It was a busy scene inside the Chi Army Base at the moment, with a large number of officers in charge of logistics shuttling back and forth in the office area.
At the dinner table, Zhao Weihu glanced at the lame middle-aged man who brought him pickled vegetables, and asked very concisely: "Old Xiao, are you really not staying here?"
The lame middle-aged man thought for a moment, then shook his head and said, "Forget it, I won't stay. It's clearly written in Document No. 1 that workers who fail to comply with the recall order within the deadline will be deemed to have automatically waived their qualifications for naturalization or household registration in Longcheng. They will never have the chance to apply again, and it will easily affect the next generation. My child is sick and will have to go to school in the future, so let's go back...!"
Zhao Weihu listened to the other party's answer and did not try to persuade him to stay: "Okay, go back and work hard, and marry another one when you have the chance."
"Yeah." The lame middle-aged man smiled and nodded.
The two had just exchanged a few words when a young man with the rank of captain walked in, saluted, and shouted, "Commander, this is the funding document submitted by the Ministry of Finance of the Military Department."
Zhao Weihu took the document, glanced at the numbers on it, and signed his name in the lower right corner. "You verbally inform the finance department that in the future, all funds related to the purchase of materials will be given the green light, but the accounts must be reconciled. Whoever dares to embezzle at this time will be shot by me...!"
Seeing Zhao Weihu busy again, the lame middle-aged man immediately stood up and said, "Commander, I'm leaving now."
Zhao Weihu's face showed no emotion, he just nodded slightly at him and said, "Go ahead. Come back if you don't like it. I'll give you the kitchen at the headquarters."
"Okay." The lame middle-aged man nodded heavily, turned around and left the office.
Zhao Weihu drank half a bowl of porridge in two mouthfuls and wiped his mouth carelessly: "Call the guards, let's go to the military headquarters for a meeting."
Two minutes later, Zhao Weihu left the camp in a military vehicle.
…
The lame middle-aged man is named Xiao Yucheng. He was one of the first Chinese workers who responded to the call of the Longcheng government thirteen years ago and came to Sinalo to provide infrastructure support.
At that time, the Mexican regime, which had just been recognized by the coalition government, was in a very difficult time. As the temperature warmed up and resources recovered, a large number of regimes that wanted to seize this land emerged one after another, including various bandit armies, private armed forces, party armed forces, and rebel forces. They united together to fight against the Mexican government army and beat the latter back step by step, which was quite similar to the warlord melee in the Republic of China.
At that time, Longcheng had just completed its infrastructure construction and was in a very weak stage of development. In order to ensure the security of the border and stabilize its neighbor, a large regional government chose to support the Mexican regime. It not only provided supplies, money, guns and ammunition, but also sent many laborers to Sinalo, Casaro and other areas to help them build infrastructure, ports, military airports, roads, military factories and other infrastructure to maintain the war.
During those years, many white people in Area 1, such as engineers and other technical workers, were sent to the Murphy area, but compared with the number of Chinese workers, they were only a small group of less than 10,000 people.
Among the assigned workers, 90% of the low-level workers are Chinese, and all of them come from Longcheng.
In that era, some leaders and officials of the Longcheng government were still very powerful. After all, they had experienced the war of unification, and some of them were brave and dignified, so they rejected the decree at first. But in order to appease them, the District 1 government agreed to allocate 3 billion in cash to Longcheng for urban development.
When Longcheng was first built, money and funds were needed everywhere, so the mayor of Longcheng at that time said: "There is really no other way, so let's use the efforts of a small number of people in exchange for the stability of the majority."
In this way, nearly 80,000 low-level laborers were sent to the Murphy area. In order to increase everyone's enthusiasm, the Longcheng government also made many promises to the workers, such as allocating houses before leaving, and their wages would exceed the level of ordinary workers in Longcheng, etc.
One of the most attractive ones is that for those at the bottom of society who have not become naturalized citizens of Longcheng, the government will provide special approval channels, and when the workers return after completing their missions, they will be able to obtain naturalization without any obstacles.
This actually attracted a lot of people, because at that time, many Chinese heard that this place was developing very fast, so they came here to live with their relatives. They did not have military status, nor were they military personnel during the Great Escape, so the screening procedures for household registration were very cumbersome. Many people who had lived here for a year or two were unable to obtain naturalization and were waiting in line.
If you want to take root, you must solve the household registration problem, so many people come to the Mofei area to work as laborers for the high welfare and high treatment, and Xiao Yucheng is one of them. He had just got married at that time and came with his young wife.
But what Xiao Yucheng did not expect was that the conditions in the Murphy area were not only extremely harsh, but also most of the indigenous people here were of low character. Robbers, thieves, and calf traders were everywhere. Not only was the living environment dangerous, but it was also very xenophobic.
