(2-in-1 chapter)

"Mahan, where is the list that came with the car?" As soon as Gao Yi got off the carriage, he asked impatiently.

"Is it the list that came with Mercedes? The last time I saw them was on my desk. But I don't know if they're still there today, after all, so many days have passed. ”

Well, Gao Yi must admit that this is asking Yu to be blind, Mahan's current role is that of a housekeeper, and managing the study is not within his scope of responsibility. Looks like it's time to get a secretary or something.

"Connect me to HSBC, I'm going to check my account."

"Yes, sir." This time Mahan replied crisply, and then he added: "Actually, Mr. Middleton has called twice today, once at about half past ten in the morning and the other at one o'clock in the afternoon. ”

"Very good!" Gao Yi excitedly patted Ma Han's shoulder - it seems that the 250,000 has arrived!

When Gao Yi was standing by the telephone and talking on the phone, Mahan was looking for those lists all over the world in front of his desk.

"Hey, man, I called you, you're not there." Middleton's rough whetstone-like voice came from the earpiece, and since he sang "We will rock you", he opened and closed his mouth to call Buddy, "I called to inform you that you have a new sum of 250,000 taels in your account. Middleton's job is an account manager at HSBC, and as a good buddy who plays football in the team, Gao Yi naturally chose him as the manager of his account.

"According to the regulations, I need to confirm with you, the money is from a private account, the owner of the account is a Chinese, the name is Li-" Middleton said in a Scottish-flavored East End accent, his voice sounding a little listless, "Uh, the second half of the pronunciation is more difficult to pronounce, called Li Yang——"

"Yes, Li Yongfa, man, Li Yong Fa, which means that you will always be rich."

"What a good name, no wonder it's so rich. Well, so, you're sure of this amount, huh? "Middleton has always looked uninterested.

"Yes, confirmed. But what's the matter with you? Man, are you sick? Listening to your voice, it doesn't seem to have much energy. Gao Yi asked. He wasn't originally a gossip person, but who told him to be in a state of excitement right now? I wish anyone could talk to him about the 250,000 yuan.

Middleton hesitated for a moment, then spoke, "You know, I only have two important clients, one is you and the other is Mr. McBian, but as long as I have you two, I can live in peace, but—" At this, Middleton sighed heavily, as if he had a thousand words in his chest but could not pronounce them.

"Since I'm fine, it's Mr. McBian's problem?" High easy interface.

Gao Yi knew that Middleton was raising himself by juxtaposing himself with McBian, who was a serious millionaire. Just a few days ago, Mai Bian just sold his mail boat and pier to NYK for 2.5 million yen, which was a big deal that caused a sensation in Shanghai. Based on the market price of one tael of silver equivalent to 1.4 yen, the total amount of this transaction is more than 1.8 million taels, which is more than seven times Gao Yi's current net worth. Not to mention that it is not the shipping industry that makes Mai Bien famous in Shanghai, but the real estate industry, and he is the chairman of the real estate committee, which is not a mascot like the chairman of the Shanghai Federation Committee, and he is not one of the top real estate tycoons.

"These things should not be told to you according to the regulations, but what about him? Mai Bian came to me early this morning and said that he wanted to mortgage the land north of the Pidgin Bridge to HSBC. Then I'll say okay, there's no problem at all-"

"Which piece of land?" Gao Yi interrupted.

"It's the piece of land north of the Outer Pidgin Bridge, on the bank of the Pidgin."

"The one next door to the Shanghai Club?"

"That's right, that's it."

"That's kind of interesting." Gao Yi muttered in a low voice.

"What did you say?"

"It's nothing, you go on, Mai Bian wanted to mortgage the land, what happened?"

