In this way, surrounded by Japanese troops, all the people were trapped on an "isolated island".

The area of the "island" is only as far as the range of a machine-gun bullet, and the crisis is as vast and terrifying as the East China Sea.

The daily life of the entire Demon Capital City is in an extremely decadent state, and even the group of people who temporarily hold power will feel that life is boring and not worth looking forward to at all. All ideals seem so vain, only despair is real.

So, waiting for the fighting to subside a bit, the Paramount Ballroom and Phoenix Casino became overcrowded!

Some wealthy people took advantage of the fact that they were not dead to spend a lot of money in Phoenix, staying up all night and gambling all night.

Some poor people, with no tiles on the top and no place to insert needles underneath, could not even eat, so they could only sit under the eaves of the street on cold nights, begging and waiting for death.

At this time, Qin Di and Yan Xue had already moved out of the Qin Mansion and lived in seclusion in the manor near Jing'an Temple.

The Qin family is the richest man in the Republic of China, and their prestige is not trivial.

As the eldest young master of the Qin family, if he stays in the Qin Mansion and is assassinated by Japanese spies, what do you think he should do? If he shows his skills and kills on a large scale, won't everyone know about it?

Because of this, in order to reduce trouble, he simply moved out of the Qin Mansion, making people think that the Qin family had moved away.

Although the Qin Clan's grain store withdrew the eastern granary, it did not include the demon capital.

Qin Di had already stockpiled 800,000 tons of grain in the concession.

He did not come forward in person, but found hundreds of people from Du Yuesheng to set up a porridge shack on the streets of the magic capital and provide a bowl of porridge to each homeless.

On a cold night, on the streets of Qin Di and Yan Xuezi's Demon Capital, they saw a long queue near the porridge shed from afar.

Many people dragged their families and waited in line for a long time, just for a bowl of white porridge.

The white porridge is hot, drink it in your mouth, and warm it in your heart.

Some victims boldly asked, "Whose family set up this porridge shack?"

The disciples of the Qingbang will bring: "Naturally, it is the Qin family, the richest man in the Republic of China, otherwise who has the financial resources to set up 200 porridge sheds at once? From morning to night, day and night? Remember, this is the Qin family doing good deeds, from Mr. Zhu Wan, to Ms. Qin Ling, to Gexian Xue Xiangwan, every hostess has a heart of great compassion! Although they have left the Le Mo Capital, they are thinking about this place......

Some of the victims were so excited that they simply knelt on the ground and kowtowed: "Thank you to the great benevolent people, Guanyin Bodhisattva blesses, I hope the Qin family will live a long life!"

Yan Xue saw that there were too many people in line, and some of the children's faces were red from the cold, feeling distressed and helpless, and couldn't help but sigh: "Winter has just begun, there are so many refugees in the concession, what will I do in the future?"

Qin Di said: "No matter what, one more day is a day, and saving one is one." As long as you survive this winter, the days ahead will be better. ”

Yan Xue asked, "Sir, is there still a chance for the Demon Capital to recover?"

Qin Di nodded and said, "Yes, the demon capital will not only not decline, but will enter the deformed prosperity!"

He knew in his heart that in such a strange and chaotic world full of apocalyptic feelings, everyone had to save themselves. Contrary to many people's conjectures, the industrial and commercial economy of the magic capital during the "isolated island" period was not depressed and devastated, but had an unprecedented period of abnormal prosperity.

Just when the smoke of the artillery fire had not yet dissipated, the ghost of prosperity was quickly resurrected in the ruins and corpses. By the end of 1938, more than 4,700 factories had resumed production and built new factories in the concession, more than twice as many as before the war, and in 1939, 1,705 new factories were established. Among them, the traditional textile industry has recovered the most rapidly. According to a survey by the Cloth Mills Association, by 1939, 823 new weaving, dyeing and weaving and hand-weaving factories had been established in the concession, and 23,200 new cloth machines had been added, which could produce 1.42 million pieces of cotton cloth per month during day and night operation, and the profits of the factories were two to three times that of the pre-war period.

Why is this happening?

