1928: The rise of giant merchants

Johnny was speechless.

Since he made a bet with Ye Luo that day, 20 of his 200 Rolls-Royce Phantom Generations have arrived in Shanghai, and with Ye Luo taking the lead in consumption, even though he vowed that day that he would be the first in Shanghai. You will be the last person to buy a Rolls-Royce, but many celebrities still follow suit and choose this domineering luxury car.

All 20 cars were ordered within days -

Even though its price is as high as 80,000 oceans.

However, the dream is beautiful, but the reality is very skinny.

Within two weeks, this batch of Rolls-Royces was returned.

The reason is also very simple. There are no spare parts for this kind of luxury car in Shanghai. If it is slightly damaged, the tycoons will come to report for repair and provide advice.

But Johnny's Rolls-Royce car dealership only has dealership rights and no other functions. The customer experience is not as good as that of Yip's Automobile Shop, which provides integrated services.

After the first tycoon refunded his money, several others followed him.

After that, everyone understood what Ye Luo meant.

The Rolls-Royce Phantom generation looks very good and full of style, but its actual functionality is far from that of a Ford car. Its ultra-fast start and shocking speed are meaningless. In Shanghai, even the concession area is currently Where the vehicle speed can only reach 30km/h, it cannot be used at all.

They are not Ye Luo either.

If the car breaks down, Ye Luo can directly send someone to the UK to repair it and then send it back to continue driving.

Most people can't afford to drive this car, and they don't feel much enjoyment from it. They might as well just buy some practical American and German cars.

After this battle, Johnny knew that he had completely lost.

What should he do with the remaining Rolls-Royce Phantom Generations?

200 vehicles, with a total value of 10 million oceans!

Johnny mobilized all kinds of connections to get Rolls-Royce to withdraw the order. In the end, he lost millions of dollars, almost including his entire family!

After learning about this, Ye Luo could only pat the foreign tycoon gently and mourn for him.

After Johnny left, Knappe's face was red, and he happily chatted with Ye Luo: "Boss Ye, thank you for the advice you gave me that day. After that, I thought carefully for a few days and decided to start from Johnny and Ye Luo. Paramount has withdrawn its investment.”

"Congratulations to the Consul General for successfully avoiding unnecessary losses." Ye Luo smiled. This German guy was quite interesting. He really listened to what he said that day!

In fact, Ye Luo didn't know.

Although the foreign community in Shanghai is still extremely xenophobic, and some consuls-general in particular severely discriminate against Chinese people, Ye Luo's business ability has already spread throughout the foreign community and convinced them.

British Consul General in Shanghai Barton and American Consul General in Shanghai Gao Si were full of praise for his abilities, and also relied on his paper to obtain a lot of benefits for themselves.

It's just that after the battle between Paramount and Black Cat Dance Hall started, both of them were very optimistic about Paramount, the number one music house in the Far East, and finally chose to side with Lu Yusheng.

Knappe met Yelo late, but was extremely superstitious about his business ability. After hearing his reasons that day, he stayed up all night and called Johnny all night to cancel his investment in Rolls-Royce.

This also strengthened Johnny's determination to defeat Ye Luo.

Later, he saw that Rolls-Royce was really not doing well. As the Paramount opened, Knappe took back another 500,000 yuan from Lu Yusheng.

Over time, he didn't make much money, but he lost nearly a million yuan!

In addition, he made a lot of money in the U.S. stock market with Gao Si during this period, and he attributed all these achievements to Ye Luo.

In the eyes of Lin Ruxian, an outsider, it was the dignified German Consul General who was fawning over Ye Luo, which made her both proud and surprised.

Some tycoons and foreigners present also cast their gazes, curious about what Ye Luo was talking to Knappe.

It's a pity that they communicated in German throughout the whole process. Even if you stand next to them, you can't understand the content.

Lu Yusheng and the other three had no choice but to drink angrily and try their best to comfort a group of shareholder bosses who were unhappy because of Paramount.

"Boss Ye, you are a business genius, and I just lack such a partner. Are you interested in cooperating with me?" Knappe put forward the need for cooperation directly.

Doing business with a German?

Ye Luo raised his eyebrows.

This invitation quite surprised him.

Nowadays, in China, foreigners generally only look for Chinese to be compradors. Even his Ye's Automobile Company is actually half a comprador group. In essence, it is still helping foreign automobile companies sell cars.

This is also the reason why he is not willing to invest too much energy in the car business.

So what if you make more or less?

A lot of this white money still flows into the pockets of foreigners. This is not the result Ye Luo wants.

