1928: The rise of giant merchants

"Wow, so spicy! But delicious!"

Kong Lingjun held his "little red lips" and screamed while eating happily. Then he picked up a piece of tripe, and before it cooled down, he rolled it in the spicy oil dipping sauce and stuffed it into his mouth.

"Eat slowly, eat slowly, be careful not to burn it."

Ever since she gave birth to a child, little Aqiao's motherly nature has been overflowing. When she sees all the children, she can't help but kiss and hug them. She has completely lost the cool and charming elder sister she used to be.

When Kong Lingjun was studying in the Ye family, he was beaten by Ye Luo every day. Every time he was wronged and beaten, he would run to Bai Xiuzhu and Xiao Aqiao to complain and ask for comfort.

Bai Xiuzhu took her identity into consideration and did not dare to get too close to her.

Little Aqiao didn't care about this and raised this little devil as her daughter. Over time, the relationship between the two became very good.

As she said this, she picked up a tissue and wiped Kong Lingjun's mouth, then smiled and looked at Ye Luo, who was also enjoying the meal.

This was the first time she had seen Ye Luo be so fond of the food of the Republic of China.

"Hey, I told you, don't, don't think that this snack in Qingshi is not popular on the market. In fact, the taste is really unique!"

Ye Luo glanced at the hot pot stalls that were bustling with people but could only be set up on the streets, and felt more and more that this was a small industry that could be developed.

"Why can't you get on the stage? That's because the officials above don't know how to enjoy it."

"That's right."

"It's better if we can't get on the stage. If we are really targeted, what will we eat in the future? Can we afford it?"

The surrounding diners heard Ye Luo's words and responded with laughter.

At these small hotpot stalls that can be seen everywhere in Qingshi, you can always see diners feasting.

Some of them wear long coats from the old era, some wear progressive student uniforms, and occasionally there are soldiers in military uniforms. But as soon as they sit down, they will put aside their family status and eat, drink and chat together.

It can be said that hot pot culture also connects the relationship between the middle class and the lower class people, and is not just a simple food culture.

"It's not necessarily a bad thing if it's on the table. If businessmen can popularize this kind of food culture and extend it to all parts of the north and south, maybe it can bring some windfall to the people of Qing City."

Ye Luo laughed and continued eating and drinking.

"No, no. Nowadays, nine out of ten businessmen are treacherous, and one of them is not even a human being! He or she can't do it." The diners seemed to be very prejudiced against the businessmen of Qing City.

When it comes to this, most people are making wild comments and insults.

This was an unexpected gain.

Ye Luo had always thought that the development of Qing City under Pan Wenhua's leadership was pretty good, but it seemed that the business aspect was really bad.

However, this is also a common phenomenon in the business world of the Republic of China.

There are basically only two types of people who dominate the business world - foreigners who work in foreign companies and Chinese who work as compradors.

These two types of people are more evil-minded than the capitalists of later generations, and they do their best to exploit people. As long as they can squeeze one more profit from the people, they dare to rack their brains to do it.

As for helping to build cities and help poor people become rich together, that doesn't exist.

Getting rich first leads to getting rich later, which is like a joke in any era.

"Husband, I heard that Sister Huixin is back from the United States?" Little Ah Qiao asked suddenly as she helped Kong Lingjun pour a cup of sour plum soup.

"Yes, ahem, Mrs. Rose Livermore came to Shanghai to invest and do business. Her business in the United States has been temporarily saturated, so she wanted to come to the Republic of China to look for opportunities."

Ye Luo coughed a few times. Although most of the people here were ordinary people, there was no guarantee that there wouldn't be any Kuomintang agents, so you had to be careful.

Little Ah Qiao understood and stopped continuing the topic, and then turned the conversation back to the construction of the factory in Qing City: "We will go to the Qing City City Hall later, or should I go alone to meet Pan Wenhua?"

"Let's go together. Without me, it's probably hard to open up official relations." Ye Luo didn't know whether Xiao Aqiao's own sign would work in Qing City, so just in case, it would be better to go and see them in person. .

By the way, I can also mention the hot pot restaurant.

"By the way, if you want to start business here, it's best to recruit Lu Zuofu. Last year he came to Shanghai to inspect shipping, and later established Minsheng Shipping Company. It is very powerful in the middle and upper reaches of the Yangtze River. After cooperating with him, it will also facilitate our transportation. Raw materials and products.”

