20 years of the Republic of China

Chapter 477: That’s All (Final Chapter)
Fengtian United Chamber of Commerce, in the conference room on the second floor.

The huge long table was packed with people. Looking around, all the people present were wealthy businessmen from inside and outside the provincial government.

Normally, if the Chamber of Commerce held any activities or meetings, many big bosses would be too lazy to participate in person. But now is different. At this meeting, the owners and wealthy people of all major businesses are all sitting in their seats, and the venue is much more lively than usual.

Jiang Lianheng hadn't been to the Chamber of Commerce for a long time. Now, as a representative of the Jiang family, he actually came to attend the meeting in person.

As the saying goes: A new emperor appoints new ministers.

Although Jiang Lianheng rarely appears in the Chamber of Commerce, the Jiang family's influence in the Chamber of Commerce has never diminished.

In fact, in order to wait for him to come, the meeting was delayed for more than ten minutes before it officially started.

In contrast, the Guangyuan Money House represented by Su Wenqi had fallen from the second place in the Chamber of Commerce to the last place after experiencing the financial turmoil in the past few years, and had become lost in the crowd.

The two looked at each other from a distance, without saying anything, and there was nothing to say.

People are like this; the more they interact, the more they have to say to each other; once they become distant, no matter how deep the friendship is, they will feel like strangers in the blink of an eye.

The president of the Chamber of Commerce counted the number of people, and when he saw that all the participants were present, he finally cleared his throat, turned sideways, and asked in a low voice with a smile: "Boss Jiang, how about...you say a few words first?"

"No, no." Jiang Lianheng smiled and waved his hand, "Please let the president speak."

"Haha, Boss Jiang, you are too polite. Please say a few words!"

"That's really not necessary. Lian Heng will follow the president's orders."

"Hey, you, take a look at this, then I will... give in?"

"President, please!"

After several refusals, the Chamber of Commerce President finally relaxed his mind. He sat up straight and said loudly: "Everyone, please be quiet for a moment. I see that we are all here. Let's start the meeting now? Ahem... First of all, thank you all for coming here despite your busy schedule... Secondly, thank you General Zhang for your hard work day and night... Thirdly, thank you to all levels of the provincial government for your concern for our Fengtian business community..."

He started off by talking about random things for more than ten minutes, until everyone got a little sleepy, and then the president of the Chamber of Commerce finally got to the point.

"Today, I have called you all here for a meeting in the name of the Fengtian Chamber of Commerce. I believe everyone knows the reason. It is mainly for two things: First, in a few days, the political and business circles of our provincial government will hold a party at the 'Spring and Autumn Grand Theater' in the commercial port to celebrate the groundbreaking of the Fengtian port!"

There was a burst of sparse applause in the conference hall.

"The second thing is that I will be responsible for conveying the relevant details formulated by the Commercial Port Bureau to each of the businesses that purchase land and undertake construction. I hope that you will strictly abide by them and not say that I didn't warn you."

After he finished speaking, the applause stopped immediately.

Everyone bowed slightly - obviously, this was the key point that everyone should pay attention to when they came to the venue in person.

The president of the Chamber of Commerce took out the provincial government document he brought with him, thought for a moment, and then said:

"Well, well... everyone knows that we in Fengtian opened up the Southern Market. On the one hand, it is to boost the development of national industry and commerce; on the other hand, it is also to effectively curb the gradual encroachment of the Japanese concessions on our Fengtian business community!"

After hearing this, several business and bank owners in the meeting hall couldn't help but nodded in agreement.

Su Wenqi listened especially carefully.

"After the South Market is opened, it will confront the Dongyang Dependency head-on and resist the commercial invasion of the Little Dongyang. For this reason, our provincial government has specially invited experts to plan the layout of the shops in the South Market, which contains the military strategist's Bagua formation, which is enough to resist the arrogance of the Little Dongyang!"

Most people who do business have some belief in metaphysics.

Everyone nodded, except Su Wenqi, who frowned and felt that it was a bit ridiculous.

"So, the provincial government has repeatedly ordered all construction companies not to tamper with the planning layout without permission. Do you have any objections?"

No one has any objection. If someone has an objection, how can they possibly get the land?
The president of the Chamber of Commerce looked around at everyone and continued, "There is one more thing. The Commercial Port Bureau has repeatedly emphasized that any business or landowner who has won the land through bidding is not allowed to resell the land deeds to foreign businessmen, especially the Japanese. The provincial government will not recognize any contract for privately reselling land to foreign businessmen!"

After these words were spoken, the faces of several wealthy businessmen present looked a little solemn.

