Sure enough, as Liu Yu expected, the old man arguing with him was really a traitor. It should be said that his son was a traitor and the president of the Yangquan County Vigilante Association.
This went unnoticed. Xu Liqing and others asked around the neighborhood and found out about the good deeds the father and son had done before.
What made Xu Liqing most angry was that this father and son had helped the Japanese to hunt down women to serve as comfort women!
Shot to death, nothing was said!
Of course, Liu Yu no longer cared about these matters. He left Yangquan that day and returned to Jingxing, where the foreigners were still waiting for him.
After returning to the Wang family compound and chatting with a group of foreigners, Liu Yu finally had 100 boxes of penicillin brought in under their anxious eyes.
"This is the first batch of 100 boxes of penicillin. Each box contains 50 boxes of 20,000 units of penicillin solvent. Each of your families has 25 boxes."
As he said that, Liu Yu looked at several foreigners and said, "As for the equipment I want, I hope to see the first batch within three months!"
"No problem, General Liu. We can allocate a batch of equipment from Hong Kong first, and it will arrive as soon as next month!" the British envoy assured, patting his chest.
Other messengers have given similar assurances.
After another round of greetings, Liu Yu saw that the foreigners were all in a hurry to leave, so he stood up to see them off.
But in the end, before getting on the plane, he grabbed the American envoy.
"Mr. Johnson, there is one more thing I hope you can help with." Liu Yu whispered.
"Oh, General Liu, why do you have to be so strange? You can call me by my name, Michael!" Johnson was a typical American. He didn't speak in a formal and casual manner like the British man.
"Okay, Michael!" Liu Yu touched his nose, still unable to stand the familiarity of this man.
"That's right!" Johnson smiled, "Excuse me, what is it? If it is within my ability, I will definitely help you!"
Liu Yu smiled and said: "I hope you can help me hire a group of armored soldiers and air force pilots in the United States, preferably on active duty. I am willing to pay them a monthly salary of US$500. Their specific job is to help me form an armored force. And the Air Force Academy, as well as serving as an instructor! If there is a combat mission, I will pay an additional $100 each time, and there will be additional rewards for shooting down Japanese aircraft or destroying Japanese tanks!"
"In addition, I also need various industrial talents, such as machinery, chemical industry, metallurgy, construction, water conservancy, etc. All comers are welcome, and their salary will depend on their work experience."
Then he pulled Michael over and whispered in his ear: "As for you, for every skilled worker you introduce to me, I will give you a reward of 5 US dollars! For every armored soldier or pilot instructor you introduce to me, I will give you 50 US dollars." remuneration!"
When Johnson heard this, his eyes lit up: "Really?"
A few years ago, due to the economic crisis, a large number of people in the United States were unemployed. In recent years, the situation has improved after Roosevelt came to power, but there are still many unemployed people.
It’s hard to recruit top academics, but it’s not easy to recruit mid-level factory managers and skilled technicians?
Then report the reward Liu Yu promised, every minute!
As for pilots and armored personnel, it is a bit difficult. The only people who can serve as instructors are at least officers in the army, but I believe that as long as you wave US dollars, you can always recruit some.
As for whether Liu Yu can afford the remuneration, he is not worried at all. After some of the 500 boxes of penicillin Liu Yu took out last time were squandered by the medical experts, the rest had been shipped back to their respective countries via special planes. .
As a result, the price of penicillin doubled as soon as it was launched!
Liu Yu sells it by the box here, but in the United States it sells it by the stick. Penicillin, which originally cost US$50 a tube, sold for US$100, and it is still rising! The penicillin sent back to China was immediately snapped up by major private hospitals, leaving it without a market price.
However, these are businesses led by governments of various countries, and officials in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs like Johnson will not make much.
Just listen to Johnson say: "General Liu, I don't want your introduction fee, as long as you can sell me an extra batch of penicillin, this matter will be taken care of by me!"
Liu Yu smiled, thinking that there was such a good thing, but on the surface he looked embarrassed: "Now the production at our head office is not very sufficient, and we still need to meet the orders from various governments first, but I will try my best to help You fight for it!”
Johnson expressed satisfaction with Liu Yu's answer. It seemed that this was the right answer.
"Then it's a deal!"
The two shook hands and then hugged, and then Johnson put away the joy on his face and walked towards the DC-3 passenger plane as if nothing had happened.
He felt that he could not let the envoys from other countries see anything, otherwise they would steal business.
Watching the plane take off, Liu Yu kept watching until the sun was too dazzling, and he stopped looking forward to it.
Kato Shinichi and the others worked hard to teach pilots, but there were only two of them. How many years and months would it take to cultivate an organized and large-scale air force with them?
The reason why we are looking for Americans is that there is still some time before the United States joins the war. As for Britain, France and other countries, Mustache will take action in September. The British and French pilots recruited by then will probably be recalled to their countries. This will not be in vain. What?
. . . . . .
After seeing off the foreigners, Liu Yu returned to the headquarters again.
