Chapter 85 first quarter

Europeans call the area east of Europe "East".The one that is close to Europe is called the "Near East"; the one that is neither far nor near is called the "Middle East";East Asia and Southeast Asia are the Far East. In the Far East, there is such a place: it is right in the middle of the east coastline of the East Asian continent, behind it is a Yangtze River that traverses almost the entire land of China, and its surroundings are the fertile and rich Yangtze River Delta, backed by the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River Plain, a land of fish and rice ——God almost concentrated the most favorable conditions here.

This place is Shanghai, a giant oriental city that developed into the "Capital of the Far East" during the Republic of China. More than 6,000 years ago, the west of Shanghai had become land; after Qin Shihuang unified the six countries, he established Kuaiji County in the south of the Yangtze River, and Shanghai belonged to Haiyan County in Kuaiji County; during the Sui and Tang Dynasties, the small fishing village Shanghai was subordinate to Huating County, Suzhou Prefecture; Song Shaoxi three years (1192) ), a town was set up in Shanghai, named after the small river "Shanghai Pu" in the area of ​​today's Shiliupu, and the official place name "Shanghai" appeared; County, Shanghai County belongs to Songjiang Prefecture of Jiangsu and Zhejiang Provinces.

Shanghai, with its unique conditions, is developing gradually.Before the Tang Dynasty, there were only a thousand residents in today’s Shanghai area; when the Song Dynasty established Shanghai Town, the population reached 100,000; by the Yuan Dynasty, there were 37 towns in Shanghai County, with 72,502 households and a population of more than 300,000; during the Hongwu period of the Ming Dynasty, The county has a population of 520,000, equivalent to a medium-sized county today. We have the impression that after the Opium War, when the Qing Dynasty was forced to open Shanghai as one of the five treaty ports, Shanghai was still a "small fishing village".This impression is not accurate. In 1842, Shanghai had a population of 230,000, making it the 12th largest city in China.

For a closed feudal empire, Shanghai was just a "remote" coastal area, and the feudal dynasties did not pay special attention to it, and it was even the focus of prevention of the "maritime ban".But Westerners who regard the world as a game of chess are amazed and coveted this place. As early as 1756, Big Valley of the British East India Company suggested to the British government that Shanghai should be occupied; in 1832, East India Company staff Lindsay and Missionary Guo Shila came to Shanghai and found that 400 merchant ships berthed in Shanghai within 7 days. After returning to China, they immediately publicized that Shanghai was the best trading port after Guangzhou.

In 1842, the Qing government, which lost the Opium War, signed the Sino-British Treaty of Nanjing with Britain, opening Guangzhou, Fuzhou, Xiamen, Ningbo and Shanghai as treaty ports. After this epoch-making war, China entered modern times from ancient times, and Shanghai was also forcibly incorporated into the colonial system of Western powers. From an ordinary coastal city, it became the place where China is most advanced and fully integrated into the world's economy and culture. Westerners are well aware of the extraordinary potential of this land and give it special favor. In November 1845, the first foreign settlement was created in the north of Yangpidbang and south of Lijiachang. In 1845, the British Concession was established; in 1848, the American Concession was established (the Anglo-American Concession was merged into the Public Settlement in 1893); in 1849, the French Concession was established.By 1899, the public concession had expanded to 33,500 mu, roughly equivalent to six times the area covered by Tsinghua University today; in 1914, the French Concession had also expanded to 15,150 mu, equivalent to more than three times that of Peking University today.

Backed by the whole of China, facing the vast ocean, and bathed in the European wind and rain, Shanghai quickly exerted great energy. In 1880, the population of Shanghai exceeded one million, and soon surpassed Beijing, becoming the largest city in China; in the fourth year of the Republic of China, that is, in 1915, the population of Shanghai exceeded two million, becoming the first megacity in China with a population exceeding two million; Nanjing National Government In 1927, when it was established, Shanghai had a population of 2.64 million; in the 1930s, in 1930, Shanghai’s population reached 3.14 million; by the end of the Republic of China in 1949, Shanghai’s population was more than 5.4 million, and it was the second largest city in China and the No. Tianjin, a major port, has only 1.9 million people.

This gigantic city is the bridgehead for the imperialists to invade and infiltrate China economically and culturally.Against the background of the general isolation, depression, and backwardness in the old China during the Republic of China, the prosperous and advanced Shanghai is still a myth that is fascinated by some places in the mainland, even Taiwanese. In 1933, Shanghai’s industrial capital accounted for 40% of the country’s total industrial capital, its workers accounted for 43% of the country’s workers, and its industrial output value accounted for 50% of the country’s industrial output value. In 1936, Shanghai's total trade value accounted for 75.2% of the country's total!Moreover, Shanghai's film production, book publishing, newspaper distribution, entertainment and other industries rank first in China.

Shanghai was China's industrial and commercial financial center, cultural and educational base, sea and land transportation hub, social consumption gathering point in the Republic of China era, and also the number one economic and trade city in the Far East.Tokyo, Hong Kong, Seoul, Singapore, and Taipei, which are famous today, were far behind Shanghai at that time.Comparing Hong Kong, the "Pearl of the Orient" today, with Shanghai in the 1940s is said to be like comparing Yinchuan with Shanghai today! Such a prosperous old dream has been left in the memory of a generation, so that when Pudong was developed in the 1990s, someone suggested a slogan of "reviving the glory of Shanghai in the 1930s"; Shanghai dominates the splendor of the Far East.

