Nanyang 1931: From piglets to giants

Chapter 238 Troublesome Nuclear Physicists

In fact, if possible, Zheng Yi didn't want to charge Kiichiro Toyota too much. To be honest, 300 million was a bit too little to buy 30% of his shares and ask him to go public and relocate.

But Zheng Yi really had no other choice. He had too many places to spend money, and there were too many companies that wanted to buy shares at a low price.

Mitsui, Mitsubishi, Kawasaki, Nissan, Panasonic, Solstice, NEC, Isuzu, Hino, Yamaha, Nikon, Yawata Steel Works.

He wants all these companies.

The Southern Association for Regional Cooperation actually doesn't have much money now, and his own money didn't come from the wind. After the Second World War, no one was rich. After the relocation of so many factories, he still had to provide three connections and one leveling, and even take care of the employees' living quarters. There were many places where money would be needed for subsequent development.

For each company, Zheng Yi asked for 30% of the shares, and also offered land as a stake, plus a portion of the shares for public offering in Singapore. The conditions were exactly the same as those for Toyota.

Although the valuations given by different companies were different, the money Zheng Yi gave was basically the cost of their relocation and resettlement fees.

To put it bluntly, it's not much different from robbery.

Zheng Yi holds the power of life and death in his hands. The top executives of those companies, such as Kawasaki Heavy Industries and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, all have blood debts. They should be thankful that Zheng Yi did not send them to a military court.

As for the middle and grassroots levels, they are satisfied as long as the factory can get out of trouble and survive. They don’t rely on salary. They are satisfied if they can get some rice to survive and their wives and daughters don’t have to sell themselves to survive. It really doesn’t matter who the boss is now.

People only have messy worries after they are full. As for the current situation in Japan, anyone who can feed a stutterer will do anything.

Even so, you have to wait for the treatment that Zheng Yi believes is only given to Japanese companies that have not committed direct war crimes or whose crimes are not too serious.

The senior executives of Sumitomo were offered shares for free, but Zheng Yi refused them and was determined to bring all of their senior executives to a military court.

Then it is impossible for him to be partial and only rob others but not Toyota.

Because of Toyoda Risaburo, Toyota is already very special among all Japanese companies. If it becomes more special, it will be disadvantageous to Toyota itself.

The factions within the SAARC are very distinct. As Japanese expatriates, it is impossible for the Toyota brothers to truly integrate with the Chinese. They can only play with the Japanese.

Toyota's current influence and personal relationship with Zheng Yi are enough to ensure that they can sit firmly on the throne of the Japanese overseas Chinese. If they are treated differently again, it would be too much. Those Japanese overseas Chinese may not recognize them as representing their interests, which will not be good for them.

The acquisition itself went very smoothly. He negotiated with all the companies and consortiums that he liked one by one. Zheng Yi didn't ask for much, just 30%. As for raising funds through listing, these companies also needed to raise funds through listing if they stayed in Japan.

Add to that some miscellaneous small and medium-sized enterprises, and although it was almost like robbing them, Zheng Yi still spent more than 40 million US dollars in one go after collecting all of them.

Most of these companies are going to move to Singapore. Since Zheng Yi left, Qian Qiwen has been in charge of Singapore personally. She is very busy now. Leveling the land and preparing water and electricity alone is already a huge project.

The relocation of so many factories and infrastructure construction all cost money. SAARC basically does not make money from real estate, so it also has to prepare dormitory buildings for these relocated workers.

Singapore's economy has become completely lively and revitalized as a result. Various construction sites have sprung up like mushrooms after rain, even more so than when Penang first started its large-scale construction.

But the money has been spent a lot. It is estimated that the investment in this part of infrastructure will definitely not be less than 100 million US dollars, and it is very likely to be more than 200 or 300 million.

Singapore, which was recently taken over from the Japanese, can be said to have gained a lot of money this time.

In addition to automobiles, Zheng Yi also divested all shipbuilding businesses from Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, and Mitsui Heavy Industries, and planned to merge them with the original shipbuilding and ship repair factories of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), start from scratch, and establish a new shipbuilding group in Singapore.

