Spy Wars: Red Shopkeeper

Chapter 90: Rice King
Gu Yansheng walked into the office. "Director Lu, please take a seat. What would you like to drink?"

"I'm not drinking anymore. I'm already angry enough." Lu Ying rolled his eyes.

Gu Yansheng chuckled, but still poured him a glass of water.

"This was ordered by the Japanese. Although time is tight, the general trend is undeniable. The SH urban area is under the control of the Japanese. It's only a matter of time before the companies succumb."

“But it always offends people, and the people offended are all entrepreneurs!”

Lu Ying plopped down on the sofa, crossed his legs, and said earnestly, "Let's not talk about this, Brother Gu. Your mission to clean up the drug market is also likely to offend people, and these people are even more difficult to talk to than entrepreneurs. You have to be aware of this."

Gu Yansheng managed to find some humor in the midst of hardship, and said with a helpless smile: "It has fallen on my head, even if it is thunder, I have to take it, what else can I do?
The main thing is the current situation of the drug market, and which major forces are involved. I'd like to consult Director Lu on this."

Lu Ying waved his hand: "What do you mean by asking for advice? Shanghai is just like this. The British and American Concessions are dominated by the Jewish gang headed by Sassoon, and the French Concession is the territory of the Green Gang. It is said that the people behind them are the Chief Chinese Constable Liao Shan and Huang Jinrong.

Since Zhang Xiaolin defected to the Japanese, he has taken the largest share of the SH city area.

Hongkou is the base camp of Japanese ronin.

There are still many left, such as Wu Sibao from the Special Agent Headquarters, the Chaozhou Gang from Guangdong, the Southern and Northern Jiangsu Gang, the Fujian Gang, and so on.

Getting mixed up in these big forces has created chaos.

Putting aside these regional gangs, there are also Americans, Russians, Koreans, and all sorts of colorful foreigners. If you get to know them better, you'll find that anyone with a bit of standing in the world is involved, all wanting a piece of this lucrative pie. It's a very complicated situation."

After Lu Ying finished speaking, he leaned forward and moved closer to Gu Yansheng.

"But brother, these aren't the most troublesome people."

"Who else?"

“Chongqing!
Have you ever thought about this: although the Chongqing government lost Shanghai, would it really be willing to give up such a huge benefit?

What if they didn’t let him go? Do you know which group of people were from Chongqing?
Integrating the drug market is easy to say.
If we ruin their plans, will our names be included in the Iron-Blooded Anti-Traitor Group's kill order?
It's just something that happens easily.

"Have you read the newspaper? The military uniform slapped Li Shiqun directly in the face. At this critical juncture, if we touch their financial resources again, we will be particularly hated."

Lu Ying pointed at the coffee table, gave a look that showed he understood, and stepped back.

Gu Yansheng nodded. "Director Lu's words are thought-provoking. I certainly hadn't thought about the Chongqing government getting involved in this matter, but now that the task has fallen upon us, we have to do it, right?"

"That's for sure." Lu Ying paused and said, "But it's too difficult to accomplish this. Cutting off someone's financial resources is like killing their parents.

I think, Brother Gu, you should handle this matter first and try to contact the key people. If you can make sense, then tell them. If you really encounter any problems, we can discuss it later, okay?"

"I can try first, but Director Lu, won't you go with me? You are the God of Land in Shanghai. With you here, won't those people give you more face? Wouldn't it be easier for me to do things?" Gu Yansheng smiled gently.

Lu Ying sighed helplessly, "Don't I have to go find the companies? Three companies are killing me.

Director Gu, I won't sit down now. If you need help, just call me. I'm the police officer, but I really don't have time. I really have to leave first, otherwise the delicious food will be served to the table by others, and I won't be able to eat it. Please understand each other, it's difficult for me. "

Having said that, Gu Yansheng didn't want to keep the guest any longer and sent him away with a smile.

"Okay, then you can go ahead and do your work. Thank you, Director Lu. I'll see you off."

Gu Yansheng politely escorted him out of the Justice Department's door.

Lu Ying appeared enthusiastic but secretly refused. His meaning was very clear. This matter was very troublesome and Chongqing might be concerned about it, so he didn't want to get involved.

Even Lu Ying himself didn't know which gang had shares in drugs, so he tried to scare him and make him give up.

Gu Yansheng remembered that Ling Xianwen had said at the meeting that Lu Ying was the former Inspector General of the Police Department during the period when the Nationalist government controlled Shanghai, and that he was leaning towards Chongqing. This might be true.

