At 7 o'clock in the morning of the third year, Li Songchen, escorted by the People's Army, came to the front of the building of the Ministry of Industry of the Public Concession, and at this time, the British and French troops guarding the building also surrendered their weapons, gathered at the entrance of the building, and handed over the guards of the building to the People's Army.

In the building of the Ministry of Industry Bureau, Li Songchen and the general directors of the two concessions signed the surrender of the public concession and the French concession, which also symbolizes that the Shanghai concession, which has existed for nearly 60 years, has been officially included under the jurisdiction of the East China government.

Subsequently, the two sides began the handover of various administrative and public affairs in the concession. Before coming to the concession to accept the surrender, Li Songchen had already arranged 45 administrative personnel, including 6 crossers, and more than 200 policemen, who were ready to take over the administrative and public management affairs of the concession. The concession area itself is not large, and there are not many affairs that need to be handed over; moreover, Li Songchen has a basic understanding of the administrative and public management situation in the concession, and he has already allocated the corresponding personnel according to the different management departments, and the concession side does not dare to deliberately make trouble at this time; after all, now that the People's Army has taken control of the concession, is it not asking for trouble for himself to make trouble at this time? Therefore, it only took one day to complete the handover of all the work in the concession at a double loss.

Although the concession is controlled by foreigners, whether it is the administrative department, the police patrol agency, or the public administration, there are a large number of Chinese acting as grassroots personnel in it, and a small number of Chinese can squeeze into the middle level in the concession, but the top level of the concession is always controlled by foreigners, and in the old time and space, it was not until after the 20s of the 20th century that the Chinese began to gradually enter the management of the concession.

The East China government's strategy for taking over the concessions was that after the handover was completed, all the foreign middle and high-level managers would be dismissed and taken over by the East China government, while all the Chinese staff at the middle and grassroots levels would be temporarily retained, and a number of middle-level managers would be promoted from among them. Since these Chinese workers at the grassroots level in the concession are familiar with the situation in the concession and are naturally familiar with the management of the grassroots level, they can ensure the stability of the transition in the concession area, and after the transition period is completed, they can determine whether to retain them for a long time or promote them according to their performance.

Of course, although the East China Government has taken over all the affairs of the concession, the army still has not retreated, and the concession area is still under military control, after all, the East China Government has just taken over the concession area, and it still needs the army to stay behind to help stabilize the overall situation. Luo Yue left the reserve 1st and 2nd regiments to garrison the concession area, and sent the reserve 3rd regiment to garrison the port of Shanghai to replace the 2nd Marine Division. Because the People's Army will attack the county seat of Shanghai in the next step and fully occupy the Shanghai area. Therefore, the management of the concession was handed over to Li Songchen.

It was at this time that Li Songchen officially announced that he would confiscate the property, assets and other things of all the merchants of Britain, France, Japan and Russia in the concession area, and the merchants of these four countries could only leave the concession with their own private property.

As soon as this news was released, it caused a shock among the giants in the concession area and was met with strong opposition. And this time the main force of opposition is not foreigners, but Chinese in the concession.

Although the war of the people's early attack on the concession was not long, and it was only half a day, it was enough to make foreigners completely sober up, and the East China government was playing really this time. Because at this time, European countries have enough colonial experience, knowing that once the colony is strongly attacked by the local residents, they must not be hard against them, and honestly hand over their assets, saving their lives is the first priority. If the mother country sends an army to fight back, then what is lost can be regained, but if the mother country's army is useless, it can only consider itself unlucky. Of course, in this day and age, the chances of this happening are not very many. Therefore, in the face of the guns of the People's Army, the foreigners in the concession were honest and surrendered all their properties very obediently in exchange for their own peace. Wait for the Anglo-French army to arrive, defeat the People's Army, and regain what you have lost.

However, the Chinese in the concession do not have such a good mentality as foreigners, although the concession is managed by foreigners, but the residents are mostly Chinese, except for a small number of self-run Chinese businessmen and Chinese employees working in the middle and lower levels of the concession management body, most of the Chinese in the concession are working in factories, enterprises and shops run by foreigners.

Whether it is a Chinese businessman running in the concession or working in a factory or enterprise run by foreigners, Chinese are basically dependent on foreigners. Of course, businessmen naturally needless to say, are considered to be wealthy, even if they are Chinese working in foreign factories and enterprises, their income is above the average level of Chinese society at this time, and many people can even reach the level of small chaff.

