1928: The rise of giant merchants

Celebrities from all walks of life in Tianjin finished their lunch in the living room, and they could not find a chance to talk to Ye Luo until 1 p.m.

The second young master was too busy. He was already exhausted just dealing with the foreigners who came here for his fame, and he could not take care of the pile of warlords and businessmen who wanted to seek business cooperation with him.

After dinner, several men wearing hotel security uniforms suddenly approached Lu Yongxiang, Lu Xiaojia and Tang Yiying.

"General Lu, Mr. Lu, Miss Tang, please come over here." The security guard headed by him was polite and his appearance and quality did not look like an ordinary low-level worker.

Tang Yiying's sharp eyes caught a glimpse of the "Yip's Security" trademark faintly visible on his inner lining, and she quickly asked: "Are you taking us to see Brother Luo?"

"I'm afraid the second young master won't have time to chat with you all this afternoon, but he specifically asked us to take the three of us to a private room to discuss business cooperation in detail." The security guard replied with a smile and made another invitation gesture.

"Dad, look, I just said Brother Luo hasn't forgotten us!" Lu Xiaojia was gearing up, very excited.

"See it first and then talk about it." Lu Yongxiang couldn't tell what Ye Luo was thinking, so he had to follow the security guards to the private room upstairs in the hotel.

All the way up, Tang Yiying discovered that not all guests were invited upstairs. As the flow of people decreased, less than ten of them were taken upstairs by security guards like them.

Lu Yongxiang obviously noticed this, and his expression became more solemn and curious.

The second young master has privately screened this group of people!

This thought came to his mind.

But the strange thing is that not all the Chinese celebrities who can go upstairs are those famous Chinese celebrities in Tianjin.

He saw Cao Kun, Duan Qirui and others who were also warlord generals on the road, but he did not see representatives of the Feng Faction warlords such as Li Jichun, who had also been prominent during the warlord melee and were still very powerful in Tianjin.

Thinking of Li Jichun, Lu Yongxiang felt uncomfortable in every possible way.

This guy was a classmate and good friend of Wu Peifu back then, but his family background was average and he started much later than the generals like them. When Lu Yongxiang was the brigade commander, Li Jichun was still a leading soldier leading the general's horse.

Later, the rebel army marched into Kulun. At this time, the Mongolian princes, lamas and other rebel bandits wrote to the government of the Republic of China, willing to cancel their independence. The government of the Republic of China granted their request, and soon the rebel army returned to Beijing and won without a fight.

Li Jichun had bad luck. On October 25, 1922, he was awarded the title of General Jiwei for his meritorious service in fighting against rebellion. He was given a sword and was promoted to military attaché of the Presidential Palace. From then on, he rose through the ranks and became one of the best under Zhang Zongchang. As a tiger general, his popularity in the Feng dynasty is higher than that of Lu Yongxiang.

After thinking about it, he couldn't figure out why the second young master didn't ask Li Jichun to cooperate, and he didn't even seem to be invited to this banquet.

While walking on the road, Lu Yongxiang couldn't hide something in his heart, so he blurted it out and wanted to test the truth from the mouths of several security guards.

The leading security guard smiled and shook his head: "We only follow the Second Young Master's instructions. We don't know the inside story. If General Lu has doubts, he might as well ask the Second Young Master personally in the future."

"Could it be because Li Jichun lives in the Japanese Concession?" Tang Yiying thought of the scene yesterday when Ye Luo shot Pu Yi on the head and his public statement that he hated the Japanese.

During the Second Northern Expedition, Zhang Zongchang was defeated. Li Jichun led his troops to attack Li Jinglin who was stationed in Tianjin. After the failure, he fled to Peking to take refuge. He was wanted by Marshal Zhang. Later, he fled to the Japanese Concession in Tianjin and accepted Japanese asylum. Until today.

Thinking about it this way, it was really possible. Lu Yongxiang couldn't help but nod.

But there was one thing he couldn't understand either.

Ye Luo didn't like Li Jichun and other pro-Japanese factions, or similar guys, but why were some small bosses invited upstairs?

For example, Zhou Zheng walked past them just now.

Zhou Zheng was Zhou Xuexi's distant cousin. He used the name of Zhou Xuexi and the Zhou family to open a textile factory called Xin Xinhua in Tianjin City, riding on the popularity of the Zhou family's Xinhua Textile Factory.

In terms of status, wealth and character, Zhou Zheng is quite ordinary and not at the level of Lu Yongxiang and others.

With a lot of doubts, the three of them followed the security guard into the hotel private room.

As soon as he entered the door, a chilling air hit his face.

There were three armed policemen on each side dressed as soldiers, holding rifles with bayonets in their hands, standing majestic and looking straight ahead.

Behind them stood a young man wearing the uniform of Ye's Clothing Company. After greeting several security guards and confirming the identity of the visitor, the young man smiled and came over to shake hands: "Hello, General Lu, I am Ye's Li Youde, an employee of the clothing planning department, is waiting for you here on the orders of the second young master."

"Hello, Mr. Li." Lu Yongxiang was almost frightened by several rifles. Although he had experienced wars and mountains of corpses and seas of fire, he also developed a phobia of weapons. When he saw this kind of armed soldiers with guns in their hands, Subconsciously I thought it was the principal who came to silence me!

Fortunately, it seems to be just to ensure the safety and confidentiality in the private room.

Lu Xiaojia, who has always been arrogant, and Tang Yiying, who is flirtatious, also became trembling with fear.

The door was closed and locked.

Li Youde made an invitation gesture and asked the three of them to sit down at the dining table. Then he took out a pile of things from a safe and spread them on the table.

"Three of you, this is the new business that the second young master wants to do this time. You can choose one of them to become a shareholder."

There are three things on the table, a brightly colored and novel-looking cheongsam, bulging and beautifully packaged, something like a napkin box, and a square, small object packaged in colorful aluminum film.

"What are these?" Lu Yongxiang only recognized the cheongsam, which is very popular now and is one of the three most important items for women in the Republic of China, along with progressive student uniforms and dresses.

But this cheongsam is a little different. The color is brighter than ordinary cheongsam, and the style looks very unique. As a cheongsam lover, Tang Yiying was captured at a glance.

"New cheongsam, sanitary napkins and condoms." Li Youde explained with a smile.

The new cheongsam is a cheongsam style recently produced by Ye's Clothing Company, adding some more popular elements and improved concepts, highlighting a combination of Chinese and Western styles.

As for sanitary napkins and condoms, there is no need to say much.

These businesses were Meng Xiaodong's sudden inspiration that day. Just as tariffs were about to be drafted independently, Ye Luo came up with this bold plan.

“Can we only choose one investment?”

"According to the Second Young Master, in principle, a company or a household can only invest in one item. If you want to increase your investment, you will have to pay some new prices."

"What's the new price?"

"I agree to let Ye invest in your company."

Similar conversations happened simultaneously in various private rooms, and in the presidential suite on the roof of the building, Ma Mourui looked at the three objects in front of him, his face full of doubts and confusion, waiting for Ye Luo's answer. (End of chapter)