Nanyang 1931: From piglets to giants

Chapter 25 Send them to hell
Silent all night.

"Wow, Master, this villa is so big and luxurious. Master, please sit down. I just saw a coffee machine over there. Let me grind you a cup of coffee."

"Master, look! There's a flush toilet in this house! Oh my god, Master, smell it! There's no odor at all in this toilet."

"Master, look, there's a projector here! I can watch movies at home, Master! Oh my god, this house is so nice!"

…………

After leaving the hospital, Zheng Yi moved directly to Li's house and lived in their guest room.

However, he underestimated the tycoon's house. The so-called guest room was not an ordinary room, but an entire villa.

Although there is no independent yard.

The villa has only two floors, but it has all the necessary water and electricity, and there are special servants to serve it. Especially the flush toilet, Zheng Yi has been thinking about this thing for half a year since he came to Nanyang.

A tycoon is a tycoon, and he is really not the same as a rich man.

Moreover, the house is located in the central area of ​​Kuala Lumpur. The neighbor is a British man, the Minister of Health of the Colonial Office, a powerful bureaucrat. The entire community is not only patrolled by Indians, but there are even white British police officers on guard.

The Lee family's bodyguards and guards were all armed, but in Kuala Lumpur, where gun control was relatively strict, the Colonial Affairs Bureau did not care about them.

Wu Wenhao was like a curious baby, not feeling tired at all, running around the villa with full energy.

Turn the faucet this way and that in the bathroom.

Everything is fresh.

He has no awareness of taking care of himself as a patient.

"Okay, stop running around and be steady. Have you finished the systematic study of applied mechanics I asked you to do? If not, hurry up and learn it. A great building starts from the ground. If you don't master the basics, you'll never be able to design your own machine in this life."

"Ah? Still learning, Master? Let me take care of your medicine first and boil it for you."

"I don't need you. This house has servants. Go and learn quickly. Learn it quickly. Only when you learn it can you really help me.
Damn, the only person in the company who can take over my responsibility for equipment improvement is a Brit named Hunter, and I don't even trust him. I have to worry about everything, and it's so fucking hard. You should grow up quickly and share the burden with me."

"Oh~"

As he was speaking, the doorbell rang and Wu Wenhao ran over like a gust of wind to open the door.

"Oh, Master, you're here. Please come in, Master, Master is here to see you."

"I fucking know it, why don't you go make some tea?"

"Eh. Eh? Master, how about I make you some coffee? Didn't you and the young master both grow up abroad? You must like coffee more, right?"

The longer this guy spent with me, the more he became erratic. I said helplessly, "It's all right, it's all right. Hurry up, why are you so talkative?"

As he said this, he invited Li Xiaoshi to sit down.

"How's your injury? I brought you some Yong'an Tang ointment and some bird's nests to replenish your energy and blood. Don't worry about the company. Since you're away these few days, I'll go to the company personally to keep things under control. At least there won't be any problems with morale."

Zheng Yi didn't answer anything else, but quickly asked, "How's the production line at the rubber plantation?"

"It was open all day yesterday, closed at night, and opened again this morning. Until now, there have been no problems and the operation is very stable."

"Oh~, that's good."

Hearing that the production line was running smoothly, Zheng Yi finally breathed a sigh of relief.

"I have to pay close attention these days. Although the newly designed production line is running, it is inevitable that there are some design imperfections and omissions. After all, I still lack front-line experience, so it is impossible for me to cover everything."

"I won't be back at the factory these few days. Call Liu Wei, Ah Huang, Mr. Ikeda from Japan, and Henry over to me. I'll have them do some of the work directly."

"Don't worry, just take good care of your injuries first."

"It's okay, it's just a flesh wound. The doctor said there's no bone damage. Be careful not to get it wet, remember to change the dressing, don't move this hand or do any work, just rest it.

I can see clearly that the person who wants me dead just doesn't want me to build the production line. No matter who he is, I'm going to show him that I can do it. I have to make sure this thing is done."

Li Xiaoshi smiled and nodded when he heard this. He then took out a cigar from his pocket and handed it to Zheng Yi, saying, "I bought a piece of land and plan to build a garden. I've even thought of a name for it: 'Shilu'.
After it's finished, I'll move out with my wife and children. I'll leave a piece for you, so how about we move in together? You and I can be neighbors. As the saying goes, a close neighbor is worse than a distant relative."

Zheng Yi was so smart that he understood the meaning of the words and said, "You haven't found out who killed me yet, right? Living outside can't guarantee my safety?"

Li Xiaoshi: "For now, nothing has been uncovered. It does seem as though they were instigated and worried about losing their jobs, which is why they started the riot. In Southeast Asia, we Chinese are deeply influenced by our hometown associations, spiritual societies, and brotherhoods."

"Recently, rumors have been circulating in various fraternities about you being a traitor and slandering you. So it's hard to say if this is genuinely directed by someone, or if that idiot has been so fooled that he's helping people count the money after being sold out."

Li Xiaoshi frowned, crossed his legs, and said helplessly, "At the moment, I tend to believe it's the latter. That guy doesn't look like a killer. The second brother sent people to beat him up all day, and he's already a nobody. If someone was really behind this, he would have confessed long ago." "Ah~"

Zheng Yi actually thought about it. If he was really a killer, it would be unlikely that he would still be alive now.

"Someone's probably messing with me, no, messing with us. Can you guess?"

