Chapter 231: Breaking Ties

Six cargo ships slowly sailed into Tianjin Port amidst the morning mist; heavy whistles pierced the silence of the harbor. As soon as the ships dropped anchor, squads of soldiers surged out from all around the docks, quickly surrounding the berths until not even a drop of water could leak through.

Zhao Ying stood on the deck, the sea breeze gently brushing her hair.

He Yuzhu looked at the dense crowd of soldiers on the shore and said in a low voice, "These officials intend to fleece us dry this time. Aside from ships number two and three, the cargo on the other ships might not be safe either."

"Only those two are ours," Zhao Ying said in a low voice. "The other four ships and their cargo belong to an American company; we are only earning a commission."

"So that's how it is; this arrangement is quite thorough." A flash of approval crossed He Yuzhu's eyes.

"Ever since Xiao Si fell out with her father, our company's business has mainly shifted to Hong Kong; it's safer there. If it weren't for transporting this batch of steel smelting equipment and steel for you, we wouldn't have docked here." Zhao Ying explained softly.

At this moment, an officer strode over, his leather boots making crisp sounds on the dock.

After a few words of introduction, Zhao Ying understood the other party's intent—it was nothing more than using the pretext of searching for smuggled military supplies to search the merchant ships.

"Acting under orders to inspect, please make things convenient for us." Division Commander Chen's tone was firm.

Zhao Ying suppressed her anger and said as politely as possible, "Division Commander Chen, we have already been delayed for a long time on this trip, and the clients are waiting to receive the goods. We will certainly cooperate with your inspection, but we only ask that you be quick and not disrupt the order of the cargo."

"It's not that I won't give you face, but the situation is special this time; we must inspect thoroughly. I ask for Miss Zhao's understanding."

Zhao Ying looked at He Yuzhu, and seeing him nod slightly, she finally relented: "Inspection is fine, but our people must lead the way."

Division Commander Chen nodded in agreement.

He Yuzhu then accompanied Division Commander Chen to inspect the cargo holds one by one.

When the door to the number two cargo hold slowly opened, it was piled with many rusty, discarded machine tools that looked like they could only be sent back to the furnace to be remelted.

The soldiers searched carefully, even dismantling some parts, but they found nothing.

Naturally, they could not have imagined that the real steel smelting equipment, precision machine tools, and special steel had long since been tucked away by He Yuzhu into his space.

Division Commander Chen was puzzled: "Why did you ship this junk here?"

He Yuzhu calmly explained: "We'll dismantle the usable parts and melt the rest down as scrap steel. Who told us we're poor?"

Although Division Commander Chen was not satisfied, he was helpless—these old machine tools did indeed count as steel, but they were far from what the intelligence had reported. The situation with the third cargo ship was exactly the same.

Three hours later, having found nothing, Division Commander Chen found Zhao Ying with a gloomy face: "After all the merchant ships have unloaded, we are going to requisition them."

"You dare!" Zhao Ying's voice rose sharply. "Except for numbers two and three which belong to the Eastern Shipping Company, the others are the property of American shipowners! If you want to requisition them, go talk to the Americans yourself!"

Before the words had faded, a group of Westerners with high noses and blue eyes came over upon hearing the commotion. After understanding the situation, they were immediately filled with righteous indignation.

"I will file a complaint against you with the American Consulate!" an elderly white man scolded angrily.

"You are nothing but robbers!" a middle-aged Westerner shouted in broken Chinese.

Division Commander Chen's arrogance suddenly deflated by half, and he gritted his teeth: "The cargo can be traded as normal, but the ships must be detained temporarily until the verification is clear before they can be released."

This batch of goods had been ordered in advance by Liu Rusi, and a long line of trucks was waiting at the dock to load the cargo.

The goods were unloaded box by box and quickly hauled away.

To transport this batch of "discarded machine tools," Liu Rusi had prepared a fleet of over thirty trucks. The group did not stay in Tianjin and headed straight for Beiping in a grand procession.

Upon entering Beiping city, they were stopped for inspection, but since nothing was found, they were allowed to pass.

