Period drama: Old Cao's carefree life

Chapter 249 is here, bro.
Zhao Si'er dared not hide anything and told the whole story in detail.

The matter sounds complicated, but it's actually quite simple: Zhao Si'er was set up.

As mentioned before, Xiao Erduo is a seasoned veteran of the underworld and understands all of this.

Cao Wei Da almost laughed. He told Xiao Erduo to give Chuan Jiaqing a beating, but when he turned around, he found that his brother had been tricked.
This is fucking...
"Those bastards are absolutely despicable!"

"They took advantage of my drunkenness to set me up, borrowing 150 yuan and demanding I pay back 300!"

"Don't let me get the chance. If I do, I'll definitely kill those two bastards, Er Gouzi and Lao Liu!"

Zhao Si'er rubbed the spot where he had been hit, feeling indignant yet grateful, and said to Cao Weida, "Master Cao, thank you! You gave me my life. From now on, if you have any orders, just say the word, and I will go through fire and water for you!"

"Alright, why would I need you to go through hell and high water? Aren't you ashamed of that?"

Cao Wei Da rolled his eyes and said irritably, "Just consider it a loss to avoid further trouble. You have to know that nine out of ten gambles are rigged; not gambling is the best way to win!"

"Remember this lesson well. If you ever dare to gamble again, don't blame me for being heartless and ignoring you!"

"In my eyes, neither gamblers nor drug addicts deserve sympathy!"

"Yes, Master Cao, don't worry, I will never set foot in a casino again!" Zhao Si'er quickly assured him. This lesson was truly profound, and he dared not venture into casinos again.

If Master Cao hadn't come to redeem him, he would have had his hands chopped off.
Just thinking about the consequences sent chills down his spine.

"Don't worry, Mr. Cao, I will definitely repay you. However, I don't have that much money right now, so I can only repay it slowly."

"Alright, alright, there's no rush to pay back the money. We'll talk about it later." Cao Weida waved his hand. He had no intention of getting the money back. Three hundred silver dollars—with Zhao Si'er's salary, after deducting the daily expenses of his family, it would take forever to pay it back.

Having the intention is enough. As long as the other party is loyal to you, the money is well spent.

Of course, if the other party is an ingrate, he wouldn't mind letting them know that Cao Wei Da is no pushover!
"Let's drop this matter. Don't go to work today. Go home and get some rest."

He doesn't plan to get revenge on this matter for the time being. He can't afford to make an enemy today and then have them killed tomorrow, can he?

Too obvious.

Even if you want revenge, you have to use overt methods.

As for overt methods, he really didn't have a good way to deal with the other party.

Despite his current status as a prominent figure in the outer five districts, dealing with Commander Guo, who has Cui Qi backing him up, will not be so easy.

He was a follower of Oda Ono and could be seen as a representative of the Japanese.

Guo Dashuai was a man of Cui Qi, who in turn was under the jurisdiction of Wang Kemin's puppet government.

Even the Japanese treated Wang Kemin with great care.

Although Beiping was ostensibly under the control of the Japanese, it was not as simple as it appeared on the surface; there was also a power struggle between the Japanese and Wang Kemin's puppet government.

But he never expected that soon he would have a reason to deal with Commander Guo!
Let's leave that aside for now.

After dropping Zhao Si'er off at his doorstep and letting him go home, they took a car back to the police station.

He then went straight to Ono Oda's office.

"Ono-kun, I'm back."

"Cao Sang, you're finally back. Come, sit down. How did things go?"

"Thanks to you, everything went smoothly." Cao Weida sat down with a smile and asked, "Ono-kun, when I set off you said you had something to tell me. What is it? Please tell me."

"Cao Sang, how's your contact with the Red Party going?"

"We have fulfilled our mission. Through an intermediary, we met privately and they agreed."

"Okay, I'm relieved. Take a look at this."

Ono Oda handed him a map, which Cao Weida opened and looked at. The map showed a section of road from Wanping to Baoding Railway Station.

The map above shows a location marked with a red circle near Liangxiang.

"Ono-kun, what is this?"

"This is the logistics transportation route. The circle you see now is the location I marked for you."

"The transport team will depart from Wanping the day after tomorrow. We have already made arrangements. You need to find a way to notify the Red Party guerrillas where the truck will break down. They will have one hour to unload the goods and blow up the truck."

Oh my, it really is just as I suspected!
Cao Wei Da understood. When Ono Oda told him he had something to discuss when he went to the gambling den, he guessed that this might be the reason.

"Ono-kun, I'd like to know exactly what this shipment includes, and how much there is?"

"There are ten tons of rice, twenty boxes of sulfanilamide, and a number of rifles, bullets, and light and heavy machine guns, which are worth about 23 silver dollars."

Two hundred and thirty thousand silver dollars?!

Cao Wei was utterly shocked by this number.

Sulfonamides need no introduction; they are strategic-level military supplies, and at their most expensive, a single box of the drug cost as much as two small yellow croakers.

