Film and Television World Life Record

"Hey, Sister Man, what's up?"

Su Man's voice was filled with surprise: "Boss, the relevant departments in the province just contacted us and asked us to submit materials. You have a very good chance of being selected as one of the province's top ten outstanding youths."

Li Mu was slightly surprised; he really hadn't expected to be named one of the province's top ten outstanding youths.

But thinking about it, I'm so young, yet I already have a sizable career, not to mention the large number of masks I donated a few days ago, which garnered considerable attention within the province. Being named one of the province's Top Ten Outstanding Youths seems quite reasonable.

"Okay, I understand. I'll leave the materials to you. I'll give you a big bonus once I pass the evaluation."

Su Man smiled and said, "Okay, I've remembered the big red envelope you mentioned."

……

Time passed slowly, and Li Mu gradually got used to staying at home. Before he knew it, another mission came.

However, this mission took Li Mu by surprise. It didn't simply transport him to a particular TV series. According to the system's explanation, the world he was to travel to was actually set in the Republican era, against the backdrop of the War of Resistance against Japan, and incorporated elements from multiple TV dramas, such as "Bright Sword."

In particular, the reason why Japan surrendered in 1944 or 1945 was because the external environment had changed. The Allied powers had invaded its territory, and it had no choice but to surrender.

Otherwise, if they continue fighting to the death on the domestic battlefield, how many more years can Japan hold out?

But the mission was to end the war of resistance ahead of schedule. If the external conditions remained unchanged, it meant that Japan had to be defeated directly in China before the war could end.

Isn't this a bit too difficult?

Although Li Mu is very confident now, he doesn't think he has the ability.

Perhaps, given more time, a decade or two to develop and cultivate domestic industrial strength, there is still a possibility.

However, according to the information transmitted by the system, this start was probably in 1937, the early stage of the War of Resistance against Japan.

At that time, the fighting had already started domestically, leaving no time for development. By 1938, all the port cities in China had fallen, the sea was blockaded, and even the channels for doing business with foreign countries and importing machinery were gone. Many things were unavailable even if you had the money.

They won't even give you a chance to play it safe and develop your character.

After hesitating for a while, I remembered the reward I received last time: a limited-edition space card. It allows me to designate a movie world, and after using it, the system space in that world will expand ten thousand times.

For example, his current system space is six cubic meters, and after using the space limit card, the system space will reach 60,000 cubic meters.

A 60,000-cubic-meter space would have been an absolute game-changer in ancient times, in places with underdeveloped transportation. Transporting grain and supplies, and trading them would have been a breeze. Even in today's world, with enough guts, one could easily become a millionaire.

The next world is the Republic of China era, a time of constant warfare. The seas are blockaded, vital transportation routes are blocked, supplies are scarce, and natural and man-made disasters are frequent. In this context, the system space might play an unexpected role.

Li Mu looked up some information online and found that a cubic meter of space filled with wheat or rice would weigh approximately 800 kilograms.

Sixty thousand cubic meters, capable of holding forty-eight million kilograms of grain at a time, which, when converted to jin (a Chinese unit of weight) and rounded, is equivalent to one hundred million jin of grain.

Packing 100 million jin of grain at once is definitely not a small amount.

It can hold just as much as other things.

For example, after being blockaded, the country faced a severe shortage of military supplies and medicines.

From this perspective, having access to the system's space also means engaging in smuggling, secretly transporting scarce domestic resources back to China.

However, all of this is predicated on having a smooth channel for entering and leaving foreign countries; otherwise, if you can't even leave the country, where will you get access to these supplies?

Li Mu thought for a moment, and realized that there seemed to be civilian airplanes back in the Republic of China era.

Thinking of this, I immediately searched online again and found quite a few results.

For example, China National Aviation Corporation (CNAC), also China's first airline, was established in Nanjing on April 5, 1929.

China National Aviation Holding Company (CNAC) invested in the construction of Shanghai Hongqiao Airport and Nanjing Minggugong Airport. Xu Zhimo died in a plane crash while traveling on a plane operated by this airline.

