1928: The rise of giant merchants

Consulate General of France in Shanghai, Office of the Consul General.

Fan Erdi and Fan Juli were both distressed.

The two of them had decided to hold a wedding on October 10th to officially get married, and then set off to travel across the country for their honeymoon on October 15th. However, before the wedding was held, something like this happened.

Literary celebrities in the Beijing and Tianjin areas attacked the Black Cat Dance Hall in droves. Major newspapers and magazines reported news related to the dance hall business like crazy every day, causing public opinion in the French Concession. Verdy, who had just settled the murder of the tram driver, was pushed out again. On the cusp of the storm.

The conflict in the dance hall business is actually the grudge between Yip's Investment Company and Yongxing Company. It was originally a dispute within the Chinese businessmen, but inexplicably because the Black Cat Dance Hall is located in the French Concession, the Consulate General and the Public Directors Bureau also became involved.

Fan Juli handed Ye Luo a copy of the official letter sent by Pan Shoulian and others to the French Ambassador.

"This joint letter involves a total of 16 celebrities, 12 from the Beijing-Tianjin area and four from Shanghai, including Hua Shikui, Zhao Yuanli and other Shanghai celebrities. They use the tone of defenders to demand that the French Concession immediately ban gangsters. Cat Dance Hall, maintain moral integrity, conduct a thorough investigation of Ye's Dance Company, and give the public an explanation."

"In front of the public, men and women hugged each other, squatting and kicking, with only a thin line separating their bodies. They were soaked in sweat and surging with heat. Their combined field of vision was filled with clouds and rain. How different was it? At first, Ye was still borrowing money to travel to see, and then continued Then he seduce young women and follow the tide, which is like a raging fire, gradually opening up freedom, and then opening the door to obscenity. Ye Luo will not be punished by heaven, but also be punished by the underworld!"

"These old stubborns really don't hold back when it comes to scolding people." Ye Luo sighed, looked at the joint letter, and asked Verdi with a smile, "What does the Consul General think of this?"

"It is impossible to ban the dance hall, but we must try our best to calm down this wave of public opinion." There is no good way for Verdi. He just wants to end this farce quickly, get married to the woman he loves, and go on his honeymoon.

Ye Luo saw his intention and replied with a smile: "This matter is not difficult to solve, as long as the Consulate General and the Public Affairs Bureau are willing to cooperate with me."

"Ye, tell me your method. I really can't think of a proper solution!" Verdi was overjoyed when he heard this. "As you know, I will hold a wedding on October 10th, and the ambassador and minister will come then. Shanghai attends my wedding banquet, I can't leave a bad impression on them."

Ye Luo raised his eyebrows, nodded and said: "For many sanctimonious gentlemen, dancers are shameful, but for dancers themselves, accompanying dancers is the basis for their survival. I can be sure that in the next few years, the dance industry will It is an important industry in the city of Shanghai. There are hundreds of dancers in my Black Cat Ballroom. If each person needs to support three family members, there are thousands of people in the city who need them to support. Indirectly related to the fashion industry and hairdressing industry , leather shoe industry, entertainment industry, and even the livelihood of rickshaw drivers are closely related to them.”

"To ban the dance industry, we must prepare for the massive unemployment of these women, and the separation of many wives and children. At that time, the pressure of public opinion in the French Concession will be even greater. I am afraid that it will not be as simple as letting you calm the public opinion. , We have to solve their family’s food, clothing, housing and transportation problems.”

"We all understand the truth, but there is currently no better way to calm public opinion." Fan Juli was born in a wealthy businessman's family, but when she was a child, she followed her father around the shipping company and met many poor families, so she can understand the pain.

"Why do you want to calm public opinion?" Ye Luo looked at them.

As soon as these words came out, everyone present was stunned.

"But Second Young Master, they are crazily criticizing the Black Cat Dance Hall and our sisters. If they don't shut up, the sisters' reputation will be ruined!" Hua Mei bit her lip and frowned, "In just these days, there have been Many swingers came to ask about the rental price of our red dancers! I told them that the dancers at the Black Cat Ballroom don’t do that kind of business, and they didn’t listen.”

"Can we stop the bad behavior of these people by speaking out and protesting?" Ye Luo asked.

Nia shook her head: "Impossible. They have deep discrimination against the dancer profession, and they will not change their views because of our arguments. They will only become more and more excited."

Both she and her daughter Anna were dancers and know more about this aspect.

Trying to change the minds of bad people is more difficult than making money.

