1928: The rise of giant merchants

At this time, the telephone company was still under the control of American businessmen. There was not much interaction between Ye Luo and the U.S. Consulate General in Shanghai. In terms of relationship, it must not be as strong as Chairman Galt of Yunfei Company.

If you want the Chevrolet 490 to replace Yunfei's Ford and become the sole overlord in Shanghai's car rental industry, an easy-to-remember and catchy car rental phone number is essential.

In the original history, Zhou Xiangsheng relied on the famous "40000" number to make a comeback, directly smashed Yunfei Company, and achieved the reputation of the King of Shanghai Taxi in one fell swoop.

Now, Ye Luo has to handle this matter personally.

Now his Ye's Automobile Company's reservation numbers follow the old numbers of Xiangsheng Automobile Company, 40251 and 40253, which are vastly different from Yunfei Company's 30189 and Silver Company's 30030.

If you want to change your number, you have to go to Manager Sorey, the person in charge of American Telephone Company.

Ye Luosi thought about it and decided to entrust this important task to George.

"Mr. Sorey? I think I met him once at a cocktail party." George frowned. He had very few interactions with these powerful people, but because of his prominent family background, as long as he came to the door, the other party would usually give him a lot of respect. .

"Well, in short, this matter is very important to me. Don't say it's my intention for the time being. Just contact him occasionally, and then invite their company's employees to the Fengming Building to reserve a restaurant for dinner and drinks. By the way, I have some buses here. Car coupons and free pick-up and drop-off services, you can send them to them depending on the situation.”

Ye Luo patted George on the shoulder and handed him a thick stack of bus coupons.

George is a very interesting guy.

He is not good at communication and socializing, but because of this, he can always give people a sincere and real feeling. Every time he talks about business, he can always succeed immediately.

Of course, this is also inseparable from his family relationship.

In short, George looks like the mascot of Yeluo Company, and it can bring him some luck.

"I understand, I'll do my best." George is a true bestie. In fact, Ye Luo doesn't need to tempt him with papers. As long as Ye Luo comes to ask for help, he will definitely try his best to help his only close friend in China.

But it would be even better to have these papers as a follow-up!

"Okay, I'll leave first then. You can continue your work." Ye Luo knew that he was in a hurry to research the paper, so he stopped disturbing him.

There is no rush to change your phone number.

Nowadays, no one knows the terrifying power contained in this string of numbers. Even if George cannot reach an agreement and he forcibly purchases it with money, foreigners will sell it to him privately for profit.

But this is ultimately the last resort.

When doing business in Shanghai, as long as Ye Luo is not his competitor, he will try his best to win over him as his friend.

One more friend, one more road, and the reputation of foreigners in the concession is so high. If he can get to know more foreigners, it will be more convenient for him to do business.

But foreigners are foreigners after all, they are locusts crawling on the Chinese and sucking blood. It is difficult to find a pure guy like George among a hundred thousand foreigners.

In Ye Luo's eyes, after all, they were just tools for him to use temporarily.

Just like Sidney Barton, he relied on Yello to make a lot of money in the U.S. stock market, so he was kind to Yello. Once he lost money, the iron fist and the foreign gun in his hand would point at him mercilessly. head.

And if he wanted to completely get rid of the shackles of foreigners, he had to slowly inject capital into the industrial field before the war broke out.

His business empire blueprint can be summed up in eight words:

From scratch (from no capital to capital, from importing and exporting goods to producing domestic goods), from light to heavy (from basic necessities, food, housing and transportation to light industry to heavy industry).

But at this stage, if you want to touch the industrial field, you must have sufficient capital.

Even if you just open a textile factory with dozens of people working, the start-up capital will be 200,000 yuan!

There is no way, the domestic hard conditions such as technology and equipment are poor, and many mechanical equipment are not produced in China at all. If you want to buy them, you have to buy imported Japanese, American, and British goods. Foreigners will not let you open a factory to grab business. A piece of equipment that costs NT$10,000 abroad will cost you NT$50,000 after importing it, including all taxes and price differences!

There's no way you can make your money back!