Before the outbreak of the War of Resistance against Japan, China National Aviation Corporation's routes were mainly concentrated in the area of ​​influence along the Yangtze River, such as Shanghai-Jiujiang-Anqing-Nanjing-Hankou-Yichang-Wanxian-Chongqing-Chengdu-Guiyang, and Hangzhou-Qingdao-Beijing.

After the start of the War of Resistance against Japan, China Aviation withdrew to the southwest region.

China's first international air route, it seems, was also opened by China National Aviation Holding Company, from Kunming to Hanoi, Vietnam. Back then, Wang Jingwei traveled from Chongqing through Kunming to Hanoi, then to Japan, and finally returned to Nanjing to establish a puppet government.

During the Republic of China era, another well-known airline was Eurasia Airlines, which was China's first international airline.

Eurasia Airlines was originally established to launch an airmail service between Europe and China. Airmail received in Berlin, Germany, would be transported through Greece, Egypt, and Iraq to China, and finally delivered to Shanghai.

Before the outbreak of the War of Resistance against Japan, Eurasia Aviation operated routes including Shanghai-Zhengzhou-Xi'an-Lanzhou, Guangzhou-Hankou-Zhengzhou-Taiyuan-Beijing, Beijing-Suiyuan-Ningxia-Lanzhou, and Kunming-Chengdu-Hanzhong-Luoyang-Xi'an.

After the outbreak of the War of Resistance against Japan, the headquarters moved to Xi'an.

In addition, there are many small and medium-sized airlines, and there are as many as dozens of cities in China with civil aviation airports.

This number was somewhat surprising during the Republic of China era.

However, after searching for a long time, it seems that at that time, the only passenger flight route connecting with foreign countries was from Kunming to Hanoi, Vietnam.

So, after the outbreak of the War of Resistance against Japan, the only way to travel abroad by plane was to depart from Kunming, fly to Hanoi, then fly from Hanoi to Bangkok, and then transfer to Singapore.

As the gateway to the Strait of Malacca, Singapore, a port city, is also one of the most important strongholds and commercial centers for the West in Southeast Asia.

There should be no shortage of various supplies and goods.

I checked the information from that time again, especially regarding currency. In the early stages, if you want to speculate and quickly accumulate strength, you need to pay close attention to finance and currency.

Suddenly, it was discovered that the main currency during the War of Resistance against Japan was not the silver dollar that everyone thought it was, but the legal tender.

The legal tender was only issued in 1935.

The main reason was that in 1931, affected by the American economic crisis, Britain abandoned the gold standard and proactively devalued the pound sterling. In response, other countries also competed to devalue their own currencies, resulting in a global currency war.

In 1933, in an effort to mitigate the economic crisis, the Roosevelt administration in the United States announced the abandonment of the gold standard and the restoration of the bimetallic standard, passing a bill to hoard silver. This led to a massive global purchase of silver.

At that time in China, the main currency in circulation was silver.

Because the international price of silver was much higher than the domestic price, foreign banks in China rushed to buy up Chinese silver and ship it to New York and London to sell, making huge profits.

Thus, a large outflow of silver from China began, leading to a massive run on silver, with withdrawals, panic buying, and speculation. This further exacerbated the situation, causing a sharp decline in domestic silver reserves and a severe shortage of credit in the market. Moreover, the appreciation of the silver dollar hampered exports, resulting in the collapse of numerous industrial and commercial enterprises.

To curb the massive outflow of silver, the government ordered high tariffs on silver exports in October 1934. While this temporarily reduced silver exports, it exacerbated silver smuggling. Faced with the crisis, and with the support of Britain and the United States, a currency reform was implemented in 10 to stabilize the national financial system.

The central bank, the Bank of China, and the Bank of Communications jointly issued banknotes, which were designated as legal tender. All previously circulating silver coins were banned, silver ceased to circulate, and all silver deposits had to be exchanged for legal tender. Simultaneously, banks were allowed unlimited buying and selling of foreign exchange.