As the base area expands, more things will naturally follow.
At this moment, Lao Song was handling official business in the office, which was really a big deal.
Liu Yu walked into Lao Song's office and was shocked to see his messy hair and unkempt beard.
"Old Song, you're not going to work so hard, are you?"
Liu Yu sat opposite Lao Song and advised: "Rest when you need to, but don't exhaust yourself!"
But Lao Song stretched out his hand towards Liu Yu: "Give me a cigarette."
Liu Yu quickly took out a cigarette and lit it for Lao Song, and lit one himself.
"Hiss...hoo...bah!"
Old Song spit out the tobacco from his mouth, squinted his eyes and handed Liu Yu a stack of documents.
"You just talked, and a lot of bad things fell into my hands. Not to mention Tumenguan Fortress and Longwangshan Airport. The arsenal, aviation school, and driving school all need to be repaired. Now they still need to be repaired. What kind of medical research institute should be established for those foreign doctors? These are short-term projects, and it is enough to arrange them in place."
"The most difficult thing to deal with is the most basic problem. The base area has expanded nearly four times, and the population has almost doubled. Now we control 6 counties. Counting the refugees from central Henan, the total population has exceeded 700,000! The most important thing is that the number of refugees continues to increase!”
"As the old saying goes, if you don't worry about the long term, you will have immediate worries. Although this year's winter wheat harvest looks good and the local people have enough to eat by themselves, the newly arrived refugees do not have the production capacity and production materials! To feed so many people, we need to It’s not enough to feed the army! Moreover, the base area must be self-sufficient and cannot always rely on imports from you. Your approach can only be used as an emergency. Otherwise, what will happen when you run out of money?"
"In addition, many traitors were confiscated this time. The disposal of their properties is also a problem. The working capital is easy to handle, but what about the land? I originally wanted to allocate the land to the refugees, but I was worried that the local people would not agree. , after all, many of those lands were stolen from them by traitors."
"Also, the number of people in the recruit training camp has exceeded 3,000. Coupled with the consumption of other troops, the batch of canned beef you purchased last time is almost finished, but most of the livestock in our several farms below are It’s not time to go out to the market yet.”
"I think it's better to suspend the admission of refugees and let's get over the current difficulties first?"
When Liu Yu heard this, he rolled his eyes at Lao Song: "Thank you for saying this. We are blocking the refugees here. Where do you want them to go? To the southwest? Half of them will die before they get there!"
Lao Song was suddenly speechless. He opened his mouth and couldn't speak. He simply curled his lips and turned his head to one side, smoking alone.
Liu Yu took a drag on his cigarette and said in a deep voice: "We are all compatriots. It's difficult for them to be in trouble. We can't turn them away! This has nothing to do with the reputation of our party, but with a conscience!"
"Yu Li, population is the basis of everything. If we don't talk about economy, we just talk about military resources. Without sufficient population, our army will not be able to grow!"
"In this way, you make all the land confiscated by traitors and the land reclaimed by organized refugees as public ownership and openly contract it to the people. For these lands, we will not charge land rent in the future, only contract fees, and an annual fee will be set for each mu of land. The contracting fee of 1 dime, and all other fees will not be charged. Anyone who dares to charge more will have his claws chopped off!"
"In addition, you send people to measure all the private land in the base area, and every acre must be registered. From now on, the agricultural tax in the base area will be calculated based on the amount of land owned by the people. Agricultural taxes will no longer be levied on private land under 50 acres; 50 Those with more than an acre will still be charged as usual.”
"In this way, we can not only increase the people's enthusiasm for production, but also make the landlords and finance people remember. The contract fees we set are so low, and we don't charge rent. All the food grown belongs to the people, and the land of the poor and middle peasants We don’t collect taxes anymore. I wonder who will rent the land from those landlords. When their land has no one to cultivate it and it can only lie there uncultivated, it’s their turn to beg us!”
"Also, what I told you before about organizing people to build roads must be put on the agenda as soon as possible. If the military region government has no money, it will ask for a bank loan. It must build up the infrastructure in the base area!"
"When people have surplus food at home and money in their hands, they will have the motivation to raise poultry and livestock, and grow vegetables and fruits. As the products become richer, the economy can slowly revitalize. It is true that earlier people If we don’t have enough to eat, who can afford to raise pigs?”
Old Song chewed Liu Yu's words carefully and nodded: "It's a good idea, but it won't solve the urgent problem."
Liu Yu said with a smile: "I am still here. If there is more, it is still okay to have 50,000 or 60,000 tons of grain. Besides, we are not short of money now. If we have no meat to eat, we will go to other places to buy it. The price is expensive." It’s a little more expensive. If it doesn’t work, I’ll buy tens of thousands of boxes of canned beef!”
"Come on, you're tired of that canned beef! Next time, try a different flavor, maybe mutton! Hahaha..." Lao Song finally smiled and said with emotion, "The life we live now is better than before. I can’t even think about it.”