After a lot of effort, the factory was opened. Concessions, warlords, local gangs, chambers of commerce and other forces came to trouble you every day and asked you to pay various protection fees. Any factory with any conscience could not last more than a month before going bankrupt.

Considering these severe external conditions, although Ye Luo is already considered a well-known businessman in the eyes of outsiders, he still has a strong sense of urgency and feels that there is not enough time.

This number only needs to be obtained before the assassination.

Anyone who dares to stop him in this matter will just wait to buy a coffin to collect the body!

Ye Luo strode out of the consulate. Behind him, Audrey watched from a distance. She hesitated to speak several times, but finally watched him leave in the car.

"Second Young Master, I think that foreign girl is interested in you." After being in contact with Ye Luo for a while, Ma Yongzhen knew that he preferred to get along with her as a friend. He was also a talkative and outgoing person, and gradually started to talk Just let go.

"Really? Why don't I think so?" Ye Luo smiled softly and lit up a cigarette.

He doesn't know a damn thing.

Audrey's eyes almost overflowed with admiration for herself.

From the first meeting with Consul General Patton, to the subsequent bold purchase of 2,000 Chevrolet 490s from General Motors, to the current close relationship with George, Ye's Automobile Company has become a blockbuster.

All of this was seen by Audrey, and she even listened quietly to many things.

There is more than 30 years of age difference between her and Consul General Patton, and coupled with their status relationship, they are destined to be unable to achieve success.

When she was young, she might still have some fantasies, but now, she has already seen through it.

Ye Luo deliberately kept this introduction, hoping that it would not be used in the future.

Seeing that Ye Luo didn't want to say anything, Ma Yongzhen immediately changed the topic and talked about Ye's Security Company: "Second Young Master, according to your instructions, I have transferred all my trustworthy brothers to Ye's Security Company. But I have a doubt."

"Tell me." Ye Luo put out his cigarette and threw it out of the car window.

"Since you, Second Young Master, plan to stock up on people and guns, why don't you use the name of the Knife Gang to recruit people? With Master Ye's prestige in the world, as long as you use the name of the Knife Gang, more people will come to join you than now."

Ma Yongzhen's thinking is still the common gang mentality during the Republic of China.

One army, two governments, three gangs and four merchants. Companies founded by businessmen are the least popular in people's eyes, far less prestigious than Qinggang and Hongmen.

Ye Yuqiao's Knife Gang later transformed into the Federation of Labor, but its essence remained unchanged. From the inside out, it was just a large gang disguised as a business. This was one of the reasons why it eventually came to an end.

The Ye's Security Company founded by Ye Luo and Ye Hao not only has a legal and compliant business entity, but its employees also have serious trades and skills, and they can no longer be regarded as people in the world.

It's just that the work they are undertaking now still has a certain gray nature, and is essentially different from the gangs.

But in this way, the requirements for employees will become extremely high. In Ma Yongzhen's eyes, this behavior is inexplicable.

Isn’t this an era where whoever has more people is stronger?

As strong as the three tycoons, he still supports a group of youth gang gangsters. Yu Likui, who is in the car dealer business, has a coachman who pulls cars during the day and beats people at night. Fourth Master Tan, who is in charge of the Shanghai Bund Pier, has people who work at the terminal and also Hanging out in gangs.

He always felt that Ye Luo encouraged Ye Hao to recruit troops, but at the same time strictly limited the number of employees in the company, pursuing refinement rather than quantity, which seemed particularly conflicting.

"Haha, you will know in a month or two." Ye Luo smiled faintly and glanced at the pistol on his waist, "Yongzhen, remember my words. Ten steps away, the gun is fast; ten steps away, the gun is fast; Within a step, the gun is fast and accurate, times have changed, why do I need so many bastards under my command?"

Ma Yongzhen said "hmm" and nodded heavily. Although she didn't understand what the second young master meant, just remember it!

The Ford V8 was riding fast all the way, and finally arrived at the Hudong office of the Labor Federation!

Looking at the ancient building in front of him, Ye Luo smiled faintly.

In the eyes of many people related to the Ye family, this is a place full of memories.

But in Ye Luo's eyes, this is just a place that has been corrupted by the atmosphere of the old era and should be eliminated as soon as possible.