But the total value is 23.
Oh, I see, it's because grain prices are high! At that time in the enemy-occupied area, a pound of rice cost a full 7 silver dollars!
Yes, you read that right, a pound of rice costs 7 silver dollars!
The problem is, even if you have the money, you might not be able to buy it!
Ten tons of rice, 20000 jin, that's 14 silver dollars!
This accounts for more than half of the value of this batch of supplies!

In reality, this amount of grain was not much. At that time, the standard for a bag of rice was 50 jin (25 catties), so there were only about 400 bags.

This quantity is only enough to consume 10,000 people for two or three days.

Compared to the Japanese transport lines that could carry hundreds of tons at a time, it's nothing special.

To put it bluntly, the reason the total price is so high is entirely due to the high price of rice.

"There are too many supplies for a single guerrilla team to carry away."

After a moment of contemplation, Cao Wei Da said, "Ono-kun, it would be a shame to blow up all these trucks. It would also be difficult to transport supplies. Could we take them away?"

The Red Party not only lacked supplies, but also had an extreme shortage of things like trucks.

The Japanese trucks generally have a small load capacity, ranging from 1.5 to 3 tons.

Based on an average weight of 2 tons per vehicle, this batch of supplies would require at least ten vehicles.

It's such a waste to blow up so many trucks. We should have driven them to the anti-Japanese base area instead.

Ono Oda thought about it and realized it made sense. It was indeed inconvenient for the guerrillas to carry so many supplies by themselves and their carts.

There weren't many items, but they were too heavy.

So he nodded and said, "I will arrange a few more vehicles, and blow up the extra ones so that I can have an explanation to give to my superiors."

"However, I have one condition: the captain who transported these supplies, Naoto Arakawa, must die!"

As he spoke, he took a photo out of the drawer and handed it to Cao Weida, adding, "Not only that, I also hope that you can personally participate in this matter."

“No problem, Naoto Arakawa will definitely die in Liangxiang!” Cao Weida took the photo, looked at it, and readily agreed.

He couldn't be bothered to ask who this Naoto Arakawa was, whether he had offended Oda Ono or some Japanese officer; it was none of his business.

They were just Japanese devils anyway, killing them was no big deal, it was a win-win situation, why bother digging deeper?

"However, Ono-kun, you're asking me to go there personally. They're the Red Party, isn't it inappropriate for me to go?"

"What if the other Japanese officers find out?"

"Don't worry, Cao-san, no one will blame you for this," Ono Oda reassured him. "I assure you, no soldier of the Empire will make things difficult for you because of this."

"This is our first time cooperating with the Red Party in this way, and there isn't one of our own people watching over us, so I'm a little worried. I hope Mr. Cao can understand."

"..." Cao Weida was silent for a moment, then nodded helplessly and said, "Alright, Ono-kun, please rest assured, I will try my best to persuade them to take one of me."

That's good, he was just planning to find some time to go out of the city to store the medicine, isn't this a perfect opportunity?

"Yoshi! That's perfect!" Ono Oda nodded in satisfaction. "By the way, there's another vehicle accompanying us, belonging to the local security force. Their instructions are to keep things clean."

"The officers don't want anyone to come back alive!"

Tsk, what's with this security team?

Forget it, let the Red Party have their own headaches. I'll just focus on delivering the message.

"I will convey this message without missing a single detail. Well, Ono-kun, time is of the essence, so I'll go and make the contact."

"Oh, by the way, Ono-kun, where should we put the goods after they're unloaded? Should I go find a place outside the city?"

"Alright, there's a saying in China, 'Don't bother two masters with one matter.' Then I'll have to trouble you, Cao Sang. Don't worry, I will definitely treat you well after the matter is completed."

"Hi, Ono-kun, you're too kind. It's my honor to be able to help you. Well then, Ono-kun, time is of the essence, so I'll take my leave now."

After leaving Ono Oda's office, Cao Weida went downstairs and deliberately made some noise as he passed the confidential room.

After confirming that Zheng Chaoyang had seen him, he left the police station without stopping.

After finishing my shift at noon, I went to a teahouse.

Cao Weida sat at the tea table, leisurely sipping tea while listening to Zhang Chao sing a fast-paced ballad.

That's right, it's Zhang Chao, Du Shiniang's husband in the original novel.

While watching the TV series, some comments made a sarcastic remark that Zhang Chao might have been a castrated man, a living eunuch, since Cao Wei Da never pulled down his pants, so it wasn't very clear.

Cao Weida tapped his fingers on the table, occasionally sipping his tea, and leaned back in his chair listening to the clapper talk.

You know what, these days, clapper talk is actually quite interesting.

Just then, a man with a full beard and wearing a bowler hat sat down opposite him.

"Here you go, bro."

Cao Wei Da was not surprised at all, and picked up the teapot to pour him a cup.

(End of this chapter)