Old Shanghai had a developed economy, rich culture and full of foreign style.In addition to these, if you want to ask what are the outstanding features compared to other regions, it is: chaos in law and order. Since the end of the Qing Dynasty, the feudal society declined, Western powers invaded, and traditional China transitioned.Due to population growth, arable land and productivity did not increase accordingly, western industry and commerce infiltrated, and handicraftsmen went bankrupt in large numbers, a large number of farmers and handicraftsmen rushed to the metropolis Shanghai to find a living, and businessmen from all over China and even foreign countries came to Shanghai one after another in search of opportunities. However, the city expanded rapidly in a short period of time, unable to absorb such a large population, a "vagrant class" was inevitably formed.

The so-called "homeless class" refers to people who live in the city but have no funds, no skills, and no social connections. They cannot settle down in the city and can only wander around waiting for slim opportunities.The number of these people is extremely large. From 1930 to 1936, the unemployed population who lived in Shanghai for a long time was between 600,000 and 700,000. The vagrant class has nothing to offer, struggling on the line of food and clothing or even death, and being strongly tempted and stimulated by the luxurious life of this prosperous city every day, it is very easy to develop hatred and rebellious psychology.Whether it is economic conditions, or environmental and psychological factors, it is very easy to embark on the road of crime.The underworld organizations that have become so popular in old Shanghai have grown and grown based on this vagrant class.

The law and order in old Shanghai was highly chaotic, and there was another important reason: the municipal administration was not unified and the city could not be managed effectively. Shanghai was divided into three parts by the Chinese Concession, the Public Concession and the French Concession.These three areas are not affiliated with each other. In the urban area of ​​60 square kilometers, there are three governments, three sets of legislatures, three types of judicial and police teams!Everyone can't cross the border to enforce the law. For example, if you rob something in the Chinese border and you are chased by the police, you will be caught. As long as you run to the border street and plunge into the concession, even if the police take a step, they can grab your clothes. He also had to obediently put his arms around and stop, turn around and go back to his police station, and then the police station would come forward to contact the concession police to discuss cooperation in the arrest. It has two meanings to say that old Shanghai was an "adventurer's paradise". One is to engage in business and trade, where there are plenty of opportunities, as long as you are capable enough;There are many bandits and bandits, and the regulation is not effective. Therefore, behind the bustling and bright, criminal activities such as theft, robbery, fraud, and drug trafficking are happening in Shanghai Bund non-stop. Among all kinds of criminal activities, the one with the least cost, the greatest profit, the lowest risk and the most serious harm is the kidnapping that was once popular in Shanghai. The so-called kidnapping refers to the criminal activity of targeting rich people, kidnapping and imprisoning them by means of violence or deception, and then threatening their life safety to extort money from their relatives or related persons.In Shanghai, a kidnapped person is called a "meat ticket". After kidnapping, negotiating with relatives about the terms of the kidnapper's redemption is called "talking about it." Of course, there is no exact figure on how many kidnappers in Shanghai engaged in this crime. It is recorded that from 1909 to 1928, the police in the public concession arrested 1,598 kidnappers. The data of 1922, 1923 and 1927 are still missing. ! Kidnapping must be done in gangs, and some gangs specializing in this field have gradually formed.Most of these gangs are linked by their hometowns. The most famous ones are Shengxian Gang, Pudong Gang, Shaoxing Gang, Subei Gang and Hubei Gang. The kidnapping gang is well-organized and has a single-line connection; gang members are paid monthly regardless of whether they have tasks or not; inquiring about internal affairs is strictly prohibited and discipline is strict; the leader has a legal or even decent identity cover, and his whereabouts are secretive.Their levels are generally: boss, manager, associate, member, and the basic organizational unit is the "team". Each of these "gangs" has its own leader. In the 1920s and 1930s, Yuan Zhongzhu, the leader of the Shengxian Gang, was the most active. He committed crimes everywhere and harmed all directions, and he was known as the "true devil king". The boss, who has been working for 8 years and never misses, he is strict in action, ruthless, and will tear up votes immediately if he fails to achieve his goal. Relying solely on civil criminal gangs, no matter how powerful they are, they cannot overwhelm the sea in Shanghai.Behind them is the connivance and protection of the astonishing Qinghong gang. At the same time, these gangs are inextricably linked with the military, police and higher-level officials.Behind the kidnapping claws is a dense and complicated network of interests. How many people have been kidnapped and blackmailed is also a number that cannot be counted. Only from 1928 to 1930, thousands of people were kidnapped in Shanghai. Several major newspapers reported no less than 30 cases per month, with an average of one case per day, sometimes several cases per day! The targets of kidnapping are generally wealthy businessmen, officials in the field, and reclusive wealthy families.So far we know of some influential celebrities who have been kidnapped: Rong Desheng, Chairman of Rongshi Group, Fang Yexian, General Manager of China Chemical Industry Association, Wei Rongting, General Manager of Sino-French Bank, and Lu Yunzhi, Chairman of Silk Industry Bank , Zhu Chengzhang, general manager of China National Commodity Bank, Yan Yutang, general manager of Guangyu Company of Cotton Iron Group, Zhang Yuanji, chairman of Commercial Press, Fan Huichun, "Diamond King", Tang Baochang, "Hardware King", Wen Zongyao, former teacher of Beiyang Anhui Department, former Qingsu Changtai area Yin Qichen, the inspector of money and grain, is the 8-year-old son of a former governor of Guangdong... Here we focus on the kidnapping process of Rong Desheng, Zhang Yuanji, and Fang Yexian. The three kidnapping cases that shocked Shanghai and even the whole country have different methods, different processes, and different endings. They basically cover all kinds of kidnapping cases in Shanghai. crime characteristics.