1928: The rise of giant merchants

January 21.

In order to escalate the incident, the Japanese Army Headquarters sent Murai Kuramatsu, the commander of the Japanese Army Command in China, to Shanghai to urge Shichitaro Yata to continue to put pressure on the City Hall.

At 9 o'clock in the morning of that day, Shichitaro Yata came to the City Hall with a group of people and broke into Wu Tiecheng's office directly, asking him to promise to arrest the murderer who burned the Sanyou Industrial Society. At the same time, he put forward four unreasonable and tough demands:

1. The senior officials of the City Hall represented by Wu Tiecheng should publicly apologize for the Japanese monk incident.

2. Arrest and punish the Chinese workers who committed the crime.

3. Make economic compensation to the victims.

4. Abolish and disband all anti-Japanese organizations and groups in Shanghai, headed by the Anti-Japanese National Salvation Association.

That afternoon, Yukiichi Shiozawa, commander of the 1st Japanese Expeditionary Fleet in Shanghai, issued a threatening statement, claiming that if Wu Tiecheng did not give a satisfactory response to the four demands made by the Consulate General, the Japanese Navy would take "appropriate action".

After issuing a foreign intimidation and threat statement, the Japanese Navy deployed troops and sent additional warships to the waters outside Shanghai on the pretext of protecting overseas Chinese.

At 4 pm, the cruiser "Oi" and the 15th destroyer squadron sent from Wu Port in Japan, carrying more than 450 people from the 1st Special Marine Corps and a large amount of arms, arrived directly at Shiliupu Wharf.

At 5 pm, the "Notoro" special service ship (aircraft carrier, 14,000 tons, 6 aircraft) anchored in Port Arthur also arrived outside Shiliupu Wharf.

The Japanese military also held an internal meeting and unanimously agreed that "if the Chinese side does not show sincerity and does not implement Japan's requirements, it will be determined to implement the requirements with strength and agree on specific measures in case of an emergency."

With the tacit approval of the Japanese Navy Minister, a large number of fleets and troops gradually approached Shanghai.

At this point, the Japanese army had assembled 24 warships, more than 40 aircraft, more than 1,830 marines and 3,000 to 4,000 armed Japanese in Shanghai, distributed in the Japanese concession and the Huangpu River.

If the Japanese invaders dared to send troops to invade our territory so blatantly 49 years later, our army would have beaten them to a pulp.

However, now, facing the aggressive Japanese military, Sun Ke, Wang and other Kuomintang veterans of the Nanjing National Government are still fighting openly and secretly, and only ordered Wu Tiecheng to meet the Japanese demands as much as possible, and not to escalate the incident and ignite a war!

Wang's own army is to be used to compete with the principal and Zhang Hanqing, so how could he be willing to resist the Japanese attack?

All kinds of bad news were transmitted to Ye Mansion through telegrams and telephones.

The principal's wife, who was still on a leisurely vacation in her hometown of Xikou, even secretly called her sworn brother Ye Luo and advised him to move his family to Nanjing City for refuge.

Shanghai is now controlled by Wu Tiecheng, who has no power or say.

Anyone with a discerning eye can see through Wang's thoughts.

The principal's wife feels sorry for her adopted brother and doesn't want him to get into trouble in the war.

At this moment, if you take the whole family to Nanjing, it would be better to take a ship to the United States directly!

Ye Luo thanked her for her kindness and asked for the contact information of the three generals of the 19th Route Army of the Guangdong Army, Chen Mingshu, Jiang Guangnai, and Cai Tingkai, and prepared to take the initiative to find them.

On the morning of January 24.

Ye Luo finished the breakfast prepared by his stepmother early in the morning. Without waking up Bai Xiuzhu and Xiao Aqiao who were still asleep, he went out in the morning.

In recent days, the Japanese invaders have become more and more arrogant in Shanghai. Even the foreigners in the International Settlement and the French Concession have smelled something wrong and have taken refuge in the Consulate General or the Municipal Council and the Municipal Council.

Rosemary of Sassoon \u0026 Co. has also been running around in the suburbs and concessions these days, urging some companies of Sassoon \u0026 Co. to move out of the concessions. She also followed Ye Luo's example and stopped caring about the currency exchange system that fluctuates in the black market.

Ye Luo understood this time.

The newly confirmed heir of the Sassoon family holds a simple and crude idea - if I can't beat you, I will join you.

Now she follows whatever Ye Luo does, following his footsteps like a brainless fangirl.

In fact, many people secretly did things with Ye Luo in the early days, and even became his allies for a period of time.

But most of what Ye Luo did was shocking, a bit anti-logical and anti-status quo. After those people got a few waves of money, they began to distrust his judgment and jumped out to run their own businesses.

The result is obvious. Those who stand on the opposite side of Ye Luo, the lucky ones have their families destroyed, but they have saved their lives, and the unlucky ones are like Lu Yusheng.

The grass on the grave is probably several meters high.

Ignoring the foreign girl, Ye Luo asked Cao Fan to drive. This time, he simply took all his confidants and went straight to the garrison headquarters adjacent to the county town and the concession.

After the Fengtian Incident, the principal negotiated with the Guangdong side. During the Ning-Guangdong negotiations, the Guangdong faction proposed that Chen Mingshu, a Guangdong officer, be the chief of the Beijing-Shanghai garrison. The principal, who was about to step down, had no choice but to agree to the telegram. The 19th Route Army under Chen Mingshu was transferred from Ganzhou to the Beijing-Shanghai area, and all were deployed along the Beijing-Shanghai line in November.

After that, Jiang Guangnai of the 19th Route Army was appointed as the commander-in-chief, Cai Tingkai was appointed as the army commander, and Dai Ji of the principal's faction continued to serve as the commander of the Songhu Garrison Command.

So far, the defense line of Shanghai has been defended by the 19th Route Army.

Chen Mingshu and others are the backbone of the Guangdong faction, and naturally have a general relationship with the local faction on Ye Luo's side.

But these three people were unswerving anti-Japanese factions during the battle, and they were brave soldiers, unlike Wang and his people who were only interested in profit.

Ye Luo rushed to the security headquarters. Because the call had been made in advance, Dai Ji was already waiting at the door.

"Second Young Master, long time no see, how are you?" Dai Ji didn't like Ye Luo at first after being transferred to Shanghai, but after several years of socializing, he admired Ye Luo more and more as a patriotic industrialist.

If Wen Yingxing hadn't gone to the Tax Police Corps first, he would have wanted to go there to help Ye Luo.

The situation was urgent this time, and he couldn't persuade the three people from the Guangdong faction, so he had to ask Ye Luo for help.

"Commander Dai, long time no see, how are things going?" Ye Luo followed him inside, and saw rigorously trained soldiers everywhere, which made him feel relieved.

"I can't persuade him!" Dai Ji sighed, "Chen Mingshu is okay, he is very determined, but the other two are not. Jinling sent a message this morning, asking us to avoid the war, and they dare not disobey the order."

"Avoid the war? If we continue to avoid the war, will we be happy to make trouble like Fengtian? Stupid!"

Ye Luo was furious, and followed him into the command center while cursing.

In the command center, Chen Mingshu and the other two were still arguing about whether to avoid the war. When they heard the sound of the door being pushed open, they all looked over.

"Is this the famous Second Young Master?" Chen Mingshu's face lit up.

Although the Guangdong and Ning factions don't get along, no one would reject the God of Wealth.

"I don't deserve it." Ye Luo shook hands with him and said straight to the point, "Three of you, I came here this time to advise you not to avoid the war, and to fight the Japanese invaders to the end!" (End of this chapter)