Chapter 93: Twenty Percent
“Sorry, Mr. Zhang, the Gendarmerie Headquarters says they treat everyone equally.”
Zhang Xiaolin could hardly believe his ears. He stood up with a grim face and said, “Director Gu’s meaning is that the Gendarmerie Headquarters knows I paid the Expeditionary Force, and they still want me to pay another share?”
Gu Yansheng shook his head: “It’s not about paying another share. It’s that all the money has to stay in Shanghai.”
Zhang Xiaolin narrowed his eyes. “Isn’t this asking too much? I have a deep friendship with the Expeditionary Force. This is equivalent to making me cut off my own friendship, and actively at that—making people hate me. Why should I do that?”
Gu Yansheng smiled indifferently. “You can consider making new friends. One emperor, one court. Now in Shanghai, the Gendarmerie Headquarters calls the shots, not the Expeditionary Force. And the money you pay goes to the Judicial Department, that is, to me.”
“In the future, all drugs in Shanghai will be under the jurisdiction of my Judicial Department.”
Zhang Xiaolin had never suffered such humiliation. He laughed angrily: “When the Japanese entered Shanghai, they were all polite to me, only daring to talk about cooperation, not jurisdiction. Today I’ve seen Director Gu’s prestige. Impressive.”
“But what if I say no?”
Zhang Xiaolin’s attitude suddenly turned cold. He stared at Gu Yansheng, exuding the aura of a superior long accustomed to being above others.
But Gu Yansheng wasn’t fazed by that.
“See yourself out.”
Without another word, Gu Yansheng turned and walked back behind his desk, staring at him. “If you walk out that door, I’ll shut down all your opium dens in all of Shanghai. Want to try it?”
Zhang Xiaolin’s gaze darkened, anger rising on his face. “Aren’t you afraid of chaos? The Green Gang has hundreds of thousands of brothers!”
“Intimidating me won’t work. There are 25,000 Japanese Army troops in Shanghai—go intimidate them. If you succeed, you won’t have to pay a single penny. Otherwise, won’t you still have to walk through this door to talk to me?”
Gu Yansheng raised an eyebrow, his tone cold: “Zhang Xiaolin, I’m giving you a chance to talk today. Don’t waste it. When you want to talk later, I may not be in such a good mood. Talk or not—one word! I’m very busy and have no time to waste words with you.”
Zhang Xiaolin stared darkly at Gu Yansheng, his chest heaving. Clearly, he was quite angry.
But to reach this position by defecting to the Japanese as a major traitor, he must have learned well that Japanese saying they love: “Those who understand the times are heroes.”
“How to talk?” After a few seconds of stalemate, Zhang Xiaolin’s voice calmed considerably, and his attitude softened.
Gu Yansheng smiled and walked out again, patting his arm: “That’s right. Doing business is all about making money. What’s not to talk about? Sit.”
Gu Yansheng sat down on his own and said, “I haven’t drafted the specific details yet because I’m still considering this matter. Of course, I also know I have to leave everyone some rice to eat. Someone has to do the work, and the Japanese can’t go door-to-door selling it themselves, so I’ll fight for your rights on the Japanese side too.”
“For now, accepting the Judicial Department’s control is certain, and handing over a portion to the Japanese is certain, but how much profit to leave you is negotiable. You get my meaning, Mr. Zhang?”
Zhang Xiaolin looked straight at him: “Director Gu, just say it straight—how much do you want?”
Gu Yansheng smiled faintly: “That depends on how much Mr. Zhang is willing to pay.”
“Half a percent profit?”
“Seventy percent handover.”
“One percent profit?”
“Forty percent handover.”
“One and a half percent! That’s the limit, Director Gu. I still have to grease others’ palms.”
“After greasing me, who else do you have to grease?” Gu Yansheng raised an eyebrow: “Two percent. Hand over forty percent, but on the books, I’ll underreport your total by 30 percent. Fair enough?”
Zhang Xiaolin did a quick mental calculation and nodded: “Director Gu is quite righteous.”
