The two horses took Kan Lok Wai out of the clan hall and took him to Tung Wah Hospital, where he was able to report his safety to his family immediately. It's good to be powerful, and you can still save your life if you provoke someone, and even if you don't act decisively, you may have to wait a few minutes for a call from the Chief of Operations to come in.

He Dingxian took a sip of tea and said with a smile: "Uncle Hui, you see, there are no hard bones in the world, when the iron rod is smashed, all are soft bones." ”

Luo Wenhui bowed his head and said: "First of all, you have to hold an iron rod in your hand." ”

"Yes."

"There's got to be a gun to his head." He Dingxian chuckled.

"Let's continue to talk about the Star Ferry." Luo Wenhui was very interested in the acquisition of the Star Ferry Company, and said loudly: "I have a total of 10% of the shares in my hands, which I bought when the Star Ferry Company restarted operations after the war and raised funds. ”

"The shares are not much, but the annual income is very impressive."

Before the war, the Star Ferry had grown to 11 diesel-powered ferries with a daily passenger capacity of over 50,000 passengers, and was the main mode of transport between the two districts before the Hong Kong and Kowloon Connecting Cross Harbour Tunnel.

Unfortunately, during the Japanese occupation era, the garrison directly confiscated the ships, eleven ferries were used for military purposes, and the ferry company was directly shut down.

Five of the ferries were destroyed in the war, and at the beginning of the reopening, only six ferries were left in operation by the Star Ferry Company, which gave other ferry companies the opportunity, and the City Ferry Company and Yau Ma Tei Ferry Company took advantage of the situation.

Before the opening of the Harbour Tunnel on Hong Kong Island, ferry companies were a hard demand of the public, and tickets were sold out every day, and natural wealth was rolling in.

Ho Ting-yin, Yan Xiong and others often sit on the Kowloon City Ferry Pier, one is that the ticket price is cheap, and the other is that the ferry ticket is easy to buy, like the ferry ticket from Tsim Sha Tsui to Central at the Star Ferry Pier, which can discharge a 100-meter-long queue on holidays, and the route from Kowloon City Ferry to North Point is mainly long and time-consuming.

"Where there's water, there's a boat." He Dingxian thought very thoroughly, and said with a cup of tea: "Hong Kong Island is surrounded by the sea, and there are outlying islands around, so of course it makes money by driving a ferry company." ”

"However, the ferry is closely related to the lives of the people, and it is considered the livelihood industry of Hong Kong Island, so it is definitely not easy to win." The strength of Wharf cannot be underestimated, and it is currently one of the top 10 leading enterprises on Hong Kong Island.

The business they can look at is certainly not a small business.

And once a business is linked to the word people's livelihood, if there is no political force, don't want to take it down. Because people's livelihood is within the scope of the Hong Kong Governor's power, and it is an industry that the Hong Kong Governor's Office focuses on supervising.

In addition, Wharf has abundant funds and many subsidiaries, so how can it easily give up the Star Ferry?

"I think it's possible to set up a ferry company to compete with Star Ferry, and then find a way to merge or reorganize into a company." He Dingxian hit a good idea. Luo Wenhui thought carefully for a moment and muttered, "It's not easy to do. ”

"It's very simple to set up a ferry company, and all types of companies on Hong Kong Island are registered casually, but to open a passenger ferry, the route needs to be approved."

For the two of them, it is very simple to buy a ship, open a company, and repair the wharf.

It's nothing more than a matter of money.

But it's okay to park the ferry at the pier, and it's okay to use it privately, and when it comes to passenger use, then the route is pinched to death.

If the Hong Kong government does not approve the route, the ship will not be able to leave the wharf.

The liberal policies pursued by Hong Kong Island are actually superficially open, and there are many thresholds for all walks of life, such as taxi licenses, electricity, water power, ferries, buses, televisions, etc. Often, these hugely lucrative licenses are in the hands of British capital.

