America 1881: Legend of the West

Chapter 546 If You Don’t Pay, It Doesn’t Count as a Purchase

Dignity, or survival.

This is a problem.

As a glorious U.S. Confederate Army colonel and a white supremacist racist, Wiltord was at war with nature and man in his heart and was very tangled.

Going to Roswell to buy food from the Chinese was like a slap in the face.

From now on, every time I eat, when I see the bread in my hand, I will think that I bought it from the Chinese people I despise.

Wiltord didn't know if he would be able to eat in the future.

At least on the border, he probably wouldn't have the face to argue with Chen Jianqiu anymore.

But if he didn't buy it, he knew exactly what his soldiers would do after the food stocks were exhausted.

I'm afraid even the military camp will be demolished by him.

Don't talk about pushing him down, I'm afraid he will be lifted up directly and hit a tree.

The colonel was very confused and his brows were twisted into knots.

Seeing the commander's behavior, the quartermaster on the side came up to him:
"Sir, I have an idea."

Those who can become quartermasters in the army are either close confidants of the commander, or they are all talented people. How can they not see what their leaders are thinking?

"If you really can't show your face, I can pretend to be a caravan, just say I'm a grain merchant from Texas," the quartermaster said.

"What's the difference?" The colonel glanced at the quartermaster, "Aren't we going to have to buy from the Chinese in the end? Besides, haven't the military pays arrived this month? Where did we get the money?"

The colonel didn't know exactly how much money the army had on its books, but he knew that many soldiers still owed last month's salary.

The quartermaster chuckled:
"If you don't give me money, it doesn't count as a purchase."

Wiltord's eyes lit up, but then he shook his head:
"No, no, we have conducted reconnaissance in Roswell. The defense there is too solid. In addition to the stationed militia, there are also heavy weapons. Otherwise, I would have overturned them."

Wiltord shook his head.

The quartermaster's idea was quite to his liking, but it still seemed to have flaws.

"We don't need to go to the town of Roswell." The quartermaster said in a low voice, although there was no one in the warehouse. "There is a farm five kilometers south of the town. They usually trade grain there."

"I have dealt with Chinese people. The Chinese are very polite when doing business. They will look at you with a smile. Most of the time, they will adhere to the principles of 'suffering a loss is a blessing' and 'putting an end to trouble'." the quartermaster added.

Wiltord nodded, but then he felt something was wrong.

He glanced at the quartermaster:
"How do you know so clearly?"

"Ah, well, sir, when do you think we should set off?" The quartermaster hesitated, talking about him.

Wiltord did not continue to dwell on this matter:
"You should set off as soon as possible. If you wait any longer, I'm afraid the food in the military camp will run out."

Early the next morning, a convoy disguised as a caravan drove out of the military camp.

The soldiers in the convoy changed into farmers' civilian clothes, while the leading quartermaster wore a cowboy hat and brown overalls, looking like a grain merchant.

"Sir, is this the same destination as last time? Roswell Farm?" the quartermaster soldier asked in a low voice behind the quartermaster.

"Well, ah, shut up, when have we been to the farm?" The quartermaster glanced sideways at his confidant.

The soldier understood and immediately shut his mouth.

It was not far from the border military camp to Roswell. After the team advanced for five or six hours, they saw a touch of green on the distant horizon.

Thanks to the efforts of agriculturists from the Roswell Scientists Association and fertilizer plant engineers, a large swath of land south of Roswell has been turned into a farm.

Drought-tolerant plants such as peanuts, potatoes, and corn are grown here.

The water from the Rio Grande flows into the gullies of farmland along the built canals, irrigating this land that was once barren of grass.

The quartermaster led the team along the road through a beautiful field of sunflowers.

"Sir, what do you think that is?" A soldier pointed at a huge steel monster in a field not far away.

This thing looks like an oversized carriage or a smaller locomotive, with big and wide wheels, slowly moving forward, and the iron chimney standing next to it is emitting smoke and floating into the air.

Behind this behemoth was an equally huge harvester, harvesting wheat in the fields.

The quartermaster was stunned.

"Maybe, maybe it's a steam engine, or..."

He has never seen this thing before, so he can't explain why.

"It's a tractor, gas-powered."

A Chinese farmer sitting on the field ridge smoking a cigarette suddenly stood up, patted the ashes on his butt, and said in standard English,

"Mr. Ford invented it. It's still in the experimental stage. It can hold up to a dozen cows."

