Chapter 157 Huangpu Negotiation

"Okay, when do you have time? I will introduce you to the general manager of Citibank in Guangzhou. If I come forward, I should be able to help you negotiate a good price." Zhang Zhi said gracefully. In front of a big businessman like him, even if arms are a sensitive commodity, it doesn't matter. When a person reaches a certain level, the privileges he has become higher and higher. What's more, as a comprador of foreigners, it is also his job to bring in the goods that foreigners like to sell the most. So Zhang Zhi did not have any suspicion or concern.

Three days later, Wu Shaoting got up early in the morning and asked the attendant Li Chen to find Chen Fang. He ordered Chen Fang a task, gathering twenty first battalion soldiers, carrying guns and live ammunition, and following him to Huangpu.

"Sir, is there any official business?" Chen Fang asked curiously.

"It's not official business, it's a private matter. Just take someone with me." Wu Shaoting said coldly. He doesn't like others to talk too much. If he wants to explain the reason, he will say it from the beginning. Obviously, Chen Fang, a young man, is still too young.

Chen Fang originally thought it was a bit inappropriate, so why did Lord Wu suddenly use the army to solve the private affairs? However, when he saw Wu Shaoting's face, he finally said nothing and hurried to the camp to gather the soldiers.

Two hours later, Wu Shaoting, Chen Fang, Li Jishen and twenty soldiers appeared in Huangpu.

Huangpu in this era did not belong to Guangzhou’s urban area, it was just a rural island. Guangzhou Army Military Preparation School and Naval Middle School were located on the island. Except for these two small public schools, other places along the riverside were down-and-out fishing villages. The only prosperous area was a pier in the southeast.

This wharf is Wu Guangting's industry, and it is quite large in scale. There are five warehouses covering an area of ​​thousands of square meters on the shore, and the wharf also has twenty small berths and three large berths.

The residents on the island rely on the popularity of this pier to gradually gather a small market next to the pier, which should be the predecessor of Cheung Chau Town in the future. The small market has only one street and is surrounded by dense shanty towns. The only building is a three-story wooden old house, which has now been converted into a hotel, providing the moored crew members to live in, and also running some romantic businesses.

Most shanty towns open the streets and sell some snacks and other local products. Some shanty towns are specially provided for boatmen to gambling.

Wu Shaoting hired two small boats from the long dike in Guangzhou City and went south along the Pearl River to the island. You should know that Huangpu is fifty miles away from the Western Suburbs Military Camp, which is even further away from the Western Suburbs to Foshan. If you walk from land to Huangpu, you will probably not be able to get on the island until the afternoon.

When the group passed by the small market, the people in the shanty towns were curiously watching the new army officers and soldiers. Although officers and soldiers were often visited on Huangpu Island, they were all old soldiers wearing telephone uniforms, and their purpose was to extort protection fees. However, it is rare for new soldiers to come here. After all, the new army is far higher than the old army in terms of military pay, quality and discipline.

The common people all ran out of the house and gathered together to discuss.

Wu Shaoting ignored the questions of these people and brought people straight to the dock. Wu Guangting had been waiting on the path outside the dock for a long time, but it was obvious that this meeting had been agreed upon. Wu Guangting was immediately delighted when he saw Wu Shaoting coming and greeted him very enthusiastically.

Following Wu Guangting, there are several dock managers, all of whom are older.

"General Wu is indeed a trustworthy person, and I am very grateful." Wu Guangting said repeatedly.

"Mr. Wu is so polite. Since you and I have cooperated in business, this matter will be resolved early." Wu Shaoting smiled slightly.

It was his first time to come to Huangpu Wharf. After saying that, he looked around.

When Wu Guangting saw this, he immediately said, "General Wu, please take General Wu to visit the dock."

Wu Shaoting stopped at this time and said, "It's okay, I just look at the geographical location here and see if I can add some warehouses. With a dock, I don't have to do only shipping business, not to mention that Huangpu is quite desolate. Apart from freight, passenger transport is not very ideal."

