Chapter 581: Only I Am Unique in Law Chapter 581 Internal Strife (4)

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Protagonist:

Chen Yi

After 127 tax officials were beaten with rods, they returned to Jiangning lying down, then were shipped by train to Xijing; the suffering along the way goes without saying, and Committee Member Zhou felt as if those 3,810 blows had landed on his own buttocks.

His face burned!

A short report, Committee Member Zhou read three times before finishing it, his beard trembling with rage, like an old man on the verge of death trying to utter his last words.

In the end, no last words were spoken.

The feeling of being unable to reach with a long whip—he now felt it deeply.

"This can't go on." Committee Member Zhou closed the file heavily, and before leaving, he flicked it twice with his hand before walking out, dressed as impeccably as ever.

From the Executive Yuan to Hai Zi was quite a distance, but the car ran quite fast.

The plane trees on both sides of the road were green tinged with yellow, beginning to enter the rhythm of autumn. Occasionally one could see sanitation workers squatting by the roadside, busily replacing nursery stock, which instead became one of the scenes after midsummer.

Committee Member Zhou's eyelids grew heavier and heavier, too tired to want to think.

The car came to a steady stop.

Raising his head, they had already arrived at Hai Zi.

The Secretary took a warm towel from the wooden box in the front seat, wiped Committee Member Zhou's face, then quickly got out to open the door.

Committee Member Zhou stepped out of the car door with his habitual smile at the corner of his mouth.

In others' eyes, Committee Member Zhou was always radiant and spirited.

The few staff members coming and going stood respectfully by the roadside, expressing reverence with their gazes. Being a central cadre was not easy; just this one expression, if not practiced in front of a mirror for two weeks, would have not a bit of charm.

Committee Member Zhou entered through the habitual east-side door. When he was almost inside, he deliberately took a look at the brick eaves of the building upstairs—an ancient structure repaired six years ago, where just a short section had taken three people several weeks. And that period was precisely his adaptation period upon first entering the courtyard, or rather, precisely the time when he was full of high spirits. Every time he came to Hai Zi, when his mood was unsettled, he would examine this brick eave that seemed ordinary but was special.

His footsteps paused for a moment, then continued again.

Committee Member Zhou walked straight to the Director's small building before stopping to rest his feet, brewing various words in his mind, preparing to properly discipline the West Continent.

Just then, Chen Zhongguo walked out from inside.

"Committee Member Zhou has come, go in, the Director is waiting." Chen Zhongguo smiled as usual, but in Committee Member Zhou's eyes, it was nothing short of mockery.

Chen Zhongguo undoubtedly represented the interests of the Chen Family. What he and the Director discussed was unimportant; what mattered was that the Director was willing to meet and talk alone. That itself was a kind of trust.

The flesh on Committee Member Zhou's face stiffened as he said, "Old Chen, since you're here, Chen Yi beat our tax official in the West Continent and even had him deported back. Did you know?"

"I just heard about it today." Chen Zhongguo smiled and stepped aside to let him pass.

Committee Member Zhou had no intention of going in. His eyes were like needles as he said, "Chen Yi is only twenty years old this year, right? He lacks organizational discipline—I can understand that. Old Chen, you're a reasonable man. Do you think collecting taxes in the West Continent is justified? Beating tax officials... I haven't heard of such a thing in years."

"One-sided accounts are hard to verify, Old Zhou. If you have doubts, just send someone to investigate. Still, one must pay attention to methods when doing things." Chen Zhongguo laughed heartily and left.

Committee Member Zhou watched him leave, gnashing his teeth, cursing silently in his heart.

Speaking of seniority, there truly wasn't anyone currently in office older than Chen Zhongguo. Unfortunately, this old fellow stubbornly refused to die... and was growing more vigorous by the day. Don't look at his high rank in the Party; because of the West Continent, the Chen Clan's influence had instead increased, and now they could even say "pay attention to methods."

"Could it also be because of the West Continent?" A thought suddenly jumped into Committee Member Zhou's heart.

In his memory, Chen Zhongguo, who had left Xijing a few years ago, was a sickly old man on death's door—nothing like now, when he couldn't finish the official documents or meet all the people every day. By the time Committee Member Zhou himself was exhausted and ready to rest after dinner, Chen Zhongguo could still see people and talk.

Thinking that he might not outlive Chen Zhongguo, Committee Member Zhou simply didn't know what to say. He especially missed the township work period; back then, if a senior cadre was unhappy, he dared to pounce on you and beat your face black and blue.

Thinking of "face black and blue," Committee Member Zhou also showed a smile.

After gathering his thoughts, he followed the staff member's instructions and entered the Director's office.

The latter was bent over his desk writing busily, and in the quiet room came a rustling sound.

"Old Zhou is here." The Director had probably heard the sound of leather shoes.

Committee Zhou smiled silently and said, "Yes, I want to talk about the West Continent."

"You've heard?" The Director raised his head in surprise.

"Heard what?" Committee Member Zhou also felt strange.

The Director was stunned, then smiled, waving his hand to indicate he should sit. He himself sat on the sofa beside the desk, crossed one leg, and said, "The war in the West Continent seems to have entered its final stage. The Water Dragon Temple where West River City-State is located has been devastated over a thousand li, its forces are stretched thin, and they want West River City-State to join in too. Old Chen just came by and asked for my opinion."

Committee Member Zhou was stunned.

Join the war?

Since he had become a high-ranking cadre, he had never truly considered such a thing. Let alone fighting a war on foreign soil—on the territory of another world.

"What is your opinion?"

