Shadow Spy

Chapter 67 The fight for strategic supplies

On Thursday, April 4, at 27:08 in the morning, Li Junhao went to work at the Consulate General on time. He first reported to Miss Hanprey and presented some gifts brought back from Chongqing. While receiving thanks, he was also A new task was assigned: within one month, China’s tungsten sand, tung oil, bristle and other strategic materials should be purchased domestically at a price that could be twice the current market price.

This is a task assigned by the country. Colleagues in the Commercial Office have carried the task indicators, and staff from other departments of the Consulate General will also assist in completing it.Because Li Junhao has been on the job for a short time, the quotas assigned to him are 1 ton of tungsten sand, 100 quintals of tung oil, and 100 quintals of bristles.

However, Hanprey told him that in fact, as long as he completed one of them, the mission was completed.In comparison, her task target was ten times as high as his. At this time, she was completely unable to help him and had to rely on himself.

After returning to the office, Li Junhao told Brown to inquire about the market prices and sources of these three materials. After sitting down, he secretly smiled. Now he had exactly 1000 quintals of tung oil in his pocket, which was 500 quintals. After completing the task, he was rich. He is rich; and, tung oil has been added to the system mall, and he can buy it with gold coins at any time!
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In the afternoon, Brown came back and wrote a simple report to him, and clearly stated that the source of supply could not be found!
For a long time, China has been the world's largest exporter of three strategic materials: tungsten sand, tung oil, and bristle, and prices have remained stable for a long time. However, after the Sino-Japanese war broke out, prices rose rapidly.

Tungsten sand, before the July 26th Incident in 1937, the market price in Shanghai and Hong Kong was about 100 yuan per quintal (280 kilograms) (Yingyang); in the 27th year of the Republic of China, it reached 660 yuan per quintal; But now (April 28, 1300), the price is [-] yuan per quintal, and due to the fierce raids by the Japanese army, the price is still rising, and basically there is a price but no goods.

The situation of tung oil and bristle is the same as that of tungsten sand. The price of cooked pure tung oil on the Shanghai black market has risen to 200 yuan/quintal, five times higher than before the war. The price of bristle has even risen to 3500 yuan/quintal, a sharp increase of ten times. times, both materials are equally valuable but not available.

After reading Brown's report, Li Junhao rubbed his chin and thought about it. He had never thought that these three supplies were in such short supply before. It seemed that he needed to pay more attention to them.I asked my secretary Miliya to find the information and study it, and I understood why these three materials are called strategic materials.

The pure tungsten element extracted from tungsten sand is a necessary additive for refining high-strength steels such as gun barrel steel and warship steel. It plays an extremely important role in the military industry; tung oil produced in China is moisture-proof and anti-corrosion. With excellent properties such as acid and alkali resistance, it is a high-quality coating required by aircraft, ships, and mechanical equipment; the bristle produced in China is the only high-quality brush raw material, which is absolutely indispensable for cleaning gun barrels, ship decks, etc.

China is the world's largest exporter of these three materials, accounting for more than 70% of the export volume!
After the Sino-Japanese War began, the Nationalist Government lost the Jiangsu and Zhejiang regions as an important source of finance and taxation, and was subject to a strict economic blockade by the Japanese army. In order to persist in the war of resistance, it had to borrow heavily from the United States, Britain, the Soviet Union and other countries. These three Materials have become collateral for repayment, and most of the materials must be exported to the three countries every year to continue to repay the debt.

In order to ensure sufficient supply of the three materials, the Nationalist Government established several special control committees to desperately lower the purchase prices within their jurisdictions, causing serious losses to the producers. Therefore, they used smuggling to evade collection. Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Tianjin The three places were the largest smuggling and acquisition places for these materials. However, as the Japanese army's inspections became increasingly strict, the import of materials from the concessions in Shanghai and Tianjin became less and less, and the prices skyrocketed.

Although the United States and the Nationalist Government had a special material purchase and sales agreement, the domestic military felt the urgency of the coming war. Both the current demand and the long-term reserve of the three types of materials required more goods, so they asked institutions in China to increase purchases. It doesn't matter whether it is smuggled or not, as long as it has the goods, you can pay a high price; for the same reason, the British and the Soviets all want more shares, as do France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium and other countries So, let alone the Japanese army that currently occupies half of China.

In this case, as long as you have the goods in hand, you don't have to worry about sales at all. What you need to watch out for is someone taking advantage of others or the Japanese army.

Of course, Li Junhao had to complete the tasks assigned by the Consulate General. As for the extra supplies, he wanted to make more money. Anyway, his shipment volume alone would not affect the overall situation. He might as well improve himself. economic strength.

For Li Junhao, who has a stand, the goods in his hands will never be sold to the Japanese. It is easy to say to other countries. The situation in Italy is well known to the world. It is useless no matter how much resources there are; Britain and the Soviet Union are at war. For allies, you give them. France, the Netherlands, and Belgium were all over soon after the war started. Giving them is equivalent to giving to Germany.

As for selling to Germany, it’s not a big deal. Although it is the backbone of the Axis powers, its relationship with the United States has always been normal. Even after the outbreak of World War II, if its ally Japan had not attacked the United States first and provoked the war, Germany would have It will not declare war on the United States; more importantly, the relationship between Germany and China has always been good. Until the beginning of World War II, the weapons and training of the Nationalist Government troops had benefited from Germany. Even during the Battle of Songhu, The backbone of the Kuomintang army who fought to the death with the Japanese army were those German weapon masters! ——
Li Junhao now has the goods in hand, which is enough to complete the task, and there is no need to worry at all, so he is still going to work leisurely. However, other people in the consulate general have not been able to do that. They have started to activate their own connections and started to get busy!

However, in Shanghai, the concerted actions of hundreds of diplomats could not be kept secret at all. Soon, the news spread that the Americans were looking to purchase a large amount of strategic materials!Although other countries didn't know what was going on, they knew that if others took more, they would get less, so they immediately joined the rush for goods. As a result, the transaction price in the Shanghai underground black market In response, it surged to a new high.

The Japanese army also immediately discovered this phenomenon. The Army Military Police Headquarters stationed in the Chinese border increased the intensity of inspections in the area under its jurisdiction; the Marine Special Marine Corps stationed in the Japanese Concession also stepped up inspections on the one hand, and on the other hand, they let the wind out. If someone sells these three types of strategic materials to the Japanese Navy, not only will they not be fined, but they can also get a payment higher than the black market price.

(End of this chapter)