On the next day, Li Mu plans to purchase goods and return to China as soon as possible.
He also has a certain idea of what goods to purchase. At present, the most urgent items in the country are medicines and military supplies.
Let’s not consider military supplies for now. If you don’t have a certain level of strength, selling military supplies will easily lead to trouble.
Medicines are much simpler, and their application scope is wider than military supplies. They are not only used by the military, but also by civilians.
The first drug to choose is sulfonamide. The discovery and use of sulfonamide played a great role in fighting bacterial infections in World War II, greatly reducing the mortality rate of wounded soldiers. According to the data, during World War II, every U.S. soldier was issued a hanger
The first-aid kit on the belt contains a pack of sulfa powder and a roll of bandages. Sulfa powder and sulfa tablets are also important first-aid drugs carried by battlefield ambulance soldiers.
In many domestic anti-Japanese films, sulfonamide is a hard-to-find drug. Many protagonists go through many difficulties to obtain sulfonamide and send it to the rear.
On the other hand, since the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, Japan has implemented a complete blockade on the import of drugs into China. The powerful antibacterial drug sulfonamide is an embargoed material. As a result, many soldiers died because they could not use a few sulfonamide pills.
Unlike China, during World War II, the U.S. military significantly reduced its casualty rate because it had sufficient sulfonamides.
Of course, there must be another reason why domestic soldiers did not have enough sulfonamides for use at that time. They were too poor and did not have enough foreign exchange to buy these drugs.
Another drug that was widely used in China at the time but was relatively scarce was the antimalarial drug quinine. Quinine is an alkaloid extracted from the bark of cinchona and other trees. It can inhibit the growth of malaria parasites. Its main reason is quinine.
Originated in South America.
During the Anti-Japanese War, due to the scarcity of corresponding medicines, overseas Chinese donated a lot of quinine.
Li Mu spent two hundred thousand dollars on sulfonamides, quinine... and several other drugs that were scarce in the country.
After shopping, Li Mu didn't stop and got on a plane to Bangkok that day.
Then Hanoi, Kunming, and Wuhan, this time the journey took one day longer than last time and took three days.
After arriving in Wuhan, Li Mu rested for a long time and immediately contacted several large commercial banks with branches in Wuhan that had good reputation and strength.
Nowadays, the war on the front line is intense and medicines are scarce, especially medicines for treating injuries and illnesses, which are extremely popular in the market.
After some communication, we briefly discussed the price.
Then Li Mu went to the warehouse, put all the medicines in the space inside, and called the guard company that came to Wuhan with him, a team of more than 20 people to guard the warehouse.
Then he took the person in charge of the company to inspect and verify the goods with his own eyes.
Seeing so many medicines, the heads of several commercial banks were overjoyed. They bargained and determined the price. The two large commercial banks decided to jointly acquire this batch of medicines.
Compared with Li Mu's purchase price in Singapore, the selling price was 2.8 times higher.
The equivalent of US$200,000 became US$560,000.
In fact, it is not too expensive. These medicines are shipped from Singapore to China according to the normal process. Not to mention the freight, there are also customs taxes, and there are various food and beverage charges along the way.
The price must at least double to make enough profit
In addition, Japan currently blocks the sea and medicines are scarce, so selling it for US$580,000 is quite reasonable.
However, such a large transaction can only be made in legal currency in China.
In the end, the two large commercial banks paid Li Mu 1.58 million French currency, equivalent to 1.34 million silver dollars.
After receiving the money, Li Mu was not idle. He immediately took a plane and visited several major domestic material distribution centers. He spent all the money in his hands again. A small part of the unsalable bristles in the country had been hoarded for such a long time.
, he won it at an average price of 20% off.
As for the rest, they were too scattered and I didn’t bother to collect them.
With so many bristles in hand, Li Mu once again embarked on the journey to Singapore, still staying in the same hotel. This time, because he had a larger supply of goods, he contacted several larger foreign banks.
As the war in the country became more and more intense, the smell of gunpowder in Europe also began to get stronger. The market for bristles increased instead of decreasing. After all the sales, Li Mu had more than 1.6 million US dollars in funds.
Although he is incomparable to tycoons like Rockefeller, whose current net worth is measured in hundreds of millions of dollars, in China, his net worth is definitely not small.
