Rebirth: I am in Jin-Cha-Ji

But Wei Hongjun is in a very good mood now.

A problem arose, and a problem was solved. Whenever a new problem arose, Wei Hongjun became even happier, because he had discovered another problem and solved another problem in urban management.

For Wei Hongjun, he wouldn't be truly worried until problems arose. Only when problems arise and are resolved can things be good. While the problems facing Zhangjiakou may be unique to the city, they are more common issues within urban management. Solving these universal issues will provide a model for future cities, preventing these problems from cropping up in larger cities.

So, although Wei Hongjun is exhausted these days, he's also very happy. The more problems he encounters, the more he enjoys solving them. He finds that in the process of solving these problems, his understanding of urban management is also improving.

But that's not all.

Wei Hongjun still has a lot to do in Zhangjiakou.

Wei Hongjun took time out to meet with Gao Weinong, director of the Trade Department and director of the Logistics Department.

"How about it?"

“It’s still quite complete overall.”

With the experience of Xuanhua, Wei Hongjun made detailed deployment before entering the city.

In addition to controlling the military warehouses, important places in the city were also taken over very smoothly without losing too much data.

After taking over important institutions of the puppet government, Wei Hongjun could get a very intuitive understanding of the situation in Zhangjiakou and even the Chahar region from their information.

Including Zhangjiakou’s urban construction drawings, etc.

Only with these can we have a deeper understanding of Zhangjiakou. These archival materials are very important in a city.

In addition to these, there is something more important in Zhangjiakou, which is the Mengjiang Bank in Zhangjiakou.

Gao Weinong said with some fear: "Fortunately, we surrounded Zhangjiakou, otherwise the Mengjiang Bank would have to buy 100 million yen worth of Japanese government bonds."

"One hundred million yen? How much is that?"

"Based on the current exchange rate between Japanese Yen and French Franc to US Dollar, 5 million Japanese Yen is roughly equivalent to million French Franc.

Wei Hongjun was angry.

Damn little Japan.

If they asked the Mengjiang Bank to buy 5 million yen worth of Japanese government bonds, they would have to withdraw a large amount of gold reserves and other hard currency reserves from the Mengjiang Bank. Don't think that million French francs is too little.

Although the legal currency has been depreciating since the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War.

But no matter how much it depreciated, 5 million French francs was still a staggering sum. If sold on the market, 5 million French francs could buy million kilograms of flour. This amount of flour could feed the entire th Column base for six months.

Just look at the military pay each unit receives.

In the early days of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Chiang Kai-shek paid warlords 30,000 to 40,000, or 50,000 to 60,000 yuan per division a month. Chiang Kai-shek's direct troops received around 200,000 yuan per division. Even though the value of the French currency has depreciated significantly, each division still only earns a few million yuan a year. Five hundred million yuan was the annual salary for ten divisions under Chiang Kai-shek's direct control.

The Eighth Route Army's pay was even lower.

5 million yen can support the entire Eighth Route Army for several years.

You can imagine how much money this is.

Although the Mengjiang Bank was also established to facilitate the Japanese plunder of Chinese goods, it at least had collateral for its banknotes. However, if it were to purchase 100 million yen worth of Japanese government bonds, the Mengjiang Bank would immediately lose this collateral. Any future banknotes it issued would be pure paper money, completely unsecured. If the Mengjiang Bank were to over-issue banknotes, the Chinese people would end up shouldering the burden of the remaining 100 million yen.

"Does this mean that Mengjiang Bank still has sufficient reserves?"

"Yes. The Mengjiang Bank currently holds a considerable amount of gold and silver, as well as a large amount of cloth, salt, grain, and other daily necessities, all of which serve as their reserves. The Mengjiang Bank in Zhangjiakou is the head office of the Mengjiang Bank, so its reserves are considerable. In addition to these reserves, a rough check of the accounts revealed that the bank also holds some deposits. I did a quick calculation, and at current prices, the Mengjiang Bank's reserves of gold, silver, and other supplies, plus some deposits, are worth approximately 2000 million taels of silver. If we had been a step behind, all of this would have been lost."

Only then did Wei Hongjun intuitively realize the wealth of a bank.

The Mengjiang Bank's reserves and deposits were worth nearly 2000 million yuan. This amount was truly staggering. However, considering it was a bank, Wei Hongjun could understand it.

“What are these deposits?”

"It was mainly deposits from Japanese trading companies. Ever since we surrounded Zhangjiakou and several surrounding counties, many people have been withdrawing money from the Mengjiang Bank. Later, the troops stationed in Mongolia were worried about chaos in Zhangjiakou, so they stopped everyone from withdrawing money from the Mengjiang Bank."