The phenomenon of private land trafficking is common in Feng Province.

Every time something was discovered, the provincial government had to confront the Japanese consul, but it always ended in failure.

Especially since this year, Xiaodongyang has been affected by the "rice riots" and the "Russian civil war", and its domestic situation has been turbulent. More and more Xiaodongyang, either voluntarily or forced, have come to the outside of the Great Wall to seek a living.

The Japanese also started to "break into Guandong".

However, these small Japanese were mostly unemployed vagrants and hooligans. They came to the outside of the Great Wall, causing trouble everywhere and seizing land. The provincial government went to great lengths to argue with the Japanese consul, but it was still of no avail.

Therefore, the provincial government can only try every possible means to stop the illegal land trafficking at the source.

At the same time, in order to win the support of the Little East for the Anhui clique, the Duan authorities also turned a blind eye to this encroachment.

Sure enough, not long after, the Duan family in the capital received a loan "aid" of over 100 million yuan from the hands of the Little East. The price was that they secretly signed the "Joint Defense Military Agreement" with the East Cabinet.

Who to guard against?

We are on guard against the Russians in the north!

As usual, the little Japanese brought out the tone of "goodwill between the two countries" and "the lips and teeth are cold", forcing the capital to jointly guard against infiltration from the Russians.

During the civil war in the North, the Allied Powers intervened militarily. Japan was also eager to send troops to Siberia, so the secret agreement was signed "naturally".

Regardless of whether or not to send troops, the small East Sea was able to use this treaty to massively increase its troops outside the Great Wall and take this opportunity to thoroughly infiltrate its influence throughout the three northeastern provinces.

The authorities in Beijing were secretive about this secret agreement and refused to acknowledge it, but for the people outside the Great Wall, they witnessed with their own eyes the Japanese troops entering various cities one after another.

Japanese ships loaded with soldiers arrived at the port of Luda and spread rapidly toward the North along the South Manchuria Railway.

In just a few months, the number of troops dispersed across the borders of the Little Japan had exceeded 100,000.

No one knew what Marshal Zhang was thinking, but the people of Fengtian were all confused - who would rule the land of Baishan and Heishui?
However, the matter was done, and no matter what everyone thought, the Japanese army still entered the area outside the Great Wall without firing a single shot.

After the president of the Chamber of Commerce conveyed the decision of the Commercial Port Bureau to various wealthy and powerful businessmen, construction of the commercial port outside the Great Western City Gate finally began.

……

……

Xiaoxibianmen commercial port, Spring and Autumn Theater.

All the wealthy and powerful businessmen from Fengtian were present, occasionally with a few officials from the Commercial Port Bureau. In order to celebrate the opening of the South Market, it was said that a famous actor was invited from far away.

The play was still about "Picking the Pulley".

"I saw that the ants in the camp were like a sea tide, and I could see the endless mountains and deserted countryside; I also saw that the soldiers were circling around in disorder, and the horses and soldiers in the ranks were noisy..."

The Wusheng looks heroic, holding a long spear with a red tassel, wearing carved colorful armor, with four flags on his shoulders. He sings, recites, acts and fights in a very orderly manner, showing bravery and heroism, with the demeanor of a peerless hero.

He raised his legs high, stepped in a square step, performed the movements in a long and steady manner, and drew applause from the whole audience.

But in such a lively scene, Jiang Lianheng, the leader of Fengtian underworld, surprisingly sat in the corner and no one noticed him at all.

After a while, the door of the theater opened and closed quietly.

Li Zhengxi stood in the noisy crowd, looked around for a moment, and when he saw where Jiang Lianheng was, he quickly turned sideways and walked over. "Brother, we found two more." He leaned over and whispered in Jiang Lianheng's ear, "There are problems with the contracts of those two people. They said they were recruited in Liaonan, but the person on the list that my second brother gave us was not this person."

The lights converge on the stage.

Jiang Lianheng nodded and asked calmly, "Besides the contract?"

"The boss at home told me that he was instigating the workers in the factory to take a break," Li Zhengxi replied.

Jiang Lianheng remained silent, thinking for a while before speaking: "Don't rush to report the news to the provincial spies, wait for some time."

"Brother, there is one more thing."

"explain."

Li Zhengxi raised his head and glanced around at the guest tables, then lowered his voice and said softly, "Well... I heard that Su Wenqi seems to have some connection with the north."

"What?" Jiang Lianheng frowned immediately, "Do you have any evidence?"

"This..." Li Zhengxi hesitated, "As for evidence, there is nothing concrete. I just heard that Guangyuan Bank donated a lot of money to the workers and had some interactions with them."

