Chapter 100: Storm
Dealing with Fu Xiao’an is not that easy.
Several villains gathered together and thought about it. First, Fu Xiao’an himself has no weaknesses, his background is very solid, even the Gendarmerie Headquarters can’t easily take him down.
Secondly, it’s power. Fu Xiao’an is the mayor, he can confront anything in the city. If it really comes to the extreme, like Wu Sibao suggesting kidnapping his son Fu Pingui, then Fu Xiao’an calls in the Gendarmerie Headquarters, Agent Headquarters, and Judicial Department, and they can’t hold out.
However, Wu Sibao said Fu Pingui is gambling heavily in a French Concession casino, and his position is manager of a bank in the French Concession. Li Shiqun thought for a moment and had an idea.
“Director Gu, we’ll handle this matter well. You’ve put in so much effort, take a rest.”
Gu Yansheng looked at Li Shiqun’s calm, confident smile and didn’t ask much. “That would be great, thank you gentlemen.”
Gu Yansheng had prepared a method before coming, but since Li Shiqun wanted to handle it himself, he’d see Li Shiqun’s methods.
That very night, Sheng Wenyi’s revenge against Zhang Xiaolin arrived.
Zhang Xiaolin had good relations with the Japanese before, so the drugs he purchased from outside were stored in the Wusongkou warehouse with basically no guards; the Japanese were essentially helping him guard the place.
But now the Gendarmerie Headquarters has turned to Sheng Wenyi, causing all of Zhang Xiaolin’s warehouses to be confiscated.
And it’s not just him; even foreign enterprise warehouses like Sha Shun’s were forcibly opened for inspection. Based on foreign involvement, the gendarmes wouldn’t dare touch Sha Shun’s regular goods, but for contraband like opium, they seize it for sure.
Anti-drug actions have a legal basis. Even if seized, Sha Shun wouldn’t dare claim the goods as his own, only saying his subordinates acted recklessly.
Zhang Xiaolin will definitely launch a revenge operation, and Sheng Wenyi has also arranged for Fu Xiao’an to get Agent Headquarters to intervene and restrain them.
But with Agent Headquarters suddenly withdrawing, and shops still being smashed, Sheng Wenyi quickly realized Agent Headquarters couldn’t be relied on.
So he simply had the Gendarmerie Headquarters notify the barracks to increase staff on the streets, set up more checkpoints, especially strengthening patrols near Fu Xiao’an’s shops, forcibly cutting off the Green Gang members’ escape routes.
Zhang Xiaolin was indeed in a difficult spot for the moment; he couldn’t smash them, so he could only smash foreign merchants, which would certainly have an effect, but Sheng Wenyi and Fu Xiao’an wouldn’t feel the pain.
However, Sha Shun could help them in the concession.
That night, a massive fire broke out in one of Fu Xiao’an’s warehouses at the International Settlement wharf, but the fire brigade, which should have arrived quickly, was delayed by a traffic accident at an intersection and didn’t reach the scene for an hour.
Smoke drifted out from the warehouse, floating over the Huangpu River like cooking smoke, bringing a touch of warmth to the Huangpu River’s winter.
Fu Xiao’an did feel a bit warm, his body heating up with anger!
He rushed to the warehouse wharf immediately after getting the phone call, but facing the raging flames, there was nothing he could do, staring at the fire with a grim face.
The fire brigade seemed diligently fighting the fire, but with just those two small hoses, even giving their all, they couldn’t extinguish the flames.
The warehouses in the concession held imported precious goods; one fire, and hundreds of thousands of silver dollars gone!
“Zhang Xiaolin!”
Fu Xiao’an couldn’t figure it out: why wasn’t Zhang Xiaolin seeking revenge on Sheng Wenyi but targeting him instead? He hadn’t shown his face at all from start to finish—how did they know about his relationship with Sheng Wenyi?
Who came up with this rotten idea?
“Zhang Xiaolin! You dare send people to burn my warehouse?” Fu Xiao’an, furious and anxious, didn’t care that it was the middle of the night and called Zhang Xiaolin.
Zhang Xiaolin exclaimed: “Who burned your warehouse? Your warehouse was burned?”
“Stop pretending! Someone recognized it as your men!” Fu Xiao’an bluffed casually.
“Name them, I’ll chop off their hands. Mayor Fu, you need evidence to speak; don’t blame it on me if it’s your own carelessness.”
Fu Xiao’an snapped back coldly: “No need to beat around the bush. Things are too coincidental—do you think I’d believe it was an accidental fire? Zhang Xiaolin, wrongs have heads and debts have owners. If you want revenge, go after Sheng Wenyi! What does it have to do with me? It wasn’t me who sealed your shops!”
Zhang Xiaolin sneered: “Sheng’s butler and Sheng’s third young master—say there’s no relationship, do you think it’s my first day on the streets?
