Flip the table and divide the family property! Take his wife and daughter into the mountains and eat

"Zhao?"

Ivanov forced out the sound, a slightly stiff smile quickly appearing on his rugged face. "I can't believe my eyes, it's you?"

This familiar greeting left Li Defu, who was lying on the ground, and the patrolman next to him with his gun completely bewildered.

The fierce coldness on Zhao Shanhe's face vanished instantly.

He completely ignored the dark muzzle of the patrol officer's gun next to him, strode forward, a very warm smile on his lips, and extended his right hand.

"Ivanov, it's been a long time."

Zhao Shanhe's hand clasped tightly with Ivanov's large, gloved hand, and they even shook it vigorously a couple of times. "I never expected to run into you here in this snowy weather."

Ivanov's mind raced as he used the force of the handshake.

He glanced at Da Zhuang and the others around him, who were filled with murderous intent, and then at Li Defu, whose face was covered in blood on the ground. He immediately switched to a familiar tone, as if he were exchanging pleasantries with an old friend.

"Yes, my friend, did the cold winds of the Far East blow you here?"

Ivanov laughed heartily, patting Zhao Shanhe on the shoulder with his other hand. "I haven't visited our old friend for several days, Lao Sun. How's he doing?"

A flicker of inspiration crossed Zhao Shanhe's mind.

He was indeed too busy during this period. Although he sent Erga and Dazhuang into the mountains every month to deliver rice, noodles and meat coupons to Old Sun, he himself hadn't visited the old man in the dugout for a while.

"He's still the same as always, in good health," Zhao Shanhe casually replied, following the conversation.

Ivanov, a cigar between his fingers, asked tentatively in his grey-blue eyes, "Why aren't you hunting in the deep mountains and forests? What are you doing here at this dilapidated train station? And with so many armed brothers?"

"Ivan, the government has given me a job. They've appointed me as the director of the Red Star Machinery Factory to handle light industrial processing."

Zhao Shanhe, with a cigarette between his fingers, casually exhaled a puff of smoke.

"You said...you're the new factory manager?!"

A shrill scream, now distorted, came from the muddy water.

Li Defu arched his back as if electrocuted, staring intently at Zhao Shanhe. His cloudy old eyes instantly filled with terrifying red blood vessels, and his pupils trembled violently.

He originally thought they were just a bunch of vagrants who were after money, or at worst, plainclothes officers sent by the city police.

"yes."

Zhao Shanhe looked down at the mess, his voice icy cold: "I never expected that Deputy Factory Director Li would prepare such a huge surprise for me so soon after I took office. A clever scheme, indeed. Smuggling out brand-new German export machine tools worth over a million yuan as scrap metal."

Upon hearing the terms "brand new foreign trade machine tools" and "state assets," Ivanov's eye twitched violently.

This old Siberian fox completed an incredibly smooth transformation in a fraction of a second.

"What! Li, you actually dared to embezzle important assets of your country?!"

Ivanov abruptly took a step back, distancing himself from Li Defu as if avoiding a plague.

Ivanov's old face changed instantly, like turning the pages of a book, from furious rage to the feeling of "being wronged and angry by his good friend".

His gray-blue eyes widened, he pounded his chest with one hand, stomped his feet, and put on a furious look as if he had been utterly cheated.

He roared righteously at the entire audience in extremely broken yet booming Chinese:

"I, Ivanov, am the most trustworthy and legitimate businessman in the Great Soviet! What I hate most in my life are parasites and scoundrels like you who betray national interests! This is a desecration of business ethics!"

"I ordered a piece of scrap woodworking machinery!"

Ivanov pointed at Li Defu on the ground, indignantly shifting the blame, "Zhao! My friend! I swear to God, I had absolutely no idea what was under that damn canvas! I was used by this shameless liar!"

"What... Ivanov, you..."

Li Defu was struck dumb. He stared blankly at the Soviet trader who had been calling him brother just a moment ago but was now spouting righteous indignation. His mind went completely blank.

He was about to open his mouth, ready to reveal the whole story of how the two of them secretly colluded and divided millions of dollars, and fight to the death.

But he suddenly raised his head and met Ivanov's lowered gaze.

It was deathly silent inside, exuding an extreme chill reminiscent of stripping people naked and throwing them into an ice hole on the Siberian ice field.

Li Defu shuddered violently.

He looked at Ivanov and thought of his son, swallowing the words he was about to say.

Zhao Shanhe watched the scene unfold silently, without uttering a single word.

He took a deep breath of the Daqianmen cigarette in his hand, letting the pungent smoke swirl in his lungs before slowly exhaling.

Of course he knew that the old Siberian fox was talking nonsense.

