After listening to Tan Kah Kee's words, everyone's expressions were very exciting, especially Chen Cheng and He Yingqin, the two ministers and deputy ministers of the Ministry of Military Affairs in charge of military affairs, who felt a little embarrassed.
Although ordinary people don't know it, who among the top leaders of the Kuomintang doesn't know that the Seventh Army and the central government are seemingly inseparable. Although they are nominally affiliated with the central government, it is just a superficial phenomenon. The Kuomintang government has never paid them a dime.
Military pay and not a single bullet were fired. Everything they did was done by themselves, and the central government did not have much binding force on them.
Although the senior officials of the Kuomintang knew about these things, Tan Kah Kee, who had just returned from Nanyang, did not know about it. He was still praising and boasting: "I heard that the commander of the Seventh Army is named Su Rui. He is just thirty years old this year.
, he is really a young and promising young man! If the country has a few more such promising young people, why worry about not being able to drive the Japanese invaders out of China as soon as possible!"
Tan Kah Kee here praised Su Rui with all his heart, but the expressions of everyone on the side became more and more embarrassed. Tan Kah Kee had just returned from Nanyang and did not know about Su Rui's situation. They all know this clearly. After Chen Kah Kee said these words
To them, it didn't sound like a slap in the face. The army, which regarded itself as an elite, kept losing cities and territory, while the army, which they despised as a motley crew, kept regaining lost ground from the Japanese. Such a comparison
The difference is just like the sky and the earth.
Hearing Tan Kah Kee's continuous praise of Su Rui and the Seventh Army, Kong Xiangxi couldn't help but become a little anxious. As the Executive Dean, Kong Xiangxi is also the governor of the Central Bank. He seems to have a high position, but he has to bear a lot of responsibilities.
It's also huge. The weapons, equipment, military pay and other expenses for the country's millions of troops all fall on his shoulders.
Before the Anti-Japanese War, the National Government's tax revenue was mainly divided into three major parts, namely customs duties, salt tax and unified tax. Taking 1937 as an example, the three tax revenue of the National Government was 772 million yuan, accounting for 10% of the fiscal recovery.
77.2%. The three tax shares in coastal areas account for more than 80% of the total fiscal recovery.
As coastal cities continue to fall, the Nationalist Government's area of control continues to shrink, and tax revenues continue to decrease. However, military expenditures on the front line continue to increase, which turns into a vicious cycle. The more the war is defeated, the area of the area of control decreases.
The smaller the currency, the greater the military expenditure. But the National Government's fiscal revenue continues to shrink, how can it maintain huge military expenditure? The only way is to issue more currency. Although everyone knows the harm of uncontrolled issuance of currency, there is no way. In order to
To maintain the rule of the Nationalist Government, we had no choice but to do it despite knowing that it was drinking poison to quench our thirst.
The legal currency of the National Government is legal tender. However, due to the excessive issuance of legal tender in recent years, the depreciation rate of legal tender has been accelerating. Here is a set of data that can clearly show the depreciation speed of legal tender. In 1937, one hundred legal tenders could buy two coins.
Big cow, in 1938, one hundred French coins could still buy a big cow and a calf. In 1939, one hundred French coins could buy one big cow, but in 1940, one hundred French coins could only buy one cow.
Calf.
For this reason, experts from the Central Bank have issued a warning. If legal currency is issued indiscriminately at this rate, without a large amount of gold and foreign exchange to fill the gap, the central government will be completely bankrupt, and the consequences will be disastrous. In view of this
.The central government urgently needed the foreign exchange donated by Tan Kah Kee and overseas Chinese in Nanyang to fill the central government's huge fiscal deficit.
Although Kong Xiangxi was extremely anxious, Tan Kah Kee didn't look very anxious. He was still sitting on the chair talking and laughing as if nothing had happened, with no intention of asking for donations. This made Kong Xiangxi feel itchy as if more than a dozen mice had crawled into his heart.
No, but he still had to listen to Tan Kah Kee praising that hateful guy with a smile on his face.
After finally waiting for Tan Kah Kee to finish speaking, Kong Xiangxi intervened: "Mr. Chen, you are right. It's just that although our army has won some victories, its finances are close to collapse and we are in urgent need of donations from all walks of life. We cannot let
The soldiers are fighting the Japanese with bayonets on an empty stomach!" When he said this, Kong Xiangxi's eyes turned red.
Kong Xiangxi said everything to this point. Tan Kah Kee could no longer pretend to be deaf and dumb. He sighed and said: "Well, now that Dean Kong has said everything to this point, the old man can no longer pretend to be deaf and dumb.
, otherwise someone will stab you in the spine. Well, when I came here this time, I brought four million US dollars, which the overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia had scraped together, and some trucks. Of course, the trucks are still loaded on American freighters.
It will take a few days to enter the country from Guangzhou port, and I can't get it to the government immediately. But I have the check for four million US dollars with me. Now I will hand it over to Dean Kong. I hope
You can put it to good use."
