Spy Wars: Red Shopkeeper

Chapter 150 Factory
This was Gu Yansheng's first time visiting the Huxi Police Station, and now that he saw it, he realized that it was dilapidated and very old.

However, they certainly made a grand entrance, with a group of police officers standing in two straight lines to greet them.

"Welcome, Director Gu!" The slogan was shouted quite loudly.

Gu Yansheng got out of the car, and a man who looked like the director, in his thirties, walked over with Wang Rusong, the director of the tax bureau.

"Wait for a long time?"

"No, I just arrived too, we're chatting right now."

Wang Rusong chuckled and said, "Brother Gu, isn't this a grand affair? When I first arrived, it was the same. I told him it wasn't necessary, but he insisted on doing it again for you. He introduced me to Ma Quan, the chief of the Huxi Police Station."

As soon as he finished speaking, Ma Quan immediately lowered his body and quickly put on a fawning smile: "This humble servant Ma Quan greets Director Gu. Director Gu, you've worked hard. Please come in, Director Gu. I heard you love coffee, so I specially sent someone to buy some from a top-notch coffee shop in the concession."

I didn't know when you would be arriving, so I had someone buy you a cup every ten minutes, one cup every ten minutes, and have it delivered by rickshaw as soon as it was ready, ensuring it's at the perfect temperature. This cup just arrived three minutes ago, please enjoy it.

Stop calling him Ma Quan, call him a bootlicker instead.

Gu Yansheng smiled and said, "Director Ma, you've gone to a lot of trouble."

"Of course, of course, please go ahead."

He led the way, and Wang Rusong gave him a look and smiled, "Isn't he a remarkable person?"

"One cup every ten minutes, one cup every ten minutes. If I don't come for three months, will the money spent on coffee be enough to pay our 100,000 yuan in taxes?"

"Ha ha ha ha."

Arrived at the office.

Ma Quan smiled and introduced, "Director Gu, Director Wang, your offices have been cleaned and perfumed. Smell it, doesn't it smell wonderful? It's French."

"You're quite wealthy," Wang Rusong said in surprise, sniffing the aroma. "You know what, it really smells quite nice."

Ma Quan chuckled: "Where would I get that kind of money? The French were smuggling, and I caught them during the anti-smuggling operation. I didn't spend any money."

"Okay, I have some documents in the back of my car. Could you please have someone bring them over for me?"

"okay."

Ma Quan went out and gave some instructions, then immediately returned.

Gu Yansheng asked curiously, "Did Director Lu tell you we were coming? What did he say?"

Ma Quan bowed and replied, "Director Lu instructed that from today onwards, your orders are the highest directives. I must cooperate fully with your work and take good care of your daily life and safety. Any negligence will be severely punished."

Gu Yansheng glanced at the room's furnishings and sat down on the sofa. "To be the director of the West Shanghai Bureau, you must be Director Lu's favorite. Now that you know why we're here, we'll need your help in the future."

"Director Gu, please don't say you're helping. This is what I should do."

Gu Yansheng smiled and said, "Sit down, don't stand. There's no need. I have more questions for you later."

He turned to look at Wang Rusong, "Have you looked at the information on western Shanghai?"

"I've seen it, it's a complete mess." Wang Rusong said with a troubled expression, crossing his legs. "Brother Gu, I won't mince words between us. I'll just tell you something first, so you're prepared. All the taxes that can be collected from this area in western Shanghai have already been collected. Don't even think about squeezing out any more."

I specifically asked the tax collectors in western Shanghai, and do you know what they told me?
All Chinese-owned factories are currently operating at a loss. Forget about paying more taxes; they can't even pay their workers' wages. They're literally losing money while paying taxes.

"Is it that serious? Would anyone do a business that loses money?"

"Yes, I have."

Wang Rusong raised an eyebrow. "At first, when people told me, I didn't believe them, but the people who collect taxes under my command really know."

The most important cotton yarn mill in western Shanghai was very profitable before the war. Logically, since the war destroyed many factories, the remaining ones should have earned even more, right?
But in reality, these Chinese-owned factories are losing money every month. With the same production capacity as before, they used to sell to all over the country, but now that the Japanese control the waterways, they can't sell to anyone else, so they can only sell to Shanghai.

What price do you expect to get for this cotton yarn in Shanghai?
The Japanese had another trick up their sleeve: they took 40% of the goods at cost price, but who would pay for their food, drink, and other necessities?
Also, before the war, the tax rate for cotton yarn factories was eight percent, but when the Japanese came, they received fifteen percent.

Do you think this factory can still make a profit after all this?
The current tax rate is so high it's driving people to the brink of suicide; it's impossible to pay an extra penny, let alone an extra 30%.

Gu Yansheng had no intention of making money from these factories; there was no point in exploiting them.

But he was curious, "According to your logic, if the factory is losing money, why don't they close it down? Is it really losing money, or is it just accounting tricks?"

Wang Rusong smiled enigmatically, “Don’t you understand? The factory is losing money, but we’ve already spent money on people, so the factory is still valuable.”

The machine must be valuable, right? We can't bear to throw it away. We can't sell it for parts, but the Japanese are wary of that. If we sell it, who will produce the remaining 40% of the cotton yarn for them?
So they can only wait for the situation to improve and see if there's any chance of a turnaround.

And let me tell you, have you heard of the Rong family's cotton yarn factory? Before the war, it was the largest cotton yarn producer in Shanghai.

He's doing very well in the foreign concessions, but he has several factories in western Shanghai that are losing money. Logically, he could afford to lose so little and just close them down, but he refused the Japanese offer and is now refusing to leave the concessions.