Wu Guangting was a little confused and asked quickly, "Do you have any other plans for General Wu?"

Wu Shaoting said: "If the funds are abundant, I plan to build another shipyard here. Ships are also commodities. Our Guangzhou has developed waterways, and selling ships is a good deal."

Wu Guangting laughed. In fact, he only wanted to have a dock to provide him with free export of goods. As for Wu Shaoting's other industries, it was Wu Shaoting's own business. Of course, if he could make money, he would also ask for a share of the company.

"General Wu is indeed courageous. Huangpu has nothing, there is just a lot of open space. If General Wu wants to build a factory, it can be opened up in both directions north of the wharf and south of the wharf." Wu Guangting said confidently.

"That's good." Wu Shaoting nodded, and he followed Wu Guangting into the dock with his men.

Because recently there are often hooligans and gangsters coming to cause trouble, the business of the wharf has long been in an ice age. In addition to some workers who work long-term workers, they are still here, and those who work odd jobs and short-term workers even leave. At noon, the shore of the huge wharf was very quiet, but it felt a bit desolate.

Except for some of the Wu family's cargo ships parked in the harbor, there are almost no cargo ships from other companies. Even if there are, it is because other wharfs are full, so you cannot stop here.

Wu Shaoting turned around and asked Chen Fang, "What time is it now."

Since he used a pocket watch to pay off the boat fare last time, he has never made a new watch. Anyway, he always follows Li Chen, the attendant, and it is very convenient to ask about the time.

Chen Fang looked at the pocket watch and replied, "It's ten minutes after twelve o'clock."

Wu Shaoting nodded, turned to Wu Guangting and said, "Will those rogues come today?"

Wu Guangting responded repeatedly: "That's right, General Wu, today is the seventh day of the month, and this time of each month is the day to pay the fees. Inspector Mo no longer charges me the fees. Those gangsters will definitely come again to make trouble today."

Wu Shaoting said: "I will settle all the matters at the dock now. I want to see which little thieves don't have eyes."

After hearing this, Wu Guangting seemed to have someone breathed it with an air pump, and he became very confident.

At this moment, a "twist" sound suddenly came from the river northwest of the Pearl River. Familiar people could recognize that this was the sound of a steam speedboat. However, a steam speedboat is rare in Guangzhou, and even if there are any, it is a ship from the foreign concession. Huangpu is very remote from the concession, and basically no foreign ship has passed by this side.

Just as everyone was wondering, an armed steam speedboat appeared at the corner of the river in the distance.

The man with good eyes recognized the flag flying in front of the speedboat at a glance and immediately shouted: "It's the gunboat of Citiland, the gunboat of Citiland!"

Wu Guangting was surprised and couldn't figure out why the foreigners came here.

"Mr. Wu, don't be nervous. I made an appointment with these foreigners." Wu Shaoting, who had been silent, said a word slowly.

After hearing this, Wu Guangting felt a little relieved, but he still didn't understand why Wu Shaoting had made an appointment with a foreigner.

"General Wu, what are you going to do?" Wu Guangting asked.

"I'm just talking about some private matters by the way." Wu Shaoting said simply.

Seeing that Wu Shaoting did not reveal it, Wu Guangting stopped asking more questions.

Ten minutes later, the American gunboat stopped beside the Huangpu Wharf. Wu Shaoting asked the soldiers to find a cool place to rest, and only brought Chen Fang to meet him. Since it was Wu Shaoting's private affairs, Wu Guangting was of course inconvenient to get involved, so he hurriedly sent someone to bring watermelons and entertain the new soldiers.

When Wu Shaoting arrived at the shore, two American soldiers on the gunboat just set up the sampan, and then six other soldiers came off the boat in groups of three long wooden boxes. Finally, they walked down a middle-aged man in a suit of high-quality fabric, wearing a white dome hat and a thick brown beard.

