Hong Kong Island: From a small stall to a global supplier

Typhoon Matmo passed through, causing a power outage... My writing career was forced to a halt, alas!

(As shown in the picture:)

……

Early in the morning, Wang Yaotang was eating breakfast when he suddenly put down his chopsticks and laughed.

"What are you laughing at, Yao-ge?" Wei Tao chimed in, trying to find the right words.

“Things are different now,” Wang Yaotang said with a smile. “Back then, we were on the streets of Hong Kong, running our gangs, buying communication equipment and vehicles, training our henchmen to fight each other, and constantly outsmarting the police. We were doing all sorts of illegal and disorderly things.”

"Now that we're in Phuket, they're all using the police name to crack down on illegal gangs and confiscate civilian firearms. It's laughable."

"It's true what they say, your perspective is determined by your position."

I don't know if it was funny or not, but everyone at the table started laughing.

“It’s true that your position determines your perspective,” Gao Lishi said with a smile. “Just like how rebels inevitably engage in burning, killing, and looting in the early stages of a rebellion, fighting to the death with the government troops and turning one place into scorched earth after another. Once they have occupied all the territory, ascended the throne and declared themselves emperors, and the whole country is theirs, then they will definitely turn around and fight other rebel armies. Whoever dares to burn, kill, and loot will be killed.”

"Pretty much." Wang Yaotang laughed heartily. "So this time, we need to be mindful of our methods and try to make things as reasonable and legal as possible, at least on the surface."

"Don't worry, Mr. Yao, I'll make sure the police don't mess things up." Gao Lishi patted his chest, and seeing that Wang Yaotang was in a good mood, he added, "Mr. Yao, these days things are always done through the police, so sometimes it's not as timely. What do you think of me as the police chief?"

Wang Yaotang gave a somewhat puzzled "hmm," and asked, "You? The police chief? What are you thinking?"

“During my time in Phuket, I’ve noticed that the official environment here is quite different from that in Hong Kong. It’s not as…” Gao Lishi chuckled and scratched his head, organizing his thoughts. “It’s not as formal, no, it’s more like a makeshift operation. It’s not as disciplined as the underworld in Hong Kong.”

"The police chief, Mohd Farouk, doesn't have as much control over the police station as the triad boss. The police stations in the various districts are also in chaos. They're not as good as... we can't compare to Sheng Yi. I think they're not even as good as the previous soda bar."

“In Hong Kong, when each gang is fighting for territory, they have to fight each other regardless of whether they are confident or not. If someone is to be killed, the underlings will scramble to do it. Even if it's to kill government officials, they have to do it even if they are given a death sentence. If they get arrested and go to jail, they have to admit that they did it. But in the police station here in Siam, the underlings treat you like you're talking nonsense. Whether they do it or not depends entirely on their own mood. It's too unruly.”

"They're dressed in official clothes, but they've done a terrible job. I'd be much better than them!"

"As the police chief, I would never allow my subordinates to be so outwardly compliant but inwardly defiant!"

"Heh, what can you do if your subordinates don't listen to you when you're the police chief? You'll just stab them three times and stab them six times!" Wang Yaotang asked with interest.

"Why bother with all that? These guys have too many blemishes on their records. Either get out of here or throw them in jail," Gao Lishi said, waving his hand.

"Then why do you think Mohammad Farouk doesn't do that?"

“He’s got a dirty job himself, and I don’t have to take money like him, so of course I’m not afraid.”

"Ha, you've become an honest official? With Director Gao here, Phuket will be peaceful." Wang Yaotang laughed. "Forget about the police chief. You don't understand the rules of officialdom. The heads of various departments are not the ones who do the work. The ones who do the work are the executive deputy. The director needs to be appointed by the mayor. It's just a title. The new mayor will usually replace the director. But no one dares to touch the executive deputy. On the contrary, they can stay in the position for many years."

"Brother Yao, you agree!" Gao Lishi grinned. "Let those bastards in Hong Kong see what's wrong with being Brother Yao's dog. They don't even deserve to be his dog!"

He didn't care whether he was a police officer or a deputy; what he cared about was going from a bandit to a soldier. In the first half of his life, others were the ones arresting him, and in the second half, he was the one arresting others.

"Next time I go back to Hong Kong Island, I'm going to throw a big banquet and invite all those bastards over. I'll wear my police uniform, point my finger at them, and tell them, 'You're all shorty-skinned, and your sons are shorty-skinned too. I'm an official now, and my sons will be officials in the future. Arrest them!'"

As he spoke, Gao Lishi let out a villainous laugh.

