Warlords: Rising from the Northwest Border and Sweeping Across the Powers

Chapter 384: Su Zhengyang's Attitude: Foreigners Have No Privileges

Looking at Ye Bufan who was talking eloquently, Su Zhengyang showed a hint of appreciation and applauded him.

"Very good, Minister Ye. It seems that you have made excellent use of your talents in this position and have not let me down."

From the large amount of documents and materials prepared by Ye Bufan, it can be seen that this person has put a lot of effort into how to solve the current financial crisis in Northern Xinjiang.

Ye Bufan said solemnly: "The president has made me a clerk who was almost fired from public office and now the deputy minister of the Ministry of Finance. Naturally, I will do my best to work for Northern Xinjiang. These are what I should do."

"In addition, nowadays, most of the wealthy families, gentry and merchants in the Northern Frontier, from Beilong City to the local areas, have done more or less immoral things. The president should have confiscated a large amount of financial resources from the local areas. In fact, for some mistakes that are not serious, the president does not need to take too tough measures. If these people unite and become desperate, it will also be a big trouble."

"The president can propose to use a high fine to make up for their mistakes. While making them bleed, they will also be warned. These wealthy merchants will definitely be more restrained in the future. This is a good thing that kills two birds with one stone. My Ye family is a merchant family in the capital, second only to the He family. We are willing to take the initiative to donate 200 million oceans in cash to the Northern Frontier government to make up for some of our past mistakes."

Su Zhengyang looked directly at Ye Bufan with a smile on his face, his expression becoming more and more appreciative.

In fact, the reconstruction and accountability of the local government system this time can be said to be a case of pulling out radishes and bringing out mud. I don't know how many landlords and gentry with dirty bottoms have been confiscated. Now, the financial proceeds from the confiscations have not been officially transported to Beilong City for statistics, but it is conceivable that the number will definitely be extremely shocking.

But as Ye Bufan said, once Su Zhengyang's methods are too harsh and cruel, it will backfire and cause joint resistance from the landlords, gentry and businessmen. When necessary, some conciliatory policies must be adopted. The suggestion put forward by Ye Bufan is very good. In this way, for those bourgeoisie who have not made too many mistakes, using money to exchange for their own new life is not an unacceptable thing.

The rise of capital has always been naked and bloody. If you really want to be serious about it, I am afraid that no one or force with big business has a clean bottom.

Ye Bufan not only proposed the most reasonable solution to Su Zhengyang, but also erased some of the Ye family's past dark history. From this, we can see that Ye Bufan is definitely an extremely smart person, ignorant of worldly affairs, and does not understand the ways of the world. It's just that he disdains to go along with those people. Geniuses have always been lonely.

After having an in-depth conversation with people from the Ministry of Finance for three hours, Su Zhengyang immediately called Yan Shuangying and people from the Ministry of Commerce and the Taxation Bureau.

At this time, Su Zhengyang sat on the sofa in the office, lit a cigarette, and said to the people in front of him while puffing out smoke: "Today, I saw a detailed financial report from major foreign companies. The figures on it are simply shocking. However, these foreign chambers of commerce and companies seem to have given us no respect while making a lot of money on our land. As the dominant regime in the entire northern border of China, we can't even collect reasonable taxes. This is simply a naked irony and insult."

Yan Shuangying's eyes flashed. He knew his leader's character very well. He never compromised with anyone or any force. He had a tough temper and dared to face any difficulties. This was the essence of Su Zhengyang.

It seems that Su Zhengyang is extremely dissatisfied with the privileges of foreigners and is ready to take action against them.

Xue Xiao, the Minister of Commerce, said thoughtfully, "President, what do you mean?"

Su Zhengyang's face was serious, and he said firmly: "I can't tolerate this kind of thing happening. From today on, I will take back the privileges of these foreigners. Many foreigners lived as third-class citizens in their own land, but when they came to China, they suddenly became upper-class citizens. I must solve this problem. Not only will I make them pay taxes regularly every year, but their business taxes will even be 20% higher than those of our local chambers of commerce. They will also have to make up for the taxes they didn't pay in the past! I called you here to let you come up with a reasonable solution."

The director of the Taxation Bureau, Xu Song, frowned and said, "Mr. President, in order to obtain short-term technical, financial, and military equipment support, the Northern Frontier government signed the so-called Beijing-Hong Kong Agreement with France, England, the United States and other powerful countries. The agreement has clear clauses that all foreign companies headquartered in the concession do not have to pay any commercial taxes. Even companies with foreign shares can enjoy a 70% tax exemption. If we now openly violate the treaty and collect commercial taxes from foreign companies, I am afraid it will cause dissatisfaction among these powers and will also have a major impact on our international reputation."

Su Zhengyang put out his cigarette and sighed leisurely. From the current perspective, the Beijing-Hong Kong Treaty signed by Yang Jiakai, Duan Jinshu and other leaders of Northern Xinjiang with the Western powers was undoubtedly a very stupid and far-sighted decision. But from Yang Jiakai's perspective at the time, you can't blame him. At that time, Northern Xinjiang was fighting fiercely with the declining Shuiqing Empire government. With the strength of Northern Xinjiang at the time, if they wanted to win in the end and stabilize the situation, they could only rely on external forces and sign unequal treaties in exchange for support. It had become their only choice at the time.

The difficulty lies in the fact that if I want to clean up their mess and solve the current situation, the difficulties I face are definitely beyond my imagination.

Su Zhengyang may not care about the bad reputation he carries, but with the development of Northern Xinjiang, the unification of the entire Chinese regime is a foregone conclusion. Such a blatant violation of the treaty must not be done lightly, otherwise China will lose its credibility in the international community.

Su Zhengyang said slowly: "I asked you to come here to ask you to come up with a plan on how to change the status quo without violating the treaty. If these parasites sucking blood from China don't pay the price they deserve, I, the President of Northern Xinjiang, will be unable to sleep or eat."

Su Zhengyang's words made everyone present silent. They could certainly understand what Su Zhengyang meant, and even felt the same way as Su Zhengyang, but it was extremely difficult to change the status quo in a short period of time.

After a moment's silence, Yan Shuangying was the first to speak: "Perhaps, we can cause trouble for these foreign companies from other angles and force them to voluntarily give up their privileges. For example, the French Trading Company, although they are not blatantly selling opium in the land under the jurisdiction of the Northern Frontier, they use Jinggang City as a transit station, storing a large amount of opium in warehouses and selling it to the territory of the Southern Government and those small countries in Southeast Asia to make huge profits. They even openly sell arms, which is obviously a violation of the rules. We should be able to make a fuss about it."

Xue Xiao shook his head and said, "The concession is almost equivalent to their territory. Their warehouses are also located in the concession. We have no right to search and confiscate their warehouses."

Su Zhengyang pondered for a moment, a gleam of brilliance flashed in his eyes, and after extending his right hand and tapping the table, he said solemnly: "No matter what, we must solve this situation. The method proposed by Director Yan may be a breakthrough."