1928: The rise of giant merchants

Ye Luo fiddled with the squirrel fish with chopsticks and asked with a smile: "Does Secretary Xiao know that I am doing a new business in Shanghai?"

"Of course. The Party Headquarters has already issued an approval document, asking us to fully cooperate with the Second Young Master's business activities. Our Propaganda Department does not dare to neglect and is always ready." After Xiao Tongzi finished his beautiful words, he stood up to help Ye Luo fall down. Had a glass of wine.

"That's great. I'm also worried that Minister Ye Chuqi will think that my new product is not elegant and won't let me do publicity activities in a big way." Ye Luo chuckled and clinked glasses with Xiao Tongzi, " With Secretary Xiao’s words, I feel relieved.”

"In terms of advertising, as long as it doesn't violate the law, the second young master can do whatever he wants. With the help of the Shanghai Bund City Hall's Propaganda Department, I think there will be no problems." Xiao Tongzi glanced at the other people present. , suddenly thought of something, lowered his voice and said, "It is the principle of respecting the party and patriotism in the operation of newspapers and magazines that must not be forgotten. There are some things."

"I know, I know, you know that my product, Secretary Xiao, has nothing to do with politics, it is just a private business." Ye Luo raised his eyebrows, finally understanding why Xiao Tongzi would immediately expand the Central News Agency and move his power to the north after he came to power. , make the news agency bigger and stronger.

It turns out that at this time, he had already begun to pay attention to controlling public opinion and prepared to become the principal's mouthpiece.

Since the Northern Expedition, the Jinling Nationalist Government has tightened its control over the press and has promulgated a number of provisions.

In particular, the "Publishing Law" roughly inherited the "Publishing Regulations" of the Beiyang government. The most obvious change was the active partyization, which successively inserted key members of the Kuomintang into the senior ranks of newspapers and even controlled newspapers and magazines on behalf of their bosses.

Under the rule of the Jinling National Government, the publication of all newspapers, magazines and books must abide by the "Three People's Principles", otherwise it is prohibited.

To put it bluntly, publications in the mid-Republic of China must conform to the political ideology of the principal, be sold under his leadership, and must not be outside of his thinking.

However, the specific situation is very delicate, because the principal has not yet fully controlled the major factions of the Kuomintang, and many departments and powers have not yet been included in his sphere of influence.

For example, as the head of the Propaganda Department, Ye Chuqi must in principle also serve as the president of the Central Daily News.

But he himself did not control the newspaper. The Central Daily News also implemented the editor-in-chief responsibility system and was not under Ye Chuqi's control.

Therefore, under the current circumstances, Ye Luo does not need to worry too much about the issue of publicity. Even if he really goes too far and makes Ye Chuqi feel dissatisfied and reports it to the principal, he cannot really be sanctioned.

Therefore, Xiao Tongzi stated his position as soon as he arrived. The only one who can control you is the Propaganda Department of Shanghai Bund City Hall. Our Central Propaganda Department is as high as the sky and the emperor is far away. It cannot control you and does not dare to control you.

As for whether Shanghai Tang’s Propaganda Department cares about you, that’s a matter between them and the senior officials of the city hall, and has nothing to do with us.

Saying this is tantamount to acquiescing to all Ye Luo's subsequent publicity actions.

Of course, the last sentence added was just a kind reminder from Xiao Tongzi.

"That's good, that's good." Xiao Tongzi breathed a sigh of relief. He was afraid that Ye Luo called him over because he wanted his help in doing something illegal.

On one side is his immediate boss, on the other side is the famous person in front of the principal. No matter what he does, he is not a human being.

"Come on, Secretary Xiao, everyone, let's drink and eat. This squirrel fish dish uses the best grouper and is authentic. I heard that it uses a secret recipe from the Qianlong period. Let's all try it." Ye Luo asked again. Raise a glass.

