1928: The Rise of Giants

The principal and Mr. Wang were extremely troubled by Sun Ke's repeated jumps. If someone else stood up and sang a different tune, they could just send an assassin to shoot him and he would be done for.

But the other party was Sun Ke, Mr. Sun's son. No matter who killed him, as long as he had an accident, the blame would be put on the principal and Mr. Wang.

While the Kuomintang was still in internal turmoil, Mrs. Sun, Cai Yuanpei, Lu Yucai and others formally established the Republic of China Civil Rights Protection League in Shanghai.

Mrs. Sun and Cai Yuanpei served as chairman and vice chairman, Yang Xingfo served as secretary-general, and Lu Yucai served as executive committee member of the Shanghai branch.

They also cordially invited Ye Luo to attend the founding conference.

However, Ye Luo took political issues into consideration. Now he was involved with everyone but would not join anyone, so he politely declined Madam Sun's invitation.

Even so, he was elected as one of the national executive committee members and an honorary member of the Shanghai branch.

This organization actually does not have much political power, and has survived like a mascot all the way, but it is better to have it than not to have it. If you can join it, at least you can avoid the KMT's butcher knife in the future.

Throughout the month of December, the gate of Ye Mansion was almost broken down by celebrities from all walks of life.

Since the acquisition of the Hongkou Dojo and the construction of a new sound cinema there, the prosperity of the film industry instantly surpassed that of the singing and dancing industry. Many singers and dancers used various connections to join Ye's Film Company.

Lin Ruxian, the proprietress of the company, had dinner parties every few days. Finally, she couldn't stand it anymore and simply moved into Ye Mansion. Unexpectedly, this group of people would not give in and even sent gifts to Ye Mansion.

Lin Ruxian took advantage of this opportunity to completely step into the Ye family's gate.

She had been living alone at No. 33 Xiafei Road before, but almost everyone in Shanghai knew about their relationship, and now no one dared to call her a "femme fatale" or "husband-killing woman" behind her back.

After all, the man she is with now is the second young master Ye Luo. Who dares to offend the Ye family?

Ye Yuqiao himself has three wives and four concubines, but he doesn't care about this.

On the contrary, Li Shuzhen, who has more conservative ideas, finds it difficult to accept Ye Luo's behavior of "eating his sister-in-law".

But Lin Ruxian is pregnant now!
She wished that Ye Luosheng's children were everywhere, and immediately and happily welcomed Lin Ruxian into the house, and held her in her arms along with Meng Xiaodong and Ruan Lingyu who were also pregnant.

Ruan Lingyu's due date is February next year, Meng Xiaodong's is four months later, and Lin Ruxian's is in October next year.

After learning about the Ye family's situation, Yu Fengzhi, who had a close personal relationship with Bai Xiuzhu, went directly south, saying that she was there to comfort her good sister, while also being a lobbyist for Zhang Hanqing.

"A Luo, Han Qing has been working in Tianjin City recently. He said that you can come to his house more often when you are free." Yu Fengzhi took the initiative to talk to Ye Luo, "Since you helped him quit smoking opium last time, he has cheered up a lot."

"I will definitely go there when I have time, but there are wars going on in the north right now, so it's too risky for you to come here, sister-in-law." Ye Luo said with a smile, "Why don't you stay here for the New Year and then go back."

"I heard that the Japanese were targeting Rehe this time, but fortunately Han Qing was on guard and was not instantly conquered by them. Alas, is this really going to be a war?"

In fact, Yu Fengzhi knew very well that Ye Luo didn't want to work with Zhang Hanqing. She couldn't understand why Zhang Hanqing had such an idea and asked her to come over and act as a lobbyist.

Ye Luo understood it in his heart. After the secret report of the Japanese invasion plan was delivered to him, Zhang Hanqing felt the pressure and truly saw the influence of Ye's huge investment in financial resources. This time he sincerely wanted to ask Ye Luo to help.

If the fighting in Rehe hadn't been so intense, he might have come in person.

Unfortunately, Ye Luo had no intention of doing this, because Zhang Hanqing would be stepping down voluntarily and going abroad to study soon.

Just half a month ago, the Kwantung Army brazenly fired at Shanhaiguan, and recently completed the assembly of the navy, army and air force.

Perhaps realizing that the Northern Army was prepared, the Japanese invaders stopped hiding their intentions and directly started the war.

Zhang Hanqing was reviled by the whole country after losing the three northern provinces. He also wanted to do his best to restore his prestige. When he received Ye Luo's secret letter, he immediately mobilized troops to arrange the Great Wall defense line, preparing to fight the enemy to the death at Shanhaiguan.

He had nowhere to retreat. As long as the Kwantung Army successfully occupied Rehe, Zhang Hanqing's northern territory would be completely exposed to the iron hoof of the Japanese invaders.

The principal was the most interesting one. Although he sent a part of the National Army to support, he generally continued his policy of "pacifying the country before resisting foreign aggression". Not only that, he also deliberately suppressed the people's anti-Japanese and national salvation activities in the south, on the grounds of avoiding angering the Japanese and causing diplomatic disputes.

Now people are going to war and invade your land!
You are still avoiding diplomatic disputes.

This is really magical.

Just when Yu Fengzhi stayed in Ye Mansion to accompany Bai Xiuzhu to look after Ye Hongdou and Li Siye, Zhang Hanqing, who was defending Shanhaiguan in the north, was scolded again.

Because the Great Wall defense lines he set up were lost one after another and Japanese troops continued to attack Rehe, he once again became a national sinner, and there were calls everywhere for him to get out and step down.

It can be expected that when the entire Rehe region fell, Zhang Hanqing would have to step down.

In fact, he was really forced to take the blame this time. The root cause of the fall of Rehe was not him, but Tang Yulin.

Tang Yulin was the real controller of Rehe, but after the fighting started, he completely ignored Zhang Hanqing's command. When Zhang Hanqing took Song Ziwen to Rehe to supervise the battle, Tang Yulin instantly became furious, thinking that he had colluded with the principal and wanted to completely take over his territory.

There was constant internal strife here, and everyone had their own little plans. The Japanese invaders immediately took advantage of the victory and directly broke down all three lines of defense, and they were like a deserted place in Rehe.

Zhang Zuoxiang, the commander-in-chief of the Rehe Campaign, did not perform well. After seeing the defense line fall, he hurriedly abandoned his troops and fled in a car, completely disregarding the lives of the soldiers on the front line.

As soon as he ran away, Tang Yulin also ran away. In the end, you run and I run too. Whoever runs slower will be the one in the front row to be beaten!
New Year's Day 1933 arrived in this atmosphere.

The Ye Mansion is still decorated with lights, spring couplets and red lanterns, retaining traditional Chinese customs. Various celebrities have come here one after another in the past few days.

Ming Lou, who was responsible for spying on the Japanese intelligence, successfully overcame the difficulties and completely became a "Japanese puppet". Now he and Feng Jingyao are both openly friends of the Japanese. Naturally, they are not liked by most Chinese businessmen and Chinese people, so they can't go to see Ye Luo openly.

Minglou provided a lot of useful information along the way, and Ye Luo provided them to people in need, which was also a good thing.

On January 1, Shanhaiguan was officially breached by the Japanese army! (End of this chapter)