"What happened?" Huang Liu leaned close to his third brother, Huang Ziya, and asked softly.
" At the Border Gate, the Black Devils soldiers and the People's Liberation Army soldiers started shooting at each other, and each side fired dozens of shells at the other, which is why the Border Gate is now closed." Huang Ziya glanced at He Xian, who had a gloomy face on the sofa, and said to Huang Liu without deliberately lowering her voice.
Song Tianyao, who was standing nearby, also heard these words.
He Xian reached for a cigarette, and Song Tianyao lit it for him. Two plumes of smoke billowed from He Xian's nostrils. "I was planning to see you again tomorrow, but the phones at home and at the company were ringing non-stop, so I decided to come here for some peace and quiet."
"Does the Governor of Macau want to make things difficult for Mr. He?" Song Tianyao said to He Xian as he sat down next to him.
He Xian nodded. "My position is difficult. The Foreign Devil dared to fire because they calculated that many urgently needed supplies from the mainland need to be transported through the Macau Border Gate. They didn't inform me before firing, and afterwards they want me to intervene... Damn Xunzheng. You take men to the South China Company right now. The Border Gate is under martial law, but the dock is temporarily closed, which doesn't matter. Use my business card to have Chen Wuhei find a fast boat at the dock. Don't worry about anything else for now. Get those mainland comrades from the South China Company out of Macau safely first. We can't let the Foreign Devil detain them."
"I understand." Huang Ziya reached for the phone, He Xian said, "You lead the team yourself; there can't be any mistakes."
"Mr. He, what about you here..." Huang Ziya hesitated when He Xian asked him to personally escort the person away overnight.
He Xian flicked his cigarette ash. "It doesn't matter to me. At worst, I won't leave the hotel tonight. Whether it's Foreign Devil or the Kuomintang, they can't exactly set up cannons and bomb my hotel to the ground. Go ahead."
"Take good care of Mr. He." Huang Ziya glanced at the other bodyguards in the room, then left alone.
Song Tianyao didn't care about anything else, and he couldn't get involved anyway, but the news that the pier had been shut down made him a little depressed. He really shouldn't have come to this godforsaken place, Macau.
He Xian was indeed quite composed, not making a single phone call. He even had someone fetch a chess set and sat down on the sofa to play chess with Song Tianyao. It wasn't until nearly midnight that He Xian went to the master bedroom to sleep, while Song Tianyao went back to the second bedroom to rest.
When Song Tianyao woke up the next morning, Song Tianyao noticed that Huang Ziya had reappeared beside He Xian. He Xian was making a phone call in the living room. Song Tianyao didn't know who was on the other end, but it was clearly one of He Xian's confidants. He Xian held the receiver and said:
"I don't have time to see him. I'm currently discussing business with friends from Hong Kong. I don't have time; it will take at least two days! Don't think that the Governor of Macau is omnipotent. This shelling was initiated by the Foreign Devil Macau. I've already received information that the mainland has mobilized a division of the People 'People's Liberation Army, setting up artillery north of the Border Gate, ready to unleash a barrage of artillery fire and forcibly retake Macau! Even if we don't retake it, Macau won't need to rely on the mainland for food, water, or vegetables anymore! Making hundreds of thousands of people in Macau go to the Governor's Palace to buy from the Foreign Devil? Damn it, not giving me face is not giving face to the China person! They want to close the Border Gate and block supplies? I'll make sure these Foreign Devil in Macau can't even get a single leaf of vegetables or a drop of water! Not only will the Border Gate be closed, but all ships carrying supplies at Macau's docks will be forced to sail to international waters. Anyone who dares to unload cargo at Macau's docks without orders from the Chamber of Commerce and my orders will be bombed later! I want to see if the Foreign Devil can still sit still when hundreds of thousands of people riot!"
After saying that, He Xian hung up the phone and called to Song Tianyao, who had come out. He said in a loud voice, "A-Yao, let's have breakfast together. I was planning to take you to see Pedro Lobo this morning, but now that things have happened, I'm sorry to trouble you. He has a special status, Governor of Macau relies on him to resolve many issues. If we take the initiative to see him now, the Foreign Devil will immediately become more vocal. We can't give Foreign Devil that opportunity. We'll wait for Pedro Lobo to come begging to me. In the past, we were like brothers, and meeting was nothing out of the ordinary. But now, we belong to different countries, and we must maintain a proper attitude. We can't let the Foreign Devil think that the China person are easy to bully."
"I am also China person. I will do whatever Mr. He says," Song Tianyao said to He Xian.
The Pedro Lobo that He Xian mentioned is the person Song Tianyao is going to meet this time.
Pedro Lobo, a Macanese of Macau descent, Director of the Macau Economic Bureau. Together with He Xian, he controlled the Macau gold monopoly and was known as the "Gold King of Macau, "Governor of Macau's spokesperson.
Lin Xizhen and Pedro Lobo were bitter rivals in Macau. Lin Xizhen submitted a petition to the Macau colonial government and sixteen Macau barristers who participated in the formulation of Macau's laws. The petition claimed that he had always been law-abiding and dutiful in his opium business, while Pedro Lobo, the Macau opium commissioner, along with others, was trying to seize his opium monopoly by any means necessary. Pedro Lobo Bao of corruption, bribery, and abuse of power, and urged the Macau government to investigate and punish him seriously. Since the petition did not receive a satisfactory response, he would soon travel to Paris, New York, Lisbon, Hong Kong, and other places to petition the Western world and declare the corruption and darkness of the Macau colonial government's rule.
This petition severely damaged Pedro Lobo's reputation, and he was unable to recover for several years until the outbreak of World War II, when he was given another opportunity to be reused.
This threatening petition was ultimately refrained from being published in Western countries after the Macau government relented and guaranteed that Lin Xizhen's opium business would not be affected. However, half a month after the petition incident, Lin Xizhen, who had successfully retained the Macau opium monopoly, was shot dead by a submachine gun on Wellington Street in Hong Kong. He died a violent death in the street, and the Lin Family completely withdrew from the Macau stage.
Chapter 334 Making a Good Knife
"Brother Hung, have you received any news? Mr. Song and the Lin Family..." Lam Kong, with a cigarette in his mouth, leaned close to Yan Hung whispered.
Yan Hung picked up his beer, took a sip, and stared at the strippers on stage, who were striking seductive poses and undressing. He said, "Of course I got it. I've arranged for A Yue to go to the Hong Kong Sanatorium & Hospital. Maybe even earlier than you know."
"The Lin Family is on the other side. I received word from my Dad that the Chu Family isn't planning to help Mr. Song this time. Without the Chu Family as his backer, I think Mr. Song... is likely to suffer a very bad defeat." Lam Kong's face was rather grim. "I was shot, and Mr. Song hasn't given me an explanation yet. I can't be that unlucky, can I?"