"At about three o'clock, when I walked from the private apartment to the gate of Huisheng, I saw that it was crowded. Reluctantly squeezed to the door of the line, there were more than 2,000 people, scrambling to be the first, banging on the door and climbing the window, almost regardless of life and death. It is the one who holds it in his hand, but a few pieces of one dollar or five yuan bills, or two or three hundred yuan in a single piece of paper. ”

Su Bao

April 7, 1901, was the second day of the worst test for Huisheng Bank. Although it was a week, Huisheng Bank made an exception to open its doors to handle withdrawals and banknote cashing business, and even publicly listed banknotes without restrictions. Just like yesterday, the people who came to cash in the silver dollar withdrawal were like a tide, wave after wave. At the moment of crisis on the cusp of the storm, even Catherine was present at the scene, and the crowd reached the most intense moment.

Dozens of carriages drove to the front of the bank gate under heavy escort, and the customers who came to run on the bank, looking at the steel-clad carriages and the nurses with loaded guns, vaguely guessed that these carriages were silver carts.

As the chairman, Catherine also walked out of the chairman's office for the first time, standing on the high steps of the bank gate, looking at the crowd and shouting in somewhat stiff Chinese.

"Don't panic, Huisheng Bank will not fail, and there will be no less deposit and interest, although I Catherine is a woman, but I talk about credit, please rest assured, these carriages are filled with cash, and there will never be a penny less for everyone!"

As soon as Catherine's voice fell, more than a dozen employees walked out of the bank, and the carriage carrying the silver was handed over and opened, and when the employees began to carry boxes of silver cabinets into the gate of Huisheng Bank, suddenly a person rushed over and knocked down the person who carried the bar intentionally or unintentionally.

Barely before the people could react, the bank's guards and employees protected the silver dollars that had been spilled in front of the gate, but even so, some of them were still picked up, but everyone breathed a sigh of relief when they saw this.

At this time, among the crowds on the street, I don't know who came out with the news that Catherine had borrowed millions of silver dollars and would arrive tomorrow. People saw Catherine standing on the steps looking at this scene very calmly, thinking of Catherine's "fame" in the concession, and she usually had a good relationship with various classes, thinking that people would definitely help.

Ferry, who was on the side, stood up and shouted loudly when the employees were loading the silver into the cabinet,

"Rest assured, whether it is redeeming or withdrawing, Huisheng Bank will pay in full, and you will have a lot of money!"

When the runners heard this, and were hungry and tired at the end of the day, they took the money and the silver bills, and gradually departed, and the run finally eased, and this scene made Catherine breathe a sigh of relief.

On April 10, such a news item was published in the "Declaration".

"People from all walks of life heard the news of this redemption, and those who wanted to cash out foreigners felt lax, and Huisheng's banking business has been restored."

The run on the head office of Huisheng Bank on Nanjing Road only affected some people, and for the people in the shantytowns around Shanghai, the run on Huisheng Bank was even less attractive than the price of rice rising by a few pennies.

Since the opening of Shanghai, especially before and after the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, the domestic natural disasters [***], the rural economic recession, especially the Zhubei refugees, began to flow into the city of Shanghai, they built some simple grass huts near the industrial and commercial areas, the vacant land in the city, and formed a strong contrast with the high-rise mansions in the concession.

On the banks of the Huangpu River, after the opening of the port of Shanghai, with the development of trade, the Huangpu River built many wharves, warehouses, wharf porters, many from the countryside in the north of the Yangtze River, when they first came, there was nothing to rely on, they were destitute, in order not to sleep on the streets, he built low grass huts on the wasteland near the wharf in Pudong and the Puxi River, and for decades, formed a piece of shantytown.

In these shantytowns, many of them are peasants from Jiangbei, especially Huaibei, who have fled the famine and taken refuge, the environment here is harsh, extreme poverty, endless suffering and disasters, a large number of simple straw huts and dilapidated boats accompanied by garbage and sewage, hundreds of thousands of residents live a hungry life, although Shanghai's wharves and factories need workers, but a steady stream of displaced people flock to the labor market, but it exceeds Shanghai's needs, for the wharves and factories, they can hire helpers with extremely low wages, Even cheap workers are sometimes much more cost-effective than machines.

"Goo-toot!"

A mouthful of wine poured into Wei Ze's mouth, and the strong alcohol stimulated his throat to numb, alcohol could numb his throat, but it could not numb his brain.

"One more bowl!"

He took out a few pennies from his pocket, and a bowl of wine was brought to him by Xiao Er, and it was poured into his stomach in an instant.

Looking at the intersection of Tingting Station in the distance, wearing a robe and holding a white handkerchief, standing at the intersection in a daze, at a loss, but forcing a smile on her face, every smile of the woman is like a knife cut in the center of her eyes.

A dignified seven-foot man actually asked a girl to sell himself to raise him, this kind of taste, or those men in this shanty can stand it, but he was the sentry commander of the former army of Wuwei back then, and now he has fallen into such a field, how can he be willing.

