1928: The rise of giant merchants

"The south wind brings coolness, the nightingale sings softly, all the flowers under the moon are asleep, and only the evening scented fragrance reveals its fragrance."

"I love the vastness of the night, I love the singing of the nightingale, and I love the flower-like dream even more, embracing and smelling the tuberose."

"Tuberose~"

"I sing for you."

"Tuberose~"

"I'm thinking about you."

"Oh, I sing for you, I think about you."

Listening to Wang Ji's beautiful singing voice and looking at the brand-new electric record recording equipment, Li Jinhui had mixed feelings in his heart, and he was keenly aware that the record market was about to usher in a new era!

The record business in Shanghai is now monopolized by three giants, namely the strongest British company Oriental EMI, Greater China Records and the American Victory Records.

Among them, Victory Records mainly records records of American singers and mass-produces phonographs. After the combination of the two, it is sold all over the world. Nowadays, the gramophones in Shanghai are basically Victory brands.

The Greater China Record Company mainly records records of famous Peking Opera actors. The track is different, so it can survive as a Chinese business enterprise.

The strongest EMI company is EMI EMI Records, which later signed many well-known singers such as Andy Lau and Faye Wong. It is also one of the five major record companies in the world.

Li Jinhui's daughter Li Minghui's "Drizzle" was produced by EMI.

But these three record companies are still using wax disk recording equipment, which is the most popular way to amplify sound through speakers and record records directly.

Records made by this recording method are generally only two or three minutes in total, have very poor sound quality, and tend to absorb various surrounding noises.

But Yeluo has already used the latest Vitaphone equipment, and the recording equipment has also been changed from wax plates to electric record engraving heads and new recording films!

The entire song "Tuberose" can be recorded, and the sound quality is pleasing, making it a great collection.

After witnessing the power of newly imported equipment from the United States, Zhang Shichuan and Li Minwei finally understood why the second young master continued to import new technologies and equipment after being cheated of 270,000 yuan. They also felt that talkies would definitely replace the silent film era. !

This is so shocking!

After singing the song, everyone was still intoxicated.

Then Ye Luo asked someone to play the recorded "Tuberose" record on a gramophone again to compare it with the live performance just now.

A group of people who had heard the grainy records on wax discs were immediately impressed by the textured records made from the new recording film.

This new dense record has revolutionary advantages such as low noise, good fidelity and long playing time. Anyone with a discerning eye can know that it will quickly replace the wax plate rough record and become the record trend in the new era.

Bang bang bang——

After the record was played, everyone present could not help but applaud.

"sounds amazing!"

"Awesome! This is the most beautiful song I've heard this year!"

"With the songs written by the Second Young Master, our Black Cat Dance Hall doesn't need to play other songs as dance music!"

Wang Ji walked down from the stage, a little confused, but also a little expectant.

She looked at Ye Luo, who was standing in the front, smiled shyly, bowed slightly, and then ran over and asked in a low voice: "Second Young Master, can I, I, I sing okay?"

"It's great, just the feeling I want." Ye Luo nodded and praised her vigorously. The original singer of "Tuberose" was Japanese female singer Yamaguchi Shuko, whose Chinese name is Li Xianglan, but she was actually created by the Japanese invaders. The pseudo-Chinese actor achieved the purpose of condolences to the Japanese invaders by starring in films that promoted the Japanese invaders' Far East policy, and became the goodwill envoy of the puppet Manchukuo to Japan that the Japanese invaders needed.

This is another reason why Ye Luo directly chose this song as the opening dance song.

Instead of letting Yamaguchi Yoshiko use it to gain a lot of fame and fortune in the future, and then get close to the top officials of the National Government to obtain information, it would be better to let Wang Ji preemptively make a preemptive strike, directly rely on this song to become famous, and rob Yamaguchi Yoshiko of everything!

After hearing what Ye Luo said, Wang Ji breathed a sigh of relief and finally let go of the stone in his heart.

In addition to "Tuberose", Ye Luo also wrote several famous songs that later became popular all over the country. They were sung by Hu Die and Ruan Lingyu respectively. They will not only be broadcast on the opening day of Black Cat Dance Hall, but will also continue to be broadcast on Asia and America Radio. Play it on a loop to clean the ears of ordinary people in Shanghai.

All this was seen by Xiao Aqiao.

More and more, I felt that Ye Luo's business methods were far beyond those of ordinary Chinese businessmen, and every step seemed to have been carefully thought out and interconnected.

This time the Black Cat Dance Hall opened, Ye Luo did not let her and the girls from Fengming House fight alone. Within a month, Liangyou Pictorial, Ye's Advertising Company, Ye's Film Company, Ye's Radio Factory and many other companies All the companies were connected together to provide services to her Ye's Dance Company.

The huge cohesion and resources allowed Xiao Aqiao to see the power of Ye's Investment Company, and also gave her more confidence to compete with Paramount!

On the other side, Yongxing Company.

Lu Yusheng has been busy preparing for the establishment of Paramount these days. In order to defeat Ye Luo head-on in his dance hall business, Lu Yusheng has really gone all out these days. He has contacted all the business and political celebrities who have good relations with him. Winning them to invest in Paramount and promising generous dividend returns.

For this reason, Huo Tianhong also contacted many senior officials in Jinling to protect his Paramount and build momentum.

Zhang Wanlin, who was left out, was unwilling to lose to Ye Luo for the rest of his life. Although Lao San did not let him get involved in this business, he still found a new kind of fun——

Join Edward Sassoon in the smoking business he knew so well.

Edward has always wanted to make a lot of money with the funds in his hands, so as to change his father Victor Sassoon's view of him and consolidate his position as the heir of the Sassoon family.

While he was cooperating with Lu Yusheng to open Paramount, he and Zhang Wanlin were making large purchases and occupying other opium dens in Shanghai, hoping to monopolize the opium business.

None of them paid much attention to Ye Luo's developments.

After all, compared to the Paramount, the Black Cat Ballroom was like the stars competing against the bright moon. They were not on the same level at all. No matter how Ye Luo tossed and turned, the overwhelming financial investment made them think of the possibility of losing.

On the contrary, Ye Luo often asked people to follow the movements of the three tycoons of Yongxing Company and Edward, and reported them to him on time every day.

Ever since Edward cheated him out of 270,000 yuan, Ye Luo has put the Sassoon family on the list that must be eradicated. Like Yongxing Company, they belong to the group of enemies who will never stop fighting.

Ye Luo never takes this type of enemy lightly and will do everything possible to find the right moment to kill him with one blow.

Zhang Wanlin and Edward's changes in the cigarette business soon caught his attention, which reminded him of the "Jiang'an Lun Incident" in November. Maybe this was a good opportunity to hit Yongxing Company and the Sassoon family hard. He made a random note and waited for the subsequent development of the situation.

Just as the two parties were actively preparing for the opening day of their respective ballrooms, a new batch of victims who had been displaced from the north to Shanghai due to drought arrived at the train station. In order to help rescue the disaster in the north, Ye Luo quickly asked people to bring a lot of supplies to Ye Luo. The famous charity foundation rushed to provide disaster relief.

On the same day, September 20, a pair of uninvited guests invited by Lu Yusheng also arrived in Shanghai secretly. They were escorted by gangsters from the Qing Gang and police from the Songhu Police Department and stayed in the Huo Mansion.

Ye Luo arranged for Ma Yongzhen at the Songhu Police Department to report the information to Ye Luo immediately.

It turned out that those arriving in Shanghai were Shaoshuai Zhang and his first wife Yu Fengzhi.

They are here to support Paramount!