Danny Gold

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Narrator

Carvana.com April 11, 1927 Shanghai, China's largest and most prosperous city, divided, run by gangsters and under siege. For a year, Nationalist troops under Generalissimo

Sean Williams

Chiang Kai Shek have fought their way

Narrator

along the country's eastern seaboard, dispatching warlords that have seized control from China's weak Republican government. Chiang is backed by the Soviet Union,

Danny Gold

but he's no leftist.

Narrator

In fact, his so called Northern Expedition has also targeted Communists, threatening to emulate their Russian counterparts and turn China red. The Communists, Chiang says, are a disease of the heart, and he intends to cut that disease out by any means possible. By March 1927, Chiang has reached the gates of Shanghai. But Shanghai is a different prospect altogether. A metropolis teeming with industry, trade unions and Communists outside the city's French Concession and International Settlement, its two foreign enclaves, Chinese Shanghai belongs to the Reds. Chiang's men are tired and war weary, underpaid.

Danny Gold

Some of Them were recruited from vanquished warlords.

Narrator

Chiang doesn't know how loyal they'll be when it hits the fan. And besides, Shanghai's City Council has made it clear that no Chinese troops will

Danny Gold

step foot foot on Shanghai's soil.

Narrator

Thousands of students and workers are out on the streets protesting, demanding that Chang step down, gather his men, turn around and get the hell out of Dodge. Even a victory under these conditions, Chang knows, would be Pyrrhic, if not pointless. He needs an inside man, somebody with clout, money and men. Somebody who can mobilise an army inside Shanghai, kill commies and pay authorities to

Danny Gold

look the other way.

Narrator

As Chang stalks the city's edge, an old friend pays him a visit. It's Huang Jinrong, mobster, pimp and greybeard of the Green Gang. A few years previous, Huang was the top dog in Shanghai's underworld. Ruthless and cunning, with a past as potted as his pockmarked middle aged face. But Huang is here to pass Chiang a message from the man who has overtaken him in the Green Gang.

Sean Williams

Du Yue Sheng.

Narrator

Big ears Du, the lanky leader of Shanghai's opium scene. Multimillionaire, casino magnate, business impresario, political big hitter. Du has decided that China's future lays with the Nationalists and Wang tells Chang he's ready to help cash to Chang's ailing men, the backing of Shanghai's merchant class, foreign weapons and a gangster militia ready to break the Reds. In return, Du tells Shang, you will remember me when you take Shanghai. Chiang agrees. Huang heads back into the French Concession and tells Duke Doo, then mobilises his Green Gang mobsters into an army packing arms and munitions purchased from his French and American friends. By April 11, they're poised to launch a full scale mafia insurrection. To ease the task, Du invites the leader of Shanghai's biggest trade union to

Danny Gold

his home for dinner.

Sean Williams

It'll be better for your union and

Narrator

your health, doo advises the man, if you switch allegiances to changing and his Nationalists. The man demures. Du leaves and heads upstairs to smoke opium. As he does, a pack of mobsters

Danny Gold

seize the unionist and beat him repeatedly,

Narrator

sending him to the floor, crushing his

Danny Gold

body beneath their boots.

Narrator

Dew reappears at the top of his grand staircase, surrounded by a trail of sickly opium smoke. Not here, he tells his men.

Danny Gold

Not in my house.

Narrator

The mobsters stop the beating, grab the man and wrap him in a burlap sack. Then they drive him outside the French Concession into a clearing and ignoring his desperate pleas, bury him alive. It's a gruesome merciless message from DU to Shanghai's leftists prepare for war. The Green Gang is coming to take over the entire city. This is the Underworld Podcast.

Sean Williams

Hello and welcome to the weekly podcast about organized crime hosted by two journalists have been in the field and spoke to scary people irl. I'm Sean Williams, a British reporter living in Buenos Aires. I'm so. I'm sorry.

Danny Gold

To those who just want more. Dale, I am back.

Sean Williams

My co host of course is New York City's World cup loving host. What attending? Enjoying.

Danny Gold

Yeah, that guy, Danny Gold. Why don't you tell me what it was like at the World cup final, you lovely man.

It was, it was festive. I learned they play halves, they don't play quarters, which is really interesting to. I did a bunch of, I did, yeah, it's true. I did a bunch of bits about not knowing anything about, about soccer to piss off people like you. And it worked out really well. Kind of, kind of a boring game, but I got some VIP access so there were some really good snacks. And the Argentinians like their, their cheering section was, was loud there. The, the best moment I think of the entire match was there was guys in a guy in a Mexico jersey for some reason Mexican fan, and he was getting into a fight with about 20 Argentinians. Towards the end of the game it got calmed down by the, by the New Jersey state troopers and then a guy from like 20 rows away from him also in a Mexico jersey was just like, hey, Viva Mexico. And they had like a nice little moment and that was, that was pretty much the highlights of it. But yeah, my, my messi. To score two goals in the final match bet did not pan out unfortunately. You know, what can you do?

You gotta, you gotta shoot to score goals. And I don't think what today, one shot. It was terrible.

Yeah, they were too busy beating up the, the Spaniards.

Sean Williams

Yes, that's true. But they've done that the entire tournament and I'll say no more.

Danny Gold

I'll probably go off on one at some point when I've got more energy.

Sean Williams

Yeah, I have not been at the World Cup. I've been somewhere slightly less, well, can I say less exciting. It's exciting in a way. There's a reason that I'm wearing my

Danny Gold

son's like audiobook headphones to record this show and that is because I just got back off three.

Sean Williams

I would say of the most devastatingly

Danny Gold

disastrous weeks of my entire life in

Sean Williams

Cuba, um, within the last like sort of seven days actually. I'm gonna just Extend that out. So the last 11 days, I've been beaten, robbed.

Danny Gold

Um, I've.

