Chapter 55 Seizing Vehicles

Walking through the Yangtze Rickshaw Firm’s Yuyuan Road base, Chen Guangliang was in quite good spirits.

For the time being, this location managed seventy rickshaws and two hundred ten pullers, overseen by managers He Xiangdong and Zhou Xinggao.

In addition, Chen Guangliang had dispatched his second uncle, Yang Qingshan, to take charge of the "Commodity Wholesale Department" here.

With the Yangtze Rickshaw Firm now boasting one hundred seventy-five rickshaws and a total of five hundred twenty-five pullers, all these men had to purchase their goods from Chen Guangliang before going out to pitch to customers. From this revenue stream alone, Chen Guangliang personally netted around three hundred silver dollars each month, which was a very substantial sum.

Furthermore, Chen Guangliang held equity in about sixty-seven of the one hundred seventy-five rickshaws, translating to a monthly rental income of roughly seventeen hundred silver dollars (excluding Project F). Once Project F’s installment payments for the rickshaws were fully settled, Chen Guangliang’s rental earnings would actually rise to over nineteen hundred silver dollars per month.

Even calculated at his current earnings of two thousand silver dollars monthly, he was expected to completely pay off his debts and interest in ten months.

Of course, this calculation assumed "no further business expansion," whereas in reality, Chen Guangliang would definitely continue to expand the firm.

While it appeared he still needed ten months to clear his debts, his net worth was already remarkably impressive.

The value of the sixty-seven rickshaws stood at twenty thousand silver dollars, and the two plots of land were worth ten thousand silver dollars.

Against liabilities of eighteen thousand three hundred fifty silver dollars, his net worth had already reached ten thousand silver dollars.

It was truly considerable!

"Second Uncle, are you getting used to things here?"

Sitting behind the counter of the Commodity Wholesale Department, Yang Qingshan stood up with a smile and said, "How could I not get used to it? The work now is easy, and my salary has been raised to twenty silver dollars. Where else could you find such a wonderful arrangement?"

He generally stayed at the Yuyuan Road base, occasionally going home to sleep on workdays, but otherwise living right here.

His nephew had also granted holidays to both shops—they remained closed on Sundays. The manager of the shop in Fangguan Nong was his cousin Yang Xiuying, whose salary was also twenty silver dollars.

All these funds were paid out of Chen Guangliang’s own pocket.

"If any puller dares to slack off or play tricks, just let Zhou Xinggao know and have him deal with them!"

"Alright... though everyone has been quite well-behaved."

Rickshaw pullers were by no means uniformly honest; in fact, the majority of them were unruly.

They merely behaved themselves out of awe for the Yangtze Rickshaw Firm and Chen Guangliang.

Back when the Yangtze Rickshaw Firm first opened, it took the imposing presence of Chen Guangliang and Zhou Xinggao to keep the pullers in line.

Case in point: after the head of the Wang Rickshaw Firm passed away and Li Yan took over, she was bullied by the pullers right from the start, forcing the business to suspend operations for an overhaul.

Shortly after.

Having inspected the work of He Xiangdong and Zhou Xinggao, Chen Guangliang prepared to return to Fangguan Nong with a satisfied mind.

Whenever he traveled now, he also took a rickshaw, often hiring one exclusively for himself.

Sitting in the rickshaw, Chen Guangliang gazed at the surrounding land, his eyes revealing a hint of yearning. If he had more capital, he would definitely invest in the plots of land on both sides of Yuyuan Road; the appreciation potential here was undoubtedly immense.

First, land located within the foreign concessions' "road-building beyond settlement limits" areas was a more worthwhile investment than land in the Chinese-administered districts.

Second, Yuyuan Road was close to Jing’an Temple Road (South Jing’an West Road), and Jing’an Temple Road ran directly into South Jing’an East Road, making transportation very convenient.

These two factors alone indicated the strong appreciation potential of the land here.

Money, oh money!

Unfortunately, even the upcoming dividends (at the beginning of October) had already been pre-allocated by Chen Guangliang.

As for what he currently had on hand, it was merely a little over a thousand silver dollars—far from enough to buy any land.

...

In the blink of an eye, October arrived.

The Yangtze Rickshaw Firm was about to welcome another round of dividend distribution, and all the shareholders were naturally waiting in eager anticipation.

"Boss, something’s happened! One of our rickshaws has been stolen!"