"Yes, I told him that there was no problem with mortgaging the land, and HSBC could give him an estimate of 30,000 taels and 1 acres. This price is already very good, you must know that when he bought this land from Hogg five years ago, it only cost a total of 60,000 taels, and the price of one acre of land is 23,000 taels. ”

Speaking of this, there was a slight anger in Middleton's voice, and he said:

"But he asked me to double the valuation, to 60,000 taels. Yes, the land on the Bund is indeed appreciating, we all know that, but who can say exactly how much? You must know that in the past five years, there has never been a single piece of land on the Bund. Therefore, our valuation of the land price of the Bund is calculated according to the land at the intersection of Fuzhou Road and Sichuan Road, which is the highest transaction price in Shanghai, which is 45,000 taels, and the loan amount is calculated at 7% off the land price, so it is 31,500 taels, which is the highest price that can be given within my authority. What really me off is—"

As he spoke, Middleton's anger really came up.

"He completely ignored my feelings as an old friend, and made me a mouthpiece for both ends. In fact, it's not that he doesn't know the doorway, he just wants to force us to submit by coercion. What can I do? It was nothing more than reporting to my immediate superiors, and my immediate superiors, of course, would refuse such rude requests. So he threatened to withdraw all business from HSBC, and my boss told me that if I lost this big customer, then my days at HSBC would be over. ”

After Middleton finished venting, he gasped for breath on the other end of the phone, sounding really angry.

"Isn't there a lot of real estate in Maibian? If he asks for money, won't he mortgage a few more pieces of land? Gao Yi was a little puzzled.

"Ha," Middleton chuckled, as if two pieces of steel were rubbing, "He's mortgaged all the land he can mortgage, and he's taken out the loan, or bought new land, or built a new house." These real estate tycoons, all the same, in order to expand their territory, they always spare no effort to squeeze out every penny of money they can squeeze. ”

Acquiring land, mortgaging, and building houses, whether in this era or in later generations, the tricks of real estate developers are always the same. It's just that compared with later generations, real estate developers at this time are slower to return their funds, because they prefer to rent instead of sell. In an era when land prices are soaring, it seems that this will be able to retain more dividends from rising land prices.

For example, Hartung, the most typical representative of them, when he died in the thirties, he left behind a total of 460 acres of land, 1,300 houses, and a total inheritance of 170 million. But in 1903, he was just a millionaire like Mai Bian, and the more than 400 acres of land mainly located on Nanjing West Road were at most more than 4 million at the current price. It is through this method of renting and selling that Hartung slowly pays off the principal and interest of bank loans by relying on customers' rents, and keeps all the dividends brought by land appreciation in its own hands.

However, the side effect of this is that the investment cycle becomes longer, the utilization rate of funds is low, and there are huge assets, but there is a lack of sufficient liquidity at hand, which may cause the capital chain to break as soon as there is a wind and grass.

Hartung is just lucky to have caught up with the golden age of the great development of the concession in the past 30 years, as long as the house is built, it is not afraid that it will not be rented, and as long as the land is bought, it is not afraid that it will not appreciate. Mai Bian should have encountered a financial problem now, so he had to sell the non-main business shipping industry to the Japanese for cash, but the money was still not enough, so he had to find a bank loan.

"So he couldn't have borrowed that much money from other banks?"

"That's for sure, to be honest, apart from HSBC, which bank can afford to lend such a large amount of money?"

"So what are you worried about? He can't do without you no matter what. ”

"Yes, I don't know why I'm so angry, probably because I always thought he was a friend! Hehe! Middleton laughed a little self-defeatingly, and then said, "But I feel much better when I talk to you like this, and I really appreciate you listening to my nagging." ”

"You're welcome, you're welcome to complain at any time."

"Haha, I will, so that's it? I guess you should have something to do, at least you have to celebrate, don't you? With an income of 250,000 taels, I can't even think of it. ”

"To be honest, I don't dare to think about it, but who knows? Sometimes it comes without even thinking about it. ”

"It's just what you young people think, and at my age, you'll know that it's not coming, whether you want it or not."

"Haha, okay, I can't talk about you, how about going for a drink together in a few days?"

"No problem, a lonely old man like me is most welcome than a wine companion—see you later, then?"

"See you later, old man, be happy."

After hanging up the phone, Gao Yi was in a better mood. This is really interesting information, especially when he has spare money.