Wang Yaotang was immediately amused by this guy's shamelessness. The others at the table looked at him with disdain. Damn it, heaven has no eyes, this sycophant actually succeeded!

Gao Lishi turned to Wei Tao and said, "Be careful what you do in the future, or I'll catch you red-handed!"

“Brother Yao, this bastard is rebellious by nature and will surely rebel sooner or later. If anything happens, we should kill him now to prevent future troubles!” Wei Tao said loudly.

Wang Yaotang burst into laughter.

It's not difficult to appoint a deputy director after all the joking and laughter.

He just saved Daman, whose family has a lot of influence in Chachoengsao Province. He can find a village in the lower part of the province, arrange an identity for him, and fabricate his life story from childhood to adulthood, including his experience working in the police station. Then he can be transferred to Pattaya, and then from Pattaya to Phuket.

No, it can't be called forgery. All household registration records nowadays are paper-based, filled out and archived by officials. How can it be called forgery? It's real!
A deputy director made the decision so simply over breakfast; Wang Yaotang didn't even need to ask Azman's opinion.

More than twenty Hiace vans were scattered throughout Phuket, with loudspeakers mounted on their roofs, slowly driving down the streets. In just one morning, everyone knew that the authorities were going to pay to buy unlicensed illegal firearms, and they only had seven days before a city-wide house-to-house search would take place.

The loudspeaker didn't say what would happen if illegal firearms were found, but everyone could feel that Phuket was different now than before. The police were no longer as lazy and irresponsible as they used to be. In the past, the streets were full of thugs and crime was everywhere, but recently they were almost nowhere to be seen.

There were no loudspeaker announcements before, and even the streets in Phuket are cleaner than before.

Everyone can see the determination of the Phuket authorities.

The campaign lasted for seven days. On the first day, not many people came to hand over their illegal firearms, but the fact that these people did receive money at a good price spread, and more people came on the second day, reaching its peak on the fifth day.

Azman has been experiencing both pain and pleasure these past few days.

The good news is that citizens are willing to believe the official narrative and have voluntarily surrendered their firearms. The bad news is that money is being spent like water; if it weren't for a loan from the bank, they would have run out of money a day ago.

There are too many guns!

From old-fashioned guns from World War II to the latest assault rifles, all kinds of guns were seized. In seven days, more than 8 guns were confiscated, costing more than $1200 million.

Seven days later, the large-scale search was not as expected. Only police officers and city government officials came to persuade people to voluntarily surrender their firearms; no one went inside to search the house.

"Search your mother's house my foot! Do you think you're a Japanese devil?" That's what Wang Yaotang cursed Gao Lishi at the time.

"Don't you know what those cops are like? This kind of door-to-door search is bound to cause a lot of conflict. We don't know how many guns they'll find, but their reputation is definitely ruined."

"What crimes can ordinary people commit? Do they even qualify to commit crimes? Unless they're driven to the brink, who the hell would pull the trigger? Those who commit crimes are all underground forces that run illegal businesses."

Wang Yaotang: "I am irreconcilably opposed to evil!"

Gao Lishi: ? ? ?

Once the guns are confiscated, Wang Yaotang doesn't need to worry about anything. They'll be maintained, refurbished, and sold in official stores. Not only can they be sold for a higher price, but he can also collect money for gun licenses. Moreover, there's a large number of rebels in the surrounding area to cover his losses. How much he makes is uncertain, but he certainly won't lose money... if no one embezzles in the process.

Will anyone embezzle?

It's bound to happen...

……

Yangon, Myanmar.

After returning to Hong Kong, Luo Wenhua used his connections to find a group of people who specialized in statistics to charter a plane and send them to Yangon. Wang Yaotang received the news and arrived there in advance to wait.

I wanted to personally treat these precious kids well, as I originally intended for them to rest for a day before starting work, but the team leader refused.

My hometown is gradually opening up its internal market. The higher authorities need to keep a close eye on economic changes, and data from all regions needs to be compiled and reported. There's not much time to waste.

If it weren't for the commission from China Resources, which would have provided valuable economic data from neighboring countries and given the reasons for expanding into the Myanmar market, it would have been impossible to recruit anyone.

I immediately encountered a problem after starting work: text!

Wang Yaotang originally wanted to find local Chinese in Yangon to act as translators, but he found that most of the Chinese in Myanmar could not speak Chinese. Only a small number of business people could speak Cantonese or Hokkien, and they could only write traditional Chinese characters.

Wang Yaotang hadn't expected that the first problem would be stuck on such a trivial matter.

"Standardizing cart tracks and writing is absolutely necessary! It should be promoted throughout Asia!" Wang Yaotang cursed for a while, but he could only hold back.