The factories, enterprises, and shops set up by British and French merchants accounted for more than seventy percent of the entire concession. And the factories in the whole concession, After all, the area of the concession is only so large that it is impossible to establish large-scale factories and set up large-scale industrial enterprises, which are enterprises mainly engaged in industrial manufacturing, mainly for the maintenance of supporting facilities in the concession, and their scale is not large; and about 20 percent are in the public service industry; and of the remaining 70 percent, about 50 percent are engaged in import and export trade, that is, a window for dumping foreign industrial products into China, and also a channel for purchasing industrial and mineral products cheaply from China, and they are the main objects of dependence of comprador businessmen, and the other 20 percent are in the banking and financial industry, which mainly provides services for import and export trade。

As far as the East China government is concerned, most of the enterprises in the concession are not beneficial to China, and are extremely harmful, and it is natural to eliminate or transform them through confiscation, suspension of business, rectification, and other means, but in this way, it also means that most of the merchants and workers operating in the concession will lose their business channels or sources of work, and of course their interests will be seriously damaged. Therefore, this group of people naturally wanted to oppose the East China government's decision to confiscate the foreign merchants' property in the concessions.

In the past few years, most of the Chinese businessmen in the concession have some trade contacts with the Shanghai New Area, and they are no strangers to each other, and many of them have some friendship with Li Songchen; in addition, the government of the Shanghai New Area is also composed of Chinese after all, and has always given people the impression that they are relatively close to the people, and there is no bullying and a high shelf. Therefore, on the third day after the Shanghai New District Government announced the confiscation of foreigners' property, a petition signed by the Chinese of the concession was sent to the headquarters.Chinese

In fact, some foreign businessmen wanted to make the matter bigger, initially planning to organize a group of Chinese to petition in the Shanghai New Area, nominally to put pressure on the East China government to withdraw the order. The actual goal is to add some chaos to the East China government, and it is better to cause bloodshed, so that the East China government will not end well.

But at this time, the People's Army launched an attack on the county seat of Shanghai, and Ruizi Kaicheng, who was then the Daotai of Shanghai, surrendered, and the People's Army conquered the county seat of Shanghai, and from then on announced that the entire Shanghai area would be included in the jurisdiction of the East China government.

This also reminded the Chinese businessmen that the East China government was planning to replace the Qing court and change the dynasty, and now it was at war with Britain, France, Japan, and Russia, so although the attitude of the people in the Shanghai New Area government was mild, they should never think that they were weak, and they should not go too far.

When the People's Army attacked the county seat of Shanghai, Luo Yue did not come to the scene to command, and still sat in the headquarters of the Shanghai New District, so the petition from the Chinese merchants in the concession was received by Luo Yue and Li Songchen together.

However, after reading the petition, Luo Yue frowned and said, "What is this doing?" The foreigners have not yet reacted, but the Chinese are in a hurry. ”

Li Songchen said with a smile: "It's not surprising ah, the ass decides the head, although the general direction of our confiscation of foreign industries is profitable, but it also touches the interests of a considerable part of the people, after all, now the compradors have formed a class, not a minority, and there are Chinese working in the concession, which is tantamount to smashing their jobs, so of course they are unwilling." ”

Luo Yue said: "Of course I understand this truth, but to say that the loss is large, the loss of foreigners is the greatest, but it is the Chinese who oppose it, isn't it strange?"

Li Songchen said: "Now foreigners dare not object, only Chinese are good at talking, everyone is their own people, and judging from the wording of the petition, the language is very gentle, which shows that they are still very aware of the current situation, and do not want to make things bigger. ”

Luo Yue said: "Okay, I won't investigate the ins and outs, but how should this petition be handled?

Li Songchen shook his head and said: "Of course this is not good, rejection is naturally to refuse, but don't be too blunt, I think it is better to persuade, the comprador class wants us to be eliminated, but it is necessary to persuade and educate every comprador businessman, and guide them, after all, the experience of every comprador businessman is considered advanced in China in this era, and there are enough assets and financial resources, if they can be guided to invest in industry, The manufacturing industry is beneficial to the development of our national industry, unless it is a yellow skin and a white core, except for those who worship foreign charm. In addition, our confiscation of foreign assets has indeed harmed the interests of these Chinese, and we need to give them some compensation, or a new way. ”

Luo Yue said: "Okay, the matter of the petition will be handled by you, I won't worry about it, if you need military assistance, just say it, and I'll arrange it." ”

Li Songchen also nodded and said, "Okay, I'll handle this matter, you can rest assured." ”