Spy Wars: Red Shopkeeper

Chapter 169 Raise the price
Gu Yansheng was in a good mood. When he got home, Zhou Ma had already prepared the cleaned vegetables, and they were just waiting to be cooked.

Gu Yansheng asked, "Four dishes and a soup, all of which are my favorite side dishes. Okay, I'll sit on the sofa and read the newspaper while I wait."

That's the advantage of having a chef at home: you can eat whatever you want, and it's clean and hygienic.

After reading the newspaper for a while, I heard a car horn honking at the door.

Not many people are allowed to honk their horns here.

Soon, a subordinate came in to report, "Sir, it's Mayor Fu."

"What a rare guest." Gu Yansheng put down his newspaper, thought for a moment and smiled. What did Fu Xiao'an want with him?

They went out to greet him, saying, "Mayor Fu, your presence is an honor, I have failed to welcome you properly."

"Why are you being so polite with me?" Fu Xiao'an pulled out a bottle of red wine as a gift. "I invited you over for a meal, is there anything to eat?"

“We have to have some even if we don’t have any.” Gu Yansheng waved his hand: “Please come in, have a seat, and wait a moment. Aunt Zhou, please add two more dishes.”

"Hey, hey." Aunt Zhou jogged out of the kitchen.

Gu Yansheng handed over the wine, saying, "Save it and open our own wine."

Aunt Zhou nodded, "Okay."

Gu Yansheng made no attempt to hide his actions from Fu Xiao'an, and said with a smile, "I've kept Mayor Fu's wine as a treasure. Since you've come to my house, drink my wine."

Fu Xiao'an's expression darkened. "What? Are you afraid I'll poison you? I have to drink it too."

"Hahahaha." Gu Yansheng laughed as he sat down and said, "Mayor Fu, I'm not afraid of you harming me, I'm afraid someone will harm you."

I'm the one who puts everything into my mouth now, and I don't easily change who gets it, you know? Chen Lu from Nanjing died, he died at home.

“I’ve heard about it.” Fu Xiao’an’s face was also gloomy when he talked about this. “The Military Intelligence Bureau is becoming more and more rampant. In the past, when they killed people on the street, they would at most lay an ambush. Now they dare to break into people’s homes and kill them. In a few days, I think they will even dare to break into the municipal government and turn the world upside down.”

"So," Gu Yansheng said earnestly, "there's nothing we can do. Who knows who the Military Intelligence Bureau's next target will be? Honestly, I might be a possibility, but Mayor Fu, aren't you even more likely?"
Who bought your liquor? Where did they buy it? Aren't your purchasing channels too reliant on one thing and might attract the attention of the Kuomintang? Well, if I used you, wouldn't it have gotten to my house?

"The Military Intelligence Bureau has a history of poisoning drinks, have you forgotten?"

Arsenic? Forget about it! Fu Xiao'an ended up in the hospital for a month because of it.

Now I understand Gu Yansheng. "You are cautious enough, and it's not wrong to be careful, but that bottle of wine is my collection, it came from my home. What kind of poison would the Military Intelligence Bureau use?"
"Can I just go out and buy the wine I brought you on the street?"

Gu Yansheng said dismissively, "Really? To be honest, if you just randomly pick a shop on your way home from get off work and buy it there, I really think it's quite safe."

Fu Xiao'an found himself speechless.

That's absolutely true.

"Sigh, those bastards from the Military Intelligence Bureau have made our home unbearable. Fine, I'll drink your wine. I won't send you any more next time. You might as well give the wine back to me and I'll take it home and drink it myself. Anyway, you definitely won't drink it, so it's a waste to give it to you."

Gu Yansheng smiled and said, "That won't do. Whether I drink or not is my business, whether I see you off or not is your business. Tell me, what do you want to see me about?"

Getting down to business, Fu Xiao'an said in a deep voice, "As you know, I'm in charge of trade with the concessions, which is already difficult. Now the Military Intelligence Bureau is causing trouble, so I'm afraid it will be very difficult to complete."

It's not just me; several other companies think so too.

Logically speaking, developing the economy means opening more factories and increasing trade. But look at Shanghai now, factories can't be opened, and trade is in such a mess. How can we do it? It's simply impossible. Let alone increasing it by 30%, we'd be lucky to even get it down by 30%.

So I came to ask you if you have any good ideas. I heard from Wang Rusong that you've managed to attract several factories.

"You big mouth. You've come to learn from me, haven't you?" Gu Yansheng laughed and said, "Didn't you hear Wang Rusong say that I was the one who found these connections?"
Mayor Fu, this might be difficult for others, but for you, finding some connections and bringing in some businessmen shouldn't be too hard, right? If you open a few more factories, the tax revenue issue will be resolved, won't it?"

