1928: The Rise of Giants

"Crash-"

The audience in front of the radio immediately started to make an noise.

Although Ye Luo has been active in the south for a long time, the Ye Charity Foundation is rooted in the north and has been doing good deeds for three years. The president Ye Qingqing was even made into a golden statue in the temple like a female Bodhisattva.

The people of Tianjin City are even more familiar with Ye Luo. Ye’s Department Store and Ye’s Shipping, both under Ye’s Investment, are rooted here. At least thousands of ordinary people rely on Ye’s Investment for their livelihood.

In the city of Tianjin, when talking about this second young master who was a prominent figure in the Republic of China, everyone would give him a thumbs up and say hello.

"This time it's really worth it. The Second Young Master is the special guest. This radio is worth buying!"

"Hehe, I heard that the second young master came here this time to discipline the arrogant Belgians. The tram fare has increased? I have been taking free taxis these days. I am rich for once."

"I have to say, this taxi is very comfortable to ride in. The seat at the back is as soft as a woman's nipples, and it's not bumpy at all. Oh, it would be great if it were always free."

"Always free? Then you help the Second Young Master to break even and make money? He is doing business, not opening a relief hall!"

"."

People in the streets and alleys, inside and outside the houses, were talking about the conflict between Ye Luo and the Belgians.

I just heard his voice on the radio again.

"Since the beginning of this year, Tianjin's tram fares have increased three times. This price increase is completely unreasonable. The current fare is 12% higher than that of Beijing's trams. This means that for every dollar spent, the people of Tianjin pay cents and cents more than the people of Beijing. Over time, this adds up to a loss of more than or dollars a year. For ordinary company employees, this is equivalent to a month's salary going down the drain."

You won't know until you do the math. Once you do the math, you'll be shocked. The people who will feel the most impact from the tram fare increase are office workers and students.

"Second Young Master, I heard that the tram company had to raise ticket prices because it has been operating at a loss for many years. Do you think this is true?" the female anchor asked sweetly.

Ye Luo immediately smiled and said, "It's impossible to lose money. Tianjin Tramway Company was established in 1904, officially started operations in 06, and recovered the principal in 1912. Now 20 years have passed. If it keeps losing money, do you think the tram company can continue to operate?"

"In fact, as far as I know, the Tianjin Electric Vehicle Company's annual profit exceeds 400 million yuan, and the average monthly profit exceeds 30 yuan. With this level of profit, it is almost catching up with Ye's Automobile, which is headquartered in Shanghai."

"Then what is the reason for them to raise the price? With such high profits, aren't they satisfied?" The female anchor's voice is sweet and pleasant, and her innocent voice is very suitable for asking this kind of question.

Ye Luo, who was sitting in the studio, gave her a thumbs up.

When the female anchor saw the second young master praising her in person, her cheeks suddenly turned red.

Ye Luo continued to smile and said, "What else can we do? Of course, our expenses are not enough to cover our income. Seeing that the company's finances can't even balance the accounts, we naturally have to raise prices to make up for the shortfall."

"Not making enough to cover expenses? But you just said they make over four million dollars a year."

"Haha, we businessmen are not saints. We always have some social activities. Of course, the Belgians have the embassy and consulate general behind them, and they are also the French's younger brothers. They don't have to worry about money. It should be others who send money to them. I am also very curious why the tram company is still losing money year after year despite such high profits, so I sent someone to check it out."

When the female anchor heard Ye Luo's words, her heart began to beat fast.

Only the second young master dared to directly say that the Belgians are the French's younger brothers. Although this is a recognized fact, it is the Belgians' Achilles' heel and whoever says it will die.

After a few seconds of silence, she immediately asked back, "Then may I ask what results you have found?"

"The investigation revealed some interesting things. Everyone knows that copper coins are required to buy tram tickets, so the tram company is the largest copper coin exchanger and circulator in Tianjin. It is no exaggeration to say that their company holds at least 25% of the copper coin inventory in Tianjin." "Due to the large amount of copper coins hoarded, they have been selling these copper coins to Japanese companies at high prices since the year before last, and then smuggled them to Japan to make arms. Guess where these arms are now?"

This secret is not a big secret among the top leaders, but ordinary people have never heard of it.

Zhou Longguang also knew that the Belgians and the Japanese were collaborating to resell copper coins, but both the Nanjing Nationalist Government and the Northern Government turned a blind eye to it, believing that such a matter should not cause international disputes.

But no matter what, it is a shameful thing that damages the country's sovereignty and humiliates the country, so the authorities do not allow the public to discuss or spread this matter.

The north has been conquered by the Japanese invaders. Not long ago, in the Battle of Shanghai, thousands of soldiers died trying to stop the Japanese invaders. Driven by family feuds and national hatred, the people's anti-Japanese sentiment is high, and calls for a boycott of Japanese goods can be heard everywhere.

When Ye Luo spoke about this at this time, it immediately ignited the emotions of the people!

The people listening to the radio were furious. They had originally decided to continue taking the tram after taxi fares returned to normal, but now they were not happy about it.

"Every copper coin you pay may become a bullet that hits our soldiers."

This sentence is so powerful.

Lu Beiya, who was also waiting by the radio, was stunned when she heard this.

Is this Chinese businessman crazy?
Doesn't he know that provoking relations between foreigners and Chinese now may easily lead to international disputes?
France is undoubtedly a top power. Isn't he afraid that the Concession Court will call him for trial?

This evening's broadcast is over.

The tram fare increase in Tianjin City is no longer a simple issue of conflict of interest, but has been elevated to the level of saving the country's survival.

The Chinese patrolmen who had previously been arresting troublemakers in the concession no longer dared to move, and the police officers in the city also stayed indoors, fearing that helping the foreigners would incur public anger.

Lu Beiya and Wang Zhulin thought that by stopping the operation of the tram and then raising funds to help the company tide over the difficulties, Ye Luo would give up.

Unexpectedly, the money-burning war has just begun.

Throughout May, the city of Tianjin was filled with a passionate atmosphere of "Down with the tram company, down with the traitors". Some people even began to take taxis and pay for them instead of enjoying the free service in order to support Ye Luo's behavior.

500 new vehicles entered the city and thousands of rickshaws were put in place to fill the vacant market left by the trams.

When they heard that the Tianjin General Chamber of Commerce headed by Wang Zhulin actually openly supported the tram company and foreigners, the Chinese businessmen in the "Federation of Trade Unions" could no longer sit still and began to strike and close their businesses to fight back against these traitors.

Wang Zhulin originally thought that 1 yuan per person was not enough, because their own company's business was also affected and stagnated. Now the cost per person per month is at least 5 yuan!
As soon as May ended, several compradors could no longer bear this kind of play and found Wang Zhulin, asking to withdraw from the matter.

Their original psychological price was around 5, which was exhausted in a month. How could they dare to continue playing with Ye Luo?

Once these people left, the remaining people felt even more stressed.

As for Ye Luo, not only did he not intend to stop, but he increased his spending. His style of play, where you retreat and I advance, you run and I chase, is simply a life-and-death game.

In early June, Ye Luo received the financial report from Chen Youde. Ye’s Automobile lost about 107 million yuan in May, which was not a big loss.

"Keep playing with them. I wonder how long they can hold out." Ye Luo was not in a hurry at all. He took advantage of this time to go shopping around. He went to Beijing to visit Lin Huiyin who had just given birth and adopted a godson. (End of this chapter)