Even if you didn’t have a relationship before, you’re the mayor, I’m a citizen. Isn’t it normal for me to be a bit angry if you don’t help me solve the problem?”
Fu Xiao’an angrily shouted, “Cut the crap, compensate my losses, and I’ll mediate for you. There’ll still be food for you in the urban area.”
Zhang Xiaolin’s smile gradually turned cold: “One bite? You think I’m begging? Mayor Fu, be careful with fire; who knows when another one might start.”
Click, the phone was hung up.
Fu Xiao’an slammed the phone down on the table, his face dark with rage. If he’d known they’d target him, he never would’ve let Sheng Wenyi do this!
Now trouble was brewing. Sheng Wenyi was safe, a lone bachelor with no real estate, but he had so many shops and warehouses, all out in the open, impossible to hide—they were sitting ducks.
After thinking it over, he still called Sheng Wenyi: “They burned another of my warehouses, in the concession. I lost hundreds of thousands! Stop the brute force; go talk to them, you can always negotiate.”
“Negotiating just gives them a chance to ask for the moon? How am I supposed to continue then?” Sheng Wenyi absolutely disagreed, his attitude firm:
“Mayor, just endure it. Worst case, move everything you can to the urban area. With the gendarmes standing guard for you, move your stuff over—what more could you lose?”
“Moving all this stuff across without paying taxes? And I still have so many shops in the concession!”
“You can make it back. Drive them all out—what’s a year of drugs worth?”
“You go negotiate and see!”
“No negotiating. I don’t believe I can’t outlast them.”
Sheng Wenyi persisted, and the next day continued confiscating all tobacco shops of drug dealers, while at Wusongkou, Japanese Army patrol boats appeared on a large scale, strictly inspecting passing ships and confiscating all opium found.
Sheng Wenyi not only wanted to clear out spot goods in the urban area but also ensure no incoming drugs entered Shanghai.
Once these old drug dealers’ inventories were emptied, they’d completely lose their right to speak, and pricing power over the entire market would fall into his hands—a total monopoly.
The strategy was quite effective; at least in the urban area, with gendarmes guarding tightly, Sheng Wenyi was invincible.
Zhang Xiaolin and his gang could cause trouble, wreak havoc everywhere, turn Shanghai upside down, but it wouldn’t hurt Sheng Wenyi, so the end result wouldn’t be good, and opium inventories were dwindling bit by bit.
Sheng Wenyi’s name was now completely famous. Due to frequent shop-smashing incidents outside the urban area, regardless of the cause, his line “Father is Anti-Narcotics Director Sheng Wenyi” spread widely.
In foreign merchants’ eyes, Sheng Wenyi had become a thorough scoundrel, a vampire, more detestable than the Japanese.
Citizens also learned Sheng Wenyi’s name and cursed him fiercely; they felt the worsening environment most directly.
Massive complaints flooded the consulate. Hase Jinagawa was naturally furious about this. He didn’t care about Chinese feelings, but relations with foreign merchants had become terribly bad!
He knew the cause, so he contacted the Gendarmerie Headquarters about it, but the Gendarmerie Headquarters was quite satisfied with the drug profit prospects Sheng Wenyi showed.
“The road to victory is surely full of thorns, but as long as the result is victory, I think this process is acceptable. Hase, endure a bit more.”
How to endure? The foreign merchants weren’t bombarding the Gendarmerie Headquarters—it was easy for them to say. Hase Jinagawa was getting nervous breakdowns from taking calls.
But if the Gendarmerie Headquarters insisted on going its own way, he couldn’t change their minds.
In the end, he couldn’t command the Military Department.
The situation seemed to be heading toward a stalemate, and not favorable for the Green Gang. Smashing was easy, but the Japanese gendarmes’ checkpoints meant personnel losses.
Zhang Xiaolin called Gu Yansheng to ask for his opinion.
Gu Yansheng told him not to worry: a butterfly flaps its wings, but the storm may not appear nearby.
Make a call to Sha Shun, have him take the lead, unite all foreign enterprises to jointly resist the Military Coupon System.
And at the same time, a piece of news made the newspaper.
Mayor Fu Xiao’an’s son Fu Pingui gambled big in a concession casino, losing 200,000 silver dollars in one night.
The newspaper thoughtfully attached a photo of Fu Pingui gambling calmly and confidently, along with some reliable analysis, like the source of Fu Pingui’s funds.
As Fu Xiao’an’s son, Fu Pingui having money was understandable, but the newspaper downplayed the role of Fu Xiao’an’s family wealth, instead emphasizing Fu Pingui’s role as manager of Zhonghui Bank in the French Concession, and speculated on his carefree gambling style.
For example, whether Fu Pingui was misappropriating Zhonghui Bank customer deposits for gambling.
Or, as Zhonghui Bank’s manager, whether Fu Pingui was opening wide doors for Fu Xiao’an’s businesses, providing unchecked unlimited loans.
