New Year's Day in 1944 was a bad one.

Zhang Mouzhi took out a stack of reports, threw them on the table and sighed and said, "Alas, these factories have to be closed, and they can't be closed." ”

"Turn it off," Zhou Hexuan didn't look at the report, but said, "The severance pay of the workers must be sufficient, and I will pay for those that are not enough." I bought the goods hoarded in the warehouse in full at the factory price and donated them to the affected people in the provinces. ”

"I'll donate my share too," Zhang Mouzhi felt a little disheartened, he turned his head to look outside, and said in a low voice, "Mingcheng, do you think this national government can still be saved?" When the Anti-Japanese War is won, I am afraid that it will not be the Communist Party that will sit in the world. ”

"Don't worry, Taishan, I have my own arrangements." Zhou Hexuan said.

"I believe in your vision," Zhang Mouzhi said in a low voice, "Why don't we quietly send some supplies to the Communist Party first and establish relations in advance?" You should be able to contact the Communist Party. ”

"The Communist Party is tightly organized, and I can only get in touch with it through the Democratic League." Zhou Hexuan said.

Zhang Mouzhi said: "I donated all the backlog of goods in the warehouse, you can help contact you." ”

"Yes." Zhou Hexuan nodded.

At the beginning of the war, the number of factories in the rear was less than 100, and by 1942 it had grown to a peak of more than 1,000, but in 1943 it took a sharp turn and only more than 900 factories remained.

Now it has just entered 1944, and the rear area has once again ushered in a wave of factory closures, and hundreds of homes have been closed at once.

The factory that Zhou Hexuan invested in Sichuan has now closed one-third of it, one-third of it has been shut down for a long time, and the rest of the factories are only struggling to maintain.

The reasons for the large number of factory closures are mainly as follows:

First, the fiat currency has depreciated, factories are underfunded, and triangular debts are everywhere.

Second, prices have skyrocketed and the purchasing power of society has declined. The goods produced by the factory cannot be sold, and the common people want to buy but cannot afford them, resulting in a large number of scarce goods rotting in the warehouse.

Third, the government limits prices. This was supposed to be a policy to control prices, but it caused factories to lose as much as they sold.

Fourth, government control. Many daily necessities and industrial goods are government-controlled materials, which are often raw materials, and government control has left a large number of factories without access to raw materials.

Fifth, the transportation is inconvenient. The war has led to various disruptions in transportation, and the cost of transporting raw materials has increased dramatically, and it is often not possible to reach the factory on time.

Sixth, government monopoly. Cigarettes, sugar, salt, matches and other daily necessities are all sold and purchased by the government, and they are forcibly purchased at low prices, and corruption is rampant, and the factories have no profit at all.

Seventh, taxes are excessive. In order to alleviate the financial pressure, the central government abolished the unified tax policy and replaced it with a commodity tax, and the tax was inflated. The government stipulates that enterprises with profits exceeding 60% of their capital will be subject to a 50% commodity tax. In the case of the depreciation of the fiat currency, almost all factories have reached this standard of profitability, but in fact they are losing money. The government only looks at the paper data and imposes a 50% commodity tax on more than 90% of the factories. There are also stamp duties, contributions, grain offerings, and public debts, which are all imposed on them.

Eighth, malicious hoarding and speculation. The slightly smarter capitalists are no longer engaged in industry or open factories. A large number of floating funds frantically hoarded necessities and scarce materials, and they colluded with the government to buy them at low prices, multiply them dozens of times and then sell them, and the market has been controlled by speculators.

The above factors, as long as there are two or three, it is enough for the factory to drink a pot, how can it be spared if all of them are encountered?

As an entrepreneur, Zhang Mouzhi has been completely disappointed with the Nationalist Government. With his very limited political vision, he can also see that the current government is bound to fall, because the government has completely lost its prestige in the business world. And the same is true of the common people, who endured hunger and starvation to support the War of Resistance, and they could not see the hope of victory in the War of Resistance, but only corrupt officials and corrupt officials.

The depreciation of the fiat currency can be tolerated, the inconvenience of transportation can be endured, and even the excessive tax can be tolerated.

What is the most unbearable thing about Zhang Mouzhi?

The government imposed a price limit on commodities, requisitioned them at low prices, and sold them to speculators. This means that the factories work hard to produce, and all the profits are taken by the speculators, and the factory owners have to pay all kinds of taxes to the government.

Zhang Mouzhi has been in business for half his life, and he has never encountered such an evil thing.

We often say that steel and coal are the soul of modern industry. However, there is now a situation where steel and coal are unsalable – during the war, steel and coal are unsalable, and workers in related industries are unemployed!

At the end of 1943, the machinery manufacturing industry was also in trouble, and countless engineers and senior technicians who belonged to the treasure could only rest all day long in the empty factory.

Let's talk about "China Industrial Cooperatives", hereinafter referred to as "Gung Ho".

The "Gung Ho" organization was initiated by the Snow couple in the early days of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression with the aim of developing the economy of the interior, solving social problems, providing financial assistance, integrating industrial resources, and supporting the War of Resistance Against Japan. The Snow couple persuaded the Englishman Alley, who developed a scheme of industrial cooperatives suitable for rural and underdeveloped areas of Asia.

This plan was not only realized in China, but was later adopted by India, Myanmar, Japan and other countries.

Mrs. Sun, Soong Meiling, Soong Ziwen, and Kong Xiangxi all initially supported the "Gung Ho" plan, and also claimed that it was to carry forward Sun Yat-sen's people's livelihood. However, because the "Gung Ho" was helped by international democrats, and the initiators Snow and his wife were clearly pro-communist, and supported and gave some supplies to the New Fourth Army and the Eighth Route Army, the national government suddenly began to suppress the "Gung Ho" after the incident in southern Anhui.

The "Gung Ho" organization, which once helped China's wartime economy flourish, went into decline. On the other hand, on the Communist Party's side, Taizu took the lead in actively supporting the development of the "Gung Ho", and a large number of "Gung Ho" members in the Kuomintang areas were invited to the communist base areas, which significantly increased the industrial strength of the base areas, which were helped to form many factories in the base areas at this time.

Zhou Hexuan really felt that Chang Kaishen's brain was sick, and it seemed that he would not give up until he pushed all the forces that were beneficial to him to the Communist Party.

During the Spring Festival, only seven of Zhou Hexuan's factories in Sichuan were still in production, and four were in a semi-suspended state. Just after the Spring Festival, due to the surging wave of factory closures, which caused a greater shortage of materials, coupled with the government printing another wave of fiat currency, prices in Sichuan rose to an unbearable level.

Kong Xiangxi, who was in charge of managing the money, was so anxious that he suggested that Chang Kaishen reduce military spending last year, hoping that Chang Kaishen would be able to check the actual number of troops.

However, it is impossible to find out......

According to Chen Cheng's later recollections, the budget of the national army was 5 million people, and the actual number of people who ate military rations reached 7.2 million, so it was very good to have 3 million combatable troops. That is to say, at this time, more than half of the troops of the national army belonged to empty salaries or the old, weak, sick and disabled.

Kong Xiangxi wanted Lao Jiang to check these troops in order to save military spending, but Lao Jiang didn't dare to investigate at all, and he didn't have the courage to investigate! It can be said that the generals of the national army are eating empty salaries at this time, and checking the number of troops is tantamount to offending all the generals, which is equivalent to digging the grave of Lao Jiang.

In 1944, the Chinese people will have an extremely difficult time.