1928: The Rise of Giants

The patrol team organized by Zhou Longguang had done similar things before, but their influence was limited to the old city area and they could not interfere with the tram operations within the concession.

When the patrol team encouraged people not to buy tickets, the tram company responded immediately and suspended all trams in the old city the next day, but trams in the concession continued to operate as usual.

As long as the patrol team dared to go to the concession to persuade people, the concession police would quickly move out and drive them all out of the concession.

But the reorganized security team initiated by Ye Luo this time is different.

They wore white cuffs on their hands and had the Ye Security or Ye Sports logo printed on their chests. Everyone had a small axe on their waist, and the leader was even equipped with a gun.

When the police officers in Tianjin City saw this scene, they didn't even bother to persuade them to stop. Instead, they just stayed away for fear of being injured by mistake.

The patrolmen in the concession continued to help the foreigners drive away the security team members. The security team also kept Ye Luo's orders in mind that it was okay to make any noise, but they must not cause any bloodshed so that the foreigners could catch them.

Not long after, a large number of patriotic thugs began to appear in the concession. They shouted slogans of saving the country and lay on the tram tracks in different groups and at different times, preventing the tram from running normally.

The police in the concession can’t catch all the prisoners. As soon as they send in a batch, another batch comes. It’s like they treat the concession prison as their own!

This went on for several hours. As the number of thugs increasing, the Chinese patrolmen gave up their job. If they continued to catch them, they would have no place in Tianjin.

These hooligans are from the Qing Gang and the Hongmen. Some of them are righteous, some are snobbish. Anyway, as long as one of them gives them a bribe of three triangles, they will help you make trouble for a whole day.

After the gangsters came a large number of progressive students. They held banners, shouted slogans, and marched to the gate of the Belgian Consulate General in Tianjin. They did not do anything but demand that the Belgians restore the original price of the trams.

The newsboys received a large amount of bribes and ran around the city, waving newspapers and shouting in teahouses, dance halls, restaurants, and coffee shops where there were people, exposing the ugly face of the tram company to the public.

The most outrageous thing is the taxis from Ye’s Car Dealership, which really offer free rides without charging a penny.

A total of 300 new cars have arrived so far, and the fuel costs alone are enough to make ordinary merchants go bankrupt.

At this moment, the various transportation roads from Shanghai to Tianjin City have not been fully built. These cars came from Ye’s Automobile Company from all directions. Ye Luo covered all the travel expenses, meals, and accommodation.

The total cost of transporting a car from its original operating location to Tianjin City is an average of 200 oceans, and 300 cars would cost 500 oceans. Ye Luo said that he would send cars to Tianjin City this time.

Just the travel expenses alone have cost me over 10 dollars.

The car dealership that sprang up in Tianjin City cost nearly 30 yuan to recruit employees and spend all kinds of miscellaneous expenses.

At this moment, Chen Youde also took out the financial budget sheet and told Ye Luo that according to his approach, the total loss of the car dealership in the first month would be about 100 million oceans.

A mere 100 million oceans a month, Ye Luo approved it without blinking an eye, anyway, it was more than enough to deduct from the profit of Ye's investment in Tianjin City.

More than four years ago, he made his first million with a Chevrolet 490. Four years later, he didn't expect that his wealth would snowball to this point.

This surprised Shi Jianqiao, who was watching him get up step by step.

Ye Luo doesn't care about the money, but Lu Beiya does.

As a result of this, the tram company lost at least 30 yuan in profit per month. Combined with the losses from shareholders and domestic vampires, the net loss exceeded 50 yuan.

As Ye Luo said, when it comes to "burning money", the Belgians simply can't afford it.

But since he had just said that yesterday, Lu Beiya had no choice but to play along. Therefore, she decisively called together the Belgian merchants in the concession, as well as a group of compradors such as Wang Zhulin, and asked them to raise funds to resist Ye Luo's atrocities. "We have estimated that he will lose at least 100 million dollars a month, and this is increasing exponentially. Next month, it will be 150 million dollars. Even if he is rich, he can't keep playing like this."

Wang Zhulin was so angry that his teeth were itching. He firmly believed that Ye Luo must be killed, otherwise not only the foreign companies in the city, but also they, the compradors, would not be able to hold their heads up in the business world.

"We have more than 30 people here. If each person contributes 10,000 dollars, the tram company's monthly expenses can be basically covered. If each person contributes 50,000 dollars, it can at least last for five months."

Of course, the accounts are not calculated in this way, but in order to boost confidence, Wang Zhulin deliberately skipped many cost issues.

After hearing this, many compradors were persuaded.

They have made a lot of money from the Belgians over the years, and each of them has hundreds of thousands of dollars in deposits in the bank. Just 50,000 or 60,000 dollars would be enough to get the Belgians through the difficult times, and they are all willing to pay.

Lu Beya felt relieved and said with a smile, "We will never forget the friendship of all of you friends. Once this guy is driven away, we will propose to the government to transfer more business to you."

“Thank you, Consul General!”

"You're too polite, Consul General!"

“This is what we are supposed to do.”

That night, the tram company, which had received a large amount of financial assistance, became tough again.

Since those gangsters openly prevented the tram operations in the concession, they completely stopped all tram operations in Tianjin City!

See if you have enough cars and rickshaws!
Just when they made up their minds to fight Ye Luo to the death, that night, the Asia-America Radio Station, which was invested and opened by Ye’s family, began to dig up the dirty laundry of the senior executives of the tram company in a big way.

There were no mobile phones, computers or televisions these days, and there were many people who could not afford to use electric lights at night. Fortunately, Ye's Radio made a breakthrough last year and successfully developed a domestically produced crystal radio, and the radio industry suddenly became hot.

Radios imported from abroad are expensive and do not include after-sales service, so basically only rich people and store owners will buy them. However, Ye’s Crystal Radios are high quality and inexpensive. As long as there is a store, they offer a one-year replacement guarantee and a three-year warranty, and the service is very thoughtful.

The popularity of radio has spread from south to north and has become one of the evening entertainments for the general public.

"Jiuda Refined Salt, a famous brand in the Republic of China, is a proud Chinese product exported to Southeast Asia!"

"Ye's new product has multiple functions, including protecting the stomach, warming the body and strengthening the body. Men should choose Ye's Sixteen-flavor Rehmannia Pills!"

The advertisement sounded from the radio and lasted for seven or eight minutes before the main part began.

"Hello, listeners. It is 7pm now. We have invited a distinguished guest to our program "Chatting about the Republic of China". Can you guess who it is?"

A familiar female anchor's voice came.

With the popularity of radio stations, many female stars with good voices gave up singing and dancing and turned to broadcasting, becoming quite popular among the public.

"Hello everyone, I'm Ye Luo, and I'm very happy to be able to participate in this program "Chatting about the Republic of China."

Ye Luo's extremely magnetic voice rang out, instantly setting off a sensation in Tianjin City.
"I came to participate in the program this time to talk to you about the recent uproar over the tram fare increase." (End of this chapter)