After thinking about it, Gu Yansheng stopped thinking about it. It was useless to think too much. There were so many evildoers in the new government anyway. It was not surprising that Lu Ying was from the Chongqing government.

In front of the Japanese, each of them showed their magical powers.

Gu Yansheng made a cup of coffee and sat in a chair to think carefully about the drug issue, the issue of persuading enterprises to use military bills, and Mitsui's medicines. The most important thing now was the issue of corporate military bills.

The reason he suffers from a disadvantage compared to others is that his roots in Shanghai are not deep enough. He is not familiar with any company. For the same task, he is half a lap behind others at the starting line.

However, the Judicial Department has an innate advantage, and he is two laps faster than others.

Gu Yansheng pressed the call button and Liu Xiaolou came in quickly.

"Notify all section chiefs present that a meeting will begin in the conference room in ten minutes."

"Yes."

"Go."

The content of the meeting was not complicated, so Gu Yansheng conveyed the spirit of the high-level meeting.

He didn't care about his subordinates' shock and fear when they found out about military notes.

He knocked on the table and said, "Okay, if you have anything to say, you can talk about it in private, but I want to make one thing clear to you. Our Judicial Department's mission is to investigate two companies a day, which means sixty companies a month. This is the minimum.

I don't ask you to solve all the problems. You all can solve half of them, and I will handle the remaining half myself. With 30 companies and so many section chiefs, this shouldn't be too difficult, right?
But I remind you that we are not the only ones pushing this matter forward, many people are anxious.

So you section chiefs should think about it yourself. If you have any familiar enterprises, you should go out and give them advice immediately. Regardless of the size of the enterprise, as long as they are willing to implement the military ticket system, we welcome them all.

As for those companies that are temporarily unwilling to cooperate, you should give me a warning. If they don't want to eat the food given by the Judicial Department, that's fine, but if they turn around and eat someone else's food, don't blame the Judicial Department for being ruthless."

"understand!"

That's all I can tell my men: let them cast their nets and catch as much as they can.

Leave the small fish and shrimp to them, and as for the big ones, Gu Yansheng has to do it himself.

I picked up the phone and called Lu Bowen to ask him out for lunch.

Four dishes and one soup, simple.

When Lu Bowen arrived, he asked him how the meeting went yesterday. "What did you say in the telegram?" Gu Yansheng had never asked about the content of the telegram Lu Bowen sent to Yan'an.

"What's wrong? What's wrong?"

Lu Bowen frowned and said nervously, "I wrote in the telegram that we have collected a batch of local specialties while doing business in Shanghai. Because a wealthy family is in a hurry to sell, we have collected a lot, more than a thousand, and there is no one to look after them. I asked if my hometown can organize the labor of the villagers to move them to Shanghai as soon as possible.

The message was sent strictly according to the training. It cannot reveal any information that could allow the enemy to decipher clues to my identity. What I wrote should be fine."

"Don't be nervous, I didn't say there was a problem." Gu Yansheng smiled and comforted him: "Then what did the organization respond?"

"The organization's response is what I told you. They asked you to go and make the contact. That's all." Lu Bowen spread his hands.

Gu Yansheng thought about it, did some calculations, and laughed, "I understand. Over a thousand, over a thousand packages, over a thousand people, over a thousand yuan. The problem must be that over a thousand..."

"What do you mean?" Lu Bowen asked anxiously.

Gu Yansheng explained the guerrillas' transportation route.

"Huh?" Lu Bowen was deeply shocked. "How is it possible to transport 1000 bags under these conditions?"

"Yes, it's impossible to transport 1000 bags. The organization must know that the transportation capacity is not realistic. Why would they let us contact the transporter?

So I suspect there is a communication problem here.

The only possibility is that when your telegram reached Yan'an, the organization did not dare to think that this unit of over a thousand people would be a package, and it should be counted as people or money.

If there are 1000 people, that would be 10 packages; if there are 1000 dollars, that would be 15 packages.

You said it needed to be taken away urgently, so he contacted someone for us to meet and take it away immediately. As for why he sent me, it was probably because he thought I could give the transport team information so that they could transport it more safely.

The destination of this number should not be Yan'an, but probably a team near Shanghai."

"Tsk."