A transaction worth over a million US dollars, and they just loaded it onto a special train without even checking what it was covered under? You're kidding me.

But Zhao Shanhe had no intention of exposing him.

It's not that we dare not, but that we cannot.

His unfathomable eyes swept over Li Defu, who was sprawled in the mud, while his mind coldly calculated three extremely dangerous accounts.

The first debt is time. This is also the part that sends chills down his spine.

He only nodded at home last night, agreeing to take on the Hongxing Factory business. But Li Defu and his gang somehow managed to get the news several days in advance, welded those fake shells a few days ahead, and then set fire to them to switch them out.

What does this mean? It means there's a mole in the municipal bureau or even higher up, and a very high-ranking one at that, who knew about it even earlier than him! Li Defu is just a pawn that can be discarded at any time, while the real big tiger is still comfortably hiding in the shadows.

The second issue is the overall situation.

Zhao Shanhe glanced out of the corner of his eye at the armed railway police officers and the dispatch tower in the distance. Looking at this northern suburban freight station, from the gatekeepers' clearance and crane dispatch to the armed police escort, everything was given the green light. The network of interests and protective umbrellas behind this was shockingly large.

If he were to act impulsively tonight and forcibly detain the Soviet tycoon who enjoys diplomatic immunity, completely exposing the transnational smuggling operation, these interest groups would absolutely retaliate fiercely. At that point, Director Li, who put him in power, would instantly be plunged into an irrecoverable political deadlock.

Since the Russians voluntarily gave up this batch of goods and even helped him crush Li Defu in the mud, Zhao Shanhe had no reason not to accept this ready-made way out.

Moreover, keeping this production line means that if the Red Star Factory really wants to engage in light industrial exports in the future, there will be many places where they will need this Russian equipment.

"That's natural."

Zhao Shanhe's lips curled into a smile again. He stepped forward and patted Ivanov's well-tailored wool coat with complete ease. "I trust Brother Ivanov's reputation, of course. It's all because that old bastard is so greedy that he dares to deceive even our Soviet guests."

Upon hearing this, Ivanov's tense back relaxed almost imperceptibly.

He knew that his life and the smuggling route in the Far East were now completely safe.

This terrifying Chinese man in front of him gave him the most dignified way out.

"Zhao! You are a truly wise factory manager!"

Ivanov, ever the quick-witted one, gave Zhao Shanhe a tight hug and said in a low voice, barely audible to the two of them, "To express my apology, next time I return to the forest, I'll definitely bring you several cases of the most authentic Leningrad vodka."

After saying that, Ivanov turned around and waved his hand.

"Let's go!"

With his two towering Russian bodyguards by his side, he abandoned even the empty wide-gauge freight car, striding down the platform and disappearing into the snowy night without looking back.

Only when the Soviet figures were completely swallowed by the wind and snow did Zhao Shanhe's smile gradually fade away.

Zhao Shanhe threw his cigarette butt into the snow, turned around, and looked at the two railway police officers who were still standing there, stunned.

"Thank you for your hard work, comrades."

Zhao Shanhe pulled out a wad of ten-yuan bills from his pocket and casually stuffed it into the hand of the lead patrolman. "This case is too big. It involves transnational smuggling and national heavy industry assets. Director Li of the Municipal Bureau specifically instructed that I must personally take the person back for interrogation."

The patrolman squeezed the thick stack of bills in his hand, glanced at the homemade cannon that Erga and his men were holding, and finally looked at the brand-new German machine tool. He knew that this matter had exceeded their authority.

"Understood, Director Zhao."

The patrolman, with a keen eye, handed over the handcuff key. "Here's the man. We'll report to our superiors right away that the robber violently resisted the law, and that Deputy Factory Director Li was taken away by factory personnel to assist in the investigation amidst the chaos."

Zhao Shanhe gave him an approving look, took the key, and tossed it directly to Ergaizi.

"Dazhuang, Erga, shove Li Defu into the truck cab. You guys take turns watching him."

Zhao Shanhe walked up to Li Defu, who was slumped over, and grabbed him by the collar like a dead dog. His voice was very low, but it made Li Defu break out in a cold sweat.

"Li Defu, don't expect anyone to save you. You can still make a sound here at the train station; but once you get to my territory, you'll have to ask me for permission before you can die."

Li Defu opened his mouth in despair, then collapsed completely.

"take away!"

Dazhuang and Ergazi, one on each side, dragged Li Defu onto the truck like a sack of potatoes.

"The rest of you, get on the crane!"

Standing in the wind and snow, Zhao Shanhe pointed to the pile of blue-glowing steel behemoths on the platform, his voice piercing the cold wind, "Transport them back to the factory tonight! No one will be allowed to take a single bone from our Red Star Factory!"