Warlords: Rising from the Northwest Border and Sweeping Across the Powers

Chapter 385: Blockade of the dock warehouse and confiscation of opium and ammunition

Three days later, a tense atmosphere permeated the Jinggang City Coastal Wharf.

Three hundred fully armed soldiers rushed to the storage area of ​​the French Commercial Bank like a steel torrent. They moved quickly, with firm steps and resolute and cold eyes.

The soldiers, dressed in black uniforms and holding rifles, exuded a solemn atmosphere. They broke through the door of the business in a rough manner and entered the storage area without mercy.

Inside the warehouse, goods were piled up like mountains, and the soldiers quickly launched a search and seizure operation. They carefully checked every box and package, not missing any details. Some soldiers cordoned off the warehouse with a cordon, prohibiting anyone from approaching.

The whole scene was tense and orderly, and the soldiers' actions were decisive and resolute.

The Binhai Wharf is one of the busiest and most cargo-heavy terminals in northern China. Two hundred meters away from the wharf, there is a storage area of ​​more than 6,000 acres. There are warehouses with sizes ranging from 200 square meters to over 1,000 square meters. The French Company's wharf warehouse is located in the core area of ​​the storage park.

After being notified by his subordinates, a white French man wearing a black suit, a black top hat and holding a walking stick in his hand, led thirty or forty guards of the trading company with an angry look and quickly came to the No. 1 warehouse of the trading company.

At the warehouse gate, hundreds of stern-faced, fully armed, tall soldiers had already set up a cordon, and the rifles in their hands were intimidating.

After seeing the scene in front of him, the French nobleman named Frege suppressed his anger and walked forward and said in broken Chinese: "Damn bastards, who gave you the guts to seal up our French Chamber of Commerce's warehouse!"

The soldiers did not respond, and an officer wearing a black uniform and holding the rank of major walked out of the warehouse with his hands behind his back.

"Mr. Frege, please show some respect. We received an order from the higher-ups saying that your French Chamber of Commerce's dock warehouse contains contraband, so we sealed off the warehouse for routine inspection. Why are you moving? If there are no contraband, I will naturally lead my men to evacuate, and all the goods in the warehouse will be left intact."

Frege's heart shuddered. Of course there were contraband in Warehouse No. 1, which contained about six tons of opium, as well as a large number of rifles, light and heavy machine guns and other weapons. These weapons were ordered by the Southern Government. According to the original plan, this batch of weapons should be delivered to the Shanghai Port for handover, but now Shanghai is also under the control of the Northern Frontier. It would be better to transport them directly to the Beijing-Hong Kong Concession first and then arrange delivery to ensure that nothing goes wrong.

In fact, the fact that major foreign companies were selling opium and arms had long been tacitly acknowledged by the Northern Frontier government, and everyone just kept their distance and turned a blind eye. What Frege did not expect was that the Northern Frontier government would suddenly come to seal off the dock warehouses, which seemed full of conspiracy no matter how you looked at it.

"You have no right to inspect our warehouse! This is the goods of our French company, which involves our company's commercial secrets. Please stop your unreasonable behavior immediately!"

The major looked at Frege calmly and said, "This is Binhai Wharf, not your French Concession! This is our northern border territory, you have no right to bargain!"

"Captain! We found a large amount of munitions and opium in the warehouse! They are all contraband."

A soldier ran out in a hurry and reported to the major.

"Very good, take all these contraband away and send them to the Anti-Smuggling Bureau!"

"Yes, leader!"

Seeing that the soldiers were about to transport away the large wooden boxes filled with arms and opium, Frege became completely furious and yelled at the major, "Damn you yellow monkeys! Dirty and backward Orientals! Tell your men to stop what they are doing! Otherwise, I will be rude!"

As Frege spoke, the merchant guards behind him picked up their guns one by one and pointed them at the Northern Frontier soldiers in front of them.

Major Jian Hong stared at Frege with a dagger-like gaze, and said decisively: "Those who dare to fire at the Northern Frontier's army are our Northern Frontier's enemies! Come on, take them all down!"

After Jian Hong gave the order, hundreds of soldiers pointed their guns at the guards of the French Trading Company. Four military jeeps quickly stopped around them. The muzzles of the MG42 general-purpose machine guns on the roofs were intimidating.

The guards of the trading company couldn't help but tremble with their hands. They swallowed hard, looked at the enemy's firepower, then looked at the rifles in their hands, and their expressions became obviously fearful.

Frege did not expect that Jian Hong's attitude would be so tough, and the other party seemed to be willing to attack them directly if they disagreed.

Frege shrank his neck, his voice trembling, and he forced a smile and said, "Mr. Major, our France has always had a very friendly relationship with the Northern Frontier. Do you think there is any misunderstanding in this matter? Can we discuss it again?"

Jian Hong showed a meaningful smile and slowly said, "I still like the way you were just now when you were unruly, yelling at us, and acting recklessly. You should recover for a while."

Frege was confused by Jian Hong's words for a moment. Just as he was stunned, Jian Hong strode forward, raised his right hand, and gave Frege a loud and solid slap, knocking him to the ground.

"They are holding guns and hindering us from performing our duties, and even intending to harm Northern Xinjiang soldiers. They are so audacious! Take them all away!"

In this way, arms and opium worth at least 1.4 million oceans were forcibly taken away from the warehouse of the French Commercial Bank. At the same time, a large number of similar incidents continued to occur in the Binhai Wharf Storage Park. Powerful foreign companies such as the French Commercial Bank, Citibank, and Julies Commercial Bank were all targeted to varying degrees. The most unfortunate of them was the Roman Commercial Bank of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. They did not store contraband such as opium and arms, but the military found a large number of Chinese cultural relics and precious antiques in their warehouses, which confirmed the fact that they were smuggling and selling precious cultural relics.

The sudden action of the Northern Frontier military was like a swift storm, sweeping away all the major foreign companies and dealing a heavy blow.

After receiving the news, Darian, the head of the French Chamber of Commerce, Lewis, the head of Julis Trading Company, Rothschild, the head of Citibank, and others immediately found the consuls of the concession, hoping that they could come forward and resolve the matter for the major trading companies.

The consuls of these Western powers were also troubled by this matter. They wanted to talk to Su Zhengyang? How could it be so easy to talk? Su Zhengyang was completely reckless and his style of doing things was well known. Since he had taken such a big move against the major foreign companies, he would never calm down the storm without getting enough benefits. What made these consuls helpless was.

These huge foreign companies were basically established behind the scenes by relatives of high-ranking nobles or government officials in various countries. If they don't take care of this matter, they will offend many people.

After much deliberation, French Consul Frank called Su Zhengyang as soon as possible.