“Quite? Very good, okay? Honestly, I don’t think it’ll be much worse than before.” Gu Yansheng chuckled: “Now you can say it—who gave you the information?”
Zhang Xiaolin no longer held back: “Lu Ying. He’s the Police Chief. You always have to give him a share in daily operations, right?”
Just as he guessed. Gu Yansheng thought for a moment and asked: “Someone once told me that Chongqing seems to be in this business too. Do you know which group it is?”
“Du Yuesheng’s disciple, Chen Mo. Not a big force. What’s up, you want to deal with him?”
“Chen Mo.” Gu Yansheng memorized the name, paused, and said: “Not really, but didn’t Du Yuesheng leave Shanghai? Didn’t you grab his turf?”
“Du Yuesheng is righteous, and many people remember his kindness. Besides, we’re all Green Gang brothers. No matter how ugly we eat, we can leave them a way to live, right?” Zhang Xiaolin sneered: “In Director Gu’s eyes, we jianghu people’s character seems pretty poor.”
Mainly because you’re the only major traitor among the three big bosses.
“I’m not familiar with the jianghu—don’t take offense.”
Gu Yansheng nodded. Since it had no relation to the remaining major forces, there was no need to worry. Otherwise, offending Chongqing would make the Iron Blood Anti-Traitor Group a real threat.
“I still don’t know how much you make a month. Don’t hide that from me. Long-term business means long-term cooperation. I hope we cooperate happily—money is endless.” Gu Yansheng was curious.
“Why hide? The accounts all go through you.” Zhang Xiaolin gave him a sidelong glance: “Around 280,000 to 320,000 silver dollars a month now. As long as Director Gu takes good care of me, I’ll deliver 50,000 silver dollars on time each month.”
Figuring 300,000, seventy percent is 210,000; forty percent handover is 80,000 silver dollars.
Gu Yansheng had the numbers.
With Zhang Xiaolin settled, the second on the difficulty ranking was done. The top one was Liao Shan and the Huang Jinrong behind him.
Liao Shan was the Chief Constable of the French Concession. Gu Yansheng couldn’t pressure him like he did Zhang Xiaolin—his turf wasn’t here.
But methods could still be found. Ways could always be thought up.
“Since the matter is settled, I’ll take my leave. Director Gu, since we have this connection, please take good care of me in the future.”
“No problem.” Gu Yansheng smiled and saw him out. “By the way, why don’t you give me a ride? Convenient, right?”
Gu Yansheng decided going home to sleep would be more comfortable.
“Doesn’t Director Gu have a car?”
“With so many people downstairs, how do I get out?”
Zhang Xiaolin thought of the scene downstairs and laughed. “Or should I get someone to drive them away? I can still help Director Gu with that.”
“Absolutely not. It would ruin a good show, and Secretary-General Ling would be unhappy later. Let’s go.”
Going downstairs, he got into the back seat of Zhang Xiaolin’s car. As it drove out, it was blocked by the protesters, but when Zhang Xiaolin’s driver rolled down the window, glared, and cursed a couple times—who would dare mess with a Green Gang Boss?
Gu Yansheng smoothly went home to sleep.
After he left, the protest continued.
Seeing the City Government staff reach quitting time with no one coming out, the protesters immediately realized the people inside were turning into turtles hiding in their shells. They cursed even more fiercely, their emotions more agitated.
Reporters took photos one after another, joining foreigners in egging them on to fight to the end and see who could hold out longer.
The next morning, all of Shanghai’s newspapers reported this bizarre scene.
The Japanese pushed military scrip, citizens went to the government door to protest, but the City Government had not a single person come out to respond—not even those getting off work.
Moreover, according to reliable reports, the one who made this decision was Vice Mayor Su Xiwen, and Su Xiwen himself had actually run away.
A bigger wave of protests erupted. Su Xiwen became a street laughingstock, earning the title “Su Turtle.”
Su Xiwen, appearing at the City Government, had a face as dark as if water could drip from it. He went straight to the Office of Ling Xianwen upon arriving at work and launched into a cursing match.