"The taste is indeed excellent!" Xiao Tongzi couldn't taste the quality of the fish at all. Anyway, the Paramount Ballroom is Ye Luo's asset. Even if he said it was dragon meat, Xiao Tongzi would agree.

After a meal, the two of them quickly became familiar with each other, and Xiao Tongzi gradually understood that Ye Luo had called him here this time to give him the opportunity to promote new products.

This made Xiao Tongzi feel flattered, and he really couldn't understand how he could bear such a great kindness from Ye Luo.

After dinner, Wu Liande and others had something to do, so they left first. Ye Luo warmly invited Xiao Tongzi to watch a play at the Jinling Grand Theater.

On the stage, Kun opera was babbling and singing. Ye Luo actually didn't understand the opera and could only appreciate the singing and posture of the opera actors - the opera knowledge in his head was taught to him by Meng Xiaodong every now and then.

Xiao Tongzi really liked listening to the opera, shaking his head and enjoying himself.

Not long after, a staff member of Ye's security suddenly came over and whispered: "Second Young Master, Boss Zhou has something to say to you."

"Which boss Zhou?" Ye Luo asked.

The clerk said: "Zhou Xiangsheng, Boss Zhou."

"Xiang Sheng? Okay, I'll go over and have a look." Ye Luo frowned, apologized to Xiao Tongzi, who was listening to the opera enthusiastically, and then followed the staff to the general manager's office of the theater.

At the beginning of this year, in order for Meng Xiaodong to have her own "stage" in the future, Ye Luosi thought that it would not be good for her to sing at the New World Playground or to build a new stage, so she simply spent 3.5 million oceans from Foreigners bought the Jinling Grand Theater.

Yes, the largest theater in Shanghai is not a Chinese property, but is jointly controlled by several foreign banks, the largest shareholder of which is Sassoon.

Last year, the U.S. stock market crashed. Sassoon lost a lot of money, and his son Edward Sassoon even lost millions of dollars. This made it difficult for Sassoon Company to turn over its capital for a while, so it had to sell many properties in China at a low price. To Chinese businessmen and warlords.

Ye Luo bought the Jinling Grand Theater with the intention of taking advantage of the situation, but the Sassoon family just couldn't do anything about him.

In the face of naked money, face is not so important.

Zhou Xiangsheng had been waiting for a long time. He stood tremblingly, and beside him was a chubby little man who lowered his head and shrank back.

"Second Young Master!" Zhou Xiangsheng slapped Little Fatty on the forehead and whispered, "Are you blind? Why don't you say hello to Second Young Master?"

"Ah, hello, Second Young Master!" Little Fatty bowed immediately, his body trembling uncontrollably.

Ye Luo glanced at him curiously, then looked at Zhou Xiangsheng: "I heard that you came to me in an emergency, what's the matter?"

"Second Young Master, this is my nephew Zhou Rui, Ari, why don't you tell the Second Young Master everything you know quickly?" Zhou Xiangsheng no longer wanted to care about this nephew.

He knows better than most people the consequences of betraying the second young master and the condom incident. The best thing to do is to draw a clear line with Zhou Rui and the others.

But in the morning, his nephew suddenly came to him and told him something shocking. Zhou Xiangsheng didn't care about being implicated and hurried to tell Ye Luo.

Zhou Rui stammered about the party that day, and how he was involved in concealing data because of the dirty money.

The uncle had told him before coming here that when he faced the second young master, he knew that he would tell you everything he wanted to say, and he must not take any chances.

After hearing this, Ye Luo nodded slightly and patted Zhou Rui on the shoulder: "You did a good job. Please report the names of those people to me now. I can give you a lighter punishment for the mistakes you made before."

"Thank you, Second Young Master! Thank you, Second Young Master!" Xiao Pangdun was overjoyed and bowed repeatedly, thinking that luckily he was smart and didn't really follow Zhang Dezhi and the others to join the Japanese! (End of chapter)