When the fleet drove into the warehouse of the Bicycle Factory, He Yuzhu did not let the workers unload the trucks; instead, he sent them all away.

He Yuzhu took the discarded equipment off the trucks and into his space one by one, then placed the special steel onto the trucks.

Only then did he order the loaders at the factory to unload the items into the warehouse.

If Zhao Ying had seen He Yuzhu's sleight of hand, she would have surely taken him for a monster.

Seeing that everything was in the warehouse, He Yuzhu drove a truck alone toward Heifengzhai.

The steel mill, for which the site had been selected a few months ago, had completed its basic construction and was just waiting for the equipment to arrive.

He Yuzhu had notified Liu Xiaohua in advance to withdraw the guards; when he drove in, the factory area was completely empty.

He drove the truck into the warehouse and, over the course of two days, took multiple trips to remove all the steel smelting equipment from his space.

Liu Xiaohua rushed over to inspect and, seeing the warehouse full of brand-new equipment and thousands of tons of special steel, jumped for joy.

Although his arsenal had already begun production, due to a lack of qualified steel, he could only manufacture hand grenades and copy simple firearms to this day; large items like mountain cannons could never be mass-produced.

He Yuzhu personally instructed the skilled workers and engineers brought in from Anshan Iron and Steel on how to install the equipment and explained the "top-blown converter" steelmaking technology.

Once the workers had initially mastered it and the steel mill's operations were on the right track, he set off to return to Si Jiu Cheng—there were still too many things waiting for him to handle there.

In the Liu family courtyard by the side of Shichahai, Zhao Ying was sparring with Pingping; both of them had clean, agile moves and were full of energy.

He Yuzhu watched from the side for a while and couldn't help but laugh: "What's this, was Zhao Ying often getting beaten up in the United States?"

Zhao Ying finished her stance and turned around, smiling bitterly as she rolled up her sleeve to reveal a faint scar on her arm: "Take a look, I was robbed seven times in two years; the worst time, my arm was fractured. Now I finally understand that in this world, the only person who can protect you is yourself."

The weather in June was already very hot, and only under the grape trellis was there a patch of shade.

He Yuzhu, Zhao Ying, and Liu Rusi sat around under the grape trellis, eating snacks and chatting.

"Is the Bald Party still going to detain our ships?" He Yuzhu asked.

Zhao Ying shook her head helplessly: "That bunch of bullies who fear the strong and pick on the weak didn't dare touch the American shipowners' ships, but they specifically detained our two cargo ships, and even had the nerve to call it 'leasing' and claim they'd pay later. Isn't that just bullying people?"

"How long do they intend to use them?" He Yuzhu asked.

"About a year." Zhao Ying rolled her eyes.

"Do you know what they are using these cargo ships to transport?"

Liu Rusi took a sip of tea and said indifferently, "It's just because the war in the Northeast is going poorly, and the officials in Beiping and Tianjin are busy sending their family assets and families to the south."

He Yuzhu shook his head helplessly, "Sister, your father is really something. This time he has completely betrayed us; not only did he leak the news about us transporting steel, but he also set his sights on our ships. If you ask me, he is definitely not your biological father."

Liu Rusi's cheeks flushed slightly, and she said indifferently, "With him doing this, I actually have no psychological burden anymore. From now on, we go our separate ways, and may we never see each other again."

"If someone killed your father, would you really not hate them?" He Yuzhu asked.

Liu Rusi sneered: "That day will come for him!"

"If it weren't for Zhuzi using a diversionary tactic, the equipment and steel on those two ships would have likely been seized directly, and the ships would have been confiscated too," Zhao Ying added. "I didn't expect him to treat you like this; I'm afraid his kindness to you in the past was just exploitation."

He Yuzhu did not join in the condemnation of Shen Shichang, but he became interested in the ship leasing matter—if the other party was transporting gold, silver, and valuables, wouldn't being a "sailor" on the ship be a perfect opportunity?

"They are using our ships, are they also using our people as sailors?" He Yuzhu asked.

"They don't have anyone; the sailors are all our people," Liu Rusi said.

"When do we set sail?"

"In about half a month."

"I'm going along," He Yuzhu said, "to collect some shipping fees while I'm at it."