1928: The rise of giant merchants

Tan Si's woman, Yan Yangtian, is a prostitute from Fengming Tower. Her relationship is in Fengming Tower, so she naturally learned that Ye Luo asked Xiao Aqiao to take the lead in the dance hall business.

Yan Yangtian was ambitious and thoughtful, and later she became the proprietress of Yi Hu Chun, a famous dance club in Shanghai.

Through her line, Xiao Aqiao successfully hooked up with Tan Si and asked him to invest in the dance hall business together.

In the few days since Ye Luo left Shanghai, Tan Si had started to prepare for the construction of a dance hall. He called Ye Luo, partly for the dance hall business, and partly because he wanted to know why Ye Luo didn't sign.

"Yes, of course I do. Fourth Master, you have already invested in the shares, are you still worried about this?" Ye Luo smiled at him, "You were not so timid before."

"Alas, today is different from the past." Tan Si sighed quietly. In the last round of independent group sweeps, the Pier Gang suffered a serious setback, falling behind the intact Yongxing Company, and his biggest enemy Yu Likui has now defected. Zhang Wanlin has been secretly encroaching on his territory.

Tan Si was attacked from both sides and had a difficult life.

"Why didn't the second young master sign the petition? This petition is highly anticipated by Shanghai's business community, and being able to establish a relationship with the chairman and committee members is a win-win situation." Tan Si asked, expressing his doubts.

Ye Luo shook his head slightly: "Fourth Master, the banking industry wants to protect themselves, but they ask us to take the lead. It is inappropriate for me to abandon them."

Tan Si was silent.

It's not that he didn't see this problem, or that most of the people who signed knew that it was related to the banking industry, but they had nothing to do, and with just one signature, they could get a large number of loans from many private banks, which was too tempting. .

The two had differences of opinion. Seeing that Tan Si gradually lost his heroic aura, Ye Luo knew that this was a sign of the end.

I just hope that Tan Si will not die tragically at the hands of the Japanese invaders this time.

After getting off the bus, Ye Luo returned to his car and immediately set off to the construction site to observe the progress. As soon as he got off the car, he saw newsboys distributing literary and artistic tabloids to the crowd watching around. He was very satisfied.

After walking a few steps forward, I heard Zhang Yuanbei's excited shouts.

"Brother Luo! Brother Luo! Come and see!"

Ye Luo walked over with a smile.

"Look, I asked the Hungarian architect Hudec to improve the design of the cinema. Now it looks like a renovated version. It will be completed and opened on August 15th. What do you think?"

Zhang Yuanbei pointed at Ye's Guangming Cinema, which was almost completed, and said with a smile.

He looked at the newly completed cinema as if looking at his own child, his eyes full of longing and expectation.

This is very similar to the Grand Guangming Cinema in Ye Luo's memory, and because he invested more, the cinema looks even more magnificent. In addition to being able to play silent films, the new sound equipment brought back by Li Minwei from the United States can also support it. It plays movies with sound and is the first wide screen and stereo cinema in Asia.

Unlike more than 20 other movie theaters in Shanghai, Yip's Guangming Cinema only shows movies and does not involve drama performances. It has a single function, strong publicity, and a very precise target group.

"As expected, the movie we premiered on August 15th is the first episode of "The Burning of the Red Lotus Temple" shot by manager Zhang Ishikawa. By the way, when we promote it to the outside world, we must emphasize that we are different from other cinemas. Play Hollywood blockbusters, and only play domestic films! We support domestic films, no matter who makes them, as long as they follow the formal process, we will play them."

Ye Luo smiled and said,

"We want to promote national culture and national industry. We would rather show more domestic films and make less profits than let Hollywood movies fill our screens."

"What about Lianhua and Tianyi's films?" Zhang Yuanbei asked in a low voice.

"That's right." Ye Luo nodded.

He and Shao Zuiweng and Luo Mingyou were not mortal enemies like the three tycoons, so there was no need to kill them all.

"Brother Luo is awesome!" Zhang Yuanbei gave him a thumbs up. He knew that as long as movie theaters can have Hollywood blockbusters, they can make a lot of money. Not only the public loves to watch, but foreigners from the concession are also long-term and stable customers. source.

But being able to resolutely abandon such a large market and specialize in domestic films, and not mind letting competitors' films be released, shows that Ye Luo really wants to be in the domestic film industry.

"Yuanbei, after the cinema is built, I want you to continue to help me build the ballroom. What do you think?" Ye Luo patted Zhang Yuanbei on the shoulder.