After drinking a few bowls of wine, I saw that a man with an obscene appearance was laughing with Qiu Niang at the intersection, and even moved his hands and feet, looking at Qiu Niang's extremely uncomfortable look, and wanted to break free from the man's dirty hands several times, anger suddenly surged into his heart.

"Wow!"

As soon as he slapped the knife on the table, Wei Ze rushed over with his knife.

"What the hell the dog said!"

Wei Ze, who was carrying a knife from afar, roared angrily, and the people on the side of the road who scolded angrily shook their hearts, the man who was laughing with Qiu Niang and forcibly pulling her small hands was stunned at first, and then saw a man rushing towards him with a knife, shouting and fleeing, who would fight with a drunk man, let this person be cut with a knife, and he was still a fool when he died.

"Ah...... Aze! ”

Seeing the danger rushing towards her with a knife, Qiu Niang timidly twisted her handkerchief and didn't dare to speak in a low voice.

The man in front of her is her benefactor, if he hadn't rescued her from the hands of foreign devils, I was afraid that she would let the foreign devils harm, then her father and mother would have died, from then on, she followed the man who saved her, and fled all the way to Shanghai, although the two did not get married, but they also handed over their bodies to him, he is a good man.

Originally, when he arrived in Shanghai, Wei Ze took his foreign gun, and the two of them pointed to the fact that they could live a stable life, but Wei Ze was stubborn, and he didn't know if he didn't say it. I don't know how many women are in this shed, the men work on the docks, and the women are in the shed as secret prostitutes. There is really no way for the family to do it now, she doesn't want to see the two of them starve to death, so she can only ......

"Qiu Niang, don't be cheap!"

The drunk Wei Ze gasped, looking at the woman in front of him with red eyes, Qiu Niang gave her body to herself, but she was ...... An old man, but mixed up to this point, it's really better to hit his head to death and trust it to something.

"I ...... I'm going to kowtow and make amends! ”

When he spoke, Wei Ze couldn't help but sigh, let him beat and scold, as long as he gave himself a job.

"Aze!"

Tears welled up in Qiu Niang's eyes, she would rather belittle herself than suffer that sin from this man.

"It's just kowtowing to make amends, that's also being a fake grandson, that's better than letting yourself be a woman......"

In the end, the words still didn't come out of Wei Ze's mouth, and he took Qiu Niang's hand.

"Let's go! Come home with me! ”

"Bell ......"

At that moment, a gong sounded from afar, followed by a few shouts.

"Xingye Construction Company recruits workers, bricklayers are 12 yuan a day, carpenters are 100 yuan a day, and small workers are 90 yuan a day......"

The shouts were accompanied by the sound of gongs, and the narrow road, which had been full of quiet, suddenly became lively, and people seemed to emerge from the ground and poured out of the mud between the grass huts.

"Qiu Niang, you wait! I'm going to take a look! ”

As soon as he heard the man's shout, Wei Ze stuffed the knife to Qiu Niang, spread the girl and ran towards the intersection, I don't know when, there were a few red bottoms on the wall of the intersection of the road, and there were a few tables below, but when I saw that there were three fake foreign devils behind the table, Wei Ze couldn't help but take a beat, and beat the former army of Wuwei to let the foreign devils break up in Tianjin, and later watched those fake foreign devils in the capital with foreign devils everywhere to kill people and set fires, and the most hated in my heart was these two devils who recognized the thief as their father.

"Count me as one, I have strength!"

"My name is Wang Dazhuang......"

"Du Niu!"

Within a few moments, the three tables were crowded with people who had signed up, and the bustling crowd crowded into the tables one by one, and almost missed the table several times.

"Line up, come one by one,"

Zhang Renkui, who came to recruit workers with people, saw the chaotic scene in front of him and hurriedly yelled.

"Whoever squeezes it again will report it to be famous, and fucking fuck me out!"

Although Zhang Renkui was wearing a gray and green robe, the pimple under the robe and the ruthlessness on his face could not be stopped, and the threat in his roar and words made the original team a little chaotic, and the people who were originally crowded in front of the table lined up one after another.

Wei Ze, who was standing outside the crowd, looked at the fake foreign devil behind the table, and when he wanted to turn around, he looked at Qiu Niang who was standing at the corner of the street, and saw the joy on Qiu Niang's face, his heart sank, and his feet that originally wanted to turn around walked forward.

Crowded in the crowd, occasionally saying hello to some acquaintances, Wei Ze has been thinking carefully in his heart, although these people are almost two devils, but this person has to eat.

"At least you don't have to be a fucking grandson, you can work hard when you arrive, and you can fuck the second devil and the foreign devil!"

Sitting behind the table, Wang Suo, who was taking notes, just looked up and glanced at it, the person in front of him was not short, and his body was strong.

"What's your name?"

"Danger! I can do bricklayer work. ”

The smell of wine from the spray only made Wang Suoyi frown, but he still wrote down the name on the paper.