Ye Luo mentioned Lu Zuofu, with a rare hint of admiration in his eyes.

In the autumn of the 14th year of the Republic of China (1925), Lu Zuofu dropped out of school to engage in business and returned to Sichuan to organize the Minsheng Industrial Company. He envisioned running the shipping industry as the basis and running other industries at the same time. He combined industry with education to promote social reform and to To achieve the purpose of revitalizing China.

The next year, he relied on friends to raise 8,000 ocean capital, and then personally came to Shanghai to order a shallow-water iron-hulled ship with a load of 70.5 tons.

In May, a new ship was built in Shanghai. While Lu Zuofu sent people to pick up the ship, he held a company founding meeting in Qing City to determine the company's name as "Minsheng Industrial Co., Ltd." and named the first ship "Minsheng" The ship opened up the Jialing River-Chongqing route and started his shipping journey.

In the following years, he opened a large number of factories, education bases, etc., and was highly regarded by the "King of Sichuan and Chongqing" Liu Xiang. He held many positions in one person and was called the number one industrialist in Sichuan and Chongqing Province.

Last summer, Lu Zuofu led an inspection team composed of relevant personnel from Minsheng Company, Beibei Gorge Defense Bureau and Beichuan Railway Company. They set off from Shanghai Beach on June 21 to July 25, traveling around various places to find new breakthroughs in the shipping business.

In the same year, in order to cooperate with Yeluo's Ye's Shipping Company to resist the monopoly of foreign shipping companies on shipping in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, Lu Zuofu launched the "break it into a whole" campaign, hoping that many domestic shipping companies could unite and twist into a rope to Fight against the invasion of foreign shipping lines.

Ye Luo had to open his eyes to easily defeat those foreigners, but Lu Zuofu did not have his eyes. He relied entirely on himself to develop the shipping industry of the Republic of China step by step.

He is worthy of being one of the few patriotic industrialists during the Republic of China!

"Okay, after dinner, I will send someone to deliver the invitation to Boss Lu." Little Ah Qiao nodded.

"Tsk, do the bosses really know Boss Lu?" The owner of the hot pot restaurant came over to serve the food and couldn't help but ask, "He is a well-known industrialist in our Qing City. He is better than those messy compradors who only praise foreigners. I don’t know how many times!”

The surrounding diners also agreed with the shop owner's words.

Lu Zuofu carried out extensive construction projects in Qing City in the early years and built many infrastructures that were beneficial to people's livelihood, so he had a great reputation here.

He is one of the few businessmen who is not scolded by the people here.

"I can't say we know each other, I just met him a few times." Ye Luo answered truthfully.

Although Lu Zuofu is one of the domestic giants in the shipping industry, the company's overall strength and financial resources are still far behind Ye's Investment.

Last year, Lu Zuofu's inspection team came to Shanghai, and it happened that Ye Luo was busy dealing with the war in the Central Plains. The two missed each other many times, and finally met in Tianjin in a hurry.

They said it was a meeting, but in fact Lu Zuofu waited for a long time and finally stopped Ye Luo in the corridor. The two had a brief conversation and discussed the "turning the pieces into a whole" campaign, which settled a major matter in Lu Zuofu's heart.

After all, as soon as Ye Luo established Ye's Shipping in Tianjin, he quickly used his terrifying financial resources to destroy all the nearby shipping companies. His domineering and efficient actions made Lu Zuofu both emotional and admired.

He worked hard for ten years, hoping to expel some foreign companies in Qingshi, but in the end he was too weak to achieve his wish.

But Ye Luo only came here once and scared all the foreigners away!

"That's what I've seen before! Just saying this to you, I will waive this order!"

The shop owner gave Ye Luo a thumbs up.

"If you can meet Boss Lu, he must be a well-known and good boss. Thanks to conscientious bosses like you, we small traders can continue to live!"

He was referring to the push by Ye Luo and others to sign the tariff autonomy agreement.

Prior to the Republic of China, the business community had basically been ruined by foreigners. Not to mention small traders, even big entrepreneurs were defeated one by one and were unable to recover.

Thanks to the independent implementation of tariffs, Chinese businessmen can finally breathe a sigh of relief.

And everyone attributed this credit to a group of patriotic industrialists headed by Ye Luo, thinking that they saved their lives. (End of chapter)