A century-old wealthy family that rose from Shanghai

Chapter 155: Enmity

Chen Guangliang has once again become a celebrity in the Shanghai Stock Exchange, this time not because of his money-making business activities, but because of a poem he wrote.

A generation.

The night gave me black eyes,

I use it to find light.

This poem gave intellectuals across the country an inexplicable sense of encouragement, and their favorability towards Oriental Daily increased greatly, and they bought the newspaper to read.

Lu Xun: "What a genius! Not just a business genius, but an all-round genius. He could develop a product like the three-wheeled rickshaw that benefits the people, and he could also write such a beautiful poem."

Xu Zhimo: "He must have hired someone to write it. How could such a vulgar businessman write such a good poem?"

Zhang Qihua: "I knew he had great literary talent, at least better than me!"

Chen Guangliang himself did not expect that he just wanted to attract attention, but the effect was so good.

Not only did it make the Oriental Daily News favored by some intellectuals, it also made him a knowledgeable businessman.

Chinese and Western Girls' High School.

Yan Renmei picked up a copy of the Oriental Daily and started reading it. She had bought it herself.

Ever since her father told her about that incident last time, although he didn't force her, she was also preparing for the worst, which was to learn more about Chen Guangliang.

The only way to find out is to buy a copy of Oriental Daily and ask about things intentionally or unintentionally.

By now, she knew Chen Guangliang was a formidable businessman, known as a "business prodigy." His businesses spanned car rentals, real estate, newspapers, and manufacturing, creating miracles in nearly every field. More crucially, Chen Guangliang came from a poor background.

"Does he really value knowledge?"

With such doubts, Yan Renmei felt it necessary to take it seriously.

Because Chen Guangliang's first demonstration of English seemed quite high, unlike someone who had only attended a private school for a few years. He also said he would allow himself to continue studying, which showed that he valued knowledge.

"Bah, why should he care about me? I don't want to get married so early!"

It is simply a foolish dream to win a girl's heart just by meeting her once.

If Yan Renmei could make her own decision at this time, she would definitely reject Chen Guangliang's proposal decisively.

"Hey, this poem is pretty good. The publisher is actually called Chen Guangliang. Could it be him? No way, how could a businessman like him publish a poem?"

"Renmei, you are actually reading a newspaper?" Kong Lingyi suddenly attacked from behind and said with a smile.

Kong Lingyi is the daughter of the Ministry of Finance and Yan Renmei's classmate and best friend. She did not participate in the spring outing last time because her father did not allow it.

In fact, she is Yan Renmei's best friend, and Yan Renmei often goes to Kong's house to play.

"Hey, it's the Oriental Daily again, the newspaper of Chen Guangliang, the guy who pursued you last time?" Kong Lingyi continued to tease.

Although she didn't go last time, everyone told her what happened on the way.

There are many beauties among Chinese and Western women, and the most famous ones now are the "Eight Beauties", namely Yan Renmei, Kong Lingyi, Zhang Hanfen, daughter of Zhang Shouyong, then Deputy Minister of Finance, Huang Huibao, daughter of Shanghai industrial tycoon Huang Chujiu, Tang Minzhen, the jewel in the crown of the Chinese ambassador to France, Lin Ying, the daughter of the wealthy Lin family in Fujian, Shen Youfen, granddaughter of the Xi family in Dongting, Suzhou, and Shen Yan, the daughter of Shen Kunshan of the British American Tobacco Company. They all come from wealthy families.

Yan Renmei blushed and said, "What? I just chatted with her for a few minutes, and you guys spread it all over the place!"

"Haha, you're blushing!"

"Look at me tickling you"

One day in mid-June, the American 'Feishon Dun' was transferred to the position of President of the Municipal Council (the highest administrative head of the Municipal Council). To celebrate this occasion, the Municipal Council held a grand banquet and invited celebrities and important taxpayers from the public concession to attend. Chen Guangliang was also among the invited guests.

The Municipal Council was the highest administrative unit in the International Settlement and had a nine-member 'Board of Directors'.

There were people from various countries serving as "directors". Yu Qiaqing and Bei Zuyi were the Chinese directors of the Municipal Council, which was the highest position that Chinese could achieve in the International Settlement.

When Chen Guangliang arrived at the banquet, he immediately attracted a lot of people's attention. Who is this young man?
Yu Qiaqing was still very considerate and introduced Chen Guangliang. Everyone then suddenly realized that he was the upstart Shanghai man who had built and sold hundreds of buildings a year and had just bought the Dahua Hotel at a sky-high price of 238 million oceans.

Bei Zuyi, the Shanghai branch manager of the Bank of China and one of the first supervisors, said, "It's incredible! You're now a major taxpayer for the Municipal Council!"

Chen Guangliang responded modestly: "Not really, just a small household!"

