Looking at Mr. Lieutenant Colonel's serious expression, Fang Lang knew that his opportunity had come.

"Okay, then I'll tell you that there is a place where you can hire a ship that dares to go to Brazil, and you should be able to transfer three ships of about 5,000 tons, but I estimate that the freight may be very expensive. After all, now the route is full of German submarines. Of course, Fang Lang was talking about the three freighters he had just purchased from Commodore Jackson.

Originally, he was going to use these three ships to go back to Brazil to pull goods and sell them, but now it is of course best to go to Brazil without having to go to Brazil empty. Originally, Fang Lang could let the ship go to New York to directly purchase goods and transport them to Italy, but the port of New York is now full of military material transshipment, and it is difficult for civilian ships to find berths.

The most important reason is that Fang Lang's maternal uncle Yang Zong runs a small private workshop-style cigarette factory in São Paulo, Brazil, and business has not been very good.

At this time, Fang Lang wanted to invest in his uncle's cigarette factory, expand the scale of operation, and develop the cigarette factory through this rare opportunity. As an important tobacco production area, Brazil's procurement costs and labor costs are very low, so the cost of purchasing cigarettes in Brazil is lower than in New York.

Here I would like to introduce Fang Lang's mother's maiden family by the way, my grandfather's father is also Fang Lang's grandfather, and he is the remnant of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom who came to Brazil with Fang Lang's grandfather. is originally from Hunan, but his grandfather started a family late and has a daughter Yang Xiuer and a son Yang Zong, obviously Yang Xiuer is Fang Lang's mother.

When Fang Lang's grandfather was young, he didn't want to be tied to the land, so he began to do business, buying tobacco and reselling it in the Chinese planting area, and then I didn't know who I listened to, so I bought a small set of cigarette equipment and started a cigarette factory, but the cigarettes in the cigarette factory were not distinctive, so they were all half-dead. When it was passed on to my uncle, my uncle wanted to sell the cigarette factory many times, but because no one took it over, and the people who worked in the factory were all old people in the factory, it was not easy to cut off everyone's livelihood, so it became the current state of chicken ribs.

And his uncle Yang Zong married a Portuguese wife and gave birth to two sons, neither of whom wanted to take over his uncle's cigarette factory. The eldest son, Yang Qian, now works as a clerk in the city government of São Paulo, and wants to follow a career in public office, but does not want to return home to face the half-dead cigarette factory; The youngest son Yang Kun is still studying in college, and in Fang Lang's impression, Yang Kun is not interested in the cigarette factory at home, but wants to be a teacher.

So Fang Lang considered going back to buy the factory or investing in shares, and continue to let his uncle manage it, so as not to let his grandfather's family business disappear by then, and wait until it gets bigger to see if the two cousins have any ideas to help manage it.

Lieutenant Colonel Graham was very excited when he heard Fang Lang say that there was a ship that could run the Brazilian route for hire, and hurriedly said: "Money is a small problem, we pay dollars." Let's go and talk to each other's company now! ”

It's a pity that Fang Lang hasn't greeted Mr. Cockburn in advance, and the ship hasn't been handed over yet, so he definitely can't take him over directly now, so he can only shirk and say: "Sir, don't worry, just now Colonel Attilio Parisi asked me to go to the U.S. Navy to handle the ship handover procedures, so I have to go to receive the ship first." So be it! I'll book a table at the Cantina restaurant tonight, and when the time comes, invite the other party to come with you and talk while eating? ”

Lieutenant Colonel Graham heard that Fang Lang still had a task to do, and he was helpless, after all, the military order was like a mountain. At the same time, Fang Lang said that he would invite the other party to dinner at the famous Cantina restaurant in Naples tonight, so he was relieved, and hurriedly said: "Of course there is no problem, you can rest assured that this kind of hospitality is for official business, you don't need to treat you, you can directly use it as the entertainment cost of our logistics department." I'll arrange for my adjutant to take a seat right away, and we'll see you in the evening!" ”

Fang Lang didn't expect that at this time in Brazil, there was also a saying about catering and entertainment expenses, and of course he wouldn't mind being able to eat and drink at the Brazilian government's public expense.