"Then let them smear us?" Hua Mei felt deeply powerless.

"I said there is no need to calm down public opinion, which means that the pressure of public opinion does not matter." Ye Luo shook his head and explained, "Not only will I not calm down, I will continue to expand public opinion and have a head-on conflict with them."

"?"

Big question marks seemed to appear on several people's heads.

"I will immediately arrange people to do these things. First, the Black Cat Dance Hall will officially launch a dance queen election event. One Black Cat Dance Queen and 10 red dancers will be selected by voting. The coupons are on the dance tickets. , purchased and voted by dancers, and celebrities from all walks of life are invited to supervise. I will also bribe various newspapers to cover this event in large quantities. Second, Meier, Nia, Anna, you can find some more representative ones from our dance hall Sexual dancers, let them verbally describe the reasons and inner views of their participation in the dance industry. The more pitiful, innocent, and sympathetic the better, the better. After recording it in a book, we continued to publish it in major newspapers and magazines, and invited They participated in the special interview program of Asia-American Radio! Third, we will fully cooperate and support the National Government's industry rectification actions, and comprehensively improve the quality of dancers, increase work permits, etc. We will take the lead in setting an example and cooperate with review and rectification. Of course, other dance halls We have to cooperate, right?”

"Fourth, I will also open eight civilian dance halls as originally planned to provide leisure and entertainment for the general public, increase the wages of dancers, and strictly investigate the possibility of obscene transactions."

Ye Luo stretched out four fingers.

These are the four strategies he considers in the car.

The last two are still understandable by Verdi, but the first two are.

"As I said just now, their idea of ​​attacking the Black Cat Dance Hall is correct. This is a common tactic in business wars. Since you can't defeat them openly, they use insidious tricks. As long as they can win, it doesn't matter. I accept this challenge. But now the Black Cat Dance Hall is not the property of my Ye family. To be honest, it doesn’t matter whether I, Ye Luo, own this dance hall or even do the dance business."

Ye Luo looked at them and said calmly,

"I don't lack this little money, but the dancers, their families, and the businessmen who follow the trend are short of money. If I lose my job, I won't be able to eat it. I can eat other things, but what about them?"

This method of transferring conflicts has actually been used by later generations of capitalists, but Ye Luo is not so shameless. He will not over-exploit the interests of the dancers, nor will he deliberately transfer conflicts to these girls from poor families.

But the other party's move seemed to be aimed at Ye Luo, but in fact it was destroying the jobs of thousands of dancers.

And Chinese dancers have just started to emerge. When they settle their wages this month, they can feel the huge profits of this industry.

Ye Luo need not say anything at that time, the dancers will also launch a riot to resist this slanderous behavior.

"Also, although I don't care, if someone really destroys my job in front of me, I have to be mentally prepared to bear my revenge." Ye Luo glanced at Feierdi, making the latter afraid.

In the case of the murder of a tram driver, Verdi thought of using Ye Luo as a gunman, but was eventually restrained by him, causing him to lose money and work hard. Verdi truly experienced the power of his "idol".

With the lesson learned last time, he didn't dare to confront Ye Luo anyway.

"I don't believe that each of the sixteen people who signed this letter is so honest and honest. Mei'er, I'll give you five days to dig out all their dirt. You can allocate how much money and manpower you need." , and finally ask Xiao Aqiao for reimbursement. I want you to expose these black materials in the newspapers, and send a few copies to the Jinling National Government, and ask the senior officials at the university what they think."

The corner of Ye Luo's mouth curled up,

"Especially on the issue of personal style, I want to be sure to get it right. Also, notify Manager Wu Liande and ask him to dedicate an entire issue of Liangyou Pictorial to reporting on the dance industry, and by the way, we, Boss Lu, will also include it in Paramount , let the people in Shanghai take a look, who doesn’t want us to be good?”

The tricks behind Ye Luo sound ordinary, but they are effective and vicious.

Hua Mei knew that when he issued this order, he just wanted to punish these people to death. She also knew what to do to satisfy Ye Luo, so she immediately agreed with a smile.

"Second Young Master, you will spend a lot of money then, so don't blame me."

She smiled sweetly, and with the assistance of Ye's Security Company and the solid connections the second young master had built over the years, it was easy to deal with those sixteen people.

"Consul General, I need the Public Affairs Bureau and the Consulate to fully cooperate with me, especially the dancer's self-report and the dance queen election activities. There can be no mistakes. If things are done beautifully, I believe it will be properly handled before the 10th. "

Ye Luo glanced at Verdi and laughed,

"This should be the wedding gift that makes you happiest."

