Although the majority shareholder of the Tianjin Tramway and Lighting Company is a Belgian consortium, the company's office is located in the Italian Concession in Tianjin, which is Italy's only overseas concession.
The tram company has a board of directors in Tianjin, with three Chinese directors and three foreign directors. During the Qing Dynasty, the directors were all selected by the governor of Zhili. For example, the first directors were from Guanguan Dao, Tianjin Dao and Tianjin prefect. In the Beiyang period, the tram company
The Hua Director was appointed by the governor of Zhili Province, but when he came to the National Government, he was appointed by the mayor of Tianjin.
However, these Hua directors only have the right to make suggestions. To put it bluntly, they are just beautiful vases placed there.
The person in charge of the company used to be called the Hua Wu Director, but now he is generally called the general manager.
Early in the morning, General Manager Fan Benke drove to No. 3 Road in the Italian Concession, only to find that the marching students had preceded him. The marchers held banners and shouted various slogans, and passers-by joined in from time to time:
"Down with imperialism and take back the right to operate electric lights and trams!"
“Severely punish illegal foreign companies!”
"Taking the tram is betraying the country, riding the tram is scheming against the enemy!"
"..."
Van Benk looked at the angry Chinese with a headache and asked the driver to drive past cautiously. When he arrived at the company's office, he saw a lot of feces splashed on the outer wall of the building, giving off a stench.
"God, this is such a barbaric country." Van Benk got out of the car depressed. He was not worried about his life safety, because the marchers did not use force, which made it impossible for the patrols in the concessions to start, for fear of arresting people at random and making things thorough.
Screw it.
As for the feces on the outer wall of the building, who knows who came to splash it in the middle of the night.
Holding his nose and coming to the office, Van Benk asked his secretary: "Has there been a call back from the headquarters?"
Tianjin Tram Company is headquartered in Brussels, Europe. Any major events need to be reported to the headquarters, and the general manager does not have any power to deal with them.
The secretary replied: "The company headquarters has not yet given clear instructions, but the consuls of various countries have sent official letters asking us to handle the matter properly as soon as possible, because the tram price increase has seriously endangered the prosperity and stability of the concessions."
"What the hell!"
Van Benk complained: "When it comes to collecting money every month, the industrial and industrial bureaus in each concession are more active than anyone else, but now they don't dare to help when something happens! A bunch of vampires."
As soon as Fan Benke finished speaking, the office door was suddenly pushed open: "Manager, someone rushed in. They said they were from the Tianjin Taxation Bureau!"
"Tell them to get lost," Van Benk yelled. "This is the Italian Concession. The Tianjin Municipal Government's Taxation Bureau has no right to come here to audit the accounts! Quick, go call the patrol and drive away all the rubbish from the Taxation Bureau."
In fact, there was no need to call for patrol. The employees of the tram company chased away the three tax collectors. However, the tax bureau left a tax payment form, requiring the payment of 20 years of credit returns. Because the company's returns over the years have been
Calculated based on the road sections within 6 miles from Gulou as the center, there is no tax at all on the tram sections beyond 6 miles.
After driving the tax collectors away, before Van Benk could take a breath, his secretary suddenly rushed in in a panic: "General Manager, something bad has happened! The Tianjin Municipal Government issued an announcement to publicly auction the tram operating rights 6 miles away from Tianjin Drum Tower.
!”
"What?"
Fan Benke stood up in confusion and said in a panic: "Is the Tianjin Municipal Government really doing this?"
The secretary nodded and said: "It's true, the news has been published in the newspapers!"
Fan Benke said anxiously: "Invite Director Hua quickly. Invite the three Director Hua from the company!"
The secretary hurriedly called, but no one was invited. He came back and reported: "Manager, the three Chinese directors are not at home. I heard they went on a trip."
"Trash, it's all trash!" Van Benk slapped the table angrily.
Although the three Hua directors have no say in the tram company, they receive dividends from the shares every year, and they are also responsible for opening up relations with China's military and political circles. Now that the Tianjin Municipal Government is going to auction the tram operating rights, it is natural that the company's Hua directors should come forward.
To settle the matter, the worst thing is to send more money.
But now the matter is too big, and the three Hua directors are not willing to come forward to help, because if they are not careful, they will be stigmatized as traitors.
Not only that, because the three directors of the tram company were relatively familiar with the business, they had already gotten involved with the Tianjin General Chamber of Commerce. These directors were jealous of the rapidly growing tram business and wanted to invest in and bid for the tram business together with the big businessmen.
Yes, this is more profitable than receiving a small amount of dividends from dry shares.
Van Benk was so frightened that he quickly ran to the French Concession. He wanted to ask the French Ambassador to Zimbabwe for help, because France and Belgium were military alliances, and the French Concession charged the highest tram tolls.
"Mr. Consul, the Chinese officials are so rude," Van Bank said, like a naughty kid looking for a complaint to an adult. "The Chinese demolished the tram company's rails and destroyed sacred private property. They also broke the contract and auctioned off the tram operating rights."
!”
The French consul in Zimbabwe also made money from tram tolls. He said righteously: "I will immediately send a message to the Nanjing government!"
When the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Nanjing National Government received a note from the French consul in Tianjin, the diplomats immediately panicked. But there was nothing they could do about it, because all the dignitaries, including Chang Kaishen and Wang Zhaoming, all went to Luoyang.
The meeting was held, and even the heads of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs were not in Nanjing.
There is no way, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has only one word to respond: delay!
The Tianjin tram price increase scandal became more and more serious. Patrols in various concessions even began to drive away student demonstrators, causing three students to be slightly injured. The demonstrators became even more indignant. Some "patriotic" gangsters took the opportunity to cause trouble, beating each other in groups.
Smash and rob foreign stores.
Foreign businessmen and foreigners who settled in Tianjin were so scared that they hid at home and did not dare to go out because they thought of the "Nanjing Incident" that year.
The consuls from various countries in Tianjin can no longer handle it. Foreigners complain every day in the Ministry of Industry and Industry Bureau, and officials in the Ministry of Industry and Commerce Bureau are clamoring for the consuls to solve the problem every day. All the senior officials in the Nanjing government are in Luoyang, and the rest are not doing anything at all. This situation will not happen for a while.
I can't settle it.
In the following days, telegrams flew all over the sky between the three cities of Tianjin, Nanjing and Luoyang, and all parties were anxious.
Chang Kaishen took this very seriously and ordered the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to send another commissioner to solve the problem. At the same time, he ordered the Tianjin Municipal Government and the Municipal Party Headquarters to stop anti-foreign activities, and the public auction plan for the tram business was immediately shelved.
Under the coordination of the Tianjin Municipal Government, various industries in Tianjin no longer go on strike, but the demonstrations cannot be stopped. The Tianjin Tram Company wanted to re-lay the tracks, but they just laid them on the first day and found that they were gone the next day, so they had to send
People squat on different sections of the road 24 hours a day.
Fan Benke, the general manager of the tram company, ran around, and finally someone gave him advice: "If you want to solve the problem, you must find Mr. Zhou."
Van Benk hurriedly came to visit with gifts, but unfortunately Zhou Hexuan was nowhere to be seen. He only got a reply from the servant: "I'm sorry, Mr. Zhou went to Luoyang for a meeting, and it will take at least a week before he can return to Tianjin."
Van Benk's lungs were almost bursting with anger. He threw all the gifts he brought into the Haihe River, which immediately attracted several passers-by to jump into the river and fight for them.
Tianjin people who know a little bit about the inside story now give Zhou Hexuan a thumbs up in advance: "Mr. Zhou is from Tianjin!"