1novels #128 - Passing by Chang'an
#128 - Passing by Chang'an
The battle began. Before it ended, Ren Zhong, along with Tiger and the other guards, followed Sun Desheng's cavalry company directly through the blockade broken by Li Yunlong and his men, crossing the Fen River amidst the intense fighting.
On the west bank of the Fen River, the cavalry company used RPG rocket launchers to directly destroy two pillboxes on the blockade line, neatly tearing open two lines of defense of the Japanese devils, and only turned back to fight after escorting Ren Zhong and his party to the mountainside.
Ren Zhong didn't linger either, traveling through the night and penetrating more than 30 miles into the mountains before finding a large forest where everyone could lean against each other and rest. At daybreak, they continued westward, bypassing Puxian County when they reached the town ahead, heading straight for Daning, then south from Daning to Yichuan, and finally all the way south to Lintong.
They traveled nearly 500 kilometers, taking eight days, before arriving at the Kelai Shun Inn in Lintong at dusk.
"Guest, are you here to eat or stay?" The waiter at Kelai Shun Inn was very enthusiastic when he saw more than a dozen horse-riding guests arrive.
"We'll eat first, then stay," Ren Zhong said, glancing at the inn's signboard to make sure he hadn't come to the wrong place. "Give us each a serving of mutton paomo, plus five pounds of mutton. After we finish eating, we'll need a superior room, two common sleeping platforms for my brothers, and some concentrated feed for our horses."
Ren Zhong casually ordered.
"Alright, please come inside, guest! Leave the horses to us." The waiter beckoned a few companions to come and lead the horses away.
Kelai Shun Inn had its own stable, which could accommodate more than twenty horses. After all, in this era, horses were still a relatively mainstream mode of transportation.
"Guest, please come upstairs!" The innkeeper greeted them, wrinkles appearing on his smiling face. Seeing that Ren Zhong and his party had many horses and heavy baggage, it was clear that they were not ordinary impoverished refugees. Each of them was young, capable, and orderly. They didn't look like ordinary merchants either. These people and horses would spend no less than a dozen silver dollars even for a day and a night.
Ren Zhong followed the stairs up to the Jia-class room. Inside, there were two Eight Immortals tables, which was enough space for Ren Zhong and his group.
Before long, steaming mutton paomo and two basins of mutton were brought up. Tiger and the others didn't say a word, and began to eat heartily. After camping in the mountains for several days, everyone was quite hungry.
"Selling cigarettes! Old Knife brand cigarettes, three packs for one yuan!" While everyone was eating with gusto, a hawker's voice suddenly came from outside the door.
Ren Zhong's heart stirred. "Hey, cigarette seller, how about seven packs for two yuan?"
"Guest, take a look! Genuine Old Knife brand cigarettes. If it's legal tender, I can't lower the price for my small business. If you pay in silver dollars, I'll sell you seven packs and give you a box of matches as a gift." A middle-aged man selling cigarettes walked in with a smile.
He had made contact. This was the contact person arranged by the brigade commander. Ren Zhong didn't expect that the contact person would know as soon as he arrived.
It was his first time doing this kind of underground rendezvous. "Tiger, take out two silver dollars and buy some cigarettes."
"Okay, boss." Tiger put down his bowl, took out two silver dollars, and handed them to the middle-aged man selling cigarettes.
"Thank you, boss. The cigarettes are here. Take this box of matches, boss. It's very useful." The middle-aged man selling cigarettes took out seven packs of cigarettes from the bag on his body, handed them to Tiger, and then handed a box of matches directly to Ren Zhong.
Ren Zhong took the matches and casually put them in his pocket.
The two of them didn't say anything else and ended the exchange there.
After finishing the meal, when Ren Zhong returned to his room alone, he took out the box of matches, opened it, and sure enough, there was a small note inside.
"10 PM tonight, Liujia Tea Garden in the west of the city."
Kelai Shun Inn was the first stop on the list of rendezvous points that the brigade commander had given to Ren Zhong, but the mystery was that neither the boss nor the waiter had any connection to the underground organization.
