Spy Wars: Red Shopkeeper

Chapter 175 Introduction
After Wu Sibao left, Gu Yansheng went to have tea with Ling Xianwen.

Ling Xianwen is currently in charge of the southern part of the city.

Because Nanshi was surrounded by concessions and the Huangpu River, it did not become a main battlefield during the Battle of Shanghai. Apart from being bombed, its buildings are much better preserved than those in Zhabei.

"What brings you here today for tea?" Ling Xianwen asked Gu Yansheng at a teahouse by the river.

Gu Yansheng took out the antique and smiled, "When I moved, someone gave me some trinkets. I've been taking them out to play with them recently, but I don't understand them. So, I asked you to take a look and teach me a little something."

"Beautiful! This isn't just a trinket, it's Ru ware!" Ling Xianwen's eyes lit up when he saw the bowl in the box. He immediately picked it up to examine it, saying, "Among these people in the municipal government, only you have the leisure to look at something like this. Everyone else is worried sick."

After Ling Xianwen finished speaking, he looked up at Gu Yansheng and smiled, "I can help you look for factories, but I heard you've recruited a few. Can you do me a favor and help me recruit a couple here too?"

Gu Yansheng chuckled lightly, "Is it really that exaggerated? Secretary-General, can't you recruit businessmen?"

Ling Xianwen put down his bowl, leaned back, and sighed, "There's no such thing as an easy way to get a solution. And even if we did, the Military Intelligence Bureau would still be sabotaging things on one side. It's like adding water on one end and leaking it on the other. How can the economy possibly improve like this?"

That's the truth. When it comes to attracting investment, Gu Yansheng didn't actually manage to attract any companies other than Lu Bowen, who was contacting him directly.

Of course, he didn't look for them at all. Otherwise, asking Zhang Xiaolin and his ilk for favors would have been easy, even if it was just one or two people.

Gu Yansheng laughed, "This is a case of making a mistake with a good one. At the time, everyone else thought that western Shanghai was the worst, full of casinos, brothels, and opium dens, and full of thugs and hooligans. But now I've discovered that it can't be any worse. Even my Kuomintang secret service, which always caused trouble, is just like that. I don't really feel anything about it."

Ling Xianwen frowned, and upon thinking about it, it made sense. Other areas had more ordinary people who preferred stability, but the western part of Shanghai was the opposite; it was inherently chaotic, and chaos was the norm.

He couldn't help but chuckle, "It's all fate. You're the one who's been affected the least. Hey, could you help me find two places? Is that alright?"

“Of course it will work. The Secretary-General has spoken, so I’ll have them move the factory here to you right away.”

Ling Xianwen rolled his eyes and chuckled, "It's not that bad. If you can, I'll help you find a solution; if not, then forget it."

"Yes." Gu Yansheng nodded, thought for a moment and said seriously, "I still have a few fabric factories I'm in talks with. Once I've finalized the deals, I'll bring them over to the Secretary-General."

"Really?"

"of course it's true."

“Really.” Ling Xianwen pointed to the bowl. “Absolutely genuine, a fine Ru ware.”

"Hahahaha." Gu Yansheng laughed loudly, then asked curiously, "What about the other companies? Are they also having difficulties?"

"Of course it's difficult, but everyone has their own way of dealing with it."

Ling Xianwen also smiled broadly, "Do you know how the other people are collecting taxes now?"

"How was it collected?"

"At Wusongkou, all passing ships are charged per vessel, ranging from 100 to 1000 silver dollars depending on the size of the ship, regardless of nationality."

Gu Yansheng asked in surprise, "Don't the foreigners have any objections?"

“Yes, but they’ll hold you back if you don’t pay. What can you do?” Ling Xianwen tapped the table. “Now the Xingya Institute is in charge, and the Navy Vice Admiral is the chief officer. The Navy has the final say on matters at sea.”

“Even so, foreigners probably won’t be so easy to talk to,” Gu Yansheng pondered.

