Chapter 113: Flyer
Agent Headquarters, the phone call urging from Gendarmerie Headquarters came again. Since torture has already been used, now there’s only one way to go all the way.
Since the reputation is already ruined, then recover the losses.
“Li Shiqun, your people can enter the Concession, handle it your way. I hope to see the money, quickly, and get Sassoon to admit publicly that he produced the counterfeit currency.”
“Understood.”
With authorization from the Japanese, Li Shiqun could fully let loose.
“Sibao, go arrest someone, start with that manager.”
“Yes.”
Wu Sibao secretly entered the Concession with his men, found someone to request an interview with the manager under the guise of a reporter, lured him out, confirmed the target, then arrested him.
But the manager already had guards arranged by Sassoon nearby. The first assault failed, and before the Police Station arrived, Wu Sibao’s men could only withdraw.
Now, Sassoon had even more to say.
Directly condemning the Japanese for entering the Concession to arrest someone, their behavior was truly egregious. Were they also planning to torture his manager for a forced confession to frame him as the mastermind?
The Public Works Bureau could not tolerate such matters and issued a stern warning to the Japanese to abide by the agreement.
The City Government came forward to deny it: “This is nonsense. Someone disapproves of Mr. Sassoon’s actions. These are righteous people expressing dissatisfaction with Mr. Sassoon, unrelated to the City Government. The City Government praises the actions of these righteous individuals.”
Verbal arguments won’t yield results.
Since the person wasn’t caught and there were so many guards around, Li Shiqun changed the target.
According to the investigation, Sassoon has three sons, and he likes the second son the most, who also enjoys nightlife every night.
“Capture his second son.”
Wu Sibao was a ruthless execution machine. That night, when Sassoon’s second son came out of the ballroom, Wu Sibao struck, took out four bodyguards, grabbed the man into the car, and drove to the entrance of the Public Works Bureau.
Ding-a-ling, ding-a-ling.
Top floor of Sassoon House, Sassoon was asleep and was woken by the phone. He irritably picked it up.
“Who is it?”
“It’s me, Li Shiqun from Agent Headquarters.” Li Shiqun’s voice came through the phone.
“I don’t know what Director Li wants so late. An apology?” Sassoon laughed while pouring himself red wine.
“Apology? Mr. Sassoon seems not awake. I’ll give you one minute to sober up, or later I fear you won’t make the right judgment.”
These words were clearly not good. Sassoon coldly snapped: “You have time! Li Shiqun, I warn you, if you torture my people, this matter isn’t over. And I remind you, I’ve ordered all enterprises to withdraw. Before dawn tomorrow, if Wilson isn’t released, you’ll see a spectacular scene—thousands of enterprises withdrawing from Shanghai. I wonder if you can bear that responsibility.”
Li Shiqun calmly said: “Whether you withdraw is your business, I don’t care. But I advise you to care about your second son. He shouldn’t be by your side right now, right? I hear you like him a lot.”
“What did you do to him?” Sassoon’s face changed drastically. He put down the phone and shouted: “Men!”
Hand subordinates rushed in immediately. Sassoon asked in shock and anger: “Where is David?”
“He seems to have gone to the Paramount, might be back by now.”
“Quickly go find him!”
“Yes.”
After giving the order, Sassoon roared into the phone: “What did you do to my son?”
In the dead of night, Li Shiqun heard Sassoon’s orders and smiled: “Looks like Mr. Sassoon does care about someone. No need to trouble your men to search. Your second son is getting along very well with some righteous people right now, enjoying the view on some rooftop.”
“What do you want?” Sassoon’s mind pictured his son captured and threatened on a rooftop. He asked through gritted teeth.
Li Shiqun calmly said: “What I want depends on whether Mr. Sassoon cooperates. Three things: first, hold a press conference and publicly admit that you did this, or that your manager did it. Hand over a few people to me.
Second, compensate the City Government for all losses. However much counterfeit currency there is, recover that much.