His rejection of comprador business was obvious to all.

After the consul generals got to know him deeply, almost no one came to him for business cooperation.

It is unlikely that Knappe did not know this.

"Consul General, I have to say something again. Did you know? My Ye's Investment Company is not planning to develop into a comprador group. If you want to find someone to import German goods, you can find other Chinese businessmen." Ye Luo looked at it with a smile. he.

Knappe was not angry, but laughed loudly: "Boss Ye, I've heard about your style a long time ago! I don't need compradors, the most people I have are Chinese compradors. I want to cooperate with you in other businesses."

"Oh? I'd like to hear the details." Ye Luo became interested.

"Zhang! Please come here." Knappe did not say directly, but waved to Zhang Dingyao who was not far away.

Zhang Dingyao immediately called his German translator and walked over with a smile.

"Hello, Mr. Consul General, what's the matter?" Zhang Dingyao seemed to be very familiar with Knappe. After the two hugged, he looked at Ye Luo and said hello with a smile, "Boss Ye, you are well. Are you okay? The incident in the dance hall caused a lot of fuss, but it added a lot of workload to me."

"Thanks to Mayor Zhang's assistance, this unnecessary dispute was resolved so quickly." Ye Luo was referring to his approval of the dancer's work permit.

Although Zhang Dingyao also invested in Paramount, he did not join Cayelo in the political circle. Instead, he actively cooperated with his counterattack.

It shows that deep down in his heart, he feels that Ye Luo will be the final winner.

This also solidified his idea of ​​continuing to cooperate with the Ye family and Ye's investment company.

Since the reorganization of the Jinling National Government, the top positions in Jinling have been moved again and again, with great intention to fill the vacancies.

Zhang Dingyao graduated from Baoding Military Academy and actually belongs to the Guangxi clique. Nowadays, the Gui clique is the largest force besides the central clique. Its leaders include Bai Chongxi, Li Zongren, Li Jishen and other well-known warlords. This also indirectly prevents him from entering the core of Jinling. Work within groups.

With his official career blocked, Zhang Dingyao is determined to make a career in Shanghai and use his performance to mobilize his position.

Now that the war has stopped and the whole country is recuperating, if you want to achieve results, you must undoubtedly start from the business world.

In his plan, the first is to completely reorganize the business world and let political forces dominate the business structure, rather than relying entirely on the General Chamber of Commerce Committee for collaborative management; the second is to support a new era of business leaders who are different from the old school Businessmen, Manchu relics, and gangster tycoons must be extremely well-known among the people, have strong abilities, and must have a certain status and background.

Obviously, Ye Luo met his expectations very well.

Especially since Ye Luo has already connected with Song Ziwen's network, his future is limitless.

Now that Paramount is losing, Black Cat Ballroom is rising strongly, which also means that Ye Luo will overtake Yongxing Company and completely become famous in Shanghai's business community.

Zhang Dingyao had many plans in his mind, but his body became increasingly tired. Recently, he kept coughing up blood in the middle of the night, and it persisted for a long time, which gave him a hint of gloom in his heart.

"Boss Ye, after many discussions, we have decided that we will classify the dance industry as a 'special business'. The order of dance halls is directly related to social security issues, so the concession and the Chinese community will formulate and publish the "Regulations on the Management of Dance Halls", "Rules for Dancers" and " "Abolition of the Business Rules for Dancers" to provide regulations and restrictions on the business methods of dance halls and dancers and the behavior of dancers."

Zhang Dingyao coughed a few times and lowered his voice and said,

"Soon there will be a formal document issued by Jinling. The dancer's work permit you advocate is also being processed in full swing. We hope you will participate in the formulation of these rules and regulations."

Ye Luo nodded and smiled when he heard this: "I will go all out and cooperate with the work."

No matter what policies the political circles want to introduce to stabilize the dance industry, he will just cooperate.

Anyway, the real impact on the dance industry was not until 1947, nearly 20 years ago, so there is no need to think about it.

He is not afraid that the political circles will impose restrictions on the dance business, but he is afraid that they will not remind you of the restrictions or allow you to join them.

Excluding people is the greatest malice.

Ye Luo glanced at Lu Yusheng in the distance. Unfortunately, Boss Lu was obviously excluded by Zhang Dingyao and others.

"Zhang, do you still remember the German military advisory group I mentioned to you a few days ago?" Knappe asked him with a smile, "Although the current cooperation between China and Germany is still unclear, I feel that real cooperation will soon be achieved. For military cooperation, the advisory team has been screening and reorganizing personnel in our country, and it is unstoppable to come to China."