"Okay, I'll let Juli assist you." Fan Erdi nodded and smiled. With Ye Luo's promise, his anger from the morning disappeared instantly.

That afternoon.

Bai Xiongqi came over to persuade Ye Luo in the name of looking for his sister, asking him to take a step back and stop fighting with Lu Yusheng to the end.

There are too many shareholders in Paramount, some of them take the name and receive dividends, and some like Bai Xiongqi invested a lot of money. They all hope that Lu Yusheng can make some hot money for themselves. If Paramount fails, Ye Luo It was like instantly offending most of the celebrities in Shanghai.

This is not a problem that money can solve.

So this time Chen Zhengde and others publicly criticized Ye Luo, but not many people spoke up for him.

Ye Luo looked at Bai Xiongqi and just reassured his brother-in-law not to worry too much. Seeing that he was measured, Bai Xiongqi didn't say anything more.

Anyway, as long as Ye Luo has a good reputation in front of people like Song Ziwen and Wang Zhengting, it will be fine.

The struggle in the business world does not involve politics. At most, you can save some money without losing your life.

Just when Bai Xiong stood up and stepped into the car, he heard Ye Luolai's words behind him.

"Brother, don't worry. Paramount will definitely be destroyed. Even if it doesn't fall, I will bring it down."

"A Luo!" Bai Xiong stood up and wanted to say more, but Ye Luo pushed him into the car.

"Don't worry, Paramount is finished, I won't let you shareholders suffer, don't worry. I won't do stupid things that harm others and don't benefit myself." Ye Luo said with a smile, "I'm not that old bastard like Lu Yusheng Dan, likes to tie everyone in a boat to die."

"Okay, okay, you can figure it out yourself." Bai Xiongqi sighed and could only hope that Ye Luo would find a way to solve the problem.

There wasn't much he could do to help anyway.

There are too many parties involved this time, especially many people who have dozens or millions of shares in Paramount. They will naturally mobilize various connections to support Lu Yusheng and deal with Ye Luo.

For the sake of his official career, Bai Xiongqi would at best avoid adding insult to injury.

Watching the car leave, the smile on Ye Luo's mouth gradually disappeared.

Lu Yusheng is no better than Zhang Wanlin. He is really ruthless and really good at strategizing.

Although Paramount doesn't make any money, it does successfully bind a group of key personnel to Yongxing Company's ship through its shareholder dividend model.

These people are Lu Yusheng's amulets and weapons, threatening Ye Luo at all times.

This opponent is not as easy to deal with as before.

Everything Lu Yusheng did was right and reasonable.

But unfortunately, there was only one thing he failed to estimate.

That is, Paramount cannot make ends meet. Not only can it not make much money, it will continue to consume the wealth of itself and its shareholders. Historically, with the efforts of many parties, it has resisted for four months before finally declaring bankruptcy.

Now, in order to compete with Ye Luo, the acquisition of Dahua Hotel exceeded the budget by more than 2 million, and the construction of Paramount also cost 5 million more than the original, which brings the total to more than 7 million. In addition, the current public opinion campaign.

Lu Yusheng is rich, and Yongxing Company has enough capital, but it cannot afford to burn money like this.

Ye Luo saw this clearly, so he chose to go against the trend. Not only did he not compromise, but he continued to challenge. Without conflicting with the political circles, he opened a large dance hall, then advertised it in various newspapers, and held a dance queen election. The event increases the popularity and accelerates the death of Paramount!

"I'm really looking forward to the day when Paramount is closed." Ye Luo has been waiting for this day from the beginning.

Many people outside thought that he failed to acquire Dahua Hotel, so they were holding their breath to compete with Lu Yusheng. However, Xiao Aqiao and the others knew that Ye Luo had no intention of acquiring it, but was just raising the price crazily to deceive people.

But in fact, only Ye Luo himself knew that he wanted the Majestic Hotel.

This is a very high-quality asset and there is no reason not to acquire it.

But his method was not simply bought from the Kadoorie family.

He wants to find a successor, first go to Paramount, wait for Paramount to go bankrupt, then repurchase Paramount at a very low price, and turn this No. 1 music house in the Far East into the real king of dance halls!

But in that case, the name of Paramount was not Yongxing Company, but Ye's Investment Company!

The mantis stalks the cicada while the oriole follows, and behind the oriole, there is Ye Luo, the hunter!