In April of this year, the Chinese Taxpayers Association of the Municipal Council held its 4th Congress. Yu Qiaqing was elected as the second Chinese director of the Municipal Council as a major taxpayer.

In other words, if you work in the Municipal Council, the amount of tax you pay is a symbol of status.

Chen Guangliang is certainly not a big taxpayer, but the Municipal Council now attaches great importance to the consequences of "tiered sales" - tax revenue will increase significantly!

Yu Qiaqing said, "You'll soon be promoted to a major taxpayer. Come, let me introduce you to the main officials of the Municipal Council!"

After a while, Chen Guangliang met several directors of the Municipal Council, including Americans, British, and Japanese. It could be called an "International Chamber of Commerce."

Everyone was still quite surprised at Chen Guangliang. After all, a young man who started from scratch was able to purchase the Dahua Hotel for 238 million taels, which was enough to make people look up to him.

Fei Xindun said, "Mr. Chen's suggestion of stratified sales will greatly promote real estate investment and will also be beneficial to our Municipal Council's tax revenue."

This is a very simple truth!
Layered sales will allow more real estate developers to invest in real estate, which will increase construction funds and require taxation; at the same time, layered sales mean the transfer of property deeds, which will require even more taxation.

Therefore, Chen Guangliang made a significant contribution to the tax payment of the Municipal Council.

Chen Guangliang responded: "Of course more people will live and work in peace and contentment, right?"

Everyone laughed. It was the same thing, but everyone had different perspectives.

In fact, Chen Guangliang should have said: "I can also make more money"

It's a 'win-win-win' situation!
Only a hint of worry flashed across Yu Qiaqing's expression.

It turns out that as the largest "landlord" in Shanghai, he is very worried about who will rent their houses after everyone has one.
After chatting for a few words, Chen Guangliang tactfully left the "big boss group" and wandered around the party casually.

In a few years, should I strive for the position of 'Director of the Municipal Council'?

You have to remember that at this point, Du Yuesheng wasn't even a director of the French Concession Municipal Council yet; he was supposed to take up the position next month. This position was arguably Du Yuesheng's biggest goal.

"Mr. Chen, I'm Guo Linshuang from Yong'an Company!" A man in his thirties walked over and said in an unfriendly tone.

It turned out to be you, you idiot! Chen Guangliang thought so. Isn’t this person just a fool who didn’t know how to run away, the innocent ghost of the Yongan Guo family?
"Hello, Mr. Guo"

Guo Linshuang had no idea that Chen Guangliang was plotting against him, so he spoke in a rather condescending tone, "Mr. Chen, I heard that you are a consultant for Jincheng Shopping Center?"

Everyone in the industry knows that while Chen Guangliang is a consultant for the Golden City Shopping Center, he's probably more of a key initiator. After all, Chen Guangliang has always been known for his innovations in the real estate industry, and the Golden City Shopping Center is precisely that innovative initiative.

Jincheng Shopping Center started construction in March this year and was reported with great fanfare, with a lot of talk about long-term planning and bright prospects in order to attract people's attention.

Chen Guangliang said calmly: "Yes, I am."

Guo Linshuang then said, "I think Jincheng Shopping Center is a very bad idea. Do you have experience in department store retail? No. How can you be successful?"

At this time, many Chinese people had gathered around to watch the fun.

Chen Guangliang didn't expect that Guo Linshuang was so condescending. He seemed really overbearing. After all, for his own benefit, he could even drive a gangster like Gu Zhuxuan out of his territory.

Gu Zhuxuan's original "Tianchan Stage" was located next to Wing On Department Store, and that piece of land was extremely important to Wing On Department Store.

The land currently occupied by Wing On Department Store is leased from Hartung, and the contract is expected to expire in the mid-1940s. Upon expiration of the contract, the building on the land will be returned directly to Hartung, along with the land.

There is no doubt that by then, the descendant of Sassoon, "Little Sassoon", will ask for a high price, after all, he is easy to control.

Therefore, at this time, the Yongan family had already made preparations in advance, forcibly expropriating Gu Zhuxuan's land, and then building a annex of the "Yongan Department Store".

In this way, after the contract expires, Xiao Ha Tong will have to take the existence of this annex building into consideration so that Yong'an Department Store will not be completely left with no way out.

Chen Guangliang laughed and said, "If it doesn't work, why is Mr. Guo so nervous?"

Even though Guo Linshuang was so domineering, Chen Guangliang still greeted him with a smile. It was not because he was timid.

Because Chen Guangliang has always believed in one thing: use courage for business, not for people.

If it would help him make money, he would even go alone to shoot up Gu Zhuxuan's mansion to create chaos and give himself a chance to grow.

