1928: The rise of giant merchants

Back in Qing City, Ye Luo immediately reviewed his apprentice's homework.

With the help of little Ah Qiao, twelve-year-old Kong Lingjun actually succeeded in taking over a large area of ​​land and houses in and around the Qingshi Hotel.

Before Ye Luo returned to Qing City, the demolition of the building was completed, and the construction of the food city that Ye Luo envisioned had already begun. Various advertisements were flying all over the place. Everyone in Qing City knew that the second young master was going to open a food city here that everyone would enjoy. Food city that you can go to.

Although Ye Luo's name is attached to the trick, Kong Lingjun's series of business operations are really like that.

Especially the promotion and various advertising first, it captured the essence of Ye Luo and even the little Aqiao was full of praise.

Don't think that Lu Zuofu and other veteran businessmen will stay away from business competition because of Kong Lingjun's status.

In front of money, all living beings are equal.

At most, when competing with Kong Lingjun, she would take into account her teacher Ye Luo and her father, who was the Minister of Industry and Commerce, and not use dirty tricks on her.

But there should be competition, and not a single point will be lost.

This is also the healthy competitive atmosphere in Qingshi’s future business district that Ye Luo promised to Pan Wenhua.

But even so, Kong Lingjun still fought his way through a group of old fritters. Even with the help of little Aqiao, it was enough to make people amazed.

In the past, it was because of her lawless behavior when she grew up, and because she didn't want this little girl to embark on a path of no return, and she didn't want those people in the future to be poisoned by her, that Ye Luo reluctantly agreed to accept her as his apprentice.

But after this incident, Ye Luo finally faced up to this problem.

In the future, Ye's investment will surely develop in various ways like the top chaebols of later generations, and may even have the possibility of operating across borders.

In this way, a single chaebol family will always decline.

At that time, allies who can help are very important.

According to the course of history, the Kong family will follow the principal to the treasure island, and eventually they will slowly fade into oblivion and no longer regain the glory of the four major families.

But if Kong Lingjun is allowed to take over his mantle, a new chaebol family may be created.

It might not be a bad thing for the Ye family.

After all, those allies of Ye Luo in the United States are, to put it bluntly, foreigners, and they must have different hearts if they are not of my race!

The little girl Kong Lingjun had been waiting for the teacher's praise. She had no idea that in just a few days, Ye Luo had clearly arranged the rest of her life.

Maybe when she looks back on today in a few years, she will be filled with emotion.

Compared with Ye Luo's interesting days in Qingshi, Zhang Hanqing has been having a rough time recently.

Since the beginning of this spring, Japan has slowly begun to create disputes in the north.

In order to invade northern China, Japan has been conducting espionage activities in the north through various forms.

On June 26, Japanese Army Chief of Staff Captain Nakamura Sentaro and others who were engaged in espionage activities in the north were arrested by the Third Regiment of the Reclamation Army stationed there.

Because the evidence of espionage was conclusive, in accordance with international practice, the regiment leader Guan Yuheng ordered Nakamura and others to be executed.

The Japanese government concealed the truth about Nakamura and others' espionage activities in China and announced their execution by the Chinese army in order to amplify the situation, incite war fever to invade China, and prepare public opinion for the upcoming September 18th Incident.

To put it bluntly, the Japanese invaders are completely untenable and unreasonable.

But they have already figured out the subsequent aggression, so they can confuse right and wrong without any bottom line.

Facing the north, they could even clamor to Zhang Hanqing to severely punish Guan Yuheng and others, and refuse to admit guilt to Nakamura and others' espionage activities.

Facing the country, these military fanatics confused right and wrong, incited public opinion, and took advantage of Hamaguchi's worsening health to attempt to seize power and launch a war.

These Japanese invaders have gone crazy.

However, when it came to diplomatic disputes, even if the North had all the arguments, Zhang Hanqing still had to negotiate and negotiate with them.

Who made the principal's policy not to resist?

Shortly after the Nakamura incident, the even bigger Wanbaoshan incident broke out.

On April 16, 1931, Hao Yongde, manager of the Wanbaoshan Village Rice Field Company, rented 500 acres of wasteland from Xiao Hanlin, Zhang Hongbin and others near Wanbaoshan.

