Chapter 1067: 989 unexpected effects

Li was truly anxious, not knowing if the three bars of chocolate in his pocket could make his superior show mercy and forget about his contact with the Fengjiang rebels.

So, he clenched his teeth and took out all his profits as well–two packs of cigarettes, both still intact.

He walked back to his unit, just as his superior had left the circle to relieve himself nearby. Li immediately approached, lowering his voice as he tentatively called out, “Sir… Sir?”

“Hmm?” Putting away his ‘faucet’, the commanding officer squinted his eyes toward Li, who had some capability in managing chores and minor tasks.

Li was very nervous. Gritting his teeth, he finally fished a pack of cigarettes supplied by the Great Tang Empire to Fengjiang from his pocket, the kind with filters, and handed it to his direct superior.

The logistic unit commander, upon seeing the cigarettes from Great Tang Empire, was momentarily stunned, then revealed a smile. He quietly took the offering from Li’s hand and elongated his tone, “Where did you get this good stuff from?”

“The brothers pooled some money… bought it from those rebels in Fengjiang.” Li dared not hide anything and promptly spilled everything. After explaining, he took out the other pack of cigarettes and handed it over.

“You guys are really bold,” the commander said with a scare, but he still took the second pack of cigarettes and slipped it into his pocket.

Humorously, he was stuck smoking inferior cigarettes supplied from afar. Those darn things were barely better than inhaling burnt tires; he had been cursing them for days.

Now, someone brought him two packs of real quality stuff, the filtered cigarettes that were almost non-existent in Dahua Empire but were becoming common in the Great Tang Empire. How could he not be tempted?

“This is because everyone’s been frustrated, unable to eat their fill, we’ve had no choice…” Li quickly seized the opportunity to voice his grievances.

While complaining, he followed the new friend’s advice from Fengjiang, and pulled out the chocolate, slipping it into the commander’s hand.

Seeing the beautifully packaged chocolate, the commander’s eyes lit up; high-calorie and tasty, these were valuable commodities at the front. With these three bars of chocolate, he could curry favor when he returned and maybe even pocket some of the money from selling off the bartered goods.

Indeed, despite the desperate shortage of supplies at the front lines of Dahua Empire, many military units were still trading these poor-quality military supplies.

The civilians suffered greater shortages. The economy of the Dahua Empire was on the brink of collapse; whoever could secure food, drink, clothing, and use during these times was ‘king’!

The factories at the rear were well aware of this, and a complete “kickback” profit-making scheme had even emerged.

These were producing military supplies with substandard materials, directly making inferior goods, and then these batches would be sold off during transit to the black-market dealers, who would then sell these shoddy items to the civilians.

The officers at the front would then sign off on this equipment, and write off the nonexistent supplies as ‘used up’ in battle to balance the books… after all, freezing or starving to death was only a concern for the lowly soldiers, not something the officers cared about.

They just needed to wait for the traders and rear factories to deposit money into their accounts, simple and convenient.

This was like the mooncakes on Mid-Autumn Festival, being regifted among friends and family for ten years, moldy yet still serving a purpose–essentially you could swap the mooncake for a playing card, the effect would be the same. Thus, the clever merchants of the Dahua Empire, not even needing playing cards, went directly to dealing in thin air.

Now, this commander seemingly found a new business opportunity: Although they skimmed a portion of the military pay issued to frontline soldiers, a part inevitably reached the soldiers.

These soldiers, due to insufficient supplies, now smuggled goods from Fengjiang, certainly spending their military pay–an opportunity for him to take another cut, perhaps earning much more?

In and out, truly a double joy! With this thought, the commander looked at Li differently: “Li…”

“Sir! The rest is already paid for…” Hearing the tone of the commander, Li shivered, genuinely afraid his direct superior would swallow all the goods in his possession without a word.

If he returned, wouldn’t he be beaten to death by those ruffian soldiers who had paid but not yet received their goods?

“What are you thinking? We must keep this matter in our hands! We absolutely cannot let others take it away!” Li’s direct superior spoke with an unprecedented domineering tone.

He ruefully took out a pack of cigarettes from his pocket and handed them back to Li, “Tomorrow I’ll authorize a few tools for you, you bring a bag… Understand?”

Li knew exactly what to do and promptly relayed all the details left by the Fengjiang side. After finishing, he handed over the slightly wrinkled price list to the battalion commander.