It's just that I don't know what Mai Bian wants so much money to do, he should have at least 1.8 million taels of silver in his hand, is this amount of money not enough? I have to borrow another 100,000 yuan.

"Mr. Gao Yi, are these lists?"

When Gao Yi was outside the wandering object, Mahan took out a few pieces of paper from the bottom drawer of his desk, brought them to him and asked.

"Well, let me see...... That's right, these are the ones. Well done, Mahan! As he spoke, Gao Yi raised his hand again and patted Ma Han on the shoulder, this was the second time he had done this today. Ma Han looked uncertain, I don't know what medicine he took wrong, it's just the most ordinary things, what is worthy of praise. And patting on the shoulder, Mahan had never seen Gao Yi do it before.

"Mahan, go get a pen and paper, make a note—"

Gao Yi looked at the paper in his hand, which was printed with the award records of various Mercedes models. Last year, in 1902, the Mercedes 35HP was replaced on the track by the new Simplex, a new 40hp car that won almost all the races it entered. In particular, in the Abully to Chartres race in France, American multimillionaire William Vanderbilt Jr. drove the Simplex at a top speed of 118 km/h, which can be said to be the fastest thing in the world at the moment, except for Siemens' experimental electric trains.

Gao Yi's 35HP was already outdated as soon as it arrived. The last time he ordered it through an agent in Hong Kong, there was an obvious delay in the information, otherwise he would now be driving a 110km Simplex instead of an 80km 35HP. So this time he is ready to order directly from Daimler AG without going through any middlemen.

Mahan had already brought paper and pen.

“Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft，Neckar，Unterturkheim，Stuttgart。”

Gao Yi took one of these papers, looked at the bottom line of words, and read out the full name of Daimler AG and the address of the factory letter by letter. He was looking for these papers just to find this address, and sometimes he didn't know where to buy things in this era.

"You're going to send a telegram to this company and ask them for a quote for the Simplex. Note that it's S-i-m-p-l-e-x, don't misspell it. At the same time, ask them to quote the price of 35HP and Phonix. Well, you just ask them to quote the price of all the products! And the color, what color are there, let them report it too! ”

Finally have money, of course, you have to be willful! Not only to buy one, to look at one, but also to buy one and look at every model, and even every color of every model.

"That's all, you get ready, go and send a telegram as soon as possible!"

After Ma Han left, Gao Yi sat on the sofa for a while, but immediately stood up again and paced in the study. As time passed, his excitement grew stronger, and it seemed that he also needed to find an outlet like Middleton, otherwise he would blow himself up if he held it back.

He rang the bell, and it went straight to the kitchen. Soon the cook appeared at the door.

"Prepare some cold food right away, choose what you usually do best, and pack everything for two. Take two more bottles of champagne and one bottle of wine and place them in an ice bucket. Wine to the best kind. That's all, for you-"

Gao Yi took out his pocket watch and looked at it, it was almost five o'clock.

"Give you an hour, and by six o'clock you'll be all ready. That's it, hurry, hurry, act! ”

The cook ran out like a frightened hen.

Gao Yi went upstairs to take a shower, changed into a set of clean white linen summer casual clothes, and when he came downstairs, the cook was all ready. After adding some ice cubes to the ice bucket, Gao Yi carried a food basket in his left hand and an ice bucket in his right hand and put a Mercedes 35HP on it, he thought about it, and then ordered the cook who came out to go in and get a bottle of whiskey.

After placing the food basket and ice bucket in place, Gao Yi got out of the car, walked to the front of the car, and pulled out a crank from the leather case fixed to Geshan. He then spread his legs apart and inserted the "ten" card on the tip of the crank into the starter jaw above the bumper in a clockwise direction. Then I saw him bend his knees, hold the crank crank with both hands, first slowly shake the crank to drive the crankshaft to make the piston slightly past the bottom dead center, and then quickly lift it up clockwise with force, until the top dead center.

With a "boom", the Mercedes 35HP was launched!