Ling Xianwen smiled and said, "There is indeed something fishy going on here. As far as I know, as long as you pay, the ship can be exempted from inspection."

Gu Yansheng raised an eyebrow in sudden realization. That made sense. But to dare to do something like that, they really had guts.

Ling Xianwen continued, "There's another issue with Wusongkou: all warehouse storage fees have increased, and there's also an inspection fee. This inspection fee varies depending on the size of the warehouse. If you pay, you won't be inspected; if you don't pay, you'll still be inspected. So, tell me, will you pay this fee or not?"

“Then it has to be handed over.” Gu Yansheng nodded. If you think that you can avoid handing over the goods just because you think there’s no problem with the goods in the warehouse, then you’re too naive.

A sensible businessman may complain, but he must pay.

"And security fees too."

Wusongkou is a loading and unloading area. Basically, they just open up a list of taxes and then extract a head tax from the stevedores.

After finishing speaking about Wusongkou, Ling Xianwen went on to talk about Zhabei. “Zhabei has a large population, and the vegetable market alone can generate a lot of revenue. Goods are transported from outside the city, and taxes are levied when they enter the city and when they enter the vegetable market. Vegetable farmers pass on the costs, and vegetable prices rise. Shanghainese can go without clothes, but they cannot go without vegetables. All Shanghainese share this vegetable tax.”

Another issue is the river channel.

There are many tributaries of the Suzhou River within the territory. Two people are assigned to each tributary to collect the crossing fee, which is charged per boat, starting from one yuan. You can imagine how many boats pass through the Suzhou River in Shanghai every day, and that's how much tax is collected.

Then there's the merchant tax: raising the tax rate, increasing commercial tax collection throughout Zhabei District, and strictly investigating private transactions.

“If we keep doing this, the citizens of Shanghai will go broke,” Gu Yansheng concluded.

“Yes,” Ling Xianwen sneered, “Some people are indeed a bit incompetent. They take these crooked and unethical paths all day long, trying to kill the goose that lays the golden eggs. Sooner or later, something bad will happen.”

"What about Luo Junqiang's performance in Pudong?" Gu Yansheng was quite interested in Luo Junqiang's performance in Pudong.

Ling Xianwen remarked, "He's a clever man. Not only does he not collect taxes, he also reduces them." "Oh?" Gu Yansheng thought about the benefits of tax reduction and understood somewhat, "It attracts people to go there."

"That's right! Tax cuts for gambling dens, dance halls, brothels, opium dens, and restaurants are all being implemented to boost nightlife. Don't be fooled by the tax cuts; people are being drawn there, and there's more money to be made. I've heard that Pudong is bustling with activity right now, with several new brothels opening."

"As the secretary of the Imperial Household Department, he's quite adept at these things," Gu Yansheng said with a smile and a shake of his head. "It's just that he's a bit unethical."

“That’s not fair.” Ling Xianwen nodded. They had agreed before that there would be no infighting and no poaching.

Luo Junqiang's actions are essentially stealing business from other people's territories; it's blatant poaching.

The key is to bring business from the foreign concessions, like Gu Yansheng did.

Currently, it seems that only he, Gu Yansheng, and Fu Xiao'an are following this righteous path.

Other people's methods are more or less unorthodox.

"But he's an outsider and doesn't know anyone well, so there's nothing we can say about him."

"Let him be, let's not talk about him anymore." Gu Yansheng picked up the Ru kiln bowl. "Secretary-General, I came to see you today because I still want to ask you for a favor. I want to find someone to learn about antiques comprehensively. I wonder if you have any recommendations? Preferably someone with a good reputation and real expertise."

“This is a great hobby. Antiques contain stories from various dynasties, which is like a history book. When you become a master, you will have a very clear understanding of history. Let me think about it.”

Ling Xianwen pondered for a moment and said, "In Shanghai's antique trade, the most famous person is Pang Yuanji, who runs an antique shop called Xuzhai. Outsiders call him the Master of Xuzhai. He has a rich collection, and it is said that he has thousands of pieces of calligraphy and painting alone. However, he is quite old, probably 75 this year. He doesn't go out often, and his disciples manage the business."