Upon hearing this, Li Xiaoshi showed disdain on his face and said, "I don't know who it is specifically, and I'm afraid there isn't such a person, but if nothing unexpected happens, it's probably that group."

"Which wave?"

“The old-school kind.”

"Old-school?"

"You can understand it as the older generation of traditional Nanyang Chinese businessmen who are good at using piglets."

Seeing that he didn't understand, Li Xiaoshi explained to Zheng Yi: "You know, in Kuala Lumpur, and even in the whole of Malaya, my father was the first family to not use piglets."

"As a result, those fraternities that specialized in kidnapping piglets, and the bosses behind them, fought my father for decades. It's no exaggeration to say that he survived those decades because he had experienced blood and gore."

Zheng Yi: "The old chairman is considered to have done great deeds in Southeast Asia and the entire Chinese community. But what does this have to do with me? Why did they want to kill me?"

Li Xiaoshi: "Why do you think our Li family, if we don't oppress piglets, can still become one of the largest business families in the entire Malay Peninsula?"

Zheng Yi was stunned, but then he suddenly realized something and said, "Is it because of... the machine?"

Li Xiaoshi: "Yes, it's because of the machines. Our mine uses the most machines in the whole of Malaya. Of course, I don't deny that this is related to my special relationship with the British Colonial Office. I do rely on the influence of the British."

"But in short, in the past twenty years, open-pit tin mines on the Malay Peninsula have become increasingly scarce. Chinese families like my father, who use extensive machinery, have begun to emerge, while the older generation is declining."

"Do you know who was the most influential and wealthy Chinese tycoon in Southeast Asia?"

Zheng Yi thought for a moment and said, "It should be Huang Zhonghan from Indonesia, Lu You from Malaya, or Chen Jianxian from the Philippines."

"Yes, that's them. These tycoons of the old times all have something in common. First of all, no matter what their main business is, they all grow a lot of opium.

Secondly, they all come from fraternities, are cruel and ruthless, and all the money they earn is stained with blood.

Third, obtain tax farming rights from the British, Dutch, and Spanish.
Fourthly, they all use a large number of piglets.”

"To put it bluntly, their so-called way to success is to oppress the Chinese workers as much as possible and reduce labor costs. They often operate rubber, tin mines, and opium together.

Rubber and tin are sold to the outside world, and opium is sold to their own workers. They usually also run casinos, brothels, and sell strong liquor.

"As long as there is a steady stream of Chinese pigs for them to exploit, their wealth can continue to accumulate. Of course, to realize this cycle, they also need their own knife handles, such as our Malaya's Loke Yew, he is a member of the Ghee Hin, that is, the Hongmen."

"Unfortunately, this way of making money began to decline almost twenty years ago. Do you know why?"

Zheng Yi had already guessed it and said, "It's probably because of the Second Industrial Revolution. Electrical equipment was introduced to Southeast Asia, and mechanization and industrialization began. And industrialization and slavery are inherently contradictory worldwide. Otherwise, there wouldn't have been the American Civil War."

Li Xiaoshi laughed heartily upon hearing this and said, "That's right, that's right. It seems you not only understand technology, but you also understand economics and politics."

"My father was lucky. He rode the wave of mechanization. Because he was kind-hearted, he didn't use piggy banks. He employed everyone. As a result, we used the most excavators at home and adapted to the new wave the fastest.
The rise of our Li family and the decline of these old-school businessmen are, after all, the inevitable result of the development of the times. It can also be considered as good deeds being rewarded."

"However, the degree of mechanization and industrialization in Southeast Asia is still low. Frequent domestic wars and unrest have led to an increasing number of people migrating to Southeast Asia, which has resulted in the price of labor in Southeast Asia remaining very low, and even becoming increasingly so. Those old forces have only declined, but are far from extinct."

"Take Zhang Yucai for example. I snatched the position of Chairman of the Guangdong Chamber of Commerce from him, and now he has snatched it back. When he was young, he was the general manager of Lu You. He himself is the leader of the bandit gang.

He has a high seniority and experience in the Hongmen. After Lu You's death, most of Lu You's power fell into his hands. In terms of financial resources and power, he is still a little stronger than our Li family. "

"He also runs a tin mine, rubber, opium, casinos, and brothels. It's all the same old shit. His business model is not much different from Lu You's. Although they are still quite rich now, in my opinion, they are all just dead bones in the grave."

Zheng Yi: "So, I understand. The faster the mechanization in Nanyang is, the faster these people will be eliminated by the times.
In the past, machinery and equipment were all imported from Europe and America, and they were expensive, so they were still able to survive. Now I have developed a domestic production line... I am really digging up their livelihood."

Li Xiaoshi: "Yes, these public opinions outside, your secret flower, although I don't know who is behind it, maybe it's not Zhang Yucai who is harming you,
But these remnants of the old era, represented by them, must have fueled this incident. Perhaps they were all involved in it.”

Zheng Yi: "I see..."

After a while, Zheng Yi became amused and said, "The wheel of time rolls forward, and it will never be stopped by cockroaches. Since we don't know who it is, forget it. We won't look for it anymore."

"Isn't it because I'm afraid of the industrialization and mechanization of Southeast Asia? Let them wait. After making rubber, I want to make starch, sugar, and tin. I want all the major industries in Southeast Asia to have their own production lines. I'll crush them to death."

"Stop lingering on! Let them all roll under the wheels of history and crush them to death. I'm going to make lots of machines and production lines, and let these production lines become the ropes that hang them."

"Since I'm not fucking dead, it's their turn to die!"

(End of this chapter)