Did he trick the young marshal into becoming sworn brothers and then go south to Huangpu Military Ac

The gentleman stood up and paced back and forth in the study twice, suppressing the turmoil in his heart. He stopped and looked at Lin Qi with extremely deep eyes.

"Tuozhi, you are proficient in industry and understand economics, which are essential to the nation's survival. But ultimately, revolution must be guided by politics."

The man sat down again, his expression becoming unusually solemn: "I have spent half my life traveling and meeting countless people. Today I want to ask you a seemingly ethereal yet most crucial question."

The man stared intently into Lin Qi's eyes.

"In your opinion, what exactly is politics?"

This is a very broad topic.

If it were Western-educated intellectuals, they would surely bring up Montesquieu and Rousseau, and talk at length about the separation of powers and democratic republic.

Lin Qi didn't; he knew all too well the old man's sore spot.

He spent half his life in revolution, making enemies everywhere, and was ultimately betrayed by Chen Jiongming, a former confidant, ending up in a corner of the country.

After thinking for a few seconds, he spoke in a very soft tone, yet with the resounding grandeur of a great bell.

"Sir, politics isn't that complicated! Ideologies and doctrines are just means to an end."

Lin Qi leaned forward slightly and uttered a profound statement that would resonate through the ages.

"Politics is about making as many friends as possible and as few enemies as possible."

The air in the study froze instantly.

The man remained frozen in his seat, his eyes wide open.

This sentence is so rough, it doesn't contain a single obscure word, it's like the idle chatter of a country farmer.

But behind these extremely vulgar words lies a chillingly sophisticated strategy and political essence.

Make as many friends as possible and as few enemies as possible.

A sudden realization struck the man as he reflected on most of his life.

In order to uphold a certain ideology, people from different camps are condemned outright.

The Beiyang government was the enemy, the royalists were the enemy, and even those within their own camp with slightly different ideologies were enemies.

The results of it?

Fewer and fewer friends, more and more enemies, and the road ahead is getting narrower and narrower.

He stared blankly at Lin Qi, his eyes filled with indescribable shock and awe.

This young man in his early twenties is not only an industrial genius, but also a political prodigy born with innate knowledge.

"Make as many friends as possible...make as few enemies as possible..."

The man muttered to himself, repeatedly pondering the words, when suddenly he threw his head back and burst into laughter, tears streaming down his face.

"I've learned a lot, Takumi! I've learned so much!"

The gentleman stood up, walked to his desk, picked up a brush, and without the slightest hesitation, wrote down a command.

He took out the Grand Marshal's seal and stamped it heavily.

He picked up the warrant, walked up to Lin Qi, and handed it to him with both hands.

"Takumi, from today onwards, the Ishii Arsenal is entirely under your control. The 150,000 silver dollars you brought, along with all the military funds subsequently raised by headquarters, will be entirely at your disposal. The appointment and dismissal of personnel at the arsenal are entirely your responsibility."

The man's tone conveyed absolute trust and determination.

"Within headquarters, anyone who dares to interfere in the affairs of the arsenal, or to question your decisions, even if they are a veteran who has followed me for decades, will be dealt with according to military law!"

Lin Qi stood up and accepted the warrant with both hands; this was the imperial sword he wanted.

The next day.

The news that Lin Qi had seized absolute power spread like wildfire, causing an uproar in both the military and political circles of Guangzhou.

The Ishii Arsenal is currently the only barely functioning military industrial lifeline in the south. It is a complex and intertwined place filled with the relatives and friends of local Guangdong warlords, including those who embezzle salaries and those who resell scrap parts.

Now, a scholar from out of town, with just a few blueprints, is about to swallow this biggest piece of meat whole?

Several local generals and politicians secretly conspired to give this arrogant young man a real lesson.

Let him know that in Guangzhou, even a letter of appointment from a gentleman won't get him anywhere.

On the morning of the third day.

Lin Qi wasn't wearing a suit; instead, he wore an extremely smart gray Zhongshan suit.

Liao Kai specially assigned a fully armed guard platoon to Lin Qi for command.

Several military trucks roared away from the city and headed straight for the Ishii Arsenal on the outskirts of the city.

As soon as you enter the factory gate, a pungent smell of machine oil and a musty odor hits you.

The huge factory area was filled with rusty scrap iron.

Several old-fashioned lathes left over from the late Qing Dynasty emitted a piercing roar as they spun aimlessly.

In a nearby shed, dozens of workers dressed in tattered clothes were not working, but instead gathered together to gamble with dice.

Upon hearing the car horn, a middle-aged fat man with a protruding belly, wearing a dirty mandarin jacket, sauntered out of the brick house, followed by several stern-faced foremen.

This fat man is the current factory director of the arsenal, and the brother-in-law of a local Guangdong army brigade commander.

"Oh my! This must be Dr. Lin?"

The fat man gave a perfunctory bow, not even bending his waist: "What are you doing here in this junkyard so early in the morning instead of drinking coffee at your mansion? This factory is dirty, don't get your shoes dirty."

The fat man gave a forced smile, while the foremen behind him were even more defiant, with one of them deliberately spitting a wad of phlegm on the ground.

This is a show of force, a clear indication of their lack of cooperation, intended to make Lin Qi back down.

Lin Qi didn't say anything. He didn't even glance at the fat man.

He walked straight to a lathe that was running idle, and reached into the iron basket to pick up a freshly machined rifle bolt part.

He glanced at it once, and his eyes instantly turned icy.

