A century-old wealthy family that rose from Shanghai

Chapter 229 Making Big Money
On September 9, the Kwantung Army quickly occupied important towns along the South Manchuria-Anfeng Railway, including Yingkou, Tianzhuangtai, Gaiping (now Gaizhou), Fuxian (now Wafangdian), Dashiqiao, Haicheng, Liaoyang, Anshan, Tieling, Kaiyuan, Changtu, Siping, Gongzhuling, Andong, Fengcheng, and Benxi.

The next day, the news reached Shanghai, causing an uproar in public opinion and sparking anger throughout Shanghai and even throughout China.

The public opinion for boycotting Japanese goods was unprecedented.

Anyone who dares to sell Japanese goods will be condemned and cursed by thousands of people (later two people were actually caught, fined 10,000 yuan, and put on display with a sign).

On the other hand, after the September 918th Incident, not only was the Jianghuai flood-stricken area's access to food from the Northeast cut off, but the entire society also focused its attention on the Northeast. The amount of donations received by disaster relief organizations dropped sharply, and few people donated money.

In the past, Shanghai could receive more than 10 yuan in donations every day; after the September 918th Incident, it could only receive a few thousand yuan every day.

Not only that, the Nanjing government issued 8000 million in bonds, but only sold 1000 million, and no one was interested anymore;

Originally, the Nanjing government wanted to allow the public to freely transport grain from the Northeast for disaster relief without paying transportation fees or customs duties, but this plan was also scrapped.

Many disaster relief plans were interrupted as a result, and the victims received little help and had to leave it to fate.

The key issue is that the Northeast Army received an order not to resist, which is the biggest joke in history.

"Brother Liang, why aren't you angry when you see this kind of news?"

Yan Renmei was very angry after reading the news; but then she saw Chen Guangliang's expression and asked out of curiosity.

But she knew that her husband hated Japan very much and was also a businessman who cared about the country and the people.

Chen Guangliang put down today's copy of Oriental Daily and said, "Is anger of any use? Besides, I actually knew the outcome of today. Humph, to resist foreign aggression, one must first stabilize the internal situation. But I'm just a businessman. My first priority is to protect myself and my family, and only then can I contribute to the country and its people."

Yan Renmei nodded and said, "You are already better than many industrialists. No, in my eyes, you are the best industrialist."

Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder, and there is nothing wrong with Yan Renmei saying this.

But Chen Guangliang is self-aware that many industrialists in modern society have made far greater contributions than Chen Guangliang.

Chen Guangliang hugged Yan Renmei in his arms and said, "I don't fight for these things. I just hope to grow old with you and build a business empire for our descendants, so that they can be rich and prosperous for generations to come."

When Yan Renmei heard this, she immediately moved closer. Her beautiful face became even more stunning, and even more beautiful after marriage.

This time she said seriously: "Do you want a child? I suddenly feel that it doesn't matter now, as long as you like it!"

After getting married, she always thought about this problem - if she wanted to go to college, wouldn't it take another six or seven years for her to graduate, while her husband would be already 27 or 28 years old.

It’s definitely not okay to not have a child for so long.

Even if her husband is willing, she doesn't want to do this.

Chen Guangliang smiled and said, "Don't worry, you have to at least graduate from Zhongxi Girls' High School!"

"Well, thank you, Brother Liang!"

Yan Renmei pecked Chen Guangliang's lips lightly. She already understood Western romance.

Chen Guangliang was very satisfied with his ability to pick up girls, and his words were of course "half true and half false" - he would later find a way to establish a good relationship with the Zhongxi Girls' High School through donations; in this way, if Yan Renmei was in the late stages of pregnancy or breastfeeding, she could study at home and eventually get her diploma smoothly.

Of course, it is not appropriate to consider pregnancy before the end of the "January 28th Battle of Shanghai".

Monday, April 9th.

The Shanghai market is still in a state of anger, with protest marches everywhere and all police stations dispatched to maintain order.

But in the concessions, even the police broke up the march. After all, the powers were also worried about getting into trouble - the march would turn into an opposition against all powers.

But life must go on and business must continue to operate.

Fearing the loss of the market in the three northeastern provinces, textile tycoons in the Yarn Exchange all began to short sell.

Only those speculators are still unaware of what Japan’s current occupation of part of the Northeastern territory means!
Even though the price was falling very quickly, these speculators were unable to react at all and believed that it would continue to rise; some even took the opportunity to buy at high prices, of course they thought they were buying at the bottom.

Ye Hongying was one of them. When he saw the price falling that day, he ordered Zhu Jiarui, the manager of Zhengxing Commercial Savings Bank, to continue to go long.