This tool man friend is very useful and is the talent he needs.

Zhang Yuanbei is naturally happy. By following Ye Luo, he can finally avoid his father and do business alone. This is what he dreams of. When he becomes famous and accumulates wealth, he can be like his eldest brother and his second brother. Listen to dad's instructions and live your own life.

"Brother Luo, I have no problem here, as long as you can convince my dad." Zhang Yuanbei chuckled, "I actually want to join your Ye's Construction Company, but my dad will definitely not agree if I propose it."

Looking at Zhang Yuanbei, Ye Luo suddenly remembered that before time travel, when he was a child, he played with his best friend and always hoped that his best friend could live in his home during the holidays. However, his best friend's parents were extremely strict. If his best friend spoke, his parents would definitely disagree.

And every time, he would talk to Ye Luo secretly, and Ye Luo would hint to his parents, and his parents would speak up, but out of favor between adults, his best friend's parents would agree.

As memories from the past flooded into his mind, Ye Luo smiled faintly and nodded in agreement: "By the way, I want to invite a heavyweight to be the opening ribbon-cutting guest. I have a candidate in mind. When you have dinner in the evening, you call Sister Huiyin and you need her to nod in agreement. "

"Who is it?" Zhang Yuanbei asked curiously.

"Master of Peking Opera, Mr. Mei Lanfang." Ye Luo replied with a smile.

Historically, Mr. Mei Lanfang was the guest of honor at the opening ribbon-cutting ceremony of the Grand Guangming Cinema.

Because in the ninth year of the Republic of China (1920), he participated in the filming of the silent film "Chunxiang Noisy School" for the first time, and thus established relationships with many tycoons in the film industry.

Unlike those actors who feel that the film industry will steal their jobs, Mr. Mei Lanfang believes that cultural diversity is the basis for promoting common progress, and he personally strongly supports the development of the film industry.

This is the style of everyone in the real industry.

The reason why he asked Lin Huiyin for help was because in 1924, he, Lin Huiyin, and Xu Zhimo received the famous Indian scholar, poet, and writer Rabindranath Tagore at the BJ residence.

They have a good relationship with each other. With Lin Huiyin stepping in, it is easy to invite Mr. Mei.

"Okay, then I'll go talk to Sister Huiyin right away!" Zhang Yuanbei has a fiery personality. After saying that, he ran to the construction site next to the Great World Amusement Park.

After that, Ye Luo returned to the car, carrying various gifts brought back from Suzhou City. He also asked Ding Li and Shi Jianqiao about the developments of other forces in the Ye family during the time he left Shanghai. .

After taking the gifts back to Ye Mansion and distributing them to everyone, Ye Luo rushed to the filming base of Ye's Film Company without stopping, and happened to catch up with the filming of the second episode of "The Burning of the Red Lotus Temple". Zhang Shichuan's progress made Ye Luo very satisfied, and Hu Die Back in Shanghai, the filming of "Blood and Tears of Yellow Flowers" can officially begin.

When they arrived at the filming base, Ye Luo learned that Huang Jingzhi, the master of the Huang family, had actually been to the filming site in person and had given many relics used by Huang Huiru during her lifetime, as well as personal items such as diaries to assist the company in filming.

When Li Minwei was sorting out his belongings, he found a check with 10,000 yuan written on it. He was shocked and handed it over to Ye Luo when he came.

Ye Luo knew that this was the "final payment" specially sent by Huang Jingzhi after he learned that the dispute between the Bei family and the Huang family was resolved. He simply put the money into the "Blood and Tears of Yellow Flowers" crew as additional funds.

The big boss's generosity directly gave the employees a boost. A group of filming crews came back and prepared to officially start filming tonight. It happened that Ye Luo presided over the opening ceremony, which was a big win.

Li Minwei, Zhang Shichuan, Zheng Zhengqiu and others in the crowd felt Ye Luo's indescribable aura, but even with this powerful aura, he still exuded fascinating charm and appeal.

During these days of filming, in order to catch up with the opening of Ye's Guangming Cinema as soon as possible, Zhang Shichuan worked overtime, and his staff also endured hardships, and finally completed the filming of the second episode today.

Although he and Zheng Zhengqiu have been paying attention to the situation of the employees, they have done so much, but they are not as good as Ye Luo coming to cut the ribbon.

His extremely strong personal charm spreads throughout the filming base.

They finally realized that from the time when the second young master returned to Shanghai and entered various industries, the name Ye Luo had become a household name before they knew it, to the point where it could even act as a calming needle for its employees just by being there!