Spy Wars: Red Shopkeeper

Chapter 166 Counterfeiting
Eight tons of quinine is far too much!
According to the agreement, Gu Yansheng would pay $100,000 per ton of quinine, so eight tons would cost $800,000.

Sato Seiken of Mitsui made an advance payment of 400,000, which means that Gu Yansheng himself still had to pay 400,000 US dollars.

It's tying up too much capital.

The only benefit will be for Minister Zhou next week, who will lend some more money to a few pharmacies and earn some interest.

That evening, Gu Yansheng arrived at the Huangpu River. On the river at night, small boats were unloading boxes of medicine from large ships.

Those were Gu Zhuxuan's men, and the newly hired secretary, Ma Shiqi, was in charge.

The cargo ship would only be an empty vessel when it entered Wusongkou. The eight tons of medicine would be unloaded before entering Wusongkou and then transported directly to the warehouse in western Shanghai along the Suzhou River during its subsequent journey.

With Mitsui's documents prepared in hand, the unloading could be done openly and honestly, without fear of running into Japanese inspection ships. Fumihiko's inspection department was also on hand to ensure the passage along the way. The whole thing didn't require his personal involvement; all the problems that might arise from smuggling had already been resolved before they even occurred.

Gu Yansheng called over several pharmacy owners to watch together. The owners were quite excited, looking at the boxes of quinine being placed on the small boat. They weren't looking at medicine; their eyes were no different from those of people looking at gold.

After looking at the medicine, he looked at Qi Wuzhou and exchanged glances. Qi Wuzhou immediately understood and acted as the representative to negotiate with Gu Yansheng.

"Hehe, Director Gu, you see, our medicines have arrived now. What's next?"

"You want money, right? I've always been fair in my dealings."

Gu Yansheng turned to him and said, "The agreed price is the price. How you got it is your skill. I don't care how much you earn. But there's one thing I have to remind you beforehand."

"Please go ahead," the bosses said with smiles and bowed slightly as they listened.

Gu Yansheng stated bluntly, "This deal involves very complicated matters, and the information needs to be kept strictly confidential, especially since your identities are not so clean. Don't cause trouble for yourselves."

"We know, we know, we promise it won't get out." The bosses nodded with smiles. They were causing trouble in Southeast Asia, and nowadays, people are afraid of becoming famous, just like pigs are afraid of getting fat. They absolutely couldn't afford to become famous.

Gu Yansheng glanced at them, waved his hand, and told Ma Shiqi to get the money from the car and give it to them.

The bosses were overjoyed to see the money. They had initially thought that Director Gu might try to cheat them out of the money, or at least try to negotiate a lower price.

Unexpectedly, they were truly trustworthy and actually gave the money. The 400,000 here, plus the original loan, meant that the 800,000 was not reduced in a single penny.

"Director Gu, thank you so much." The group of bosses bowed deeply, smiling broadly.

"I won't stop you from making money, but you need to hurry up with the other medicines," Gu Yansheng instructed.

"Yes, yes, yes, we'll hurry! We'll set off again tomorrow to get the medicine from Germany!"

The bosses are now ambitious, with a trip worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. They're not exactly incapable of being pirates!
Of course, Germany should still exercise some respect and buy normally if possible; they are still aware of their own limitations.

Gu Yansheng let them go and didn't make things difficult for them.

Next, it's time to wrap things up.

The arrival of eight tons of quinine was too orderly. If it had been delivered in smaller quantities, like a few hundred kilograms, it would have been better if each pharmacy owner could have their own. That way, it would have been much easier for them to hide some.

Now it's eight tons at a time, which is a huge amount, and many people know about it, which has actually caused some trouble.

Giving it to Mitsui is out of the question; we need to think of another way.

Gu Yansheng pondered the matter for a moment and then called Ma Shiqi over: "We need to distribute this batch of medicine, but I also need to report to the Japanese. Here's a problem for you: how do you turn one ton of quinine into eight tons of quinine while ensuring it remains quinine?"

Ma Shiqi recalled the methods used in the black market and replied, "It's not difficult. If you can accept reducing the efficacy of quinine, you can add starch, talcum powder, and gypsum powder to quinine, which can turn one ton of quinine into eight tons."