Third, a small matter, please help with something. The Military Statistics Bureau Shanghai District Chief is in your International Settlement. Trouble you to contact the Public Works Bureau and hand him over to me. Not difficult for you, right?”
“You’re dreaming!”
“Looks like you’re really not awake.” Li Shiqun remained calm, calmly warning: “Mr. Sassoon, my patience is limited, and I’ve given you face. I’m just asking you to have your manager take the blame and compensate for the losses. Not asking you to face trial yourself. Not that hard at all.
But if you evade or refuse
Your son is in the Concession, on a top floor. One phone call from me, and he’ll be thrown off. I’m not joking.
Last time asking you: admit or not? Do you want your son’s life?
I’ll give you one minute to consider.”
“No need to consider!”
Sassoon’s tone was very tough: “Li Shiqun, the Sassoon family has survived to this day not without being intimidated. You’re not the first, nor the last. I never accept any threats. Try it. If you dare throw him, I’ll make your whole family suffer!”
This matter was impossible to admit. Once admitted, the Sassoon Firm’s century-old credit would be utterly destroyed.
And would Li Shiqun dare throw his son? Impossible, absolutely not!
Li Shiqun was playing a psychological war with him, betting his son’s life that he would soften.
What storms has Sassoon not seen? This threat could only make him tense momentarily. Once calm, it wouldn’t collapse his psychological defense line.
This veteran businessman was indeed hard to deal with. Or maybe the son wasn’t that important in Sassoon’s eyes?
Li Shiqun frowned. He couldn’t actually throw Sassoon’s son off—that would make things huge.
“Looks like you really don’t care about your son. Fine, I’ll change my mind. I won’t throw him. I’ll slowly deal with him. Hope you won’t hear him screaming in pain at midnight.”
“Li Shiqun!” Sassoon roared in anger.
Killing, Sassoon figured Li Shiqun wouldn’t dare, but torture, Sassoon believed he really would.
“Changed your mind?”
“Im! Possible!”
“Then no more talk. I’m starting to deal with your son. Think it over and call me back.”
Click, phone hung up.
Furious, Sassoon smashed the red wine glass in his hand, picked up the phone to call the director of the Public Works Bureau, demanding he immediately send constables to inspect all high buildings in the Concession and strictly check entrances and exits. He must find the person.
“Where could he be?”
Sassoon walked out to the rooftop. Sassoon House was the tallest building on the Bund, with a great view from the top floor.
His gaze scanned the rooftops of various buildings. In a daze, he seemed to see something falling from the roof of the Public Works Bureau building.
The winter river wind was very cold. Sassoon shivered! And let out a roar!
Ding-a-ling, ding-a-ling.
Li Shiqun picked up the phone he had just put down.
Wu Sibao’s voice came through: “Bro, that little scoundrel fell and died.”
“What did you say?!” Li Shiqun abruptly stood up: “Didn’t I tell you to bring him back? You pushed him off?”
Wu Sibao quickly explained: “No, we were going to bring him back, but this guy, whether high on drugs or drunk, was babbling nonsense, got extremely excited, rushed out like he wanted to jump to the opposite rooftop, then fell to his death. Who would’ve thought he’d jump? That spot was a rooftop, nowhere to run, so we didn’t watch him that closely, and he jumped.”
“Leave immediately! Now!” Li Shiqun’s face turned ashen.
“Yes.”
This jump struck everyone’s nerves.
The next day’s newspapers were too late to revise and print this, so they only published the scheduled news.
But the news of Sassoon’s second son jumping off a building spread like a storm at this critical moment.
Thrown by Agent Headquarters, definitely!
The Japanese were stunned. They didn’t expect Li Shiqun to be so ruthless, actually throwing Sassoon’s son off a building.
Li Shiqun explained, but it was useless. Even the Japanese thought this was indeed done by Li Shiqun.
And even if they believed it wasn’t Li Shiqun, no one in all of Shanghai would believe it. Explanations were pointless.
