Looking at the serious, earnest expression on Mr. Lieutenant Colonel's face, Elrond knew his chance had come.
"Good, then I'll tell you of a place where you can hire ships that dare to run to Brazil, and I should be able to transfer three more ships of about 5,000 tons now, but I expect the freight charges might be expensive. After all, there are German submarines all over the route right now." Elrond was of course talking about the three freighters he had just purchased from Commodore Jackson.
Originally he was going to use these three ships to go back to Brazil to pull goods over to sell, and now this way he could get to Brazil without having to empty the ship, which of course was perfect. Originally, Elrond could have sent the ship to New York to directly purchase goods to be shipped to Italy, but New York Harbor is now a military transshipment, it is difficult for civilian ships to find berths.
The most important reason is that Elrond's own uncle, Yang Zong, was the one who ran a small private workshop cigarette factory in São Paulo, Brazil, and business was never very good.
At a time like this Elrond is trying to invest in his uncle's cigarette factory, expand the scale of the operation, and develop the cigarette factory through this rare opportunity. Brazil, as an important production area for tobacco, the cost of purchasing and labor is very low, so the cost of purchasing cigarettes in Brazil is lower than in New York, and there is no reason for Elrond not to take care of his own family's business.
As a side note about Elrond's mother's family, Grandpa's father, Elrond's maternal grandfather, was a Taiping Heavenly Kingdom survivor who came to Brazil with Elrond's great-grandfather. Originally from Hunan, he was a late bloomer and had a daughter, Yang Xiu'er, and a son, Yang Zong, who is obviously Elrond's mother.
The old man bought land as a landlord in his early years and the grandfather, Elrond grandfather when he was young, did not want to be tied to the land, began to do business, in the Chinese planting area to buy tobacco for sale, and then I do not know who listened to the flimsy, bought a small set of cigarette equipment opened a cigarette factory, but the cigarette factory cigarettes, and there is no special features, so they are all half-dead. Passed to the hands of the uncle, uncle many times want to turn the cigarette factory, but because no one to take over, and in the factory working personnel are some of the factory's old people, but also not good to cut off everyone's livelihood, and now this chicken ribs of the state.
Uncle Yang Zong married a Portuguese wife and had two sons who did not want to take over his uncle's cigarette factory. The eldest son Yang Qian is now in Sao Paulo City Hall to do a small clerk, want to go career, not willing to return home to the half-dead cigarette factory; the younger son Yang Kun is now still studying at the University, in Elrond's impression, Yang Kun also has little interest in the family's cigarette factory, and instead want to be a teacher.
So Elrond is considering going back himself to buy the factory down or invest in shares and continue to let his uncle manage it, so as not to let his grandfather's family business fade into obscurity when the time comes, and when it gets bigger to see if the two cousins have any ideas to help manage it.
Lt. Col. Graham was thrilled to hear Elrond say that there were ships available for hire that could run the Brazilian route, and hastened to say, "Money is a minor issue, we'll pay in dollars. Let's go, let's go to the other company and talk now!"
Unfortunately, Elrond hadn't greeted Mr. Coburn ahead of time and hadn't gotten his hands on the ship yet, so he definitely couldn't just take him there right now, so he could only shrug it off and say, ''Don't be in a hurry, sir, just now Colonel Attilio Parisi asked me to go to the U.S. Navy to go through the formalities of the ship's handover so I'm going to go ahead and take delivery of the ship. How about this! I'll book a table at the Cantina Restaurant this evening, and invite the other party then, to visit with you, and talk over dinner, is that okay?"
Lt. Col. Graham heard that Elrond still has a mission, there is nothing he can do, after all, military orders are like mountains. At the same time for Elrond said that he would invite the other party for dinner at the famous Cantina restaurant in Naples tonight, he was also relieved, and hurriedly said, "Of course there's no problem, you can rest assured that this kind of hospitality for official business does not need to be treated by you, and it can be used directly as the hospitality expenses of our logistics department. I'll immediately arrange for my adjutant to book a place, we'll see you tonight!"
Elrond also didn't realize that at this time in Brazil, there was also the term dining and hospitality, and certainly didn't mind being able to eat and drink at the public expense of the Brazilian government.
