Chapter 463: 462 [There Is Nothing to Do]

Although the major shareholder of Tianjin Tram Electric Light Company is a Belgian consortium, the company’s office is located in the Italian Concession——Tianjin Italian Concession, which is the only Italian concession overseas.

The tram company has a board of directors in Tianjin, with three Chinese directors and three foreign directors. In the Qing Dynasty, Hua Dong was selected by the governor of Zhili. For example, the first Hua Dong was Guandao, Tianjin Dao and Tianjin prefect. During the Beiyang period, the Hua Dong of the tram company was appointed by the governor of Zhili, and was appointed by the mayor of Tianjin during the national government.

However, these directors only have the right to make suggestions, and to put it bluntly, they are beautiful vases placed there.

The person in charge of the company used to be called the director of Huawu, but now he is generally called the general manager.

Early in the morning, General Manager Fan Benke came to Sanma Road in the Italian Concession by car, but found that the parade students were earlier than him. Those marchers held banners and shouted various slogans, and passers-by joined in from time to time:

"Down with imperialism and take back the right to operate electric lights and trams!"

"Severely punish illegal foreign companies!"

"Traveling is betraying the country, and taking a tram is enslaving the enemy!"

"..."

Van Benck looked at the angry Chinese with a headache, and told the driver to drive past cautiously. When I came to the company's office, I saw a lot of feces splashed on the outer wall of the building, emitting a foul smell.

"God, this is really a barbaric country." Van Benk got out of the car depressed. He wasn't worried about his own safety, because those demonstrators didn't use force, which made it impossible for the patrols in the concessions to start, for fear of arresting people randomly and messing things up completely.

As for the excrement on the outer wall of the building, who knows who poured it in the middle of the night.

Arriving at the office pinching his nose, Van Benck asked the secretary, "Did you call back from the headquarters?"

The headquarters of Tianjin Tramway Company is located in Brussels, Europe. Any major incident needs to be reported to the headquarters, and the general manager has no right to dispose of it.

The secretary replied: "The company headquarters has not given clear instructions, but the consuls of various countries have sent official letters asking us to settle the matter as soon as possible, because the incident of tram price hikes has seriously endangered the prosperity and stability of the concessions."

"Damn it!"

Van Benck complained: "When collecting money every month, the industrial bureaus in the concessions are more active than anyone else, but now they don't dare to help when they encounter problems! A bunch of vampires."

As soon as Fan Benke finished speaking, the door of the office was suddenly pushed open: "Manager, someone rushed in. They said it was from the Tianjin Taxation Bureau!"

"Let them go," Van Benck cursed. "This is the Italian Concession, and the Tax Bureau of the Tianjin Municipal Government is not qualified to come here to check the accounts! Quickly, go and call the police, and drive away all the garbage from the Tax Bureau."

In fact, there was no need to call for arrests. The employees of the tram company drove away the three tax collectors, but the tax bureau left a tax payment form, demanding to pay back the payment owed on credit for 20 years. Because the company's service fee over the years has been calculated based on the section of the road within 6 Li from the Drum Tower, and the tram section beyond 6 Li has not paid tax at all.

After driving the tax collectors away, before Van Benck had time to catch his breath, the secretary rushed in in a panic: "General Manager, something is wrong! The Tianjin Municipal Government issued an announcement to publicly auction the right to operate trams 6 miles away from the Drum Tower in Tianjin." !"

"What?"

Fan Benke stood up in a "chuckle" and said in a panic, "Tianjin Municipal Government really did this?"

The secretary nodded and said, "It's true, the news has been published in the newspaper!"

Fan Benke said anxiously: "Hurry up and invite Hua Dong, and invite the three Hua Directors of the company!"

The secretary hurriedly called, but no one was invited, and came back to report: "Manager, the three directors are not at home, I heard that they have gone on a trip."

"Trash, it's all trash!" Van Benk slapped the table angrily.

Although the three Hua directors have no right to speak in the tram company, they can receive dry stock dividends every year, and they are also responsible for opening up the relationship between the Chinese military and political circles. Now that the Tianjin Municipal Government is going to auction off the right to operate the tram, it is natural that the company's Hua Dong should come forward to settle the matter, at most, just send some more money.

But now things are getting too big, and the three Hua directors are not willing to come forward to help at all, because if they are not careful, they will be stigmatized as traitors.

Not only that, but because the three directors of the Tramway Company were familiar with the business, they had already gotten involved with the Tianjin General Chamber of Commerce. These directors of Hua are jealous of the increasingly profitable tram business, and want to invest and bid for the tram management rights with big businessmen. This is more profitable than taking a little dry stock dividend.

Van Benck was so frightened that he hurried to the French Concession. He wanted to ask the French ambassador to Tianjin for help, because France and Belgium were a military alliance, and the French Concession charged the highest tram tolls.

"Mr. Consul, the Chinese officials are too rude," said Van Benck like a brat looking for an adult to sue, "The Chinese demolished the tracks of the tram company and destroyed sacred private property. !"

The French consul in Tianjin also made money from tram tolls. He said righteously: "I will immediately send a note to the Nanjing government!"

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Nanjing Nationalist Government received a note from the French consul in Zimbabwe, and the diplomatic officials immediately panicked. But they couldn't do anything about it, because all the dignitaries, including Chang Kaishen and Wang Zhaoming, all the fuck went to Luoyang for a meeting, and even the heads of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs were not in Nanjing.

There is no way, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has only one word to respond: delay!

The turmoil of the Tianjin tram price increase became more and more serious, and the police in various concessions even started to drive away the demonstration students, causing 3 students to be slightly injured. The demonstrators were even more indignant about this, and some "patriotic" gangsters took the opportunity to make trouble, smashing and robbing foreign shops in groups.

The foreign businessmen and foreigners who settled in Tianjin were too scared to go out at home because they thought of the "Nanjing Incident" that year.

The consuls of various countries in Tianjin couldn't bear it anymore. Foreigners complained to the Ministry of Industry Bureau every day, and officials from the Ministry of Industry Bureau clamored for the consul to solve the problem every day. The senior officials of the Nanjing government are all in Luoyang, and the rest don't care about their affairs at all. This situation cannot be settled for a while.

In the next few days, telegrams flew all over the sky among the three cities of Tianjin, Nanjing and Luoyang, and all parties were in a hurry.

Chang Kaishen attached great importance to this, and ordered the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to send a commissioner to solve the problem again. At the same time, he ordered the Tianjin Municipal Government and the Municipal Party Department to stop the foreign-expelling activities, and the public auction plan for the tram business was immediately put on hold.

Under the coordination of the Tianjin Municipal Government, various industries in Tianjin no longer went on strike, but the demonstrations could not be banned. Tianjin Tramway Company wanted to re-lay the railway tracks, but it was just laid on the first day, but it was found to be gone the next day, so they had to send people to guard the tracks 24 hours a day.

Fan Benke, the general manager of the tram company, ran around, and finally someone gave him advice: "If you want to solve the problem, you have to find Mr. Zhou."

Van Benck rushed to visit with gifts, but he didn't even see Zhou Hexuan. He only got a reply from his servant: "I'm sorry, Mr. Zhou went to Luoyang for a meeting, and he won't be able to return to Tianjin for at least a week."

Fan Benke's lungs were about to explode, and he threw all the gifts he brought into the Hai River, immediately attracting several passers-by to jump into the river to fight for it.

People from Tianjin who know a little bit about the inside story now give Zhou Hexuan a thumbs up in advance: "Mr. Zhou is from Tianjin!"