Seeing the prices, and hearing Li say that he could get one-tenth, the battalion commander couldn’t hide his smile anymore.

Although he needed to give some respect to his superiors, once such dealings started, they simply couldn’t be stopped. In one month, as long as he wasn’t reassigned to another defensive area and stayed guarding this railway, he could earn the equivalent of his last five years’ income!

What a wonderful thing this was. The battalion commander patted Li on the shoulder, the more he looked at him, the more pleasing he found him: helping repair doors and fences at home, helping collect vegetables and dig water channels… and now, he could help smuggle goods… If the sky were to fall, he would be a great vanguard.

Indeed, very good.

“You’re doing great, Li! I will discuss this matter with the higher-ups! You can keep selling your stuff, consider it a reward… but let me make it clear, if you cause any trouble, I’ll deal with you!” The battalion commander said as he turned his gaze back to Li, threatening him.

Li was delighted, not expecting that the other party wasn’t after his share, but rather, was going to handle everything independently.

As for Li’s little business, it was negligible to them…

Knowing that he might make a small fortune, Li quickly bowed his head and thanked, “Thank you, sir! Thank you for your favor!”

The next day, a military commander who had received chocolate also came here for a frontline inspection, and personally saw a section of the railway track being placed on sleepers.

The soldiers of the Dahua Empire were hammering the railway spikes into the sleepers with great zeal.

Of course, this military commander didn’t come to watch the railway being fixed; he had plenty of other things to do than to meddle in such boring matters. This time he was here to look at his new money-making channel, which interested him even more than fixing railways.

Soon, a car came from the Fengjiang side, loaded with canned food and other supplies. The car was packed with all kinds of goods, just like a small store.

The officer from the Fengjiang side was very cooperative; he gave the Dahua military commander a good windproof lighter and some kickbacks, and the trade deal was settled.

Following was the counting and transporting of supplies–by the fourth day, the task of moving supplies had been minimized, with trucks driving directly into the Dahua Empire-controlled area, unloading, and then returning.

Who would have imagined that the channels for improving life for the front-line troops of the Dahua Empire would come from the Fengjiang-controlled area? And who could have thought that half of the Dahua Empire’s supplies over the next month would come from the Great Tang Empire?

Time soon reached the tenth day of the ceasefire, and in the headquarters of the infantry military of the Dahua Empire near the railway, both administrative and command personnel were visibly better supplied.

The Dahua military commander woke up and brushed his teeth with toothpaste from the Great Tang Empire, then had a rather nice breakfast. The flour and other assorted goods were all purchased from the Fengjiang side.

If you are willing to spend money, you can enjoy a life that was previously not available in the Dahua army: you could even buy a civilian raincoat, which is many times better than the military raincoats issued by the Dahua Empire.

The quality of the goods sold by the Great Tang Empire goes without saying; not only was the quality excellent, but the prices were also at least one-third lower than what was sent to the front line by the Dahua Empire.

The second-hand dealers on the Fengjiang side, for some reason, did not raise their prices either, simply selling cheaply, which made everyone in the Dahua military, from top to bottom, feel almost embarrassed.

It was even more surprising that the Fengjiang side was not only involved in this dumping activity near the railways; they tried every means to trade with the Dahua military near the front lines, offering genuine, good-quality goods.

This touched the oppressed grassroots soldiers of the Dahua Empire deeply; they could improve their battlefield lives with little money, which changed many people’s views on the Fengjiang rebels.

Those Fengjiang soldiers selling goods didn’t try to overly ingratiate themselves; they simply chatted about everyday family matters, exchanged cigarettes, smoked together, and then cursed their superiors.

The approachable attitude deeply moved the soldiers of the Dahua Empire, leading them to agree that when the fighting resumed, everyone should try to be as lenient as possible, to avoid brethren fighting brethren…

The Fengjiang soldiers were also very cooperative; those who had become thoroughly familiar with each other even agreed to surrender terms for better treatment of prisoners, and when fighting together, they would absolutely not deliver killing blows.

Perhaps even the Fengjiang defenders themselves didn’t expect that those advisors from the Great Tang Empire, by instructing them to provide supplies to the Dahua military, could have such a terrifying effect.

The Dahua troops, who had been fiercely attacking for the better half of a year, now secretly promised that when fighting resumed, they would simply surrender their weapons and come to Fengjiang for good food and joyful times…