According to Taiji Ota, after the Kōa-in was abolished, Shiozawa Kiyonori would continue to serve in the Greater East Asia Province and would be stationed in Peiping to be responsible for diplomatic and administrative affairs. This Japanese general was very valuable to Chen Mingxiang, so he planned to
Establish long-term cooperative relationships to protect your business in North China.
Kiyonomi Shiozawa would naturally not refuse such a risk-free benefit, because it did not involve military secrets, but he had not thought that military secrets would be leaked from his mouth during the contact.
"This is the material handling license that I signed separately for the Peiping Branch of Huatong Trading Company. All branch offices under the Liaison Department in North China will provide the greatest convenience for your business."
“Not only can goods listed as controlled materials in North China be transported to Central China unimpeded, but commodities from Central China can also be sold in markets in North China.”
"You must also know that usually such a material handling permit is only for a batch of goods, but I have made a special mark for you and will file it at each branch. It is equivalent to a long-term qualification certificate, and there is no need to issue a permit once.
Yes, that would be too troublesome."
"General Ota must have told you that Koya-in may be revoked at the end of the year, and after the Greater East Asia Province is established, you can ask me to get a new moving permit," Kiyonori Shiozawa said.
Since the communication between the two parties was very pleasant, the next step was the substantive content of the transaction. Shiozawa Kiyonori used his power as minister to issue a cargo moving permit from the North China Liaison Department of Koyain for the Peiping Branch of Huatong Trading Company.
This is an extremely rare special license. The concept of its scope is very vague, indicating the various commodities that the Beiping branch can purchase and sell.
These include textiles and raw materials, food, daily necessities, cultural supplies, consumer goods, hardware and industrial products, medicines and fuels, etc.
Through the authorization of the North China Liaison Department, Chen Mingxiang was not only able to purchase cotton, coal, salt and grain from North China, but also continuously transported commodities from Shanghai to North China for profit.
He himself deals in silk and tea, and Shanghai's industry and commerce is very powerful in China. He sells towels, toothpaste, matches, candles, soap, toothbrushes and other daily necessities in Shanghai, as well as pens, pencils, paper, dyes and other cultural supplies.
Consumer goods such as cigarettes, photographic equipment, etc. are continuously shipped to North China for sale, which is also a large amount of income.
"Your Excellency, General, can you find a place to redeem some of the United Bank bonds for me? The China Reserve Bank bonds in my hand cannot be circulated in North China. The Peiping branch needs to rent properties in various places, and the factory needs to purchase land for construction and payment.
In addition to my salary, I also want to buy several properties in Peiping, and I have to use United Bank coupons to do this," Chen Mingxiang said.
Union Bank Notes are a type of banknote issued by the Joint Reserve Bank established by the pseudo-provisional government in North China. Because they were circulated relatively early, the ratio of Union Bank Notes to China Reserve Notes is 18 to 100. In fact, you know
Anyone in the know knows that this kind of paper money is worse than China Reserve Bank Notes.
At least the Central Reserve Bank of the Wang Puppet Government, where Zhou Fahai serves as president, still has some gold, silver and foreign exchange reserves as the basis for the issuance of currency. It can jointly prepare the bank. It only has 25 million worth of silver as the basis, half of which is plundered by the mountain city government.
Silver kept in the concession.
What's going on? Before the fall of North China, the Shancheng government kept a large amount of silver in the bank. This was used as a reserve to issue legal currency. When North China fell, these silver coins were sent to the concession for safekeeping and were not robbed by the Japanese army.
Walk.
There is a concept here. Embassy Street in East Jiaomin Lane in Peking is a bit reluctant to call it a concession, but it is indeed somewhat similar. There are churches, hospitals, banks and other facilities inside.
However, after the outbreak of the Pacific War, the concessions in Beijing and Tianjin were occupied by the Japanese army. In addition to the 12.5 million yuan of silver taken away by the United Reserve Bank, another 1,094 tons of silver were preserved, totaling 5,700 yuan.
Ten thousand yuan was stolen by the Japanese army.
The Japanese army implemented a strategy of supporting war with war, and joint bank bonds were a means of plunder. First, they exchanged the money for legal currency at a one-to-one ratio. Zhengjin Bank transported the money to the Shanghai stock market, and from the four major banks of the mountain city government
Banks exchanged foreign exchange. After the Japanese army captured the concession, they went to the Kuomintang-controlled areas to purchase smuggled materials.
The four banks of Japan, Zhengjin, Koryo and Industrial Bank can use the bank cashier's checks issued by themselves, which are deposit receipts, and record them in the deposit account of the United Reserve Bank, so that they can withdraw a large number of joint bank notes and use them for Japanese businessmen.
Business or speculation.
The North China Expeditionary Army Headquarters used transfer orders and randomly used banknotes to pay the Japanese and puppet troops, and also used them to buy supplies.
The funniest thing is that when the pseudo-United Reserve Bank issued joint banknotes, it didn't even have time to prepare the silver version of the banknotes. It actually used the banknote printing steel plates left over from the banks of the Qing Dynasty, changed the name, and changed the character on the banknotes to the Yellow Emperor.
, portraits of Guan Yu, Yue Fei, Confucius and others were first issued in denominations of one yuan, five yuan and ten yuan, and this year the denomination of one hundred yuan began to be issued.
Union Bank Notes are banknotes that can be printed as much as you want. They are almost equivalent to waste paper. Not only the puppet regime in North China prints them in large quantities, but also some troops of the Japanese army. Unknown to others, Chen Mingxiang knew the inside story and drank at Zhou Fahai's house in Jinling.
I have heard of these shameless behaviors.
"This thing is too simple. You are now responsible for the coal shortage problem in Shanghai on behalf of Xingya Institute. During lunch, I called Wang Shijing, the president of the United Preparatory Bank, to come to the North China Liaison Department of Xingya Institute
In the name of you, if you withdraw 10 million banknotes from the bank, as a subsidy to you, you may also consider US dollar gold, but the banknotes don’t matter.”
"As for real estate, the imperial army occupied Embassy Street. There are many vacant houses there. In addition, there are also many British and American businessmen's residences that are also good. I will allocate you two houses. There is no need to spend money to buy more. You come here
We don’t have much time in Peking,” Kiyonori Shiozawa said with a smile.
The transaction between Chen Mingxiang and Shiozawa Kiyonori seems to be frighteningly easy, but there are conditions. If it were any other person with two hundred thousand dollars, they would never get such treatment.
Other identities are not easy to use. Whether it is the gendarmerie headquarters in Shanghai or the Shanghai Special Municipal Government, the North China Liaison Department will not accept it.
The reason is very simple. The Japanese army and the Jinling government in Central China, and the Japanese army and the North China Government Affairs Commission in North China, are fundamentally in conflict with each other, and each has its own agenda.
And why was Chen Mingxiang able to receive the support of Shiozawa Kiyonori?
After all, he is now working for the Central China Liaison Department, with the purpose of safeguarding Japan's interests in Shanghai. Moreover, Taiji Ohta personally accompanied him to go through the formalities. This status is the top priority.
Secondly, Chen Mingxiang is very generous, with a purchase price of 200,000 US dollars. In addition, there will be a monthly salary and profit sharing. If he doesn’t get some resources, it’s really a heck of a deal!