I think if you want to learn something, you can visit this person. Even if he's too old to teach, he definitely knows someone suitable.

Gu Yansheng nodded. The most famous person is definitely useful.

Ling Xianwen continued, "There are quite a few other well-known people left, such as Zhang Congyu, who is very young, about your age, but has a deep understanding of antiques. He was raised by his family from a young age. His family is a wealthy family in Zhejiang, from Nanxun. Do you think this family helped Chiang Kai-shek raise money back then?"

Gu Yansheng, a scion of a prominent family, narrowed his eyes slightly. "He must have put in some effort. If the financial magnates of Jiangsu and Zhejiang hadn't contributed, how could they have lived so comfortably for so many years under the Nationalist government? Is this person currently in Shanghai?"

"I don't know. You can look it up yourself later. Or you don't need to. You can probably find out by asking Pang Yuanji's people."

"OK, all right."

"There's also Tan Jing, a rich kid from Guangdong. He just returned from studying in the United States. A few days ago, at an antique exchange meeting in the concession, he spent lavishly and bought several treasures. I don't know his specific background, but he's definitely a rich man."

That's for sure. In those days, if you didn't have money, you couldn't afford to collect antiques.

After talking for a while, Gu Yansheng returned to western Shanghai.

Inside the teahouse, Gu Yansheng handed the name of the person he had inquired about to Ma Shiqi, asking him to find the person and then tell him.

"How's the medicine situation going?"

“They’ve all been delivered to our warehouse. This is the catalog price, along with the quantity. It includes the merchants’ purchase price, the black market price, and the price they sold to us.” Ma Shiqi presented a document.

Gu Yansheng looked at it and was quite satisfied with Master Ma's way of doing things. He thought it through very well. He hadn't mentioned the purchase price, but Master Ma had already thought of it.

The document is completely clear at a glance.

"Make a new copy of the document with the new quantities. Keep 20% of all medicines. Change it now. Allocate the medicines in the warehouse according to the new quantities in the document. Load them onto the ship tonight. I'll tell you the specific delivery location after I meet with the person later."

"Ok."

Master Ma sat down and began writing furiously; a new document was produced in no time.

Gu Yansheng took the documents to No. 76 to find Ding Mocun.

Ding Mocun was already waiting.

"You guys are really busy coming and going here. How's the Military Intelligence Bureau's arrest going?" Gu Yansheng handed over the documents as soon as he entered the room.

Ding Mocun closed the door first, invited Gu Yansheng to sit down on the sofa, and said while looking at the documents, "Li Shiqun is in charge of everything, and I'm almost becoming a marginal figure."

Arresting and interrogating people—the people in this operation were all from Wu Sibao's brigade. I really didn't care, and didn't want to care. The Japanese ordering me to check guns was enough to keep me busy.

Ding Mocun looked at the document carefully, and then smiled. "Okay, twenty-three thousand US dollars, a little more than I expected. When you told me the medicine was gone, my heart sank. I thought the first transaction would only be a few thousand dollars. I didn't expect there to be so much. Okay, okay, what price do you think is good?"

"It's up to you to negotiate." Gu Yansheng leaned back, crossed his legs, and said, "Selling at the black market price is too greedy. We should always give a discount to acquaintances. How about double the price? That should be about right. Anyway, our goal is to cover the losses from quinine, make a little profit, and treat the rest as making friends."

"Okay, double it, I understand." Ding Mocun waved the document. "I'll contact you later. Is there anything else I should be aware of?"

"Is that all?" Gu Yansheng pondered for a moment. "I can set off on a ship tonight and decide on a receiving location. If there's time, I can tell the captain directly tonight. If not, there's a radio on board, so we'll talk about it then."

Once they receive the goods, have someone from there accompany them back to Shanghai.

First, bring the money back. Second, this person will be responsible for liaising with our people from now on. They'll meet with my team, and from now on, they'll handle this matter.

(End of this chapter)