But they didn't close it down. In fact, their nephews and nieces still manage the factory, operating it at a loss. Why?
The Japanese warned him that if he dared to close the factory, they would throw his entire family into the Huangpu River. Do you think he dared to close it?

Gu Yansheng nodded: "The method is quite effective. Was this the idea of ​​the Japanese company or the Military Police Headquarters?"

"Japanese companies? Who in the military police headquarters even knows about them? But these Japanese companies can buy their cotton yarn and then resell it to their own military at a high price. Isn't that free money? Find some Japanese ronin to scare them. They're just ordinary Japanese people, and they're not restricted from entering the concession. If they really wanted to kill the Rong family, it would be a piece of cake."

"It sounds like the situation is rather bad," Gu Yansheng nodded.

"Actually, I know a little about the situation." Ma Quan smiled and said, "This matter has caused trouble before, and there have been strikes more than once or twice. The main reason is that these factory owners are unwilling to lose money and wait for business to improve, so they can only delay paying the workers' wages. The factory workers are not getting paid, so they are very dissatisfied and cause trouble, resulting in strikes."

Wasn't there a major strike a few days ago because of food shortages? That's what caused the uproar.

The group of workers were already unpaid and relied on the factory canteen for meals. However, they ran out of rice for several days, leading to a huge riot. They even beat up the Japanese ronin who were supervising them. The Japanese came to me about it, and I arrested several of the ringleaders.

Gu Yansheng glanced at him sideways, "You're so concerned about the ronin's affairs, did you get paid?"

Ma Quan shook his head: "Why would they give me money? But the Japanese company has hired the military police, and the military police are all here. How can I not arrest people? They might even beat me up later."

"Where are the people now?"

“Release them. These men are all foremen. If we didn’t release them, the factory workers would cause trouble. They were arrested and detained for two days, but the Japanese took them back themselves. We can’t do without them.”

Gu Yansheng nodded in agreement: "Is there a serious shortage of rice in western Shanghai right now?"

"It's serious. There's a rice shortage everywhere, but people aren't starving to death."

At first, they didn't have any food, so they caused trouble. But the Japanese companies still needed them to work, so they gave them some rice. Now at least they have food to eat and can start working, but they're still not full. The Japanese companies are stingy; they only give them a tiny amount of rice a day, enough to keep them from starving.

Gu Yansheng looked at Wang Rusong and said, "Director Wang, we still need to communicate with Xingya Institute about this matter. We still need to transfer some rice over, so that we don't cause trouble again."

Wang Rusong nodded, "That makes sense. The rice issue is the first problem to solve. Anyway, the Japanese themselves said that we can't let anything go wrong. We should give them money and supplies as they need to. Let's get some rice over first."

Let's see if there are any other questions, and we can discuss them together over the phone later.

"it is good."

"The documents are here." The police officers outside had already brought the documents in.

Wang Rusong picked out a book and said, "Look, it's from last November. The December ones aren't finished yet, this is the latest one."

Gu Yansheng flipped through the pages and found that opium dens were a specialty in western Shanghai, with a total of 167 establishments. Each den charged 500 silver dollars a month, which would amount to 8 silver dollars.

There are 5 casinos, each with a mandatory tax of 5000 silver dollars per month, which amounts to 25,000 silver dollars in taxes.

"Only five casinos? I've heard there are many casinos in western Shanghai?"

"There are only 5 big casinos, some of which have dance halls inside. You can't escape them. There are many small casinos, but those illegal casinos can't be investigated. Once you go there, you'll be gone. You might think they're casinos, but they might be running schools inside. If you go there, they'll start reading to you."

"."

Seven Japanese-owned textile factories collected a total of 10,000 silver dollars in taxes, with a tax rate of a staggering three percent.

The Japanese are actually willing to pay taxes?

"Japanese factories only pay 3% tax?" Gu Yansheng asked. "Didn't you just say textile factories pay 15%? And how come it's only 10,000? Their seven factories have a monthly sales volume of less than 400,000?"

"Fifteen percent of those were Chinese-owned. It's good enough that the Japanese can pay taxes at all. Even with just three percent, I managed to get it down after I went with the municipal government to complain to the military police headquarters."

Wang Rusong scoffed, "They use our land and our people, without paying a single penny. What will the municipal government eat? The military police headquarters only agreed because of this."

As for the figure of over 300,000 a month, that's obviously a fake number, but we can't check other people's accounts. They say some of the cotton yarn they produce is supplied to the military, which is a military secret. What can we do?

This was indeed impossible to investigate, Gu Yansheng understood.

The remaining businesses are Chinese-owned factories and foreign-owned joint ventures. They take a portion, and small businesses take another portion, which together amount to 350,000 yuan in monthly tax revenue.

If we extrapolate this data to the whole year, it really would be four million.

Gu Yansheng looked at the industries in western Shanghai. Besides textile factories, there were actually quite a few other types of businesses, such as ship repair factories and textile machinery repair shops.

There were flour mills, match factories, soap factories, and even MSG manufacturers, including a famous brand called Tianchu MSG Factory. They paid 5000 silver dollars in taxes, which was quite a lot, comparable to three Japanese textile factories.

The factory is so small that the first few pages of its ledger are for major clients, while the rest are for various small shops. The taxes paid are only one or two dollars.
Gu Yansheng put the notebook on the sofa. "So many small businesses, it's giving me a headache."

"Don't worry about your headache, it'll give me an even bigger one." Wang Rusong sighed with a smile. "I'm in charge of collecting taxes. To be honest, if there's any way to collect more taxes, the people below have definitely thought of it. If we can collect this much, then this is the only way."

My mind isn't working properly, Brother Gu, I'll have to get you to come up with a plan.

(End of this chapter)