Chapter 131: Inspecting the Goods in the Warehouse

Seeing Cheng Qianfan standing there dumbfounded, Pete burst into laughter. This was exactly the effect he had hoped for.

Cheng Qianfan looked at the neatly stacked wooden crates. Naturally, he could read the French written on them.

They were all gun crates.

“Did you rob an arsenal?” Cheng Qianfan asked.

“Open one and take a look.”

Pete jerked his chin toward them, cigarette hanging from his mouth, looking extremely pleased with himself.

Cheng Qianfan casually picked up a crowbar and pried open one of the gun crates.

Looking at the neatly arranged pistols inside, he picked one up for inspection, and his expression became even more exaggerated.

“Pete, where did you get these antiques?”

They truly were antiques. Inside were French-made M1892 revolvers.

The M1892 had been the first standard-issue pistol in French military history and served as the standard sidearm of the French Army in the late nineteenth century. It had seen extensive service during the First World War. By now, however, its performance had completely fallen behind modern requirements.

Most absurdly, everyone now knew that a right-handed shooter could reload a revolver more conveniently if the cylinder swung out to the left.

Yet this French standard-issue pistol had its cylinder swinging out to the right.

To put it bluntly, it was an outdated right-swing revolver.

Who knew what the French had been thinking.

Seeing the look of disgust on Cheng Qianfan’s face, Pete spat out his cigarette butt.

“They’re free, and you’re still complaining?”

Free?

Cheng Qianfan was puzzled.

He saw that Pete offered no further explanation. Instead, he picked up the crowbar, searched around for a moment, and pried open another crate himself.

“Ruby pistols?”

Cheng Qianfan picked one up and examined it. The weapons had been maintained reasonably well.

This pistol had likewise been a standard French military sidearm.

The Ruby pistol originated in Spain in 1903 and was purchased by France during the First World War to replace the M1892 revolver.

Its actual performance could likewise be described as difficult to praise.

Because of its low price and ease of mass production, it had been widely issued by the French Army, Finland, and several other countries during the First World War.

During China’s earlier warlord conflicts, France had also dumped large quantities of these pistols onto the Chinese market, and the Hanyang Arsenal had produced imitation versions as well.

However, because of shortcomings such as poor reliability, poor accuracy, and short service life, it had never been particularly popular.

“Pete, you’ve miscalculated this time.”

Looking at the crates, Cheng Qianfan frowned.

“These antiques won’t be easy to sell.”

Whether M1892 revolvers or Ruby pistols, neither was particularly popular in China.

Price them high, and nobody would buy them.

Price them low, and they might not even recover the cost.

“The wise Pete does not make foolish mistakes.”

Pete said smugly.

He winked at Cheng Qianfan.

“We didn’t spend a single cent on these guns. We didn’t even pay the shipping costs ourselves.”

“You stole them from an arsenal with an accomplice?”

Cheng Qianfan asked in astonishment, half-jokingly.

Although neither model was especially desirable, they were nevertheless genuine standard-issue French military weapons.

Indeed, despite the fact that it was now 1936, these firearms, which had seen massive service in the late nineteenth century and during the First World War and had practically been rendered obsolete by time, were still officially in service with the French military.

“No. More precisely, those fellows gave them to us.”

Pete grinned.

“They even paid the shipping costs for us.”

“Stop being mysterious and tell me already.”

Cheng Qianfan said irritably.

It turned out that Linda’s father, Pete’s new father-in-law, was a logistics officer in the French Army stationed in Marseille.

A French parliamentarian had submitted a proposal arguing that, given Europe’s excellent state of peace and the fact that the powerful French Army had no rivals in Europe, France should begin reducing its military forces.

The proposal received widespread support from French public opinion.

Naturally, the military opposed it.

However, in order to calm public criticism, the military announced that it would gradually begin destroying the enormous stockpiles of weapons stored in its arsenals.

Pete’s father-in-law’s new assignment was to oversee the destruction of these weapons in the Marseille arsenal.

After learning of this, Pete immediately sensed a business opportunity.

He proposed to his father-in-law that he could help “destroy” the weapons.

As a result, a portion of the firearms and ammunition slated for destruction were loaded onto ships and brought to China by Pete.

Through his father-in-law’s private arrangements, the French military not only charged nothing for the weapons but also paid the transportation costs from Marseille to China.

From their perspective, it was an excellent bargain.

Compared to the shipping expenses, actually destroying the weapons would have cost even more money.

“You really are a clever fellow.”

Cheng Qianfan burst out laughing.

No wonder Pete was so pleased with himself.

Although these two types of firearms were unpopular, they required no investment capital. Their selling price could therefore be lowered considerably, and every sale would be pure profit.

Moreover, their so-called lack of popularity was only relative.

As long as the price was reasonable, these guns would absolutely have no trouble finding buyers in China.

After all, they were still standard military weapons of the French Army.

Many warlord forces in China still had two or even three soldiers sharing a single rifle.

Cheng Qianfan was already considering notifying the Shanghai Communist underground organization that they could purchase a quantity of Ruby pistols.

Compared to the hopelessly outdated M1892 revolver, the Ruby pistol was at least the French Army’s second-generation standard sidearm and possessed considerably better performance.

The Communists suffered from a severe shortage of weapons.

For them, these pistols could certainly be considered valuable equipment.

“What are these?”

Cheng Qianfan noticed dozens of crates of different designs among the gun boxes.

“These are military supplies slated for destruction as well.”

Pete raised an eyebrow and lowered his voice.

“Morphine. Linda’s father added these medicines to the destruction list as well.”

As he spoke, he complained that unlike the firearms, which belonged entirely to them, Linda’s father would also take a share of the profits from the medicines.

Cheng Qianfan immediately understood.

This was simply Pete’s father-in-law exploiting his position to profit from reselling pharmaceuticals.

“That greedy old man.”

Pete cursed.

“He refuses to pay the shipping costs and still wants a share of the money.”

Cheng Qianfan ignored Pete’s complaints.

He was overjoyed.

Compared to firearms, morphine interested him far more.

The Communist armed forces’ shortage of anesthetics was even more severe than their shortage of weapons.

Firearms could be captured from National Revolutionary Army troops.

Medicines were far harder to obtain through capture.

“What are these two crates?”

Cheng Qianfan noticed that two of the medicine crates were a different colour from the others, and the French words written on them were unfamiliar to him.

“Those are...”

Pete thought for a moment, looking disgusted.

“What’s it called? Sulfonamides. Supposedly some kind of new medicine. I have no idea what it’s used for. I saw it in the military warehouse and brought it along. I doubt anyone will want the stuff.”

New medicines that had not yet been tested by the market were difficult to sell.

Many people had never even heard of them.

Cheng Qianfan merely felt that the term “sulfonamides” sounded vaguely familiar, as though he had heard it somewhere before.

However, he paid little attention to it.

His mind was entirely occupied with figuring out how to acquire as large a share of the morphine stock as possible.