Chapter 458: 457 [The Useless Mayor]

Information about two super-large oil mines in Indonesia quickly spread to the Japanese military headquarters.

After the navy learned the news, it really used this as an excuse to clamor for the early implementation of the "southward" strategy. The army firmly disagreed, thinking that "going south" would provoke European and American powers, and "going north" to occupy the Far East was the right way, because the Soviet Union was isolated and helpless internationally, and countries such as Britain, the United States, and France were happy to see Japan trouble the Soviet Union.

The disagreement between the Japanese army and navy has a long history, and quarrels between the land and navy ministers have become almost daily.

There was no result in the quarrel. In the end, the two sides decided to send people to conduct a secret survey first to determine whether the intelligence sent by the spies was true. If Indonesia does have super-large oil mines, then you can quietly buy land and do some preliminary mining preparations.

However, it is impossible to occupy two large oil mines by purely commercial means, because the area of ​​the oil fields is too large. As long as the Japanese go too far, they will definitely attract the attention of the Dutch colonial government, and the British will definitely come in to get a share.

The Japanese military dispatched geological survey personnel, spent huge sums of money, and took a year and a half before finally confirming that the information was basically true. Using the traditional "volumetric method", they calculated that the two oil mines have reserves of hundreds of millions of tons, which immediately made the people in the military department jealous.

What Japan lacks most is strategic resources. The attack on Southeast Asia and the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor during World War II were all caused by resource problems. What's more, apart from oil, Indonesia's rubber production is also very scary, ranking among the top three in the world.

The Japanese cabinet also gradually learned of the news and proposed to cooperate with the Dutch colonial government in mining. The military department firmly opposed it, saying that this would only benefit the British and the Dutch. The plan they gave was to support Indonesian non-government independent organizations, and if the time was right, they could even help the Indonesians to establish a country.

This plan is really whimsical, but the people in the Japanese military department have always had great ideas. You must know that the ultimate goal of their "mainland policy" is to dominate the Eurasian continent.

Of course, no matter how crazy the Japanese soldiers are, there must be a limit. Before Hitler slammed Britain and France, Japan did not dare to get involved in Southeast Asia easily, otherwise it would inevitably attract siege from all over the world.

These are all things to say later. After the Japanese military department confirmed the information on the oil mine, it further affirmed the existence of the "Freemasonry", and Zhou Hexuan was also an important figure of the "Freemasonry" in Asia. Liao Yaquan's espionage mission has been raised to the highest level, no one is allowed to interfere with the mission, and Zhou Hexuan's life safety must also be guaranteed.

...

Just when Wanrong and Liao Yaquan were raising their babies in peace, the mayor of Tianjin, Zhou Longguang, suddenly came to visit, and he still came to ask for help.

"Mr. Zhou, I take the liberty to come to visit, please also invite Haihan!" Zhou Longguang said very politely.

Zhou Hexuan smiled and said, "Where, where, I should have gone to visit Mayor Zhou."

Zhou Longguang had nothing to say: "Mr. Zhou's Sanle Hall has a profound meaning. Looking at the whole Tianjin, only Ren Gong's ice room can compare."

"Haha, Mayor Zhou is being polite, just speak up if you have anything to say." Zhou Hexuan laughed.

Zhou Longguang suddenly put away his smile, and said with a sad face: "Mr. Zhou, I'm telling you the truth. The position of mayor of Tianjin is really a pit of fire. My ass is almost scorched."

Zhou Hexuan asked: "Is there any difficulty?"

Zhou Longguang said: "It's not about the price increase of the tram, it's already turned into a diplomatic incident. My brother has no choice but to ask Mr. Zhou to help. I hope you can talk to the Belgian Consul General in Tianjin."

"I'm not familiar with the Belgian consul, so I'm afraid I can't help you." Zhou Hexuan declined politely.

Zhou Longguang said eagerly: "I can help you. Mr. Zhou is well-known overseas, and the consuls of various countries respect you. I hope that Mr. Zhou will condescend to negotiate and communicate with the Belgian consuls for the sake of Tianjin people."

A mocking smile appeared on Zhou Hexuan's face, he really deserved to be a traitor in the future, he was frightened by just Belgium. Zhou Hexuan said: "Belgium is a small European country. As long as Mayor Zhou is tough, they will give in sooner or later."

"No, no," Zhou Longguang shook his head repeatedly, "Belgium is a friendly country, and now China's diplomacy is in trouble, so it's better not to cause any more trouble."

Zhou Hexuan said helplessly: "Since Mayor Zhou invited me, I can't refuse. I will invite the Belgian consul to dinner tomorrow. As for whether the negotiation will be successful, I can't guarantee it, and there is no way to guarantee it."

Zhou Longguang quickly expressed his thanks: "Thank you Mr. Zhou for your help!"

The two chatted a bunch of nonsense again before Zhou Longguang got up to leave. Zhou Hexuan pretended to send this person out, looked at the other person's back and said with contempt: "What a wimp, not even Chu Yupu!"

Now the KMT's organizational system is imitating the Soviet Communist Party in an all-round way, but it has only learned some superficial skills, and it does not have the organizational and cohesive force of the Soviet Communist Party at all.

Once foreign commercial disputes are involved, it is often the local Kuomintang party headquarters and the government who come forward at the same time. The National Party advertises that it represents the interests of the people, but does not dare to offend foreign companies. When encountering disputes, it wants to please both sides, and the result is naturally that it does not please both sides.

