Beiyang reactionaries

But China is not an idiot either. Wherever you want to procrastinate, you procrastinate.Although the Soviet Union was dawdling, Vladivostok began to go north, until the area of ​​Khabarovsk (Khabarovsk) was surveyed and became the land of China.At present, the Chinese army has even entered the Komsomolsk City. Next, we will talk about the issue of going north, all the way to Sakhalin Island.

There are currently three people in charge of this matter.

Tang Shizun, Secretary of the Northern Bureau, Li Yunlong, Deputy Commander of the Northeast Military Region, and Gu Weijun, Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs.Gu Weijun, as the chief negotiator, is fully responsible for exploration and negotiation, and confirms the boundary line.As a military guarantee, Li Yunlong, as long as he confirms that the border troops will follow up immediately.

As for Tang Shizun, he was in charge of the general logistics, supporting the front army, negotiation and exploration teams.

In addition to border affairs, the Ministry of Industry continued to promote industrial standardization according to its own plan.The Bank of China is carrying out financial rectification and some reforms.The biggest reform is that OCBC and HSBC have increased the autonomy of the management.Especially in terms of the use of funds, the two banks do not undertake the loan task for government construction.That is to say, from now on, OCBC and HSBC may not lend to the government or state-owned enterprises.They have lending autonomy.

China Merchants Bank, HSBC, Deutsche Bank, Bank of Italy, and Siemens jointly invested and acquired the Hong Kong Bank of East Asia to establish a new Bank of East Asia.

The establishment of this bank is very visible.

Many German and Italian high-ranking officials and military officers, including some soldiers who made a fortune during the war, and some businessmen's hidden funds are temporarily stored.Even some European heads of state, including Spanish Prime Minister Franco and some of his family, will deposit some funds.

Apart from these things, other departments and provinces are proceeding according to plan.

Although because of the war, the fourth five-year plan was not formulated.But after the first three five-year plans, it has become a habit for government departments to formulate plans and then follow them.Therefore, at the end of 1939 and the beginning of 1940, starting from the Supreme Committee, the lower cabinet, each province, and even the lower counties and cities formulated a development plan for 1940.

Therefore, under the chaotic world situation, China's domestic construction is still step by step.

"Fifty army divisions, ten tank divisions, ten air divisions."

"Yes."

Li Jishen nodded.

Han Linchun next to him said: "After the Japanese army took over French Indochina from Vichy France, they did not make any major changes to this area. They even retained most of the French colonial officials. They just asked the French colonial officials to raise Japanese military logistics. materiel, and mobilization in French Indochina to raise some troops."

"The Japanese army is impatient to attack Burma."

"Yes. Japan obviously doesn't want to waste too much time in French Indochina. Anyway, the Japanese army has already entered French Indochina, and there is no problem in controlling the local area. Their biggest enemy now is the British and Indian troops. At present, the British and Indian troops The army was under a lot of pressure from the Japanese army, so they put forward such a large-scale request for arms. In fact, the last time the arms requested by the British and Indian troops were not completely handed over, they put forward such a large order.”

Britain has more headaches now than it has in history.

For a long time in history, Britain only needed to deal with Germany.After resisting Germany's three axes, the United Kingdom used the Commonwealth of Nations and its vast colonies to consume with Germany.

But in this time and space, Britain and Japan took the lead in fighting.Britain is now fighting on two fronts, and the war with Japan is very unfavorable.The British mainland is currently barely resisting Germany, and it is still counting on India's support.But the reality is that India is also very dangerous.Once Japan takes Myanmar, Japan will be able to attack India along the way.

However, although India is dangerous, it cannot get support from the British mainland.Therefore, the British and Indian troops can only find a way by themselves.The British and Indian troops are targeting China.Under the current circumstances, only China can support the British and Indian armies on a large scale.

Although the relationship between China and Germany, Italy and Japan is good, it is only a good relationship.China and they are not military allies, and judging from the situation in the past few years, China is still vacillating.And as long as money is given, China is willing to do arms trade.

Therefore, as soon as the British and Indian troops are in a hurry, they begin to place large orders.

"Do they have money?"

"They want to offset these munitions with British assets in our country."

"British assets in China?"

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"British assets in China?"

"Yes."

Duan Xun turned his head to look at Dai Kan and Yan Huiqing.

