1928: The rise of giant merchants

On June 4, the seventeenth year of the Republic of China (1928), there was an explosion at Huanggutun Station. Marshal Zhang, the leader of the Feng Clan warlords and the first person in the Beiyang government, died in the hospital after treatment failed.

On the same day, the National Government of Jinling appointed Yan Xishan as the commander-in-chief of the Beijing-Tianjin garrison. Yan immediately petitioned for the appointment of Zhang Yinwu as the garrison commander of Peking and Fu Zuoyi as the garrison commander of Tianjin.

On June 7, Marshal Zhang returned to the three eastern provinces and stabilized all aspects before finally making the news of his father's death public.

The Japanese invaders attempted to trigger a huge incident outside the customs by assassinating Marshal Zhang, and then, under the pretext of quelling the chaos and protecting the overseas Chinese, they openly sent troops to occupy the three eastern provinces just like they invaded the capital of Shandong Province.

Unfortunately, their plan failed. Although they successfully assassinated Marshal Zhang, there was no chaos in the three eastern provinces.

On June 8, the Third Army Shang Seismological Department entered Peiping, and on June 12, Fu Zuoyi's Department took over Tianjin.

In just eight days, the Northern Expeditionary Army took control of the Beijing-Tianjin area that was once controlled by the Beiyang warlords. This also gave a group of southern speculators who were waiting hard for the results a promising sign.

The Jiangsu and Zhejiang chaebols were powerful and received preferential treatment by supporting the Jinling National Government. However, the North China chaebols, which originally relied on the Beiyang government to rise, suffered. On the eve of the Northern Expeditionary Army entering the Beijing-Tianjin area, they evacuated en masse towards Jinling and Shanghai. Come.

Jiujiang construction tycoon Zhang Mouzhi, a South China chaebol member who had just attended Ye Qingqing's wedding not long ago, complained endlessly. Fortunately, his daughter Zhang Leyi got a ride on Finance Minister Song Ziwen's car in advance, so that the Zhang family would not be liquidated.

Zhang Mouzhi, who had just returned to Jiujiang not long ago, returned to Shanghai at the suggestion of his son-in-law. On this trip, he brought his fourth son Zhang Yuanbei, the most talented businessman in the family, and Zhang Yuanbei, who was only sixteen years old and already tall and slim. The youngest daughter is Zhang Anyi.

On the afternoon of June 8, Shanghai Railway Station.

Zhang Yuan, who had just gotten off the train with his suitcase in hand, looked around and sighed with his younger sister Zhang Anyi at the prosperity and splendor of Shanghai Beach!

"Dad, Shanghai is much better than our Jiujiang! It is indeed the largest city in the Far East!" Zhang Yuanbei has never left Jiujiang since graduating from university. He yearns for big cities like Peking and Shanghai. Unfortunately, his father had high hopes for his business ability. He was locked up in Jiujiang and followed him every day to learn how to do business, which made him very depressed.

The eldest brother Zhang Yuandong and the second brother Zhang Yuanxi both graduated from Cambridge University. Now one is the boss of a construction company and the other is the mayor of JJ City, making him envious and jealous.

I heard that his father was willing to bring him to Shanghai this time because he wanted to develop the Zhang family's construction business here, but Zhang Mouzhi's chosen partner was a young man only two years older than him!

"Dad, there is actually a train on the platform!" Miss Sixth Miss Zhang Anyi is still studying in Jiujiang Women's High School. Due to the recent vigorous student unrest and many changes in the school, Zhang Mouzhi decided to transfer her to the Chinese and Western Girls' School, and save another Her only thought was to bring about good things between her and the second young master.

That's right, Song Ziwen's suggestions were divided into two parts. The first was to advise his father-in-law to develop in Shanghai. He said that the next few years would be an explosive period for Shanghai's business community. When business is booming, buildings are indispensable. Zhangjia is a famous building in South China. Industry tycoons, even if they are parachuted across the river, they may not be unable to compete with the local snakes and foreign companies in Shanghai.

The second one mentioned a young man he didn't expect.

Ye Luo, the second young master of the Ye family of the former Labor Federation!

Thinking of the Ye family, Zhang Mouzhi couldn't help but sigh.