Lu Bowen held his forehead with his hands, not knowing whether to laugh or cry. "My fault. Mainly because I'm really used to it. The unit we have always used is bales, and the unit of cotton yarn is bales. So when I was writing the telegram, I thought that the words 'over a thousand bales' were a bit obvious.

If the message was deciphered, combined with the timing, it would easily lead people to think of cotton yarn, so I simply didn't write the word. Actually, it's not that I didn't write it, I wrote it and then deliberately crossed it out before letting He Yun send the message.

"It's better to be careful than not to eat vegetables."

Gu Yansheng smiled and pointed at the chopsticks: "You are right about this matter, don't take it to heart.

To put it bluntly, if the concession had not cooperated in hoarding goods and I had not taken advantage of it once, we really would not have been able to get 1000 bales of cotton yarn. At the normal price, it would have cost 100,000 oceans, not to mention the difficulty of obtaining the purchase certificate.

If I were the organization that received this telegram, I wouldn’t believe it either.”

Lu Bowen shook his head helplessly, thinking about it and finding it funny again, "Really. Oh, I'm so stupid. If the organization knew about this, oh, there would be nothing to say."

"Haha. Let's eat and get down to business."

Gu Yansheng took a bite of his food and said, "The Japanese want to issue military notes in Shanghai. Their main purpose is to plunder the savings of Shanghai citizens and undermine the credit of the Chongqing government's legal tender.

All businesses in the city must accept this system. All business owners must exchange their own money for these military notes in order to continue circulation. Otherwise, they will be arrested. You must be mentally prepared and do not resist when it is your turn.

"It's such a big deal?" Lu Bowen frowned, his expression serious. "Doesn't that mean the entire SH city has been plundered by the Japanese?"

"There will certainly be losses, but the temporary purchasing power of the military notes will not be a problem. The Japanese will definitely maintain the credit of these military notes at the beginning."

"What if the organization asks us for money in the future? How are we going to give it to them? If we have nothing but military notes in our hands, will the Japanese allow us to exchange them back at any time?"

"What are you afraid of with me here?" Gu Yansheng squinted at him. "Why, do you look down on me, the director?"

"I dare not." Lu Bowen finished speaking, frowning: "The main reason is that I am worried about this matter. Who would recognize this kind of money if it leaves Shanghai?

This kind of thing is definitely not as loud or stable as the gold dollar.

Do you think there is any way to stop the Japanese plan? Will the concessions recognize it?

Gu Yansheng's chopsticks never stopped, picking up food and eating. As he ate, he said, "There must be a way, and there is more than one. But this matter has nothing to do with you. Your mission is to make money. There is something you need to do."

"You said."

“This news will spread today and will definitely be in the newspapers tomorrow. By then, people in downtown SH will be in a panic, and some will definitely want to leave.

The Japanese issued a strict order that all employees of all companies who did not want to exchange for military notes could leave, but the companies had to stay and were not allowed to take their assets with them.

This brings up a problem: those who want to leave can't, and with nothing in hand, why would they leave?

Lu Bowen got a hint and guessed, "Are the Japanese trying to use this tactic to force those merchants to stay, so as not to damage Shanghai's economy?"

"That's about the same idea." Gu Yansheng nodded, put down his chopsticks and said, "The senior officials in the municipal government are very scared and want to sell the company's assets, convert them into money as soon as possible, and transfer them to the concession.

But we don’t need it. As long as we don’t leave Shanghai, we can still use the military notes.

So, tomorrow, as soon as the news hits the newspapers, go walk around the streets and ask any businesses you see if they're willing to sell. If the price is reasonable, buy it. If the price isn't enough, ask me for more. But the business has to be a real industry, like a cotton mill or a flour mill, with complete equipment and can continue to operate."

It's a bit like land mergers, giving them the opportunity to run away with real money, and it depends on their own choice.

Lu Bowen blinked his eyes: "Buy to make, or buy to sell?"

"Do it." Gu Yansheng said very decisively.

"Who will do it? I will do it?" Lu Bowen pointed at himself with his eyes wide open, a little confused.

"Of course you did it, why should I do it?" Gu Yansheng glared back.

Lu Bowen was stunned for a moment with his mouth wide open, then laughed: "Okay, it seems that all my knowledge about rice has been wasted. I have been researching routes to northern Jiangsu to buy rice. No, I have already planned it. I want to be the rice king of Shanghai."

Gu Yansheng continued eating. "It doesn't matter. Buy a few factories. First you can become the flour king, then the rice king. I promise to help you realize your dream."

(End of this chapter)