When funds reach this scale, speculation will not be so easy, and it will take a long time to prepare. Not only does it take time to purchase items that can be exported domestically, it also takes time to purchase enough goods abroad, and it also takes time to sell the goods domestically.
time.
Therefore, Li Mu decided to slow down the pace. Moreover, as the scale of transactions became larger and larger, he could no longer do it alone and had to set up a trading company.
This is convenient. Singapore is a prosperous place for commodity logistics, and there are many talented people in various businesses. Not to mention the various Chinese educated youths in Nanyang, there are also many people from China who come here to hunt for gold.
Through an intermediary, Li Mu rented a two-story building in a commercial street and established "Far East Trading Company". Then he began to advertise in newspapers for recruitment.
As the war continued in the country, many people came to Nanyang with their families. Together with the adventurers and vagrants from the West, there were more and more talents here.
After several rounds of screening, Li Mu recruited a man named Su Ming, who was in his thirties, as the person in charge of Far East Commercial Bank.
With Su Ming's assistance, a Far East trading bank with more than 20 employees was established. The main task of the trading bank was to help Li Mu purchase supplies, or to assist Li Mu in selling the supplies brought back from the country.
Of course, this is the main task. After completing the main task, you can also take on some business on your own. For example, help some domestic commercial banks export products, or help domestic commercial banks import certain products.
In short, the commercial bank is currently just an empty frame and does not have many actual assets.
When ordering goods, contact other foreign companies directly and you don't need to worry about it anymore, as long as the goods are put into the warehouse.
When assisting Li Mu to sell goods, they don't have to worry about how the goods are shipped. As long as the Far East Trading Company assists Li Mu in selling the items in the warehouse.
It sounds quite simple, just run the errands, negotiate cooperation with other firms, and sign contracts.
The first thing the commercial bank did when it was established was to assist Li Mu in purchasing supplies.
With more than 1.6 million US dollars in hand this time, it would be impossible to purchase all the medicines. Not to mention that Singapore currently does not have that much stock, and it would not be possible to digest it in a short time if brought back to the country.
Li Mu asked someone to do some analysis. In addition to the current shortage of medicines and military supplies in the country, some civilian goods that once needed to be imported were also in short supply.
Since sea routes were blocked and import channels were reduced, domestic businesses, even if they still had stocks of these materials, quietly reduced their supplies and began to hoard them.
With the supply reduced and the smoke everywhere, the prices of these imported goods have also skyrocketed. As long as they are shipped into the country, you can make a lot of money.
In the next few days, with the assistance of Far East Commercial Bank, Li Mu began to purchase various supplies, mainly commodities that were in short supply in the country before the war.
After purchasing these, I purchased some medicines again, as well as some miscellaneous things. For example, various hardware tools, machine spare parts, some general equipment, steel materials that cannot be produced with domestic technology, etc.!
The domestic demand for these miscellaneous items purchased in the end seems not to be large, but the profit is definitely not low.
The entire purchase cost almost US$1.4 million.
It will take a lot of time to sell all these supplies domestically. Purchasing supplies from China will not be small and will take longer to prepare.
So, when he returned to China this time, he couldn't waste time. Li Mu decided to train and arm his security team and expand it several times.
After all, in troubled times, having soldiers in hand is more practical than anything else.
The next step is to purchase ordnance. As the throat of the Strait of Malacca, Singapore not only gathers businessmen from various countries, but also has many arms dealers.
With the advice of the Far East Trading Company, Li Mu contacted a trading firm that represented German ordnance.
Although the price of German military ordnance is relatively expensive, the quality is excellent. After looking at the list of weapons provided by the other party, the Kar98k rifle is at the top. This is a newly launched rifle in 1935, which is also the famous Mao Zedong rifle in later generations.
Ser 98K.
As the standard rifle equipped by the German army during World War II, it entered service in 1935 and was used until the end of World War II. It was the standard issue of the German Army.
This rifle has a built-in 5-round magazine. The length of the gun reaches 1 meter, the effective range is 800 meters, and the rate of fire is about 15 rounds per minute. It was a very classic rifle during World War II.
From 1935 to 1945, approximately 14.5 million rifles of this type were produced, accompanying the German army from the beginning of the war to its surrender.
I looked at the price again, and no surprise, each Mauser rod is 98K, comes with 500 rounds of ammunition, and is priced in US dollars, with a unit price of 45 US dollars.
It is also marked on it that the inventory is 2,800.