Lin Feng rushed into the office with a battered puller in tow to report the news.

Chen Guangliang sprang to his feet and demanded, "Do you know who took it?"

The beaten puller had his face bruised and swollen into the shape of a pig's head.

Yet, ignoring his injuries, he blurted out, "Early this morning around five o'clock, I saw someone who looked like... and then suddenly a hood was pulled over my head, and they gave me a vicious beating. I almost passed out, and by the time I managed to take the hood off, they had already run off with the rickshaw... Boss Chen, I really didn't lose the vehicle on purpose. I always keep within arm's reach of the rickshaw..."

Chen Guangliang immediately soothed him, saying, "As long as you are telling the truth, we will track down the culprits. Try to recall yesterday's events again, and tell me everything you know clearly and in detail!"

"Yes, yes..."

After listening again and confirming that the puller's story remained consistent throughout, Chen Guangliang pulled out three silver dollars and said, "Go get some liniment for your injuries and take time to recover. We will investigate this matter thoroughly."

"Thank you, Boss Chen."

Gratefully taking the money, the puller was just about to head out when he suddenly turned back and said, "Boss, the people who know me are basically all from the Han Rickshaw Firm. Ever since I came to Shanghai, I've only ever worked at their firm."

Chen Guangliang nodded and said, "Mm, that is useful information. If you think of anything else, come back and tell me!"

He also suspected that the culprits were the five rickshaw firms that had caused a scene at the Yuyuan Road base last time, as he had recently crossed paths with them.

Moreover, this kind of targeted theft meant the perpetrators must know the puller; otherwise, if they had stolen from someone connected to a major mob boss like Gu, they would simply be asking for trouble.

Thus, the five firms could easily identify which rickshaws belonged to the Yangtze Rickshaw Firm based on the pullers who had defected to them.

Lin Feng reminded him, "Boss, should we report this to the police right away?"

Chen Guangliang countered instantly, "Have you figured out which project this rickshaw belonged to?"

Lin Feng quickly replied, "It was a vehicle from Project E."

Chen Guangliang fell into deep thought. If they reported it to the police, it might not achieve the best results. In this era without surveillance cameras, how could it be so easy to investigate and solve?

"Go do three things immediately: First, arrange for the pullers who came over from the Han Rickshaw Firm to mobilize their connections and quietly inquire among the pullers inside the Han Rickshaw Firm about our missing vehicle (which has a license plate). If you find anything, do not alert the enemy—report back to me immediately."

"Second, invite Mr. Li to come over if he has some free time."

"Third, invite Inspector Gao to come over if he has some free time."

Lin Feng immediately replied, "Understood, I'll get right on it!"

From beginning to end, Chen Guangliang never mentioned going to the police station to file a formal report.

After all, since he already knew people in the police department, why bother going through the trouble?

Once Lin Feng left, Chen Guangliang tapped his fingers on the desk and pondered the situation.

If this really was the work of the five rickshaw firms, they shouldn't be too audacious; it was likely just meant as a warning to him.

Because of this, Chen Guangliang remained quite calm and collected, far from panicked.

Furthermore, he had already devised a countermeasure: he had to hit one of these firms hard enough to truly deter the other four.

...

Looking at the recovered rickshaw, Han Yanbao laughed and said, "It's still practically new!"

A gangster accompanying him chimed in, "Ninety percent new at least."

Without missing a beat, Han Yanbao said, "Then rent it out! Don't let it go to waste!"

From start to finish, he hadn't taken the matter seriously at all.

In his view, amidst the vast sea of streets, rickshaws all looked essentially identical—how could anyone possibly tell them apart?

"Alright... Boss, should we go steal a few more? We can guarantee our work will be clean and neat!"

Han Yanbao actually liked the idea, but remembering how Chen Guangliang was acquainted with quite a few officials during the rickshaw base's opening ceremony, he decided against making things too big.

Stealing one was enough to give Chen Guangliang a taste of trouble.

Besides, if four rickshaw firms each stole one, that would be four vehicles worth twelve hundred silver dollars. For the Yangtze Rickshaw Firm to suffer such a heavy loss should be painful enough for them.

"No rush. We need to give the Yangtze Rickshaw Firm a warning shot first. If they lay low afterward, we'll let them off; if not, we'll continue to deal with them."

"Understood."