eurekapd Chapter 242: Father and son argue, sell at a low price
Chapter 242: Father and son argue, sell at a low price
"I find that you have become so stubborn now!" Old Zhang frowned, staring at his son in front of him, with an indescribable sense of strangeness in his heart.
He couldn't help but shake his head, his voice slightly raised as he said, "What do you mean by playing tricks? Which of my words is false? These are all established facts!"
"Is it true that the Sakura Country intends to send troops to Andong? Is it true that they openly threaten to start a war? Aren't these things clear enough?" Old Zhang became more and more excited as he spoke.
Zhang Liuzi glanced sideways at his old father, his lips curled up slightly, revealing a hint of disdain and resentment. He responded, "Humph, you know better than anyone else whether this is the case or not. Don't think we are all fools. Anyone with a little common sense can see through this."
Before he could finish his words, there was a loud bang. Old Zhang, with a furious look on his face, slammed the table and stood up. He pointed at his son's nose and shouted angrily, "What's going on? Explain to me clearly what's going on here!!"
This sudden scolding was like a thunderclap, which made Zhang Liuzi tremble all over. He lowered his head involuntarily, not daring to look at his father.
Seeing this, Old Zhang was even more furious and continued to scold, "You don't know anything and yet you're just ranting here. I think you've ruined your brain by following those guys who studied abroad! You just keep thinking about irrelevant things all day long!"
"Okay, okay, I'm stupid, I'm the stupidest, okay?" Zhang Liuzi, who had his head drooping just a second ago, was provoked by the old man and turned around and walked out the door: "You're smart, you're the smartest. I want to see what you can do to those jackals if the Independence Army falls!"
"How dare you! You bastard!" Zhang Zuolin glared at him and grabbed the teacup on the table, ready to smash it at him. But when he saw the seal on the bottom of the cup, the old man felt distressed and couldn't bear to throw it on the ground. In the end, he could only grit his teeth in anger, but he was helpless.
"What's wrong? Are you arguing with Xiao Liuzi again?" Outside the door, Zhang Zuoxiang, who had just arrived, saw the father and son sulking and immediately understood what was going on. He smiled and stepped forward to persuade them, "Alright, alright, you two always argue. Calm down!"
"I fucking owe him!" Zhang Zuolin's face was drooping, panting like an old cow. He counted on his fingers and complained to his brother, "Tell me, what's the point of saving up our family fortune? In the end, it all goes to these little bastards."
"I've poured my heart and soul into him, and I'd give him my life, and he doesn't even appreciate it!"
"Hey, how old is he? How could he understand all this?" Zhang Zuoxiang chuckled and teased while sucking on his pipe: "We are all from the younger days. I think Liuzi is doing pretty well now. When we were in our early twenties, we were not as good as him."
"Okay, you just say nice things to fool me." Old Zhang kept complaining, but actually his anger had subsided a lot.
There is no way a father and a daughter are really angry when they quarrel. They are just complaining and venting their emotions.
"Then I'll tell you something else. You better be prepared."
After chatting, Zhang Zuoxiang came up to him with a smile on his old face, as if he had picked up a great bargain.
Seeing his expression, Zhang Zuolin couldn't help but feel curious, and then asked with a smile.
"What's the matter? Did you kill the Emperor of Sakura Country?"
"Not really. If I had the ability, I would have done it decades ago."
Zhang Zuoxiang chuckled, then took out a document, handed it to him and explained.
"The Independence Army reported that they hijacked the Eagle Sauce's supply ship, which was loaded with hundreds of millions of dollars worth of arms. They have no use for it, so they want to do business with us!"
"Hundreds of millions!?" Zhang Zuolin's eyes turned green when he heard this. He hurriedly opened the document and checked the list of items.
When the old man saw the large-caliber heavy artillery, light and heavy machine guns, and tens of thousands of artillery shells, he almost couldn't control his jaw and his saliva was about to come out.
Wow, all the American standard equipment, including their most advanced heavy artillery, howitzers, and portable submachine guns. These are good things that money can't buy, and are several times better than the fire sticks equipped by the Fengbei Army.
"My goodness, these foreign devils are really rich. Just this shipload of supplies is enough to lead a large-scale war. Giving it to the National Army for free is really extravagant!"
Zhang Zuolin was so excited that he was reluctant to let go of the list. The desire that had just been extinguished in his heart for two days began to rise again.
Unfortunately, it was just a little short. If this batch of equipment had arrived earlier, he would have retreated without a trace and directly fought a decisive battle with Lao Duan in Rehe, and he would have been able to retake the capital.
"Zhang Ye's meaning is very clear. He can sell the goods to us at a 20% discount, but he only wants food and meat."
Zhang Zuoxiang slapped his thigh and sighed in embarrassment.
"Eighty million worth of rice, flour, and pork—that's a huge amount of supplies. I think it would be quite difficult to prepare them all."
"That's true. Even if we use up all our savings, we still don't have that much food supply." Zhang Zuolin gently stroked his chest, suppressing his restlessness as he inquired, "Can't we give him some money? Forty million in cash, forty million in supplies."
"They made it very clear. They just need supplies." Zhang Zuoxiang shook his head and, holding his pipe, analyzed: "The current independent army has nearly 800,000 people in total. Food, drink, and toilet are the most important things."
"Also, I heard that the food standards within the Independence Army are extremely high, and even the most ordinary soldiers only eat refined rice and white flour."
"If he hadn't been forced to do so, Zhang Ye wouldn't have sold this ship and its equipment to us at such a low price."
"You are still too young and don't understand the principle of long-term success." Zhang Zuolin laughed softly.
In his opinion, it is right to treat soldiers well, but there must be a limit to this. No family business can withstand such consumption of 800,000 people eating fine grains.
"How about this? Call him back and offer him 60 million. If he agrees to that price, then we can do the deal according to his request."
"Sixty million? Isn't that a bit too much?"
Zhang Zuoxiang was shocked by his price. You know, that batch of equipment was genuine foreign goods, far from being firewood sticks produced by domestic garbage arsenals.
20% off is already a low price, and 40% off is practically the same as robbery.
"He has no choice now. If he wants to maintain this war, he has to sacrifice himself. Besides, he looted this batch of goods, so there is no cost."
Zhang Zuolin lowered his eyebrows, rubbed his palms and chuckled.
"Don't think I'm taking advantage of the situation to bargain. We have to buy 60 million worth of fine grain at a high price on the market. It will cost us 70 to 80 million. I don't know where to get the money from!"
"Hey, guns mean money. As long as we get this batch of equipment, it will be easy to make some money."
Zhang Zuo said this with full confidence, then hurriedly stood up and said goodbye.
"That's settled then. I'll hurry up and talk to them, and try to get the goods over as soon as possible."