The surprise on the quartermaster's face remained.

He looked at the Chinese farmers:

"Can you understand me? Do you also understand this modern agricultural technology?"

The Chinese farmer looked at him like a country bumpkin:
"I just went to Stanford University Adult College to study agricultural technology science for half a year in the first half of the year. Now I am studying soil improvement here. May I ask which school you graduated from?"

The Quartermaster immediately shut up.

Strictly speaking, he is semi-illiterate.

The team continued along the road toward Roswell Farm.

Soon, they saw the gate of the farm.

There is a trading market in the open space to the south of the farm, which is very lively.

Because it is not far from the Roswell train station, many Texas farmers also come here to trade grain.

The quartermaster led the convoy through the gate.

He parked the convoy outside the warehouse.

He walked into the warehouse with ease.

"Move the potatoes out. Mr. Derek needs some potatoes. He came yesterday. We can't keep him waiting too long!"

A middle-aged Chinese man turned his back to the quartermaster, directing the busy people in the warehouse.

His name is Xu Youcai and he is the person in charge here. He is wearing a white sleeveless coat and a towel hanging around his neck to wipe away sweat.

The quartermaster walked up and patted him on the shoulder:

"Hey, are you busy? Xu?"

This is a very Chinese way of saying hello.

The man named Xu turned his head and saw that it was the quartermaster, and he also laughed:
"Ah, hello, Mr. Jefferson, long time no see. Why, are you here to sell grain again today?"

The quartermaster's expression was somewhat unnatural.

"Jefferson" was, of course, the pseudonym he used.

And every Chinese guy at Roswell Farm knows this name.

Because the quartermaster would sneak here every once in a while to resell military rations.

And this is why he is so familiar with this place.

"Um, this time I'm not here to sell food, I'm here to buy food." The quartermaster gestured.

He pointed to his team of carriages outside the warehouse.

"I need to buy some potatoes and flour, and carrots and some vegetables and stuff."

Xu Youcai looked at the quartermaster with a puzzled look:
"I have the impression that you are not short of these things. You always tell us that the supply is sufficient."

"It's quite dry this year, and the subsequent harvest may not be very good. I plan to stock up some more." The quartermaster explained hurriedly.

"We don't have flour at the moment. If you need it, we can ask the flour mill in the town to process it." Xu Youcai said.

"Well, then no flour, just potatoes." The quartermaster said quickly, "I'm still in a tight time." Xu Youcai wiped the sweat off his forehead with a towel:

"But like you said, the weather is hot this year, and the prices of vegetables and carrots are not cheap."

"No problem, the price is negotiable." The quartermaster agreed readily.

Xu Youcai looked at the quartermaster with suspicion.

This guy came here to sell food before, and he took half a day to raise the price. Why is he so willing to buy from him today?
Seeing this, the quartermaster took out a stack of bills from his pocket and began to count them.

These were his private savings, which he would not easily let others see. Now he had to fight for the implementation of his plan.

"We plan to stay here one night and set off tomorrow morning." The quartermaster said to Xu Youcai while counting the money.

"Okay, park your car here, I'll arrange for someone to load the goods for you."

Xu Youcai walked into the warehouse.

Several strong guys were resting with their hands on their hips.

There was a large standing fan next to them, blowing air towards them.

This is also one of Chen Jianqiu's masterpieces.

In fact, this thing was tried in the United States as early as 1880, but it was not popularized due to various problems.

The main reason that prompted Chen Jianqiu to invent an electric fan was that the weather in Roswell was too hot.

He took some time out of his busy schedule to draw a schematic diagram of an electric fan, and then told the engineers at Roswell Electric Company that they could just install it on the motor.

It has to be said that these engineers in the electrical company are the top talents in America.

They saw their boss's creativity from Chen Jianqiu's "extremely abstract" painting art and quickly turned it into drawings.

It took only three months from the design to the launch of the first electric fan.

Xu Youcai greeted the guys:

"You guys go load Jefferson's wagon. He wants three cartloads of potatoes, and some carrots and vegetables."

The guys agreed and walked towards where the potatoes were.

But Xu Youcai suddenly grabbed the last guy.

He turned around to look at the quartermaster who was still looking around, then leaned close to the servant's ear and whispered:
"Go to the town and report to Mr. Chen that Jefferson, who always came to sell food, is here again, but this time he's here to buy food."

The guy nodded and walked out of the warehouse quickly.