"Sixteen tons is acceptable; any more than that and the medicinal effect will be too weak."

"Eight tons is enough. How's the medicine made from it?"

"The quinine produced in this way is not very toxic and will not kill people, but the treatment period will be prolonged and malaria is more likely to relapse."

Um, it might also cause diarrhea, and there's nothing we can do about that. As far as I know, talcum powder is something that must be used to dilute quinine, and a side effect of talcum powder itself is that it can cause stomach upset.

"Stomach discomfort? It doesn't sound like a flaw. A Japanese soldier on the battlefield who had malaria had diarrhea. That was clearly due to his weakened constitution caused by the change in environment. Even a normal person would experience this, let alone a patient. What does that have to do with medicine?" Gu Yansheng glanced at him, his expression completely innocent.

Ma Shiqi nodded and smiled: "Indeed, it has nothing to do with anything. You can't be sure what will happen on the battlefield. Besides, to be honest, these merchants' goods were stolen from gangs in Southeast Asia. Who knows if the goods the people in Southeast Asia gave them were genuine?"

I think it's highly likely that the people from Southeast Asia adulterated the medicine from the very beginning.

That's more like it. As expected of a lawyer, Gu Yansheng liked the flexibility of this advisor. "Here's a ton of quinine. Make eight tons, is that alright?"

If that doesn't work, Gu Yansheng will have to call these businessmen back; they definitely will.

"No problem, I can ask the gang's pharmacist to help me. The raw materials are not contraband and are easy to obtain. It's just that the amount of medicine is too large. It's too slow to grind by hand to fully mix the medicine and the materials. I need a mixer. The newly opened flour mill has mixers. That kind of machine will do. I need to use it for one night."

"Use it freely." Last year's wheat harvest wasn't finalized, and this year's wheat harvest is still far off; the flour mill wasn't even open yet.

Gu Yansheng instructed, "You can use the machine until it's worn out, just be careful with the noise. After all, the remaining medicine needs to be sold to the Nationalist-controlled areas, so don't use people who talk big."

"Don't worry about that. The process doesn't require many people; they're all familiar with us. If we had people like that in our smuggling team after all these years, the Jiangbei gang would have been wiped out by the Japanese long ago."

"Okay, let's hurry up and start working tonight."

"Yes."

Having someone else handle things reduces a lot of worry. Gu Yansheng still needs to go see Chen Mo.

We drove to Chen Mo's residence in the foreign concession.

He first inquired about the assassination attempt, asking, "How is He Xingjian's situation?"

"I had the people in my team who are good at tracking follow him for a few days. His whereabouts are easy to track. He's either going to brothels or dance halls, indulging in debauchery all day long. The only problem is that he has quite a few bodyguards around him. He has six bodyguards by his side all the time. I also discovered that people from the 76th Division were lying in ambush. We need to find an opportunity to strike. While we were tracking him, my people also discovered a group of people, probably from the Shanghai area. They were also looking for an opportunity to assassinate him."

Gu Yansheng thought for a moment and said, "We still need to be patient with this matter and try to kill him with one blow. Otherwise, if we scare He Xingjian, it will be more difficult to make a move later."

"I know, is there something you need from me?"

"Yes." Gu Yansheng mentioned the medicine. "I definitely won't just give the medicine to Mitsui like that. Do you have any explosives? I'll arrange for transportation. You can blow up the car and the explosives on the way. Make sure they're powerful enough that he can't use them even if he picks them up."

"Of course I have bombs. If you want something powerful, TNT is the way to go. It can blow up trains, and cars are no problem for it. I buy them from French arms dealers. If I have 8 tons of medicine, I'll add 40 kilograms of TNT. That'll be more than enough."

"Prepare the explosives today. I need them anytime. I'll let you know the route as soon as I need to deliver the goods."

"no problem."

The next evening, Ma Shiqi came to report.

"The medicine is already being repackaged, and it is expected to be completed tomorrow."

"it is good."

"However, something is a bit unusual. My men told me that this evening, some of the brothers who work on the boats saw a group of black men come ashore. They were sneaking around and didn't seem like good people. There were quite a few of them."

"Have the people from Southeast Asia caught up with us?" Gu Yansheng immediately made the connection to these people.

