The merger of the two concessions in Shanghai and Haihai was very unexpected news for everyone, even Li Junhao did not expect it, let alone others. But when things started, he became the person in charge of the command on the front line, which made him nervous and excited.

He doesn't know if this is a change in the history of this world, let alone whether it's good or bad, but he will do his best to push it all for the better! As for what the result will be, he does not know and cannot predict it!

Well, now that it's time to play, let's play to the end!

——

This time the reception involves all aspects, the French obviously want to go home in a hurry, finance, administration, municipal, public utilities, police, etc., all the hands of the brain, as if it is a loss to sell, it only took five days, the handover of the French concession of Nuoda was completed!

On Thursday, November 30, the consul generals of Britain, France and the United States held a press conference to announce the official merger of the two concessions, and the name still uses "Huhai Public Concession"; At the same time, because Britain and France were already at war with Germany in Europe, in order not to affect the concession, Britain and France withdrew from the management of the public concession, and the two neutral countries of the United States and Switzerland and the Chinese directors reorganized the new Ministry of Industry......

Subsequently, the new board of directors of the Ministry of Industry was unveiled, with the general director of the United States Consul General Nelson Ayers, and the deputy director of the board of directors of Justin Sheehan, political counselor, including one Swiss, six Americans, and four Chinese, making up the board of thirteen.

Among the Swiss directors was the president of the Shanghai branch of the Union Bank of Switzerland;

The U.S. directors are U.S. Consulate General's Military Attache Kelton, Deputy Military Attache Pan Sen, Commercial Counselor Sain, Cultural Counselor Barrett, Citibank Huhai Branch Burges, and California Foreign Bank Willis;

The Chinese directors are Zheng Yue of Fudan University, He Fengmin of the Textile Association, Si Wenhua of the Shipping Association, and Liu Haifeng of the Banking Association.

Because of the previous changes in the concession, especially the French side's obvious move to give up the concession, all walks of life in Shanghai have actually speculated that the French concession will be merged into the public concession, and this press conference has made the dust fall; But what surprised people was that Britain actually handed over the right to govern!

Everyone can see that this time the US side is really in complete control of the concession, and among the thirteen people, five US consulate general officials and two American businessmen have seven votes, as well as the decision-making power and veto power of the general director and deputy general director, and the other directors are just foils.

The most eye-catching member of the board of directors is naturally Deputy Military Attache Pan Sen, not only because of his youth, but also because he is the first commander of the US forces stationed in Shanghai and the chief of the police department.

After the press conference, the new board of directors of the Ministry of Industry Bureau held its first meeting and decided that after the formal merger of the two concessions, all the rules and regulations of the original public concessions would be followed. In this process, of course, the US side took the lead, and the other directors just raised their hands to agree, but they were finally able to make everyone's face passable.

After the meeting, Willis was very excited, he didn't expect that he would be able to become a director after the merger of the concessions, all of which must be the reason for Mr. Pan Sen, so he stepped forward to "meet" as soon as possible.

Citibank's Menate Fortis was a director for the first time, and after first meeting with a group of officials from the Consulate General, he also walked to Pan Sen's side and respectfully expressed his respect, seeing that he obviously knew something.

Professor Zheng Yue didn't expect to become a director, and when he saw Pan Sen surrounded by people, he just nodded from a distance and left first-there are some things that don't need to be said, everyone knows what they know.

He Fengmin is an old friend, and when he came to meet Li Junhao, he introduced Si Wenhua, the president of the Shipping Association, and Liu Haifeng, the president of the Banking Association.

Now Li Junhao is a busy man, but after getting to know the new directors, he said hello to Ayers and left the Consulate General.

——

In the evening of the same day, the latest news from Europe reached Shanghai, and the Soviet-Finnish war broke out.

After studying and judging the current situation in Europe, diplomats from various countries believed that the Soviet Union would easily win this war and occupy the entire territory of Finland.

However, in this way, Germany, which has always been very close to Finland, is embarrassed: if it intervenes, it will face the Soviet Union head-on; If you don't intervene, you'll lose a potential ally and chill the rest of the Nordic countries.

Therefore, many diplomats in Britain and France felt that they should not hand over the management of the concession to the United States so quickly, and that it was completely possible to stabilize it.

However, the consuls general of the two countries knew that no matter whether Germany intervened in the Soviet-Finnish war or not, it would not confront the Soviet Union in the short term, and its key objectives would still be France and Britain in order to achieve its goal of dominating Europe.

In fact, the tension between the Soviet Union and Finland has been reported in the country before, and war is inevitable, but sooner or later. Moreover, the British and French were of the same opinion, the huge Soviet Union would easily win against Finland and would not take too long; There is no point in delaying, and it is most important to hand over the administration of the concession to the United States as soon as possible, so that the country's troops can be transferred back to the country.

——

The officers of the U.S. Consulate General and the officers of the three regiments also believed that the Soviet-Finnish war would end soon, perhaps even faster than the German-Polish war, because a large country with a population of more than 10 million square kilometers and a population of nearly 200 million would fight a small country of 338,000 square kilometers and a population of 4 million.

Only Li Junhao knows how badly the Soviet Union fought this battle, after three and a half months, the Soviet Union increased its troops twice, with 1.2 million troops against Finland's 200,000 troops, but in the end it was a crushing victory, and the official version of his own admission is that the casualty ratio of the two armies is more than 3:1 (158,900 versus 48,800), if it is not for the lack of supply of Finnish troops, the victory or defeat is unpredictable.

Although Finland was eventually forced to cede and lease part of its territory and end the war, the Finnish army was unanimously praised for its fighting power and fighting spirit, and it retained its sovereignty and won international fame.

On the contrary, the Soviet Union did not achieve its goal of conquering the entire territory of Finland, and its national reputation was greatly damaged, and it was expelled from the League of Nations for provoking a war of aggression!

More importantly, the poor performance of the Soviet army in this battle made Hitler more confident in invading the Soviet Union, and he began to contact Finland to join his plan, which eventually led to the "continuation of the war" at the end of June 1941, when Finland joined Germany in regaining the land lost in the Winter War.

(End of chapter)