Spy Wars: Red Shopkeeper

Chapter 167 Damage
The next day, Ma Shiqi came to report.

We found the group last night. The main group was hiding in an empty house in the countryside, while a few people, presumably leaders, had infiltrated the concession and were spending money to ask the foreigners there where to buy some Western medicine.

"They wanted to find the drug dealers based on the clues. Now my people pretended to be drug dealers and told them that they knew a batch of drugs had arrived in Shanghai and that they knew where the unloading point was. They were very eager and offered to pay my people to take them to the warehouse."

My men took them to see it. Last night, I deliberately had the medicine moved around so they could see it clearly.

"Have all the medicines been shipped?"

"It's been transported there. We only showed them a portion last night. All eight tons of diluted quinine are there now. The warehouse isn't far from the riverbank. If they run like crazy, the truck can reach the shore in fifteen minutes at most."

"it is good."

Gu Yansheng picked up the phone and called Sato Qingjian of Mitsui.

"Haha, President Sato, fantastic news! Eight tons of quinine have just arrived in western Shanghai and are in my warehouse."

"Are you serious?" Sato Seiken's voice rose in surprise, making no attempt to hide his joy. "These smugglers actually managed to get eight tons of quinine?"

“It’s true.” Gu Yansheng explained their tactic of dragging their feet on getting the medicine, then offering a generous reward to attract brave men. “When they hear there’s money to be made, these black market merchants really stop at nothing. Their ruthlessness is astonishing, but the results are really good.”

"Excellent! The abilities they have demonstrated under Mr. Gu's tutelage are indeed formidable; Mr. Gu deserves much credit!"

The people at Mitsui don't care about stealing or anything like that; they just want to get their hands on the goods.

"Mr. Sato, you're too kind. I'm making money too, you know. The goods are currently in my warehouse, and things could get complicated if I wait any longer. The assassination attempts by the Military Intelligence Bureau in western Shanghai have been very serious lately. How about we stick to the usual arrangement, and I'll send someone to deliver the goods to you first? As for the auction, we can just go through the motions."

"Okay. Um, I'll send some people over to help transport the goods. The Military Intelligence Bureau's assassinations are indeed frequent, so we still need to be careful."

Gu Yansheng's implied meaning had the desired effect: if they came, he would kill a few Japanese; if they didn't come, he wouldn't kill them, which was actually no big deal.

"Okay, there's one more thing, Mr. Sato. Because the shipments have far exceeded expectations, could you please pay part of the money in advance? Otherwise, I won't be able to balance the accounts."

"Mr. Gu, don't worry, as long as there's goods, there's money. I won't shortchange you."

"Okay, then we'll wait for your people to arrive. Here's the address."

After making the call, Gu Yansheng and Ma Shiqi set off, arriving near the warehouse ahead of everyone else. After searching around, they found no teahouse nearby, so they could only find a second-floor apartment in a residential building and use the balcony where clothes were being dried as a viewing platform.

The view from here is decent; you can see the warehouse activity in the distance. The warehouse is heavily guarded now, with about thirty guards and patrol teams patrolling outside the warehouse from time to time.

"That spot, Chief." Ma Shiqi pointed to the alley to the left and ahead. "See that? There are black guys staking out there."

Gu Yansheng looked and, sure enough, there were two black men whose legs seemed to have gone numb from squatting. They got up, walked a few steps, and smoked a cigarette.

Gu Yansheng suddenly laughed as he watched this scene.

"Director, what's so funny?" Although Ma Shiqi didn't know why Gu Yansheng was laughing, he laughed along with him when he saw Gu Yansheng laughing.

Gu Yansheng laughed, "I find it quite funny. Black guys trying to be stalkers in broad daylight in Shanghai, hahaha."

An hour later, the Japanese convoy arrived, consisting of military police motorcycles with the Rising Sun flag on the front, plus three cars, from which twelve thugs who looked like Japanese ronin got out.

The warehouse had already been contacted, so the ronin entered the warehouse without any problems.

After a while, the warehouse started moving goods, loading the medicines onto the truck.

Seeing this, the black man in the alley became visibly nervous. After watching for a minute, he felt that this scene matched what the informant had said about the Japanese wanting to take the goods away.

They immediately ran out to make a phone call, and then returned to the alley to observe.

The warehouse moving was still ongoing, and the warehouse workers were instructed not to move too quickly, so much so that the warehouse was not finished moving goods by the time all the black men had gathered.

Gu Yansheng and Ma Shiqi were greatly shocked. Judging from the appearance of this black-faced man, there were actually fifty or sixty people with him.

The black man was quite patient. He knew that a direct assault would result in too many losses, so he waited until the delivery trucks came out before making his move.

The battle is imminent!
The Japanese man saw a group of black men come out and was still laughing.