However, it was Zheng Yi himself who was in charge. Of course, he was so busy that he was just in charge in name only, but the specific affairs were jointly managed by Chen Liushi and Li Xiaoshi, which shows how much Zheng Yi valued this factory.

The shipbuilding industry tests a political system's most comprehensive mobilization capabilities.

To some extent, Zheng Yi can also be considered a believer in Keynesianism.

Among the cities in the Southern Association for Regional Cooperation in the future, Penang will use the financial industry, petrochemical industry, precision manufacturing, and equipment manufacturing as its main economic pillars, and the remaining low-value-added factories will be relocated as far as possible.

The city is already too crowded, like Hong Kong Island in later generations. This is totally unnecessary.

Singapore's main pillar industries are automobile manufacturing, mechanical processing, shipbuilding, and job-transfer trade. If shipbuilding can be achieved, he also plans to expand the shipping industry.

Zheng Yi planned to move Yawata Refinery and most of the heavy industries to Yangon. Yangon's pillar industries in the future were steel smelting, food processing, and textiles.

The three major cities serve as the pillars of the entire SAARC, and this pattern remains unchanged.

Other cities serve as supplements, such as Bandar Seri Begawan. There’s nothing much to say about it, it’s just about drilling for oil.

Pattani's main industry is agriculture.

In Alor Setar, small light industry and service industry are the pillar industries.

Singkawang, oil, tobacco, sugar, and timber.

Several cities together form a relatively complete industrial chain.

More than 40 million US dollars is undoubtedly still a drop in the bucket for Japan's current economic gap, but all the companies in which Zheng Yi has invested have at least regained their vitality.

After these companies got some money, they basically paid the workers' wages as soon as possible. The workers finally felt a little more at ease and began to prepare for moving.

Business owners of all sizes from the Southern Alliance swarmed over after Zheng Yi finished talking with the big boss.

Zheng Yi ate the big fish, while the others ate the small fish. Everyone was excitedly gnawing on the half-dead fish from Japan, especially the Japanese in Penang. All of them were eating with their mouths full of oil, but most of them were much more ferocious than Zheng Yi.

Moreover, after Li Xiaowu and others brought a large number of Chinese business owners from the Southern Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), they did not just take the opportunity to purchase Japanese companies, but simply launched a large-scale recruitment campaign.

Japan's most valuable asset before the war was the basic education that had been popularized since the Meiji Restoration. The illiteracy rate in Japan was 0%, and there were abundant talents with high school education and above, and basic technical workers trained by various vocational colleges everywhere, which were almost inexhaustible.

Business owners in Southeast Asia, long plagued by a shortage of skilled workers, were overwhelmed by the sheer number of skilled workers. Regardless of the shortage, they rushed to sign the right person, regardless of whether there was a suitable position. Technical secondary school and college graduates were considered precious in Southeast Asia, but in Japan at that time, they would follow you if you offered them a good meal.

Many people even took the initiative to find Zheng Yi and asked him to relax the recruitment of military talents. After all, there are many talents within the Japanese army. There are a large number of mechanics and drivers in the army, who are all technical talents needed by the Southern Association for Regional Cooperation.

The navy is even more so. Almost all the members of the Japanese navy are highly educated and each one is a talent. If Singapore wants to develop the shipbuilding and shipping industries, or even develop its own navy in the future, these experienced sailors will be valuable assets.

The flying squadron is even more so. Although the SAARC has no shortage of pilots, Japanese pilots are also talented, and most of them have university degrees. Who would complain about having too many talents?
Nanyang’s foundation is too weak. Its upper-level technology is quite good because of Zheng Yi, and some specific technologies are even world-class, but the real core part is really far behind.

However, Marshal Mai planned to hold the trial on Hirohito's birthday, and Zheng Yi agreed with this.

If a large number of talents were recruited from the Japanese army without waiting for trial, would some people escape trial?

Even if a trial is held, most of those on trial will definitely be military officers, and it will not have much to do with ordinary middle-level and grassroots soldiers.

But Zheng Yi still felt that it was too easy for those frontline soldiers to be recruited just like that.

