1928: The rise of giant merchants

Water conservancy projects are the weakest link in Shandong Province's municipal projects. Shandong Province has been plagued by floods all year round due to poor water conservancy projects.

But Han Fuju didn't want to spend a lot of money on this.

The reason is simple: there is a huge gap between effort and reward.

Improving water conservancy will indeed benefit the people and ourselves, but it will not bring in money!

Now that the Central Plains War has just ended, Han Fuju can be considered a "victor", but he did not gain any benefit from this battle.

The most powerful people in the past, Feng Yuxiang, Yan Xishan and others, have declined. The principal and Zhang Hanqing have taken over the rule of the north and south. Although local warlords like him cannot compete with the principal and others, they can still do their best to become the second. The sweet dream of Feng Yuxiang or Yan Xishan.

To grow into such a warlord, you must have enough money and troops.

Obviously, water conservancy projects cannot meet his needs.

"The water conservancy project can be done. If the second young master wants to come over to help with the water conservancy project, I will definitely welcome him with both hands. But..." Han Fuju looked troubled and said leisurely while leading Ye Luo forward.

Ye Luo knew what Xiao Jiujiu was thinking about in his heart, but he still asked: "It's just what it is. Chairman Han just tell me."

"It's just a non-profit water conservancy project. I'm afraid the second young master's idea of ​​making money from it will be difficult to realize." Han Fuju thought about his words and felt that he couldn't be too straightforward to scare away the God of Wealth.

"You won't know until you do it." Ye Luo replied with a smile.

Seeing that he had made up his mind, Han Fuju didn't know what to say. In short, he kept the God of Wealth for now. How to cooperate with him in the future, or even extract money from him, was a matter for the future.

"In that case, I have Young Master Lao Er. If you encounter any difficulties in doing business, you can come to the provincial capital city hall to see me at any time." Han Fuju readily agreed.

Since he vaguely had the title of the number one businessman in the Republic of China, and had two perfect shields, the principal and Zhang Hanqing, Ye Luo felt that his business path in the country was much easier.

Han Fuju was a relatively difficult traitor, but because of his reputation and ability, he still chose to submit.

The two had lunch together at the hotel they had booked, and then Han Fuju called many female students and dancers to accompany Ye Luo and the others. This gave him enough face and allowed Ye Luo to see the Lu Province under his rule. , how rotten it is at the top, and how miserable it is below.

Most of these warlords of the Republic of China are not good people.

That is to say, when the national crisis hit, they were given a chance to wash away their own stains, but their intrinsic badness was still so disgusting.

Many of the female students who were called by Han Fuju to accompany them were students of Lu Provincial Women's University and Lu University. They were obviously at their best age, when they were studying to serve the motherland and find a way out for themselves, but they fell in love with such a ruler.

With a wave of his hand, Ye Luo liberated these girls. At the same time, he specifically told Han Fuju about the matter and asked him not to embarrass these students who were still studying.

Some of them are the future pillars of the country, and some may also become his capable generals, so why kill the goose to get the eggs.

Han Fuju didn't pay attention to Ye Luo's statement. He felt that Ye Luo was just a scholar. This kind of thing was done by warlords in various places. Some went too far. He married more than a dozen female students as concubines in one go.

What's the big deal?

Ye Luo felt sick when he thought about the incident of a very famous Lu University girl accompanying a nigger to school.

Okay, I didn’t expect that I would be the black brother this time.

Although he was dissatisfied with Han Fuju in his heart, he still had to rely on Han Fuju's dominance in Lu Province when he came to do the water conservancy project this time.

Ye Luo marked several flood-damaged areas that he could remember based on his memories from his previous life, and immediately sent an engineering team to carry out repairs. He also asked Han Fuju to come forward, and all departments cooperated fully.

Han Fuju had various plans in mind. When he saw Ye Luo start to take action, while fully supporting him in repairing water conservancy, he also quietly added people to Ye Luo's team.

Water conservancy doesn't make money, so it's okay to hire some people and embezzle money into the project funds.

This is an obvious unspoken rule, which is tantamount to asking Ye Luo for help.

In the past, when he was doing business seriously, Ye Luo would have turned against him on the spot for such behavior. No matter who you are, there is no way for you to take money from me.

But this time, Ye Luo was just here to distribute money for disaster relief, so he didn't care about the tens or millions of dollars spent on the project.

After all, Han Fuju's decree will indeed make the project go much smoother, so it's better to just turn a blind eye.

With the repair of water conservancy projects, the floods in the Yangtze and Huaihe River areas are gradually beginning to show signs of flooding.

In fact, it has been raining here since June 28. The continuous rainy weather has slowed down the progress of the project a lot.

Fortunately, it was Yip's Construction that started the work, so the project didn't fall short.

The book "Great Floods in Chinese History" contains more detailed statistics and descriptions of the "rain conditions" in the Jianghuai basin this year.

The overview is as follows: the rainfall process can be divided into three stages. The first stage lasts for about half a month from June 28 to July 12. The rainfall in many places is more than 400 mm, and in some places the rainfall exceeds 200 mm in one day. mm.

The second stage is from July 18th to 28th, lasting 11 days. Whether near the river or some places far away from the river, there are records of continuous heavy rains. For example, Anqing in Anhui Province "had heavy rains for days", Tongling "had heavy rains that lasted for more than ten days and nights" and so on.

The third stage is from the end of July to August 15. At this time, the main rain area moves northward to the area between the Huanghuai River and the lower reaches of the Han River. In Shandong Province, the rainfall reaches about 370 mm in two days of overcast weather, and in Zhongxiang, the rainfall reaches more than 250 mm in three days. Record.

It is now at the end of the first stage. It has been raining continuously for several days, and the amount of rainfall is estimated to be more than 200 mm.

Under the continuous heavy rain, many people gradually recognized Yeluo's intention to build a water conservancy project.

It's just that everyone, including Han Fuju, can't figure out why Ye Luo came all the way to Shandong Province and spent 10 to 20 million yuan to do this.

Thankless.

As the project progresses, Ye Luo's work in the capital of Shandong Province is almost completed, and the next step is for his subordinates to take charge of coordination.

He recently observed the situation in the business community in Ha Long province.

The business world in which Han Fuju single-handedly controlled the world was no better than Qing City.

Ordinary businessmen have no way to survive, while businessmen who can make money are not human beings at all, colluding with warlords and preying on the common people.

The people in this place are really suffering.

In the end, Ye Luo did not hesitate and agreed to Han Fuju to build a Lu branch of Ye's Investment in the capital of Shandong Province, and slowly let Ye's Investment spread here.

Of course, he will definitely not invest in core industries and truly good industries here.

That is courting death.

Once the Anti-Japanese War starts, life in Lu Province will be difficult. Han Fuju is a coward, and there is a high probability that his property here will be hacked.

But thinking of those poor people, Ye Luo still left some entertainment industries such as dance halls and amusement parks behind.

It is also easy to evacuate and sell off this kind of industry in the future, and some people can take over it.

The core operating model of Ye's dance industry is updated every year, relying on the experience of Ye Luo's later generations, and those who want to imitate it cannot do it.

Sassoon's Xian Lesi is a typical example.

Painting a tiger cannot be compared to a dog.

As soon as he heard that Ye Luo was going to open a company, Han Fuju immediately became interested. He helped manage various departments, treated him to meals, sent women as gifts, and treated him well in various ways.

In this way, Ye Luo stayed in Lu Province for another half month before setting off back to Qing City. (End of chapter)