It was this practice of the Soviet military high command that ultimately led to widespread corruption throughout the army for a decade.
As the saying goes, "Live by the mountain, eat by the mountain; live by the water, eat by the water." How can this army survive? Without a doubt, it is the smuggling and trafficking of arms.
Major General Zyuganov, head of the Far Eastern Military District's Internal Affairs Department, faces the same challenge. Now in his sixties, he says he wants to avoid mistakes rather than merit. He'll be content as long as he can retire peacefully and enjoy a pension. But now, that wish is clearly about to be dashed.
If you want to retire wealthy, you need money. Money, money, money, money. Where will it come from? Perhaps it was a sudden inspiration, or perhaps it was fate, but Zyuganov, his head about to burst with rage, suddenly remembered the officer smuggling case he had just handled a few days ago. That damned Vasily, a major, had amassed a fortune of over 600,000 rubles through armed smuggling in just two or three days. Over 600,000.
According to regulations, this portion of the stolen money should be turned over to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and Vasily and the Chinese businessman surnamed Zhao should be brought to trial in a military court. However, Zyuganov had a new idea. "In an emergency, we must take the necessary measures." He planned to conceal the stolen money.
But then again, while over 600,000 yuan in stolen money was a lot, it wasn't enough to split it among everyone. What was to be done with the remaining time? Clearly, the smuggled cigarettes confiscated in the warehouse were the best solution. The domestic situation was taking a sharp turn for the worse. If they'd taken care of these two blatant smugglers this month, what would they have to do next month?
Zyuganov, who was already troubled by financial problems, finally thought of this Chinese man when he was forced to do so.
Zhao Xiaohai now had a profound understanding of what it meant to "look back on yesterday and it seems like a dream." Lying in the intensive care unit of the hospital at the Soviet border guards' base, enjoying the meticulous care of two female nurses, he couldn't believe that he had been imprisoned by these Soviet soldiers just two days ago.
In the Soviet Union, there was a single, crucial word: privilege. Under the government's one-sided pursuit of high welfare, citizens' welfare benefits were directly tied to their positions in the government and military. The hospital ward Zhao Xiaohai had been staying in, and the treatment he had received, these days resembled the level of privilege enjoyed by a division commander in the Soviet army.
Faced with these two starkly different situations, Zhao Xiaohai wasn't perplexed. As a reborn from a past life, he knew one thing: in this world, only unprovoked disasters fall from the sky, never unprovoked blessings. The reason these old Russian soldiers, who were just fighting for their lives and eating their food, had first subjected him to such hardship and then treated him so well was, of course, because they had some use for him. As for why these Russians might need him, it wasn't hard to guess. Serving in the Soviet Union in those days wasn't easy. Salaries were not only pitifully low but also frequently delayed. The widespread corruption in the Soviet military from the 1990s to the early 21st century wasn't without reason. Zhao Xiaohai was a businessman, and in some ways a very successful one. His success was built on illegal trade, but that didn't matter. For an army on the verge of total corruption, getting paid, and getting the most money as quickly as possible, was paramount.
It was precisely because he had figured this out that Zhao Xiaohai had been living an unusually comfortable life for the past two days. He didn't worry about anything, just eating what he ate and drinking what he ate, and he had everything he wanted, like a pampered, carefree young master. This naturally displeased Sophia, who was responsible for monitoring him.
For a person who likes adventure, a comfortable life will become boring if it lasts too long, especially staying in a semi-confidential ward all day long. Unfortunately, Zhao Xiaohai happens to be a person who likes adventure.
Today was a beautiful day, the sky clear and cloudless. Sitting on the plush sofa in the living room of his ward, Zhao Xiaohai, dressed in a blue and white hospital gown, was boredly playing cards with Li Qiang and Jin Lulu. Because of his older brother's troubles, the two had also lost their freedom. However, instead of enjoying the bliss of a "black jail," they were detained at the Friendship Hotel. Since Zhao Xiaohai's transfer to the divisional hospital, the two had also been sent here. According to the Soviet soldiers, they were here to "recuperate" together for a while.
The three siblings were playing "Happy Flower", a gambling card game similar to "Stud Poker". However, since it was gambling, there had to be some prizes. To entertain themselves, the three of them opened two packs of cigarettes, using each cigarette to represent ten dollars. The three of them agreed to bet one cigarette as the bottom bet and increase the bet by at least two cigarettes each time. In this way, the three of them played enthusiastically for the whole morning.
However, Zhao Xiaohai's luck today was clearly terrible. Less than an hour into the game, he lost all his chips when his "straight flush" ran into Jin Lulu's "leopard seven." Li Qiang's luck was clearly not so good either, but he was a cautious person, so he only bet a small amount each time. Even so, after the entire morning, he still lost over four thousand to Jin Lulu. Of course, compared to a certain adventurous lunatic, a debt of over four thousand was clearly not enough. By the time Sophia appeared in the hospital room, Zhao Xiaohai had already accumulated even more gambling debts.
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