Sean Williams

Well, that included landed in a pile

Danny Gold

of dog, dog mess. Uh, then I got dengue, which I currently still have, which is no fun.

Sean Williams

And while I was away, my partner

Narrator

managed to move houses.

Danny Gold

So I'm sitting in an unfinished house, very tired, riddled with dengue. And thankfully, I've got some of my stuff back. But, yeah, it's. It's.

Sean Williams

It's been. It's been tough. Someday I'm gonna face down my trauma

Danny Gold

on this show, and you can hear the whole grizzly tale. But don't go to Cuba, folks. It is not. Is not good for your vacations, I think.

Yeah, yeah, we were whatsapping the entire time, me, you, and Dale. And at the risk of letting the banter continue on and on forever, I'll just say that you were descending into madness. I. Day after day after day. You could actually publish those WhatsApp chats. It was very like a Colonel Kurtz kind of moment. You know, I could just see you slowly losing your mind. If you would stay there for longer, you might have formed your own militia and just sort of like become a roving warlord of sorts. Maybe like a Haiti situation. But, you know, it reminds me I've had a couple experiences like that where you're kind of losing your mind. It's not always. The most dangerous place, I think for me was Central African Republic and burundi for like three weeks during the election there in 2015. I think the actual thing that makes you lose your mind, besides like, the violence and the chaos and the lack of infrastructure, is the humidity. Like, I've been in similar situations in.

Narrator

In.

Danny Gold

In the Middle east and drier countries, but you throw the humidity in and you just start descending into, like, you just start losing your mind, would you say? I mean, would you say that was part of why you were just completely going bonkers and I was actually starting to worry about you a bit?

Sean Williams

I would say I went about as

Danny Gold

close as to native as you could get. Surrounded by mosquitoes in a, like 95% humidity room with no fans, no power, no water, watching the neighbors slowly go twisted as well and just sort of running around in my wife front screaming like mine. Sheen.

Sean Williams

Yeah, so it was.

Danny Gold

It was pretty weird.

Sean Williams

And yeah, given that I got sort

Danny Gold

of bitten about, I don't know, like 10,000 times by mosquitoes in that epoxy room, I'm lucky that I don't have more than dengue, but dengue's not.

Sean Williams

Not much fun as me and my

Danny Gold

family are finding out because I am useless right now.

Sean Williams

But let's see if I can make

Danny Gold

it through the next, what, 45 minutes to an hour.

Sean Williams

You got this without passing out?

Danny Gold

It's 50 50.

Sean Williams

Anyway, yes, quick reminder, just follow us on all socials.

Danny Gold

We got loads of shorts and other stuff daily Patreon. I'm really going to get back on that now. I'm in Buenos Aires so I'm going to be doing more bonus interviews. Got show notes ad free ad free episodes.

Sean Williams

And yeah, further down the line you might even get the chance to name

Danny Gold

my next child through the Patreon.

So give that a look patreon.com podcast or sign up on Spotify or on itunes.

Sean Williams

That's correct. Underworldpod.com underworldpod.com for merch and get in touch because we love you and we

Danny Gold

get loads of really cool tips these days. Anyway, yes, that is enough of that. Danny's had a good time, I've had a bad time. Let's move on to the show.

Sean Williams

I told you that this three part

Danny Gold

was crazy and as you've probably surmised from the cold open, it's going to get a lot lot crazier. Guys.

Sean Williams

In part one we dove into the

Danny Gold

childhood and young career of Duyue Schweng when he was an orphan and then

Sean Williams

he was a gambler. Then he was a fruit stool worker and pimp, and then member of the shadowy Green Gang and finally ruler of

Danny Gold

Shanghai's lucrative opium market.

Sean Williams

Now despite being a low caste peasant, Du has glommed on to Green Gang leader Huang Jinrong and his Madame wife

Danny Gold

to become a Klee player in the underworld.

Sean Williams

And we left part one with dude bailing out the flailing Republican Chinese government to pay a mountain bandit a couple

Danny Gold

of million dollars for hostages that the

Sean Williams

bandit had taken during one of the

Danny Gold

era's most daring train heists. If you haven't already listened, probably go back and do so. Today's show will make a lot more sense, including why I actually went to Cuba. It wasn't for fun, but by doing this do Big Ears do is firmly

Sean Williams

ensconced in the firmament not just of Chinese organized crime, but also big business and polit. He's a hero.

Danny Gold

Not all heroes wear capes, but yeah, some have massive ears and smoke dope, just like Dumbo.

Except I think he was more of a drinker, right? What was he drinking? He was drinking booze or drinking liquid lsd, something like that.

Everyone Dumbo gets all yeah, moonshine. He's a vicious drunk as well. Horrible guy. Yeah.

Sean Williams

Around the same time, DO has managed to wrest control of Shanghai's booming opium

Danny Gold

trade from a rival Green Gang faction

Sean Williams

called the Big 8 Mobile by uniting the city's disparate gangsters and turning opium

Danny Gold

merchants against the Big Eight Mob's increasingly cruel bosses.

Sean Williams

And this is a black market worth tens, if not hundreds of millions of dollars. But before we take off from there, we really need to understand a bit

Danny Gold

more about the history of Shanghai, how

Sean Williams

it was divided and how that lent

Danny Gold

itself perfectly to a sprawling criminal network like the Green Gang.

Sean Williams

And we're going to get into the history of opium in China. Wars, concessions, and how prohibition and legalization

Danny Gold

help spur the rise of Duyue Schweng into one of the world's most powerful gangsters.

Yeah, I actually want to do an Opium wars episode one of these days. Maybe after, I think, reading Bertill Lintner's book, which gets into it a lot. But, yeah, definitely. Definitely something there for sure.

Yeah. Just don't ask him for help, because he is not gonna help you anyway.

