Rebirth: I am in Jin-Cha-Ji

Wei Hongjun was really shocked this time.

Although Zhang Ming's letter to the Chairman wasn't a formal report, no letter was personal to the Chairman. Even personal letters from his hometown would first be recorded and reviewed by the General Office.

Because there are a lot of people writing letters to the Chairman every day.

The General Office receives a large number of letters every day, and it is impossible for the Chairman to read them all. If the Chairman reads all the letters personally, he will not have to do anything all day.

Therefore, the General Office sorts out all the letters addressed to the Chairman first. Some of the less important ones, such as those written by students, are rarely replied to personally by the Chairman. Instead, the General Office staff helps with the reply.

After all, Zhang Ming is the director of the political department of the provincial military region, and it is impossible for the General Office to intercept his letters.

So although Zhang Ming wrote a letter, he had no intention of concealing anything.

It can be said that Zhang Ming is brave and upright. This kind of suggestion, not to mention him, a small provincial military district political director, even the bigwigs in the military would avoid it due to various concerns.

It's impossible not to avoid it.

During the Liberation War, military regions and field armies each had their own territory and finances, including the early occupation of cities, which were all under military control.

So never underestimate these troops.

The confiscated assets of the Kuomintang army alone were a significant sum. As for the military districts, it goes without saying that in the early days, they controlled local finances. Therefore, both the military districts and the field armies held vast amounts of assets. This was especially true for the higher-level military units and the various military districts, which held vast sums of wealth. This wasn't limited to monetary assets, but also included substantial fixed assets and land assets.

In the early days of liberation, all major cities were under military control and the entire city was directly managed by the army.

Throughout this process, the military and local governments were integrated, not separated. Of course, they are not completely separated now. Many of the newly established major military regions have political commissars who are also local provincial party secretaries.

But now the situation is much better than in the early days of liberation.

Overall, the separation of military and political power has been completed.

"Yeah. I think the Shaanxi Military Region must be having a headache right now. Old Guo must be looking grim."

"Is he from Division Two?"

"No. He was a member of the 386th Brigade during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression. After Comrade Chen Geng led the troops south to the Central Plains, he stayed in Shanxi, Hebei, Shandong and Henan, and later joined the Third Corps and followed the troops to Shaanxi.

Yang Quanwu suddenly sighed and said, "I suddenly feel that compared to Comrade Zhang Ming, I am much more timid and despicable. It is well known that the army has huge assets. For example, after we captured Beijing and Tianjin, although important places were taken over by various departments, a large number of departments were still taken over by the army, and the army's assets increased greatly. When the Fifth Field Army moved south, they took away many cars and trucks. When we arrived in Jiangxi and Fujian, we also confiscated a large amount of assets from the Kuomintang government and military agencies. There were land, houses, cars, and a lot of cash. Not to mention the arable land occupied by the army for reclamation, which were all army assets. If you think about it carefully, the army across the country must have a lot of assets. But no one dared to speak out. Instead, Comrade Zhang Ming directly reported the problem to the Chairman."

Yang Quanwu really felt very guilty.

This kind of thing should have been proposed to the Central Committee and the Military Commission when he was in charge of the General Staff. But he hadn't thought about it at the time, or rather, he hadn't considered it at all. Unexpectedly, it was now brought up by lower-level cadres.

"What was the decision of the Eighth Headquarters meeting?"

"The General Finance Department will be responsible for taking full inventory of our military's assets. Once the inventory is complete, any excess funds will be submitted to the Central Military Commission, and then to the Ministry of Finance for unified management. Even if there are no excess assets to be submitted, the General Finance Department of the Central Military Commission must still have an understanding of the entire military's assets."

The central government believes that the military regions currently have a lot of money.

Or rather, it’s common sense.

The central government's finances were currently in difficulty, so the military certainly needed support. After the Chairman's directive, General Peng and General He, who were in charge of the day-to-day operations of the Military Commission, both approved it. Therefore, this task fell to the General Finance Department.

The newly appointed Minister of the General Finance Department, Yang Lisan, First Deputy Minister, Tang Tianji, and Second Deputy Minister, Tang Ping, were responsible for this task. However, it was far from easy to inventory the military's "private funds." Therefore, the Central Military Commission (CMC) instructed the various military regions to first conduct their own inventories. The CMC's General Finance Department would then conduct spot checks on the troops under each military region. If the figures differed significantly, a full inventory of the military region would be conducted.

Wei Hongjun also sighed and said, "Zhang Ming is a courageous and upright cadre."

