Chapter 345

·

·

·

Protagonist:

Chen Yi

Chen Zhongguo's life became regular once again.

He got up at 6 every morning, washed up and ate breakfast, while two traditional Chinese doctors and two Western doctors, divided into two groups, examined him and recorded it in his health log.

After the meal was newspaper-reading time, alternately done by two young people from the Secretary Section, reading the screened summaries. Instrument checks continued at this time if necessary, and haircuts and nail trimming were also done during this period.

If there was nothing particularly interesting, around 7 o'clock a top scholar would give one-on-one instruction, explaining economics, political science, and a series of subjects. By 9 or 10 o'clock, Chen Zhongguo would read documents and reports, then after lunch meet some disciples of the Chen Clan, followed by physical exercise, an afternoon nap, a bath, and then meeting even more people.

Since Jiangning was the Chen Clan's main base and far from the national political center, Chen Zhongguo's regular life was rarely disrupted, and all visitors accommodated his schedule rather than the reverse. This also let the attending physician Li Zhun breathe a sigh of relief.

However, Chen Yi had always been unrestrained. It could be said he was the only person in the world who knew his grandfather did not need a regular life—after two "grace bestowals," Chen Zhongguo's physical condition was equivalent to a fifty-year-old middle-aged man; although he couldn't carry a sack of rice upstairs, he could easily bear daily stress.

At worst, just "bestow grace" once more.

Li Zhun and the others could never stop Chen Yi; relying on his youth, whether reckless or carefree, he could always mingle ahead of the officials being received, and some officials he saw often could even exchange greetings.

Once the person ahead finished speaking, Chen Yi "whoosh" slipped in, like a gliding bat.

Of course, his expression and tone had to be humble, without question.

Chen Zhongguo saw him and was not surprised; he stood up, poured himself a cup of water, and smiled: "How is the situation outside?"

This question was relatively general, so Chen Yi answered: "Old man is now Chairman of the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce, the Group is entrusted to me, I went to see the wharf fire, it was generally serious, but Sun Maoxin doesn't know what's going on, he wants Jiangbei Wharf to also do container business..."

"What's wrong with Jiangbei Wharf doing container business?" Chen Zhongguo no longer cared much about Jiangning affairs; his gaze had long turned to the distance.

Meeting officials in Jiangning was a good way to maintain his influence, and actually accomplishing some matters was a form of oath and propaganda, showing he was still in the political circle; but when it came to actual power, after all it was indirect rather than direct, so he could only participate in major matters—some small things, unless specifically explained, he did not need to understand the details.

Chen Yi thought for a moment, highlighted the key points to explain the Mitsubishi Group's intentions toward the Jiangnan and Jiangbei shipyards, then said: "If Jiangbei Wharf only handles bulk cargo and Jiangnan only handles containers, it benefits both of them; only then can the value of the newly built wharf be realized, and profits should increase for both. Now Jiangbei is also doing containers... I feel there's a strong flavor of malicious competition."

"Jiangbei Wharf's facilities aren't complete yet, right?"

"Ah? There are some."

"The bulk wharf at Jiangnan Port hasn't been demolished yet, right?" Chen Zhongguo advised Chen Yi: "So if Jiangbei Wharf only does bulk cargo, its profits definitely won't match Jiangnan Wharf's. And Jiangnan Port's bulk wharf has various related facilities, so it's hard to demand they demolish them immediately. Therefore, unless Jiangnan Wharf and Jiangbei Wharf start competing, would the dominant Jiangnan Port Group voluntarily give up the profits of the bulk wharf?"

"You mean Sun Maosheng's request is reasonable?"

"Regardless of whether he has the problems you mentioned, it's quite normal for him to speak for a Japanese company. The foreign capital attracted must be given an environment to make money." Chen Zhongguo saw things very clearly.

The domestic business environment determined that contracts were always superstructure. Just as Jiangbei Wharf entering the container business would harm both parties' interests, Jiangnan Wharf, for near-term profits, would end its bulk business as late as possible—this delay could sometimes stretch to ten or even twenty years. Therefore, even considering normal commercial behavior, Jiangbei Wharf threatening Jiangnan Wharf to drop bulk business by joining the container business was a meaningful act...

Chen Yi frowned; he did not believe this was part of Mitsubishi's normal commercial competition. But he had to admit they had indeed perfectly concealed all their purposes within legitimate commercial competition activities, leaving no one able to guess.

"Go get the tea leaves from the top." Chen Zhongguo chuckled twice, pointing at the wooden cabinet in front, and said: "So what do you want Grandpa to do now?"

He did not insist on changing Chen Yi's thinking; looking at past history, his direct grandson obviously already had his own way of thinking and behavior patterns, like those officials in their forties or fifties, not easily changed, and without major problems, it was best not to try to reverse them.

On the other hand, his recovering health and the gradually strengthening Chen Clan power gave Chen Zhongguo great confidence; when he was young he was beneath others and still did not fear Japanese consortiums, now his power was more than ten times greater—surely he could protect Chen Yi no matter what.

As for the distinction between Easterners, Japan, and devils, it was Chen Zhongguo who taught Chen Yi; since his grandson judged Mitsubishi Group to be devils—and they always did devilish things—launching some attacks against them seemed appropriate.