Li Sang, very fierce, but things also became very troublesome.
What gave Hase Jinagawa a headache was still to come.
All shops and foreign firms under the Sassoon Firm completely closed down. Convoys hauled batches of supplies out of the urban area. All foreign firms united, strongly demanding the Japanese exchange military scrip and severely punish the culprit.
Otherwise, strike and shut down, letting Shanghai’s economy completely collapse.
With Sassoon’s son dead, Hase Jinagawa knew there was no room for maneuver on Sassoon’s matter. The military scrip issue couldn’t have a good outcome; they must change the established approach.
Now two choices: one, let it be, foreign merchants withdraw, Shanghai’s economy collapses.
The other, fill this hole.
Hase Jinagawa went to discuss the next handling with Gendarmerie Headquarters, proposing to use foreign currency reserves to maintain the market and the credit of military scrip.
This would hurt a lot, huge losses, but it could stabilize the market.
“Apart from Sassoon, first appease the emotions of other foreign enterprises. The situation is critical now; we must do this!”
This time, Iwasa Taro from Gendarmerie Headquarters didn’t object, because anyone could see Shanghai’s economy was on the verge of collapse.
Indeed, no other way.
The next day, Hase Jinagawa held a press conference.
He expressed regret over Sassoon’s second son jumping off the building and clarified the external rumors. The deceased was gone, and it had nothing to do with them.
Then Hase Jinagawa announced.
“Currently, some counterfeit military scrip is circulating in the market, but since we support the City Government in issuing military scrip, we will naturally back its value.
Given the City Government’s temporary inability to exchange, the Empire of Japan has decided to exchange all military scrip circulating in the urban area. These funds have been delivered to the City Government’s Economic Department. Everyone can go exchange with confidence.”
“What about the counterfeit military scrip in our hands? That’s what the Economic Department exchanged to us!”
“For the counterfeit military scrip in everyone’s hands, we have decided to redeem all of it at half face value within two days. We and the City Government together firmly maintain Shanghai’s economic development and stability.
But after two days, the counterfeit military scrip in your hands will no longer be redeemed and will all be invalidated.
We hope everyone understands this.”
It must be said, this method still won the approval of most foreign enterprises.
Expecting the Japanese to redeem all counterfeit military scrip fully was unrealistic. Recovering half meant the Japanese were already bleeding heavily.
Moreover, doing this would quickly reduce the counterfeit military scrip in circulation, allowing future military scrip trade to proceed relatively normally.
“Quickly go exchange, quickly go exchange, lest the Japanese break their promise.”
A bunch of people rushed to make phone calls to spread the news.
And in the City Government, Gu Yansheng also heard this news.
The Japanese had more resolve than imagined, actually daring to use real gold and silver to exchange counterfeit military scrip to maintain Shanghai’s economy.
Otherwise, if it continued, Shanghai’s economy would completely collapse in a few days.
Now Shanghai’s economy was on the cliff’s edge, with vastly different paths ahead and behind.
Now the Japanese wanted to give a strong shot in the arm to Shanghai’s nearly dead economy.
Then his counterfeit military scrip would come into play.
He called Liu San to come over.
“Director Gu.”
“Liu San, how much money do you have left?”
“About under ten million.”
“Two million notes?”
“By face value, maybe a bit more. Quite a few one-yuan ones.”
“Good, then I’ll count it as two million notes. Pack them forty boxes at fifty thousand notes per box.
The Japanese proposed exchange, right? We won’t exchange; we’ll give them away.
Go to crowded places, set up mechanisms, hang the boxes on rooftops or outside walls, set timers. When time’s up, the boxes automatically burst open.
We want all Shanghai citizens to pick up free money, free exchange.
See how long the Japanese can hold out.
These two million notes must all be distributed by tomorrow.
Tell all of Shanghai, we have plenty of money. For every version of military scrip the Japanese issue, we’ll distribute one version!”