For Hong Kong Island from beginning to end there are only two or three companies such as Star Ferry, Yau Ma Tei Ferry, etc.? Because, the Hong Kong government does not approve the route, and other bosses cannot operate the ferry company! Invisibly create a kind of capital monopoly!

There are four passenger ferry routes in the history of Hong Kong, the first route is from Tsim Sha Tsui to Central, which was first granted to the Kowloon Ferry Company, which is now the Star Ferry Company, and the second route is from Tsim Sha Tsui to Wan Chai, which was first granted to the "Four Covenant Neighbourhood Ferry Company", which was later acquired by the "Yau Ma Tei Ferry", and the third route is the Kowloon City Ferry to North Point, which is operated by the Kowloon City Ferry Terminal.

The fourth is that after the economic development is prosperous, it will be responsible for the air routes between the outlying islands area and strengthen the transportation between the outlying islands area and Hong Kong Island. The Kowloon City-North Point route was cancelled due to the opening of the cross-harbour tunnel and the Tsim Sha Tsui Ferry Pier to meet the demand.

For most of the period, there were only two ferry companies on Hong Kong Island, and a few times there were three ferry companies coexisting.

"Then you can only buy one of the three ferry companies." He Dingxian ate shrimp dumplings and discussed: "Are there any of the three companies that can be acquired?" ”

"The Yau Ma Tei ferry is not in good shape, and there may be an opportunity to buy it." Luo Wenhui really knows the ferry company very well, and said after hearing this: "Although the Kowloon City Ferry Company has always had the least revenue among the three companies, it relies on its cheap fares and is operating in a very healthy state. ”

"However, due to the overlap with the route of the Star Ferry Company, the Yau Ma Tei Ferry Company faced the competition of the Star Ferry Company, and fell far behind the Star Ferry Company in terms of service and passenger capacity."

"Tickets don't sell well."

He Dingxian nodded: "I will first find a way to reach an acquisition agreement with Yau Ma Tei Ferry Company." ”

"Good!"

Luo Wenhui smiled and said, "I'm waiting for your good news." ”

Don't underestimate the difficulty of acquiring the Yau Ma Tei Ferry, because Star Ferry is actually the person who wants to buy the Yau Ma Tei Ferry Company the most, and if the news of the acquisition spreads, Wharf will immediately grab it with a lot of money.

If the Star Ferry can take over the Yau Ma Tei Ferry, the route from Tsim Sha Tsui to Wan Chai will be tantamount to a semi-monopoly of the route between Kowloon and Hong Kong Island.

For the sake of cheap fares, there are many people who are willing to sit in Kowloon City to North Point and then take a bus into the city, but there are also many people who buy tickets in Tsim Sha Tsui and go directly to Central!

After the Star Ferry gets the two routes, it can completely sit on the ground and raise the price and scrape money in every citizen's money bag.

Historically, in the 60s, the Star Ferry really rose in price after seizing half of the market for the Hong Kong and Kowloon ferries because of the most steamers and the best wharf facilities! Under the condition that the price of 1 jiao and 1 second-class ticket remains unchanged, the first-class ticket will be increased from 2 jiao to 2 jiao 5 cents, that is, two cents and 5 cents, and the price will increase by 5 cents!

On the surface, the price increase is only 5 cents, but in terms of the passenger capacity of the Star Ferry, the increase is a huge amount of money, which involves the interests of the whole Hong Kong public. In just one month, Ms Anthony Yip, a British member of the Council and a social activist, collected a boycott letter signed by more than 20,000 citizens, but all members of the Council's Price Committee, except for Ms Anthony Yip, approved it with all the praise.

The incident caused tens of thousands of citizens to march on the streets, triggering riots in Kowloon, with 400 arrests and 30 deaths, and a curfew in Kowloon for three consecutive days.

It was called the "Star Ferry Fare Increase", and at that time, the Star Ferry Company had not yet obtained the Tsim Sha Tsui-Wan Chai route.

However, in the late 90s, the unsustainable Yau Ma Tei ferry company announced its closure, and the Tsim Sha Tsui-Wan Chai route was sold to the Star Ferry Company, while the outlying islands route was sold to New World Group's Shark Gall Cheng.