Sean Williams

Let's do this. Shanghai. In case you don't know, this means

Danny Gold

literally, city on the sea.

Sean Williams

And that is where it is at the mouth of the mighty yangtze with

Danny Gold

the 3,400mile river meets the Pacific Ocean.

Sean Williams

Shanghai does have an ancient history, and by the 16th century, it's home to around 200,000 people wealthy enough to be targeted by Japanese pirates and bandits from the Chinese interior, which is when inhabitants build a city wall with six gates, a tiny bit of which still exists today. But Shanghai becomes a global city only

Danny Gold

in the middle of the 19th century,

Sean Williams

and only then because of opium and the British. Yes, my people are behind yet another

Danny Gold

tale of crime and destruction.

Sean Williams

Used to blow up entire Chinese cities,

Danny Gold

and now we stick firecrackers up our asses at football matches. How the mighty fall.

Oh, come on. You don't have to do the self aid here, man. What would the Gallagher. What would the Gallagher brothers say? You know? Come on.

Yeah, okay. We're great. Yeah. Yeah. We should have won that game. That was. That was awful, man. You should have been seeing us yesterday.

Because I could have sung if I was at the game. I know the lyrics to Wonder. I don't know any Argentinian songs. I know the lyrics to Wonderwirl. I could have sang along with you guys. Would have been fantastic.

You know it would.

Sean Williams

And did you see that third, fourth playoff game?

Danny Gold

That was insane.

Narrator

Yeah.

Danny Gold

Cause it was like the NBA All Star game. No one Played defense, everyone.

Benjamin Boster

Welcome to the I Can't Sleep podcast with Benjamin Boster. If you're tired of sleepless nights, you'll love the I Can't Sleep podcast. I help quiet your mind by reading random articles from across the web to bore you to sleep with my soothing voice. Each episode provides enough interesting content to hold your attention and then your mind lets you drift off. Find it wherever you get your podcasts. That's I Can't Sleep with Benjamin Boster.

Danny Gold

Scored. It was great.

Beautiful. Good football.

Sean Williams

Anyway, yes, I'm determined to do a

Danny Gold

big show about the opium wars at some point.

Sean Williams

Remember them? Opium Wars?

Danny Gold

Yeah, we're talking about that. But for today's show, here is just a quick lowdown.

Sean Williams

Right, so in the middle of the 19th century, Britain, France, the US and

Danny Gold

other imperial powers are keen to grow their empires by forcing smaller nations to trade with them. They call it free trade at the time, but it's a lot more like gunboat diplomacy.

Sean Williams

Since 1757, China's Qing Dynasty, the dynasty that will fall in 1911.

Danny Gold

As Duyuexuang is coming up in the

Sean Williams

underworld, it decrees that only the city of Canton, which is modern day Guangzhou,

Danny Gold

will trade with the outside world, subjecting it to restrictions imposed by the government in Beijing.

Sean Williams

Britain calls this so called Canton system

Danny Gold

that uses it to work a canny three country deal.

Sean Williams

It ships Indian cotton and British silver to China and Chinese tea, plus some

Danny Gold

other stuff back to Britain.

Sean Williams

By 1800, British people have taken a

Narrator

liking to Chinese goods like porcelain, textiles, jade.

Sean Williams

And the trade balance is very much in China's favor. So Britain is having to pay for

Danny Gold

increased amounts of Chinese goodies in silver, which it doesn't much enjoy doing.

Sean Williams

So in the late 1700s, Britain tries

Danny Gold

to redress this imbalance by swapping the Indian cotton it's selling to China with

Sean Williams

India opium sourced by the British East

Danny Gold

India Company in its new colonies in Bengal.

Sean Williams

Within 20 years, the trade balance has reversed and the Chinese are now paying

Danny Gold

for opium, which their people really, really like in silver.

Sean Williams

But Danny, did you know there's actually a drawback in smoking opium?

Danny Gold

Sean, that's not actually true. And I don't like when you use the podcast to spread lies.

Okay, well, we'll get some fact checkers on that. Turns out the stuff is pretty Moorish, right?

Sean Williams

If you don't smoke it, you can suffer chills, nausea and cramps on your comedown. So you probably just smoke a bunch more.

Danny Gold

And when you do that, you don't

Sean Williams

do much of anything else.

Danny Gold

And when you Run out of cash

Sean Williams

to free your opium habit, you'll beg,

Danny Gold

steal and borrow to chase the dragon again.

Sean Williams

You know that feeling, right? I do.

Danny Gold

Whenever I fire up another Google Doc for the show.

Yeah. You know, people always want us to do some sort of live show or livestream. What's the thing that the nerds do? A twitch.

Sean Williams

Right.

Danny Gold

What if instead of writing an episode, we just smoked opium on Twitch, like on for like, you know, do it scream for like three, three days and just see what happens.

Sean Williams

Three days.

Danny Gold

Yeah.

Sean Williams

All right.

Danny Gold

Yeah, I'm up for will be.

Sean Williams

I don't know, I. I reckon it's going to be similar to dengue actually,

Danny Gold

but with slightly better highs.

Sean Williams

Anyway, the Chinese government realizes that this is becoming a problem, so it bans

Danny Gold

the production and importation of opium.

Sean Williams

By 1813, it has upped penalties for

Danny Gold

smoking the drug to 100 beatings.

Sean Williams

The British aren't fans of China's pesky

Danny Gold

concern for its citizens health.

Sean Williams

So it gets the East India Company to ship opium to China, park it off the Guangzhou coast and smuggle it

Danny Gold

onshore using a network of more than 100 Chinese smuggler boats.

Sean Williams

It's almost exactly like the rip on,

Danny Gold

rip off technique used by codecane cartels today. And it works.

Sean Williams

The Chinese keep getting high, albeit on the down low. And the Brits are making bank off

Danny Gold

their leading poppy based export.

