After the Russo-Japanese War, in order to avoid the invasion of the Korean Peninsula, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Unification and Supervision Office announced the resumption of the Japanese concessions in Incheon, Pusan, and Wonsan, and incorporated them into the local Chinese concessions. In the past, there were only a dozen clubs in the Japanese Concession, and the warehouses built by these clubs in the Concession made the Japanese Concession even more deserted.

However, the reason for the proximity to Inchon is not because of its proximity to Incheon, but because after the outbreak of the war, more and more Japanese who felt hopeless about the future came to the Korean Peninsula.

Except for the Japanese Concession, which no longer exists, it seems that it is far better here than in other areas - these Japanese who are educated or proficient in business and trade can easily find a decent job at the Beiyang Company, and of course need to be familiar with English, French, Russian, German and other foreign languages, and of course they need to know Chinese.

It is precisely because of this requirement that on both sides of Dongya Road, the main street of the former Japanese Concession, in addition to the Japanese-funded banks and trading companies, there are several more Chinese language training courses, and learning Chinese has become a way for the Japanese to survive.

Mitsui & Co., located at 12 Dong-ho Road, used to act as an agent for Takashima Coal in Incheon, just like Shanghai and Hong Kong. Mitsui & Co. is still engaged in coal sales here. Nearly 1,000 tons of coal are sold every month. Now, with the outbreak of the war, the coal road has been cut off, and the Mitsui Materials Incheon branch has lost its glory as it was yesterday.

In order to maintain its operations, the branch had to dismantle the warehouse area and convert it into private housing, collect rent or sell private houses to maintain the operation of the branch in Incheon, and as for the once busy dock of the branch, there were often no merchant ships entering for more than a month. Even though there are ships that have escaped from Japan, there are still many people who have fled Japan by private boats, and North Korea is one of their destinations.

Of course, this escape was partly due to private rumors that there were countless job opportunities in North Korea, where skilled craftsmen, technicians, and intellectuals could get well-paid jobs, and the ship's owners could re-register their ships as North Korean vessels.

Compared to ordinary people who fled to North Korea, despite the situation of cutting off domestic goods, Mitsui Kaisha still stubbornly persevered here. There is no intention of withdrawing or entrusting the business to others.

In the branch yard, Nakajo stood in front of the window of his office and looked out with a worried expression and an unlit cigarette in his hand. He doesn't usually smoke much, he only lights one when he's depressed or upset.

Tang Haoran!

Thinking of this person, Nakajo's brow furrowed.

For any Japanese in Korea, this name will not be unfamiliar, they may not know the name of the king of Korea, but the name of the "Emperor Taishang" of Korea is like thunder, not to mention that he expelled ministers from various countries last year and controlled Korean diplomacy, just after the outbreak of war, he took advantage of the fire to loot and recover the Japanese concession, I don't know how many Japanese people are "ashamed."

However, even the "shamelessness" could not change the reality that Japan could no longer support them as it did in the past, and even the consulate only protested a little and allowed it to take over the concession, at most it only demanded the protection of the property safety of Japanese merchants. Japan has completely become a meat on the board, at the mercy of others.

However, Nakajo did not take into account the political factors, and compared to the political government, he valued the economy - the outbreak of war had a fatal impact on the trading companies, and he could not even obtain goods from the British merchants without coal or domestic cotton cloth - the Chinese merchants had a monopoly on the purchase and sale of foreign goods in Korea, and they naturally did not want to see the Japanese trading companies intervene in it, and even when he tried to contact the Beiyang Company and expressed his desire to sell the goods of the Beiyang Company, he failed to do so - this was the foundation of the Beiyang Trading CompanyThey cooperated with Qing merchants in the Qing Dynasty and overseas Chinese merchants in Nanyang, leaving no room for the Japanese trading companies to interfere at all.

In order to maintain the normal operation of the trading company, he was not allowed to convert his warehouses into residences, rent or sell them to those "cowards", but now more and more cowards have fled to Incheon, and although the Russian navy has imposed a blockade on Japan, the blockade is not very tight, and a steady stream of people have fled from Japan to Korea.

As a businessman, Nakajo was also a patriot, and he had been thinking about how to use Korea as a base camp to support the war at home, and according to his original vision, he hoped to be able to send arms to Japan through Korea. After all, compared to Shanghai and Hong Kong, North Korea, especially Busan, is closer to Japan, and can be used as a base camp for arms smuggling. On the other hand, however, the Korean customs strictly prohibits the entry of arms without the approval of the Unified Supervision Office, which was a control regulation that was in place long before the war. Under such circumstances, unless the Unified Supervision Office cooperates, North Korea will never become a stronghold for arms smuggling.