Therefore, in the first two years, Xiao Yucheng wanted to apply to return to Longcheng several times, but he finally gave up because the salary was really generous. After all, he had to survive, save money, and wait for the allocation of housing.
In this way, he worked for more than six years, saved some money, and had a boy with his young wife. However, at that time, the situation of the Mexican government was still not good, and the wars in various regions continued to escalate, so the situation of these workers was also dangerous. Sometimes they had to move and run away suddenly while working.
During a rebel counterattack, Xiao Yucheng and his wife were working at the port. Several shells hit them and his wife fell in the ruins of a half-finished product.
In fact, there were many laborers who died tragically, just like the batches of Korean laborers who were sent abroad before the 19th century, doing the most dangerous work and being deprived of their lives at any time. The only difference was that the Koreans did it for their nation and country, but Xiao Yucheng and his people didn't know who they were doing it for, and many people lost their lives without knowing why.
After his wife died, Xiao Yucheng was depressed for a long time, and the leaders of the Longcheng government changed twice. The many conditions promised to the laborers were postponed again and again. In addition, the laborers' wages were paid by the Mofei army, and they had no money at that time, so the laborers' income gradually decreased.
At this time, an extremely disgusting situation occurred. The workers felt that their wages were low and wanted to run away back to Longcheng, but if they left alone, it would be equivalent to not fulfilling the contract. The government would naturally not deliver on the benefits they had won before, including houses, household registration and so on.
As a result, many people were forced to stay and continue working here, and could not return home. However, during that period, the Mexican government and various rebel forces were in a stalemate, and the territory under its command frequently changed hands. For example, sometimes, a road was just built, and the area was captured. They were actually helping others, so the Mexican government and army were too lazy to carry out large-scale infrastructure recovery when they were unable to control the situation, and only did what they had to do.
There was less and less infrastructure work, and the wages of the workers became even more pitiful, so many people had no choice but to choose to trade in supplies and start small businesses to make some "war money."
Xiao Yucheng had a child, so he didn't think about trading in supplies at first, because that would require frequent trips to war zones, and it would be easy to lose your life if you weren't careful. So he found a fellow villager and asked him to join Zhao Weihu's army, and got a job working in the kitchen.
At that time, Zhao Weihu had just formed a team and did not pay his subordinates high salaries, but fortunately the logistics department was relatively safe, so Xiao Yucheng stayed there for more than two years.
Later, during a troop transfer, the logistics department was ambushed by bandit troops. Xiao Yucheng hid in a car and was hit in the right leg by a stray bullet, leaving him disabled.
He was lame and couldn't work in the army, so Xiao Yucheng, like everyone else, started trading in supplies, such as food, cotton, and ready-made clothes, in the safer areas of Sinalo. And because he had worked as a cook for Zhao Weihu and had some connections with the Chi Army, he didn't have to worry too much about sales, and his small business was doing well, saving some money.
…
After the issuance of Order No. 1, the Longcheng government and the District 1 Supervisory Committee issued a policy of choosing one from two. In simple terms, if you do not return within the recall period and stay in the local area, you are no longer a local and will not be able to apply for naturalization in the future.
This decree is disgusting and unreasonable, because the upper level government wants to impose trade sanctions on the Mexican government. They are afraid that these workers will stay in the local area after being away for too long, and continue to sell goods secretly, relying on their Chinese identity to establish an under-the-table trade line with Longcheng.
Furthermore, the workers were sent out by the district government at the time, and this matter had to be concluded, and the attitude had to show a "breakup" with the Murphy regime, so the people had to be recalled.
So laborers like Xiao Yucheng have been outside for more than ten years. Most of them have families, businesses, wives and children. If they don't go back, their children's education, birth, old age, sickness and death will become problems in the future. Therefore, they are forced to give up everything they have accumulated here and return to the unfamiliar Longcheng.
However, Xiao Yucheng had not yet thought about what he would face when he returned.
…
Late at night, on the sofa at Yu's house, Kong Zhenghui was drinking tea and suddenly said to Su Tianyu: "Hey, you said You Yifan wants to do this business, can we help him find some customers?"
Su Tianyu raised his head and looked at him: "Are you talking about Chijun?"
"Yes!" Kong Zhenghui nodded. "When supplies are controlled, armed forces like the Chi Army will suffer the most. They don't have any backers. They rely on military funds to buy guns, ammunition, medical supplies, and daily necessities in Longcheng... Now that they are cut off, they are out of luck. If we can help them get in touch, You Yifan will see our sincerity, and we can also do a favor for the Chi Army. Don't you think so?!"
"That makes sense." Su Tianyu nodded immediately: "You are indeed a master at taking advantage of opportunities!"