1928: The rise of giant merchants

Before Sheng Enyi left Shanghai Bund, the more he thought about it, the more unconvinced he became. After all, he was one of the "Four Young Masters of Shanghai Bund" as famous as Ye Luo. How could he end up like this?

He dialed the number of the Japanese Consulate General in Shanghai. This time he learned the lesson and called when Jin Bihui was not at the consulate, and successfully contacted Yada Nanitaro's secretary.

Unexpectedly, the other party was very impatient throughout the whole process. He had no intention of paying attention to the changes in the Sheng family and Shanghai's textile industry, and his words were all perfunctory.

Sheng Enyi was disappointed and left Shanghai in despair. In the end, she didn't understand why things suddenly turned out like this.

On the other side, Ye Luo, the instigator of the Sheng family's destruction, left Shanghai by boat overnight, quietly heading to Tokyo with Shi Jianqiao and other confidants.

The purpose of Ye Luo's trip was to collect money and convert the remaining 200 tons of gold into cash. After all, after the United States proposed the Silver and Gold Act, Japan immediately stopped thinking of gold outflows.

The first is to visit Yuyuki Hamaguchi, who is seriously injured and hospitalized. Maybe this will be the last time Ye Luo sees the Prime Minister.

Yes, just a few days ago, on November 14, Japan's current Prime Minister Hamaguchi Yuyuki was assassinated, and he almost died on the Tokyo Station platform.

The assassin of Hamaguchi Yuyuki was a radical right-wing young man. It is said that he came from a secret organization called "Sakura Club".

This organization is a fascist officer group in the Japanese Army in the early 1930s. It was launched in September 1930 by Hashimoto Kingoro and others. Most of its members are young officers who graduated from Army University and served in the military.

They are centered on Hashimoto Kingoro, Nemoto Hiroshi, and Nagayong.

Advocating that force should be used at all costs in order to promote national transformation and establish military power.

In foreign policy, Yinghui strongly advocated: "War is the father of creation and the mother of culture", advocated the use of force to solve the so-called "Manchuria and Mongolia" issue, advocated the establishment of a military fascist dictatorship and sent troops to invade and occupy the northeastern region of the Republic of China.

They are a group of out-and-out fanatical militarists.

Hamaguchi Yuyuki was not the first prime minister to be assassinated by a Sakurakai member.

As early as 1921, Hara Kei was attacked by right-wingers near Tokyo Station and died of injuries. The killer was a young military officer. He was later released from prison on bail by the Sakura Society.

Hamaguchi Yuyuki was assassinated this time. There are rumors that it was because he lifted the ban on gold circulation and restored the gold standard system, which eventually led to the collapse of the Japanese economy and entered the current terrifying era of deflation.

A series of failed financial and economic policies made the people very dissatisfied, so they were assassinated by right-wing elements.

This is not the case.

After World War II, a group of Sakura-kai members who were Class-A war criminals revealed the truth about Hamaguchi Yuyuki’s assassination before they died.

The real reason why he was hated by right-wing militarists was not because of his wrong economic policies, but because Hamaguchi went against all odds and signed the London Naval Disarmament Treaty with the great powers.

The so-called London Naval Disarmament Treaty is actually a supplement to the previously signed Washington Naval Disarmament Treaty.

To put it simply, the two parents, Britain and the United States, are very dissatisfied with the excessive number of main battleships in the Japanese Navy.

Your parents only have so many main warships. Why does an illegitimate child like you have so many?

No, cut them all off!

Therefore, after the Washington Naval Disarmament Treaty, the number of main warships owned by Japan dropped to only about 70% of the British and American navies.

However, Britain and the United States are not satisfied with this. This year, they proposed that the number of Japanese naval auxiliary ships also needs to be reduced to this ratio.

The so-called auxiliary ships refer to cruisers, destroyers, submarines and other ships other than battleships.

Now the Japanese militarists were unhappy. They believed that reducing the number of auxiliary ships to this ratio would make them unable to cope with a sudden war, and they firmly refused to sign this treaty.

However, Hamaguchi Yuyuki ignored them at all. He turned around and signed a treaty with Britain and the United States, and then asked the emperor to come forward to persuade these admiralty generals.

Some people known as the "fleet faction" within the Navy, represented by the Chief of the Navy General Department, Kanji Kato, and the Deputy Chief of the General Department, Nobumasa Suetsugu, believed that the government's performance at the London Naval Armament Conference violated the emperor's right to command.

These people thus came into opposition with the so-called "treaty faction" represented by Navy Minister Treasury Hiro and former Navy Minister Okada Keisuke who supported the government's decision.

The opposition party Seiyukai, who intends to overthrow the current cabinet, also seized the opportunity to align with the Kantai faction. However, traditional right-wingers who believe in the supremacy of the emperor and oppose maintaining stable relations with the United States and Britain have joined the debate, exacerbating the issue. .