"Boss, it has fallen below 240. Is there something wrong?" Zhu Jiarui reminded as usual.

Last Friday, it reached a high of 250.

But now, only half a day has passed and it has already fallen by 10 yuan.

Ye Hongying said directly: "I only buy when the price drops. This is just a small fluctuation, and it will rise again tomorrow. There are still eight days until delivery, which is enough time for it to rise to 260!"

Although Zhu Jiarui was cautious, he did not anticipate that Japan's invasion of only a few places in the Northeast would lead to the loss of the entire three northeastern provinces, nor did he anticipate the importance of the three northeastern provinces' market.

"Okay, then I'll go buy it now!"

"Hurry up, cheap chips are hard to come by!"

At this time, Zhengxing Commercial Savings Bank had approximately NT$180 million in capital, but NT$100 million of this was borrowed from other banks, earning an interest rate of 11%. Of the remaining NT$80, NT$50 was profit, and NT$30 was the original principal.

Therefore, Ye Hongying is considered a "big customer" of the Yarn Exchange.

There are many people in the market who don’t understand the market and the impact of current affairs on business, not just Ye Hongying.

Even these textile tycoons were easily trampled in this stampede, so how could they not suffer losses!
In the evening, Chen Guangliang returned to the office, and Hu Jinshun immediately reported today's situation to him.

"Boss, the stock plummeted by 8 yuan today, closing at 242 yuan. I'm afraid the textile tycoons have already shorted it!"

"It's not that they are shorting the market, but that they are running away first."

Seeing his boss so confident, Hu Jinshun was really impressed.

Others trade futures in secret, but at least one is in the open and the other in the dark, while the boss of our company shows his cards directly.

The results of it?
Those textile tycoons suddenly started short selling.

Hu Jinshun couldn't help but ask, "Boss, how do you know which textile tycoons will short sell?"

Chen Guangliang first asked, "How do you know it's the textile tycoons who are short selling?"

Hu Jinshun said: "I am in the market, so I have some awareness of these situations, and today's drop was so sharp."

Not bad, at least I guessed who was selling the large amount of short stocks.

Chen Guangliang smiled and said, "You are in the market, so your vision is only as big as the market. But if you read the newspaper recently, do you know how big a thing has happened?"

Hu Jinshun asked doubtfully, "The Japanese invaded Northeast China?" Chen Guangliang said, "What if the Japanese occupied the entire Northeast China? The Nanjing government wouldn't resist anyway!"

Hu Jinshun was still a little confused and could only ask, "Is it such a big impact?"

Chen Guangliang said, "It's normal that you don't understand the huge impact, but those textile tycoons are very sensitive. They are worried about losing the Northeast market! So you should spread the rumor the day after tomorrow to cause panic in the market!"

From the perspective of later generations, these problems are easy to understand, but many people know that Japan has invaded the three northeastern provinces, but still do not have the sensitivity to notice it.

As for why the news was released to the market only the day after tomorrow, it was because the downward trend may show signs of stabilizing, so naturally we should add fuel to the fire.

Hu Jinshun immediately said, "I understand. The boss wants to cause a panic in the market and, by the way, make sure those textile tycoons can't escape!"

Chen Guangliang laughed and scolded, "What a wild guess! I don't have any grudge against them, so why would I do this? I'm just trying to lower the price a bit!"

"Ok"

The average price of short selling by Changjiang Money House is 246. Next, let’s see how low it can fall.

Of course, don’t expect it to fall very low in the remaining days, but it is estimated that more than 220 is possible.

I don’t make much, probably just over 400,000, but I’m already very satisfied!
"Jingle Bell"

Chen Guangliang was about to get off work when the phone rang.

"Boss, I'm Zhang Jinglu. I heard from London that Britain has abolished the gold standard. I thought this might be useful to you, so I'm telling you."

"Okay, thank you very much. It's very useful to me. It makes me happy tonight in advance!"

"Ok"

Zhang Jinglu was a little confused. Why did the boss say that it was a night of celebration in advance?

Britain's abolition of the gold standard was a very unexpected and bombshell news to the whole world, no less than a financial nuclear bomb explosion.

Oriental News Agency will notify Chen Guangliang immediately of any major news events, unless Chen Guangliang is already asleep.

Chen Guangliang clenched his fists. He had finally received the news he had been waiting for – Britain was leaving the gold standard and the pound was about to depreciate.

In fact, over the past two days of this weekend, 2000 tons of gold had already been emptied from the British vaults, but naturally, this news did not leak out.

The next day, the Oriental Daily published the news that Britain had abolished the gold standard, which caused a great sensation in Shanghai's business circles.

