The Anti-Japanese War Begins with the Northeast Army

Chapter 279 "Embargo"

Seeing that the battle on the front line was defeated with the help of this thing, the French naturally became anxious and immediately followed suit and started building tanks.

It seems easy to see others carrying a load, but after actually trying it, the French realized how many tricks there are involved.

Steel plates, metal welding, engines, etc. This epoch-making weapon naturally has epoch-making technical difficulties, and even the small bolts cannot be neglected.

After much trouble, Renault finally produced the first batch of tanks, and World War I had entered its third stage.

Seeing that the Alliance could not defeat the Entente, the fence-sitter Italy struck back and stabbed Austria-Hungary in the tailbone, instantly destroying the ally.

As World War I was almost over, the French army basically stopped purchasing tanks.

After all, they were about to capture Berlin, so why buy this expensive and difficult to maintain big iron head?

This made Renault very anxious——

You have to know that before Renault vigorously developed tanks, it was an automobile company. It changed its production line and invested all the raw materials that were originally intended for automobiles...

Add to that the R&D costs and loans, and the boss almost burst into tears as he stared at the warehouse full of iron gadgets.

So Renault sent out a large number of salesmen to sell these things as quickly as possible;

However, due to the arms race and huge consumption during World War I, none of these powers had any surplus food.

There is no other way for these salesmen to go across the ocean and try their luck in China;
Feng Huafu, Cao Saner and Lao Duan were busy with the dispute between the government and the court at the moment, and had no intention of dealing with this bunch of people.

If history goes as it should, this batch of Renault FT-1917 light tanks produced in 17 will end up in Benzi's hands in the future.

In the future, when the September 18th Incident breaks out, Rehe is attacked, and the Great Wall War of Resistance is fought southward, these tanks will be the weapons used to attack China.

Besides, no matter how average its performance is, it is still a tank after all!
In 1917, China had no high-end weapons like tanks. Most of the troops were outnumbered, and many did not even have enough foreign guns and artillery shells.

It's okay to bully ordinary people, but sometimes it's difficult to suppress bandits... If you really have a group of tanks at hand, then the truth will be revealed under the gun platform.

Therefore, no matter what the considerations were, Jiang Cheng had to try his best to get this batch of equipment.

Jiang Cheng knows Japanese, English, and a little Russian, but he can't understand French at all.

Fortunately, both Yang Yucheng and Sun Zhengnan understood it, and they cooperated well in translation, and the communication between them was quite pleasant.

Just when Jiang Cheng thought the deal would be done soon, one of the French parties suddenly brought up the issue of an arms embargo.

Jiang Cheng was stunned.

How could he have forgotten this?

After the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, in order to divide up this vast and fertile land, the major powers had an unwritten rule: an arms embargo against China.

In order to suppress the development of China's military power, the sale of thermal weapons is strictly controlled.

But of course, some countries have their eyes on the market here and have turned a blind eye to the ban, continuing to supply guns and ammunition to warlords across the country.

But selling guns is one thing, but selling tanks to China... is a "feat" that no country has ever done before.

There are more than just Japan entrenched in China. If they knew that France was openly violating the tacitly agreed ban by various countries, wouldn't that be looking for trouble?

"Mr. Jiang, although we are very interested in this business, but so far——"

The French businessman named Fernando said distressedly, "Huaxia does not have the conditions to do this business with our Renault company."

After Sun Zhengnan conveyed his message, Jiang Cheng clenched his fists slightly. Damn, are these French guys a bunch of idiots? They are just giving up a big deal.

But then again, it is not realistic to ask them to ignore orders recognized by all countries.

After that, after several exchanges of words around the matter, Jiang Cheng did not gain any advantage, and even mentioned the bottom line that should not be raised proactively, such as "more money is required"... Unexpectedly, the French still did not give in.

This really made Mr. Jiang very angry, but even though the deal failed, he still had his moral principles and couldn't just give up like that.

They had no choice but to send the two French guys away, and none of them were very happy.

Not only did he waste the entire morning, but he also chose the best private room for his two grandsons, and the food and wine cost him hundreds of dollars.

"Damn it, I've heard of gold diggers... but I've never heard of gold diggers. And you're actually gold diggers at my expense."

The task was not accomplished, and Jiang Cheng, who was angry and humiliated, couldn't help but curse in modern language.

Of course, none of the brothers understood what he was saying, but just by looking at his expression, they could almost guess that Uncle Jiang was very dissatisfied.

"I will discuss this matter later. Since you, Feilan, value this batch of equipment so much, I will definitely find a way to get them."

Yang Yucheng's assurance made Jiang Cheng look a little better, but he knew clearly in his heart:
Even though Renault was so eager to recover its funds, it still chose to give up this big deal. The problem may not be so easy to resolve.

"You can try again... just don't get your hopes up."

Finally he sighed and Jiang Cheng said, "You have made an appointment with this family these days, or?"

Yang Yucheng quickly replied: "That's not the case. It's just that we have an appointment with the foreign merchant company today and tomorrow, that is, these two French merchants."

"The rest of the arrangements are basically three days later..."

Jiang Cheng nodded woodenly, "Well, that's perfect. The meeting with the two young ladies can be arranged for tomorrow—"

"Well, but then again, I haven't seen you finish learning all day, where have you been?"

Hearing his words, Hai Pingchuan, who had been silent, smiled bitterly: "Don't mention it, the unlucky one should be Old Yu who got addicted to it."

"Recently, he has been running away as soon as he opened his eyes. He has been to almost all the hot girls in the opium dens in Luanzhou."

Damn, this is a delicious treat—

Jiang Cheng couldn't help but curse inwardly. He was still going on a blind date. Wasn't this definitely harming other girls?

But Cao Saner was not a good person either, so it can be considered as a revenge for his descendants.

Thinking about these, Jiang Cheng felt even worse: the tank that was about to be in his mouth might fly away, and the annoying Xuecheng was no different from his brother. He was really not capable of any help and was more likely to cause trouble.

"Come on, guys, let's go out and have some fun."

Seeing Jiang Cheng's face getting worse, Hai Pingchuan suggested loudly, "It's not appropriate to always let Fei Lan pay for the meal. This time I'll do it!"

Jiang Cheng stood up and curled his lips: "Come on, what can you do with those two dollars? Doesn't your father want to arrange a marriage before the end of the year? You'd better save money for a wife!"

As he said that, he invited Yang Yucheng and Sun Zhengnan to go together... Unexpectedly, the two scholars said one after another that they had something to do and so did not go with him.

"Okay, let's go - call Han Ming and Ye Hai, and let's go find a decent restaurant and have a couple of drinks."

But neither of them expected that they just went out for a drink and gave Hai Pingchuan a wife for free.

(End of this chapter)