Yan Huiqing said: "Chairman, there are quite a lot of British assets in China, especially in the cities along the Yangtze River. However, most of the assets in China are British businessmen's assets in our country, and the assets of the British government are Very few. The assets of the British government in my country were mainly in the British Concession and Hong Kong. However, as my country banned the concession and took back Hong Kong, these British government assets were recovered by my country. At present, the British government basically has no assets in my country. .”

British assets in China?

Where does the British government have assets.In the early years, most of the assets of the British government in the British Concession and in Hong Kong have been confiscated by the Chinese government.Even if some are not confiscated, they are the seat of the British government in China, which is not an asset.

"What the UK is talking about is the assets of British businessmen in China."

"Oh? The assets of the British businessmen? What are the specific assets? Those British businessmen are willing to take them out?"

Duan Xun was very curious.

What the British and Indian troops want is not just a little bit of munitions, but these munitions are worth hundreds of millions of dollars.Even because of the increase in the price of war ammunition, it is hard to say exactly how many Duan Xun will be.Anyway, the overall price of the arms requested by the British and Indian troops this time is absolutely astonishing.

It is not a trivial matter for British businessmen in China to supplement such a huge amount of funds with their assets.

Those British businessmen have so much money?

Even if there is so much money, it is the British businessman's own.British businessmen are willing to take out their own money?

"We are not very clear about the agreement reached between the British government and their businessmen. But when we were negotiating, we had already met some representatives of British businessmen in China, and they agreed with the plan of the British and Indian troops. The Sirk family, the head of the Buneman firm, participated in the negotiations in person as representatives of British businessmen in China."

"Jardine Matheson? Bu Neimen Matheson?"

"Yes."

"How much assets does Jardine Matheson have in my country?"

"I don't know the details, but the assets are huge. Jardine Matheson is headquartered in Hong Kong and has branches in 16 cities across the country. He has been involved in many industries. Starting from real estate, investment companies, shipping companies, terminals, pharmaceutical companies, wineries , paper mills, elevator manufacturing plants, machinery import and export companies, etc. They directly control hundreds of factories in various industries, and the total assets of all of them should reach four to five billion U.S. dollars, or even exceed this amount. Ba's consortium is no less powerful than Taikoo Matheson."

The answer to Duan Xun's question was Song Hanzhang, the former Minister of Commerce and currently the Deputy Director of the Economic and Development Commission.

For these foreign businessmen who have taken root in China for many years, the Ministry of Commerce has a record.Among the current foreign businessmen in China, Jardine Matheson is one of the largest consortiums.Because of its good relationship with the Chinese government, Swire Pacific in the UK has received the support of the Chinese government and developed very rapidly.But Jardine Matheson is no worse than Swire Matheson.

"Among the many subsidiaries of Jardine Matheson, three industries are his core industries. One is his investment company, which has a history of 50 years. One-third of the railways in the late Qing Dynasty were acquired by Jardine Loans from Matheson Investment Company. Since we excluded foreign investment in railway construction, the investment company of Jardine Matheson has begun to increase investment in my country’s light industry. At present, there are more than 140 factories in my country that have received investment from this company. After 20 years of economic development, Jardine Matheson's investment companies have achieved amazing returns."

When a country develops, it is an opportunity for great development for many companies.

This is the case with Jardine Matheson.

Their investment company is already well-funded, and they were born as opium merchants, and they have taken root in China for a hundred years.Although it is impossible to enter the fields controlled by the Chinese government, the Chinese government encourages them in the civilian field.Jardine Matheson uses its powerful financial strength to invest in the Chinese economy.

The returns are high.

"The second core asset of Jardine Matheson is their real estate company. Although the government has strict control over land, there has not been a major auction of urban land in recent years. And even if it was an auction, it was sold to those designated by the government. Real estate companies. However, at the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of my country, Jardine Matheson had already hoarded a large amount of land in major cities in our country, and all of them were in the center of the city.”

Very helpless.

why?

New China is very clean and tidy, confiscated all these properties, and there is no worries.But Duan Xun cannot confiscate urban land like New China.Duan Xun can only control the periphery of the city.

Fortunately, the scale of cities in this era is limited, and it is a big city with a population of one million.Most of the county towns have only a few tens of thousands of people, so urban land control is relatively easy.But some people who hoarded a lot of land in the early years have made a fortune.

Especially with the development of China's economy, urban land is becoming more and more valuable.

"Does Jardine Matheson control a lot of land?"

"many."