Chapter Three Hundred and Seventy-Four: The Sunken Treasure

“It’s nothing. Yugoslavia is also very famous for making light weapons,” Lin Chuanqing said. “Besides, after the breakup of Yugoslavia, a lot of weapons flowed out illegally. It’s not surprising for arms dealers to sell this stuff.”

“This gun is quite strange—” Gao Xiaosong picked up a short submachine gun with a folding metal stock.

“This is a VZ68,” Lin Chuanqing picked one up and gestured with it. “It’s the 9mm version of the Czech VZ61, commonly known as the Skorpion submachine gun.”

Gao Xiaosong thought this gun was quite ugly. It looked like an enlarged pistol. He tried holding it and shouldering it, and shook his head, “It feels good to hold, but it’s hard to use against the shoulder. The body is too short to aim properly. I wonder how it compares to the Type 85 submachine gun when fired?”

As a coast guard, Gao Xiaosong had used the Type 85 submachine gun and the Type 56C short assault rifle. He didn’t like either of these two guns very much, but as the captain of the coast guard team who often took a boat to perform coastal patrols and security tasks, he was very eager to be equipped with a weapon that had fierce firepower, could quickly suppress the enemy, and had a relatively short body when he went out to sea, instead of the current SKS rifle or short-barreled Minie rifle.

“Of course it’s better. The VZ61 series is a very famous model internationally,” Lin Chuanqing said with a smile. “The VZ61 gun was available in 1951 and was produced until the 21st century. It can be considered to have stood the test of time.”

“That would be great.” Gao Xiaosong couldn’t bear to let go of this gun. He reluctantly fiddled with it for a long time before putting it back.

“That’s right, this combination of weapons really looks like an arms dealer’s,” Lin Chuanqing said, looking at the weapons spread on the ground. “Most of them are Eastern European goods.”

The surprises continued. They then discovered light rocket launchers and machine guns. The machine guns were even M240s, which were different from the common Eastern European products and were genuine US military active equipment. Everyone’s eyes turned green. The atmosphere at the unpacking site was extremely enthusiastic. Everyone wanted to see it for themselves, so much so that Gao Xiaosong had to repeatedly remind everyone not to leave their posts without authorization.

After unpacking and counting them one by one, there were a total of 25 M77B1 automatic rifles, 4 M240 machine guns, 36 CZ99 pistols, 12 VZ68 submachine guns, 4,000 rounds of 9mm Parabellum pistol ammunition, 25,000 rounds of NATO 7.62mm ammunition, 120 grenades, and 25 M72 LAW 66mm disposable rocket launchers, as well as many spare parts for firearms and plastic explosives on the ship.

“This is just a small dealer,” Lin Chuanqing said. “According to the tonnage of this ship, it could have carried more than ten times the amount of arms. It seems that he was just doing it on the side.”

After the initial fanaticism passed, everyone thought that there was not much to be happy about: there were too few automatic weapons. If they didn’t have the weapons purchased by the North American branch, this would indeed be a huge fortune that was a timely help. Now they were not short of weapons. They had more than enough pistols and SKS rifles for everyone. What could they do with these 25 automatic rifles, 12 submachine guns, and 4 machine guns? As for the disposable rocket launchers, there were no tanks for them to fight in this time and space. Using them as artillery, the quantity was too small and the range was too short. They were completely useless. The most valuable thing was just another batch of supplementary ammunition.

The daily necessities found on the ship were more useful. Then they found other goods: many large bags soaked in seawater were moved out of the cabin—they couldn’t be moved at all in the water before. Now they were opened and found to be full of made in china sportswear and sneakers, most of which were produced in Zhejiang and Guangdong. There was even a batch of counterfeit famous brands: from ladies’ handbags to men’s wallets and briefcases, all of which could probably still be used after removing the salt in fresh water and then maintaining them. In a hidden compartment, they found 200,000 American cigarettes, 40 cases of Scotch whisky, and several hundred various pornographic magazines, all sealed tightly in special packing boxes and waterproof cloth, and they were not damaged after being soaked in seawater for so long—this smuggler seemed to sell everything.

“The clothes and shoes are used as a cover and to make some small money on the side,” Lin Chuanqing had done some gray business and knew a little about this line of work. “Cigarettes, alcohol, and magazines can be used for bribery and can also be sold at a good price.”

The identity of the ship owner was confirmed without a doubt, but how many people were on the ship, where the others went besides the one who had already died, and how they came to this time and space were still a mystery.

The search of the ship showed that there had been at least five people on this ship. This was concluded from the bedding and personal belongings in the crew’s quarters.

“There is one thing I don’t quite understand,” Gao Xiaosong said. “Most of the personal belongings were left on the ship. Most of them are very useful things. Even if one person died, the others would take his things with them when they abandoned the ship—you know, these are the most needed things in a maritime disaster.”