So how come the Chinese aren't pumping you guys full of fentanyl? Like what did we do? You know what's, what's the problem here? You guys did all the, all the, all the, like reverse opium war should be against you guys, not us.

Sean Williams

Yeah, and they keep talking about it as well, so I'm not really sure,

Danny Gold

but I think we already have a pretty decent heroin epidemic. So maybe that, that is what I'm told is keeping that from the door.

Sean Williams

Yeah, but you get to have everything because it's America.

Danny Gold

That's true. We do like choices here.

Yeah, yeah.

Sean Williams

To counter all this, the Chinese emperor cracks down increasingly hard on opium sale and use. In 1836, he decides to shutter opium

Danny Gold

dens and execute Chinese dealers.

Sean Williams

Three years later, a Qing dynasty official

Danny Gold

writes a letter to Queen Victoria of Britain. What you are doing is immoral. He tells her. Presumably she claps back. What?

Sean Williams

And then he goes through a list

Danny Gold

of about a thousand things the British are doing before they get to opium. Ah, yes, that. Victoria replies. Probably. I think we'll keep doing that.

Sean Williams

The official steps up his anti opium campaign. He arrests over 1600 dealers and demands

Danny Gold

the Brits turn over their opium suppliers in return for tea. A good cuppa really hits the spot, but not quite like an opioid. The Brits refuse.

Sean Williams

Then the Qing seize opium on those British ships moored off Guangzhou, destroy it, and persuade Portugal to expel British forces

Danny Gold

from their colony of Macaulay, forcing them over to the island of Hong Kong. This the British do not appreciate.

Sean Williams

I thought we were all about free

Danny Gold

trade, they tell the Chinese, fingers crossed behind their backs, of course.

Sean Williams

In 1839, after a short bout of failed diplomacy, The Brits dispatched 16 war and merchant ships, mostly from opium giant

Danny Gold

Jardine Matheson Company, which still exists, to Guangzhou.

So would you say with all those warships that the, the oceans had become battlefields?

I, I would, I would. You just dropped another like rap reference or have I did a.

No, it's a reference to Master and Commander, the Russell Crowe movie that I think it's Russell Crowe everyone loves, but I actually, I gotta be honest with you, dude, I thought it was good. I wasn't like, this is the best thing, I didn't love it.

You know, I still gotta watch that one.

Sean Williams

I feel like I had the chance

Danny Gold

to watch it on a Chinese flight recently, but it was all in Chinese,

Sean Williams

which is a shame. Cue almost three years of British bombardment

Danny Gold

and street fighting, at the end of which the Qing dynasty signs a punishing surrender treaty to quiet the cannons. China agrees to do the pay Britain huge reparations because of course give it first look on opium deals ahead of any other country.

Sean Williams

Then something called extra territorial territoriality, meaning that any British citizens in China are

Danny Gold

subject to theirs and not Chinese law. Then you've got British control over Hong

Sean Williams

Kong and four new ports besides Guangzhou

Danny Gold

where the Brits can import their dope, including of course Shanghai.

Sean Williams

In 1856, a second Opium War breaks out, this time between China, Britain and France. The Franco British forces capture Guangzhou outright

Danny Gold

and then they fight their way north.

Sean Williams

By 1860 they reach Beijing, the seat

Danny Gold

of Qing power, where the British High

Sean Williams

Commissioner tells troops to loot one of

Danny Gold

the city's ancient palaces.

Sean Williams

The Qing Emperor flees to Manchuria in northern China. The result of this second war is European nations carving up even more Chinese

Danny Gold

territory for their so called concessions.

Sean Williams

These are called the quote unequal treaties

Danny Gold

by historians and for very good reason.

Sean Williams

And my favorite fact from this period

Danny Gold

is that Qingdao of lager fame was a German territory, which is why Tsingtao beer tastes exactly like a German pilsner.

No way, that's crazy. What about like Beer Lao? Because that was always incredible to me. And it made no sense, sense that it was made in, in Laos. Like it had to have a sort of origin story like that.

No, it must do because I bet the Germans were there as well. I don't know, let's, let's figure this one out. But yeah, Qingdao. When you look at the city, it's got all these like wooden fronted buildings, like it's in Munich or something. And they make it due to the, the hop rule, which is what it's like hops, barley and water and nothing more. Anyway, yeah, little fact for the, for the pub there.

Sean Williams

The Opium wars are a huge part of China's modern identity and kicked off what today's Chinese Communist Party has called

Danny Gold

the century of humiliation.

Sean, is it true that you refer to your 20s as the Decade of Humiliation?

And 30s and 40s? Correct, yes, including my lovely orange headphones. Anyway, this century humiliation Chinese century alumiation makes a lot of sense.

Sean Williams

Britain bombed China into submission so it could keep getting the Chinese people high on dope. It's a pretty crazy moment in history, as one historian puts it. Quote, if you talk to many Chinese about the Opium War, a phrase you

Danny Gold

will quickly hear is luo hu diu yao aida. Yes, I know, Danny. Listeners don't speak Chinese, so I'm going to translate it for them now. Literally, if you are backward, you will take a beating.

Sean Williams

The Opium wars are the era when

Danny Gold

Shanghai gets split up into its three constituent parts.

Sean Williams

Britain and the US create the International Settlement, the French have their French Concession

Danny Gold

and the Chinese govern, or more accurately fail to govern, the millions of Chinese living outside these rarefied foreign enclaves.

Sean Williams

Almost all modern amenities come to Asia

Danny Gold

through the International Settlement and French concession. Gaslights in 1865, the telephone in 1881,

Sean Williams

the electrical grid in 1882, running water

Danny Gold

84 and tramcars in 1901.

Sean Williams

Banking, shipping, construction, and of course, pharmaceuticals flourish.