Jiang Lianheng thought about it, and finally shook his head, saying: "What kind of evidence is this? There are so many people who have intersections with laborers. You should pay more attention to it in your daily life. Tell me if there is any situation."

"it is good."

Li Zhengxi responded and was about to leave when Jiang Lianheng called him back.

"Is there any news from Wen Tingge?"

"Brother, I don't know about that. How about I help you find him and ask him to come and tell you in person?"

Jiang Lianheng was a little dissatisfied, but asked: "Xifeng, what's wrong with you? Didn't I ask you two to discuss any situation with each other?"

"Yes..." Li Zhengxi nodded reluctantly, "But the person he and I are investigating is different. I've been busy lately and haven't had time to meet with him!"

"Don't be careless."

Jiang Lianheng waved his hand and asked Li Zhengxi to leave.

The task of checking northern workers has been carried out intermittently for about half a year.

However, the more he investigated, the more he realized that this was an almost impossible task.

It’s not that it’s difficult to investigate and spy, but that this trend of public opinion cannot be curbed at all.

The main reason why the provincial government and even the Beijing authorities focused on investigating the workers in the north was to stop the rapid spread of related public opinion.

But the reality is that regardless of whether there are these workers returning home or not, this highly inspiring public opinion is still spreading rapidly. Many old scholars and young people who have never even set foot outside the country have also spontaneously started to spread the word.

It's impossible to put all these people in jail.

Fortunately, Zhang Laoge did not blame the Jiang family for this, because in fact, the situation was similar everywhere in the world.

It’s not that the Jiang family is incompetent, but that the arms are simply no match for the thighs.

It is quite easy to catch a few spies and hand them over to the provincial government. The Jiang family is also cooperating with the provincial spy brigade in an orderly manner to carry out the "eradicating traitors" work.

The martial artist on the stage was still singing "Yiyayaya".

When the classic monologue was about to begin, the surroundings seemed even quieter than before.

The spectators all stretched their necks, concentrating their attention, as it was just about to come to the part where they bravely killed the enemy, and were waiting to cheer and applaud.

The "great hero" on the stage suddenly held up his spear, raised his eyebrows and glared, pointed his sword into the air, and recited word by word:

"Look ahead, it's pitch black, that must be the thieves' lair. When I catch up, I'll kill... kill... cough cough..."

Suddenly, this cough caused the entire theater to fall into silence.

The spectators were all stunned and couldn't come to their senses for a while.

It is not uncommon for someone to fail to sing the "Ga Diao"; it is not a big deal for someone to fail to catch the spear during a show; even losing a helmet or a beard is not surprising.

How could a simple line of speech get stuck in my throat and I couldn't shout it out?

What a fucking famous actor!

"What the fuck is this? Are you trying to bully me?"

I don't know who started it among the audience, but soon after, booing and shouting followed one after another.

"You failed when the time came to show the real deal, what a fucking piece of shit!"

"Get out of here!"

"Call Boss Zhang out. We're celebrating the groundbreaking today, but you're doing this to us young men. Who the hell are you trying to disgust?"

The continuous shouting and cursing, melon seed shells and sweat towels thrown at him made the "famous actor" on the stage panic.

The play is more important than anything else. No matter how well he sings at the beginning, if he makes a mistake by mistake, the play will be ruined and his glorious outfit will become a great irony.

The warrior quickly put down his red tasseled spear, clasped his hands together, and said shamefully, "Everyone, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, please forgive me."

"Please forgive me!" one official yelled, "Get out of here right now!"

"Okay, okay, I'll go down. I'll go down."

Wusheng lowered his head and was about to leave, but was called back by everyone.

"Don't you understand what I'm saying? I told you to get out, but you didn't say go! You stinky actor, why are you pretending? Get out!"

"roll roll roll!"

The scene became increasingly chaotic. Jiang Lianheng frowned, too lazy to get involved. After hesitating for a moment, he got up and left with a few of his followers.

Just as I walked out of the theater, the sun was at its zenith when I suddenly heard a few loud "boom" noises, coming from far away and approaching in a threatening manner.

Pedestrians on the street retreated to both sides of the road, stopping to look into the distance in panic.

Soon, one military truck after another was seen speeding past, amid the astonishment of the people of Kanto. When they came to their senses, they could still vaguely hear the Japanese's wanton ridicule and cheerful singing.

"Sakura~Sakura~Ayuyinuo solawa~"

"Hahahahaha, hey, Chi Na! Chi Na!"

——Volume 3·Must·End——

Later, I will write a summary of this volume and explain the mistakes to the readers.

(End of this chapter)