Gu Yansheng ignored outside matters, focusing on receiving Lu Bowen, who had come.
“Have results.” Lu Bowen took out his notebook of records and said: “Yesterday I checked some flour mills and cotton mills in the city. Some are indeed preparing for resale.”
“I picked a few decent ones—listen and compare.”
“No need, no need. I don’t understand doing business—how can I compare good and bad? If you think it’s good, it’s good.” Gu Yansheng didn’t understand flour mills of this era. Since the organization thought Lu Bowen had business ability, he trusted him.
If it really lost money, they’d deal with it then.
Lu Bowen wasn’t happy with that. “Comrade Yansheng, not knowing is fine—you can learn. Spending so much money on factories, shouldn’t you listen? We’re a team; we can’t make unilateral decisions on big funds.”
“This is called don’t use someone you doubt, don’t doubt someone you use. I absolutely trust Comrade Lu Bowen’s business vision.” Gu Yansheng smiled: “I accept your criticism but refuse to change.”
Lu Bowen laughed in frustration and rolled his eyes: “Fine. Anyway, He Yun and I checked them together—these targets have her approval too. So I’ll just talk money.”
“Good. Money still needs to be discussed—don’t overspend.”
“First is the flour mill. Now a medium-sized flour mill with equipment, about 150,000 silver dollars.”
“Mainly the equipment is expensive. One German-made mill costs 15,000 silver dollars, and a British boiler about 8,000 silver dollars.”
“From every 100 jin of wheat, you get about 80 jin of flour, the rest is bran.”
“If operating normally, such a flour mill can produce about 400 tons of flour a month, and 100 tons of bran.”
“I’ve investigated recent flour prices. A standard 22 kg bag of flour sells for around 4.5 silver dollars fluctuating. The flour from one month could sell for over 80,000 silver dollars.”
“Bran at 30 per ton can sell for 3,000.”
“Deduct wheat cost at 50 per ton, deduct operating costs like coal, labor, transport at 10,000, and monthly income reaches nearly 50,000 silver dollars.”
“Of course, reality isn’t that ideal.”
“Because it’s wartime, wheat transport from Jiangsu and Anhui isn’t smooth. The Japanese also implement quotas, so goods supply isn’t that abundant.”
“Like the factories I checked, the most one boss can procure is 300 tons; the rest basically enough for 200 tons of flour.”
“One month basically produces 9,000 bags of flour, 50 tons of bran.”
“And now there’s a rule: the Japanese Army forcibly requisitions 30 percent of flour output capacity at 3 silver dollars per bag—all factories are like this. We profit from the remaining 70 percent, 6,300 bags.”
“The Japanese side is pure loss. Total income drops to about 38,000.”
“Cost for 250 tons of wheat is 12,500, deduct another 10,000 operating costs, and profit is about 15,000.”
“150,000 factory, 15,000 profit—ten months to break even. This business is viable.”
Quotas others can’t get don’t mean Gu Yansheng can’t. Full capacity means more earnings.
“Data accurate?”
“Close enough. I checked many places; some I even saw their inflow-outflow accounts. These bosses are eager to sell off now—very amenable.”
“Then it’s good. Open the flour mill, skip the cotton mill. 150,000 each—can buy two.”
Gu Yansheng’s current funds were the 100,000 US dollars Fu Xiao’an used to bribe him, exchanged to about 400,000 silver dollars—just enough for two.
For more later, wait until cotton yarn is handled. As for the extra 100,000 profit from stock trading, that couldn’t be spent—always keep cash.
Gu Yansheng thought and said: “I’m opening this flour mill not to make money right away. Mainly I’m considering transportation channels.”
“Last time I learned about their difficult transport methods—it chilled my heart. They have no choice, but since we have the ability, I’m thinking if we can open our own transportation route.”
“Step by step. First spread to Shanghai’s surroundings, then slowly extend toward Yan’an.”
“Earlier I heard you say Shanghai flour’s main procurement ports are in Jiangsu and Anhui—this location is perfect.”
“This is the New Fourth Army’s main activity area.”
