Siheyuan, my new life

When night fell, two figures that were completely imperceptible to the naked eye suddenly appeared in the detention room of the Municipal Public Security Bureau.

As the ringleader of a criminal organization that stole and sold state assets, Lou Zhenhua was treated in solitary confinement.

At this time, Lou Zhenhua had long lost the proud demeanor of Lou Bancheng in the past. He sat in the corner with a dead look on his face, and the two cornmeal steamed buns and a bowl of water in front of him remained untouched. Lou Zhenhua, who had always been successful, had been dumbfounded by this sudden change.

Lou Zhenhua started traveling around the country with his father to do business when he was fourteen or fifteen years old. His personal experience over the years has taught him a truth, that is, "money can make anything possible."

The Lou family used the money in their hands to get through one checkpoint after another and successfully acquired a huge amount of wealth, which is why they earned the title of "Lou Bancheng" in the Beijing business circle.

Lou Zhenhua is well aware of the principle that a cunning rabbit has three burrows, and knows better than to put all your eggs in one basket. Therefore, he is always able to plan ahead, sheltering the Lou family's huge business from wind and rain, and overcoming difficulties that are completely insurmountable in the eyes of outsiders.

When the Japanese pirates began to stir up trouble in the three northeastern provinces, Lou Zhenhua established connections with the Kwantung Army and the Black Dragon Society through the Xiao Rizi Consulate in Sijiucheng. He not only provided the Japanese army with a large amount of much-needed steel, but also helped Xiao Rizi import a lot of rubber, gasoline, diesel and other supplies through Xiangjiang.

Lou Zhenhua not only earned a lot of money from it, but also forged a deep friendship with the Xiaorizi military. Therefore, when Xiaorizi occupied Sijiu City, the Lou family's industry was not affected, and he took the opportunity to buy a large number of industries from the Xiaorizi occupying army at a low price.

At the same time, Lou Zhenhua also maintained communication with the skinheads in the south, often using his connections to secretly provide them with some much-needed imported medicines and even arms.

Lou Zhenhua also donated some scarce cloth, cotton and medicines to our troops who were bravely fighting against the Japanese army at that time, and was regarded by many of our people as a patriotic businessman.

In Lou Zhenhua's eyes, whether it was doing business with the Japanese army and the skinheads or donating supplies to our army, he regarded these actions as advance investment, because Lou Zhenhua believed that these investments would one day bring him considerable returns.

It was also because of Lou Zhenhua's foresight that when Xiao Rizi announced his surrender, the Skinheads took over Sijiu City. With previous cooperation, Lou Zhenhua and the receiving specialist sent by the Skinheads hit it off immediately. With a large amount of wealth paved the way, the Lou family's industry also expanded rapidly like a balloon.

As our army won victory after victory, Lou Zhenhua also clearly sensed that the world was about to change. However, Lou Zhenhua, who had experienced many hardships, did not panic. He first secretly sent his second son to Hong Kong, where he expanded the scale of the original Lou family company and sold many properties and shops in the city. He exchanged all the funds collected for gold and transported them to Hong Kong through the smuggling channels he controlled. He personally rented safe deposit boxes in HSBC Bank, Standard Chartered Bank and Citibank in Hong Kong, and deposited gold, jewelry and large-value bearer bank deposit slips.

After the peaceful liberation of the city of 1949, the Military Control Commission quickly sent troops to take over all large and medium-sized enterprises in the city in accordance with the instructions of the superiors. Lou Zhenhua took the initiative to cooperate with the military representatives sent to the Lou Steel Rolling Mill to take over the work, and showed them the receipts of his donations of cloth, cotton and medicines to our army and the certification materials issued by the troops at that time.

As a result, Lou Zhenhua quickly gained the trust of the military representative, and according to the military representative's suggestion, he took the initiative to propose that the Lou's Steel Rolling Mill be a public-private partnership.

The military representative who took over the Lou’s Steel Rolling Mill at that time was Xu, who later became Vice Minister of the Ministry of Industry. It was this Vice Minister Xu who recommended Lou Zhenhua to his superiors and identified him as a "red capitalist."