Zhang Ming didn't know how many people he had offended this time.

The major military regions, including the provincial military regions under them, as well as various units, all had their own "private funds." Originally, these "private funds" belonged to the military, but when Zhang Ming uncovered them, the situation became complicated.

Because soon these "private money" will become public assets.

I don’t know how many people hate him.

Maybe people from the Shaanxi Provincial Military Region will blame him.

Anyway, he was not a cadre from the original Jin-Cha-Ji Brigade, but a cadre from the 386th Brigade. The troops in the current Shaanxi Provincial Military Region were all from Guo Tianmin's Jin-Cha-Ji Third Corps, and later the Third Corps of the First Field Army. They were not from the same mountain, and now such a big thing has happened.

"Yeah. I'm ashamed of myself."

Yang Quanwu admires Zhang Ming very much.

Wei Hongjun thought for a moment and said, "When you open a school in Xi'an in the future, you'll have the chance to take care of him."

"Ah."

Yang Quanwu nodded and said, "Wait until we reach an agreement with the Soviet Union and officially develop the nuclear industry, then I'll take a look. If needed, I can transfer him over. Such cadres are rare."

Admiring, but also a little worried.

This is how Yang Quanwu feels now. When he has the chance in the future, Yang Quanwu is willing to take care of him.

At Yang Quanwu's current level, it is relatively easy to take care of a cadre of Zhang Ming's level.

"Ah."

Zhang Ming's arrest was a good thing. Wei Hongjun had also worked in the military and was well aware of the situation. The specific figures from this major investigation of military assets would be shocking. Otherwise, how could Wang Zhen have opened so many factories in Xinjiang?

"Don't worry about reaching an agreement with the Soviets. I'll help you coordinate at least a regiment of infrastructure troops. As long as you have the blueprints, we can build the school for you within six months."

"it is good."

896 The first cooperation between Guangdong and Hong Kong

While the Central Committee was busy with the Eighth Congress, Chinese and American representatives, after nearly a month of negotiations, had roughly reached a conclusion. The Chinese representative was Ke Boyan, Director of the American and Australian Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, accompanied by a representative from the Finance and Economics Committee.

China has put forward a large number of proposals.

Starting with joining the United Nations, they demanded the withdrawal of US naval forces from Taiwan and the abandonment of support for the Chiang Kai-shek regime. They then demanded the lifting of the US embargo and "help" China build fertilizer and chemical fiber plants.

But the United States' attitude is firm.

The United States absolutely cannot compromise politically in this negotiation. The Democrats are already at a disadvantage domestically. If they compromise politically, they'll have no chance. Eisenhower is currently leaning on the Democrats; if they compromise politically, they'll face endless criticism.

Therefore, on the issues of the United Nations and Taiwan, the United States gritted its teeth and insisted on refusing to agree to China's demands.

On the issue of the embargo, the US representatives were willing to compromise. Previously, the US embargo list included even daily necessities, effectively a complete and all-encompassing effort to completely cut off China's import and export trade. However, in this negotiation, the US side was willing to remove these items from the list.

In fact, this is a loophole.

As long as the US is willing to make a concession, the embargo will gradually be lifted. Unless it's something too sensitive or something the US deliberately embargoes, many other products can be purchased on the world market. This is because the US embargo is a joint effort of the Western world. As the saying goes, when there are too many people, there are naturally more people than there are people, especially since the US has only been the boss for a few years.

It has not yet been able to completely unify Western countries.

Besides, Western countries also have their own interests and cannot completely obey the United States. The United States' control over the Western world still has many problems.

Just like natural rubber.

During the Korean War, natural rubber was embargoed. However, after the war, the United States began to loosen its control over natural rubber. Other countries that followed the US embargo naturally began selling natural rubber to the Soviet Union. In reality, the US merely relaxed its controls; it didn't actually remove natural rubber from the embargo list. However, other countries continued to sell whatever was supposed to be sold to the Soviet Union. This demonstrates the conflicting interests among Western countries.

This is true for natural rubber, as well as some other commodities. As long as the United States relaxes its embargo a little, trade will open up.

After rejecting China's political demands, the United States is more willing to make economic concessions.

And they are willing to make a lot of concessions economically.

After all, China holds 100,000 American prisoners. The US isn't concerned about these prisoners; the US isn't short of men, anyway. The US is concerned that if these prisoners remain in China, it will be evidence of its own defeat at the hands of the Chinese military during the Korean War. The US has just become the hegemon of the West, and now is the time to assert its authority.

It is even more impossible to leave so many prisoners in China. Besides, China has captured so many senior generals and pilots.