After saying that, Tan Kah Kee took out a check from his arms and handed it to Kong Xiangxi solemnly. Kong Xiangxi also took the check solemnly and said sternly: "Mr. Chen, please don't worry, we will definitely share these donations."
A lot of it is used on frontline soldiers, so that they can better serve the country and kill the enemy."
Tan Kah Kee smiled slightly: "Dean Kong is serious. I hope you can remember what you said and don't let the soldiers on the front line bleed and shed tears anymore."
After hearing what Tan Kah Kee said, everyone around him, including Chairman Chiang, blushed. At this time, the Kuomintang was full of corruption, whether it was government officials or the military. If these four million US dollars were to be released,
If we go down, it would be great to have one million in the hands of the officers and soldiers below. Tan Kah Kee naturally knows about this, but even though he knows, he is powerless to change all this. He can only place his hope in
These people in front of you can be merciful and less greedy, so that the ordinary soldiers below can get more benefits.
Not only Tan Kah Kee, but also Chairman Chiang Kai-shek knew this, but he didn't have any good solution for this kind of thing. After all, the national conditions are like this. Even if he is the leader of a country, he is still scratching his head about this kind of thing.
There is no good way. But you still have to have the attitude you need, otherwise who will be willing to donate money to the government in the future.
Seeing this situation, Chairman Chiang also interjected: "Mr. Chen is right, we will definitely strengthen supervision and never let these money be taken away by those dirty hands!"
"In that case, I'm relieved. Well, I'll go to the south tomorrow to have a look and learn from the experience there. I heard that Guangdong Province's development in the past two years is pretty good, so I'll go there and take a look and learn from it.
, look at General Su again, I heard that the Japanese raised the price of his head to 10 million oceans. This price can be said to be the most valuable head in China."
When Tan Kah Kee said this, Chairman Chiang's face immediately changed. This price was announced not long ago, and it was twice as high as his head. Although this is not a glorious thing, it can be seen from here.
When he came out, the Japanese valued him less than a group army commander. This was too disrespectful to him as a leader of a country. Moreover, he was also dissatisfied with Tan Kah Kee going to Guangdong. This was not an obvious sign of looking down on him as a committee member.
Do you have the ability to govern a country?
Seeing Chairman Chiang's face turning gloomy and cloudy, people around him also stopped talking. They wanted to persuade Chen Kah Kee not to go to Guangdong, but they didn't know how to start the conversation. In the end, Chen Bulei talked about it in order to change the subject.
Mei Siping came to see him this morning and repeated what Mei Siping said.
Sure enough, as soon as Chen Bulei finished talking about Chairman Chiang Kai-shek and before he could speak, Chen Kah Kee was so angry that he burst out in anger and said, "You are so ambitious that you really know how to put powder on your own face. It doesn't matter if you don't resist the Japanese, but you still try your best to fight against the people who are resisting the Japanese."
People who splash dirty water on their faces should be killed!"
"Peace movement? I have never heard of a peaceful movement alone being able to regain lost territory from the invaders. If so, why do we need the army? Just let everyone go and start a peace movement!" He has rarely spoken.
Chen Cheng was also angry. The most despised thing for a soldier like him was the kind of person who could only rely on words.
Chairman Chiang on the side was also so angry that his mouth twitched. Mei Siping's remarks were extremely shameless. He actually turned the tables on him and blamed him for losing the country. Most people really couldn't do this to confuse right and wrong.
Coming out, it can be seen that Mei Siping's shamelessness has really reached a certain level.
At this time, Lin Sen also said: "Chairman, looking at the traitorous words of Mei Siping and Wang Jingwei, we can see that they are determined to be traitors. The central government must come up with an effective policy."
We have to come and fight back against their traitorous remarks, otherwise in the future, if people follow their example, it will be fine, and will this country still be around?"
Lin Sen was a veteran of the Kuomintang, and his qualifications were comparable to those of Tan Kah Kee. Naturally, Chairman Chiang Kai-shek could not ignore his words, so he had no choice but to agree.
Although Chairman Chiang agreed, looking at the helpless look on his face, Tan Kah Kee also knew that there was no hope of expecting Chairman Chiang to take countermeasures against Wang Jingwei who was far away in Nanjing.
On the frontal battlefield, they were retreating steadily, and they had no strength to launch an effective counterattack against the Japanese army. Thinking of this, Tan Kah Kee became even more interested in the commander of the Seventh Group Army who was far away in Guangdong.
"Perhaps it would be a good choice to go to Guangdong. Maybe we can find hope for the Anti-Japanese War there."
If Tan Kah Kee just had an idea just now, then now he has made up his mind to go and see the young general whose head was bought by the Japanese for 10 million yuan. Maybe he can watch it there.
to something different.
Tan Kah Kee is determined (to be continued...)
ps: Thank you for the cold night wind and rain blowing, cjj71 and other tubes for the reward!