“It’s the same as the lifeboat problem last time. It’s very likely that there were very few people when they abandoned the ship, maybe only one or two,” Lin Chuanqing said.

The fishing boat carried two lifeboats, one of which was already gone, and the other was still on the fishing boat. The workmanship was beautiful and it was intact. Except for the emergency kit on it, which had been taken away, all the accessories were complete, and nothing was missing.

The most important thing was, did the people who left take any weapons with them?

From a general way of thinking, it was impossible for the victims not to take weapons for self-defense, but the arms on the ship had obviously not been touched—all the boxes were intact and there were no signs of them being opened and used.

Unless they took whole boxes of weapons, but Lin Chuanqing thought that was unlikely:

“These few people should have their own personal light weapons, which are enough for self-defense. The weapons in the cabin are their cargo, and they would not use them unless it was a last resort.”

The search on the ship proved this conjecture. They found some shell casings and bullet boxes, and even a box of 9mm pistol ammunition that had been opened and half used.

…

After listening to Gao Xiaosong’s report, Yi Fan asked, “What about the ship?”

“The ship is now moored at a secret location for maintenance,” Gao Xiaosong said. “It cannot be disclosed without authorization for the time being.”

“Who can authorize it?”

“The Executive Committee,” Gao Xiaosong said.

“Now we have one matter to decide: should Incident A be made public to all the elders?” Ma Jia, who was presiding over the meeting, said. In fact, he had also learned about it when the Executive Committee was meeting. “The second is the countermeasures that should be taken.”

“Shouldn’t this matter be decided by the Executive Committee?” Chen Haiyang asked.

“The Executive Committee hopes that the Security Council will assess this issue, and the Executive Committee will then consider whether to convey it to all the elders based on the assessment results,” Ma Jia said.

After a brief discussion, everyone agreed that this matter should be conveyed to all the elders—so that the elders would not be in a passive situation if they encountered other transmigrator members without knowing it. After the conveyance, everyone would at least have a certain degree of vigilance.

No one knew what weapons the people who left had taken: did they carry large weapons such as machine guns and grenades? Although the other party had abandoned the ship, it was impossible for them not to take some of the weapons on the ship. No matter how powerful the Minie rifle was in this time and space, it was impossible to be a match for modern automatic rifles.

Ran Yao said, “There are only more than 500 elders. This kind of matter concerning the interests of the group and individuals should be notified to everyone!”

As for the countermeasures to be taken, the eight-man meeting believed that the original principle established by the Executive Committee of “those who are willing to turn to the light can be taken in, and those who refuse will be eliminated” was feasible, but in specific implementation, it was suggested that:

If the other party has already established its own forces and formed a certain scale, it should be directly attacked without warning and completely eliminated.

If the other party is only a single or a small number of personnel acting alone, they should be captured directly and then “persuaded” to join. Those who resist arrest or refuse to join will be eliminated.

Once an armed conflict occurs with these people, no more prisoners will be taken, but all will be eliminated. Their families and related persons in this time and space should be completely exterminated, and all their belongings should be confiscated or destroyed, leaving no trace in this time and space.

Yi Fan even proposed that since other transmigrator members had already been discovered, it was not ruled out that others had also come to this time and space. An organization similar to a “witch-hunting squad” should be set up to specifically collect intelligence on other transmigrator members and at the same time carry out hunting and extermination operations against them.

“There are not so many resources to do this now. Besides, the only ones that can be proved are this group of people. It’s too wasteful to set up a special organization,” Ma Jia objected. “I think we should just report this possibility to all departments, let everyone be more vigilant, and report any suspicious situation in time.”

So “Incident A” was announced to all the elders on the OA. The discovery of traces of other transmigrator members in this time and space was no less than dropping a depth charge. For a time, the phones of the Executive Committee and various departments were almost blown up. Everyone was asking for detailed information and what countermeasures would be taken. The General Office replied that the detailed process would be announced on the BBS.

After the incident was announced, it drew criticism from Shan Liang and others: why was such a major matter, which had great interests with the Transmigrator Group and every elder, not reported in time? Instead, it was hidden for several months? The Executive Committee obviously seriously despised the “right to know” of the broad masses.

Subsequently, some people joined in the chorus of questioning, but the reply from the General Office was very simple: this matter occurred during the term of the first Executive Committee. The second Executive Committee announced the incident as soon as it took office, so the accusation of despising the “right to know” was groundless.

Obviously, the target of Shan Liang’s fire had disappeared—this was a cunning technical means, which was unreasonable but legal. The second Executive Committee had no handle on this issue, and everyone was not very interested in this issue—the elders were more interested in the materials and equipment obtained from the ship, especially the weapons.