History of Hong Kong Island

Chapter 427 Bank Run Crisis
night.

It was past nine o'clock.

"pair 2"

"Pass!"

Three police officers gathered at the desk during the day and opened it, each with a pile of change in their hands, and two police officers stood aside, smoking cigarettes, watching with relish.As the only recreational activity during the isolation and case handling period, the police officers played cards with great enthusiasm.

The few remaining police officers washed up early and lay in their room watching TV.

"Ah!"

Suddenly, a rock hit the window, causing the police officers to turn around.

"what happened?"

The leading sheriff put down his poker and stood up suspiciously. Immediately afterwards, another stone flew over and smashed the window glass, making a loud shattering sound.The first stone missed the window, as if on cue.

With rich experience in handling cases, he realized that something was wrong. He quietly approached the window and looked downstairs. He saw five or six plainclothes detectives holding flashlights and looking up at the window.

"Call the brothers up quickly."

He immediately turned back and waved.

The three police officers following behind looked at each other, immediately agreed, and hurriedly knocked on the door.In the room, the policemen pulled up their trousers and wanted to fasten their belts. Two Molotov cocktails flew into the window, made an explosion sound, and fell to the ground one after another.

"What the hell are you doing, you're even throwing Molotov cocktails!"

The officers were swearing, and someone rushed out in shorts.

"Open the door!"

"Open the door!"

Everyone slammed on the iron gate of the building without any response.

"Damn ghost, go home and sleep on your own. You don't even send anyone to guard the door. You just want to lock the guys in the room." Xie Faxin has two assistants transferred by the financial secretary, who are usually responsible for monitoring the work of the guys and transporting away materials.

Before, they would guard the gate until more than ten o'clock, but now they will withdraw at eight o'clock.

Without an order from above, the police officers were afraid of taking responsibility and dared not go out at night.

There are also people in the building's security guards who are stationed in the Governor's Mansion. They are usually responsible for monitoring them, but they obviously can't get to the scene now, giving the police officers enough reasons to escape.

"Ah!"

A police officer kicked the iron door to vent his anger, turned around and shouted: "Climb the window!"

"it is good."

The third floor of the building is not very high, and there are many water pipes in the walls, and there are many footholds. The police officers have been trained and the climbing is not difficult.The police officers returned to the window one after another and climbed down along the pipes and walls.

Of course, the night was dark and there was a fire above, so the police officers were inevitably a little nervous.

In addition, the pipeline is slippery and the foothold is small, so the danger is still very high, and accidents will happen if you are not careful.Fortunately, the police officers downstairs were well prepared. When they saw the guys coming out, they made a gesture, and someone ran out of the alley with a wooden ladder and put the ladder up to the guys' second floor.

The guys on the third floor only need to hold the window, step on the ladder, and switch hands to go down the wooden ladder safely.

Ten minutes later, the police officers all came to the ground, and the security guards of the building also reacted and walked out of the stairs one after another.The plainclothes detective took out the glass bottle again and lit it, throwing it at the industrial building. The bottle was filled with diesel fuel, and a raging fire immediately ignited.

"Flash!"

The detectives pulled back and forth, and fled in a hurry.

The next day.

morning.

Governor's Palace.

Bai Liji received Xie Faxin's report document, smashed the document on the table, and said: "Even dare to burn the commissioner's office, is the Hong Kong Island police force a bandit or a soldier?"

Although the Governor's Commissioner does not have a real official office, the office address is the Temporary Office. The office in the burning industrial building just does not take the authority of the Governor's Office into consideration.As the governor, it is impossible for Bai Liji not to be angry, but he had no real intention of going to war with the police force from the beginning to the end. He took a breath and said, "Change another office to continue the investigation and ask the police force if they are injured."

"The most dangerous thing about working on Hong Kong Island is getting involved with the police force. Be careful when doing things."

He glanced at Xie Faxin.

"Yes."

"Sir."

Xie Faxin's expression also became serious. He used to hear people talking about how crazy the police force was in the Financial Secretary. At that time, he only thought it was an exaggeration.

The police department is really the only department on Hong Kong Island that can bring threats and pressure to the top officials of the British government!
at the same time.

Tai Kwun.

Hao Defu took the document and reported the information he investigated last night to the officer word by word, and raised his eyes to see the expression of the officer from time to time.I saw the officer smoking a cigar calmly and calmly.

"The Governor's Mansion appoints a commissioner, selects ten brothers, and locks them in the office to write the information on the Patton case?" He Dingxian asked.

"Yes."

Hao Defu said: "The Governor's Office may want to retry the Patton case."

This signal is dangerous enough.

"impossible!"

However, He Dingxian directly vetoed it: "The Governor's Office has signed the case and rewarded the investigators. Retrialing the Patton case will not benefit the Governor. The only possibility is to expand the Patton case and use the Patton case to investigate other police officials."

"The governor endured it for several years, but finally he couldn't hold back."

Hao Defu was terrified when he heard the words, his first thought was to escape the storm, but his next move was to raise his head and meet He Dingxian's gaze.Because, there are only two directions to expand the Barton case. The first direction is to pursue Barton's bribery list and search in the direction of business.