It was definitely funny; even Gu Yansheng laughed.

but.

Rat-a-tat-tat! The black guy was carrying a light machine gun, and the Japanese were stunned in the first encounter!
The Japanese watched the truck drive out of the warehouse gate, then walked to their cars, their mortal bodies bracing for the baptism of machine gun bullets from the black devils.

They quickly realized what was happening and began to fight back, retreating into the warehouse as they did so.

Chen Mo, who was huddled in a corner, was dumbfounded. If the black guys had driven the Japanese away, what were they doing here? How was he going to explain to his team why they were here?

There's no other way; we can only help Blackie fight the Japanese.

Seeing that someone was helping him, the black man didn't think twice and went straight to steal the car. He ran away after stealing the car, not caring at all where his allies came from.

While cursing the gang of thugs for their lack of ethics, Chen Mo also began to retreat. He had already taken the goods, so what was the point of showing off? Preserving his fighting strength was the top priority.

"Call for backup!" the Japanese man in the warehouse shouted, ran out, got into his car, and chased after them.

Chen Mo's men followed closely behind.

"Sigh, we can't see it anymore." Gu Yansheng and Ma Shiqi sighed in unison.

Then let's go back and wait for news.

the other side.

The black man excitedly fled with the goods, and in just ten minutes, the car reached the shore, where the boat was already docked.

It was a bit of a struggle to load the eight tons of medicine onto the ship, but the black man knew he was on someone else's turf and had the strength to do so. He set up the wooden platform connecting the shore and the ship, and the forty-kilogram boxes were quickly lifted onto the ship one by one.

Dozens of people worked together, with people on the truck unloading the goods and others below taking the boxes and carrying them onto the boat one by one. There were about three hundred boxes, but it only took one person a few trips.

Despite their swift movements, the Japanese still managed to catch up and launch an attack.

However, Chen Mo's men followed closely behind, forcing the Japanese to launch a defensive attack on the sycophants following them.

The black guys were carrying things with great enthusiasm. Apart from a few people providing cover with machine guns, the rest of them acted as if they hadn't seen the gunfight at all, carrying things onto the ship without looking back. They really valued money over their lives.

"Sail, sail!"

After the black man finished moving his things, he waved goodbye to the captain's cabin without a second thought. As for the group of unknown friends who had helped them, all he could say was, "Brother, goodbye."

After waving for a while, I realized that the people in the captain's cabin seemed to have disappeared.

"What about people?"

"I do not know."

"Did you go out to eat?"

"No way?"

"What should I do?"

Now is not the time to wait, there is no time to even think. The leader of the team quickly made a decision after seeing the fighting outside.

"No more waiting, let's set sail!" It's better for one person to die than for them all to die here.

Tap tap tap, the ship sets sail, the black man pushes the ship to its maximum speed, riding the waves at sea.

They knew that Japanese patrol boats could appear in this area at any time.

They weren't afraid of the small boat; the boat was full of machine guns. They could shoot down from above, and it was uncertain who would kill whom.

But if the big Japanese guys come, it will be hard to run away!
As if on cue, an hour later, Japanese patrol boats rapidly approached, and a battle ensued at sea.

A single patrol boat is no match for the black men; at least, it can't stop their boat.

However, the ships that immediately followed from the sea put immense pressure on the black man.

"Drive faster!"

Seeing that the ship was still not stopping, the warships aimed at one side of the black ship and fired a powerful shot.

Huge splashes of water erupted on the sea!
It doesn't stop.

One more shot!
boom!
This shot seemed to have triggered some kind of mechanism.

The gunners on the Japanese warships thought they had hit the target, aiming at the port side of the ship, but damn it, the ship was bombed!
Is this accurate or inaccurate?

A teahouse next to the Huxi Police Station.

Upon learning of the warehouse robbery, Sato Seiken rushed over to have tea with Gu Yansheng.

He comforted Gu Yansheng.

"It's alright, Director Gu, you can rest assured. I've already called on naval vessels and army patrol boats to join the operation. The stolen supplies will definitely be recovered."

"I hope so." Gu Yansheng's expression was not very good. So many supplies had been stolen, and he was not happy at all. He was a little worried that Sato Seiken might renege on his debts.

Suddenly, an assistant rushed in through the door, looking flustered, and said, "President, the navy patrol ship opened fire and bombed the smuggling ship! There may have been explosives on board, and an army patrol ship was also blown up."

"How could it explode?" Gu Yansheng stood up instantly.

Sato Seiken slammed his teacup down on the table with a loud bang, his face turning pale. "Do these Navy guys even have brains?"

He stood up angrily, grabbed the phone, and dialed.

The incessant cursing was unpleasant even to Gu Yansheng, who couldn't understand it.

