Seeing Cheng Qianfan's dumbfounded look, Peter burst into laughter. This was exactly the effect he expected.
Cheng Qianfan looked at the neatly arranged wooden boxes. He naturally recognized the French characters on them. They were all gun boxes.
"Did you rob the arsenal?" Cheng Qianfan asked.
"Open it and take a look." Peter pursed his lips, holding a cigarette with a proud look on his face.
Cheng Qianfan took a crowbar and pried open one of the gun cases.
Looking at the neatly arranged pistols in the gun box, he picked them up and looked at them, his expression became even more exaggerated.
"Pete, where did you get these antiques?"
It is indeed an old antique, and inside it is an M1892 revolver made in France.
The M1892 is the first standard pistol in the history of the French army. It is a standard pistol of the French army in the late 19th century. It was used on a large scale during World War I. The performance of this old antique has completely failed to keep up with the demand.
The strangest thing is that now everyone knows that it is more convenient for right-handers to swing the revolver's bullet to the left, but this French standard pistol swings the bullet to the right.
, or to put it bluntly, this is an outdated revolver.
Who knows what the French are thinking.
Seeing the disgusted look on Cheng Qianfan's face, Peter spit out the cigarette butt and said, "It's a free gift, and you still dislike it?"
Free gift?
Cheng Qianfan was a little confused.
However, he saw that Peter did not continue to explain, but picked up the crowbar, went up to look for it himself, and pried open a gun box.
"Ruby pistol?" Cheng Qianfan picked it up and looked at it. The gun was in pretty good condition.
This gun is also the standard pistol of the French army. The Ruby pistol was born in Spain in 1903 and was purchased by France during World War I to replace the M1892 revolver.
The actual performance of this gun can also be described as "hard to describe".
Because of its low price and easy mass production, it was heavily equipped by the French army, Finland and other countries during World War I.
During the previous domestic warlord war, France dumped the pistol to China, and the Hanyang Arsenal at that time also copied a batch of the pistol.
However, due to its poor reliability, inaccurate shooting, short gun life and other shortcomings, it is actually not very popular.
…
"Pete, you made a miscalculation this time." Cheng Qianfan looked at the gun cases and frowned, "These antiques are not easy to sell."
Neither the M1892 revolver nor the Rupee pistol is very popular in China. If the price is too high, no one cares about it. If the price is too low, I'm afraid they won't even be able to get their money back.
"Smart Pete will not make stupid mistakes." Pete said proudly, winking at Cheng Qianfan, "We didn't spend a penny on these guns, and we didn't even pay for the freight ourselves.
"
"Did you steal it from the arsenal?" Cheng Qianfan asked in surprise.
Although these two guns are not popular, they are indeed the standard weapons of the French army.
Yes, even though it is now the 25th year of the Republic of China, these guns, which were largely used in the late 19th century and during World War I and have almost been eliminated by the times, are still the standard weapons in active service of the French army.
"No, to be precise, those guys gave it to us." Pete grinned, "They also paid for the shipping for us."
"Stop talking and tell me quickly." Cheng Qianfan said angrily.
It turned out that the father of Peter's new wife Linda was a logistics officer in the French army in Marseille.
A French congressman submitted a proposal. In view of the excellent peace situation in Europe and the powerful French Army having no rivals in Europe, he suggested that the French military disarmament.
This proposal won general support from French public opinion.
The military is naturally unwilling to do so. However, in order to calm public opinion, the military stated that it will begin to gradually destroy the inventory of ordnance in the huge arsenal.
Peter's father-in-law's new job is to destroy these firearms in the Marseille arsenal.
After Peter learned about this, he keenly grasped the business opportunities.
He proposed to his father-in-law that he could help 'destroy' the firearms.
As a result, some of the guns and ammunition to be destroyed were moved to the ship and brought to China by Pete.
Through the private operation of Peter's father-in-law, the French military not only did not charge a penny, but also paid the freight from Marseille to China.
In their opinion, this is a good deal. Compared with the shipping costs, the cost of destroying these guns is even more.
…
"You are such a clever guy." Cheng Qianfan laughed.
No wonder Pete is so proud. Although these two guns are not very popular, they do not require capital and can naturally be sold at a lower price. If they are sold, they will make a pure profit.
Moreover, the so-called "unpopular" is also relative. As long as the price is right, these two guns will definitely be sold in China.
In any case, this is also the standard weapon of the French army. You must know that many warlords in the country are armed, and even two or three soldiers share the same gun.
Cheng Qianfan was already thinking about notifying the underground organization of the Shanghai Red Party to purchase some rupee pistols.
Compared with the outdated M1892 revolver, the Rupee pistol is the second-generation standard weapon of the French army after all, and its performance is much better.
The Red Party is short of weapons, so these guns can be considered a good thing for the Red Party.
"What is this?" Cheng Qianfan saw dozens of wooden boxes of different styles inside the gun case.
"These are also military supplies that are to be destroyed." Peter raised his eyebrows and whispered, "morphine, Linda's father also added these drugs to the destruction list."
As he said this, he also complained that unlike the guns, which were solely theirs, Linda's father also got a share of the profits from these medicines.
Cheng Qianfan knew clearly that this was a way for Peter's father-in-law to take advantage of his position to make money by reselling medicines.
"Greedy old man, he is unwilling to bear the freight and wants to share the money." Pete cursed.
…
Cheng Qianfan ignored Pete's complaints. He was overjoyed. He was more interested in morphine than guns.
The Red Party armed forces are in urgent need of narcotic drugs far more than guns.
Firearms can be seized from the national army, but medicines are too difficult to seize.
"What are these two boxes?" Cheng Qianfan saw that among the medicine boxes, there were two boxes that were different in color from the others, and he did not recognize the French written on them.
"That's..." Pete thought for a while, with a look of disgust on his face, "What's it called? It's called sulfonamide. It's said to be a new type of drug. I don't know what it's used for. I saw it in the military supply depot, so we moved it together.
Come on, I guess no one wants this thing."
Many people have never heard of this new type of drug that has not been tested by the market, and it is difficult to sell it.
Cheng Qianfan just thought that he had heard of the term 'sulfonamide' somewhere, but he didn't pay much attention to it.
His mind was now occupied with how to consume as much morphine as possible.
PS: After communicating with the editor boss, Sanjiang still has to wait. Depending on the current situation, it will take three weeks or even a month, which means it is very likely that it will not be released until July.
Everyone is a little confused, that means that when it is released, it will have more than 400,000 words, close to 500,000 words.
Lao Qi has been without income for nearly three months now, and is just waiting for new books to be put on the shelves. There are old people and young children. To be honest, it is really difficult to have no income for several months.
The old book has been finished, and now all my thoughts are on this book. I will try my best to save the manuscript and wait for it to be published.
Comfort yourself, the future will be fine.
All I can think about now is, how many people are reading this book, and how many readers will subscribe?