Danny Gold

And merchants from Europe and North America flocked to what has now become a bona fide boom town.

Sean Williams

Writes the New York Times.

Danny Gold

Quote, in its heyday, Shanghai was the place to be. It had the best art, the greatest architecture and the strongest business in Asia.

Sean Williams

With dance halls, brothels, glitzy restaurants, international clubs and even a foreign run racetrack.

Danny Gold

Shanghai was a city that catered to every whim of the rich.

Sean Williams

But poverty ran alongside opulence and many of the lower class Chinese provided the

Danny Gold

cheap labor that kept the city running.

To be fair, isn't that pretty much like every city?

Yeah, it is. Yeah, that's correct. I think it's more the glitzy stuff that, yeah, made Shanghai stand out.

Sean Williams

But anyway, we got into this a bit in the previous show, but basically each of Shanghai's three divisions acts independently of the others, meaning that enterprising gangs like the Green Gang can operate fluidly, paying officials in either division off against each other. And like state lines in the US, cops rarely cross. As late as the summer of 1925, there is still no phone line connecting

Danny Gold

the police of the French Concession with

Sean Williams

the International Settlement, writes Brian Martin, storyteller extraordinaire.

Danny Gold

If you remember last week's show, quote,

Sean Williams

Such a situation of divided and conflicting police jurisdiction allowed the gangsters to flourish

Danny Gold

and to extend their own organisational systems.

Sean Williams

They could set themselves up in one jurisdiction and conduct armed robberies, kidnapping and

Danny Gold

narcotics trafficking in the other two jurisdictions.

Sean Williams

And they could safeguard their base by bribing the local beat policemen and even

Danny Gold

relatively senior police officials.

Sean Williams

This allows certain Green Gang factions, like

Danny Gold

that of Du and Hwang and the

Sean Williams

Big Eight mob, to scale from piecemeal banditry to serious organized crime in just

Danny Gold

a few short years.

Sean Williams

For a while, they functioned like highwaymen, committing crimes in one part of the city, then retreating to lairs and hideouts in the no Man's lands between them.

Danny Gold

So it's basically like three massively wealthy, or maybe not massively wealthy because the people are poor, but with wealth being generated, massive wealth being generated, Border cities right next to each other. And like, I mean, you guys know how often we talk about border cities and the magic of them and for organized crime and smuggling and then you throw in this sort of like international port and it's just, it's a recipe for a good time, you know, and an insane underworld too.

Yeah, it is.

Sean Williams

And it's the only place on earth,

Danny Gold

I think, at the time that didn't need any kind of visa to live there. You could just rock up and then set up whatever you wanted there.

Sean Williams

So these gangs, they get bigger, they consolidate, and then they just discover, why bribe the cops when we can just become the cops? Authorities in all three of Shanghai's jurisdictions realize they can't contain the gangs by themselves. According to Brian Martin, quote, on the principle of using a thief to catch a thief, police forces recruited the most powerful and successful gangsters into their detective squads. These gangster detectives, in effect, were compradors of violence. In return for their assistance in maintaining order among the Chinese population, the authorities allowed them to continue with their own illicit rackets as long as they did

Danny Gold

not become too much of an embarrassment for the administration.

Sean Williams

Now this is probably most prevalent in the French Concession, where Parisian colonial bureaucrats

Danny Gold

are constantly terrified they'll lose control of

Sean Williams

their most valuable possession.

Danny Gold

In the Far East, Gallic paroxysms of

Sean Williams

paranoia sputter loudly enough that they'll make

Danny Gold

deals with anyone to keep the peace

Sean Williams

from threats, real or imagined, which leads them into the arms of the Mob. By the mid-1920s, this kind of cop gangster nexus has gone so far as to consolidate the Green Gang into three

Danny Gold

or four major groups, with members working

Sean Williams

as cops, running everything from pickpocket rings to opium trafficking, gambling dens and human trafficking networks. So tight is the Big eight mob's grip on Shanghai's Chinese area that one journalist at the time quips that, quote,

Danny Gold

almost every detective on the force had a criminal record.

Sean Williams

But the corruption doesn't even stop there, because foreigners have this special legal status

Danny Gold

where they can't be touched by Chinese courts.

Sean Williams

Gang bosses pay foreign consuls to get their nation's citizenship. One drug kingpin in the Chinese area winds up being half Chilean, while Duyuexuang

Danny Gold

manages to bag himself a Portuguese passport.

Sean Williams

But despite the brothels and casinos and docks and market stalls, the biggest criminal

Danny Gold

money spinner during this era is always

Sean Williams

opium, the narcotic that has fueled Shanghai's

Danny Gold

modern birth and its rise into a global city.

Yeah, I mean, that's crazy. Like, I obviously knew about opium use and the Opium War, but didn't know it really gave birth to Shanghai or modern Shanghai in a way that, you know, cocaine kind of does to Miami.

Sean Williams

Yeah, it's kind of like a chicken or egg thing.

Danny Gold

Like, was Shanghai a great place to process the. Because of the stuff that I just mentioned with the lawlessness? Or is the lawlessness because Shanghai was just this gigantic drug port?

Sean Williams

Either way, in 1912, the drug had been placed under international prohibition. But as with alcohol in the United States, this only serves to push the

Danny Gold

market even further underground, Quote.

Sean Williams

In both countries, Prohibition encouraged the growth

Danny Gold

of a vast illicit traffic that provided the economic basis for the development of organized crime in the major cities, writes

Sean Williams

Brian Martin, and helped to define the

Danny Gold

ways in which criminal organization interacted with the world of politics.

Sean Williams

By 1923, the year du Yue Xuan

Danny Gold

pays his whopping ransom to the trained bandits in Lincheng, opium addiction has grown

Sean Williams

so chronic on his home turf of

Danny Gold

the French Concession that French authorities decide to come down on it.

