1928: The rise of giant merchants

After the news of Meng Xiaodong's pregnancy spread, Li Shuzhen, the mother-in-law, started to get busy again. Now there were two pregnant women in the family, and she couldn't take care of them, so she asked the second concubine Li Shuting and the fourth concubine Bi Yunxia to help.

Even though the Ye Mansion had been expanded many times and was already the largest villa building in the International Settlement, it still couldn't meet the needs of the Ye family.

Ye Luo considered it again and again, and finally chose the location of the Shili Foreign Land, which was later called Jinling Road. He spent 3 million yuan to take all the land and buildings in that area, and then asked the engineering team of Ye's Construction to build a villa community on this basis for the Ye family to live in.

Many merchants on this road were foreign companies, but when they heard that the buyer was Ye Luo, these foreigners immediately moved away, fearing that if they walked too slowly, the people from Ye's investment would come to "negotiate".

As Sino-Japanese relations deteriorated, the Chinese in Shanghai became more and more disgusted with foreigners, and Shanghai was the base camp of Ye's investment, with nearly 50,000 employees, and one person's spit could drown foreigners.

Therefore, even in the two concessions, no foreigner dared to stop Ye Luo from doing anything.

After finalizing the construction plan, Ye Luo transferred Zhang Yuanbei, who was wandering in the north, back to make Zhang Mouzhi feel more at ease.

Song Ziwen, the father-in-law, is now following Ye Luo and has made enough money. He doesn't want his children to get killed by messing around. Among his children, the youngest son Zhang Yuanbei and the youngest daughter Zhang Anyi are closest to the Ye family. He had to repeatedly ask Ye Luo to tell these two restless guys not to get involved in any underground organization.

Another piece of land that Ye Luo has his eyes on is the Hongkou Dojo in the Japanese Concession, which was once crowded with people!

The section of Hongkou that crossed the border to build a road was actually the site of the Public Concession Municipal Council. After the Battle of Songhu, they planned to return this section of land to the Nanjing National Government, but the Japanese in the Japanese Concession disagreed.

They even sent troops to station there, looking shameless.

If the Japanese army had stayed there, Ye Luo would have had a hard time confronting them.

But now the Japanese invaders were about to withdraw, and if the army stayed there, they would have a conflict with the foreigners' Municipal Council, so they would inevitably leave.

After enjoying a few days of family happiness at home, Ye Luo called Cao Fan to be the driver, and dozens of cars led the way, swaggering to the Hongkou Dojo section.

On May 31 this year, the Japanese army, except for the 2,500 marines and military police, had all evacuated Shanghai in batches.

The Jinling National Government transferred 1,000 people from the Peking Security Team to Shanghai under the command of Swiss coaches to maintain public order, and sent the 2nd Battalion of the Elite Infantry of the Second Army of the National Army to Longhua, where the Songhu Garrison Command was located.

On June 17, the Japanese marines in the areas around the Hongkou area where the road was built across the border, east of the Songhu Railway, west of Shajing Port, and north of the International Settlement, all withdrew to the area where the road was built across the border.

So far, except for the police power in the D District (Zhabei Japanese Cemetery) where the Japanese troops were allowed to temporarily stay as allowed by the Armistice Agreement, all Japanese troops have withdrawn from Shanghai and completely restored the administrative district and police power of the City Hall.

Along the way, Ye Luo could already see the police officers of the Songhu Police Department maintaining public order and arranging the people to return to their homes occupied by the Japanese invaders in an orderly manner. Occasionally, he could see the Japanese army passing by in groups of two or three. The two sides were on edge, but no conflict occurred.

When the convoy arrived at the cross-border road construction section in Hongkou, a large number of Japanese army troops were slowly evacuating, with tricycles and motorcycles in the front row and neat army soldiers in the back.

These Japanese invaders had a lot of blood of the National Army on their hands. At this time, they were dejected, a little unhappy, and helpless.

Their original intention was to station here, and then slowly erode the surrounding areas and expand the Japanese concession, but that assassination disrupted all their plans.

When the Japanese army and the Ye family convoy met, both sides became alert, fearing that the other side would suddenly attack.

The Japanese knew that the Ye family convoy was not an ordinary team. Their cars were equipped with heavy firepower weapons, and many of the drivers were former soldiers with extraordinary combat power.

During the Battle of Shanghai, the tax police corps led by Wen Yingxing posed a major threat to the Japanese invaders. After becoming famous in one battle, the Japanese army inquired from many sources and learned that this was a tiger and wolf division that was secretly trained in Jiacheng for one or two years with the investment and funding of Ye family.

Therefore, every time they see the trademark of Ye family investment, they will be nervous, even more cautious than seeing the national army.

The former Japanese Consul General Shichitaro Yada had his leg blown off in the assassination incident and was sent to China for treatment after being seriously injured. The new Consul General who was sent a few days ago had just arrived in Shanghai when he was splashed with manure at the door.

These were naturally the work of the Anti-Japanese Traitor-Extermination Corps.

Ye Luo looked at the slowly departing Japanese flag, and his heart was filled with emotion.

In the near future, they will come back, and Shanghai will completely become an isolated island during the Anti-Japanese War, always occupied by the Japanese invaders.

The relationship between Ye's Investment and the Japanese invaders is already like fire and water. After the full-scale war of resistance broke out in 1937, the Japanese invaders successfully occupied Shanghai, which would inevitably force Ye Luo to make a choice.

Surrender or die.

Ye Luo had already made all the plans for this. In order to prevent being discovered by someone with ulterior motives, he deliberately postponed the implementation of the plan until this year, and then gradually began to act.

5 years is enough for him to make full preparations.

And the first step of all this is to buy the Hongkou area of ​​the Japanese concession first, and then kill all Japanese merchants and Japanese goods!

In these five years, we must completely eliminate any unfavorable factors that the Japanese invaders may leave in Shanghai, and do our best to suppress them. We cannot let them enter Shanghai in five years and develop the economy and business naturally.

"Second Master, I heard that the Japanese are holding on to the Hongkou Dojo. We have offered 5 million yuan, but they still refuse to sell it. Don't they really need money?"

Cao Fan asked in a low voice.

Ye Luo smiled: "How could he not be short of money? When the new Japanese Consul General came, the first thing he did was to collect benefits and fill his pockets. Don't think that Shichitaro Yada left in disgrace, he took away a lot of money.

I asked people from Citibank and HSBC, and the funds he transferred to the Japanese account amounted to more than 2 million yuan, and other treasures such as gold and silver, as well as antiques and calligraphy and paintings, were countless. In just these few years, he has made at least 5 million in Shanghai."

"Hiss" Cao Fan took a breath, "The fucking Japanese are really good at making money!"

Now his monthly salary is 280 yuan, including the benefits given by the company and other messy extra income, he can't earn 5,000 yuan a year, which is already the top income of the middle class in Shanghai.

5 million, he would have to earn it for 1,000 years without eating or drinking!

"They don't sell it because there are things in the Hongkou Dojo that they haven't transferred yet." Ye Luo sneered.

The reason why the Hongkou Dojo could still exist after being destroyed by the Jingwu Athletic Association was because it was a spy organization of the Japanese invaders.

Now the spies have not evacuated yet, and many confidential documents are probably still inside. How dare they sell them to Ye Luo?

Of course, if they don't sell them, Ye Luo has a way to get them.

Compared with these plots of land, he cares more about those confidential documents.

"What should we do?" Cao Fan asked.

Ye Luo smiled faintly: "When you were a pirate before, didn't you know all these things? When Heng San comes back, I will leave this matter to you." (End of this chapter)