Lin Qi turned around, holding the part, walked up to the fat man, and smashed it directly into his chest.

"The locking tenon tolerance exceeds two millimeters, and the steel has not been annealed, making it as brittle as a biscuit."

His voice was as cold as ice: "If these parts were assembled into a gun, the first bullet would blow the barrel apart."

The fat man was knocked back two steps by the impact, and he lost face.

"Dr. Lin, you can't say that. We're short on funds, can't buy good steel, and don't have the money to replace worn-out tools. The brothers haven't been paid for six months. We're already doing our best to make this shape."

The fat man retorted sarcastically, "If you don't like it, then you go make it yourself. It's easy for you to talk when you're not the one suffering."

"Haven't been paid for six months?"

Lin Qi sneered but did not get angry.

He turned to look at the fully armed guard platoon behind him and waved.

Several soldiers immediately unloaded two heavy wooden crates from the truck and placed them on the muddy ground.

Lin Qi stepped forward and kicked open the lid of one of the wooden boxes.

The gleaming silver dollars were neatly stacked in the box.

The dazzling silver light instantly blinded everyone present. The workers who had been gambling all threw down their dice, their eyes wide with disbelief.

"This is fifty thousand silver dollars."

Lin Qi looked around, his voice echoing throughout the entire factory area.

"The military vouchers issued in the past are worthless. Today, all frontline workers' wages will be settled on the spot with cash. From today onwards, as long as the work is done according to my standards, the wages will be doubled!"

These words caused an uproar throughout the entire arsenal.

The working class doesn't care about factional struggles; whoever gives them real money is their benefactor.

The workers, who had initially been coerced by the fat man, instantly switched sides, their eyes filled with fanaticism as they looked at Lin Qi.

The fat man panicked. He hadn't expected Lin Qi to resort to such a direct approach, throwing money at the problem. This was tantamount to draining his confidence among the workers.

"You...you're trying to win people over! This money needs to be deposited! It needs my signature!"

The fat man rushed forward in a fit of rage, trying to hold down the wooden crate.

Lin Qi suddenly turned around, grabbed the fat man by the collar, and lifted him up by his more than 100 pounds of fat.

"Enter the tent?"

Lin Qi stared into the fat man's terrified eyes: "Then let's settle the score."

Lin Qi pulled a thick ledger from his pocket; it was the account book of the arsenal that he had obtained from Liao Zikai the night before.

"Last month, the Grand Marshal's Office allocated 20,000 silver dollars to the factory to purchase smokeless gunpowder. Where is the gunpowder? There are only a few hundred pounds of damp black powder in the warehouse. Where did those 20,000 silver dollars go?"

The fat man's face turned pale, and his whole body trembled like a leaf. He had been embezzling funds for a long time, relying on his brother-in-law's power. Who dared to investigate him?

"My...my brother-in-law is..."

I don't care who your brother-in-law is.

Lin Qi loosened his grip, and the fat man collapsed to the ground like a lump of mud.

Lin Qi turned to look at the guard platoon leader, his tone completely calm.

"Embezzling military supplies and sabotaging the frontline resistance. According to wartime special military law, drag him out and execute him."

The guard platoon leader was stunned. This was the brother-in-law of the Guangdong Army brigade commander. Was he really going to be killed?

Lin Qi's eyes turned cold: "I have full authority over the arsenal based on your orders, sir. What, my words have no effect?"

The platoon leader shuddered, immediately stood at attention, and waved his hand.

Two ravenous soldiers pounced on him, grabbed the fat man who was screaming like a pig being slaughtered, and dragged him directly to the wasteland outside the factory area.

The foremen who had been causing trouble with the fat man were so frightened that they all knelt on the ground and kowtowed repeatedly.

Less than half a minute.

boom!

A muffled gunshot pierced through the roaring machines of the arsenal.

The screams abruptly stopped.

The entire factory area was deathly silent.

All the workers and all the soldiers stared in horror at the young man in a gray Zhongshan suit standing beside the ocean.

Decisive and ruthless, with an iron fist.

There was no wrangling, no procedural follow-up; the execution was carried out on the spot.

Lin Qi dusted off his hands and scanned the room.

"From today onwards, the Ishii Arsenal will only have my own rules. Those who follow the rules will be promoted and made rich. Those who dare to break my rules will suffer the consequences."

He turned around, preparing to go to the workshop to check on those old German lathes.

The corner of the factory building not far away.

Chiang Kai-shek, dressed in a crisp military uniform, watched the entire event quietly.

He came here specifically to watch the show, expecting the overseas scholar to be bullied badly by the local bullies.

As a result, they retaliated with money to pave the way, coupled with a brutal crackdown that resulted in immediate killings, a move that was extremely swift and decisive.

Chiang Kai-shek was deeply shocked. He realized that the young man in front of him was not only rich and intelligent, but also a ruthless, cunning, and insightful man.

In the future, this person will undoubtedly wield significant influence in Guangzhou.

Chiang Kai-shek quietly adjusted his collar, forced a very sincere and warm smile onto his face, and quickly walked towards Lin Qi.

"Brother Tuo's swift and decisive methods are truly admirable to Chiang Kai-shek."

He adopted an extremely humble posture, his tone revealing an undisguised desire to make friends: "This factory is rife with shady characters and scoundrels. If Tuozhixiong doesn't mind, Kaishen is willing to protect you in terms of security and miscellaneous matters on the perimeter from now on."