1928: The rise of giant merchants

October 20, the seventeenth year of the Republic of China (1928).

The Sino-Japanese arena competition, which was reported by major newspapers and magazines, was officially held at 10 o'clock in the morning on the temporary martial arts stage outside the Hongkou Dojo.

This competition was proposed by Naoki Zecheng, the karate coach of Hongkou Dojo, and the target of the fight was Huo Tingen, the president of the Jingwu Sports Association.

Since Huo Yuanjia was killed by Akutagawa Ryuichi, the trend of Chinese martial arts has become increasingly sluggish, and various foreign strongmen, boxing champions, etc. have seen the opportunity and challenged many Chinese martial arts martial arts schools in Shanghai, so that today, There are almost no martial arts schools opened by Chinese warriors in the concessions and prosperous areas.

The national martial arts is in decline, and only the Jingwu Sports Association is still struggling to support it.

When the news of Huo Ting'en's engagement spread, it even attracted the attention of many senior officials of the National Government and Shanghai tycoons.

They are also Chinese, so they naturally hope to see the bloody scenes of national martial arts defeating the Japanese invaders.

Ye Luo moved faster. After he learned about this Sino-Japanese arena match, he informed both sides that he was willing to fully undertake all the expenses for this competition and attend as a major sponsor.

The Japanese Consulate originally hoped to use some things to restore the broken relationship with Ye Luo, so it immediately arranged for several consuls to discuss cooperation with Chinese business representatives on Ye Luo's side.

At the same time, a large number of people who came to watch also saw the horror of Ye Luo's business empire for the first time.

Before the start of the competition, Ye Luo paid a lot of money to buy all the media and let them publicize the martial arts competition event in the three days from 18th to 20th. At the same time, he also pushed the Rendan incident to the peak!

After Hiroshi Morishita, the director of Suzuki Hospital, knew that the "mastermind" was Ye, it was already too late.

Zhang Dingyao thoroughly investigated the death of Jing Ruishan, and then pointed the finger at the Chinese medicine industry. After cleaning up the Chinese medicine industry, he slashed the final butcher knife at Suzuki Hospital and Rendan. In just a few days, even with the guarantee of the Japanese Consulate, After many foreign tycoons interceded, Morishita Hiroshi's Suzuki Hospital was ordered to cease operations for a month, and Nidan was removed from the shelves of all medical stores and was not allowed to be sold privately!

Then today, Hiroshi Morishita, accompanied by Japanese Consul General Yata Nanitaro, left Suzuki Hospital, which was tightly guarded by the police, and took a car all the way to the Hongkou Dojo.

Just on the road, Morishita Hiroshi was shocked to find that everywhere there was an advertisement for Rendan, there was a new and extremely exquisite advertising picture posted next to it, with the four characters "Dragon Tiger Rendan" written on it in bright colors. This drug The functions, packaging, etc. are highly overlapped with Rendan!

During the period when Rendan was banned, customers who bought Rendan in large quantities would obviously choose similar competing products if they could not buy Rendan.

In Shanghai, all the opponents who could compete with Rendan have already been humanely destroyed by Morishita Hiroshi!

When he saw the Dragon-Tiger Rendan this time, he naturally understood that this so-called Chinese domestic product wanted to take advantage of the situation and seize the market for their Rendan!

"Who made this dragon-tiger pill? How dare he pluck the beard from the tiger's mouth? Consul General Yata, do you know who the Chinese businessman is behind this medicine?" Hiroshi Morishita saw "dragons" all over the street through the car window. Tiger Man Pill" advertisement, my heart sank.

Yata Nanitaro took out a monthly advertising poster from his pocket and handed it to him: "Morishita-san, I have already investigated it. The pharmacy that sells Dragon Tiger Man Pill is this Chinese and French pharmacy. His former boss is Chinese Huang Chujiu , but a few days ago, Huang Chujiu suddenly informed everyone that he had unconditionally transferred the Sino-French Pharmacy to Ye Luo."

"Ye Luo?!" Morishita Hiroshi finally understood why Ye Luo dared to swear to him that day that the person who planned and ruined their Rendan business was Ye Luo!

It turns out that he has long been eyeing Rendan's market and wants to take advantage of it!