They were familiar with the treaty signed between China and Britain. In addition to providing China with a long-term, low-interest loan of 3000 million, Britain also spent approximately 700 million US dollars. Furthermore, it returned to China one of the cotton mills, which had recently been expanded and was considered one of the largest and most profitable in China. The British used this money to exchange for the prisoners.

The number of American prisoners was more than ten times that of British prisoners, and there were more senior American generals.

So the US did some economic calculations and realized that tens of millions of dollars would not be enough to solve this problem.

Of course, the United States also refused to give money directly.

Because that would appear like war reparations. So, after some back-and-forth with Chinese representatives, the US representatives finally agreed to give China $200 million in supplies in exchange for cash, to resolve the situation. However, this $200 million would not be converted into machinery and equipment. The US wouldn't be so foolish as to convert it all into machinery and equipment. How much machinery and equipment would that have to give China?

With machinery and equipment, China can accelerate its own industrialization and produce industrial products on its own.

How could the United States be willing to be such a sucker? Of course, the United States would not do such a thing as helping China industrialize.

So the United States is preparing to give China a batch of things produced during the war.

The US representatives were willing to give China 2000 jeeps, 3000 motorcycles, and 12000 trucks in exchange for $ million. After the war, all of these supplies, except those retained by the military, would be disposed of at a low price.

There are not just one or two people eyeing these things at the moment.

Because the price is low.

But now the US has decided to dump all of this stuff on China. They're selling it to China at 80% of market value, hoping to offset the $100 million loss. This deal is a win for the US. But China isn't willing to accept it. After all, China needs machinery and equipment more than ever.

Even if they wanted some supplies, the price wouldn't be so high. These items aren't new; they're secondhand goods used by the US military. 80% of the market price is unacceptable to China. The so-called market price the US claims is higher than the normal market price. The 20% discount they claim is even higher than the current normal market price in the US. The Americans are playing tricks on China in this regard.

China can accept these materials. After all, with the development of China's economy, the domestic transportation industry needs a large number of transportation tools. Currently, China is seriously short of transportation tools.

But although it is needed, the price must be reduced by more than half.

The US felt that China's price was too low, considering that many vehicles had only been manufactured for a year or two, or even months, before the war was about to end. However, the price offered by China was less than half the market price. Negotiations on this issue lasted for a long time, but the US ultimately backed down. It was decided to send China an additional 1000 jeeps, 2000 motorcycles, and 5000 light trucks, along with a large amount of construction machinery ordered from Japan for the war effort.

In total, there are 3000 jeeps, 5000 motorcycles, 17000 light and heavy trucks, and about 1000 cranes, bulldozers, mountain openers and other construction machinery. The United States will use these to offset $ million.

These things do not impose the slightest burden on the United States.

The US military's current presence in the Far East alone could solve the problem. The US representatives were very pleased that these items could offset $100 million. Although the Chinese were somewhat dissatisfied, they had no choice but to accept it.

As for the fertilizer and chemical fiber plants that China wanted, the United States did not refuse.

But America’s meaning is simple.

We can only give China a batch of old machinery and equipment, and the quantity is limited.

The United States is unlikely to provide China with the machinery and equipment needed for its fertilizer and chemical fiber industries on a large scale. It can only provide China with some so that China can build low-volume fertilizer and chemical fiber plants.

They are willing to give China a batch of light industrial machinery and equipment in the consumer sector.

But China is unwilling to do so.

China isn't ready to enjoy itself yet; it's still in the accumulation phase. What's the point of helping us develop some consumer industries? Is it true that even if you help us develop household appliances, toys, musical instruments, etc., China is still capable of consumption?

So the two sides engaged in a verbal battle.

But the US was unwilling to budge this time, having already spent a staggering $200 million. Ultimately, China selected a few industries that were currently in need but acceptable to the US. These included cement, paper, and printing, as well as bicycle, battery, and glass factories. However, details remained to be negotiated with the US.

But the first round of negotiations is basically over.

China and the United States will send more senior representatives to negotiate and finally sign the agreement. This time, India is willing to act as a bridge between China and the United States, providing a negotiation venue in New Delhi for the two representatives.

Therefore, the United States and the Soviet Union decided to negotiate in New Delhi.

While negotiations were underway at the government level, a similar process was underway in Guangzhou. After some Hong Kong businessmen had been exploring the mainland, some began to approach the mainland, hoping to collaborate.

The first person to come forward was Lin Baixin, the boss of Li & Fung Garment.

This is a boss who dares to take risks.