"In other words, we can basically freeze these deposits and use them ourselves?"

"Yes."

Wei Hongjun nodded.

good thing.

As expected, the fortune is yet to come. 2000 million yuan, now converted into legal currency, is over billion yuan.

"We must stabilize Mengjiang Bank."

Wei Hongjun said: "At present, in the Chahar region, apart from our border currency, the most common currency in the hands of the people is the Mengjiang Notes issued by the Mengjiang Bank." We defeated the Japanese on the battlefield and controlled Chahar, but we cannot lose to them in currency. Before the Border Bank takes over the Mengjiang Bank, there must be no problems. From now on, the Mengjiang Bank can temporarily handle the work of recovering the Mengjiang Notes, but it cannot recover Mengjiang Notes on a large scale. Many of the materials we sell in our base area are below market price. If the Japanese and Han merchants are allowed to enter our base area with large quantities of Mengjiang Notes from the Japanese-occupied areas to buy our materials, our losses will be too great. You must pay attention to this aspect and stipulate the amount of Mengjiang Notes that each person can exchange every day. At the same time, your trading company must also stipulate the amount of materials that each person can purchase every day. Use the materials under our control to slowly and completely drive out the Mengjiang Notes."

In order to support the "Border Currency", the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Border Region Government came up with many ideas.

The trading companies within the base area were actually department stores controlled by the border region government, and the supplies they provided had to be purchased with "border region currency." After the Eighth Column captured Zhangjiakou, a large amount of good stuff flowed out of the military warehouse in Zhangjiakou.

But in order to take care of the people in the base area, the prices are lower than the market price.

If merchants were playing a currency game between the Japanese-occupied areas and the base areas, obtaining large quantities of "Mengjiang coupons" from outside, taking advantage of the fact that the Eighth Route Army had just captured Zhangjiakou and needed to collect a large amount of "Mengjiang coupons" from the public, they would exchange these "Mengjiang coupons" for "Border Area Currency." They would then use the "Border Area Currency" to purchase preferential supplies within the base areas, effectively stealing supplies from the base areas with paper currency.

The final losses will be borne by the base.

Who knows where these people’s “Mengjiang Coupons” came from.

So Wei Hongjun must control this.

"Okay, I'll pay attention."

"As for the gold, silver, and supplies in the Mengjiang Bank, keep them for now and hand them over to the Border Area Bank that will take over in the future. During this process, we must pay attention to the fact that the Mengjiang Bank cannot be in chaos. If it is in chaos, then the whole of Zhangjiakou will be in chaos. I know that the number of Border Area currency we have is insufficient at present, but the circulation of Border Area currency in Zhangjiakou cannot be suppressed. Border Area currency must be recognized by the people of Zhangjiakou within a short period of time. So my idea is that the Border Area currency obtained by the trading company from selling supplies during the day should flow back to the Mengjiang Bank, and then use these Border Area currency to exchange for Mengjiang notes the next day. After these Border Area currency are exchanged, most of them should be used to purchase supplies from the trading company, so that the Border Area currency will flow back to the trading company, and finally the money will return to the Mengjiang Bank."

The current problem of the Eighth Column is that the number of border area coins in hand is limited.

Although some border area coins have been stockpiled, they are far from enough to meet the current needs of a city as large as Zhangjiakou.

Suddenly I came to Zhangjiakou, which is much richer than other places. Therefore, the currency circulates very quickly and there is a lot of demand for currency.

But the Eighth Column cannot produce so many border area currencies in a short period of time.

What should I do?

How to take back the Mengjiang coupons, how to stabilize the people of Zhangjiakou, and how to make the people of Zhangjiakou accept the border currency.

We need to find a way.

Fortunately, the government controlled trading companies throughout the country. So, Wei Hongjun's idea was to establish a government-controlled trading company in Zhangjiakou and use the supplies held by the Eighth Column to control them. Border Region currency would be circulated, then collected back through the trading company. The next day, the Border Region currency would be circulated again through the Mengjiang Bank, and the trading company would collect the Border Region currency.

Of course, this is only a temporary solution.

If there is a slight problem, when people exchange Mengjiang notes at Mengjiang Bank, if Mengjiang Bank does not have enough border currency, bad things may happen.

The people of Zhangjiakou are worried that the Mengjiang coupons in their hands will become worthless.

So this kind of thing is just a stopgap measure.

Finally, if the Border Region Currency wants to completely replace the Mengjiang Notes, the Border Region Bank still needs to issue more currency.

"I'll calculate it."

Gao Weinong nodded solemnly.

Although he studied business and was a university professor, apart from running a company before, it was not until he came to the 8th Column during the Jidong Uprising that he began to take on so much practical work.

