The laws of the empire...

Enduring the scorching weather, Ma Rulong didn't even know how he had fallen to this point. He was clearly a policeman, a defender of the imperial law, but what about now?

Not only did he blatantly violate the law, he even traveled across the ocean to Africa, which was his first time here.

What is he doing here?

"Here's my passport."

At the customs in Bechuanaland, Ma Rulong took out his passport.

"From the Empire?"

The customs officer looked at the businessman in front of him and asked.

"Yes, businessman, come here to do business."

"Hardware merchant?"

The customs officer looked at the convoy behind him, then stamped it directly without even checking. Why not check? Because in essence, Bechuanaland and the West African territories were colonies of the Ming Dynasty. The so-called customs actually had more symbolic significance than practical significance.

But even if it is just a symbol, it is still a symbolic question.

"What's on the car?"

"It's humanitarian relief supplies..."

Every word the arms dealer said could not be believed. When Ma Rulong said these words, he felt uncomfortable.

Although arms exports are an important means to maintain a country's military production capacity and expand its hegemony, it is a legal arms export. What is he doing now?

It's smuggling!

The desire for greater profits and the attempt to expand political influence interacted to form an intricate smuggling network that was controlled by the Imperial Intelligence Department, where it was carefully planned day and night.

“In fact, the international arms trade is pretty much like this.”

Jing Zaigui, who was driving the car, explained as he drove.

"For example, right now, rather than exporting arms, we are helping the Empire fight its enemies. When Britain went to war with the Boers, the Empire couldn't wait to sell arms to the Boers instead of to Britain? This is called maintaining the balance of power, or killing someone with a borrowed knife. The peace between us and the British is thus maintained. Of course, in the arms business, making a profit is a consistent goal, an eternal principle, and the only thing that can compete with it is political needs. Out of the need to expand our sphere of influence, sometimes my companions have to reluctantly give up profits. Therefore, the instinct to make money and political ambition are intertwined, and all of this is closely linked together."

Listening to Jing Zaigui's explanation, Ma Rulong said.

"So what do we do now? Are we making money now?"

Ma Rulong was very curious about this question.

"Of course you can make money now, but what's the guarantee for the future?"

“Why is it making money now?”

"Because the Boers have gold and diamonds in their hands, we must earn more money, but in the future... who knows? In the future, when the war continues for a year or two, when their money is exhausted, we will need to supply them with weapons at cost price, or even at a loss. By that time, I am afraid that all the money we earn will be lost..."

This is the reality of international games. Of course, Ma Rulong doesn’t understand all of this, and he certainly doesn’t need to understand. After all, for him, all of this has nothing to do with him. He just got involved in this game by chance. In this game, every player has his own identity. What is his identity in this game?

His identity in this game is just... the most insignificant little character. After the convoy entered the Bechuanaland Special District, Ma Rulong occasionally cast his eyes on the people on the roadside. After arriving in Africa, he saw many locals whose skin color was slightly darker than that of the Chinese and whose appearance had some traces of mixed blood.

"Japanese mixed-race..."

Jing Zaigui said.

"Now the number of Japanese immigrants in the Empire's African colonies is second only to Chinese immigrants, but because of their status... well, you know, the Japanese are almost second-class citizens. Of course, we don't admit this, but Japanese women are proud to marry imperial men, so there are more men than women in the four provinces of Japan. But this doesn't have much of an impact. After all, many Japanese men work in the African colonies. Almost tens of millions of Japanese have settled here and married local women. These people are all mixed-race..."

When Jing Zaigui finished speaking, Ma Rulong asked curiously.

"So the Japanese people here marry the natives, but what about the natives? Aren't there more men than women? What should they do?"

Faced with Ma Rulong's question, Jing Zaigui was stunned for a moment, then said.

"Who cares about them!"

Yes, not many people care about those natives at all. It can even be said that in everyone's cognition, no one will consider the future of those natives.

In fact, in the past decade or so, to some extent, the native population here is being rapidly replaced. The arrival of Chinese and Japanese immigrants has changed the population composition here. As for the natives, they...

Perhaps in a few decades, everything will become history. Of course, Ma Rulong is not a scholar, and he has no interest in the future. He doesn't care at all that there is more and more "coffee" here, but less and less dark chocolate.

This convoy loaded with "humanitarian relief supplies" was driving on the roads in the special zone. They were not very conspicuous. After all, such convoys were not uncommon on the road network built by the empire in Africa. After all, the empire's railway network here was still imperfect. In this case, cars were the best supplement. However, in order to conceal their tracks, the convoy had to constantly change license plates along the way to prevent being discovered by interested parties.

After all, according to the Imperial Bureau of Investigation, the British had sent spies here, and what were their spies doing?

It is nothing more than to investigate the actions of the so-called "arms smugglers" in the area. Although they have no law enforcement power, it does not prevent them from notifying the special district police department to crack down on arms smuggling. This is what the Empire promised to Britain.

In order to avoid unnecessary trouble, "smugglers" like Jing Zaigui must try their best to avoid people who may threaten the entire operation.

Of course, sometimes in order to make the transaction smoother, they would actively release some bait to attract the attention of British spies.

After all, there are a lot of baits like this in this land now.

There are always risks in doing business. But for them... this business has no risks at all. After all, everything is under the control of the Investigation Department.

Even now, they said that the route they were taking was carefully planned. Normally, there would be no problems, and even if those British spies appeared here, it would not cause much impact on them.

You have to know that this is a colony of the Ming Dynasty. But even so, they still have to do everything they can to conceal their identities. After all, from a legal point of view, they are just a group of smugglers now...