Chapter 309: No Guns, No Cannons, Enemies Make Them for Us
Huo Qingdong did not stay in Hong Kong. After unloading the cargo, he replenished some daily necessities and immediately returned to Iwo Jima. The second ship should have been loaded.
But as soon as they arrived at Iwo Jima, they found a small warship anchored in the harbor with its guns pointed at the shore, where all the civilian workers were gathered in a camp.
Look at the flags of the warships.
American flag,
Huo Qingdong knew it was an American battleship.
After the Americans occupied Japan, they established military bases in several places. These islands were also within their patrol range. They must have come here because they saw people transporting supplies.
As soon as Huo Qingdong got off the boat, a manager of the triad came up to him and said nervously, "Qingdong, the Americans are here to warn us, so we have no choice but to stop working. Look at those warships, their guns are pointed at us."
Huo Qingdong looked at the battleship and said, "It's okay. I'll go up and negotiate with them. Is the second ship full?"
"It's already full, just waiting for you to come back."
Huo Qingdong took a small ferry to approach the American warship. The American soldiers on the warship discovered that there was a ship approaching and warned them. Huo Qingdong negotiated with them and told them their intentions. Finally, the captain agreed to let Huo Qingdong board the ship.
The captain saw Huo Qingdong and asked from a high position: "Are you the manager? Do you know that the supplies on the island belong to the US military? You have violated US law."
Huo Qingdong was not afraid, and said politely in English, "Captain, we have legal procedures to collect supplies."
"Legal procedures, who gave you the legal procedures?" The captain frowned.
Huo Qingdong took out the certificate letter given to him by Victor and handed it to the other party. The captain took it and looked at it, and found that it was actually a certificate document from the US Logistics Department.
"Hardy Company, are you from Hardy Company?" The captain obviously knew Hardy Company.
"Of course, these are the documents for our two ships." Huo Qingdong took out the documents for the ships, both of which were registered under the name of Hardy Shipping.
The captain checked it and nodded.
"Well, finally someone is willing to collect these scrap copper and iron. Ok, I'll leave this place to you from now on." The captain said happily.
"Captain, are you in charge of patrolling this area?" Huo Qingdong asked.
"Of course, we are from the Okinawa base." said the captain.
"From now on, our company will collect post-war supplies from all the nearby islands. Please take care of us then." Huo Qingdong secretly handed over a roll of US dollars, about 1,000 US dollars.
The captain smiled immediately and said, "No problem. You are an American company and you have the order from the logistics department. You can do your job with confidence."
This is human nature.
Everyone was happy.
"By the way, there are also a lot of abandoned things on the islands of Okinawa. We are always upset when we see them during patrols, just like mustard lichens. I hope you can clean up those places as soon as possible." said the captain.
"Don't worry, it won't take too long." Huo Qingdong said with a smile.
Huo Qingdong got off the ship and returned to the station. All the workers looked at him eagerly. Huo Qingdong stood on a cart and said loudly: "Don't worry, it's just a misunderstanding. We are an American company and everything we do is legal."
“Okay~~!”
When the migrant workers heard that everything was fine, they all cheered.
They were frightened when they were pointed at by the cannon before.
"I heard that the second ship is also full. I will return directly to Hong Kong. I want to ask, does anyone want to leave and go back with me?" Huo Qingdong asked.
"Can we come back?" someone asked loudly.
"That's not necessarily true. If they're short on people, they'll recruit directly. They won't wait for you. You know, there are so many people looking for work now." Huo Qingdong said.
"Then don't go back." Someone immediately shouted.
"No, we won't go back. We have food and shelter here, and we can get paid. Where can we find such a good job if we go back?" someone else shouted.
"I have brought a batch of vegetables this time. Let's eat first and then continue working." Huo Qingdong said.
I heard there are also vegetables.
The migrant workers were even happier because they hadn't eaten any vegetables for many days and the only vegetable they had was pickled kelp.
Although the vast majority of people did not want to go back, there were still some who wanted to go back with the ship. With more than a thousand people, it was inevitable that some people would get sick due to acclimatization, but the number was very small, only a dozen in total.
The second ship returned to Hong Kong soon, and someone there picked up the goods and transported them directly to the steel plant. This time the buyer did not hold back on the money, and the payment was made promptly after the goods entered the warehouse. Huo Qingdong received 1.7 million Hong Kong dollars in cash.
There is a lot of construction going on in Hong Kong now, especially the industrial zones and museum projects of the Hardy Group, which require a lot of steel. There is also a growing number of steel-using enterprises in the industrial zones, such as factories producing nails and wires. Hong Kong Steel's goods are never hard to sell, and there is even a shortage of raw materials. If Huo Qingdong were to come over, they could take them all over and give them cash.
The north can only provide medicinal materials and seafood, and it takes time to convert those things into cash. Huo Qingdong needs to pay the workers and buy daily necessities, so he must have some cash.
He has already planned it.