Sean Williams

They create an anti narcotics police squad

Danny Gold

and lead a call to relegalise the

Sean Williams

drug to take it out of the

Danny Gold

hands of Doo and his Green gang,

Sean Williams

Cronies So intertwined with officialdom is the

Danny Gold

Green Gang by this point, however, that

Sean Williams

many believe the gangsters are actually behind

Danny Gold

the push for legalisation. The plan has dropped, but opium dealing is chronic enough that it is sold

Sean Williams

in packets bearing the official seal of

Danny Gold

the Shanghai Bureau for the Prevention of Opium and Drug Smuggling. That ain't good.

Sean Williams

Neither is the fact that Shanghai's opium kingpins are now out trading on the

Danny Gold

open seas, especially the Big 8 mob,

Sean Williams

which is working alongside Japanese and Taiwanese

Danny Gold

mobsters to get opium in and out of China.

Sean Williams

By the mid-1920s, pretty much every factor

Danny Gold

of Shanghai's politics and geography has handed it to the Green Gang.

Sean Williams

And it's about to get a lot worse. Before we come back to that, though, you might have noticed I haven't much mentioned the name of Huang Jinrong, the Green Gang boss who'd handed Du Yuehuang

Danny Gold

his path within the organization.

Sean Williams

The King of Vice, whose wife has

Danny Gold

first taken a liking to Du's gambling den management skills.

Sean Williams

That's because in 1924, when du has risen almost to the top of the group and taken the Big Eight Mob's

Danny Gold

opium market, Hoang makes a mistake that will cost him his criminal status.

Sean Williams

See, Hwang is canny, but he's old school, content with his patch, happy to skim off his French Concession contacts and

Danny Gold

see the money roll in.

Sean Williams

But he's also sucker for a pretty lady, and he dotes on a popular local singer, showering her with gifts and even building her a theatre. One night that year, the singer invites

Danny Gold

Hoang to her mansion for an opera performance.

Sean Williams

Performance. She's caterwauling away.

Danny Gold

He's loving it.

Sean Williams

But also in the audience is the

Danny Gold

playboy son of a prominent warlord, and he's not liking the singer one bit.

Sean Williams

In fact, the young scion heckles her, boos her. Hwang is incensed. Sure of his own status, he commands several of his men to beat the

Danny Gold

playboy up and boot him out of the mansion. Job done.

Sean Williams

Only a few nights later, Hwang is taking in another performance when a gang

Danny Gold

of men burst into the theatre, run

Sean Williams

to his seat, hold pistols to his

Danny Gold

head and haul him off to a jail cell where they beat him nearly unconscious. The warlord's son has flexed his own influence within Shanghai. Now Huang is behind bars, battered and bruised. This would never have happened years previous.

Sean Williams

It's a sure sign that the Green

Danny Gold

Gang godfather is losing his touch not just to rival gangsters, but to Duy

Sean Williams

Xuen, writes Brian Martin.

Danny Gold

Quote.

Sean Williams

For years, Du had grown quietly frustrated

Danny Gold

at the unambitious pace of Shanghai's drug

Sean Williams

trade and realized that a sharp minded operator could transform the sale of opium,

Danny Gold

morphine and heroin in China's biggest drug market into a single fabulously profitable enterprise.

Sean Williams

Huang had always been too old fashioned

Danny Gold

to do it himself. Du was more progressive.

Sean Williams

Du pulls together an enormous wad of

Danny Gold

cash and bails his boss Hwang out of jail. Hwang has lost face.

Sean Williams

He might have been saved by Du,

Danny Gold

but in reality it's a quiet coup.

Sean Williams

The following year, a rival gangster pays French Concession authorities a bribe to boot

Danny Gold

Hwang from his prestigious position within the French police as Brian Martin quote the

Sean Williams

old man was relegated to the status

Danny Gold

of an honored elder, respected but powerless. Du Yueheng was now the real power in Shanghai by 1925, therefore, Du is at the very top of Shanghai's criminal tree.

Sean Williams

He's blasted the Big Eight mob. He's paid every cop and politician in town.

Danny Gold

He's got a Portuguese passport and he even toppled his former boss Hwang.

Sean Williams

It's at this point that he decides

Danny Gold

to strangle any opium rivals once and for all. Minting something called the Three Prosperities Company.

Sean Williams

It's so named for the triumvirate of

Danny Gold

Greengang greats that heads it up. But do. He is the king.

Sean Williams

On April 28, 1925 he makes a

Danny Gold

deal with French authorities to do the 1. Open a Three Prosperities Company opium warehouse in the concession.

Sean Williams

2. Double the concession's number of opium stores. 3.

Danny Gold

Pay a huge monthly fee that is bribe to French officials and 4.

Sean Williams

Ensure that if trafficking is conducted discreetly

Danny Gold

then no Three Prosperities member will face prosecution.

Sean Williams

In effect then, Du Yuexuang has essentially

Danny Gold

just re legalised the opium trade and monopolized the entire thing for himself.

Sean Williams

He's literally described in French documents as

Danny Gold

a quote opium importer.

Sean Williams

Despite that being an actual crime, within a year the Three Prosperities Company is

Danny Gold

making almost 60 million yuan in profit over a billion dollars today and running its own protection rackets for street level dealers.

Sean Williams

Folks in Shanghai come to know it

Danny Gold

simply as the big company and everybody is clear. Du is its top boy.

Sean Williams

Do is quote the chief loafer of the French Concession.

Danny Gold

An opium and arms smuggler writes a letter published in a local newspaper.

Sean Williams

He claims Portuguese citizenship and pretends to be immune from arrest in the French

Danny Gold

Concession for whatever he may do.

