Chapter Ten: Figures in the Storm (4)

  "Wen Yuan seems to know all of us very well, it's really surprising. " Zhang Jingjiang looked at Xu Shao Wen with great interest.

  Zhang Jingjiang had heard of Li Wanqi before, and Xu Shao Wen was still a student at the Army University. He was assigned to work in the Shanghai Military Police Camp. Although he opposed Yuan Shikai and supported the Guangzhou Revolutionary Government, he was still very open-minded. Xu Shao Wen is now working for the Beiyang government, but he is just a student officer, and who knows what path he will take in the future.

  Of course, Li Wanqi did not tell Zhang Jingjiang that Xu Shichang was the uncle of Xu Shaowen. Among the four people present now, except for Huang Jirong, the other three were all holding political attitudes opposed to Yuan Shikai. In order to make this deal go smoothly, he deliberately concealed this point.

  "A few of them are renowned figures, if I, a junior, don't even know that, what kind of progressive youth would I be?" Xu Shaowen replied calmly.

  "As expected, young people have ambitions, and Wen Yuan is indeed capable of coming up with such a bold business idea." Yu Keqing nodded in appreciation, his mouth curled into a sincere smile.

  Li Wanqi saw that they had more or less gotten to know each other, and said: "Since it's like this, the time is also getting late, let's quickly get into the main topic."

  He finished speaking and turned to Xu Shao Wen, taking the lead in introducing him to the current situation. "Wen Yuan, I've had discussions with these big bosses over the past few days, and we all think your plan has some feasible points. Now, Mr. Huang, Mr. Yu, and Mr. Zhang, plus Yan Wu Ye and me, are planning to jointly invest 1.2 billion in cash and then purchase goods from the Flag Nation."

  Xu Shaowen was surprised, despite being prepared. He didn't expect that in just one week's time, Li Wanqi and these big shots had already discussed the terms of payment and goods delivery. It was indeed efficient. After all, 12 billion is not a small amount, and it's cash. Probably all the big bosses present would have to mortgage most of their assets to achieve this.

  Zhang Jingjiang, who came from a wealthy family since childhood, didn't have much feeling about money. He appeared to be in a carefree state of mind and said with a relaxed tone: "We all understand each other's intentions. The largest arms intermediary in the United States is actually Citibank. Whether it's the Shanghai branch of Citibank or the headquarters of Citibank in the US, I have some acquaintances there. In recent days, I've already sent telegrams to inquire about this. If we buy a large quantity of arms and pay cash, they will definitely sell them to us."

  "That's the best," Yu Qigui said with a casual attitude, he was a businessman, if it wasn't for the huge profit from this deal, he wouldn't have thought of doing such a speculative business. "However, at present we still can't contact European countries, if the Americans find out that we are doing smuggling business, they will definitely interfere."

  "Our risk actually lies in this link, because we cannot sign orders with European countries in advance, so everyone will always have some worries." Li Wanqi said with a smile.

  However, I recently mentioned the matter of arms to the consuls of France and Britain, among others," Huang Jinrong said immediately after listening to Li Wanqi's words. "These two countries are still very concerned about the war on the European side, so they will definitely want this kind of thing."

  Xu Shaowen suddenly interjected, "The United States sells arms to European countries on an installment basis. For a big country like the United States, European countries naturally attach importance to creditworthiness, but for us China, it's not very reliable. How long the war in Europe will last is unpredictable, and once the war drags on, it's uncertain whether these countries have the ability to settle their debts. I'm worried that when the time comes, they'll propose using the Chinese government's foreign debt to offset the payment, which would be troublesome."

  Everyone present nodded in agreement with Xu Shaowen's opinion, this is indeed a difficult task. China is still a weak country now, if Western countries gang up to play rogue and use national debt to pay for military expenses, it would be really headache. They are doing this business under private names at the moment, which has nothing to do with government affairs.

  Everyone fell silent for a moment, Zhang Jingjiang looked at Xu Shao Wen and asked: "Do you have any way, Wen Yuan?"

  "We'll break down the arms into smaller portions and sell them in small amounts," Xu Shaowen said bluntly. "If they ask for installment payments, we'll raise the price; if they pay in full at once, we can give a certain discount."

  "How long will it take to sell this small amount?" Next to him, Yan Wuya was just a small investor, so he had been silent all along. At this moment, he couldn't help but interrupt and say something.

  "That's right, this speculative business is all about quick wins and quick exits, only then can we minimize the risk." Yu Qiaoqing rarely engaged in speculative transactions, but as a seasoned businessman, he was well aware of this unwritten rule.

  "With the current war situation spreading from European countries, I can predict with certainty that this war will involve more countries. In other words, once more countries are involved, we will also have more customers to share our goods." Xu Shaowen's tone was very firm, showing a confident attitude.