The last stipulation of the lease: "If the county government disapproves, the contract will remain void."

However, without the approval of the county government, Hao Yongde subleased to Koreans Li Shengxun and others. In order to divert water from the Yitong River into their fields, the Koreans dug trenches and built high dams. The land they dug was mature farmland of local farmers and was high-rise. Once the dam is built, a large amount of mature fields will be submerged, so local farmers protest and file a lawsuit with the local authorities.

On June 7, the government sent personnel to mediate the incident, and the Japanese government consul Tashiro Shigenori took the opportunity to escalate the incident and instigated nearly a hundred North Koreans to build the dam. In addition to sending Japanese plainclothes police to mix in, the Japanese consul also sent Japanese military police to "protect."

The county government made representations to the Japanese consul based on the reasons, but the Japanese side ignored it and urged the Koreans to step up construction of the dam and ordered it to be completed on July 5.

On July 1, farmers in Wanbaoshan gathered more than 500 people to fill the trenches.

The next day, the Japanese police opened fire openly, killing dozens of farmers, and then sent more than 40 Japanese police officers to suppress it. They also incited hatred between the Chinese and North Korean ethnic groups, leading to an anti-Chinese tragedy on the peninsula. .

On July 19, Zhong Yu, the special commissioner of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Jinling National Government, negotiated with Shi She, the Japanese consul in Kyrgyzstan, and others. Because the Japanese side made unreasonable demands, the negotiations came to no result.

This incident arose due to a land dispute. The Japanese invaders seriously damaged the interests of farmers and shot and killed dozens of people.

At the end of the month, the Japanese invaders were still conducting open military exercises on the streets of Fengtian, giving Zhang Hanqing a solid disincentive.

This series of shameless acts immediately aroused public outrage.

Newspapers and periodicals from various places published editorials and special issues one after another, introducing the "two cases", condemning the crimes of Japanese imperialism, and expressing solidarity with the suffering overseas compatriots.

Anti-Japanese aid rallies were held spontaneously in many areas.

On July 3, the Shanghai business community held an anti-Japan rally.

On July 22, the Jinling business community held an anti-Japanese rally.

On July 23, a memorial meeting was held in Shanghai to commemorate the deceased compatriots.

On July 30, an anti-Japanese rally was held in Peiping.

In this regard, Ye Luo took the lead and sent ships from Tianjin Port several times to pick up the injured overseas Chinese and return them to China.

Organizations such as diplomatic associations were also established in many regions to engage in anti-Japanese propaganda, calling on people to boycott Japanese goods and urging the Nationalist government to engage in tough diplomacy against Japan.

An anti-Japanese upsurge gradually formed across the country.

For some businessmen, this is a good thing.

They just like Japanese products to be boycotted so that their domestic products can occupy the market in the name of patriotism.

Therefore, the businessman group became the main force in the anti-Japanese movement, but it is not clear whether they really did these things because of the tragic experience of their compatriots.

Zhang Hanqing and the principal don't think this is a good thing.

They were afraid that the anti-Japanese movement would anger Japan and prevent the Kwantung Army from actually invading with force.

The principal sent a telegram to Zhang Hanqing: "The anti-Japanese movement across the country may be exploited by underground organizations. Therefore, the government and the people need to work together to suppress the anti-Japanese movement."

He also stated in his "Message to the People": "The anti-Japanese movement has poisoned the country and only damaged it."

Afterwards, the principal severely banned anti-Japanese activities in Jinling and other places in an attempt to ease relations with the Japanese invaders.

This caused Yu Qiaqing and others who led the charge to suffer a hidden loss.

Although Zhang Hanqing's approach was gentler, his thinking mode was the same, that is, he should not anger the Japanese invaders.

In fact, both of them are not fools. The Japanese invaders have made repeated provocations in the north this year, and Ye Luo warned them before. It is obvious that they really have the idea of ​​​​invading, but Zhang Hanqing and Zhang Hanqing are still engaged in domestic problems and really have no energy to fight.

So I can only tolerate, tolerate, and tolerate again. (End of chapter)