The War of Resistance: From Overseas Chinese Mechanics to King of Nanyang

"How much? Three silver dollars for resettlement? Or Yuan Shikai silver dollars? Not half-dollars?" At the Kunming refugee camp, Chen Amao personally led people to promote the recruitment conditions.

Normally, this kind of thing wouldn't be his turn to do, but Huang Zurong offered too much. He said that if he helped Huang Zurong recruit someone, he would get a commission of one Yuan Shikai silver dollar, which would be more than thirty yuan in legal tender.

Because of the Pacific War, supplies couldn't get in, so prices were rising everywhere, including the exchange of legal tender for Yuan Shikai silver dollars. So, naturally, he couldn't refuse such a temptation.

He has already recruited a lot of small-time peddlers on the black market, so he no longer needs to worry about sales. Now all he needs to do is help Huang Zurong recruit people.

On the one hand, it's about earning some referral fees; on the other hand, it's naturally about maintaining relationships.

He knew that being able to produce so many high-quality items during a time of increasing scarcity was an opportunity for him, and therefore he had to cherish it.

Naturally, they promoted it very enthusiastically.

"That's right, and it's three meals a day, with meat included at every meal," Chen Amao explained.

Because the expeditionary force has not yet been formed, there are still quite a few soldiers in the retreat camp. Once the expeditionary force is formed, there will be no one here, since the treatment of the expeditionary force is quite high.

"The treatment is alright, but can it really be guaranteed?" someone questioned, after all, this standard is not much worse than that of the Central Army, and much better than some poor, blood-sucking ragtag armies.

Therefore, more people raised questions, feeling that there was something fishy going on.

"The treatment is definitely guaranteed. To put it bluntly, the other party is the Nanyang Overseas Chinese Mechanics. I'm sure some of the brothers who frequent the black market should know about these groups," Chen Amao explained.

Sure enough, upon hearing the name of the Nanyang Overseas Chinese Mechanics, many people suddenly realized what was going on. After all, those involved in the black market naturally knew about this group. They controlled the transportation of supplies, and even if they just confiscated a few things, they would still live better than most people.

They were defeated soldiers, and to prevent them from causing trouble, their food was very poor.

There is a reason for this. Being warm can lead to lust. If you eat too well, you have nowhere to release your energy, so you will naturally cause trouble. Therefore, the higher-ups are very considerate in ensuring that they don't starve. After eating, they just want to lie down and sleep, and they can't have any other thoughts.

Compared to the Nanyang Overseas Chinese mechanics, their lives were much more miserable.

"Don't they have a special unit protecting them?" They naturally knew about the Nanyang Overseas Chinese Mechanics group, so they were naturally curious that they were now recruiting.

Upon hearing this, Chen Amao was speechless. He knew that keeping it a secret was probably pointless, as these seasoned soldiers were not to be trifled with. With that thought, he spoke up.

"They want to recruit mercenaries, saying they want to fight their way back home with them."

Upon hearing this, many seasoned soldiers immediately understood that it was just a way to recruit cannon fodder, so they quickly lost interest.

They have their own ways of surviving now that they're able to move around, and they certainly wouldn't join in on something like this, even if the treatment is good. Compared to their own lives, they definitely wouldn't agree to it.

Seeing the crowd thin out in an instant, Chen Amao became anxious. These were all hard-earned silver dollars, and they were just gone like that. He was heartbroken, but there was nothing he could do.

"This is all the money they pay mercenaries? And in a foreign land, where they might die and never come back. It's too low." Someone shook his head and walked away.

Of course, some people stayed behind. After all, they were used to their miserable lives and wanted to stay and see what would happen.

The main attraction is the opportunity to eat one's fill, with meat at every meal; the temptation is indeed quite strong.

Many people haven't eaten meat in a long time.

"Yes, it's too low. If it were a bit higher, I could consider it."

"That's right, let's mention it again, those car dealers are rich anyway."

"Yeah, even though we're just worthless lives, we should at least get some money from selling them, right? Could you give us a bigger resettlement allowance?"

The chatter from the crowd made Chen Amao frown even deeper. These were indeed problems. The main issue was that these seasoned soldiers were not easily fooled. If it were honest, simple farmers, they could probably be easily persuaded with just a few words.

Thinking of this, Chen Amao gritted his teeth and decided to take out one of his Yuan Shikai silver dollars. He did this purely to maintain the relationship, since Huang Zurong had brought him a lot of profit, and he had a feeling that it might be even higher in the future.

Upon hearing the news of a resettlement allowance of four yuan, the crowd quieted down considerably. Converted to Chinese currency, that's over a hundred yuan, which is indeed quite a lot.

Even with rising prices now, it's enough to buy quite a lot of rice.

There was no other way; most of China had fallen, and supplies were already extremely scarce. If it weren't for the Burma Road transporting supplies, the frontline troops probably wouldn't even be able to sustain themselves on food.

Offering four silver dollars as a resettlement allowance is quite generous these days.

The main reason is that human life is not valued.

Seeing that many people were tempted, Chen Amao pressed his advantage, persuading them that resources were extremely scarce and they might not even be able to guarantee banana leaves in the future. He suggested that they might as well enjoy a few good days while they could, so that even if they died, they could at least die well-fed.

It may sound harsh, but it's the truth: many people have eaten meat only a handful of times in their entire lives.

If the other party could really manage to have meat at every meal, they would eat meat more times in a month than they would in their entire lives.

"Okay, I agree."

Count me in.

"And me too."

Count me in.

Soon, more than thirty people signed the papers without really understanding what was going on.

In fact, when they arrived in Xiaguan, the resettlement allowance had risen to five silver dollars, which was an unexpected surprise.

"Brother Rong, the two thousand yuan you gave me is all gone. It's gone like water, it's gone too fast." Chen Shunwen complained to Huang Zurong. He originally thought it was a huge sum of money, but it was gone in less than two days. He couldn't help but sigh that raising soldiers is really expensive.

Upon hearing this, Huang Zurong didn't hesitate and immediately threw out another two thousand yuan. Anyway, he had as much of that stuff as he wanted. If he wasn't worried about taking out too much at once and crashing the Dali market, he could easily have taken out hundreds of thousands of yuan.

Moreover, they are all new banknotes from the 27th year of the Republic of China, which are definitely more authentic than the real ones. Of course, some people doubt that they are fake, but the quality is so good that the doubts are completely eliminated.

"Don't be afraid to spend money. If you need more, just come to me." Huang Zurong patted the other person on the shoulder. Since he was going to win over the Nanyang Overseas Chinese Mechanics, he would naturally have to spend money. Some banquets were necessary. He couldn't just go there empty-handed and say, "Work with me? I'll take you home."

Since we can't come up with the silver dollars for the time being, we only have these legal tender notes.

"We still don't have enough people, especially in the machining sector. We need to find a way to recruit more," Huang Zurong said.