I looked down again and saw that M24 grenades were priced in US dollars at US$45 each.
Next there are various firearms and artillery, and even armored vehicles.
However, in the current state of the security regiment soldiers, apart from firing a gun and throwing a grenade, let alone an armored vehicle, they cannot even fire a cannon.
These can only be seen.
In the end, Li Mu purchased 2,800 Mauser 98K guns, purchased 30,000 grenades, and purchased 30 German-made Grw34 medium-sized mortars.
This mortar has a maximum range of 2,400 meters, a maximum rate of fire of 25 rounds per minute, a total weight of 57 kilograms, and an ammunition weight of 5 kilograms. It requires about four soldiers to cooperate.
During World War II, it won praise from Allied soldiers for its precise shooting accuracy and high rate of fire, and participated in almost every German battle in World War II.
Compared with various types of artillery, the operation of mortars is relatively simple. With good training, you should be able to learn it quickly.
Thirty mortars, each equipped with 300 rounds of shells, cost US$1,100 each.
Thirty doors totaling $33,000.
Thirty thousand hand grenades, priced at US$45 per door, for a total price of US$350,000.
Two thousand eight hundred Mauser 98K, equipped with 500 rounds of ammunition, priced at US$45 per unit, total price of US$126,000.
Total: 250,000 U.S. dollars, converted into silver dollars, approximately worth 430,000 Yuan Datou.
Although he purchased so many German weapons, his firepower was still weak. The next day, Li Mu once again contacted a well-known ordnance agency.
After looking at the supply list, I quickly selected the target, one hundred Browning pistols, each with one thousand rounds of ammunition, priced at US$70 each.
These pistols can be used by guards. In the future, each officer in the army will also be equipped with one.
Next, we need to strengthen the firepower configuration of the army, and rifles alone are not enough.
After much selection, I finally selected the famous Czech light machine gun.
The official name of the Czech light machine gun is the ZB-26 light machine gun, but because it is produced in the Czech Republic, people like to call it the Czech style.
During the Anti-Japanese War, what was the most famous weapon equipped by the domestic army? The Czech light machine gun must be indispensable. Just like in Liangjian, the gun Li Yunlong charges with is the Czech light machine gun.
However, Li Yunlong obviously used it improperly. This gun cannot be used in such a charge.
This light machine gun was also one of the few sharp weapons used by the domestic army to deal with small guns during the Anti-Japanese War. It is said that it was imported and homemade. During the Anti-Japanese War, there were at least hundreds of thousands of Czech-style light machine guns in the country, and it was considered to have done a lot for the Anti-Japanese War.
Small contribution.
However, this light machine gun is expensive. As the technology matures, although the price has dropped a bit in recent years, it is still not cheap.
A Czech-style light machine gun with 2,000 rounds of ammunition, priced at $220.
Li Mu thought about it and bought 180 of them for US$39,600.
At that time, a machine gun company will be established directly under the regiment, and each squad will be equipped with one. The firepower will increase immediately.
In the end, Li Mu spent another 20,000 US dollars to buy several motorboats that could navigate inland rivers before giving up.
After such a purchase, Li Mu spent a lot of money in his hand. Without delay, Li Mu got on the plane and returned to Wuhan the next day.
After returning to Wuhan, he was not busy selling goods. There were too many materials involved this time, and it is conceivable that there will be more in the future. A domestic trading house also needs to be established to handle these things for him.
As Peiping and Tianjin fell one after another, and Shanghai was also in constant war, the coastal areas were in turmoil, and many people fled to the inland to avoid disaster.
The three towns of Wuhan were well-known in China at this time. They were thoroughfares to nine provinces, waterway transportation arteries, and many foreign concessions. They were the refuge targets of many people.
Therefore, the war ahead makes it seem a bit abnormally prosperous at this time, with all kinds of talents pouring in crazily, and people looking for jobs are everywhere.
Li Mu bought a small building in the British Concession in Hankou, established Muwu Trading Company, and officially began recruiting troops.
In just over a week, a trading company with more than 80 employees was established. To this end, Li Mu transferred hundreds of people from Nanyang, and thirty people were assigned to Browning to guard the trading company in the city. Pistols
Concealed and convenient for movement in the city.
Another seventy people, accompanied by Mauser 98k, guarded the warehouse outside the city in the name of merchant group guards.