"Ah, General Wu, I'm sorry I'm late. You have to know that Huangpu is too remote. If you are willing to drink a glass of juice with ice in our Citibank office, I believe it will definitely be more pleasant than here." The American in a suit said with emotion in a mouthful of North American English.

"Mr. Smith, I've just arrived too. Although it's a pity to let you come here from afar, this is the best place for you and me to work together in the future." Wu Shaoting laughed and answered in fluent English.

The bearded American was the general manager of Citibank's Guangzhou office. Wu Shaoting met with Smith on the second day after he talked to Zhang Zhi. Everyone had a happy conversation at that time. As for Wu Shaoting's purchase of arms, he only made a brief discussion. Later, he agreed that the next meeting would be the US side to show some weapons that could be sold first.

Wu Shaoting deliberately invited Smith to Huangpu Wharf because he needed to use this foreigner to accomplish another thing.

"Is that so? I'd like to hear it clearly!" Mr. Smith poked the brim of his dome hat, and could clearly see sweat on his forehead. He is very hot now, but he is unwilling to take off the hat that blocks the sun. That way, it will not only make him hot but also tan himself, although he doesn't look very white now.

"In the future, my trading location with Mr. Smith will be located here. Now it's just a firearm, and there may be other cooperation in the future. All the things purchased from you will be temporarily stored here. Of course, as for the reasons, I hope Mr. Smith, you can stop asking too much." Wu Shaoting said calmly.

Smith frowned. Of course, he would not care about the extra distance the cargo ship drove from Guangzhou City to Huangpu. It was just strange that the arms purchased by Wu Shaoting were obviously equipped for new soldiers, and the Western Suburbs military camp was not very far from Huangpu. In his opinion, he could deliver goods to his door, which was very convenient for everyone.

Although he couldn't figure it out, since Wu Shaoting said not to ask too much, he had to respect it.

He touched his thick beard, sighed, and smiled helplessly: "Okay, you make the decision on your goods. As long as we can reach a long-term cooperative relationship, I don't care about anything else."

Wu Shaoting smiled and said, "It's so good, I like the professional side of American businessmen."

Smith smiled, and he turned to an officer standing behind him and said, "Captain Collins, let the guys show our treasures."

Captain Collins didn't look like a hospitality man. He just nodded with a cold face, then waved his hand to signal his six men to open the three long wooden boxes that had just been lifted from the ship.

The first box contains long rifles, which are basically the same in style. Most of them are American rifles, and there are some German and Russian rifles; the second box contains pistols and mines, and various standard bullets; the third box contains only one gun, which looks like a very famous Maxim heavy machine gun.

Smith asked Wu Shaoting to walk over with him. He picked up a rifle first and introduced him, "My friend, since you have a very good relationship with Mr. Zhang, I won't beat around the bush. This, m1881 rifle, existed before our United States of America was established. Of course, what you see now is the improved new m1881. It has another wonderful name, Mississippi rifle."

Wu Shaoting only had a little understanding of this gun. It is said that this gun was first used by Germans in the North American colonial period. However, after the war, this rifle had become a collectible weapon and was rarely seen on the battlefield.

"Oh, oh, Mr. Smith, do you want me to collect this gun? What I need is a standard rifle, which can not only be supplied in bulk, but also has stable performance. This gun is too old." He said immediately.

Smith was stunned. He originally wanted to continue to introduce the advantages of m1881, but he didn't expect that the other party could see through his tricks at a glance. Yes, these guns are no longer popular in the United States, and they are everywhere in the frivolous market. He could collect them at a low price and sell them to these ignorant Chinese people at a high price. That would be a big profit.

He felt a little embarrassed on his face, then put m1881 back into the box, sighed, and said, "It seems that I didn't understand what General Wu meant at the beginning. What you need are some more advanced weapons, right?"

Wu Shaoting nodded and said, "This is obvious, I am a soldier."

He walked to the long wooden box and took a look, smiled indifferently, and said, "Kentucky, Pennsylvania, these are all famous guns, but they have obviously lost their combat effectiveness."
Chapter completed!