"Sit in the lobby of this hotel, open your eyes and take a look, and you can see almost all the crooks in the city!"

The person who commented on the Licha Hotel was Keswick, and compared to the Shanghai General Association, the hotel where you can live in as long as you have money is naturally complicated. However, since the Shanghai Federation does not accept women unless it is a celebration or a ball, their party can only be arranged in the Licha Hotel.

The Licha Hotel was the first hotel in Shanghai at this time, and its predecessor was a dining apartment founded by Henry Smith, an American captain who came to China in the early days, who left his clipper ship in Shanghai. There are two theories about the origin of the name of the hotel, one is that the original owner of the hotel was an Englishman named Astor Richard; Another theory is that its name comes from the most famous hotel in the United States, the New York Richa Hotel, but the captain had to add the word "hotel" to the name, because the name of the New York Richa Hotel has not yet reached China. Aside from the name, the two hotels have little in common, with the Licha Hotel Shanghai consisting of two two-storey verandah-style buildings in the east and south, connected by a long corridor. In the center of the hotel is a spacious hall where symphony orchestras often play in the evenings.

After lunch, the ladies were sent home, for it was clear that the next occasion was not for them, while the men were in the lobby of the hotel, where it was famous for tea time.

By "tea", I actually mean cocktails and whiskey with soda. The servants set up a large table in the center of the hall, full of bottles and glasses, and when the newcomers came to greet them, they always asked for another toast from those present, so that everyone drank glass after glass. After each drink, the servant would hand a bill to the person who asked for a toast, and the master who paid never looked at the amount on the bill, and signed it.

Everyone's conversation was focused on wine, hunting, horse racing, and romance, and at this time Gresheng and his gang undoubtedly became the heart of the hall, surrounded by a large crowd of people and gossiping. Gao Yi, Keswick and de Gray, who were afraid of such unrestrained drinking, withdrew from the group, hiding in an inconspicuous corner and watching the situation change in the hall.

Gao Yi took a sip of the whiskey in his glass, considering how the following words should begin.

If he had gained anything from this incident, he had learned a new way of looking at the problem in addition to the 150 acres of land. For example, the success of Julaida's land sale plan, which is full of mistakes, is based on three points: first, the public board of directors is eager to throw out the hot potato at hand, so if this transaction can be successful, they will have vested interests; secondly, Minister Lu Ban is anxious to clean up the mess in his office, this matter can be solved, and he is also a vested interest; Third, Gao Yi is in a hurry to buy land, as long as this land is legal when it comes to him, will he care about what is wrong with it?

Therefore, sometimes the loopholes and flaws are not important, the key is whether all relevant parties can profit from it. As long as there are benefits in hand, and you can clear yourself afterwards, many things will be turned a blind eye even if you know that there are problems inside. If the incident had not happened to be exposed by the reporters, it would have been obscured in this way, and the loss of the French government would not have been discovered until at least when Julaida left office, and in the meantime he had plenty of time to smooth out the deficit, or simply let Mr. Blun disappear, as he is doing now.

After this incident, Gao Yi's thinking has completely changed, an extremely greedy, bold and reckless French consul general in Shanghai, who else is a better partner than him?

"Actually, I knew when I talked to Ryttard that morning, there must be something wrong with this, but I just don't know how he's going to fix it, and I didn't expect it to end up with Bluhn going missing."

This is the first time that Gao Yi has admitted that Ju Laida is the initiator of the whole thing, and it is also the first time he has talked about the inside story of this matter. Keswick and de Grey were immediately attracted by his words, and they were part of the deal, and they knew that the truth would not be as simple as it was published in the newspapers. It's just that Gao Yi said such a thing about this matter, and then he turned to another topic.

"I remember that Yeguang Company was founded in 1888, right? What was the registered capital at that time? 620,000 taels? ”

"That's right, the registered capital is 1 million taels, divided into 20,000 shares, 50 taels per share, and the actual income is 620,000 taels." The large-span and jumping topic change made Keswick stunned for a moment, but as a money bag in Shanghai, he was very familiar with the capital allocation and share composition of many large companies, and subconsciously reported what he knew.

"What are its total assets now?"

"About 10 million taels, what's wrong? Why do you talk about Yeguang? Does it have anything to do with Rettard?

The full name of Yeguang Company is Shanghai Yeguang Real Estate Co., Ltd., Shanghai Land Investment Co.Ltd, which is a real estate company that has grown like a snowball in the purchase of property, land mortgage, house building, financing, and repurchase.

"So Yeguang has multiplied fifteen times in fifteen years, so what makes it so successful, because of Hongkou, isn't it?"

Land in the former British Concession on the south bank of the Suzhou Creek has always been scarce and expensive, while land in the former American Concession on the north bank is much cheaper.

However, Keswick and De Gray still didn't understand why Gao Yi mentioned Yeguang, and they nodded in agreement, and then stared at him with some suspicion.

"However, there are many real estate companies that are optimistic about and invest in Hongkou, most of them have made some money, but none of them have been able to increase the size of their assets by 15 times. Why? Just look at the composition of the shareholders of Yeguang to understand, Mr. Du Dun, the general director of the Ministry of Industry Bureau in 74 and 75, Mr. Ward, the general director of the 81st and 82nd two terms, and Mr. Dong Wood, who was the general director at that time, they can decide which piece of land is more valuable than other land! ”

Keswick and de Grey frowned, they seemed to have thought of something, but they hadn't quite figured it out yet.

"The French Concession is expanding, and there is the next Hongkou, and there is a more powerful Mr. Rettard, who is also more greedy and bold, but his capital is too small, which means that no matter how big his appetite is, it is only a little bit for us."