Chapter 1279: Lord of War (Third update, please subscribe)
We fight to the last Boer!
Of course, the official position of the Ming Dynasty is... peace, and the Ming Dynasty will always be a pacifist.
While pursuing peace, they did not forget to sell arms. When the time entered 1889, a merchant ship loaded with arms sailed from the Ming mainland to the African colonies every month, and then was transported by train to the Bechuanaland Special District and crossed to the border between the Ming Dynasty and the Boer Republic.
In order to conceal their presence, these weapons were disguised as hardware equipment, bathtubs and other equipment, and were even deliberately shipped out from Huizhou Port, where there was no arsenal. For a time, Huizhou Port was very lively.
However, the port is very busy every day. After all, Huizhou Port is also an extremely important port on the east coast of the Ming Dynasty. It can be regarded as one of the three major ports on the east coast. How can it not be important? If it is not important, how could they build a "Statue of Emperor Shengde"?
Two years ago, the statue of Emperor Shengde in Huizhou was finally completed. The base is 50 meters high and the statue itself is 49 meters high. Once it was completed, it became a symbol of Huizhou.
The emperor statue, leaning on a sword, faces the rippling Atlantic Ocean, staring at the ocean and looking into the depths of the ocean, like the guardian of this continent, looking solemn and majestic. The emperor's figure blends into the mountains, and some clouds float between the peaks from time to time, making the bronze statue looming, making him look more mysterious and holy. The huge emperor statue is built on the top of this high mountain and can be seen from most parts of the city, whether day or night.
Even when it rains, the emperor's statue can be seen in the city. Covered by rain and fog, it looks even more mysterious and solemn.
"Chief Inspector, I heard that Linhai also wants to build a bronze statue of the emperor, and they want it to be bigger than ours!"
Ah Hu's words made Ma Rulong smile.
"Wait until your Majesty goes to Linhai and agrees to let them build it. I heard that even this statue of the emperor was built by chance. Under normal circumstances, we Chinese do not build statues..."
While chatting, they rushed to the dock. The reason they rushed to the dock was that they received a report that foreigners had frequently appeared in the port area recently. In fact, even if they received such a tip-off, they could have completely ignored it. After all, matters involving the security of the empire were the responsibility of the Security Bureau.
But Ma Rulong still decided to come to the dock to take a look.
Soon, they arrived at the port. Wearing raincoats, the two men went straight into the port area. Although it was raining, the stevedores were still busy there. The whistle directing the crane echoed in the heavy rain, and the stevedores loaded the cargo onto the ship in raincoats.
"You are... the police?"
The arrival of the police startled the dock supervisor, and he looked at the two men in front of him with some confusion.
"Which police station are you two from?"
"From the Municipal Bureau."
After putting away the police badge, Ah Hu said directly.
"You guys are in a rush here. It's raining so hard and you're still loading things."
Ma Rulong walked to the cargo yard and asked.
"Officer, there's nothing we can do about it! The owner is in a hurry, so of course we have to hurry up and finish the work."
"Oh? The owner is in a hurry? Is the owner here?"
"He was still here before, I guess he went back to the hotel."
While the supervisor was explaining, Ah Hu had already walked to the pile of wooden boxes. Looking at the words on the boxes, he couldn't help muttering.
“Something’s wrong!”
"What's wrong?"
"Inspector General, look at this crate..."
Ah Hu pointed at the box and spoke in a low voice.
"It's written on the box that it's a hardware accessory, but you can tell at a glance that the box has been repainted. And look at its size. It's about 1.5 meters long and this wide. Inspector, what do you think this box looks like?"
Like what?
Like crates for rifles.
After taking a closer look, Ma Rulong immediately understood that this was not a piece of hardware at all, it was clearly... a munition!
"Manager Li, can I see the customs declaration?"
"Customs declaration?"
The dock manager looked at the two men in confusion, the smile on his face changed slightly, and he said.
"Officer, this is inappropriate."
"Why is it inappropriate?"
"Officer, if you were from the customs, I would definitely give you this declaration form, but you are the police, and this declaration form involves commercial secrets. I am afraid I cannot give it to you without a search warrant."
The supervisor's answer made Ma Rulong smile.
"You're right, but..."
While speaking, Ma Rulong winked and Ah Hu overturned a crate. The moment the crate hit the ground, it broke into pieces. It was clear that the crate contained some hardware equipment, which was a rifle.
"ah……"
"Manager Li, is this hardware?"
Pointing at the rifle on the ground, Ma Rulong sneered.
“This, this…”
It was unclear whether it was sweat or rain on Manager Li's forehead. As he was stammering to explain, a man holding an umbrella came over. When the man saw Ma Rulong, he was stunned.
"Inspector Ma?"
“Xu…”
Ma Rulong was stunned when he saw the newcomer. Jing Zaigui was an agent of the Imperial Investigation Bureau. They had worked together before when they were in Cuba.
"Mr. Xu, what are you doing?"
I think his surname was Xu at that time!
"Look, I'm just doing some business."
Jing Zaigui said with a smile.
“This business…”
Ma Rulong looked at the gun on the ground.
As a policeman, he certainly knew that arms trading was the most profitable business in the world today, except for drug trafficking. So it was no surprise that governments around the world were deeply involved in it. It could even be said that whether or not a country had its own arms industry had almost become the lifeblood of a country.
This industry has been booming for decades, and because of this, the huge amount of arms produced in peacetime cannot be consumed unless war breaks out. Therefore, the logical solution is to either export the excess arms and ammunition or to start a war, or both at the same time.
However, since there is almost no government in the world willing to let its country go into war, but in order to be on the safe side, they are unwilling to sit back and watch their arms industry decline. Therefore, for many years, the focus of the arms industry of various countries has been on exports.
To achieve this goal, each powerful country has trained a large number of well-paid weapons salesmen who travel around the world. They are eloquent and try every means to sell weapons around the world, but they never care about what the weapons they sell will be used for.
But not all arms sales are open to the public. These weapons... are obviously not open to the public, otherwise the Imperial Investigation Bureau would not have stepped in. It's just...
"It seems...it doesn't seem quite legal!"
(End of this chapter)
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