are all exported in the name of organic food." The quality is quite good. But don't forget, the price of these things is not high, and excluding the cost of circulation, the profit is actually not large. It's about winning by quantity.

Originally, this business was very good, but what have you been doing for the past two years? Especially in the last few months, it's been more than half a year. Basically, they have stopped sending me supplies, but they are asking for more and more materials on my side, and this has come and gone, and the expenditure is far greater than the income.

Let's be honest, in fact, the things you sent me before, in terms of value, are not enough for the value of the batch of arms and materials I sent you to you, many of them were borrowed by me first, after all, I know that you are in a hurry, but this kind of thing can only be emergency, and the fact that the income is insufficient is still here.

So, if you ask me for a battleship or something now, I really can't get it, it's not that I can't buy it, it's that I don't have the money, and at most I'll provide you with some ammunition, but if you want to continue to rely on these to fight Pittsburgh, I don't think it's realistic, because with your current military and arms consumption, you will fight 300 million in a war, and I think it's very mysterious, and I can't afford to supply it. ”

Hearing Zhang Xinda say this, Li Yongji blushed a little.

Indeed, if Li Yongji's financial situation was relatively good before, and the time and space trade chain was relatively smooth, then since he led troops to officially intervene in the American Civil War, he has really been unable to make ends meet.

The reason is very simple, in the past, when Li Yongji did not represent the war, he could give Zhang Xinda and Dou Bifeng a large amount of materials every day, and supply blood to these two guys in exchange for materials in modern society.

However, after Hollywood trained the Dream Army, that is, the motorized troops, Li Yongji's demand for modern materials has greatly increased, and the materials that occupy the most tonnage are basically arms that cannot obtain actual benefits, while the materials that Li Yongji can send to modern society have been greatly reduced.

Originally, because of the gold produced in San Francisco, it could cope with it for a while, but with the control of the gold market in modern society, Zhang Xinda, the director, did not dare to ship at will to disrupt the market, so in the end he could only hoard and then ship slowly, but he could not quickly realize the gold, and then become more military. Fire. materials and industrial equipment.

After that, Li Yongji began to use scarce materials such as grain and timber from the 19th century to send them to modern society, and finally made the balance of payments again, but when he led his troops to attack New Orleans and officially intervened in the American Civil War, the situation was completely different.

During this period, Li Yongji was unable to deliver the materials of the 19th century to the modern society on time and in sufficient quantities because he had to march and fight, and he was not in his own nest because he had to march and fight, but he needed the military supplies of the modern society every day, and he could not lack a moment.

This leads to the fact that during the period when Li Yongji led his troops to fight, the fiscal side was actually in a situation where consumption exceeded income, and the original surplus turned into a deficit.

Fortunately, Li Yongji earned enough money before, and Zhang Xinda and Dou Bifeng could also support it, but Li Yongji stayed in the United States for too long, and he also fought continuously, and the military supplies such as fuel, ammunition, vehicle wear and tear, clothing and food during this period were not a small amount every day.

The so-called cannon sounds, 10,000 taels of gold, this is not nonsense, even if Li Yongji only maintains the size of a motorized infantry division, and the weapons are honestly not very advanced in modern society, but they still consume a lot of money.

Therefore, in the past few days, the expeditionary force led by Li Yongji did not look at the invincibility of successive victories, and did not want to fight the US federal army, from one total annihilation to another, which seemed to be very majestic, but in fact, it was burning money!

It can be said that every time he wins, purely from the point of view of consumption, Li Yongji loses, thinking that even if the US army is now an ace army of 300,000 people, the value of the materials consumed to fight a major battle can only be a fraction of the dream division at most.

Although it is said that after Li Yongji hit Memphis, he also sent a lot of goods to Zhang Xinda by fighting to raise the war and buying nearby agricultural products on a large scale, but near the Mississippi River, the western United States at this time had a small population and limited agricultural output, even if Li Yongji opened up the purchase, how much could he buy?

Moreover, as Zhang Xinda said, although the quality of those agricultural products is good and can be sold as organic food, but in modern society, if you want to sell them, you have to add various circulation and operating costs, and the agricultural products purchased by Li Yongji in the 19th century are used as silver as currency, so in fact, it is not cheaper, at most slightly cheaper than modern farms.

In other words, although the batch of agricultural products, timber and other materials that Li Yongji looted in the United States had changed a lot of money, it was still far from enough compared with Li Yongji's daily consumption, and at most it was just a little relief of the deficit.

This question, whether it is Zhang Xinda or Dou Bifeng, has been raised more than once, but Li Yongji has never cared much in the past, because he thinks that as long as he can win, sooner or later he can use guò to plunder precious metals in exchange for money.

However, when Zhang Xinda told him that precious metals, especially gold and silver, could no longer be shipped for money in modern society without restrictions, Li Yongji knew that he could no longer rely on frenzied collection of precious metals to repay his debts.

"So, gold jewelry and the like, especially gold, you don't want to send it to me lately." Zhang Xinda shook his head, "Sending too much is a disaster, I advise you to stabilize first, and hurry up to send me a batch of wood, especially good quality oak or something, I should stabilize the finances first."

Hey, I've also thought about it, as far as the situation on your side is concerned, don't think about the grain for the time being, in the big winter, what kind of ore, at the level of your time, it is estimated that the output is enough to choke, the only thing is that the wood is still worth a little money.

Well, it just so happened that I heard here that there is a big gap in high-quality solid wood in China, especially logs, and Africa happens to be not too strict in this regard, especially the oak, pine, fir and the like that are not produced in Africa.

Then, don't say that I don't take care of you, I just got a batch of logging machines here, such as power saws or something, and I'll give them to you when they arrive, so you better organize someone to cut wood first.

To be honest, if you don't send me something to make money, it's really hard for me to explain it, in order to get you arms and not delay your use, I owe 1.4 billion yuan to domestic manufacturers, almost catching up with the domestic population. So, if you want to continue the war, you can, stop and get some money first. ”

"Okay, I see." Li Yongji also nodded helplessly, "Anyway, it's just for me to cut down wood to pay off my debts, right?" Okay, I'll organize people to cut down trees when I turn around, it just so happens that I have a group of captives on hand, and there is no shortage of manpower, and besides, there are not many other things here, but if you want to talk about big trees, there are countless of them. By the way, it's winter on my side, is it okay to log in winter? ”

"It doesn't matter, it's good to cut wood in winter, and the wood is strong in winter. Anyway, hurry up and get ready over there, no matter what kind of tree, as long as it's a log, I'll want it all! ”

"Good, good." Li Yongji said helplessly, "As soon as your chainsaw arrives, I promise to provide you with enough logs." Anyway, I don't plan to stay here in Smithland for long, the woods here will be destroyed if they are destroyed, not to mention that such a large forest is enough for me to destroy for a while...... Well, anyway, you just wait to receive it, and you are guaranteed to be satisfied. (To be continued......)