Sean Williams

It is strange that the Sin Wen

Danny Gold

Pao, a rival newspaper published his name as do someone instead of in full.

Sean Williams

I presume they know the character of

Danny Gold

the man and were afraid to print it for Fear of inviting trouble from Dew's loafer gangs.

So what does loafer mean in this context? Because he's definitely not. Not loafing. He's in fact he's very active.

Sean Williams

Yeah, he is incredibly active.

Danny Gold

But I think what they mean is it's just like another word for like ne' er do wells or baddies. I think they're just like, I don't like him, but yeah, I don't know. He's doing pretty well without them.

Sean Williams

But by this point, there is another

Danny Gold

issue for dude to contend with. And it's a far more zealous foe than any of the folks he's vanquished before. Whether it's former boss Huang, rival gangs, or the French authorities. The Chinese Communist Party or CCP, is

Sean Williams

only formed in 1921, and by 1924 it has under 10, yes, 10 members

Danny Gold

in Shanghai and only two of these are actual blue collar workers.

There's a shocker right there.

Sean Williams

Yeah. And neither of those two even worked

Danny Gold

in the city's cotton factories, which are by far the biggest employer of Shanghai's working class.

Sean Williams

But as trade unions play an increasing role in city life and their leaders increasingly view the Green Gang and its

Danny Gold

scrangle hold on industry as a blight, the CCP makes incredibly quick gains. One trade union leader named Li Li

Sean Williams

Sang decides he's had enough of do

Danny Gold

and his gang's tactics, writes Prime Martin.

Sean Williams

Quote, Lili San's premise was that the Green Gang was a degenerate form of

Danny Gold

secret society whose relationships with the workers were based solely on exploitation.

Sean Williams

Lee's pet hate is the Green Gang's use of a labour system called bagong,

Danny Gold

which is similar to the hawala system used today to tie poor laborers to work in Gulf nations like Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the uae.

Sean Williams

Most factory foremen and inspectors are on

Danny Gold

the Green Gang's books, keeping the poor in line.

Sean Williams

But that's not all. The Green Gang also views Shanghai's mills,

Danny Gold

factories and shop floors as vital recruitment

Sean Williams

pools, indenturing some of the poorest people

Danny Gold

in the city into gang life.

Sean Williams

Lee decides he's going to break the Green Gang by allying with its rank

Danny Gold

and file disciples and sowing discontent between them and their wildly rich bosses.

Sean Williams

He denounces do and others as capitalist stooges. And he has plenty of success. In February 1925, workers at a Japanese

Danny Gold

cotton mill run by the Green Gang go on strike. This is a really big deal.

Sean Williams

Up until this point, the Green Gang

Danny Gold

hasn't thrown its lot in with either

Sean Williams

the CCP or their arch Rivals the

Danny Gold

Nationalists, the Kuomintang led by Generalissimo Chiang Kai shek. But the 1925 strike convinces it to partner with the KMT and right wing anti communist groups.

Sean Williams

In fact, it mints a group called the Shanghai Chinese Chamber of Commerce. On the surface a guild that would

Danny Gold

protect the city's business interests but in

Sean Williams

fact it's a cover for Green Gang

Danny Gold

mobsters to break strikes, sometimes violently and to continue growing its drug empire.

Sean Williams

The CCP denounces the Chamber of Commerce

Danny Gold

as a quote gangster trade union. But the die is cast.

Sean Williams

Du Yue Sheng and the Green Gang

Danny Gold

are going to back the KMT against the Communists.

Sean Williams

We've mentioned Chiang Kai Shek a hell

Danny Gold

of a lot on this show Whether

Sean Williams

in relation to modern Taiwanese gangs or triads or the so called KMT Lost Boys who helped found the modern meth

Danny Gold

trade from exile in Myanmar.

Sean Williams

Chang himself military tough guy risen in

Danny Gold

the 1911 revolution and co founded the KMT. But Chiang's early years are patchy and

Sean Williams

there are some records suggesting he may even have been a Green Gang member in his youth. Whatever the truth, in 1919 when Chiang builds his Nationalist army in the south

Danny Gold

of China, it's Huang Jinrong who pays his travel expenses. And Chiang will never forget the favour.

Sean Williams

Of course, throughout this period Shanghai's big

Danny Gold

business is still dominated by its foreign inhabitants. 23,000Americans, British and French and 14,000 Japanese. More on the Japanese next episode.

Sean Williams

As I mentioned at the top of

Danny Gold

this show, these folks live separately from their Chinese neighbors.

Sean Williams

They make deals in gentlemen's clubs and on casino floors and they actively keep

Danny Gold

the locals away from their profits. Writes one journalist at the time. The British in particular believe that quote, the Chinese were a low dirty mongrel

Sean Williams

race that they should be everlastingly grateful

Danny Gold

for being booted around by the extremely superior British.

Sean Williams

And how what the Chinese really needed

Danny Gold

was the firm British government to guide them.

Sean Williams

Hear, hear. What? Oh chap.

Danny Gold

And all that honking bowhat wearing nonsense. Anyway, in March 1925 Chinese revolutionary hero Sun Yan Yat Sen dies and Chiang Kai Shek he becomes leader of the KMT by May that year thanks in

Sean Williams

part to the CCP and their friends

Danny Gold

in the fledgling Soviet Union but but

Sean Williams

also the KMT's brand of Chinese nationalism. Anti imperialist sentiment is spreading all over Shanghai. This bursts into violence on May 15

Danny Gold

that year when a Japanese cotton mill guard shoots dead a Chinese worker.

Sean Williams

Local students who arrested protested the killing

Danny Gold

in the International Settlement.

Sean Williams

With their Trial set for May 30 A host of leftist Groups including trade

Danny Gold

unionists and the CCP hold mass demonstrations. Some are arrested and taken to a British jail.