"It's time for the Chinese to have their own ferry company." As for why the acquisition? If Chinese investors want to enter the franchise industry and do big business on Hong Kong Island, the only way to do it is to acquire, acquire, and continue to acquire!

In fact, the history of the rise of Chinese capital on Hong Kong Island is a process of continuous acquisition of British capital.

There is no shame in the acquisition.

And it was once regarded as a medal of merit for Chinese bosses! Without acquiring a few British-owned companies and not speaking hard at the conference, it is only natural that Ho Ting-yin should set his sights on the ferry industry after acquiring Swire Properties.

The Luo Wenjin family not only has political cooperation with him, but is also willing to carry out business cooperation, which is a good signal.

Mong Kok.

Shanghai Street, Oriental Money.

Lard Boy was wearing a white shirt, holding a paper fan in his hand, and clasped his fists: "Brothers." ”

"In the future, the fees of the major associations will continue to be handed over to me to be responsible."

On both sides of a long table, there are rent collectors such as Inspector Lei Luo of Zonghua, Inspector Choi Siu-kwong of Sham Shui Po, and Tai Kee of New Detective Tai Kee of Tsim Sham Shui Po, such as Ma Fuqiang, a rent collector in Sham Shui Po, Rent Collector Zhang of Tsim Sha Tsui East, and Pigskin of Luo Ge.

These rent-collectors formed a circle, and they often drank tea with each other, and had a close personal relationship.

It is a small group of forces that rely on the protection of Chinese governors.

Everyone has a bit of a thin face.

The shower put down the teacup and grinned: "Boy." ”

"We all know the rules."

"Don't worry."

More than a dozen rent collectors laughed endlessly, and the atmosphere was very relaxed: "I promise that every penny is a lot." ”

"yes."

"Boy."

"We didn't even dare to be willing to be a little guy, do we dare to be willing to you?" The fine guy used to be a rent collector of Gao Sir.

Hearing this, the lard boy was greatly appreciative, smiled, and said again: "Thank you, thank you for your support." ”

"It's been a long time since I've come to collect money, and my hands are a little raw, I hope you will help more."

Pigskin hurriedly raised his glass: "Definitely!" ”

"Definitely!"

On both sides of the long table, rent collectors wearing shirts, T-shirts, slippers, or cloth shoes raise their glasses in unison.

Don't look at most of them, they are wide and fat, and their faces are fat, but they handle the fees of the whole Hong Kong police force every month, adding up to tens of millions of Hong Kong dollars, which can be called the largest financial company manager union in Hong Kong!

The lard boy stood at the head of the long table, bowing his head and drinking tea, but his eyes showed a cunning color.

"This time, if you pay less than one point, you'll be finished, and it's going to be unlucky to pay the money obediently!"

After the big boss re-carries the flag of the police force, he will take over the police force fee again, but it is far from being as simple as taking the accounts again and collecting money from one family after another, because times have changed!

Distribution has changed.

The money has to be recalculated.

East Tsim Sha Tsui.

Seafood King food stall.

Triad Investigation Bureau, the person in charge of Mong Kok District, Huo Jiajun was dressed in plain clothes, raised his glass and said: "Qian sir!" ”

"Congratulations!"

The entire food stall surrounded by red plastic sheeting, and the three wine tables were full of people, all of whom were O Ji bosses from various police stations in Kowloon.

Outside the door.

Four plainclothes police officers, smoking cigarettes, looked back and forth.

Acting Chief O of the Kowloon Region, Probationary Inspector Qian Weishan sat in the middle of the main table and stood up to toast: "It's all up to Sir Ho, toast first, and wish Sir Ho a prosperous official fortune and a high rise!" ”

"Good!"

"First of all, I salute He Sir!"

A dozen O commanders shouted loudly.

Some people are not there, but in the mouths of the crowd, like a slogan, a flag, a high-sounding name!

(End of chapter)