Gu Yansheng was able to contact Du Yuesheng in Chongqing, help him open two factories, ship goods to Chongqing, and then borrow some money from Du Yuesheng's bank to develop his own trade. It was a win-win situation, with each person getting what they needed. After thinking about it for a while, Gu Yansheng had figured out the plan for Fu Xiao'an.

Of course, he couldn't say this; only Fu Xiao'an could figure it out for himself.

Fu Xiao'an rolled his eyes. "You're in one region, I'm in charge of all trade in the Chinese-controlled area and the concessions. How many factories? According to your logic, if I raise the price by 30%, I'll have to open 30% more factories in all of Shanghai. You make it sound so easy."
Besides, running a factory has to be profitable. I can hire people, but how can I guarantee it will make money?

Gu Yansheng understood. So they came to inquire why he was able to persuade businessmen to open factories and believe they could make money. That was the real lesson he needed to learn. "Come on, let's eat and talk. Please."

Gu Yansheng gestured for Fu Xiao'an to sit down at the dining table. There were already four dishes; it was time to eat.

Pour the wine and eat the food.

Gu Yansheng picked up a piece of crab.

"Red roe pickled crab, my chef is from Ningbo, this is the authentic Ningbo style, come and have a taste."

Fu Xiao'an was in a bad mood and had no interest in eating pickled crab. Besides, pickled crab always had a fishy smell. In his opinion, Japanese sashimi was much better.

Seeing that Gu Yansheng was only focused on eating and didn't say anything, Fu Xiao'an took a small bite and asked, "Director Gu, stop keeping us in suspense. We're in a real crisis right now."

Gu Yansheng chuckled, wiped his mouth with a towel after finishing the crab, and said, "If you want more tax revenue, there are only two ways: either have more factories, or keep the factories the same but increase sales. Mayor Fu, since you know that I brought people here to open factories, do you know what kind of factories the businessmen I found are opening?"

“Cotton yarn mill, flour mill.” After saying that, Fu Xiao’an seemed to understand. “Do you want to raise prices or expand sales channels?”

The flour mill clearly doesn't need to expand its sales channels, so there's only one option left.

"You want to raise the price?"

"Yes." Gu Yansheng nodded.

Fu Xiao'an was puzzled and frowned, saying, "Raising prices is easy, but how can you guarantee that this product will sell? If you sell it at a high price, people will buy from others. What can you do then?"

When prices rise, there are fewer buyers; this is an age-old truth.

Gu Yansheng smiled faintly: "A businessman came to a cotton yarn factory in Shanghai to purchase goods. He asked the first store and found that it sold for 200 yuan a piece. He thought it was too expensive, since it was only 50 yuan last year. He then went to ask the second store and found that it sold for 300 yuan, which was even more expensive."

"If I owned all the cotton mills in Shanghai, he could buy them or not, it's up to him."

"You want to take over all the cotton mills in Shanghai?" Fu Xiao'an suddenly realized that Shanghai was the distribution center for cotton in Central China, controlling 85 percent of the cotton in the region.

If what Gu Yansheng said is true, and he really manages to take control, he doesn't even need all of it, just a large portion. Gu Yansheng could then control the cotton yarn market price across Central China, and even influence the cotton yarn market price nationwide.

Fu Xiao'an was so shocked he almost stood up, but he lifted his buttocks slightly and sat back down.

Cotton yarn is really cheap now, but there's a reason for that; businessmen aren't stupid.

"That's not right. Even if Director Gu helped the businessmen and acquired most of the cotton yarn factories, who will buy all that cotton yarn?"

"Sold to merchants in Shanghai."

"They can't eat."

“They can sell to all Japanese-occupied territories.”

“But there are Japanese patrols on land and naval inspection boats on the river. It would be very difficult for them to go out. Even if they did, there would be little profit. The costs are so high, and they would also have to bribe the military along the way.”

"What if I help them get through customs?"

Fu Xiao'an narrowed his eyes. "You have a way to handle the army and navy?"

Gu Yansheng swirled his wine glass and smiled, "Isn't it enough to be good at utilizing resources? Mayor Fu, you have connections too, Xingya Institute, isn't the leader a naval vice admiral?"

Knowing each other doesn't mean having a close relationship. Fu Xiao'an's connections are in the army, and upon hearing this, he still frowned, "Are you so confident that you can handle this?"

Gu Yansheng nodded, "Of course."

Why is Fu Xiao'an so skeptical?

"Director Gu, I own quite a few factories. If you have a way, how about we work together?"

If this deal really works out, he can make money too, so there's no reason not to participate.

(End of this chapter)