1928: The rise of giant merchants

The Ye family motorcade stopped properly on the road outside the Hongkou Dojo. Okamoto Jusan, the then Japanese Consul General in Shanghai, was standing outside the door with a gloomy face, glaring at the people who invested in Ye's.

Ye Luo asked everyone to get off the car together, walked over with a smile and greeted Okamoto Jusan: "Consul General Okamoto, it's been a long time since we last met in Tokyo."

Before coming to China, Okamoto Jusan worked in the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs. When Ye Luo went to Tokyo to help the Japanese circulate their gold reserves, he attended many banquets held by the Japanese upper class.

During that period, he met many members of the consortium and senior Japanese officials, and offended the militarists of the Japanese military because of his strong investment in various consortiums and the development of Ye's investment in Japan.

Okamoto Jusan was originally the deputy director of the Diplomatic Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. When Ye Luo came to Tokyo, he was one of the officials who followed Hamaguchi Yuyuki to strongly support Ye Luo's purchase of gold.

Unexpectedly, the financial crisis in the United States swept Japan so quickly, directly causing their gold standard system to collapse.

In this way, Hamaguchi Yuyuki's practice of restoring the gold standard has become a pusher for accelerating the death of Japan's finance, and the domestic economic depression has become more serious.

After Hamaguchi Yuyuki's death, Okamoto Jusan, who could have been promoted to the head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, was targeted by the military and demoted to the Japanese Consulate General in Shanghai on the grounds of taking the lead in opposing the salary cuts of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

At this time, another demoted diplomat, Iwai Eiichi, who was in his thirties, came here for this reason.

The two naturally didn't give a good face to Ye Luo.

Iwai Eiichi works in the intelligence department of the newly established embassy in Shanghai and now lives at No. 15 Qianai Li at the end of Beichuanyu Road.

He stood next to Okamoto Jusan and was stunned when he heard that Ye Luo could speak very fluent Japanese.

He himself was proficient in English, Japanese and Chinese. He originally wanted to take the opportunity to serve as Okamoto Jusan's translator to seek better power and status here. Unexpectedly, Ye Luo spoke Japanese much more fluently than his Chinese.

"Haha, Ye Sang, thanks to you, I lost tens of thousands of dollars in Tokyo, and now I'm transferred to Shanghai." Okamoto Jusan sneered and ignored Ye Luo's outstretched hand.

"Consul General Okamoto, investment is always risky. You lost money by following me in buying and selling gold. You should blame the unstable gold price and the Americans for not being able to handle the financial crisis. How can you blame me?"

Ye Luo laughed and didn't care about Okamoto Jusan's rude behavior and tone. After saying this, he secretly looked at Iwai Eiichi.

This guy is also a celebrity in later generations, but it was not himself who made him famous, but a legendary underground worker-Yuan Xueyi.

He was active in the literary and political circles of Shanghai in the 1930s and 1940s, and had five identities: the Communist Party of China, the Central Bureau of Investigation and Statistics, the Military Bureau of Investigation and Statistics, the Japanese puppets, and the Green and Red Gang. During his activities as an agent, he provided accurate strategic intelligence on the deployment of the war between Germany and the Soviet Union and the Japanese army during World War II. He was a very powerful and great agent.

The opportunity for him to successfully infiltrate the Japanese spy agency was this Iwai Eiichi.

Of course, Yuan Xueyi in this world is not called this name, but has another more widely known identity and name-Ming Lou, the eldest son of the Shanghai rich family Ming family!

The Ming family belongs to the second echelon among the rich families in Shanghai. When the Ye Labor Union was still there, the Ming family focused on the marginal industries in the suburbs and county towns of Shanghai. After the Labor Union was disbanded, they gradually took over a lot of gang territories.

Before, the independent group plowed all the gangs in Shanghai, and the three tycoons of Yongxing were killed one by one by Ye Luo. The Ming family, which has always remained neutral and served as Feng Jingyao's younger brother in the French Concession, slowly rose.

After the death of Ming Ruidong, the head of the Ming family, Ming Lou has been running the huge Ming family industry. In the past ten years, the Ming family has been firmly sitting on the top of the second echelon of the Shanghai rich. Ming Lou is very low-key and basically does not attend any business activities. He only focuses on running the family business.

Not long ago, Wang obtained the power of the Jinling National Government. Ming Lou suddenly emerged and served as the chief financial adviser of the Economic Department of the Ministry of Finance of the Jiangcheng National Government, deputy director of the Special Commission, and inspector general of the General Administration of Customs. He gradually entered the eyes of the top leaders and the public.

Now that the principal has regained power, Ming Lou and Wang's followers are naturally not doing well. He was transferred to the Ministry of Finance of the Shanghai Municipal Hall as a small section chief, and he was idle at home.

In fact, Ming Lou's other identity now is the colonel section chief of the intelligence department of Dai Li's secret service, codenamed "Viper", and he is also the leader of the underground intelligence group of the underground organization in Shanghai, codenamed "Cobra".

Ming Lou's opportunity to infiltrate the Japanese spy agency was through meeting Iwai Eiichi, but the two of them must not know each other now.

Being looked at by Ye Luo for a while, Iwai Eiichi felt a little cold and uncomfortable. He heard that many big figures in the Republic of China had a habit of having affairs with men, and it was not possible that this handsome young man in front of him also had it!

Seeing Iwai Eiichi avoiding his sight, Ye Luo was stunned for a moment, then continued to smile at Okamoto Jusan and said, "Consul General Okamoto, what do you think of my proposal? 5 million dollars, this price will probably drop to more than 4 million in a few days."

"I'll consider it." Okamoto Jusan was crazy about selling it, but the Hongkou Dojo had too many secrets, especially those confidential documents had not been transferred yet. What's the difference between selling it to Ye Luo at this time and selling the country?

But if it drags on like this, Ye Luo will definitely lower the purchase price again and again, and every time he lowers it, countless dollars will flow out of his fingers!

"Do you still want to consider it? Then I'll have to come again next time." Ye Luo spread his hands, "But Consul General Okamoto, you also know that I bought this place to build a new cinema. Nowadays, talkies are popular all over the world, and there are only three talkies in the Republic of China, one of which is my Ye's Guangming Cinema, which is also the only one in Shanghai. If you are reluctant to sell the dojo to me, I may find another good place to build a cinema."

"Talkies?" Okamoto Shisan was even more anxious.

He naturally knew that Ye's Film Company had entered the Hollywood market, and the talkies produced in recent years were very popular both at home and abroad. Lin Ruxian, the boss of Ye's Film Company, was on the cover of American film fashion magazines many times.

Ye Luo wanted to build a new cinema. The Hongkou area of ​​the Japanese Concession was originally a gathering place for literati who liked to watch movies. It was understandable that he chose the Hongkou Dojo.

After a trace of doubt in his heart dissipated, Okamoto Shisan decided to transfer the information as soon as possible, and then slaughtered Ye Luo hard.

It turned out that he wanted to build a cinema!

"Yes, Consul General Okamoto doesn't watch movies?" Ye Luo looked at him suspiciously.

Okamoto Jusan gritted his teeth and said, "I understand. Please let me think about it for a few more days." (End of this chapter)