The second direction is to investigate Patton's corruption network within the police force and reach out to the police force. As the head of the anti-corruption department, Hao Defu did not investigate Patton's corruption network before. It is a fault in itself, and it is extremely easy to be replaced.

The most powerful way is to hug your thighs tightly and seek Sir He's support, and Sir He obviously saw what Hao Defu meant, and said, "Go and say hello to Sir Ge, Sir Kunxian, and Sir Yifu, and let them get ready and clean up their tails."

"As long as the anti-corruption power is in our hands for a day, we will be safe."

Hao Defu stood up and nodded his head: "yes, sir!"

In fact, He Dingxian really wants to keep the anti-corruption power in the hands of the police force, always check himself, and only check the things he wants to investigate, but no matter whether there is an attack by the Governor-General's Office, the legislative power is in the hands of the Governor-General.After all, there are a lot of funds, resources, and procedures to be invested in establishing a disciplined force.

Bai Liji has indeed promoted the economic development of Hong Kong Island, but is the tax collected enough for him to use it?Historically, it was not until the MacLehose period that Hong Kong Island had the funds to establish the Independent Commission Against Corruption.If a disciplinary force is established just to expand a case that has already been concluded, the Colonial Secretary, the Financial Secretary, and the Security Bureau may all have opinions, and the public opinion may not necessarily support it. Wouldn't Bai Liji's political achievements be in vain?

However, He Dingxian suddenly realized that his method of using the anti-corruption chamber to eliminate political opponents should be very convenient, easy to use, and easy to learn in the eyes of Bai Liji, right?No matter what Bai Liji wants in the end, the anti-corruption power will undoubtedly become a sharp sword that the two factions are fighting for.

Two months later, one afternoon.

The president of Wharf Group, Ryan, formally met with hundreds of warehouse owners, and officially announced that Wharf Group refused to accept bank notes from other banks as payment for goods except for checks from "Defeng Bank".No Chinese-funded bank was named during the whole process, but the spearhead was directly aimed at Mingde Bank.

Mingde Bank is just a small bank, which belongs to the nature of a bank. After the war, it started by operating dollar exchanges. Because of the better exchange rate for the wharf cargo owners, it has accumulated a group of very loyal customers for the bank over time.

Since the owners of goods are engaged in maritime trade, they often need to exchange US dollars for transactions, and Mingde Bank gives a lot of interest. Therefore, there are often shippers who deposit the payment for goods in Mingde Bank, allowing Mingde Bank to grow from a scale of hundreds of thousands to more than 1000 million Hong Kong dollars now.

It is somewhat well-known in the Chinese bank industry.

Wren's move not only attracted customers to Wheelock's bank, but also caused customers to go to Mingde to demand payment.

In the past ten years, Mingde Bank has invested heavily in real estate. Although the rate of return is high, the cash flow has already bottomed out. Moreover, the proceeds are distributed to depositors, and the remaining amount is heavily invested in real estate to pursue business expansion.

But without cash flow in hand, no amount of assets is equal to zero.

When the financial turmoil comes, it's all over!

And on the second day after Renn met the shippers, there was news on the pier that Mingde Bank was unable to honor the bank notes held by Wharf.The shippers were wondering why Wharf suddenly refused to accept other checks, and they immediately felt reasonable after hearing the news.

As the saying goes, where there is no wind, there are no waves, and when it comes to financial security, everyone has the mentality of trusting what they have rather than trusting what they have, and rushing to the Mingde Bank to cash it first.

that evening.

Tsim Sha Tsui East.

In the warehouse of Mingde Bank, the big boss "Zhou Weimin" was wearing a white shirt, looking at the table full of checks with despair, and said to the three shareholders: "The more than 300 million Hong Kong dollars in the treasury have bottomed out, and the counter has just sent a check for 200 million Hong Kong dollars."

"The money can't be exchanged before early morning. In the early morning of tomorrow, customers who want to withdraw money will line up at the gate of the bank."

A shareholder said: "Mingde Bank has been in business for more than 30 years, and there has never been such a thing. It must be a British foreign company behind the scenes."

"Even if you go to the Chamber of Commerce to borrow this money, or go to Haojiang to find Gao Kening to borrow usury, you have to take it out. As long as you can survive the first two days and your reputation is guaranteed, the bank will still be saved."

A bank that has been in business for more than 30 years.

It's hard for shareholders to give up.

Zhou Weimin sighed bitterly: "This is not a matter of 200 million Hong Kong dollars. It is rumored all over the world that Mingde Bank has lost money in real estate investment. If you want to stabilize your position, you may have to withdraw more than 800 million in cash."

The three shareholders were stunned, because the valuation of Mingde Bank's assets has indeed shrunk a lot, but the property market has been chasing higher for five or six years, so it is normal for a correction for a year or two, right?The economic development of Hong Kong Island is so good, in fact, the shareholders of the bank think that chasing real estate is right.

Someone just ran against them!

(End of this chapter)