There are also strong opinions within the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation on this matter. Even if Zheng Yi himself can let it go, he still has to consider public opinion. The current mainstream thinking in Southeast Asia is to accept the distinction between ordinary Japanese civilians and Japanese militarism.

But no matter how you look at it, the Japanese soldiers are just bastards with sins on their hands.

The matter came to a standstill, and Zheng Yi did not give a clear explanation to his subordinates, but he did not pursue it specifically either. Zheng Yi actually knew that there were quite a few business owners who secretly recruited these military talents.

cheap.

These people themselves knew that they were war criminals. Given the social status of Japanese soldiers returning from the front lines, which was despised by even dogs, the contract they signed was not much different from the one they used to use to buy piglets in Southeast Asia.

Many people believe that this harsh treaty itself is a punishment.

Even people like Du Yuesheng and Hei Gu Ren came, but they specialized in interviewing young and beautiful Japanese women in various romantic occasions.

Nanyang’s gap in this area is actually no smaller than the gap in skilled workers.

Human trafficking is certainly illegal, but as long as these women actively cooperate, there are actually countless ways to get them to Southeast Asia, such as labor immigration and marriage-based immigration.

As long as they can go to Southeast Asia, these Japanese girls will agree to any conditions.

Zheng Yi doesn't care much about these things. Even if some Chinese people in Japan act arrogantly or do some bad things, he is too lazy to pay attention. This is what the Japanese deserve.

Even these things are not a big deal in Zheng Yi's eyes. The war criminals that are currently giving Zheng Yi the most headaches are not in the army.

After acquiring major companies such as Toyota, Zheng Yi has been busy acquiring Japan's real foundation, the real cornerstone of Japan: the education system.

The most important ones are of course the universities in Japan, including Tokyo Imperial University, Kyoto Imperial University, Tohoku Imperial University, Kyushu Imperial University, Hokkaido Imperial University, Osaka Imperial University, and Nagoya Imperial University. Zheng Yi took the trouble to run around them one by one.

I personally visited every expert, every professor, and every scholar here and shook hands warmly, even professors of liberal arts were no exception.

But he was determined to get rid of every professor.

only………

"Mr. Yoshio Nishina, Mr. Shin'ichirō Tomonaga, Mr. Hantaro Nagaoka, Mr. Hideki Yukawa, you say you are all... war criminals? Aren't you all scientists? Why are you war criminals?"

To be precise, they are all potential war criminals, after all, their trial has not started yet.

Yoshio Nishina: "Hey! I am indeed one of the main war criminals. Yukawa Hideki, Nagaoka Hantaro, and I worked together on nuclear physics in the latter stages of the war, attempting to build an atomic bomb for the Japanese. Although we did not succeed, our crimes were truly heinous."

Zheng Yi: “…………”

"Where's Mr. Tomonaga Shinichiro?"

Tomonaga Shinichirō: "I also participated in the development of nuclear weapons, and... I also researched radar for the Japanese military government. I'm truly sorry!"

As they spoke, several people knelt down and kowtowed to apologize to Zheng Yi, all of them showing their extremely sincere repentance, but the smiles between their eyebrows were clearly no longer concealed.

It's clearly saying: Save me, save me, save me.

Is it because they hope to use Zheng Yi's influence to remove them from the list of war criminals?

In fact, it is normal to think about it. These people are the best scientists in Japan at that time, all of them are Nobel Prize level. During the total war, everything in the country and society serves the war, and scientists are naturally no exception.

Of course, the top scientists have to serve in the research of the top killing weapons. This is normal.

It’s just that these guys kept touching nuclear weapons before they were defeated, which is very troublesome.

Americans are very wary of nuclear weapons. As the saying goes, an innocent man is guilty of possessing a treasure, not to mention that Japan is a defeated country.

Even if Zheng Yi said that he wanted it, General MacArthur would definitely say: What do you, a non-state actor, need nuclear experts for?
Americans also want talents of this level. Even if these people are listed as war criminals in history, it is impossible for them to be imprisoned or shot.

Those who took advantage of others to rob others were later sent to major research institutes in the United States.

If Zheng Yi wants it, to put it bluntly, he has to compete with the United States for people.

How to grab it?

(End of this chapter)