Zhou Hexuan followed Ke Yaofang into the venue, and the first person he met made him speechless.

"Mr. Zhou, this is Mr. Zhu Zhihong, an idiot." Ke Yaofang said.

In the late Qing Dynasty, he was the president of the "Chongqing Baolu Comrades Association", the veteran of the Chongqing Alliance, the boss of the Chongqing Elders' Association, and one of the masterminds of the Xinhai Revolution in Chongqing. Although his beard was gray, his voice was loud and energetic, and he patted Zhou Hexuan on the shoulder and said, "Oh, it's Mr. Zhou, I have admired the name for a long time, I have admired the name for a long time, hahahahaha!" ”

A burst of wild laughter made Zhou Hexuan a little confused, so he could only hug his fists and say: "Mr. Zhu in person, the younger generation is polite!" ”

"You're welcome," Uncle Zhu directly hooked up with Zhou Hexuan, affectionately like a buddy, "Mr. Zhou has worked hard for disaster relief, and I thank you on behalf of the people of Sichuan." At noon, a few brothers were called, and everyone drank happily together! Hahaha! ”

Hearing another burst of inexplicable laughter, Zhou Hexuan sweated wildly and said, "Old Man Zhu is in such good spirits. ”

"Brother Pao, you just have to have spirit, hahahahaha!" Uncle Zhu laughed and said, "You are Hongmen sitting in the hall, I am a robe brother, and they are all Jianghu brothers." Don't call me old gentleman, old man, just call me brother. What about me, just call you Xiao Zhou, do you want it? ”

Zhou Hexuan had already roughly guessed what the other party's personality was, and immediately said: "Then I'll ask you to call Brother Zhu." ”

"If you want it, you want it," Uncle Zhu patted Zhou Hexuan on the shoulder and said, "Xiao Zhou, if you are the chairman of the Chongqing Senate, I will absolutely support it." Don't be false when you meet people, I'll tie up with you if there's anything wrong! Hahahaha! ”

"Then thank you Brother Zhu." Zhou Hexuan thanked.

Uncle Zhu dragged Zhou Hexuan to chat for a while, basically laughing every time he said two or three sentences, giving people the feeling that his laughter nerves were out of control.

When the old man left to sit down, Zhou Hexuan asked, "Secretary General Ke, does Mr. Zhu do this to anyone?" ”

Ke Yao said with a smile: "Mr. Zhu has a nickname, called 'Zhu San Noisy', and some people call him 'right through'. He likes to talk to people, and he can talk for hours when he meets someone he doesn't know on the road. If you have any important plans in the future, you must not tell him, otherwise he will make the whole city know about it when he turns around. ”

The world is so big, everyone has it!

Subsequently, Ke Yaofang introduced some people one after another-

Kang Baoshu, the word Xinru, a veteran of the League, graduated from Waseda University, manager of Sichuan Meifeng Bank, and was appointed by Chang Kaishen as the chairman of the Chongqing Senate during the Anti-Japanese War.

Wen Sikang, the president of Chongqing Business Daily, the president of Chongqing Chamber of Commerce, the owner of Chongqing Water Company, and one of the organizers of Chongqing University.

Hu Heru, a graduate of the Department of Agricultural Economics of Beijing Agricultural University, the chief internal affairs official of Liu Wenhui before the defeat, is now a shareholder and general manager of Huaxi Xingye Company.

Gu Shenglu, the word Hegao, graduated from Beijing University of Technology, Sichuan paint king. Due to the malicious price reduction competition of Japanese businessmen, his paint factory turned to the production of ink, and the Japanese businessmen still did not let go, and they were on the verge of bankruptcy and bankruptcy.

Pan Changyou, whose words are literal, was originally an official under the warlord Yang Sen, and is now the boss of Chongqing Zhongfu Bank, holding shares in more than 10 industrial and commercial enterprises in Chongqing.

……

Although the senators come from all walks of life, they are mainly made up of business elites. Even if they are people in the cultural, educational, and scientific circles, they all have a common identity - businessmen, just like Zhou Hexuan is known as a great writer, but he is still a business thief and rich in private.