"Two steps. First, I want Mingde Group to stay far away from Jiangning; second, I want Yan Deputy Director of the Public Security Bureau pushed to the Bureau Chief position, and Deng Ge, that Political and Legal High Official, to let him hold it for a period of time."

Mingde Group was a domestic top-500 private enterprise; a large group reaching this level had upper-level connections no worse than state-owned enterprises, only at a legal disadvantage. Deng Ge was a Bureau Director Level Standing Committee Member; with the independence of a planned city separately listed, Southeast Province's influence was fifty percent less.

Both were powers not very high in status, yet because of their unique positions were difficult to bully through the tiger's might; therefore Chen Yi needed the tiger himself to step forward.

These two requests made Chen Zhongguo somewhat strange, but he still promised: "Mingde Group, I'll help you speak to them; Deng Ge... understood."

He said while pressing the red button on the table, asking: "Is there a comrade from the Provincial Party Committee coming today?"

Almost every week a comrade from the Provincial Party Committee came to visit, to guard against any problems with the leadership. If Jiangning was the Chen Clan's private plot, then Southeast Province could be considered cultivated tenant land—only water could be splashed, no fertilizer applied.

The Secretary carefully looked at the records and said: "It is Comrade Xun Yan, Deputy Secretary-General of the Southeast Provincial Party Committee."

"Arrange it for a while later. Also, call Minister Chang of the Ministry of Information Industry." After Chen Zhongguo finished the call, he turned to explain to Chen Yi: "Mingde Group plans to do telecommunications business in the coming years."

Chen Yi chuckled and said: "This is called putting eye drops in someone's eyes, right?"

Chen Zhongguo glared at him and said: "To gain, one must give; the head of Mingde Group is a person who gives... but don't think he'll withdraw completely; in a few months, the situation will change again."

Mingde might not know Mitsubishi's plan, or deliberately not want to know. But the profits they made from the renovation of Jiangning Port definitely exceeded one hundred million. Although this could not compare with the telecommunications business, it was certainly not something easily given up. After all, signed contracts had to be completed, finishing work had to be done well, and thus there was an excuse to intervene again.

However, such a result already satisfied Chen Yi enough; in a few months, who would have sharper teeth was still unknown.

A few days later, Jiangbei Wharf began receiving customers.

Apart from the ships that came to join the excitement during the foundation-laying ceremony, it was only a matter of days before real cargo ships docked. Jiangning's daily port transport volume was enormous; oil tankers, liquefied natural gas ships, to get a special berth often had to wait about a week.

Bulk cargo ships were also a major part of Jiangning Port; the coke and iron ore needed by Jiangnan Steel Plant relied on transport; coal, grain, aquatic products, and vegetables were the focus of outbound shipments...

The Japanese back then negotiated the Jiangbei Wharf business under the pretext of reducing agricultural product and coal transport costs.

Their appetite was now even greater; on one hand they wanted to use Mingde Group to earn profits from real estate projects worth tens of billions generated by demolition; on the other hand they wanted to occupy Jiangbei Wharf, swallow both the good and bad shipyards, and at the same time wait for the large volume of bulk cargo transport generated by the domestic new energy strategy—this was not just port entry and exit fees; if they monopolized bulk transport, they could completely let their own ships enter port faster for loading/unloading and replenishing supplies, while making others' ships wait longer, thereby increasing their ships' unit value in the port, thus occupying most of the long-distance transport in the Southeast Region.

These plans, some were open stratagems, some were hidden conspiracies, but to Chen Yi they all felt equally bad.

However, compared to his dissatisfaction with the future, Niu Xiang and Yamashita Yugyo were already nauseated by reality at this moment.

Yan Deputy Director, who had already accepted organizational inspection, smoothly made some minor personnel adjustments, thereby bringing Jiangbei Wharf under his control—from this day on, the nightmares of Niu Xiang and Yamashita Yugyo began.

The first scene of the nightmare was restricted water use; the specially designated coal wharf had two 1500-meter coal embankments, and water had to be sprayed on the embankments every day, so that when coal was unloaded openly into coal chutes and directly into ship holds, coal ash wouldn't fly and pollute the water surface.

But a group of hoodlums took a fancy to this business, often loitering near the water supply pumps, so the pumps were frequently damaged, resulting in insufficient water. Under these circumstances, the wharf workers naturally unloaded coal into the chutes without spraying water, causing pollution—at domestic coal wharves this was a very normal phenomenon, but unfortunately the Jiangning Government managed strictly; the next day they sent people to talk to the person in charge of the port company, threatening to deal with them.

Yamashita Yugyo immediately went to find Mingde Group, but received no meaningful response; seeing that the coal wharf was about to be closed, with mountains of coal unable to be loaded or unloaded, he had no choice but to have Niu Xiang go handle it.

Unsurprisingly, Niu Xiang and the hoodlums were all arrested and taken to the police station, and people still loitered near the water pump as usual...

"Everything is going badly." Upon learning of this, Iwasaki Masayoshi calmly said a sentence in Chinese, but inadvertently made a prophecy.

... (To be continued. If you like this work, welcome to vote for recommendation tickets and monthly tickets on Qidian (qidian. com); your support is my greatest motivation.)