Anti-Japanese War: When I get promoted, the system will explode with soldiers

Chapter 416 Donations Cause Trouble

Military and Political Department

"I knew you were the one coming to talk to me. Those guys are smarter than monkeys. No one would come to talk to me."

Regarding the issue of the northern system, the Nanjing National Government handed the matter over to Deputy Minister Wu.

Everyone understands the reason. Li Shaoyi is becoming increasingly difficult to talk to. If he breaks down during the negotiation process, no one will have a good life, so it is better to hand it over to Deputy Minister Wu.

As the Deputy Minister of Military and Political Affairs, he is indeed qualified. In addition, the two have a good personal relationship. Even if the talks break down, they can find a way to ease the situation. After all, Deputy Minister Wu has helped Li Shaoyi a lot in Nanjing, and Li Shaoyi cannot repay kindness with enmity.

"This is my job, so don't overthink it. You did a good job in Pujiang this time. Although I can't publicly commend you, many patriotic people inside admire you very much. I can't promote you or give you a salary, but I've received a lot of donations from all over the country."

Deputy Minister Wu took out a note, which contained donations from various places, totaling nearly six million yuan, and specifically designated it as a donation to the 72nd Division.

"The people of our country have always been patriotic, but we just couldn't find a way to break through in the past. People from all over the country have always been fooling foreigners, especially some officials. I just want to make the people proud, so they are happy to donate to me."

Li Shaoyi said with a bit of pride, "When we do things for the people and take their money, we can stand up straight. We are not like other officials who give a tiring speech, deceive the people's sympathy, and cheat their money again."

"You're right, but you've set up fundraising offices in various places. Where do you think the relevant departments of our central government stand? Do you know that many people in major cities across the country are donating specifically to you? A large part of our central government's fiscal revenue comes from donations from overseas Chinese and businessmen from all over the country. If you accept all of this, how will they live?"

Originally, there was no need to pay attention to this, but the Ministry of Finance submitted a document at the Supreme Conference, stating that the amount of various donations had decreased by nearly 30% in the past two months.

Don’t underestimate this 30%. If it is converted into ocean dollars, it would be nearly 10 million ocean dollars.

The Nationalist government of this era, donations from overseas Chinese, and donations from all over the country did help them a lot, especially in training new troops and forming an air force. Each county donated an airplane, which was a proposal from various places.

Nowadays, these things are not at a standstill, but they are much slower than before.

"Can you blame me for this? People from all over the country specifically donated money to our 72nd Division, but the relevant departments only gave us a small amount and withheld the rest. I asked someone to explain the overall situation to me. This is all hard-earned money. If those people really took it to other troops, I wouldn't say a word and would just pocket it all. The money the people donated to us was to fight the Japanese, not to support concubines."

Deputy Minister Wu didn't mention this matter, and Li Shaoyi didn't think of bringing it up. Now that you have brought it up, we have to talk about it in detail.

Seeing Li Shaoyi's red face and angry expression, Deputy Minister Wu sighed helplessly. He wanted to explain this to Li Shaoyi, but he really couldn't say it. It was because the departments responsible for donations were so rotten. They were all relatives of high-level officials. It was quite difficult to get one dollar out of a ten-dollar donation to be used for the right purpose.

Every year, major cases are reported, and special personnel are sent to investigate, but every time, there is always a lot of noise but little action, and nothing is found.

Why can’t they find out? Isn’t it because the staff there all have connections, and they are not small ones. After working in some donation organizations for a year, they have houses and cars, and some even have thousands of acres of land at home.

This is all the income for one year, and it is not even considered a main position. From this we can see that those officials who are in main positions and responsible for donations have no idea how much money they have at home, and no idea how much money they have embezzled.

"I'm not attacking you. I know you're an honest official."

Realizing that he had gone too far, Li Shaoyi sat back in his original seat somewhat embarrassedly.

"I know you're not angry at me, so I'm not angry either. If I were in your position, I might be even angrier than you, but the country can't afford to be divided right now, and you can't continue to make a fuss over these issues. I'm sure you understand the current international situation better than I do, so you should be patient for now."

When Deputy Minister Wu said this, his face became a little hot. In fact, he was also a passionate young man back then, and he also wanted to wipe out these malpractices. However, as he became more and more powerful and older, his heart was no longer as pure as before.

"Let's not talk about these unpleasant things. Let's talk about the main reason I came here first. I've seen the garrisons in each province. There are more than two or three infantry divisions, and even an army. Chahar is quite large and although the population is small, its geographical location is very important. It can contain Japan in the east and resist Russia in the north. Why don't they give me a single infantry division?"

Li Sibei heard that the higher-ups were just trying to test Li Shaoyi, so he couldn't show any sign of weakness. He had to get this infantry division.

"An infantry division is certainly no problem, but yours is an infantry division with an armored brigade, an aviation brigade, and all sorts of other units. That's already four brigades and twelve regiments. Add in all that, and your infantry division is equivalent to two or three armies. Who would dare approve it for you?"

When Vice Minister Wu said this, Li Shaoyi felt his face getting hot. "Isn't this all learned from you guys? We'll just increase the staffing that was originally approved little by little."

Every time they report, it's either a battalion or two companies. Anyway, the number of people is not large. What's more, Li Sibei's office is very capable and they often send some delicious food and drinks. People are grateful for what they receive. With so many delicious foods, how can they not even give a battalion?

Every time there's a battalion or a company like this, over time it's not a small number. Now if you calculate carefully, an infantry division has 50,000 to 60,000 people, not counting the aviation brigade and the armored brigade...