Chen Jianqiu had just returned to Roswell from Juarez. He planned to return to New York after attending the semi-annual scientific association meeting here.

At this time, he was in his office at City Hall looking at the meeting materials prepared for him by Holmes.

The servant's horse stopped at the door of the city hall. He walked in quickly and told Chen Jianqiu what happened on the farm.

Chen Jianqiu thought for a moment and picked up the phone on the table.

"White, last time I asked you to check on the grain merchant 'Jefferson' who often came to Roswell to sell grain. Have you found out his background?"

After answering the call, Chen Jianqiu asked the person on the other end of the phone.

"Pockmarked Face" White, head of the Southwest District of the Border Detective Agency, quickly told Chen Jianqiu the information he had found.

They had already stripped this guy of his underwear.

This man's original name was Donovan Anthony. He was a German-American who had worked in the Army Department and was almost fired because of downsizing. After bribing his superiors with gold bars, he was assigned to the lucrative job of quartermaster in Wiltord's army.

"Li Sifu! Come in." Chen Jianqiu shouted outside the office.

"It seems that our colonel has been frustrated and decided to get some food." He put down the receiver and said to Li Sifu with a smile.

Chen Jianqiu turned around and looked at the waiter: "Have they paid the deposit?"

The guy shook his head and said, "Not yet, but Uncle Cai asked us to load the goods first, and their cars are all here."

"Hehe, I think these guys don't plan to pay." After listening, Li Sifu looked at Chen Jianqiu and said, "Boss, how about I take some people to deal with them?"

"Don't worry, just bring someone to keep an eye on them." Chen Jianqiu said slowly, "If they pay, they are our customers, we have to treat them well and let them stay for a few more days; if they don't pay, we have to catch them red-handed."

Then he said to his men, "Go back and continue to supply him with goods. Do it the way it should be done."

Just as Chen Jianqiu and Li Sifu guessed, the quartermaster had no intention of giving any money.

After parking the carriage in front of the warehouse, he brought his subordinates to a camp next to the farm.

It was a simple hotel, and many merchants who came from far away and could not return on the same day would stay here for a night.

But the living conditions are not that good.

There were no individual beds; everyone slept on large bunk beds, and there were no taverns or anything like that for entertainment.

The soldiers under the quartermaster had been traveling all day and fell asleep in the camp after dinner.

But in the middle of the night, they were woken up one by one by the quartermaster and his deputy.

The room was pitch black, and only the quartermaster's voice could be heard from the darkness:

"Don't sleep, get dressed quickly, go get the horses, and harness the carriage."

Many of the soldiers were still asleep.

Yawning in confusion, they put on their clothes and followed the quartermaster out of the house cautiously.

There were lights on in the direction of the farm warehouse.

The two high-power incandescent lamps, under the effect of the reflector, look like two burning flames on the grassland in the dark night.

However, it was already late at night and there was no one outside the warehouse, not even someone on duty.

"Boss, what are we going to do?" asked the soldiers in confusion.

"Get ready to run!" The quartermaster led everyone and sneaked to the fence outside the warehouse.

Everyone suddenly discovered that their carriage was parked at the door of the closed warehouse, and the carriage was already piled with sacks of potatoes and carrots.

"Hurry, go to the stable and get the horses!" the quartermaster ordered, "We don't have much time. We have to tow the cart away before they react."

The soldiers under him quickly understood what their leader was going to do and became excited.

The pack horses were led out of the stable.

When the soldiers did this, they were terrified, fearing that the noise would be too loud and disturb the owner of the place.

But the surroundings were very peaceful.

The Chinese farmers and workers on those farms seemed to have disappeared in an instant.

The quartermaster didn't care about any of this at all.

He asked the soldiers to find some ropes and randomly tied the food on the cart. When the cart was ready, he could not wait to drive it towards the farm gate.

The convoy soon drove into the night.

Everything seems to be going well.

Just when the quartermaster thought he was safe and was proud of this "brave and clever" plan.

Suddenly, he seemed to hear the sound of horse hooves.

The quartermaster's head shot up.

He noticed a little fire, moving quickly towards them from the front of the convoy.

It was a group of cavalrymen holding torches.

The cavalry quickly approached and surrounded the carriage team.

The leading Chinese soldier dismounted and looked at the quartermaster with a smile:
"Sir, it's not a good habit to buy something and not pay for it."

(End of this chapter)