1928: The Rise of Giants

April 1934, 4.

During his regular press conferences, Eiji Amane, Director of the Intelligence Department of the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, made an informal statement on Japan's position on the Republic of China, which is known as the "Amane Statement."

The main points are: "Japan was forced to withdraw from the League of Nations in March last year because of the Manchurian Incident and the Manchukuo issue."

"Japan's position and mission on the issue may be different from those of other countries."

"If measures are taken to use other countries to exclude Japan and violate peace in the East, or if an xenophobic policy of using barbarians to control barbarians is adopted, Japan will have to oppose it."

"Recently, there are clear signs that certain foreign countries are actively expanding into the Republic of China in the name of mutual assistance."

"For example, providing weapons, military aircraft, sending military instructors, providing political loans, etc., will obviously eventually lead to alienation between the Republic of China and Japan and other countries, and will violate the maintenance of peace and order in the Far East. Therefore, Japan cannot ignore this."

This "Tenyu Declaration" arrogantly excluded the influence of the United States and Britain in China and regarded the Republic of China as a "protectorate" exclusively owned by Japan, thus arousing the anger of the people of the Republic of China and opposition from the United States, Britain and other countries.

Therefore, when meeting with reporters on April 4, Amane Eiji had to make new explanations and justifications for his statement three days earlier: "Japan has no intention of infringing on the independence and rights of the Republic of China. Japan hopes that the Republic of China will remain intact, unified and prosperous."

"Japan has no intention of infringing on the rights of other countries."

"However, Japan opposes any action by any country that would disrupt peace and order. Japan will share responsibility with the Eastern countries, especially the Republic of China, for maintaining peace and order in the East. The era when other foreign countries or the League of Nations pursued a self-interested policy toward the Republic of China has passed."

On April 4, Japanese Foreign Minister Hirota Koki responded to questions from the British and American ambassadors to Japan, reiterating: "Japan's actions in any form that violate the maintenance of peace and order in the East cannot be ignored." This blatantly demonstrated the ambition of Japanese imperialism to monopolize the Republic of China.

The Japanese invaders' blatant provocation to the Republic of China and the world powers shows that they are not satisfied after invading the four northern provinces and will inevitably take further action.

The "Amayu Statement" issued by Japan is largely directed at the United States.

The United States was originally caught in an economic crisis and seemed half-dead, so no one cared about it. Unexpectedly, after Franklin came to power, the United States suddenly seemed to come alive and showed a trend of rising again.

Now Japan could no longer sit still. Its invasion plan was very complete, but it was very afraid that other powers would unite against itself, so it acted first and came up with such a thing to disgust the Americans.

The Americans were not to be outdone. Franklin immediately asked the Secretary of State to issue a statement as his representative, expressing his willingness to send a large amount of agricultural products to the Republic of China to provide assistance.

Anyway, their agricultural products are now in unlimited supply, and it is better to sell them to the Republic of China at a low price than to let them rot in their own warehouses.

This matter was naturally also handled by Ye's Investment. After many collaborations, Huixin and Xiao Aqiao became more proficient and soon sent this large batch of agricultural products to the Republic of China in the name of Ye's Investment.

Unfortunately, the four northern provinces that were truly short of food did not receive any assistance. That area had been blocked by the Japanese invaders, and even Ye’s convoy could no longer enter.

Ye Luo was also gradually evacuating his assets in the north, including the most important cities of Tianjin and some industries in Peking, such as Ye's Department Store and Ye's Shipping. These companies were of very high value, and leaving them to the Japanese invaders would be extremely dangerous.

With the vigorous operation of Ye’s Investment, various areas that had not yet been occupied by the Japanese invaders began to evacuate people one after another, and funds were leaving at a high speed by being shipped overseas.

In the month of May alone, over 5 million oceans were converted into U.S. dollars and deposited into YB Bank's account through overseas remittances.

Such a large amount of money transfer would have been resisted by many warlords and the Nanjing National Government. Because the banking system during the Republic of China was not perfect, if you wanted to transfer a large amount of money, you had to first transfer it from a domestic bank to a foreign bank, and then from a foreign bank to a foreign bank. The procedures were very complicated, and if the amount exceeded one million, you had to report it to various levels.

But Ye Luo used a very clever method——

and various collaborations with the U.S. government.

Ye's investment purchased a large amount of American agricultural products, machinery and equipment, human and material resources, and very expensive military equipment. All of these things needed to be paid in US dollars, so it was natural for Ye Luo to convert a lot of domestic funds into US dollars.

The principal turned a blind eye to this.

It’s not that he didn’t know what Ye Luo was thinking, but he thought Ye Luo paid enough protection fee with this behavior.

That's tens of thousands of tons of food, countless equipment, technology, and blueprints. The total value is definitely over 100 million.

After entering customs, at least half of these things will remain in the principal's hands forever.

In this way, by June, Ye Investment had basically transferred 70% of its assets in the north, including about 15 billion oceans in cash and 12 billion oceans in various top resources.

Some of the most important technical and management talents for Ye’s investment also followed Ye’s convoy south.

During this process, Ye Luo very cleverly transported some of the southern assets and much-needed talents to overseas, especially to Australia City, through the Port of Tianjin.

His overseas bases are currently mainly in the United States, followed by Australia and Japan, then spreading to Southeast Asian countries and the European continent, and finally Africa and America.

With huge funds, it became much easier for Ye Luo to operate these things.

Whenever he went to any country, he would first build factories to drive the local development level. When Ye’s investment became an indispensable piece of the local economic puzzle, he would slowly transfer some important resources there.

As for the military reserve forces, he transferred some of them to various countries, and most of them to the Golden Triangle and other lawless areas.

It will develop into a paradise for various armed forces in the future.

He placed more than half of them in the tax inspection team, allowing them to choose whether to stay or leave.

Qing City was also another important military base of his. After all, it became the secondary capital.

But he didn't want those people to stay in Qing City, because after it became the secondary capital, they would be the principal's soldiers.

It is hard to describe the way the principal led the troops. In the subsequent liberation campaign, he had to fight against his own people, which was really not a good thing.

In short, in the first half of 1934, Ye Luo began to slowly push Ye's investment abroad, and also accumulated domestic anti-Japanese forces. (End of this chapter)