If a simple cultural person becomes a parliamentarian, it is estimated that Ke Yao will let go. So Ke Yaofang was appointed secretary general of the Senate because he had the energy to manage the day-to-day affairs while the other councillors were busy with their own business.

Even so, Ke Yaofang first joined the Chongqing Chamber of Commerce, and then ran for parliament as the secretary general of the chamber of commerce. If Ke Yaofang didn't have the slightest background in the business world, he wouldn't even be eligible to join the Senate.

It can be seen from this that the so-called local senate of the Republic of China is actually controlled by the local chamber of commerce, representing not the interests of citizens, but the collective interests of businessmen.

The current general election of the Senate was presided over by Mr. Wang Yunsong, the current speaker of the Senate.

Everyone tacitly played the old trick of "three invitations and three resignations", and in the first round of voting, Wang Yunsong was still elected president of the Senate with a high vote. Wang Yunsong immediately took the stage to speak, reiterating his determination to continue to serve as speaker because of his advanced age, and the parliamentarians finally elected Zhou Hexuan.

Tang Zijing, the richest man in Chongqing, resolutely opposed Zhou Hexuan's election at the election meeting, but it was useless, the more he opposed, the more popular Zhou Hexuan became.

And Ke Yaofang, a leftist poet of the Kuomintang Party, was not surprising to serve as the secretary general of the Senate, with full responsibility for the daily work of the Senate. In addition, two deputy speakers were also elected, namely Zhu Shuluo and Wen Shaohe, and their positions were even more furnished.

Subsequently, Secretary-General Ke Yao came to the stage to make an inaugural speech, and Wang Yunsong handed over the presiding power of the meeting to him on the spot, and he was happy to sit on the side and go cool.

Ke Yaofang is modest and self-deprecating, which probably means that he can be lowly, and thanks to the high opinion of everyone, he will definitely do a good job in the Chongqing Senate and seek legitimate interests for people from all walks of life in the future. After speaking, he said with a smile: "Now, I would like to invite our new speaker, Mr. Zhou Hexuan, a great writer, to speak!" ”

In a burst of applause, Zhou Hexuan walked to the microphone and said: "Thank you Mr. Wang Yunsong for your support and thank you for your recognition. Zhou's ancestral home is directly under the country, and he has nothing to do with Sichuan, and he was elected chairman of the Chongqing Municipal Senate today, and he is really terrified. In his position, seek his government, in a Sichuan dialect, Lao Tzu is not here to eat dry rice! You are all business leaders in Chongqing, and you are now facing an urgent problem, that is, the disaster in Sichuan Province! The number of victims pouring into Chongqing is at least tens of thousands, and it continues to increase every day. This has brought serious problems to Chongqing in all aspects, and even affected Chongqing's commercial order. As the Speaker of the Parliament, I only want to do a good job in disaster relief. I have cooperated with the Sichuan Disaster Relief Association to purchase grain in Hunan, Hubei and Jiangxi provinces, and now nearly 300 tons of relief grain have been delivered. The next batch of relief grain will have 140 tons, and it is estimated that it will be able to reach Chaotianmen Wharf tomorrow and the day after tomorrow. In addition, I have bought 500,000 tons of grain in the United States, and it is estimated that I will be able to reach Shanghai in half a month, which should be able to alleviate some of the disaster by then. ”

"500,000 tons! That's a lot of money, isn't it? ”

"How many loads is a ton?"

"It seems like 20 quintals."

"Isn't 500,000 tons worth 10 million quintals, and now a load of rice has risen to 3 yuan, and 10 million quintals of rice can be sold for 30 million oceans when transported to Chongqing! Mom, this surname Zhou is so rich. ”

"He doesn't necessarily buy rice, but also corn."

"Baogu (corn) is also expensive, and it is worth millions of dollars when sold to Chongqing."

"Mr. Zhou is benevolent and righteous to the people of Sichuan, and he is a good speaker!"

"Tsk, I've seen donations for disaster relief, but I've never seen a single hazi donate tens of millions of oceans."

