Chapter 266 Don’t be shameless
After Zhang Dayong and others said goodbye, Lou Bancheng suddenly woke up and realized that he had forgotten to ask someone to pour tea.

Watching them leave on their bicycles, Lou Bancheng frowned, quickly returned to his study, made a few phone calls, and after a few brief conversations, made an appointment to meet.

The venue was arranged to be Le Songsheng’s house in Nanchizi.

When Lou Bancheng got out of the car, there were already several cars parked on the side of the road, and he went straight in.

In the living room as soon as you enter the courtyard, Le Songsheng, Liu Yuchen and others sat on the left and right, with unhappy looks on their faces, sipping tea silently.

It was dull and depressing. No one in the living room spoke. They just lowered their heads to drink tea or stared at the patterns on the teacups from the late Qing Dynasty, lost in thought. The air seemed to be stagnant.

Except for a few polite words from Le Songsheng's concubine and the maid who brought tea, the living room regained a bit of life.

Half an hour later, the victims of the theft came one after another and brought in a few more chairs, filling both sides of the three-room living room with people. The living room gradually became buzzing with noise.

Until then, Le Songsheng, who was sitting in the main seat, glanced around and coughed lightly, and the living room suddenly fell silent again.

He spoke slowly. Although his voice was not loud, it was loud enough for everyone to hear. He said, "I believe everyone knows why we have called everyone here this time. All of you here are leaders in industry and commerce in Beijing. The loss from this sudden theft is also very large. The American banknotes that we spent half our life's wealth on are gone in one day."

"But!" He raised his voice suddenly: "I don't want anyone to make malicious assumptions about the government!"

His eyes slowly swept across everyone's faces, especially the few businessmen who had just said something irrelevant and whose words involved the government, and they lowered their heads silently.

Le Songsheng retracted his gaze, took a sip of tea, and continued, "The reason is simple. If the government doesn't follow the rules, they can just confiscate all the money without notifying us instead of converting it into the third edition of RMB to be issued and depositing it in the bank for us."

"But President Le! We lost a lot of US dollars! Even if we exchange them, we should exchange them at the market price, right? But the government strictly gives us the official exchange rate. The money has shrunk by more than 10 times in an instant!" Some businessmen could not sit still and stood up directly, retorting indignantly with tears in their eyes: "What's the difference between this and robbery?"

“That’s what I mean.”

"Everyone knows that in the Hong Kong market, it takes about 100 old coins to exchange for 1 US dollar."

Suddenly the living room was buzzing again.

"Bang, bang!" Le Song fiercely slammed the table twice with his palms, staring sharply at the businessman who stepped forward, and asked with a fake smile: "Is it wrong for the government to return the money to you?"

Le Songsheng pointed his finger toward the door and said sternly, "Well, leave here now and go to the city government and the government affairs office to get the US dollars you lost!"

"President Le, I am."

"Don't worry, I can't stand you calling me president!"

Seeing the businessman standing up and muttering twice before sitting down reluctantly, Le Songsheng's expression improved a little. He felt that his deterrent power was enough and the other party had to respect him.

Whether it is respecting myself as the president of the Beijing Federation of Industry and Commerce, or as the vice chairman of the CPPCC.

He stood up from the main seat, walked to the center of the living room, sighed deeply, and said with a hint of loneliness: "Is your loss greater, or is our loss greater?"

"The average loss of our families is more than 100 million US dollars!" He pointed at himself, Le's eldest son, Liu Yuchen, Lou Bancheng and others.

"But we still have to be honest. The government did not hold us responsible for hoarding foreign exchange. Doesn't the government know where the US dollars in our hands came from? If we really want to investigate, we can't avoid the charge of smuggling. People like you and me will inevitably go to jail."

He sighed again and said, "That's why I want to advise everyone. Now that things have come to this, let's just let it go and swallow our anger. We still have to look forward. There's suddenly so much more money in the bank? Is that a good thing?"

"Especially you, Brother Yuchen. There are no private banks now, pawnshops have been abolished, and usury is illegal. Do you think that the government will not keep an eye on you if you suddenly have such a large amount of money in your account at the Bank of China?"

Lou Bancheng had been drinking tea silently before, and Le Songsheng's words really touched his heart. He glanced at Liu Yuchen from the corner of his eye. Among these people, only his family was not engaged in industry. Before liberation, they first ran a bank, and later opened a pawnshop and engaged in usury. After liberation, they transformed themselves into underground money houses, taking a 20% commission to help people exchange US bills.

He secretly guessed that the amount of US dollars Liu Yuchen lost this time was at least not less than his, and might even be more. In this case, the Liu family's deposits in the Bank of China must be more than 3 or 400 million.

He didn't run any business, so how to spend the money was definitely a problem for him.

But if he keeps lying around on the accounts. Hehe, the street office, civil affairs department, and industry and commerce department will probably go to his house every day to do work for him.

Socialist transformation?
At this time he heard Le Songsheng also mention this.

"Everyone knows that I persuaded the four branches of the Le family to submit Tong Ren Tang's public-private partnership application to the government in August this year." Le Songsheng straightened his back and a hint of complacency appeared on his face. "I won't hide it from you. Dividends are paid once a quarter. Guess what?"

"It's actually more profitable than when we first started running our own business, twice as much!"

"Is this true?" The living room was suddenly filled with buzz again.

"President Le would not tell lies."

"So, Tong Ren Tang, how many millions can the Le family alone earn in a year?"

"It's pretty close."

This time, Le Songsheng did not stop the discussion. When the voices gradually died down, he continued, "Socialist transformation is the general trend. As a vice chairman of the CPPCC, I often attend national meetings and I know this very well."

"What is socialist transformation? It means to eliminate private ownership and truly achieve the goal of everyone working and everyone being equal."

Seeing that everyone was concentrating on listening to him, Le Songsheng nodded secretly, tapped his chest, and said, "I have visited the Soviet Union with the real boss. According to the theories of Marxism-Leninism, people like you and me belong to the exploiting class and need to be overthrown."

"But how has the government treated us? Everyone has seen it. Even if it is a public-private partnership, the government does not take away the shares for nothing, but uses real money to redeem them, which is guaranteed to be no less than the capital we put into our business!"

"I can continue to work as a manager with a high salary, and I can also receive dividends for 10 consecutive years. The government treats us very well! We still have pensions when we retire, so we can live a peaceful old age!"

"I don't know what others do, but our Le family is going to invest the extra money in the bank account into Tong Ren Tang. This will show the country that we are actively cooperating with the reform and gain obvious benefits, such as CPPCC members. In addition, we will only make money if we take into account future dividends."

"What do you think?"

The many businessmen in the living room looked at each other, no one spoke, no one stepped forward, and it was obvious that they were still very resistant in their hearts.

Le Songsheng looked around and sneered twice: "Don't be so shameless!"

"To put it bluntly! Grain, cotton, and oil are now purchased and marketed by the Supply and Marketing Cooperative. After the establishment of the Supply and Marketing Cooperative, all future supplies will have to go through the Supply and Marketing Cooperative."

"Tong Ren Tang now has to go through the supply and marketing cooperatives to purchase Chinese medicine. How can you do that?"

"The government is giving you face now, but you don't want to take advantage of it. Are you going to wait until the section chief of the supply and marketing cooperative signs the paper to distribute the materials before you tighten your grip a little more?"

"Don't forget, everyone. We will have to change to new currency next year."

Finally, Zhang Senlong, the owner of the southern-style food store Daoxiangchun and Senlong Restaurant in Dong'an Market, stood up and said, "President Le, I am willing to cooperate with the government in public-private partnership!"

(End of this chapter)