With a bang, Sato Seiken slammed down the phone, his chest heaving as he cursed. After finishing his rant, Sato Seiken picked up the phone again and continued to call the Army, spewing out another string of curses before slamming down the phone again.

"What do you mean?" Gu Yansheng asked anxiously.

"The Navy said it wasn't their fault; it was an Army patrol boat that rammed into it, causing the smuggling boat to veer off course and get hit!"

"The Army said they had other patrol boats that saw it, and it was the Navy that bombed it!"

"They shirk responsibility all they do is shirk responsibility. These two bunches of useless idiots are all stupid!"

"I'm the biggest idiot! I shouldn't have let both groups go up together!"

Eight tons of quinine!
How much can it be sold to the military for?
Sato Seiken's heart was bleeding.

But looking at Gu Yansheng's frighteningly pale face, Sato was relieved. Luckily, the money hadn't been paid yet, and luckily, the robbery happened in Gu Yansheng's warehouse. If the goods had reached Gu Yansheng's hands, he would have been the one to suffer.

But it's difficult to say anything now, since he's not going to give me money.

After thinking for a moment, he comforted him, saying, "Director Gu, this was an accident. The only thing we can do now is to try to minimize the losses. Anyway, those businessmen didn't spend much money, so we shouldn't pay them. At most, we can give them the cost price."

If you've already paid, then take it back.

As for the commission I promised you, you know that now that the goods are gone, I've also suffered a loss. We can only accept our bad luck.

Who could have imagined things would turn out this way?

"We can get the money back, but does that mean we should stop using quinine in the future? If we get it back, will those businessmen still be willing to work for us?"

"You handle this yourself. My condition remains the same: you can trade me any quinine you have. My contract remains valid. Director Gu, there's always a way out. Let's wait for another opportunity. I'll take my leave now."

Sato Seiken didn't want to stay here anymore. If the merchants continued to do things for them, they would have to pay them. But now the merchants had spent money and they hadn't received the goods. Someone had to bear this loss. It was either Gu Yansheng or the merchants, but it couldn't be him.

He had to leave; if he stayed any longer, Gu Yansheng would start asking him for money.

However, he really wanted quinine.

He paused for a moment and added, "Director Gu, I hope you won't let things get too tense with the businessman. Five tons of quinine. If you can help me get five tons of quinine, I can cover the businessman's losses this time, and I'll still give you the profit sharing as before. I'll be waiting for your good news."

He's a penny-pincher, never acting until he sees a clear benefit, and only makes empty promises.

Gu Yansheng picked up his coffee cup, stood up and went to the window to watch Sato Seiken's convoy drive by, and took a sip of coffee.

Ma Shiqi stood respectfully to the side, knowing that a person's ability could be revealed by experiencing something.

He participated in the entire process from the beginning to the end, from the arrangement of Director Gu. Although there were unexpected changes due to the appearance of black people in the middle, Director Gu changed his approach and simply allowed the black people to rob, which made the Japanese army, who could only obtain inferior medicine, unable to get a single medicine.

Although it is unknown whether the appearance of the Military Intelligence Bureau was an accident or whether Director Gu deliberately leaked information to the Military Intelligence Bureau.

However, Director Gu did keep his promise to Master Gu and did not help the Japanese army, so he was not a pure traitor.

I feel very reassured having someone by my side to do things.

Gu Yansheng watched the convoy disappear completely and said:

"Go find Qi Wuzhou and tell him that the medicine was stolen and the ships were destroyed. Tell him to tell all the participants to get half of the money back."

Your reasoning could be that the Black people chased you here, and the drugs were stolen because of them. If you pay up, everyone can share the loss, and the business can continue in the future.

If there are still people who don't know what's good for them, arrest them and lock them up for a few days, then you can tell me.

Ma Shiqi nodded and chuckled: "There shouldn't be such a person. They've already made quite a bit of money by taking back half of what they've taken. If they still don't know what's good for them, I think just telling them that the black devil might come again would scare them half to death. Then no one will be there to protect them."

"So much the better."

Gu Yansheng also had to put on a show for others. In order to do business in the long term, he could offer some benefits to the merchants and accept some losses. But if someone was disobedient or too greedy...

On the Japanese side, Gu Yansheng, this traitor, seemed utterly incompetent.

"What should we do with the remaining seven tons of quinine?" Ma Shiqi asked.

Gu Yansheng thought for a moment and said, "Take a cold approach. This batch of goods cannot be sold for the time being, but it should not be left in western Shanghai. Transport three tons into the concession and store them in three warehouses. Transport three tons to the Nationalist-controlled area and store them in a warehouse there for a period of time. The remaining ton should be diluted according to the dilution method."

This time it's diluted to two tons, and we'll see how things go with the bulk shipment later.

"I understand, I'll do it right away."

(End of this chapter)