There's nothing he can do about this. He can't even influence the education of traditional Chinese characters in Hong Kong. The British Hong Kong government wouldn't agree, and even after the handover, the people of Hong Kong wouldn't agree.

The economic foundation dictates that ordinary citizens look down on poor people from the mainland, so how could they possibly learn the Mandarin and writing of poor people? And after the economy began to decline significantly, their former affluence made them unable to let go of their pride, and all that was left was this little bit of knowledge.

Fortunately, the widespread adoption of simplified Chinese characters in China occurred after the 60s, and the youngest of these people were already in their 30s, having learned traditional characters in school.

After the work started, Wang Yaotang couldn't do much. All he could do was ensure they had good food and lodging, and take this opportunity to get to know them better, preparing to "undermine" the socialist system.

If used properly, these people could become the "big data" of this era, significantly widening the gap between similar companies. Their impact would be enormous. However, just seven or eight days later, a phone call forced him to hastily fly back to Hong Kong.

China Resources Building, General Manager's Office.

After exchanging a few pleasantries, Luo Wenhua inquired about the situation in Yangon before getting down to business: "It's like this, two cargo ships that departed from Shandong and transited through Hong Kong have gone missing on the western section of the Spratly Islands route."

"You mean you've been kidnapped?" Wang Yaotang asked in a deep voice. "Did you send out a distress signal, or did the kidnappers contact you to ask for a ransom?"

“They did send a distress signal. Other ships traveling on this route received the signal. After arriving at the port, they contacted their respective companies and then contacted me.” Luo Wenhua said with a serious expression, “According to the captain who sent the message, they did not have time to have a long conversation. They said they were detained by Annamese ships, and judging from the shape of the ships, they were not civilian vessels.”

"Not a civilian ship? Then it must be a warship?" Wang Yaotang's eyebrows shot up. "Didn't you ask Annam what their response was?"

"They said they didn't know."

"and then?"

"That's all." Luo Wenhua took two maps and spread them on the table, one was ours and the other was Annam's.

On our map, the incident occurred within the 'line,' while on Annam's map, the incident occurred in their sea area.

Wang Yaotang immediately understood that this was the predicament they faced before encountering Rio Tinto.

If they insist that China is responsible, then they must admit that the area where the incident occurred belongs to China; otherwise, they will have to suffer in silence and deal with it themselves.

Wang Yaotang stroked his chin, looked at the map, then at Luo Wenhua, his expression slowly becoming strange. "Brother Luo, to be honest, do you think the hijacked cargo ship was related to me?"

Luo Wenhua chuckled, “If it were before, we wouldn’t have paid so much attention to what was happening in Southeast Asian countries, and we wouldn’t have bothered to collect information and send it up. But now we have the Little God of Wealth.”

"It's such a small matter, it didn't cause any big fuss, and the media didn't report on it much."

“A trivial matter?” Luo Wenhua’s lips twitched. “A reinforced company’s camp, more than 200 people died. Isn’t the reason why the media reports so little because they all report on the ‘son-in-law’ you created? But in reality, Annam and Siam have communicated about this matter many times.”

"Those are drug traffickers entrenched on the border."

"Yes, so Annam emphasized that Siam should contact the Annamite government and have their police force cooperate in the investigation, instead of sending troops on its own. Siam, on the other hand, claimed that it was unaware of the situation and that it was a private act by civilians, and that the government was not responsible."

"And you think their navy will retaliate against our cargo ships?" Wang Yaotang grinned.

“No,” Luo Wenhua shook his head. “Ocean Guangzhou meant that they hoped Umbrella Corporation could search for the missing ships in this area.”

As he spoke, Luo Wenhua pointed emphatically to the area near the estuary of Ho Chi Minh City.

"Look for?"

"Search!"

"Damn it, these Annamese are so damn despicable!" Wang Yaotang cursed. "Those heinous pirates wouldn't be released through normal channels!"

"The most important thing is to get the kidnappers to contact us, state their conditions, and rescue the person," Luo Wenhua said in a deep voice.

"Alright, I understand!" Wang Yaotang stood up. "There's no point in reasoning with these bastards. You need to have a legitimate reason for your actions, but I don't. I'm paid to do things."

Luo Wenhua stood up. "I'll see you out."

"Let's not stand on ceremony. I'm leaving now. Wait for my message."

After leaving China Resources, Wang Yaotang immediately ordered a 037 flotilla from the Po Toi Island base to set sail two hours later, while the Xingye supply ship in Phuket and another 037 also set sail to bypass the Strait of Malacca and head north.

Since I'm just killing time anyway, I might as well keep that bastard Annan company entertained! (End of Chapter)