Judging from various sources, the legal tender reform was quite beneficial to China at the time. After the reform, the major state-owned banks exclusively held the right to issue currency, and the profits previously shared by local commercial banks went entirely to the government.

With ample reserves of silver, the government could issue 10 yuan of legal tender by withdrawing 6 yuan of silver coins. In this way, the government could withdraw 6 million yuan of silver coins and issue 10 billion yuan of legal tender, effectively increasing its revenue by 4 million yuan.

The circulation of legal tender gradually stabilized and prospered the market, which was of great benefit to the country as a whole at the time. It enabled the country to mobilize funds to the greatest extent and at the fastest speed when the full-scale war of resistance broke out, and to concentrate precious metals such as silver as funds to purchase military supplies on the international market.

However, despite the favorable policy, the value of the legal tender remained relatively stable for the first two years after its issuance, with one yuan of legal tender being equivalent to one yuan of silver dollar.

However, starting in the second half of 1937, the War of Resistance against Japan broke out, and the government began to over-issue paper money, causing prices to soar and triggering hyperinflation, which led to a rapid devaluation of the legal tender.

In 1937, 14 billion legal tender was issued, but by 1945, the amount had increased to 5569 billion, a 360-fold increase.

By August 1948, the gold yuan replaced the legal tender, and the issuance of legal tender reached 663 trillion, which was 470,000 times that before the war. Prices had increased by 3492 million times compared to before the war.

Li Mu also found an article online that mocked the inflation at the time. It was from a newspaper called "Dazhong Evening News" that compiled statistics on what 100 yuan of legal tender could buy in different eras.

In 1937, 100 francs were the most valuable, enough to buy two large cows;

By 1938, one could buy a large cow and a calf.

By 1939, they could only buy one large cow;

In 1940, it could only buy one calf;

In 1941, 100 yuan could not even buy a cow, but only a pig;

By 1942, even pigs were too expensive to buy; all they could afford was a ham.

In 1943, you could only buy a whole hen, and in 1944 you could only buy half a hen.

In 1945, they could only buy one fish; a year later, in 1946, they could only buy one egg.

The last few years of the Republic of China were the most exaggerated!

In 1947, 100 yuan could only buy a lump of coal or a third of a fried dough stick.

In 1948, 100 legal tender could only buy four grains of rice!

As for 1949, let's not talk about it.

The rate of devaluation is astonishing, comparable to that of Zimbabwe.

However, in 1937, 1938, and 1939, the legal tender was actually quite good, only losing half its value in three years. In the early stages of the time travel, it was advisable to use the legal tender and then exchange it for more valuable silver dollars, gold and silver, or foreign currency later.

……

The system gave him one day to prepare. The next day, Li Mu stayed at home and began to collect and review various materials from that time. He didn't intend to memorize everything, but he wanted to understand the general outline of the development.

Soon the time was up. Li Mu had a thought, and a flash of white light appeared before his eyes. He had disappeared.

Chapter 411 Head of the Security Corps

Li Mu slowly woke up and opened his eyes. Someone was fanning him, their face covered in sweat. He glanced at them and felt that the person was dressed strangely; their uniform was neither military nor police.

This man was very quick-witted. Seeing that Li Mu had woken up, he immediately straightened up and said, "Commander, you're awake."

Li Mu nodded: "Peiming, you've worked hard!"

Liu Peiming was a little flattered and became even more humble: "Serving the regimental commander is no trouble at all."

As he spoke, he quickly called out, "Old Sun, our commander has woken up. Quickly brew another pot of herbal tea."

Old Sun readily agreed and soon brought over a pot of herbal tea. Liu Peiming quickly poured Li Mu a cup, and Li Mu took a sip. The taste was not bad, somewhat like Wanglaoji herbal tea.

Sipping tea, I casually glanced around before realizing I was in a teahouse at the foot of a hillside, dressed in a somewhat incongruous outfit that resembled both a military uniform and a police uniform.