Chapter 808 807 [On the Way]
Victoria passenger liner.
On the deck, a lively open-air dance was being held. Pairs of white people were pacing and circling to the rhythm of dance music, while the Chinese were much more reserved. Most of them were sitting nearby drinking drinks and smiling, or chatting in low voices about their favorite topics.
These Chinese people have a great background. In addition to Finance Minister Kong Xiangxi, Navy Minister Chen Shaokuan, and Executive Yuan Secretary-General Weng Wenhao, there are also Zeng Rongfu, Executive Undersecretary of the Ministry of Railways, Zhu Changnian, Customs Supervisor, Zhang Fuyun, Director of Customs Affairs of the Ministry of Finance, and Zhang Fuyun, Director of the Customs Affairs Department of the Ministry of Industry. Guo Bingwen, director of the International Trade Bureau, and Mei Lehe (British), director of the General Taxation Department of Customs.
In addition, there are a host of secretaries, military attachés, commissioners, translators and technical staff.
Just looking at the composition of the special envoy, you know that it is not as simple as celebrating the coronation of the British King. It also needs to perform a series of diplomatic, trade, loan, technical cooperation and other tasks.
Kong Xiangxi's eldest daughter Kong Lingyi was undoubtedly the center of attention at the open-air dance. There were also many handsome men in the special envoy, but under the watchful eyes of Kong Xiangxi and Song Ailing, these young Chinese officials did not dare to act rashly. In the end, they could only help the foreigner, a respectable middle-aged foreigner, who invited Kong Lingyi to dance with a smile.
Zhou Hexuan came out of the cabin after taking a nap, walked to the deck and took a look around. He saw that only Kong Xiangxi's table was still vacant, so he walked over generously.
"Can I sit here?" Zhou Hexuan asked.
"Of course, please sit down!" Although Song Ailing didn't like Zhou Hexuan, he still had basic manners and etiquette.
Kong Xiangxi smiled and nodded to Zhou Hexuan. Kong Lingjie also raised his head and looked at Zhou Hexuan, his eyes full of curiosity.
Kong Lingjie is Kong Xiangxi's youngest son. He has just turned 16 this year. His appearance is similar to that of his father, but he is more delicate and handsome. Before he gained weight, this guy was still a handsome boy, and he was very polite, at least not offensive.
"Mr. Zhou!" Kong Lingjie stood up to greet him.
"Hello," Zhou Hexuan glanced at the book in the other person's hand and said with a smile, "Master Kong is reading "Red and Black" at a young age. How much can you understand?"
Kong Xiangxi smiled and said to his son: "Lingjie, Mr. Zhou is a great writer. If you have any questions, you can ask Mr. Zhou for advice."
Kong Lingjie explained seriously: "I heard from my teacher that "The Red and the Black" was the foundation work of European critical realism in the 19th century and a great world masterpiece, so I read it. As for how much I can understand, I don't know. I just find it interesting.”
"Hahaha," Zhou Hexuan laughed and praised, "Interesting is the motivation for reading. Master Kong has already mastered the art of reading."
"Really?" Kong Lingjie was quite surprised. After all, the person who praised him was a Nobel Prize winner in literature.
Hearing that her youngest son was praised, Song Ailing said proudly: "Of the younger generations in our family, Lingjie is the most talented in reading. He has always performed very well in school."
No one could have expected that decades later, the richest member of the Kong family would be Kong Lingjie.
This guy worked as a diplomat for Chiang Kai-shek for ten years, accumulated deep personal connections, and used these resources to engage in foreign trade and securities in the United States. After having the start-up capital, he gave up politics and entered business to become his own boss. He first purchased large tracts of wasteland in Texas, USA, and made his fortune relying on underground oil resources. Then he entered the U.S. real estate industry, and his net worth far exceeded that of his father and brother.
Unlike his miser father and domineering brother, Kong Lingjie is very low-key and extremely insecure. He almost never appeared in public, and built his villa into a bunker with a fully equipped underground air raid shelter - the shelter had an emergency room, a holding room, a fire extinguishing system, a power supply system and an entertainment venue.
The gate of this bunker villa is built as a tower turret and is equipped with protective steel armor. It can not only resist bombing and tank assaults, but also build an artificial lake above the shelter to prevent neutron penetration during a nuclear bomb attack.
God knows what Kong Lingjie was thinking. He actually built a bunker villa for himself in the United States, and even took nuclear bombing into consideration.
Could it be that the bombing in Chongqing left a shadow?
Zhou Hexuan chatted without a word. Not long after, Kong Lingyi came over after finishing the dance, sat next to Zhou Hexuan and chatted non-stop.