Therefore, the former Lou's Steel Mill was renamed the Red Star Steel Mill after public-private partnership. In order to increase the production capacity and output of the steel mill, the superiors intended to expand the Red Star Steel Mill. However, due to the blockade of the New Dragon Country by Western forces led by the Bald Eagle, all kinds of advanced technologies and equipment are urgently needed.

When Lou Zhenhua heard the news from the representative Xu Jun, he immediately sent Lou Cheng to contact his eldest son who was far away in Bald Eagle. He purchased a large number of newly obsolete equipment from various large steel rolling mills in Bald Eagle at a price slightly higher than scrap iron. He also bought some steel rolling technology from the 1940s and 1950s at a very favorable price, and hired technical workers to inspect and maintain the equipment.

It has to be admitted that Lou Zhenhua's eldest son does have an extraordinary talent for business. He knew very well that it would be very difficult to buy equipment and technology from Bald Eagle with his Chinese identity, but he hired a group of South Vietnamese immigrants to pretend to be South Vietnamese companies and negotiate with major steel mills in Bald Eagle about purchases. At that time, the Bald Eagle government had just introduced a policy to vigorously support the South Vietnamese government, hoping that South Vietnam could become a bridgehead against the New Dragon Kingdom.

Lou Zhenhua's eldest son took advantage of this opportunity and pretended to be a South Vietnamese enterprise. He not only purchased a large number of newly eliminated steel rolling equipment at a very low price, but also obtained the corresponding production processes and technologies at an extremely low price.

After all the equipment maintenance was completed, they were immediately shipped to Hong Kong and "sold" to the Lou family's company in Hong Kong in the name of a South Vietnamese enterprise. Finally, Lou Zhenhua contacted Xu Jun's representative and sold the equipment and technology to the Red Star Steel Rolling Mill at a price dozens of times higher than the cost.

Even at this price, it was still much lower than the market price in Hong Kong at that time. Especially in the environment at that time, even if the Red Star Steel Rolling Mill had the money, it would not be able to buy the necessary equipment and technology from Hong Kong.

This deal was a win-win situation for both parties. Lou Zhenhua made millions in profits, while Representative Xu Jun received commendation from his superiors. He soon joined the newly established Ministry of Industry and became a powerful deputy minister of the Ministry of Industry in a very short time.

Even with such huge returns from this transaction, Lou Zhenhua's greed could not be satisfied.

Since the public-private partnership, Lou Zhenhua has only been a director in name only. On the surface, he has no longer been involved in the specific affairs of the steel mill and only receives dividends from shares every year.

Lou Zhenhua, a cunning veteran, had already discovered that the internal management of the Red Star Steel Mill was in a mess due to a lack of management and technical personnel. Most of the people who had just taken over the leadership of the steel mill were retired soldiers from the army, and they were all laymen in managing a company.

So Lou Zhenhua set his sights on the special steel produced by the Red Star Steel Rolling Mill using new equipment.

The main leaders of the Red Star Steel Rolling Mill are either former subordinates of Vice Minister Xu or people promoted by Vice Minister Liang.

Due to his relationship with Vice Minister Xu, Lou Zhenhua quickly opened up the internal channels of the Red Star Steel Mill through various means. It coincided with the inaction of the former director of the Security Department of the Red Star Steel Mill, and soon the special steel produced by the Red Star Steel Mill was smuggled out in a steady stream.

For safety reasons, Lou Zhenhua did not directly intervene in the sales of special steel. Instead, Lou Cheng conducted the transaction directly at the Port of Tianjin. As for who the buyer would resell the special steel to next, Lou Zhenhua simply did not care.

In just two or three years, Lou Zhenhua earned tens of millions of dollars in profits by stealing and selling special steel. He originally planned to work for another year or two and then take the Lou family's property and flee to Hong Kong.

Some basic information about Lin Yu, the new director of the Security Department of the Red Star Steel Rolling Mill, had long been found out by interested people. After all, Lin Yu needed to receive the title before taking office, and the decision to appoint him as the director of the Security Department of the Red Star Steel Rolling Mill was made more than a month ago. In addition, Lin Yu's work arrangement needed to be coordinated by several departments, so this matter was not a secret in certain circles.

Lou Zhenhua heard about this incident during a private dinner with Vice Minister Xu. The two men rarely met in public, but often got together in private.