"Okay, sir, then we'll see you in the evening!" After speaking, Fang Lang didn't linger anymore, and hurried to slip away, even if the room was much warmer than the outside, he didn't want to continue to stay in this room full of smells.

After leaving Lieutenant Colonel Graham's office, Fang Lang did not go directly to Commodore Jackson to receive the ship, but first went to the office building of Global Trade, and brought Mr. Cockburn and the three Italian captains and first mates he had recruited. Only then did he enter the U.S. Navy barracks again and find Commodore Jackson.

After introducing Commodore Jackson to Mr. Cockburn, they went to the ship's berth. At this time, four large transport ships were moored at the berth, and judging by the style of construction of the ships, three of them should have been made by German shipyards and one by Italian shipbuilders.

It is clear that the ships of the German shipyards are newer than those of the Italian ones, and the transport ships of the German shipyards have a design capacity of 5,500 tons, while the Italian one is exactly 5,000 tons. All four ships were powered by steam turbines, and the maximum speed was about 15 knots, which was lower than the maximum speed of the Victory Wheel at 18 knots, but also exceeded the 11 knots of ordinary free ships.

The ships were all completely captured Axis steamers, and there was no damage, and after Commodore Jackson sent someone to check and confirm that the ships were in very good condition, the ships had just been deeply maintained by the American army, and they were in a state of full fuel and ready to sail at any time.

Fang Lang directly handed over three German-made steamers to Coburn, and he himself received Italian-made ships for the Brazilian Navy. A better ship must be reserved for himself, and Fang Lang is very clear about the distinction between public and private. There is nothing wrong with this Italian-made ship, except that the carrying capacity is slightly smaller and the age is a little longer, which does not affect normal use.

After explaining to Mr. Coburn how to deal with Lieutenant Colonel Graham at night, Fang Lang returned to the Brazilian Naval Base with the ship's information, reported the handover situation to Colonel Atirio Parisi, and asked Mr. Colonel to arrange for the entry of service information, and officially assigned the ship to the battle sequence of the Brazilian Navy.

Only the personnel of the Brazilian Navy are needed, and after the acceptance of the ship is carried out tonight, Fang Lang can become the official captain of the Brazilian Navy tomorrow.

The time soon came to half past six in the evening, Fang Lang came to the Cantina restaurant early, in fact, in terms of Italian living habits, dinner is usually eaten very late, and it will not start until eight o'clock. However, this time, because Fang Lang was playing the role of an intermediary, he had to arrive at the restaurant early, after all, Lieutenant Colonel Graham, as a Brazilian, did not know that Italian dinner was a real dinner.

Sure enough, when Fang Lang came to the restaurant, Lieutenant Colonel Graham's special car had already stopped at the door of the restaurant, and Lieutenant Colonel Graham, who was dressed in civilian clothes, squeezed his fat body out of the passenger seat of the Willis Jeep.

Fang Lang stepped forward to greet Lieutenant Colonel Graham and said, "Sir, Italian dinner usually starts at eight o'clock in the evening, so we came a little early, although I told the other party that dinner will start at seven o'clock, but Italians are not punctual people. "It's not good to speak ill of Italians behind your father-in-law's back, but you have to show that you're just a middleman.

Otherwise, when Lieutenant Colonel Graham found out, his company didn't know what to think. After all, the current Brazilian government is a dictatorial government, and Fang Lang has long thought that all investments in Brazil will not be directly established in Brazil in his own name, but in the name of European and American companies to invest in Brazil will be safer and will not cause unnecessary covetousness.

When Ragham heard that he was Italian, he couldn't help frowning: "The Italians are not reliable now, are you sure that this Italian can have three ships that can run Brazil." ”

"Sir, don't worry, I've heard about this company, the full name of this company is the Italian branch of Global Trading S.p.A., and it is actually the Italian branch of an American company. Therefore, in this period of war, it was not confiscated as enemy capital. If you're not sure, we'll have our own soldiers on each ship, and there won't be any problem. Fang Lang saw that Lieutenant Colonel Graham was not at ease with the Italians, and hurriedly moved out of the company's American background.