In the past, he has been trying to cooperate with the Beiyang Company, and the two sides are jointly engaged in arms smuggling, and what the Beiyang Company pursues is profit, but as a Japanese, Nakajo is by no means just profit, so there is no problem in "suffering a loss", but the problem is that the Beiyang Company does not seem to have the will to engage in this business at all.

This seems to be a normal thing, for the Beiyang Company, they are more willing to deal with the people of Lu Guo - Lu Guo purchased tens of millions of gold rubles of materials from the Beiyang Company, and how could those cowards who fled Japan and worked in the factories of the Beiyang Company know that the products they produce are actually helping Lu Guo to destroy Japan?

"These guys!"

With a sigh, Nakajo turned around and paced back and forth in the office, shaking his head incessantly. He came to his desk, picked up a copy of "China Daily", and couldn't help but sigh with emotion after reading it for a while.

"Japan, ......"

How difficult it was for a weak Japan to resist Russia, a Western power, and now that Russia has occupied all of Hokkaido, millions of Lu countries and troops may flood into Japan at any time, thus destroying Japan...... How could the demise of Japan not make him, as a patriot, worried.

"Why do you keep claiming that you are of the same language and the same species, but you still support the Lu people......"

Nakajo stood up again and walked back and forth in the office, and finally stood in front of the window, looking out, but the sadness between his eyebrows was even thicker. He knew the answer—businessmen are always profit-seeking.

At this time, Mishima came in and gently closed the door, the room was a wooden floor, and Mishima walked loudly, and he came behind Nakajo and said.

"President, now Qing businessmen are protesting at the local affairs department to protest against the economic control implemented by the unified supervision government."

He said, looking at Nakajo's back. He's slightly taller than Nakajo, but he's a little shorter because of his bowing.

"Those Qing merchants don't know at all the benefits of economic control to the unified supervision government!"

Nakajo continued as he looked out the window.

"The implementation of economic control will turn the Unified Prison Office into a general assembly house, and the resources of the whole of Korea will be controlled by the guò government, and then the resources will be turned into wealth, and how can Japan be able to pursue this policy after the Meiji Restoration, how can it ......?"

As a business student who graduated from Tokyo Imperial University, almost after learning in the newspaper that the Unification and Supervision Office had implemented economic control, he immediately linked it with the economic plan freely discussed by the economists of the German historical school, and at the same time was keenly aware of the benefits to North Korea, to be precise, to the Unification Administration's promotion of industrial construction, and naturally admired that Tang Lord.

"President, this is because after the unification, many goods in Korea will be completely controlled by the Unification Office and the Beiyang Company, so they are extremely excited, although the power of Chinese merchants in Korea is weak, but they have a certain influence in the trading companies of the Qing State, and they are likely to use this to put pressure on the Unification Administration through the Qing State......"

"I see!"

Nakajo nodded, because Korea was a vassal state of the Qing State, and although Tang Haoran was the emperor of Korea, he had to obey Beijing's will.

"Then the Qing merchants are really short-sighted, and they don't see that their interests will benefit from it when they are damaged by economic control, which is really short-sighted!"

While complaining in his heart, Nakajo thought of another question, if Tang Haoran was impeached because of this, what kind of impact would it have on Toyo? In the past, he might have cheered about it, but now the situation has changed - he is the only Qing official who advocated the same language and the same species in East Asia.

"Qing Merchant ......"

First he smiled coldly, then Nakajo sighed again.

"Qing merchants have always paid attention to the collusion between officials and businessmen, and this time I'm afraid Lord Tang is going to run into trouble!"

Nakajo turned around and looked at Mishima and said.

"Now the East needs people like Tang Jun, if Japan ...... If it fails, then the hope for the future of the East is likely to lie in Qing officials like Tang Jun, and if Tang Jun resigns, there will be no hope for Qing Guo...... Alas! I'll be quiet for a while, and you can go out first! ”

Mishima bowed and went out, but Nakajo was still frowning, and when he stood by the window and looked at the Chinese Concession, he couldn't help but think of the factory area lined with chimneys and factories, and those factories meant the hope of the East, and if Tang Jun failed, then Japan ...... (To be continued......)