It was just a simple initial meeting point. According to the prior arrangement, after Ren Zhong and his party stayed here, someone would come to contact them. Ren Zhong originally thought he would have to wait a day or two, but he didn't expect that the comrades of the underground organization would find him so quickly.
Obviously, they had been waiting here all along.
After finishing the meal, Ren Zhong rested at the inn until 9:30 PM, woke up Tiger, and then the two of them made their way to Liujia Tea Garden next to Yide Gate.
The streets of Lintong were deserted at night, with hardly anyone to be seen. It was only a few hundred meters from Kelai Shun to Liujia Tea Garden. Ren Zhong and his party found the place without much effort by following the street.
The tea garden was naturally closed at this time. A lantern was hung in front of the courtyard gate, emitting a dim yellow light, barely enough to see the sign with the four characters "Liujia Tea Garden" fluttering in the wind. Ren Zhong walked to the courtyard gate, looked around to make sure no one was there, and reached out to knock on the courtyard gate three times.
Before long, the courtyard gate opened, and the middle-aged man who opened the door was none other than the one who sold cigarettes.
He glanced at Ren Zhong and Tiger, nodded, and gestured for them to enter.
Ren Zhong and Tiger walked into the courtyard. The middle-aged man closed the door and accompanied Ren Zhong and Tiger into the main room inside the tea garden. The middle-aged man then said with a smile, "You two have worked hard. Wait a moment, I'll boil some hot water and make some tea for the two comrades to drink."
"Comrade Wang, don't bother, we'll say what we need to say and leave." Ren Zhong shook his head. Although the Kuomintang-controlled area was not as terrifying as before, it was better to avoid trouble if possible.
"This is the radio you need. The instruction manual and codebook are also inside." Ren Zhong pointed to the baggage on Tiger's back, indicating that it should be placed on the table.
"When the battery is used up, it can be charged by a hand-cranked generator. There are three lights on the radio. When you see only one yellow light on, you can charge it."
A purely Traditional Chinese character set, it would take some brainpower to break it.
"Okay, we will learn how to use it according to the instructions. If it really doesn't work, we will send someone to the base area to learn. Regarding the transaction, we have contacted three wealthy gentlemen in Chang'an. To avoid any complications, we have contacted one today who can trade 3 kilograms first. Tomorrow, we will trade 5 kilograms each in the morning and afternoon." Comrade Wang was not one to beat around the bush. The most taboo thing in their line of work was causing trouble.
When Ren Zhong heard this, he secretly clicked his tongue. The wealthy gentlemen in Chang'an were really something.
The price he secretly offered to the wealthy gentlemen outside for trading penicillin was 5 silver dollars per gram, but he only accepted small yellow croakers, and 7 grams of penicillin would be exchanged for one small yellow croaker.
Rounding up 3 kilograms would require 429 small yellow croakers. That's 430, almost 13 kilograms of gold! As for 5 kilograms of penicillin, it would require more than 700 small yellow croakers, more than 22 kilograms of gold.
It was equivalent to selling more than 57 kilograms of gold in Chang'an alone! Although this place was now close to the front line, its purchasing power was still amazing.
Of course, these wealthy gentlemen would not lose out. Through the efforts of Zhang Wanhe and his men, penicillin had already begun to circulate in the black markets of large cities in the north and various large cities in the rear. One gram was divided into 4 portions for anti-inflammatory purposes, each portion costing 2 to 3 silver dollars!
So these wealthy gentlemen could make a double profit if they sold these penicillin well.
And Zhang Wanhe and his men were selling it for almost 5 yuan per gram wholesale, while retail was only 2 silver dollars per portion!
But Zhang Wanhe only needed 3 silver dollars to get the goods from Ren Zhong, and he could also use paintings to pay off debts. A famous painting worth three or four hundred silver dollars was worth 2,000 silver dollars when used to pay Ren Zhong, which was equivalent to another discount, so Zhang Wanhe was able to accumulate tens of thousands of silver dollars.
And Ren Zhong made a fortune of more than 20 million from this wave in Chang'an.
First update, requesting votes!