“……”

Since Roosevelt's New Deal was successfully implemented, it was no longer possible to buy grain from the United States at ultra-low prices, because the federal government set minimum prices for agricultural products. At the beginning, 10,000 US dollars could buy 10,000 tons of corn, which is the same as picking it for nothing, but now the price has more than tripled, and it is not very profitable to sell it to China if you count the freight.

Moreover, in 1936, not only Sichuan was hit by a severe drought, but the United States also suffered an unprecedented drought, which caused the prices of agricultural products to skyrocket, and even pushed up international food prices.

If Zhou Hexuan wants to buy corn in the United States, including ocean transportation costs, it will cost at least $100,000 per 10,000 tons of corn, which is almost the same as the domestic corn price.

Hongmen Situ Meitang, in order to help Zhou Hexuan save money, specially sent people to South America to buy grain. Brazil, Argentina, and other countries are all large producers, and there is no protective price for agricultural products similar to that of the United States, and the overseas purchase price of bulk agricultural products is only half of that of the United States.

The shipment of 500,000 tons of corn from South America will cost Zhou Hexuan about 2.5 million US dollars (including freight, to Shanghai), which is nearly 7 million oceans when converted into silver dollars. Since the grain was purchased in US dollars, and the actual cost of Zhou Hexuan's grain purchase and transportation was 8 million oceans.

Now that the price of grain in Sichuan is soaring, if these corn are transported to Sichuan for sale, they can probably earn two or three million, which is undoubtedly a profiteering business. But few people do this kind of business, first, there is not so much foreign exchange, second, the Yangtze River is difficult to transport at the dry level, and third, they have to be levied high commercial taxes on the way.

Zhou Hexuan's disaster relief food, naturally there is no need to pay taxes in China, who dares to collect taxes, Mr. Zhou directly went to him with a gun!

At this time, 99% of the parliamentarians present are businessmen, so they naturally know the stakes. 500,000 tons of grain from the Americas are involved in too many problems, not only money can be solved. The unit price, transportation, and political costs add up, and if any of them do it, even if it is 500,000 tons of corn, it is worth at least 15 million oceans.

15 million oceans, donate!

Mr. Tang Zijing, the richest man in Chongqing, originally had an infinite sense of superiority. He looked down on Zhou Hexuan, no matter how famous Zhou Hexuan was and how widely connected he was, when he arrived in Chongqing, Tang Zijing only regarded Zhou Hexuan as a poor literati.

But at this moment, Tang Zijing suddenly coaxed, he found that Zhou Hexuan's financial resources were not lost to him, and he was even very likely to be more powerful than him.

You must know that ten years ago, Tang Zijing lost more than 3 million yuan in speculating in treasury bills, and he was so painful that he thought about it directly behind closed doors for half a year. And Zhou Hexuan donated 15 million at once, this is a big tyrant, a big tyrant who is so rich that he can use money to smash people to death.

The eyes of the parliamentarians looking at Zhou Hexuan changed in an instant, they only respected him before, and now they really regard Zhou Hexuan as their own person in the circle - the circle of businessmen.

When Zhou Hexuan put forward a donation proposal, the parliamentarians expressed their support, ranging from 1,000 yuan to 100 million yuan, and raised more than 60,000 yuan in disaster relief funds on the spot. This is not only out of charity, but also to give Zhou Hexuan face.

After the election meeting, Zhou Hexuan was surrounded by lawmakers. Tang Zijing also wanted to go to resolve the conflict, but after all, he didn't pull down his face, he might have done it ten years ago, but now that he has his own super-rich identity, it is absolutely impossible to admit it on the spot.

At noon, Zhou Hexuan was invited by a group of businessmen to drink, and everyone drank and talked happily, obviously fully accepting him as a newcomer. Not only that, Zhou Hexuan was also invited to join the Chongqing Chamber of Commerce, after all, he also opened an enamel factory in Chongqing.

Gu Hegao, the owner of Feifeng Paint Factory, saw the opportunity and said to Zhou Hexuan alone: "Mr. Zhou, I heard that you want to build a factory in Sichuan, I don't know if you are interested in the paint factory?" ”