In this way, surrounded by the Japanese army, everyone was trapped on an "isolated island".

The area of ​​the "island" is only as far as the range of machine gun bullets, but the crisis is as vast and terrifying as the East China Sea.

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

So, waiting for the war to subside, the Paramount Ballroom and Phoenix City Casino became crowded!

Some rich people spent a lot of money in Phoenix City while they were not dead yet, gambling all night long.

Some poor people have no tiles on top and no needles on the bottom, and they can't even eat. They can only sit under the eaves on the street on the cold nights, begging while waiting to die.

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

The Qin family was the richest man in the Republic of China and had a great reputation.

As the eldest young master of the Qin family, if he stays in the Qin Mansion and encounters Japanese spies assassination, what do you think he should do? If he demonstrates his skills and kills him in a big way, wouldn’t it be known to everyone? It violates the purpose of low-key?

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

Although the Qin family grain store withdrew the eastern granary, it did not include the Magic City.

Qin Di had long reserved 800,000 tons of grain in the concession.

Instead of coming forward in person, he found hundreds of people from Du Yuesheng and set up a porridge shed on the streets of the Demon City to provide each wanderer with a bowl of porridge.

On a cold night, Qin Di and Yan Xue's words were written as "Yan Xue" and saw a long queue near the porridge shed from afar.

Many people have been placing their families and have been queuing for a long time just to make a bowl of white porridge.

The white porridge is hot, and it is drunk in the mouth and warms the heart.

A disaster victim boldly asked: "Whose porridge shed is this?"

The Qing Gang disciples will lead: "It's still necessary to ask? Of course, it is the richest man in the Republic of China, the Qin family, otherwise who would have such financial resources to set up two hundred 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, and then to Gexian Xue Xiangwan, every mistress has a great compassion! Although they left the Lemo Capital, their hearts were thinking about this..."

Some of the victims were excited and simply knelt on the ground and kowtowed: "Thank you, great charity, Guanyin Bodhisattva, I hope the Qin family will live a hundred years of long life!"

Yan Xue saw that there were too many people queuing up, and some children's faces were red with cold. They felt both distressed and helpless. They couldn't help sighing: "Winter just started, with so many refugees in the concession, what should we do in the future?"

Qin Di said: "No matter what, it's a day to hold on for more than one day, and one is a day to save one. As long as you survive this winter, your life will be better later."

Yan Xue asked: "Sir, does the Demon City still have a chance to recover?"

Qin Di nodded and said, "Yes, the demons will not only not decline, but will enter into a deformed prosperity!"

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

Just when the smoke of artillery fire had not yet dissipated, the prosperous ghosts were resurrected in the ruins and corpses. By the end of 1938, the total number of production and newly built factories in the concession reached more than 4,700, more than twice before the war. In 1939, 1,705 new factories were established. Among them, the traditional textile industry recovered the most rapidly. According to the survey of the Fabric Factory Interbank Association, by 1939, 823 new weaving, dyeing, weaving and hand weaving factories were established in the concession, 23,200 new cloth machines were added, and 1.42 million cotton cloths could be produced every day and night, and the profit of the factory was two to three times that of the pre-war period.

Why does this phenomenon occur?

There are multiple reasons for this: First, the population surges, the demand for living materials increases, and the consumer goods market will expand accordingly; second, the concentration of population provides sufficient cheap labor for the industry in the concession, which is conducive to the resumption of work and production of the industry. The expansion of production scale in turn stimulates the raw material market; third, it is also the most special point. The concession is the only "non-war zone" on the southeast coast of China. The flow of people and business flow naturally gather here, which inspires a different kind of excitement.

The concession is a small place where all the raw materials produced need to be outside, while all the goods produced need to be outside. Therefore, its prosperity depends entirely on the changes in political situations in Asia and even the world.

So what is the external political situation?

Let’s first look at the attitude of the National Government. Magic is the only legal channel for the import of industrial raw materials and equipment. The economy of the rear is completely serving 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 is 230 million, and 1.6 million spindles were required to start production. The maximum number of spindles in actual operation was only 175,000. The missing cotton yarn and cotton cloth each year were 120,000 pieces and 4 million pieces of cotton yarn respectively. Most of these materials depended on the supply from the Magic City.

Looking at Japan's attitude, on the one hand, the Second World War had not yet broken out, and Japan still maintained diplomatic relations with Britain and the United States, so it dared not openly attack the concession; on the other hand, Japan is a country where war resources are basically unsupportive, and its heavy industry requires all oil, iron sand, copper, etc., and even cotton, wood pulp, sulfuric acid and other industrial raw materials need to be imported. In this case, the "isolated island" of the Magic City became a transit market for Japan to obtain, transport strategic materials and embezzle foreign exchange.

Therefore, the Japanese army implemented a "peaceful blockade" on the concession, which only prohibited the maritime transportation of Chinese ships. Although there were frequent obstacles to third-country ships, they did not completely prohibit entry and exit. Before the outbreak of the Pacific War, nearly 60% of the tonnage of ships entering and leaving the Port of Magic City belonged to third countries outside China and Japan. Of course, the Japanese also knew that a considerable number of them were Chinese ships with foreign flags.

Finally, look at the attitudes of European and American countries. With the tension in Europe, economic wars were launched between countries. Germany destroyed the British maritime transportation lines everywhere. The British and French groups and Nordic countries also imposed trade blockades or restrictions on Germany. In this game, the UK regarded the Magic Capital as a market source for raw materials and animal products. Germany also used the Siberian Railway to transport pigment drugs, hardware machinery, chemical products and other commodities to Shanghai in exchange for urgently needed materials.

It is precisely because of this subtle and unique fate that the "isolated island" was tolerated. Just at the end of 1937, after the war between China and Japan, European and American ships had resumed shipping on the Beiyang and Yangtze River routes. By June of the following year, the Magic City reopened direct liners to European cities such as London and Marseille, and basically returned to pre-war levels by October, and domestic routes were reopened one after another. The Magic City quickly restored its status as a national trade center.

Before 1942, Britain and the United States' investment in the Concession Area of ​​the Magic City accounted for 72.6% and 64.9% of their total investment in China.

The recovery speed of the "isolated island" economy was amazing. In January 1938, the number of workers in the factories in the concession was 31,900, which increased to 130,700 in April, and by the end of the year to 230,000. Knitting factories of all sizes and large and small, and flour mills work overtime day and night, but still cannot meet the market demand, and the profits are frighteningly high.

Taking the knitting industry as an example, the profit of thread socks is 37.2%, wool socks is 62.6%, and sanitary shirts is 79.2%. This high industrial profit saved many refugees and also brought a large amount of surplus to various enterprises. Taking the Rong family as an example, there are two textile factories in Shenxin 2, Jiu Factory and three flour factories in Fuxin 2, Qi and 8 Factory. The profits far exceed those before the war. Shenxin 9 Factory alone made a profit of up to 10 million yuan in 1939. The Rong family paid off all the huge amount of debts before the war. Rong Desheng was still in 1939 and initiated the organization of Guangxin Bank Company to invest in banking business, becoming a veritable wealthy in Shanghai.
Chapter completed!