"Yes sir, we'll see you tonight then!" After saying that Elrond didn't linger any longer and grabbed the time to bolt, even if the room was much warmer than outside, he didn't want to continue to stay in this odor-filled room.
After leaving Lt. Commander Graham's office, Elrond did not go directly to Commodore Jackson to take delivery of the ship, but went first to the office building of Universal Trade, taking with him Mr. Coburn and the three captains and first mates of Italian descent whom he had recruited. Only then did he go into the U.S. Navy barracks again and find Commodore Jackson.
After introducing Commodore Jackson to Mr. Coburn, they went together to the ships' berths. At this time the berth was moored four large transport ships, looking at the style of construction of the ships, three should be German shipbuilders, one Italian shipbuilders.
Obviously the ships from the German shipyards were newer than those from the Italian shipyards, and while the German shipyards' transports were designed to carry five thousand five hundred tons, the Italian one was just under five thousand tons. All four ships were powered by steam turbines and had a maximum speed of about fifteen knots, which was lower than the eighteen knots of the Victory ship, but more than the eleven knots of the ordinary Liberty ship.
The ships were all complete captured Axis liners, with little damage, and an inspection by Commodore Jackson's men confirmed that the ships were in excellent condition, that the U.S. Army had just performed a deep service on them, that they were in a state of full fuel, and that they were ready to sail and depart at a moment's notice.
Elrond gave the three German-built ships directly to Cockburn, and received the Italian-built ships for the Brazilian Navy himself. Elrond was very clear about the difference between public and private interests, and the Italian ship was not bad. There was nothing wrong with the Italian ship, except that it had a slightly smaller capacity and was a little older, which did not affect its normal use.
After explaining to Mr. Coburn how to deal with Lieutenant Colonel Graham in the evening, Elrond returned to the Brazilian Naval Base with the ship's information to report to Colonel Attilio Parisi on the handover, and to have Mr. Colonel arrange for the entry of the commissioning data to formally assign the ship to the Brazilian Navy's battle order, though of course there were a lot of tedious formalities that didn't need to be bothered with by Elrond to be processed.
All that is needed is for the Brazilian Navy personnel, and after catching up on the ship's acceptance tonight, Elrond will be an official captain of the Brazilian Navy tomorrow.
The time soon came to six-thirty in the evening, Elrond then came to the Cantina restaurant early, in fact, the Italian people's living habits, in general, dinner is eaten very late, not until eight o'clock will not start. However, this time, because Elrond was playing the role of a middleman, so it is necessary to arrive at the restaurant earlier, after all, Graham, as a Brazilian commander does not know that the Italian dinner is a real dinner.
Sure enough, when Elrond arrived at the restaurant, Lt. Col. Graham's special car was already parked in front of the restaurant, and Lt. Col. Graham, dressed in civilian clothes, was squeezing his obese body out of the passenger seat of the Willys Jeep, and looking at the strength with which the Jeep bounced back after he strained to jump out of the Jeep, Elrond was sure that if the Jeep could talk a national curse would have spilled out.
Elrond stepped forward to meet Lt. Colonel Graham and said, "Sir, the Italians usually don't start their dinner until eight o'clock in the evening, so we're a bit early, and even though I told the other side that the dinner would start at seven o'clock, the Italians aren't punctual people." Although it wasn't good to speak ill of the Italians behind his father-in-law's back, he had to make it clear that he was just the middleman.
Otherwise by the Graham know when their own companies do not know how to think. After all, the current Brazilian government is a dictatorship, Elrond has long thought well, all investment in Brazil will not be directly in their own name to set up a company in Brazil, but in the name of Europe and the United States enterprises will be more safe to invest in Brazil, will not give rise to unnecessary covetousness.
Lagham couldn't help but frown when he heard it was an Italian, "Italians can't be relied on now, are you sure this Italian can have three ships that can run to Brazil."
"Sir please don't worry, I've learned about this company, the full name of this company is Universal Trading Company Limited Italian Branch, he is actually an Italian branch of an American company. That's why it's possible that in times of war like this, it hasn't been confiscated as enemy capital. If you don't feel comfortable with that, when the time comes, we'll arrange our own soldiers on each ship to follow the ship, and there won't be any problems." Seeing that Lt. Col. Graham was uneasy about the Italians, Elrond hastened to bring up the company's American background.