Facing several Kong family members, Zhou Hexuan couldn't help but think of Kong Lingkan who was studying in the United States.
Doesn’t Mr. Kong like other people’s wives?
Zhou Hexuan graciously satisfied him and asked friends from the Hongmen General Hall in Wuzhou to help Kong Lingkan find a beautiful white woman in her 30s. That woman is a has-been star in Hollywood. She once performed in a musical on Broadway, and has had five husbands. Now this one has not been divorced, which is exactly what Mr. Confucius likes.
Since last fall, Kong Lingkan has not been going to school very much, and he spends his days dancing and watching movies with pretty married women. The woman completely regarded Kong Lingkan as a mobile bank. In just a few months, she had squandered 20,000 US dollars and almost drained Mr. Kong's study abroad funds.
The woman's husband was on the verge of bankruptcy during the Great Depression. Although he still ran a factory, he owed a large amount of debt to the bank. Hongmen is setting a trap to trap him. When this man is desperate, he will definitely take his advice from Kong Lingkan.
When the time comes, another gunman will be sent to take advantage of the chaos to ensure that Kong Lingkan's death is unknown and has nothing to do with Zhou Hexuan.
In order to kill Kong Lingkan, Zhou Hexuan spent a total of 50,000 US dollars in activity funds. This huge sum of money is enough for the Hongmen brothers to work hard to help. After all, many Hongmen people are paupers.
On the deck, Zhou Hexuan chatted and laughed with the Kong family, without any sense of guilt in his heart, because it was not a pity for a person like Kong Lingkan to die, and keeping him alive could only harm the Chinese people.
"Mr. Zhou, I heard that you know the King and Crown Prince of Sweden?" Kong Xiangxi suddenly asked.
Zhou Hexuan said: "It's just acquaintance, no friendship. Minister Kong is going to visit Sweden?"
Kong Xiangxi nodded and said: "I received a domestic confidential telegram yesterday. Wang Jingqi, the Minister to Sweden and Norway, reported that Sweden has a lot of money, and that the country's banks and industrial circles are interested in cooperating with China. The most important thing is that Sweden has no international ambitions. Borrow money from them and you won’t have to worry about future problems.”
Zhou Hexuan suggested: "If you want to borrow money from Sweden, you should do it as early as possible. Cooperation between the two countries is purely for commercial interests. Now Japan is eyeing it, and it is very likely that something will happen again. Once something happens, Sweden's confidence in China will be reduced, and cooperation will be more difficult." It will increase."
Public is public, private is private.
While Zhou Hexuan deliberately tried to trick Kong Lingkan into death, he also spared no effort to help Kong Xiangxi with advice, because borrowing money from Sweden was an act that was beneficial to the country.
Historically, Kong Xiangxi traveled all over Europe and the United States, asking for loans everywhere. Sweden originally intended to borrow money, but before the negotiations were completed, the all-out war of resistance suddenly broke out. The Swedes were afraid of losing their money and immediately canceled the original loan plan.
It’s interesting to say that although the “golden decade” of the Republic of China is scorned by others, it actually existed in the eyes of the great powers. With the Nanjing government's continuous victory in the civil war and the smooth implementation of the unified tax policy, the Chinese market was increasingly favored by the great powers.
Coupled with the global economic crisis in the past few years, capital from various countries have come to China to seek profits. In the past few years, financial groups from Germany, the United States, Britain, France, Belgium, Italy and other countries have swarmed in and signed large-scale railway loan contracts with the Chinese government.
Even the American consortium, which has always been extremely cold towards Chinese borrowing, has changed its view at this time. Now, Pearson, President of the Export-Import Bank of the United States, is personally making a special trip to China to discuss cooperation with Railway Minister Zhang Jiayao, and is willing to provide China with a large amount of credit.
What Zhou Hexuan saw was that the Japanese were about to attack, but what US Ambassador to China Johnson saw was a rapidly developing Republic of China.
Johnson specifically called the U.S. State Department and said: "Many foreigners have to be deeply impressed by China's achievements in agriculture, industry, transportation, etc. in recent years... Under the leadership of the National Government, a period of economic development has begun Coming." Johnson also said that consortiums from Britain, France, Germany and other countries have provided large loans to China, and the U.S. government should also actively participate in investment in China.
It can be seen from Johnson's report that China's development momentum on the eve of the all-out Anti-Japanese War in 1937 was extremely optimistic by the great powers. If there had been no Japanese invasion and Chang Kaishen would have spent another ten years gradually eradicating domestic warlords, China would not have become a powerful country, but at least it would have developed to a certain level of prosperity.
But history has no ifs...