Nanyang 1931: From piglets to giants

Chapter 13 Technical Solutions

Wu Wenhao was just a child, and his words were inevitably exaggerated because they were based on rumors. However, it is true that in 1928, Tan Kah Kee personally called for a boycott of Japanese goods, and a large number of Chinese people ran on Japanese banks, causing many Japanese banks to go bankrupt.

In fact, it was not necessarily the Chinese who caused the bank run. After all, this incident was mixed with the economic crisis, and it was obvious that European and American banks were fanning the flames. In fact, most of the Chinese banks in British Malaya also went bankrupt during that wave.

The reasons for the bank's bankruptcy are very complicated, but it is true that the hatred was forged between the Japanese and Chinese people.

This anger was already impossible to suppress, and now the September 18th Incident has happened, so naturally, new grudges and old grudges must be settled together.

In fact, Kuala Lumpur’s response was already late.

To date, the amount of donations received by Ma Zhanshan alone from overseas Chinese has reached a huge amount of 2.5 million yuan.

In addition to donations, the war between overseas Chinese and overseas Japanese has already been a mess in the past two or three months.

The Chinese General Chamber of Commerce in San Francisco, together with overseas Chinese in Canada, burned Japanese tea and silk in North America.

As a colony of the United States, Manila donated 40 yuan to Ma Zhanshan and also donated another yuan as military expenses for other national salvation organizations.
No one knows where the 350,000 yuan was used, but they organized a large rally of 3,000 overseas Chinese to force the US Colonial Department to oppose the US selling strategic materials to Japan.

It is said that overseas Chinese and students in Europe surrounded the League of Nations. Even in Madagascar, far away in Africa, overseas Chinese burned down a match factory run by Japanese.

Batavia and Semarang in Indonesia, Saigon and Tien Gum in Vietnam all launched campaigns to boycott Japanese goods and respond to anti-Japanese activities.

Not to mention Siam. The Teochew people can almost be said to be the most powerful group among overseas Chinese. They forced the pro-Japanese government of Siam to the point where it was almost impossible to do business with the Japanese.

As British Malaya has the largest Chinese population, the largest proportion of new immigrants, and has always had the closest ties with the mainland, is it possible for it to coexist peacefully with the Japanese?

Among the major Chinese cities in Malaya, Penang was the quietest. Overseas Chinese were pooling money to buy planes to donate to their country, and no one paid any attention to the Japanese.

This was mainly because there were too many Chinese people there, secret societies were too rampant, and there was no police force from the Colonial Office. Even the British did not dare to intervene. After 28 years, it was difficult for the Japanese to come out alive once they entered. In fact, few Japanese dared to go there to seek death.

There's no one to fight with.

Singapore's response was a little slow. Starting from October 10, it announced that it would sever all business relations with Japan and arranged for a special committee composed of passionate young people like Wu Wenhao from the Overseas Chinese School to urge the city to ban the use of Japanese goods.

However, amidst the raging anti-Japanese wave, Chinese organizations in Kuala Lumpur have not taken any significant action.

It’s not a shame.

It doesn't matter whether it falls or not.

A coward or not.

Others think that the Chinese in Kuala Lumpur are spineless.

The fact that the problem was suppressed until yesterday was a testament to the care taken by the local colonial authorities in Kuala Lumpur.

But anyway, since this hand started moving yesterday, it will take more than one or two months to stop.

Who knows how big it would be. The streets remained in chaos for seven or eight days, and Zheng Yi gradually got used to it.

No matter what the public security situation is like, life has to go on. Even now, he carefully checks and maintains his gun before going out every day to make sure it is fully loaded.

At the corporate headquarters of Taiyou Mining, everything is normal.

Li Xiaoshi implemented modern management for the company, with a small building dedicated as an office. Zheng Yi also had his own independent office.

As soon as he entered the door, everyone he saw would either nod to him or bow and say "Hello, Mr. Zheng".

Zheng Yi walked in with the newly-made design plan and began to introduce it to Li Xiaoshi. This was what he had mentioned before, the technical plan for the spare parts factory. Zheng Yi even made plans for the spare parts factory in the next few years.

"As long as our own foundry can be put into operation, in addition to being able to replace spare parts in the equipment, as long as our workers are trained and their skills are improved, the next step will be to provide a semi-automated solution."

"We can use more specialized and customized small equipment in mines and plantations. This is something we can't achieve by simply purchasing equipment from European and American manufacturers. This will free up more manpower, improve mine production efficiency, and become more competitive with European and American miners."

"Most importantly, we're actually starting to use our own equipment. Starting small, we'll eventually reach a great milestone. With accessories and small pieces of equipment, we can build complete large-scale equipment. And with that foundation, we can develop our manufacturing industry."

"Brother Li, in two years at most, I'm confident we can build an automatic rubber cleaning production line, a sugar production line, a starch production line, and a jam production line. Didn't you say you wanted to develop the manufacturing industry?"

"Based on this, we can expand the scale of our machining. It's not necessarily true that we can't also process other things, such as bicycles, textile machines, sewing machines, and even guns, cannons, and bullets. This is manufacturing!"

“At that time, we will only be responsible for producing machines, repairing machines, providing technical solutions for production lines, continuously upgrading them, and manufacturing more and more advanced equipment. We will be engaged in heavy industry.

As for using these equipment to produce products and engage in light industry, we can completely hand it over to other Chinese merchants in Southeast Asia. Let all Chinese merchants use our equipment to produce goods, and use the goods they produce to compete with the Japanese, the British, and the Americans.

"Don't you always tell me that industry can save the country? What does it mean to save the country through industry? This is it. By that time, you will be the undisputed leader of the Chinese community. Even Mr. Tan Kah Kee of Singapore will not be able to compare with you!"

Of course Li Xiaoshi was also tempted, as he had never seen such a beautiful technical solution.

Not to mention people in China, Zheng Yi is the most skilled Chinese he knows. Even among the foreign engineers he knows, whether it is Hunter or others he met in Europe before, he has no idea how skilled they are. Anyway, he is confused by their technical solutions.

Most technical talents of this era only focus on technology and do not particularly consider business. At most, they consider costs and profits.

Zheng Yi's technical solution was completely different. Not only did he have a clear technical route, but he also had a product route and the company's strategic plan for the next few years. In other words, he had painted a big pie for Li Xiaoshi.

Li Xiaoshi has been in the business world for so many years, and he has always been the one to make promises to others. This is the first time that others have made promises to him.

This cake is really hard to eat.

As the head of the Chinese overseas community, it doesn’t matter to him whether he makes money or not, but the four words “head of the Chinese overseas community” are really very attractive to him.

He couldn't be more satisfied with Zheng Yi's technical solution.

(End of this chapter)