  Zhang Jingjiang nodded thoughtfully, he was concerned about the international situation, and Xu Shao's speculation coincided with his own analysis. He said: "In fact, the current inventory of goods and ammunition in the Flower Flag Country is at most only 4-6 million, and among them, we have to deduct the orders that have been concluded with European countries. Five or six hundred million goods, divided into tens of millions or one million shares, as long as a few countries are found to sell, it's okay. Even if there is still surplus, I can take it all myself, and donate it all to the Guangzhou government."

  "Boss Zhang is indeed broad-minded. If that's the case, then we can be even more at ease." Huang Jinrong burst out laughing loudly twice.

  "Junior still has one more worry," Jiang Zhiging suddenly spoke up after remaining silent all along.

  "It doesn't matter what you say." Zhang Jingjiang looked at Jiang Zhicheng, a young man he had always held in high esteem.

  "Citic will naturally make money, but they will also analyze the background and decide whether it's worth making this money," Jiang Zhiming said slowly. "As Yu boss said, if Citic finds out that we are selling arms, they will definitely interfere. And now, if I don't have a legitimate reason for ordering goods, I'm afraid Citic will still be on guard against me."

  "What Brother Zhiqing said is absolutely right. Once the Americans have a guilty conscience, they won't even mention whether to ship or not, at least they will definitely delay the shipping time." Xu Shaowen nodded in agreement with Jiang Zhiqing's words.

  "We must find a way to resolve this issue." Li Wanqi also agreed with this view after some thought. Huashi is a big country, and it's inevitable that they will bully others who are inferior in strength. Who knows, once they know that we're storing goods and placing orders, they might use the excuse of delaying delivery time, which would result in significant losses for us.

  "It's not difficult to solve this problem," Xu Shaowen said again, calm and composed, with a confident look, "We just tell the Americans that China's civil war is about to start, the two sides in the south are constantly conflicting, and we businessmen are doing domestic arms speculation."

  He paused, looking at Zhang Jingjiang and said: "Mr. Zhang has a reputation internationally, everyone knows you represent the interests of the Guangzhou government." He then turned to Li Wanqi and said, "And Uncle Li, you can pretend to be speculating in arms for the Northern Government."

  Everyone fell silent again for a moment.

  "Wen Yuan's approach is feasible," Li Wanqi spoke up first, "the Beiyang government and the Guangzhou government are both unable to afford a one-time purchase of military supplies. Even if they want to buy, they have to pay in installments. The Americans can fully understand us Jiangnan merchants, who want to take advantage of controlling the government's economy and achieving business benefits. They won't bother with it too much."

  "In addition, we must also require Citibank to deliver all the goods before mid-September," Xu Shaowen reminded, "In order to put pressure on Citibank, we are their big clients, and we must press them during negotiations."

  "Don't worry about this matter," Zhang Jingjiang smiled slightly, gradually feeling that Xu Shaojun was indeed not an ordinary person, and also sprouted a kind of favoritism. "Last month, three munitions cargo ships from the United States had to change their route to the Pacific due to the Atlantic seasonal winds. These three cargo ships' munitions were sold to Britain, and when the time comes, I will put pressure on them to let them give this batch of goods to us first."

  "This is the best, we put pressure on the United States, hoping that the United States will shift the pressure to Europe. Once European countries have pressure, we will have an opportunity." Li Wanqi burst out laughing.

  "When the time comes, Director Huang will have to rely on you. The military supplies are temporarily stored in the French concession, so be extremely careful and leave no trace." Yu Kuaiyi said with concern, looking at Huang Jinrong.

  "Everyone can rest assured, the French Concession is my territory. On my turf, whoever dares to cause trouble will have to answer to God." Huang Jinrong smiled and made this promise to everyone present.

  Next, everyone estimated when the goods would arrive, and the final result was that it would take at least a week. Of course, this speed was already very fast, and for these famous people, it was still convenient to get the goods. However, no matter what, 200 million was not enough to pay for all the goods. They decided to pay 200 million in cash first, and then use gold and silver to settle the remaining payment after all the military supplies had arrived.

  Finally, everyone discussed the division of labor again. Zhang Jingjiang and Li Wanqi were responsible for purchasing military supplies from Citibank, while Huang Jinrong set up warehouses and maintained military supplies in the French Concession. Yu Kuizeng was responsible for establishing relations with consuls of various European countries to lay the foundation for selling arms in the future.

  Throughout the entire process, Xu Shaowen didn't need to exert any effort or spend any money, but several big bosses all agreed that after the matter was successful, they would give him ten percent of the total profit. Xu Shaowen was naturally overjoyed in his heart, as he wouldn't have to take on any risk and could just reap the benefits - what a wonderful thing, why not do it?

  Xu Shaowen initially discussed with Li Wanqi, estimating a profit of 200 million. Now it seems that this number is not even close. Even if we add two zeros after the 200 million, it's still possible. Calculating based on this, after the deal is successful, I can at least get tens of millions in dividends, which is absolutely not a small number. In this era, with tens of millions, you can open ten banks.

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