Establish a base trading company, develop base business, formulate base business policies, and be responsible for base logistics.

None of them is the simple knowledge in books.

Now I am also temporarily responsible for the takeover of Mengjiang Bank.

Wei Hongjun was also helpless.

Because there are no cadres in this area, Gao Weinong can only be put in charge of so many institutions.

"I estimate it will only take six or seven days at most for someone from the Border Region Bank to come over and take over the Mengjiang Bank, and a large amount of Border Region currency will also flow into Zhangjiakou. As long as we can ensure that Zhangjiakou does not become chaotic during this period, it will be fine."

Chapter 431 Zhangjiakou Industry and Commerce

"Commissar, there is one more thing."

After discussing the circulation of border currency, Gao Weinong hesitated and said, "Recently, many businessmen in Zhangjiakou have come to me."

"what happened?"

"Originally, in accordance with the political commissar's instructions, we adopted a hands-off approach to the merchants in Zhangjiakou. As long as the Political Department determined they weren't traitors, we would provide them with the 'Implementation Rules for the Unified Progressive Tax Regulations of the Jin-Cha-Ji Border Region and the Jin-Cha-Yi Border Region' and allow them to operate legally. However, they faced many challenges in trying to revive their business on their own. So, they wanted to have a face-to-face meeting with the leadership of the Zhangjiakou Military Control Commission. Essentially, they simply wanted to invite the political commissar to speak with them."

Wei Hongjun nodded.

After entering Zhangjiakou, many of Wei Hongjun's ideas changed.

Previously, Wei Hongjun's focus had always been on heavy industry. He particularly valued the mining, steel, machinery, and chemical plants in the Zhangjiakou and Xuanhua areas. These heavy industrial enterprises were rare throughout China, and each one was a treasure for China. However, after arriving in Zhangjiakou, Wei Hongjun discovered that managing a large city differed radically from managing a county or township.

Just like Zhangjiakou's business is very developed, there are many processing industries, and of course there are even more small businesses such as handicraft workshops.

It was completely different from what Wei Hongjun thought.

Zhangjiakou is a trading city as well as an industrial city with many small factories.

Many of these small factories are family-run, employing at most two or three people. They can be considered workshops. There are hundreds of these small factories, and precisely because of their abundance, tens of thousands to twenty thousand people in Zhangjiakou rely on them for their livelihoods.

This is no small matter.

If problems arise in these small factories, it will directly affect the stability of Zhangjiakou.

Wei Hongjun had previously planned to let Zhangjiakou's business develop, observing the specific situation before implementing any policies. However, after learning about Zhangjiakou's situation over the past few days, Wei Hongjun's thoughts have changed significantly. Zhangjiakou is a trading city with a thriving commerce and numerous small factories. Without stabilizing these people, Zhangjiakou would struggle to maintain stability.

Therefore, the previously formulated idea of ​​standing by is problematic.

Now that the merchants from Zhangjiakou have come to us, we should meet with them.

"You can meet them. In big cities, industry and commerce are very important. Stabilizing industry and commerce means stabilizing the city. I have been looking at information on Zhangjiakou's industry and commerce these days. I found that there are 45 trade associations in Zhangjiakou. It is impossible for me to talk to them one by one. So my idea is that I will talk to the businessmen of the Chahar Zhangjiakou Chamber of Commerce first. Then you can help me classify the 45 trade associations into several major categories. Then each "trade association will send several representatives to form several delegations, and I will talk to these representatives several times."

Zhangjiakou had established a chamber of commerce in the late Qing Dynasty.

Later, it was renamed the Chahar Zhangjiakou General Chamber of Commerce. However, after the Japanese arrived, most of the leaders of the General Chamber of Commerce defected to the Japanese and became traitors. After becoming traitors, these people rose to prominence and became celebrities of the puppet Mengjiang United Autonomous Government.

After the Eighth Column captured Zhangjiakou, the property of these traitors was confiscated.

But there were also some businessmen who did not become traitors.

As a result, it has suffered a lot in recent years.

After the Eighth Column captured Zhangjiakou, some merchants from the former Chahar-Zhangjiakou General Chamber of Commerce reorganized a temporary chamber of commerce. It was they who approached Gao Weinong, hoping to meet with Wei Hongjun, director of the Zhangjiakou Military Control Commission.

As for the "trade association", its status is slightly lower than that of the General Chamber of Commerce. The General Chamber of Commerce is a joint organization of merchants in Zhangjiakou, while the "trade association" refers to a cooperative organization formed by people in the same industry.

Just like those who sell tea have a "Tea Traders Association," and those who sell wine have a "Wine Traders Association."

Before the Japanese came, Zhangjiakou's General Chamber of Commerce and "Trade Association"