So when faced with Guo Linshuang's verbal provocation, Chen Guangliang remained calm, because it did not affect his ability to make money, and naturally no direct conflict would break out.

Guo Linshuang smiled and said, "I'm just stating a fact, nothing else. Let's wait and see!"

Then, turn around and leave!

The people around were thinking, the design and planning of Jincheng Bank's 'Jincheng Shopping Center' is to create a 'shopping center' and it is widely publicized.

This naturally affected the cakes of Guangdong Province's Wing On Department Store, Sincere Department Store, and Xinxin Department Store. Guo Linshuang guessed that the person who made this suggestion might be Chen Guangliang, so he naturally came over to clean up the mess.

In fact, Chen Guangliang is not very reliable either.

The Jincheng Shopping Center was expected to open in the summer of 1931, just before September 9.18th.

届时，1~4层是购物中心，5~6层是写字楼，7~8层是酒店式公寓。

When it comes to attracting investment, we must be very selective and not allow low-end brands and companies to take over, as this is not conducive to long-term development.

It was precisely at this point that Chen Guangliang became somewhat worried. The reason why Wing On, Sincere and Sun Hung Kai Properties could dominate the "department store industry" in Shanghai was largely due to their experience as "overseas Chinese" from Guangdong Province, where they knew many suppliers.

This is an advantage that others do not have.

Of course, the characteristic of "Jincheng Shopping Center" is that it uses a "new business model" to attract those who have channels to open stores here, which is equivalent to "accepting all rivers" to make up for its own shortcomings.

One last point, even if he fails, it doesn’t matter to Chen Guangliang’s interests, so he doesn’t care!
The next day happened to be the meeting date agreed upon by Chen Guangliang and Cheng Zikang.

Cheng Zikang is now in high spirits. The land he invested millions of dollars in has more than doubled in value, earning the company millions in book profits.

As for how Cheng Zikang plans to arrange these lands - either sell them at a high price or build houses for rent, Chen Guangliang has never interfered. After all, he is a big bank and has his own plans!

On the other hand, Cheng Zikang also focused his energy on the "Jincheng Shopping Center", after all, this is a big project.

According to their expectations, this project can bring Jincheng Bank an annual rent of 35 yuan. After deducting the land commission of 18 yuan, plus rental taxes and expenses, the profit is conservatively 12 yuan per year.

The total investment of 45 yuan in construction costs, plus two years of rent (one year's rent can be offset by the transfer fee), the annual interest rate is as high as 15~20%, which is quite cost-effective for the bank.

"In terms of overall layout, we should still refer to Wing On and Sincerely, and not rashly rent out low-end, useless businesses, which will lower the grade of the entire shopping center. In addition, the fourth floor should not only have a restaurant, but also a children's playground. Sometimes customers who go shopping can even leave their children in the playground." Chen Guangliang explained the key points of the shopping center.

Cheng Zikang nodded and said, "That makes sense. Although it's called a shopping mall, it's actually because we don't understand department stores that we embrace everything. But we need to keep a close eye on the overall situation."

In this respect, Cheng Zikang is still very smart and studious.

The two chatted a lot, and Cheng Zikang became more and more proficient in the mysteries of the "shopping mall". Of course, shopping malls in this era still have great limitations, but they can be considered to have taken shape.

During this period, Cheng Zikang said something that caught Chen Guangliang's attention.

"This Wing On Department Store is truly overbearing. They not only run a department store business, but also engage in manufacturing, such as textiles, and even extend their reach into the banking sector, absorbing deposits from outsiders."

It was originally an exclamation of admiration, admiring the strength of Yong'an.

And it is also a fact that Yong'an's textile industry is quite large, with assets worth tens of millions.

However, Chen Guangliang grasped a point and asked, "Absorbing deposits from outside, then why haven't I seen many Yong'an Bank branches in Shanghai?"

Cheng Zikang laughed and said, "You don't know that now banks can accept deposits, and money houses can also accept deposits. Yong'an Bank may not have obtained a banking license from the Nanjing government, so it is not illegal to accept deposits."

"Really, you don't have a banking license?"

"probably!"

Chen Guangliang asked again: "Where do I apply for a banking license?"

Cheng Zikang was stunned, thinking that Chen Guangliang wanted to open a bank, but he still said, "Boss Chen from the Nanjing Finance Department, you don't want to open a bank too, do you?"

Chen Guangliang laughed and said, "I have such good relationships with all the banks, why would I open my own bank?"

This is the truth. He has no obsession with opening a bank. Moreover, even if he opens a bank, it will be swallowed up and controlled by the Nanjing government in the future. Why should he do something for others?

Instead, he wanted to try opening a money shop so that he could speculate on "standard gold". Of course, his future father-in-law ran a money shop, so maybe it wouldn't be so troublesome.

(End of this chapter)