Thinking of Galt, who had previously opposed Ye Luo, Morishita Hiroshi became more and more frightened.

This Chinese man is so powerful, and his schemes are so tightly linked that there is no way to escape.

"However, according to the information I obtained, the person who revealed the secret of our Nidan advertising painting was not him, but the current Minister of Military and Political Affairs, Shiro Oki." Yada Shittaro said calmly, "This Shiro Oki has been serving as the chief minister before. The dispensable Minister of Finance must have made some special achievements when he came to power this time so that the senior officials of the National Government would notice him. By the way, he was also responsible for the case of the tram driver before."

"Bai Xiongqi" Morishita Hiroshi remembered the name, and then continued to ask, "Are you really sure it's not Ye Luo?"

"Are you questioning our most elite spy? Her name is Yoshiko Kawashima. She has been lurking in China for more than ten years. She has accomplished many big things since she came to Shanghai this year, and she has also made good friends with many important Chinese military and political figures. We have a relationship. Her intelligence will not be wrong." A hint of displeasure appeared on Yata Shichitaro's face, "Regarding this Ye Luo, Minister Shigemitsu said that if we can win him over, we need to try our best to win him into our camp. He once studied at Imperial University. Serving as an assistant coach is a rare top talent.”

"But he ruined our hospital's business!" Morishita Hiroshi couldn't accept this result.

Yata Shichitaro sneered and looked at him: "Morishita-san, your Suzuki Hospital only gives me 800,000 yuan every year. Do you know how much money this Ye Luo has now? Twenty million." Kawashima Yoshiko said , according to a conservative estimate, he has at least 20 million yuan in assets! And it only took him less than seven months to earn these 20 million yuan."

"Yes, I understand." Morishita Hiroshi lowered his head, his eyes full of resentment.

The car sped towards the HK area.

The advertisements for Longhu Rendan that were all over the street were pointed at by countless Chinese people, and some even went to tear down the advertisements for Rendan, or destroyed the image of the Japanese army officer on it with brush graffiti, and painted it into something ridiculous. look.

After the massacre in the provincial capital of Shandong Province, the Japanese invaders had realized the power of the Chinese to boycott Japanese goods. Many Japanese businessmen even openly slandered their own country and supported the Chinese for money.

But now, Ye Luo lets them see how terrifying a real Chinese tycoon is.

Previously, newspapers had been overwhelmingly publicizing that Rendan contained toxins that could cause chronic lung disease, and that Huo Yuanjia's death was caused by deliberate poisoning by Suzuki Hospital. All kinds of comments, coupled with the rising anti-Japanese sentiment, made it difficult for them to publicize it before it even went on the market. The Longhurendan has become famous in Shanghai.

Hiroshi Morishita could imagine that after the Longhu Rendan is launched, the market for Rendan will be completely occupied.

"The packaging is similar to that of Rendan, but the advertising pictures on it are particularly beautiful and attractive. In addition, it has more quantity per box than Rendan, but the price is only half of Rendan. I have to say that this Ye Luo is indeed a top business talent. No wonder many professors at Imperial University are full of praise for him.”

Yata Nanitaro played with the calendar poster in his hand and said with a smile,

"If I take you out this time, you will definitely be criticized by the National Government. Don't be too showy."

"Yes." Morishita Hiroshi's chest became even tighter.

He wanted to say something else, but when he looked up, he was shocked to find that their HK area was filled with advertisements from Yip's Advertising Company!

From the stars and films of Chevrolet 490, Yip's World, and Yip's Film Company, to the black cat dancers who have been popping up all over the world recently, and the now popular and highly publicized Dragon Tiger Man Pill!

Everywhere you look, as long as there are people, there are advertisements for Ye's Investment Company!

Even the martial arts stage of the extremely serious Sino-Japanese arena competition had advertising banners for Dragon and Tiger Man Dan!

Below, various banners are used to exaggerate its efficacy far beyond Rendan.

"Ye Luo!!!" Hiroshi Morishita gritted his teeth with hatred, but he had no choice but to hope that Naoki Sasaki, who was competing today, could make a comeback for the Hongkou Dojo and suppress the arrogance of these Chinese.