There are multiple reasons for this: First, the population has surged, and the demand for means of subsistence has increased, and the market for consumer goods has expanded accordingly; second, the concentration of population has provided sufficient cheap labor for the concession industry, which is conducive to the resumption of industrial production, and the expansion of the scale of production has in turn stimulated the raw material market; third, and the most special point, the concession is the only "non-war zone" on the southeast coast of China, and the flow of people and business naturally surging here, thus stimulating a different kind of liveliness.

The concession is a small land, all the raw materials produced need to be foreign, and all the goods made need to be exported, so its prosperity is completely dependent on the political changes in Asia and even the world.

So what is the external political situation?

Looking at the attitude of the national government first, the magic capital is the only legal channel for the import of industrial raw materials and equipment. The economy of the rear is completely in the service of the war, with heavy industry as the main body, and the people's livelihood industry is very weak. Around 1941, the population of the rear area was 230 million, and 1.6 million spindles of cotton yarn needed were to start production, while the actual operation of yarn spindles was only 175,000 at most, and the annual shortage of cotton yarn and cotton cloth was 120,000 pieces and 4 million horses respectively, and most of these materials depended on the supply of the magic capital.

Looking at Japan's attitude again, on the one hand, World War II had not yet broken out, and Japan still maintained diplomatic relations with Britain and the United States, so it did not dare to openly attack the concessions; on the other hand, Japan was a country that was basically unable to be self-sufficient in war resources, and it relied on imports of oil, iron sand, and copper for its heavy industry, and even most of its industrial raw materials such as cotton, wood pulp, and sulfuric acid needed to be imported. Under such circumstances, the "isolated island" of the magic capital has become a transit market for Japan to obtain and transship strategic materials and arbitrage foreign exchange.

Therefore, the Japanese army imposed a "peaceful blockade" on the concession, that is, it only prohibited the sea traffic of Chinese ships, and although the ships of third countries were sometimes blocked, they were not completely prohibited from entering and leaving. Before the outbreak of the Pacific War, nearly 60 percent of the tonnage of ships entering and leaving the port belonged to third countries other than China and Japan. Of course, the Japanese also knew that a considerable part of them were Chinese ships flying foreign flags.

Finally, looking at the attitude of the European and American countries, as the situation in Europe is tense, economic warfare has been waged between countries. Germany sabotaged British sea lines at every turn. The Anglo-French bloc and the Nordic countries have also imposed trade blockades or restrictions on Germany. In this game, Britain used the magic capital as a market source for raw materials and animal products. Germany also took advantage of the Trans-Siberian Railway to transport pigments, medicines, hardware machinery, chemical products and other commodities to Shanghai in exchange for urgently needed materials.

It is precisely because of this subtle and unique karmic encounter that "islands" are tolerated. At the end of 1937 after the Sino-Japanese war, the European and American steamships had resumed shipping on the North and South Oceans and the Yangtze River routes, and by June of the following year, the magic capital had reopened direct liners to London, Marseille and other European cities, and by October it had basically returned to the pre-war level, and domestic routes had also been reopened. The magic capital soon regained its status as the center of national trade.

Prior to 1942, British and American investments in the Modu Concession accounted for 72.6% and 64.9% of their total investment in China.

The speed of recovery in the "siloed" economy is staggering. In January 1938, the number of workers employed in the factories in the concession was 31,900, and by April it had risen to 130,700, and by the end of the year it had risen to 230,000. Large and small knitting mills and flour mills work overtime day and night, but they still cannot meet the needs of the market, and the profits are frighteningly high.

In the knitting industry, for example, the profit of thread socks is 37.2%, wool socks 62.6%, and sanitary shirts 79.2%. This high industrial profit saved many refugees and brought a large surplus to the enterprises. Taking the Rong family as an example, there are two textile mills in the concession of Shenxin No. 2 and No. 9 factories and three flour mills of Fuxin No. 2, No. 7 and No. 8 factories, and their profits far exceed those before the war, and the profits of Shenxin No. 9 Factory alone in 1939 were as high as 10 million yuan, and the Rong family paid off all the huge debts before the war in one fell swoop, and Rong Desheng also initiated the organization of Guangxin Bank Company in 1939 and invested in banking business, becoming a veritable huge wealth in Shanghai.