Chapter 58: God and Country
Once again, several carts arrived at the doors of the Casa Real on Saturday. The sight of them removed a thorn from my side. After delivering a shipment of boots and ammunition pouches last week, I had made another, much more difficult request. Ever the skilled tradesman, Señor Lim did not disappoint.
Contained in twenty-five rectangular ammunition boxes—most of which I assume were looted directly from Spanish cuarteles, given their pristine condition and the royal crest still stamped on some—were twenty-five thousand rounds of .43 Spanish cartridges. Two other crates held two thousand rounds of 7.55 mm cartridges.
He also brought me several dozen rifles, all of them Remingtons.
I had asked him for more ammunition in anticipation of the large-scale marksmanship training I was planning for the recruits in the coming week, along with additional Remington rifles for replacements and repairs.
"There was a trader in Samar who offered me nearly a dozen Mausers. He asked for thirty pesos each. What a rip-off," he chuckled, chewing on the delicious pancit bihon Isabela had cooked. I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t suggested the noodle dish because Señor Lim was Chinese.
"You said Mausers?" I asked as I brought a small chest onto the table. "You didn’t buy them?"
"Yes," he pointed a fork at me. "That’s double the appropriate price. Factory price from a looter?"
He huffed and returned his attention to the noodles.
"I would’ve still paid for them, Señor Lim. Mausers are hard to come by," I told him.