"I haven't decided yet. Originally I wanted to hold a meeting to discuss it, but since you're here, tell me your thoughts."

"I am naturally inclined not to participate. Beyond the foreign lands, we know nothing of the situation; naturally, we should focus on development as our top priority." Committee Member Zhou considered for a moment, then added, "I've heard our range of activity in the West Continent is limited, and we haven't even reached the region of the Temple War. How is it that now we're being asked to participate?"

"They have their eyes on our ships. I've heard that several of the farthest ports we can currently reach need defensive forces. Also, they want us to conduct long-range raids."

Committee Member Zhou suddenly understood. To say that high-tech power is first reflected in equipment levels. Compared to the cunning and deceit of land warfare, naval warfare most of the time is a contest of ships. Steel warships produced on Earth are, no matter what, stronger than the wooden ships of the West Continent.

Understanding was understanding, but Committee Member Zhou continued to insist on his opposition to war. The Director himself was undecided, so naturally he offered no comment.

However, the matter of the tax officials being beaten was not convenient to bring up at this time.

Compared to war, this kind of thing was simply too small, too small.

Returning to his office, Committee Member Zhou first summoned his Office Director to assign a task: to cover up the matter of the tax officials being beaten.

This matter happened in the West Continent. As long as the higher-ups clearly indicated to cover it up, the chance of it causing a stir was really not great. Even in an agency where rumors never die, the West Continent was still relatively sensitive information, and spreaders had to be cautious...

As for the parties involved, they wouldn't publicize this family shame.

The tax-beating affair that caused an uproar in the West Continent was, in Xijing, like cold water—submerged and silent.

Of course, attention on the West Continent didn't last long either.

For Xijing, the distant war was happening right on this continent.

For several days in a row, large batches of military equipment and soldiers appeared around the city-state, sparking widespread discussion, and the merchants' business became even better.

Especially weapons merchants, whose sales volume increased by more than five times.

Not only did some small shop owners purchase firearms, ordinary workers also bought them; since the authorities showed no intention of stopping it, even originally composed gentlemen were willing to buy first and ask questions later.

Compared to the prices of other supplies, the price of high-power pistols or single-shot shotguns was not expensive.

Mo Shaoqiu was delighted to the point of scratching his ears and cheeks over this. He was the largest arms dealer in West River City-State, practically the only arms dealer; never mind that others sold American-made, German-made, Czech-made weapons — ultimately, they all went out through his hands, and not a bit of profit could escape.

"West River City-State has nearly 200,000 people now; if each person gets one self-defense weapon, and each household prepares one long spear, that's 400,000 pieces." Mo Shaoqiu, who never kept accounts, for the sake of the banknotes, actually looked at them seriously.

However, as he calculated, he discovered a problem.

"In the past month, it seems 200,000-plus short guns have been produced? Who has nothing better to do than buy this many?" Mo Shaoqiu grabbed the ledger and headed for Xima Market.

The Mo Family's weapon shop was in a corner of the market, with bank-style stone walls sandwiching steel plates and ceramics behind them, not only resistant to firearms but also providing considerable blocking against Pocket Qi.

Its porch was also quite distinctive; the main gate opened behind the Yingbi, and the Yingbi was sandwiched in the middle of a long corridor — no matter which side people entered from, they were covered by the surveillance cameras at both ends. What the customers didn't know was that under those two surveillance cameras were mounted a heavy machine gun each, fed with 500-round ammunition belts.

Mo Shaoqiu walked to the shop entrance, blinked, and actually found it a bit unrecognizable.

"So many people!"

He grabbed a passerby and asked, "Brother, is the weapon shop running a promotion?"

The weapon shop was usually about the same as a gold shop — average foot traffic, short dwell time; compared to other dealers, the Mo Family shop's after-sales service was slightly better, often throwing in a few extra armor-piercing rounds, but on price there was not a single discount, sometimes even slightly higher, so business wasn't extremely good.

But now, if it weren't for his own renovated storefront, Mo Shaoqiu would almost have thought he was strolling through a supermarket.

The man he grabbed was clearly someone doing business on the West Continent — a wrinkled Western suit stuck to his body, the clothes underneath soaked through, trembling as he said, "What promotion? Prices went up."

"Then what are you buying?"

"Aren't you worried you won't be able to buy? Look at those guys — the next Channel opening day is two weeks away."

He pointed at a few natives, who were shouldering and hand-carrying heavy weapons, and behind them pushed a motorcycle loaded with crates of ammunition.

"Those guys." Mo Shaoqiu now understood — the ones buying weapons weren't just Earthlings, but natives too.

His heart tightened, and he hurried off to find Chen Yi; upon meeting, he asked, "Do you know the natives are buying weapons in large quantities?"

"What weapons?"

"Both light and heavy — at least fifty or sixty thousand pistols, and even more long spears." Mo Shaoqiu swallowed, voice low: "My oversight was lax; what's flowed out is at least enough to equip a Type A Division."

Chen Yi sprayed a mouthful of tea with a "puh": "Type A Division? How many cannons do they have."

"There are cannons too?" Mo Shaoqiu cried out again, then immediately asked in astonishment: "You know?"

"Know. The temple is progressing smoothly, they want to end the war early; it's not convenient for us to send people directly, uh... see if you can find some coaches from our city to train Malacheng's soldiers, so they don't buy our weapons and use them as firewood sticks."

Mo Shaoqiu was helpless, nearly resentful.

……(Unfinished. If you like this work, welcome to Qidian (qidian. com) to cast Recommendation Tickets and Monthly Tickets; your support is my greatest motivation.)