Why did Britain abandon the gold standard?

The economic crisis led to a large outflow of gold, and Britain's gold reserves dropped sharply. In order to reduce the outflow of gold, Britain had to abandon the gold standard.

Having lost its gold standard, the British pound could no longer maintain its high exchange rate, and naturally began to depreciate.

Other countries that could not hold on included many European countries and Japan, and they all subsequently abolished the gold standard.

The United States persisted until 1933, but was ultimately forced to abolish the gold standard to prevent gold outflow.

It was not until after World War II that the Bretton Woods system clearly stipulated that the US dollar was pegged to gold and the currencies of various countries were pegged to the US dollar.

After learning this financial knowledge, Chen Guangliang already knew how to operate foreign exchange in 1933 - because the US dollar was going to depreciate.

With these means, Chen Guangliang can make a lot of money.

However, after the UK left the gold standard, the pound depreciated in two stages. In the first stage, it depreciated to 3.8, and in the second stage, it depreciated to 3.4, which is a total of 30% (pound to dollar).

On the other hand, the fact that many countries have abolished the gold standard shows one thing: gold is hard currency and no country wants to lose it, so the price of gold will inevitably continue to rise.

Chen Guangliang has so much gold in his hands, just wait for it to increase in value!
The Yarn Exchange first broke out with public opinion that it was about to lose the Northeast market and that textile tycoons were joining forces to short sell.

Then the Oriental Daily also commented: If the three northeastern provinces are lost, important food bases and industrial bases will be lost. Their loss will cause serious losses to China's strategic resources, affecting China's position on the international stage and its development space in the war. At the same time, China's cotton yarn and textile industry will lose an important market.

News from the three northeastern provinces has always been the focus of various newspapers, and everyone has given sharp comments. If there is no comment at this time, then this newspaper may not want readers.

At this time, the whole country hoped that Zhang Xueliang would resist, except for a few people.

Of course, Chen Guangliang was already familiar with the history of these major events, and he did not get involved in them. His recent focus was on the Yarn Exchange and the British pound.

"Haha, it's great. Rong Zongjing and others have taken the initiative to lower the price for us these days, and now they have squeezed themselves in!" Du Yuesheng said with a smile in the office of the Yarn Exchange.

At this time, Chen Guangliang also came to the Yarn Exchange to prepare for the delivery.

This time, the Changjiang Money House was the first to short sell, followed by textile tycoons. Finally, the market panicked and everyone short sold, causing the price of cotton yarn to fall from a high of 250 to 220 yuan per bag, a drop of 12%.

Of course, the fluctuation of cotton yarn is only to this extent, and it is usually relatively stable.

The Changjiang Money House made a profit of about 400,000 yuan, and together with the previous profit, the total profit was 500,000 yuan.

"They probably didn't lose much, but it's a pity for those who speculated. I'm afraid many of them will go bankrupt this time."

Du Yuesheng said, "I heard that Ye Hongying's Zhengxing Commercial and Savings Bank suffered the most losses and is about to go bankrupt. But if Guangliang hadn't helped me this time, I wouldn't have made this much money. By the way, what are you planning to do next month?"

First of all, he was very happy to win money. He made 500,000 yuan easily this time; more importantly, he avenged the defeat he suffered that year.

So he owed Chen Guangliang a favor this time, and he would take care of Chen Guangliang's affairs at the dock in the future.

Chen Guangliang said decisively: "I will clear my position after the delivery. It's okay to play occasionally, but if I play frequently, I'm afraid I will be harvested by those people."

Du Yuesheng was stunned. It seemed that Chen Guangliang was also afraid that Rong Zongjing and others would manipulate the market.

It’s just that this time it happened that Japan invaded the three northeastern provinces. Did this young man know that things would develop like this?
He then asked, "What do you think of Japan's invasion of the three northeastern provinces?"

Chen Guangliang remained cautious in his words and said, "What can we do? The army won't listen to public opinion. They will only listen to Zhang Hanqing and the commander-in-chief. At a critical moment, even the commander-in-chief may not be able to give orders to Zhang Hanqing."

I cursed Zhang Hanqing in my heart, what an idiot, for not avenging his father.

Du Yuesheng also said in moderation: "Indeed, there are only a few people like you who can influence national affairs."

After chatting for a while, Chen Guangliang left at the right time.

This time, I brought Du Yuesheng with me to trade cotton yarn futures, as a way of repaying his previous favor and asking him to take care of the dock affairs in the future.

So these are all normal interactions, and there is no way to say that the relationship is that good!
(End of this chapter)