Part of it is sold domestically, and the materials paid for in the mainland are brought back; the other part is sold to Hong Kong steel mills to get cash.
Another 500 people were recruited at the port.
This time they were sent directly to an island near Okinawa, where they dropped off personnel, supplies and tents. Several triad members were put in charge and were asked to collect supplies on the island first and then come back a few days later to load them directly onto the ship.
Returning to Iwo Jima, the ship here has been loaded, and the assembly line operation is very efficient. The sale of waste materials is now on track.
Huo Qingdong calculated.
At least three ships can be sold every month. Assuming each ship costs US$200,000, that would be US$600,000. The rental and consumption of the ship would cost about US$50,000, the wages of the migrant workers would be about US$20,000, and the food would be US$6,000.
Pure profit of 520,000 per month.
The triad gets $100,000, while the trading company gets $420,000.
The last time he went back, Mr. Hardy called him over, expressed his satisfaction with his work, and decided to give him 5% management shares of the trading company.
Then he can earn more than 20,000 US dollars a month.
Huo Qingdong clenched his fists tightly to suppress his excitement.
Twenty thousand US dollars, or 160,000 Hong Kong dollars, was something he had never dared to think about before. He had learned about the factories in the industrial zone, and knew that even if business was very good now, they would only make a few hundred thousand US dollars a year.
His own trading company can earn 5 million a year, and he can get more than 200,000.
Boss Hardy also said that if he did a good job, he could get management shares in the future, or even be given company shares directly. With such a generous boss, how could he not work hard for him.
Just as Huo Qingdong was thinking, someone came running towards him in a hurry from a distance.
"Qingdong, something big has happened."
"What's the matter?" Huo Qingdong was surprised.
"They found a warehouse on the island. It was sealed. They broke open the door and found a lot of U.S. military supplies, ammunition and shells. What should they do?"
Huo Qingdong was also surprised.
"Let's go and take a look."
He brought people to a warehouse a few miles away. This warehouse was underground and was built very secretly. Originally, the people who collected the supplies were at the seaside, where there were countless scrap copper and iron. Now that the people at the seaside had finished collecting the supplies and started to go deeper, they discovered this warehouse.
The warehouse is about 300 square meters.
There were mountains of weapons and firearms inside, including Type 38 rifles, machine guns, both American and Japanese, and also boxes of shells. Huo Qingdong didn't know what models these shells were.
However, there are talented people among these migrant workers. A man in his thirties stood up and said, "I used to be in the artillery squad in the national army. There are several kinds of shells. This is a Japanese mortar shell, this is a Japanese howitzer shell, and these are American shells."
At this time, an old soldier said, "Looking at the situation here, it is very likely that after the battle, the US military did some material collection and moved some relatively good things here and sealed them up, probably planning to come back and get them later, but no one has come back yet, so they have long forgotten about them."
Huo Qingdong thought,
His boss told him that the U.S. military was the most wasteful army in the world. They had thrown away countless things just to save trouble, and no one wanted these things anymore.
"Move, move everything to the boat and take it back."
"Be careful when doing this, don't bump the box."
After Huo Qingdong finished giving the order, he looked at the old artilleryman and said, "You know all this. You are responsible for commanding them. In the future, you will be promoted to a junior manager and get an extra dollar a day."
The old artilleryman was overjoyed. He never thought that just by saying a few words, good luck would fall upon him.
These guns and shells were moved onto the ship and carefully placed. Once the ship was full, Huo Qingdong sent them directly to the mainland.
This time the journey is shorter, and we don’t have to go to Tianjin, but Lianyungang.
Now the North has taken over the area north of the Yangtze River. Chen Bing is along the Yangtze River, and the person in charge of receiving the goods is still someone familiar to Huo Qingdong.
"Are there any good things this time?" the logistics officer asked with a smile.
Among the scrap metal we collected last time, there were quite a few guns and cannons. Some of them were in pretty good condition and could be used again after some repairs. Some of these weapons are really good stuff for the current troops.
In fact, even those scrap irons are very good. They are the best steel in the United States and are extremely useful for forging knives and hoes.
"The goods this time are similar to the last time, but we found a post-war supply warehouse. It should be the supplies collected by the US army after cleaning up the battlefield after the war. They were placed in the warehouse and no one took care of them, so we moved that warehouse here." Huo Qingdong said.
The logistics officer originally just said it as a joke, but he didn't expect it to turn out to be a real surprise.
I quickly asked, "What are they?"
"There were several thousand guns, some Japanese and some American, and also artillery shells. Someone who knew about it took a look and said there were mortars and howitzers, probably more than 5,000 rounds."
The logistics officers were delighted.
Organize people to unload immediately.
After counting them, they found that they were the mortar shells and howitzer shells that were in short supply, and they were all original goods from the United States and Japan.
What? You said the model is wrong?
No kidding.
There are all kinds of weapons in our party’s army.
Didn’t the song say that if we don’t have guns or cannons, the enemy will make them for us. We have all kinds of cannons in our army, but we lack ammunition.
......