The expeditionary force began to dominate Southeast Asia by recruiting defeated soldiers

Powers defined in Chapter 274

"Brother Huan, what's wrong? Are you feeling unwell?" Meng Xingfa dusted off his clothes like a wealthy local tycoon and asked casually, "Are you scared?"

"Xiang Zhuang dances with a sword, aiming at Pei Gong..." Huan Borong's face turned pale. He didn't reply for a long while, but only murmured in a low voice, "Good trick, good trick."

Meng Xingfa was startled for a moment, then burst into laughter. He raised his hand and patted Huan Borong on the shoulder, his laughter full of disapproval:

"I understand. Marshal Zhang is just trying to intimidate the natives. This public trial is legal and reasonable. Even the foreigners watching would cheer for it."

"Natives?" Huan Borong looked up at Meng Xingfa, a bitter smile on his lips. He raised his hand tremblingly, pointed at himself, then at Meng Xingfa, "We are both Pei Gong."

Meng Xingfa was surprised: "Ah? What do you mean?"

Huan Borong smiled bitterly and whispered, "If Marshal Zhang can use this method to deal with the natives, he can use it to deal with us."

"The situation is already formed, the situation is already formed..." Huan Borong sighed, "If he can put the natives on trial today, he can try us tomorrow. Listen to my advice, old brother, and behave yourself."

Meng Xingfa raised an eyebrow and said unconcernedly, "After deducting daily expenses and the workers' food, drink, and toilet expenses from my 30% stake in the gold mine, there's not much left. I gave all the remaining net profit to Marshal Zhang. Is he going to throw him away now that he's done his job?"

Huan Borong looked at him, his eyes showing a bit of helplessness and a bit of warning.

He slowly raised his hand and pointed to the sky. His voice was extremely low, but it pierced Meng Xingfa's ears like a needle tip: "There is a god above us. If you don't want others to know, then don't do it yourself. I heard that your nephew is secretly engaged in the opium business."

"Marshal Zhang has more spies than we think. Xingfa, you'd better take care of yourself."

Meng Xingfa, who had originally looked indifferent, was struck by lightning. His eyes widened and his mouth opened, but he couldn't say a word.

Zhang Chi's tough stance against opium and awakening drugs is well known to everyone.

In fact, due to their proximity to China, Southeast Asia, especially Laos, Pegu, Siam and other places, with the connivance of European colonists, have been engaged in large-scale cultivation of opium, and transporting it to China to be sold in exchange for money.

To address this situation, Zhang Chi's approach was to eradicate opium wherever it was discovered, and then replant rubber trees, fruit trees, cotton and other economic crops in the local area, so that local farmers could still make money and eradicate opium from the root, with remarkable results.

However, once any item becomes scarce, it will naturally result in high prices and high profits, and naturally some people will take risks.

Before Zhang Chi traveled through time, the Meng family was one of the largest landowners in the north of Pegu, so naturally they had large tracts of land.

Although Zhang Chi has handed over part of the gold mines to Meng Xingfa for management, how can the hard-earned money from mining compare to that from selling awakening agents?

After Huan Borong's reminder, Meng Xingfa finally realized that he had been a little too arrogant recently and had been too indulgent towards the people below him.

Thinking that his entire family might be tied up and taken to the stage for public trial and then shot, Meng Xingfa's body trembled with fear.

"I'll go and apologize to Marshal Zhang!" Meng Xingfa slapped his head and shouted, "Yes, I'll go and apologize to Marshal Zhang right away!"

Huan Borong watched Meng Xing leave in a hurry, shook his head, sighed, and then turned and left.

He also had to go back and remind his old friends in the Guangdong Chamber of Commerce that anyone involved in the opium business, selling inferior goods as good ones, or trying to sell military supplies must stop immediately and come to the door to apologize.

Otherwise, today, these criminals were publicly shot at the public trial. Tomorrow, it might be their turn.

-----

After the public trial, Zhang Chi quickly launched a vigorous anti-smoking campaign.

Whether it was the area originally controlled by the Anmin Army or the territory newly liberated from the Japanese army, Zhang Chi ordered a severe crackdown on anyone who dared to grow, sell or smoke opium.

At Zhang Chi's request, a comprehensive clearing operation was quickly carried out throughout the area.

All those involved in drugs will be severely punished immediately, and he is determined to completely cut off this dark industrial chain.

That day, Zhang Chi sat at his desk, flipping through the statistical tables submitted by Zhang Guangsong while comparing them with the intelligence privately investigated by the Security Department and the Intelligence Department.

The two numbers were roughly consistent, and Zhang Chi nodded with satisfaction.

It seems that Zhang Guangsong, who was in charge of this matter, did not disappoint him. None of the confiscated opium and property was kept privately, and all the spoils were handed over truthfully.

"These opium sellers are really rich." Zhang Chi muttered to himself. The statistical table in front of him listed a large number of seized items, nearly 10 million US dollars in assets, including seven or eight tons of gold.

"There's so much gold alone. It's a huge profit."

"That's not true," Xiao Qi, who was making tea, interrupted. "Where I come from, all the warlords, big and small, used to rely on selling opium to support their armies."

Zhang Chi smiled and reached out to gently touch Xiao Qi's head: "Yes, even a kid your age knows this. It seems that the opium problem is really a big problem."

Zhang Chi thought to himself: If someone as young as Xiao Qi could understand this, it's clear that this anti-smoking campaign is no small matter. The wealth brought by opium is enough to corrode the foundation of an entire region.

And now, this is exactly what he is determined to do to eradicate drugs.

From a macro perspective, drug control is to protect people's lives and health. From a micro perspective, without dark sources of income such as opium, the security army will not be easily corrupted, and it will not be easy to form the soil for warlordism.

After all, to become a warlord, one must have independent financial resources so that one can maintain control over the troops without being overwhelmed.

Zhang Chi pondered this and suddenly asked, "Xiao Qi, what do you think is more important: practicing the justice in your heart, or making others think that what you do is just?"

Xiao Qi stopped what he was doing, put down the thermos, thought for a while, frowned slightly, and said uncertainly:

"It's more important to get others to recognize your righteous actions. After all, it's too pitiful to be a lone hero with no one to support or understand you."

After hearing this, Zhang Chi couldn't help but smile and shook his head, feeling that some things were not as simple as they seemed.

He pondered for a moment, his voice slightly filled with emotion: "In fact, the right to define what is justice and what is evil is the most important thing."

"Just like those natives, as long as they have any connection with the devils, shooting them is justice. Why?" Zhang Chi paused and continued, "Because fighting the devils is justice now."

But why was White Eagle still selling oil, steel and equipment to the Japanese before Pearl Harbor without any problems?

It’s because the White Eagles have the bigger fists, and they have the right to define that supporting the Japanese is not evil at that time.

Zhang Chi just kept these words in his heart and didn't say them out loud.

In this world where the strong prey on the weak, if you don’t have the power to protect yourself, then you don’t even have the power to define justice.

But having military force alone is not enough without propaganda capabilities.

The Warsaw Pact's ability to compete with NATO was not due to its economic strength or military strength, but rather because the Red Camp had finally acquired propaganda capabilities equal to those of the West, and was able to define itself as just and the West as evil.

"So, Xiaoqi, you have to do a good job in the broadcasting business I gave you." Finally, Zhang Chi looked at Xiaoqi who looked confused and said.