Sean Williams

When comrades show up at the jail,

Danny Gold

imperial officers fire into the crowd, killing 16. This will become known as the May 30 incident.

Sean Williams

And it sparks months of protests demanding

Danny Gold

an end to the international settlement, British occupation of China and massive strikes.

Sean Williams

By the beginning of 1926, Shanghai is

Danny Gold

a powder keg just waiting to blow.

Sean Williams

Protests against foreigners are growing. The CCP is gathering pace among the city's proletariat.

Danny Gold

The Green gang is mobilizing against the communists.

Sean Williams

And Chiang Kai Shek is tearing through

Danny Gold

China on his so called Northern expedition,

Sean Williams

wiping out warlords and communists on his

Danny Gold

way to a showdown with Shanghai's Reds. Add to all of this the wild

Sean Williams

partying, casinos, brothels, opium addiction, including an addiction of big ears do himself, and

Danny Gold

Shanghai might be just about the maddest place on earth.

Yeah man, places like that, in that sort of chaos, with also that, that scene there, like you know, Casablanca during the war or Cuba I guess in the 50s, the intrigue too mixed in. I guess you can throw in Beirut maybe in the 70s with that like the intrigue as well. Though I don't think the parting was as good there, but I don't know man, I. I would have loved to experience places like that at those times.

Yeah, this would have been insane. I mean any.

Is there any modern day equivalent

border towns? I don't know.

Sean Williams

Can we think of any border towns?

Danny Gold

Some of those, I mean super weird ones.

The lamest example possible compared to what these were. But like Erbil during the like 2016 with Mosul. I mean the Christian neighborhood had like three bars, but it was like, you know, a lot of folks there hanging out, having a good. Actually, you know, it's not even close. Yeah, I can't think of anything.

Yeah, no, me neither. Kabul was pretty from when I was

throwing like Bangkok probably during, during the Vietnam War.

Sean Williams

Right, Or Bangkok, I mean on any

Danny Gold

night if you have the right time. But.

Yeah, yeah, but I mean you don't have the political intrigue and the war and all the sort of like war

economy and all that, you know, Crazy.

Yeah, this is something different.

Yeah, this is mad.

Sean Williams

In February 1927, Du Yue Sheng decides

Danny Gold

that the CCP is the existential threat to his dominance of Shanghai.

Sean Williams

His goons violently break up a strike

Danny Gold

in the city center. An ally officially with the kmt, the

Sean Williams

CCP steps up its campaign, minting death

Danny Gold

squads that assassinate 13 green gang factory bosses. Du hits back with a Death squad of his own. The dare to dies which batter the communists in the countryside around Shanghai, hoping to encircle the communists inside the city.

I think the the Two Guns Cohen episode goes into this period a lot and it's just exceedingly brutal on all sides. Just viciousness. Like an incident that right now would be in the headlines for weeks every, every other day in terms of just like the brutality of it. I mean it's same when they kick back off again post World War II. You know, just like massacre after massacre after massacre after massacre. Yeah, we're talking like hundreds, thousands every day.

Yeah, I mean we're up to what, 1927. This is going to continue for another 18 years. No. Yeah, 22 years. Yeah. This is really the start, start of something magic. On March 26, 1927, Du and Chang meet in person for the first time at an airfield just outside downtown Shanghai.

Sean Williams

Both men want to route the CCP from the city, so they found something

Danny Gold

called the China Mutual Progress association, or cmpa.

Sean Williams

Remember how Du had united various low

Danny Gold

level gangsters to take control of Shanghai's opium market?

Sean Williams

This time he'll do it under the

Danny Gold

umbrella of the cmpa, bringing together Green

Sean Williams

Gang factions, secret society members, capitalists and

Danny Gold

even triad bosses to break picket lines and destroy Shanghai's Communists once and for all. Tensions rise all the way up until April 11, 1927.

Sean Williams

That is when we get the murder

Danny Gold

of trade unionist Wang Shuhua from today's cold open.

Sean Williams

Wang actually goes to Du Yue Sheng's

Danny Gold

mansion because he believes the gangster has always kept his word.

Sean Williams

And he still holds out hope the

Danny Gold

Green Gang will get back on side with Shanghai's factory workers. But as you heard earlier, it is not to be.

Sean Williams

Du has Wang killed and dumped in

Danny Gold

a Shallow grave by 9pm that evening.

Sean Williams

Shortly afterwards, Dew reaches out to Stirling

Danny Gold

Fessenden, an American lawyer and chairman of the local council of the International Settlement. We're about to do something big, Du tells Fessenden. Our men need safe passage through the settlement. Fessenden acquiesces. Word will soon get out that the

Sean Williams

Green Gang has slaughtered Wang.

Danny Gold

But by then it'll be far too late for anybody to react.

Sean Williams

With Fessenden and Chang's blessing, Big Ear's

Danny Gold

do initiates his grand plan.

Sean Williams

By the early hours of April 12, 2000 of his gangsters have crossed from

Danny Gold

the French Concession through the International Settlement into old Shanghai.

Sean Williams

There, dressed in denim, they mingle with

Danny Gold

striking workers and Communists, slipping among the crowds unnoticed. And then at dawn, two sounds ring out across the district One is a distant gunboat siren, the other is a Bugle's call. Du's men know the signal, all 2,000 of them. Unsheathe knives and guns from their denim garments. And what happens next? Well, you could Google it right now,

Sean Williams

but I recommend you wait for the

Danny Gold

third and final installment of this Du Yue Shuang Green Gang CCP Chinese Epic.

Sean Williams

Thanks for listening.

Danny Gold

And for God's sake, don't Instagram your crimes. Definitely don't get Dengue fever. And don't go to Cuba.

Look at the cliffhanger with this guy. Still, you know.

There we go, making it work even

with a fever and whatever else inside that that tortured body of yours.

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