Chapter 352: Clean Hands

"Excuse me, is General Andre in the car?" asked a middle-aged man. He had a fat belly and the flesh on his face was sagging. His face was full of smiles, but he looked so disgusting.

"It's me." The other party saw the convoy stop and asked almost next to the car. The man happened to be asking next to Andre's car, so Andre could only answer like this.

"Great!" The other party said, "Hello, General Andrei. I am Karimov, the first secretary of the Bukhara Provincial Party Committee. I have come here specially to apologize to you."

Don't hit a smiling person. Seeing this guy nodding and bowing like that, Andre stood out from the car and said, "Apologize, what's the matter?"

At this moment, other people who were asking questions next to the car also came over. They shook hands with Andrei enthusiastically, introduced themselves as leaders of Bukhara Province one by one, and expressed their warm welcome to Andrei's arrival.

In the Far East, due to the constant threat of war, the morale is relatively positive, but here, Andrei has felt this extravagant atmosphere more than once. He always comes down to inspect secretly because he is unwilling to deal with these local figures. This kind of greeting scene is what he least wants to see.

"We know that the army has its own discipline, so we did not enter the barracks without permission and waited here. Finally, you are here." Karimov said, "General Andrei, since you have come to our Bukhara Province, we must show our hospitality. We invite you to visit Bukhara City and we will have a welcome banquet."

Hearing this, Andre wanted to shake his head. He didn't like this kind of activity, and he was even more unwilling to associate with these people.

"Our Bukhara Province is an important industrial province in Uzbekistan. It has various resources such as oil, natural gas, and heavy metals. Our local government is also very supportive of the military. We would like to report to you about our military-civilian cooperation." Karimov said, "Please be sure to come."

The industries in these Central Asian countries are not well developed, but Bukhara Province is an important industrial province. The military operations that our side is about to launch cannot be separated from the support of energy. The oil and natural gas here are the energy sources that our side urgently needs. It is also necessary to listen to the reports of these people.

Thinking of this, Andrei changed his attitude and said, "Okay, then we'll have a short meeting. However, we don't have to go to Bukhara Province. Let's do it here! In the meeting room of the base."

Andrei looked at the cars these people drove. There were no Soviet-made cars at all. They were all imported high-end cars! It was conceivable that these people would hold a welcome banquet for him. How grand the scene would be. He couldn't make an exception!

This guy must have known that he had just arrived here and dismissed the commander of an air force base, so he didn't dare to go in at the gate of the base. Humph, the army must have military discipline!

Karimov looked at the others and realized that there was no way to persuade Andrei to go to Bukhara Province, so he could only follow Andrei into the air force base.

In a conference room at the base, Andre entertained the main leaders of Bukhara Province. In front of each person was just a cup of water.

After taking a sip of water, Andre looked at the people below. Everyone seemed to be hesitant to speak, as if they wanted to say something but were too embarrassed to open their mouths.

"General Andrei, I'm very sorry that you were stopped by incompetent police officers on our land. I have ordered them to be severely punished. Each of them was whipped 500 times, their eyes were gouged out, and they were thrown into the prison for death row." Karimov said, "These people are blind and dared to offend you. They deserve to die!"

Hearing Karimov's understatement, Andrei was shocked. Beating them with 500 whips would surely make them half dead. Gouging out their eyes and throwing them to death row was even more cruel than killing them directly. Wasn't this a private court without legal trial? This was different from his own execution of the leading policeman. This was something that only a cruel person who disregarded life could do!

"We have some small gifts here, please accept them." Karimov said, and motioned to the person next to him to take out a golden Uzbek robe. Andrei only took a glance and knew that it was made of gold thread and must be very expensive!

"No, let's stop here." Andrei said, "Now, I need you to report on your work. What is the approximate oil production in Bukhara Province?"

Andre took out a notebook and prepared to record. This was related to the quantity that needed to be transferred from the rear. In mechanized military operations, oil consumption was the most important.

However, after waiting for a long time, no one spoke, so he looked up and looked at these people.

"This, General Andre, we need to go back and take a look to find out."

"Okay, then tell me how much is in stock. Our army needs to receive it all."

“We don’t know about this either.”

"Snap." Andrei closed the notebook. He had originally called these people in to discuss the logistics preparations for receiving the supplies directly from Bukhara Province, but now, the other party actually knew nothing!

"Then come back after you've checked." Andre stood up angrily and went out with the notebook. What do these bureaucrats know all day long?

"Secretary Karimov, this man is so arrogant! He is just a military district commander, but he doesn't take us seriously!" A man next to Karimov said in a low voice.

"Akilov, you idiot, things are different now. General Secretary Brezhnev has passed away, and General Andrei is a favorite of General Secretary Andropov! Be careful with your words. If you say that again next time, I will whip you 500 times, dig out your eyes, and put you on death row!"

"Yes, yes." Akilov nodded quickly and continued, "Then what should we do?"

"Humph, I don't believe he doesn't accept gifts! It must be that our gifts are too cheap!" Karimov said, "If he's not greedy for money, then he's greedy for sex. I don't believe that there are still clean-handed people among our Soviet leaders!"

"General Andrei, the meteorological department said that there will be a sandstorm in half an hour. You should stay in the Kasan Air Defense Base for the time being and return to Tashkent tomorrow." After Andrei came out, he met Valisi and said to him.

The climate in Central Asia is dry, and it is easy to form sandstorms. Andre nodded: "Okay, that's good, I can communicate with the Iranian pilot. We are both pilots, and we have a common language. Then we can leave tomorrow. By the way, where is the fighter plane that made an emergency landing?"

"The wing has been disassembled and is being towed back."