After visiting more than a dozen barracks, a day had basically passed. Although his legs were sore and his feet were weak, Scribe Hui could still manage. However, recently, Scribe Hui felt like he was going to die from exhaustion. After Big-Nosed Harry from the Sai Ying Pun asked him to help sell a batch of stockpiled supplies, Scribe Hui personally ran errands to help him get rid of them, earning only a small amount for transportation and labor costs. Soon after, quartermasters from other barracks began to contact Scribe Hui one after another. All the abandoned Diesel Engines, Boilers, Tugboats, scrap Garment-Making Machine Head, scrap iron... piled up in various barracks were sold to Scribe Hui at the same price as scrap metal, just like Harry. Then they waited for Scribe Hui to sell them at a higher price and return the money to the barracks.
Scribe Hui went from being a vegetable vendor to becoming the owner of scrap metal collection stations in various military camps in Hong Kong. Song Tianyao was unaware that even Lei Yingdong had bought several old Diesel Engines from Scribe Hui.
It took two whole weeks, with each item sold being recorded separately. He even had the quartermaster send soldiers in civilian clothes to help him load and unload goods and keep track of the prices. After all the supplies were sold, the Scribe Hui, sent the cash back to the military camp one by one. The value of the supplies he handled exceeded one million. Despite working tirelessly for the past few days, Scribe Hui only earned a paltry 20,000 Hong Kong dollars, which included necessary expenses.
This led the quartermasters to discover that, compared to the Britain merchants who did business and speculation in Hong Kong, Scribe Hui was practically a friend of the British Army. He was not greedy, and honest to the point of being foolish. His only flaw was that, although his English was so bad that the quartermasters wanted to shoot him, Scribe Hui still couldn't help but try to speak a few broken English phrases to them.
So the Nationalist Army, who felt that even fools needed to be cared for, decided that they had to compensate Scribe Hui by giving him some legitimate business after the money from the stockpiled military supplies filled the pockets of their superiors and themselves. After getting approval from their superiors, several quartermasters invited Scribe Hui had worked hard to sell military supplies for them, to drink and celebrate at the Officers' Club in Admiralty. After a few rounds of drinks, they pretended to completely trust Scribe Hui and handed him several contracts as gifts. Scribe Hui Scribe Hui n't read English and was also quite drunk, so he signed the contracts without even looking at them.
After sobering up and returning to the company, he asked a translator to help him review the contract. Only then did Scribe Hui understand that the contract stated that after discussions, the Sai Ying Pun barracks where Harry was stationed, as well as the Central Admiralty barracks, Pok Fu Lam barracks, Kornhill barracks, and Stanley barracks on Hong Kong Island, decided to contract Scribe Hui's company to produce the uniforms for the British Army troops stationed on Hong Kong Island District.
Scribe Hui's persistent efforts to cultivate goodwill with the Nationalist Army have finally yielded a fairly substantial reward.
In fact, if it weren't for the fact that Scribe Hui's initial production capacity was unlikely to supply uniforms to all the barracks in Hong Kong, and the need to test the quality of the uniforms produced by him, the Britain barracks would have been prepared to have Scribe Hui supply Uniformed Branch to all the barracks in Hong Kong. However, fearing that it would frighten Scribe Hui, they did not make the offer all at once, but instead tested it out first with the barracks in the Hong Kong Island District.
Because the military uniform business is different from supplying food and vegetables or even reselling military supplies, the military uniform business is one of the major, legitimate businesses of the British Forces in Hong Kong. The military expenses of the British Army stationed in Hong Kong have always been borne by China taxpayers in Hong Kong. Previously, the production of military uniforms for the British Forces in Hong Kong was all commissioned by the British Forces in Hong Kong to be manufactured and processed in clothing factories in Britain and then shipped to Hong Kong. The price was very high, and the clothing sizes were limited and not easy to exchange. Most importantly, there was not much profit that could be pocketed by the officers of the British Forces in Hong Kong in Hong Kong. Therefore, they now felt that if they let their Scribe Hui, produce military uniforms in Hong Kong, they could save a lot of money that the officers could then divide among themselves.
In addition to the uniforms for the five military battalions, the Royal Hong Kong Regiment, the Hong Kong Auxiliary Air Force, Hong Kong Auxiliary Naval Force —all reserve-type Chinese auxiliary military organizations—were also required to order a batch of uniforms from Scribe Hui's company.
All things considered, nearly four thousand people in the Hong Kong Island area needed their costumes made under the contract of Scribe Hui.
A shrewd and capable businessman might have been overjoyed at this moment, but when Scribe Hui received the news, he only wanted to find Song Tianyao and let Song Tianyao deal with the Foreign Devil himself, while he himself continued to be responsible for delivering grain and vegetables.
For Scribe Hui, making military uniforms wasn't as simple as buying and delivering food. It required real money to rent factory space, purchase equipment, and hire tailors. Unlike delivering vegetables, where you could make up for three pounds of missing vegetables with radishes or simply add two pounds more the next day, this kind of contracted business meant that if the contract wasn't fulfilled by the deadline and the soldiers couldn't wear uniforms, Scribe Hui would have to pay a penalty and could even be sued by the military.
So Scribe Hui, went to the factory to discuss the matter with Song Tianyao, but Song Tianyao was not there.
Feeling flustered after signing the contract, Scribe Hui grasping at straws, remembered that Meng Wanqing's father owned a tailor shop. Although he lacked great wisdom, he was still quite shrewd. Song Tianyao had never been kind to him, and what if Song Tianyao didn't come to his rescue after he had caused trouble? He figured it would be better to do business with Meng Wanqing's father. Meng Wanqing was Song Tianyao's woman; if her father got into trouble, Song Tianyao would surely not stand idly by.
Scribe Hui who used all his cleverness to figure out Song Tianyao's thoughts, went to see Meng Wanqing's father again, saying that he wanted to ask him to do a business on uniforms for 4,000 people in Hong Kong Island. Meng Wanqing's father's small tailor shop would take more than a month to make uniforms for more than 100 female workers in Song Tianyao's factory, and he would also have to hire outside help. A business on uniforms for 4,000 people might not be completed even in a year. Therefore, he felt that although the order was large, he could not handle it and simply declined.
Having been in business for a while, the Scribe Hui had learned to use bait. Seeing that he couldn't lure the other party in with just words, he changed his tune and said he could cooperate with them. The hapless Scribe Hui planned to use a contract to invest in the factory, coaxing Meng Wanqing's father into putting up money to open a clothing factory. In this way, Scribe Hui wouldn't have to do anything and could own half of the factory for free, while Meng Wanqing's father would have to worry about borrowing money to open the factory and bearing the risks. Moreover, if the clothing factory ran into problems, Scribe Hui could use Meng Wanqing's father's name to ask Song Tianyao for help and cry his eyes out.
However, he really didn't know how to remain calm when talking to people. He couldn't hide his guilty conscience when he spoke, which made Meng Wanqing frown as she watched from the side. So the next morning, Meng Wanqing went to Song Tianyao's factory in person to find out what this Scribe Hui was up to.