Did Zhonghui Bank have huge fund review loopholes?
Amid the stock market’s consecutive falls, was Fu Xiao’an’s capital chain already in trouble? Reliable sources revealed that a batch of cotton yarn Fu Xiao’an had planned to purchase with him was now delayed by Fu Xiao’an.
To ordinary people, this was just an example, but as soon as Fu Xiao’an saw it, he’d understand—Li Shiqun might as well have plastered “repay the money” across the entire newspaper.
Once the news broke, Zhonghui Bank immediately faced a run by concession customers.
And linked to it: if this was true, Fu Xiao’an might have his loan reviewed and recalled by Zhonghui Bank. Combined with his recent shop smashings and warehouse fires, if Zhonghui Bank pressed his companies for payment, they might sell off assets to recycle funds.
Fu Xiao’an was one of the market makers in the Shanghai Stock Market; if he sold off, who could withstand it?
The stock market fell accordingly, and a stampede happened immediately.
The launch of military scrip turned the stock market from rise to fall; recent chaos led to foreign capital sell-offs, deepening the decline; with the Fu Pingui incident, the precarious Shanghai market entered plummet mode, with countless margin calls.
Margin calls triggered forced selling; once sell orders hit with no buyers, prices probed lower, leading to more margin calls.
City Government Meeting.
Around the long table sat the urban area’s decision-makers, except Sheng Wenyi, who was said to be catching up on sleep after being busy all night.
In two days, all high-level officials had submitted a total of five enterprises willing to cooperate with military scrip.
Even though the number was far below Su Xiwen’s requirements, and even his rival Ling Xianwen hadn’t met them, Su Xiwen wasn’t cursing anymore.
Because he hadn’t met them either today.
The drug mission was Sheng Wenyi’s, but the military scrip mission was everyone’s.
Now Sheng Wenyi had ruined what should have been a steadily improving situation!
“Vice Mayor Su, foreign merchants’ interests are damaged. Now it’s not about whether they cooperate with our military scrip push—it’s already resistance.”
The Director of Finance disgustedly jabbed the table: “Some foreign enterprises have contacted me directly, saying if this isn’t resolved and their losses compensated, forget new enterprises accepting—not even the ones that already agreed; he’ll unite them to oppose and resist together!
If resistance doesn’t work, they’ll withdraw capital. Let the urban area play however with you Japanese—that’s the original words. They’re uniting the Concession Public Works Bureau and French Concession Public Works Bureau for a full boycott of the urban area.
Then Shanghai’s economy is done for!
Even Chinese enterprises cooperating with them can be threatened with trade. How are we supposed to push this forward? Anyway, I’m powerless!
If they really leave, we can all drink northwest wind every day!”
“Isn’t Sheng Wenyi joking? If this continues, he makes the money—what about us?”
The Construction Bureau chief angrily vented: “If everyone does things his brute-force way, why bother with construction? Just rob directly—one enterprise at a time, money comes fast?
Who doesn’t know the reason of drain the pond to catch all the fish? Only that ignorant idiot doesn’t.
Stirring up such a storm, he pockets the money while we clean up. If the Gendarmerie Headquarters blames us, I won’t take the fall!”
He added heartbrokenly: “We’ve really tried hard—one day ten enterprises. I used all my seven aunts and eight uncles as lobbyists, lips worn out—hard work enough. What more do you want?”
“Can’t do this job anymore, I’m quitting!”
“Right, me too. How? They back out after agreeing. What’s the point continuing? Just getting cursed by those foreigners at their doors.”
“Vice Mayor Su, it’s not that we’re not trying; someone is desperately dragging us back—we can’t work.”
“Indeed, can’t do it.”
The mission was already tough, forced on them; now with a legitimate reason, they all jumped out to oppose.
Su Xiwen frowned, face pulled, saying nothing. A couple days ago, he’d have made any director saying they quit resign on the spot.
But now, he was full of rage himself.
His first task as Economic Department director was turned upside down by this new Sheng Wenyi.
“Vice Mayor Su, why don’t you talk to the Gendarmerie Headquarters? If this goes on, the job can’t be done.”
“What to say? I say, just stop everything—I want to see how this ends. If the Japanese only care about that bit of drug revenue, then forget Shanghai’s economy!”
“Well said, Vice Mayor Su. I think you should step down; let Sheng Wenyi take the Economic Department director position alone, so you don’t suffer while we get no thanks.”
Su Xiwen listened without speaking. He couldn’t lead the troop anymore—it really wasn’t their fault. Just as he thought to go to the Gendarmerie Headquarters and reason properly.
The meeting room door suddenly opened, and an unexpected person appeared.
Fu Xiao’an walked in with a serious face and impressive momentum.
And behind him, several directors on sick leave at the hospital were brought over by him.