"Of course I remember. But the preparations for this matter are mainly in Jinling, and I am powerless." Zhang Dingyao is eager for this large-scale cooperation. If he can get a piece of the pie and get some credit, he will obviously have the opportunity to go further and enter Jinling. Inner circle.

During the conversation between the two, Ye Luo suddenly realized.

He knew what was going on.

This is the famous Hua-German cooperation that took place in the golden decade of 28-37!

This grand cooperation between the two countries involving military, economic, technological and other aspects did not end until July 7, 1937, when the war between China and the Japanese invaders officially broke out.

During this period, Germany also helped Jinling successfully establish the first German-style, Asian version of the army.

This army, which can be said to be the most modern in the country's modern history, coupled with the defense industry initially established in the Yangtze River Basin, has enabled the country to achieve the "minimum standard" for resisting Japanese aggression.

"The main body of the cooperation is naturally with Jinling, but our cooperation has countless contents. I once asked Colonel Max Ball, who will be the general adviser of the military advisory group, and he said that this cooperation will also involve transportation, industry, military, Telecommunications, postal services, and even municipal and sanitation facilities. Shanghai is adjacent to Jinling and will be radiated by its industrialization. I have heard that you have a big Shanghai plan. This may be the best business in the future!"

Knappe looked at the two of them with a smile, the meaning in his eyes was self-evident.

"I have a very good relationship with Colonel Ball. He also intends to place some factories and technical personnel in the suburbs of Shanghai. Zhang, Boss Ye, maybe you can help."

"I see, Boss Ye, what do you think?" Zhang Dingyao was eager to move. Since he couldn't get into the core cooperation circle, it would be nice to get some scraps to eat!

Although he holds a high position, he has no financial support, and there are no business people in his family who can shoulder such a huge cooperation. The new business leader Ye Luo to support in the future is obviously the best choice.

Ye Luo was overjoyed when he heard this. He wanted to develop Ye's light industry and heavy industry. The biggest headache was not capital and materials, but talent and technology. These two items had been monopolized by the big powers for a long time. He would either introduce talents from outside or cultivate them himself. .

The latter cycle is too long, and the former requires extremely strong human resources, which is difficult to achieve.

It's fine now, it's delivered to your door.

Why not take advantage of the honeymoon period between the two countries to make a fortune?

It's just that in the past ten years of cooperation, too many projects have been "unfinished", and the results and efficiency of the cooperation are not as good as they imagined. In fact, it is just a utopian project that looks beautiful but actually wastes a lot of human and financial resources.

He couldn't get involved too much.

Just like the Great Shanghai Plan.

It is perfect and desirable, but in the end it is just a pile of chicken feathers, all of which are public debts that were sent out and then never returned.

"When the matter is settled, it will be my duty to be of use to me." Ye Luo said vaguely, but he was very happy in his heart.

He did not agree immediately because he was afraid of stepping on a thunderbolt and was not sure when Zhang Dingyao would leave.

Hearing what he said, Zhang Dingyao felt more and more that this young man was very stable.

Zhang Dingyao wanted to continue chatting for a while, but suddenly started coughing crazily, scaring Knappe back again and again.

"Mayor Zhang, tissue." Ye Luo handed over the tissue thoughtfully, and then found that when he wiped it, he coughed up blood.

Good guy.

Is this not tuberculosis?

He glanced at Lin Ruxian by the way. Lin Ruxian understood, walked over with a glass of water, and asked pretending to be concerned: "Are you suffering from chronic lung disease? Drink more water, drink less alcohol, and rest more."

"You are." Zhang Dingyao wiped his mouth, drank water, and looked at Lin Ruxian, a little unhappy with this woman's sudden concern.

He doesn't like mature women very much.

Ye Luo quickly went up and explained.

Hearing that she was Jing Ruishan's widow and the proprietress of Ye's Dance Company, and combined with Ye Luo's intimate movements with her, Zhang Dingyao suddenly realized, and her tone softened a lot: "How did you know that I have chronic lung disease?"

"Ruishan's initial symptoms were similar to yours. Ah, that's not what I meant!" Lin Ruxian pursed her lips, "It just looks a bit similar. Boss Huang from the Sino-French Pharmacy also told me something."

"Huang Chujiu? Jing Ruishan?" Zhang Dingyao frowned.

He has been seeing Western medicine and does not trust Chinese medicine very much.

Hearing that Jing Ruishan's symptoms were similar to his own, he became increasingly frightened and suspicious.

Jing Ruishan died of illness two years ago, but he knew that it was poison to life!