Chapter 856 855 [A Beautiful Decision Made Unintentionally]

Mid-October.

Zhou Hexuan began writing "The Massacre of Nanjing", and Rabe was responsible for helping. All the information has been cataloged. Whatever Zhou Hexuan needs, Rabe can find it immediately.

Yu Peichen took a break for the time being.

Pregnant women are prone to depression, so Zhou Hexuan did not dare to expose her to any more information about the Holocaust, and he accompanied Yu Peichen to watch comedy shows every night.

On October 21, Guangzhou fell.

Hu Shi hurried over with Chen Guangfu, and when they met, he asked: "Mingcheng, you are the special envoy for negotiation, and you have been hiding in your room for several months without showing up. Now the negotiations have been terminated!"

"Why terminate?" Zhou Hexuan continued writing the book without raising his head.

Chen Guangfu replied: "Because Guangzhou fell."

Zhou Hexuan put down his pen and consoled him: "The fall of Guangzhou will only speed up the negotiation process and will not make the loan issue go to waste."

Hu Shi said anxiously: "But Guangzhou fell too quickly, and Guangzhou is the largest hub for material imports. Now that Guangzhou is gone, the international arms purchased by the central government cannot be shipped in, and the situation of the Anti-Japanese War is extremely critical. President Roosevelt is worried that China will no longer resist with all its strength. , unable to resist, so the loan negotiations were terminated.”

Zhou Hexuan stood up and took out a business report from the drawer: "You guys take a look at this first."

Chen Guangfu couldn't wait to grab it, quickly flipped through a few pages and said, "The US tung oil market assessment and analysis report is written in such detail! Where did Mr. Zhou get it from?"

Zhou Hexuan explained: "When I first came to the United States, I hired a team of business consultants. It took them two and a half months and more than $8,000 to compile this report. It can be seen from this report that the American industry is leaving Tung oil will not be opened. In the past, tung oil was exported through Guangzhou and the Guangdong-Hankou Line. Now that Guangzhou has fallen, if a new tung oil transportation line is not opened quickly, many capitalists in the United States will go bankrupt. Therefore, the fall of Guangzhou will not only not terminate tung oil loans, On the contrary, it can speed up negotiations.”

"But how to resolve President Roosevelt's concerns?" Hu Shi asked.

Zhou Hexuan said: "Ask Chiang Kai-shek and don't come to me."

"It was the Chairman who asked me to come to you. He said that you guarantee that the negotiation will be successful!" Hu Shi said depressedly.

Zhou Hexuan said speechlessly: "Let him issue a statement to express his determination to the world and the Chinese people to fight to the end."

Historically, Chang Kaishen not only issued a statement to fight the war to the end, but also threatened Roosevelt that if the United States did not borrow money, he would directly surrender to Japan, which would not make things easier for the United States anyway.

After reading the report, Chen Guangfu was not as anxious as Hu Shi. Instead, he laughed: "With Mr. Zhou's report, I am now 80% sure that I can force the Morgan consortium to sign a loan contract."

"Really?" Hu Shi was a little doubtful.

Zhou Hexuan reminded: "The negotiation for the tung oil loan will definitely be successful. What needs to be paid attention to are the details of the contract. We cannot sign everything according to the wishes of the Americans."

Although Zhou Hexuan didn't know the contents of the tung oil loan, he knew with all his ass that the Americans would definitely take advantage of it.

Historically, Chen Guangfu was afraid that the negotiations would break down and the Americans would do whatever they said. As a result, he suffered a big loss in the export price of tung oil.

As the three major commercial ports of Shanghai, Tianjin and Guangzhou were occupied by Japanese invaders, China's tung oil industry was on the verge of collapse. The price of tung oil plummeted, and tung trees in many places were directly abandoned. In the tung oil loan contract, the Americans required the Chinese government not to purchase tung oil monopolistically, resulting in a large amount of tung oil being exported at cabbage prices.