Take last year's labor dispute in Shanghai Sanyou Industrial Co., Ltd. as an example. The majestic Shanghai Municipal Government and the Shanghai Party Headquarters of the Nationalist Party were unable to resolve even ordinary labor disputes. In the end, Du Yuesheng was invited to settle the matter.

Therefore, some researchers call the National Party a "weak dictatorial party" because it has dictatorial intentions but no dictatorial power.

The Tianjin tram price hike incident has been going on for almost two months. From an ordinary foreign company's price increase incident, it evolved into a diplomatic incident that alarmed the Hebei Provincial Government, Tianjin Municipal Government and the Belgian Consul General in Tianjin.

The reason was that the Japanese rioted in Tianjin last year, which made the people of Tianjin panic, and there were signs of decline in all industries. Tianjin Tram Electric Light Co., Ltd. wanted to make up for the company's losses by raising prices due to reduced business and the outage of trams during the riots.

This aroused the dissatisfaction of the citizens, and then Tianjin's various guilds and the General Chamber of Commerce were also involved. The Tianjin Party Headquarters of the Kuomintang took the opportunity to intervene, hoping to expand its influence in Tianjin's political and business circles by resolving disputes, but it made things bigger and bigger.

There is no problem with the position of the Tianjin Party Headquarters of the Nationalist Party. They are on the side of the people, but their specific actions have not been considered. When ordering the tram company to restore the original price failed, the Tianjin Party Headquarters of the Kuomintang actually formed a picket team to promote the so-called "patriotism" everywhere, and called on the masses to buy tickets at the original price at each tram station, and some radicals even called on them not to buy. The ticket is free to ride the car.

Many citizens in Tianjin responded to the call for patriotism, because the Tianjin Tramway Lighting Company was not popular with the people. This Belgian company not only monopolized the electric lights and tram business in Tianjin, but also was the largest copper dollar changer in Tianjin—copper plates must be used for rides.

Due to the excessive amount of copper coins, the Tianjin Electric Lamp and Tramway Company actually secretly sold Chinese copper coins to the Japanese, transported them to Japan and melted them into copper blocks, which were used to make military products such as guns. After this incident was exposed, it aroused strong opposition from Tianjin citizens, so some people have been boycotting Tianjin Tram.

Moreover, the copper dollar is China's legal currency, and the practice of Tianjin Electric Lighting and Tramway Company is already a criminal act of disrupting China's financial currency. If it were a normal country, it would be fine to directly bankrupt the company, but who would make the Chinese government incompetent? This matter is gone.

Although Belgium is a small country, it has great influence in North China.

The major shareholder of Tianjin Tram Light Company is the Belgian General Consortium, which not only monopolizes the electric light and tram market in Tianjin, but also enjoys the right to build the Longhai Railway and the Beijing-Han Railway, the mining right of the Kaiping Coal Mine, and shares in some other mines in North China.

The price increase of Tianjin Tram Lighting Co., Ltd. is unreasonable. The profit of this company has been increasing year after year. Now the annual gross profit has reached 4 million yuan. There is no need to increase the price at all.

In the face of the picket team of the National Party headquarters in Tianjin, the tram company actually provoked the tram workers to lure them with a wage increase, forcing the tram workers to fight recklessly with the picket team of the party headquarters, resulting in two bloody conflicts. One time, even in the compound of the Kuomintang headquarters in Tianjin, tram workers rushed in and beat the picket team, and then attacked the picket team first.

At the same time, the Belgian Consulate in Tianjin also began to intervene, and by the way, the Hebei Provincial Government was involved.

The two sides have been negotiating for more than a month, but no results have been reached at all. Seeing that the government is powerless, Chinese NGOs have no choice but to continue to rely on their own strength to fight. Now the incident is getting worse, and all walks of life in Tianjin are involved. Even Tianjin's educational circles have joined forces to publicly support the people's resistance.

Zhou Longguang, the mayor, has a lot of headaches. The Belgian Consulate is making trouble for him, the tram company is making trouble for him, the Tianjin Party Headquarters of the Nationalist Party is making trouble for him, and even the Hebei Provincial Government is making trouble for him.

Many people in the political and business circles in Tianjin have begun to miss Zhang Xueming. Because Zhang Xueming was very tough when he was mayor, he did a good job in all aspects, and people from all walks of life in Tianjin were obedient.

As the matter progressed to last week, the Tianjin General Chamber of Commerce publicly sent a letter to Zhang Xueliang, hoping to welcome Zhang Xueming back as mayor of Tianjin, and asked Zhou Longguang to get out of this trash.

As Zhou Hexuan said, Zhou Longguang is not even as good as Chu Yupu. When Chu Yupu was in charge of Tianjin, he was hard on the tram company. Although he was not completely successful due to diplomatic pressure, he also convinced the Belgian electric light company.

The dignified mayor of Tianjin can't even solve the trivial matter of foreign companies raising prices, so what's the use of keeping him?

Zhou Longguang was probably learning from the mayor of Shanghai. Du Yuesheng was asked to solve the problem in Shanghai, so he came to find Zhou Hexuan to solve it. Because Zhou Hexuan has a lot of face among foreigners, he is also very familiar with Tianjin's education circles, the General Chamber of Commerce, and even has Zhang Xueliang's factor (the officials of important departments in Tianjin are all Zhang Xueliang's people). Coupled with Zhou Hexuan's folk influence, it should be able to coordinate the contradictions in all aspects.