“I think so too.” Ma Shiqi nodded. “They suffered such a huge loss that they probably followed those thugs’ boat all the way to Shanghai. Those thugs landed an hour earlier than them, on the beach near Jinshanwei.”

"How many people?" Gu Yansheng asked after thinking for a moment.

"I saw about twenty or thirty of them. I don't know if anyone else arrived around the same time. When I saw their boatmen, I didn't pay much attention. After all, it's normal for smugglers to pass through there. But when we got ashore and started chatting, these black people were quite special. My men knew that those merchants had robbed goods from Southeast Asia, so they kept an eye on them."

"Ah."

Gu Yansheng needs to think about this matter; it's not a good thing for these people to stay in Shanghai.

If they find the medicine merchant, killing a few will leave no one to work for him, so the medicine merchant's life still needs to be saved.

“Let’s change the plan,” Gu Yansheng said to Ma Shiqi. “Two things. First, find a warehouse in western Shanghai, near the river where it’s easy to escape.”

Second, expedite the packaging of the medicines. Once that's done, store the goods in the warehouse, then bring two large trucks and park them next to the warehouse, filling them with fuel.

Third, once these black guys get to Shanghai, they'll definitely look for those drug dealers and thugs. You should have someone contact them and tell them you know the whereabouts of the drugs. For a small fee, you can provide them with real clues about the factory.

Then you have to tell them in a very friendly way that the real owner behind this shipment is the Japanese, who have a lot of influence.

If they want to transport the goods, they'd better hurry, because this shipment is urgently needed by the Japanese army at the front. It won't stay in the warehouse for long; the Japanese could send it to the front at any time.

Black people won't easily believe what locals say; they'll want to verify the information, so your people should take them to verify it.

The verification process takes place at night. Once he finishes verifying, he'll very likely want to take the goods back, but with heavy guards, it won't be easy to seize them that night. They'll discuss a plan and look for an opportunity to steal the goods.

We didn't give him any time to think. The next day, we delivered the goods and let him grab them.

Your men can't catch up.

Ma Shiqi understood. "Okay, I'll arrange it right away."

"It needs to be fast, and all at the same time."

"Ok."

Ma Shiqi began directing his men to take action. Three-legged toads were hard to find, and the two-legged black devils were clustered together, making them even more dazzling than light bulbs.

Gu Yansheng still needs to find Chen Mo.

"Things have taken a turn for the worse; the black guy is chasing after us."

Chen Mo listened in surprise and laughed, "They're quite bold, aren't they? They're ruthless characters, but are they out of their minds? Do they think they can just covet Shanghai? What are you planning to do? I'm looking for some fun."

Gu Yansheng smiled and said, "The plan needs to be changed. Tomorrow I will have the Japanese come to collect the goods. You will do your usual assassinations. If you happen to see Japanese or medicine, shoot them. Kill or drive away the Japanese, that's fine. Don't worry about the black people, and don't worry about the goods either. Let them go."

"Understood, I'll handle it. Should we still plant the bomb?"

"Of course we have to release it. The goods can't end up in the hands of the Japanese. But we can change the location, plant the bomb on the ship that the black guy is on, blow up the whole ship, and that will solve everything."

"That works, but we don't know the location of the ship."

“It’s simple. Before they rob the goods, the ship will definitely be waiting on the shore. Go from the warehouse to the shore. Tomorrow, send people to search along the coastline. They will definitely find the ship. There should be black men left on the ship, and there might even be some on the shore. It shouldn’t be difficult.”

"I have a better idea."

"Tell me."

"Instead of finding a ship, let him deliver the bombs onto it."

Gu Yansheng gave an "Oh," raised an eyebrow, and said, "Putting the bomb in the medicine box and having the black guy steal the medicine box and board the ship can indeed achieve the same effect. Assassination is indeed your specialty."

But what if they make a mistake and these drugs fall into the hands of the Japanese, who then open them and find bombs inside? How do you explain that?

Was it planted by a black guy? Opening a box and planting a bomb in such a rush—isn't that incredibly reckless?
And I'm guessing you're going to use a time bomb, which makes timing difficult to control.

Chen Mo nodded and smiled: "I'll listen to you."

(End of this chapter)