At that time, as long as an American businessman was involved in the tung oil trade, the profits were more terrifying than smuggling opium. Chinese tung oil dealers are extracting profits at every level. After the tung oil is shipped to the United States, the price can still increase more than ten times. This situation lasted for two and a half years before the National Government promulgated the "National Measures for the Unified Purchase and Marketing of Tung Oil". By then, the day lily was already cold - it was not that the central government was too stupid, but that it had signed a contract and could not break it, so it could only wait. Only after fulfilling the contract can we dare to control purchasing and sales.

What's ridiculous is that the National Government's implementation of unified purchasing and marketing of tung oil did not bring much benefit to the people. Instead, it became a tool for bureaucratic capital to make money.

At that time, the price of tung oil had slowly returned to normal, and the Americans had almost taken advantage of it. Any further monopolization of purchasing and marketing was purely unnecessary. The tricks played by the National Government continued to harm tung oil practitioners, resulting in the domestic tung oil purchase price being forcibly lowered.

Well, Zhou Hexuan’s reminder is unnecessary.

Without unified purchasing and marketing, the Americans will take advantage, and then the Chinese bureaucrats will continue to take advantage. From the very beginning, purchases and sales were unified. Although the Yankees did not take advantage, their money was also taken away by the bureaucrats, and it was the common people who suffered.

If you think about it carefully, it's actually better to let the Americans take advantage. Because this follows market rules, tung oil prices can rise back in a year at most, and the beneficiaries in the remaining year and a half are Chinese tung oil practitioners—until bureaucratic capital enters the market.

Zhou Hexuan should not have reminded Chen Guangfu...

Of course, it is also possible that the reminder has no effect. Chen Guangfu was eager to negotiate and would probably not persist. In the end, he signed the contract according to the Yankees' wishes.

The biggest effect of Zhou Hexuan's participation in this matter is that he can increase the loan limit. Because Chen Guangfu already had confidence, he did not need to be as cautious as in history. He could double the amount of the loan, which would make a huge contribution to China's war of resistance against the backdrop of tight military expenditures.

Sure enough, Chen Guangfu took the business investigation report and said with a smile: "I am going to borrow 100 million."

"Are you crazy?" Hu Shi looked at him in surprise, because their bottom line for borrowing was 20 million, and now it has increased five times.

Zhou Hexuan said: "100 million US dollars may be difficult, but it is still possible to negotiate for 80 million US dollars."

Chen Guangfu said angrily: "I don't care about him so much. When the negotiations start again, I will ask him for 150 million, as much as I can borrow."

"You are amazing." Zhou Hexuan said sincerely.

Neither Zhou Hexuan nor Chen Guangfu expected that by doing so, they not only increased the tung oil loan, but also extended the tung oil loan contract. As a result, the loan contract that was supposed to purchase only 220,000 tons of tung oil suddenly became 400,000 tons, and the Nationalist Government did not dare to implement unified purchasing and marketing of tung oil until early 1943.

The one and a half years that were extended out of thin air became the golden period for the development of China's tung oil. Because at that time, the market price had returned to normal and had risen higher than before the war, and the Nationalist government did not dare to step in to lower the price, which made China's tung oil practitioners live a very comfortable life.

Unintentionally, Chen Guangfu made the best choice, allowing the nobles of the Kuomintang to swallow up countless people's wealth.

Well done!

Chen Guangfu took Zhou Hexuan to discuss negotiation methods, while Hu Shi's attention turned to those manuscripts. He asked casually: "What book is Mingcheng writing?"

Rabe on the side replied: "The Nanjing Massacre."

Hu Shi nodded and said: "I heard that tens of thousands of innocent people were killed in Nanjing. This atrocity should be exposed in a book!"

"More than tens of thousands," Rabe said sadly. "After our calculations and speculations, the number of victims in Nanjing is at least 200,000, or even more!"

"200,000! That's right?" Hu Shi was dumbfounded.

Rabe pointed to the large amount of first-hand information beside him: "Read it for yourself."

The first thing Hu Shi looked at was the photo. The more he looked at it, the angrier he became. Unable to control himself, he kicked over his chair and cursed: "Fuck you little Japanese, you're not as good as a pig or a dog!"