This controversy is known as the "command power violation incident" in Japanese politics, and it almost split the country into two camps.

Hamaguchi Yuyuki's toughness made right-wingers angry. This group of lawless guys planned this assassination. Unfortunately, the killer this time was not like his descendant - the young gunman who killed a certain Shinzo in Nara with a homemade blunderbuss. Just as successful.

Ye Luo, who is familiar with these histories, dared to come to Tokyo to visit Hamaguchi Yuyuki because he knew that this storm would not involve him, the God of Wealth.

In the final analysis, this is a power struggle between the moderates led by Yuyuki Hamaguchi and the radicals led by the militarist Class-A war criminals.

The general trend of history is unshakable. Ye Luo has long known this, so he has never had the idea of ​​​​saving Hamaguchi Yuyuki.

Although sometimes he wonders, if he had prevented the assassination or found the best medical team to cure Yuki Hamaguchi and prevented him from dying on August 26 next year, would Japan's party rule be maintained? Go down?

Is it possible that the damn era of militarism will never come?

After all, compared to those beast-like guys, Hamaguchi is relatively gentle, and his policy towards China is mainly based on cooperation.

It's a pity that there is no if in history.

Japan's move toward militarism was not the will of one person or a group of people. It was a path that the entire country had to choose.

The failure to restore the gold standard system, the announcement of the Silver and Gold Act in the United States, and the arrival of the deflationary Great Depression era were the real triggers.

Either it will perish or transfer the contradiction to the outside, there is no other way.

So standing in front of the bed in the special care ward of Tokyo Imperial Hospital, looking at the pale and sluggish old man in front of him, Ye Luo felt no pity in his heart.

These people deserve to die.

"Thank you so much, Boss Ye, for coming to visit me." Hamaguchi Yuyuki never imagined that those radicals would dare to send someone to assassinate him!

For the sake of this country and the people, why do they think power is greater than anything else?

He doesn't understand.

So he was unwilling to give in.

He decided to continue serving as Prime Minister after recovering from his injury and attended Congress to turn the country back from the wrong direction.

As for now.

"You're welcome, the main purpose of my coming back is to get back the gold." Ye Luo smiled.

Hamaguchi Yuyuki also smiled.

Sure enough, just like when they first met, this young Chinese with extremely keen business sense never concealed his desires.

After the United States implemented the Silver and Gold Act, a large amount of silver and gold flowed out of Japan. The gold circulation problem that once troubled Japan was solved, but now it has become a life-threatening mantra!

If it had been a month earlier, even a dozen days, there might not have been a need to spend a lot of money to ask this young man to help circulate gold!

But there are so many ifs?

This young man chose to dance on the tip of the knife. At that time, they all felt that they had taken advantage, and the consortium laughed at this young man's ignorance.

Spending 200 million US dollars to buy a pile of gold that cannot be circulated is a stupid investment in their opinion.

But in the end, the clown turned out to be me.

He succeeded.

In less than two months, the price of gold in Japan has doubled several times and is flowing outward at a geometric speed.

The speed is so fast that they are ready to ban the circulation of gold and withdraw the Japanese yen from the international market to preserve its value and prevent it from being destroyed by currencies such as the US dollar and the British pound.

Now that Ye Luo is back, if they want to take away the gold, they must buy it back at a higher price!

And it's like knowing in advance that these things are going to happen.

The witness of Ye Luo's cooperation with the Japanese government and consortium is the American who proposed the Silver and Gold Bill!

At this stage, the London Naval Disarmament Treaty has just been signed with Britain and the United States. If he turns against them at this time, all the efforts Hamaguchi Yuyuki has made will be in vain.

As long as he is alive, it will be impossible for those right-wing militarists to let the military control the power as they wish.

Therefore, Hamaguchi Yuyuki was determined to abide by the agreement, help Ye Luo convert the gold into a large amount of cash, and then send him away safely, in order to show the determination of him and the Hamaguchi cabinet he led!

Ye Luo could probably guess the old man's inner thoughts from Hamaguchi Yuyuki's expression.

The old man didn't know that he would die of his injuries next year and that all his hard work would be in vain. Instead, he would make a wedding dress for the militarists he disliked the most.

He must be very motivated and unyielding now, and he must hold down the heads of those militarists even to the death!

So Ye Luo doesn't have to worry about withdrawing money at all, he just needs to sit and wait for the money to arrive.

"Don't worry. Although I have temporarily left the Prime Minister's Office due to injury, Shi Yuan, who replaced me to handle the Prime Minister's affairs, is also one of our people. He will help you convert gold into cash."

Hamaguchi Yuyuki looked into his eyes and said solemnly,

"We also hope that you can abide by our previous agreements, continue to maintain investments in various Japanese companies, and never sell the 100 tons of gold stored there to the United States."

"Of course, businessmen value integrity the most, which is different from you politicians." Ye Luo nodded, smiling brightly. (End of chapter)