At the end of March, the Ye family was still a super wealthy family in Shanghai that was not far behind the Sheng family. The wedding of Ye Qingqing, the daughter of the Ye family, was held at the Majestic Hotel. Almost all the most prominent people in Shanghai at that time were entertained.

This wedding banquet gave Zhang Mouzhi a glimpse of the strength and power of the top chaebols in Jiangsu and Zhejiang.

This is not what their South China chaebol can compare with.

However, in less than two and a half months, the Second Northern Expedition suddenly came, and Feng Xiang was retreating steadily. Until recently, Lu Yongxiang fled Shanghai alone. General Lu's mansion was occupied by three tycoons of Yongxing Company, and even his most beloved concubine became a gangster of the Youth Gang. RBQ, Lu Xiaojia, one of the once extremely arrogant Shanghai Beach Boys, has disappeared.

The Ye family next to the Lu family also directly fell down the trees and scattered the hozens.

The Labor Federation was completely disbanded, Ye Chen set up his own business, and Ye Yuqiao's family hid in the British Consulate General in Shanghai.

This made Zhang Mouzhi see the impermanence of things in the world again.

But before he could recover from this series of events.

The Yip's Charitable Foundation set off a craze in the north. The Yip's Automobile Company under the name of Ye Luo actually challenged the Automobile Trade Association, which monopolized the automobile industry, and launched a "dragon-tiger battle" with Galt's Yunfei Company!

What shocked Zhang Mouzhi the most was that this young man named Ye Luo was neither arrogant nor impetuous. He did not mess up things like Ye Yuqiao and others. He had been doing business and arranging contacts in an orderly manner. Just when everyone thought that the Ye family was going to be completely destroyed. , God made another joke.

Ye Yuqiao's Ye family collapsed.

But Zhang Mouzhi has already learned from Song Ziwen that another family, the Ye Luo Ye family, which is probably a hundred times more powerful than the Ye family of the Labor Federation, is about to rise!

Zhang Mouzhi will never look down upon a partner who can be praised by the Minister of Finance and appointed as his partner.

"Hey, dad, this car is not a Ford?" Zhang Anyi looked around curiously. She was dressed in a beautiful and graceful progressive female student dress and turned heads at the station. Affected by the Northern Expedition and the massacre, a large number of northerners poured into Shanghai. These days Railway stations are overcrowded.

"Little sister, please stay close to me, be careful of pickpockets." Zhang Yuanbei protected his sister behind him and looked curiously at the cars approaching the platform one after another.

It was a car make he had never seen before.

Naturally, his family also owns a car, but driving all the way from Jiujiang to Shanghai is too expensive not to mention the gas and tolls. There is also vehicle and vessel tax. Ordinary cars pay NT$60 a year, and commercial vehicles pay NT$120. It was expensive to drive across provinces, and each region had its own vehicle and boat taxes to pay. They were afraid that they would be exploited for hundreds of thousands of dollars along the way, so they still took the train.

Zhang Yuanbei felt that the cars on the platform were not as good as his own Ford cars, let alone compared with luxury cars, but they were better because they were larger in number, and they had unified car logos, printed advertisements, and even the driver seated in the same car. The uniform looks like a taxi from a car dealership.

This is amazing!

It is quite a sight to see so many taxis parked at the platform.

I just don’t know which foreign company has such great strength. Not only is it engaged in car rental business in Shanghai, but it can also drive on the platform.

"This car is called Chevrolet 490. I usually tell you to read more newspapers, but all of you have turned a deaf ear!" Zhang Mouzhi glared at his son. Let's not mention his daughter for now. Anyway, he will get married when he grows up. Zhang Yuanbei has high hopes for him. , to pass on the business mantle.

"Where have you heard of it?" Zhang Yuanbei scratched his head.

"Ah, I remember it. The friend in Shanghai whom I mentioned opened a Ye's Automobile Shop. Is this the company that owns this car?" Zhang Anyi has a better memory.

As soon as she finished speaking, a young man wearing a suit and hat came over with a smile: "Miss, do you know the second young master Ala?"

"Second Young Master?" Zhang Anyi tilted her head and looked at him in confusion.

Seeing that the visitor actually had a pistol on his waist, Zhang Yuanbei was confused!

Zhang Mouzhi also stepped back nervously and asked tentatively: "Is it Ye Luo, the second young master of the Ye family?"