Chapter 58: The Gamble of National Fate (Part 1)

  Kong Xiangxi had already arrived in Lingling that evening, and the one who came to welcome him was Tan Xiao; it was arranged by Chiang Kai-shek. Chiang Kai-shek himself would not arrive until the next day, thus this hypocritical friendship began.

  Like Tan Pingshan, Kong Xiangxi was also unhappy - Jiang Jieshi asked him to introduce the situation in Shanghai to Tan Pingshan first, why? Does Tan Pingshan understand futures trading? Is Tan Pingshan's level higher than Kong Xiangxi's in the futures market?! However, Kong Xiangxi still followed Jiang Jieshi's instructions and did so. A major wonder of the Republic: The Vice Premier and Minister of Finance "reported" on some economic market situations to a general!

  Tan Xiao didn't understand futures, but now he's chilled to the bone: most of his budget dividend came from Song Kong Group's losses! Moreover, this time he originally went to Shanghai to fight with the purpose of beating the Song Kong family to a pulp; now, the plan has fallen through. However, according to the intelligence provided by Kong Xiangxi, the Japanese have now gotten themselves into trouble, so who is more hateful, the Song Kong Group or the Japanese? In Tan Xiao's mind, it's naturally the Japanese.

  "I was just going to take two small dogs, didn't expect a wolf to sneak in... Alright!" Tan Xiao's first sentence was very unfriendly, but his next sentence made Kong Xiangxi even more worried: "Looks like we're going to fight..."

  Kong Xiangxi received Chiang Kai-shek's order to come to Lingling for a meeting, and also had an exchange with Tan Xiao about the situation in the Shanghai market. At that time, Kong Xiangxi had a bad feeling in his heart: would this futures war escalate into military conflict? Now hearing Tan Xiao say so, his heart jumped even more violently.

  "What Feng Sheng Jiang meant was that the Japanese couldn't compete in the market, so they would resort to force. Kong Xiangxi had always been afraid of this, and he wanted Tan Xiao's answer as a confirmation of his own guess, but he still held onto a thread of illusion: 'We won't fight, who will they fight?'"

  "The Northeast didn't hit either......" Tan Xiao suddenly became a bit down: You don't hit, others will stare at you to hit, how can people in this era not understand such simple truth!?

  Both sides fell into silence, and at this time, Kong Xiangxi had a worried look about the country and its people. Moreover, from his eyes, it could be seen that he was genuinely concerned. People are just so contradictory, worrying about the fate of their own country, but for the sake of their own property, they would rather harm this country...

  Suddenly, Tan Xiao laughed at himself and was shocked: what if the Japanese aimed their spearhead at China instead of the powers? Would the powers still stand on China's side? What if the Japanese didn't slaughter the concessions but Nanjing instead? He suddenly broke out in a cold sweat! Haven't the powers sold out China's interests to regain stability throughout history?! He suddenly felt that he absolutely couldn't follow Sha Xun's command in this action, he had to have enough independence, and even when necessary, put Sha Xun on the fire to roast! After all, the current share of profits no longer held much significance for him.

  "There is only one way to transfer the target and shift the disaster to Jiangdong!" Tan Xiao said: "We must direct the spearhead of the Japanese towards the powerful nations!"

  "Is there a way?" Kong Xiangxi asked, now it can be seen that he is also worried.

  This pair of old enemies has now become pragmatic and is exploring ways to defuse possible Japanese military action!

  "The Japanese fiscal budget for this year is approximately 22.6 billion yen, which is about 2 billion yuan. Among them, 10.3 billion, accounting for about 46%, was used for military expenses... It's crazy!" Kong Xiangxi sighed: "Now, nearly half of the total national income of the Japanese people has been spent on buying national bonds. The government uses this money entirely for military industry and soldiering, but there is little development in terms of people's livelihoods; if things go on like this, their inflation will become even more severe, and apart from fighting wars, it seems that there really isn't any way to resolve it!"

  Tan Xiao now has some admiration for Kong Xiangxi, no wonder he is the god of wealth. For many problems, conclusions can be drawn simply from an economic perspective. The question is, you see things so clearly, why are you still embezzling military funds?

  "This time the Japanese have invested about one-third of their entire fiscal revenue in the grain market. If they lose, their military expenditures will be forced to be cut... Kong Xiangxi's eyes suddenly lit up: "General Feng Sheng, you say if we can really make the Japanese lose their capital, won't their military preparations be forced to slow down?"

  Tan Xiao was not good at economics, he thought for a moment and said: "If they don't point their spearhead at China in this event but instead clash with the powerful countries, it's likely that as you said, the huge losses will slow down their military preparations. However, if they don't provoke the powerful countries but instead blame China for not taking action, leading to market chaos, and use force against China... Tan Xiao thought for a moment and continued: "It seems we need to take the initiative to attack, and let Japan and the powerful countries clash directly!"

  It was a very strange night, two sworn enemies who would not die down, talked for a long time to deal with the Japanese, and even discussed strategies on how to persuade Chiang Kai-shek to allow some of their proactive actions the next day!

  On this evening, what's even more head-scratching is the Japanese people, who have been arguing over whether to go all-in or fold and lose money for half the night!

  The one who supports compensation is not someone else, but it's actually Prince Takahito of the Inneryo Palace! It's simple, he didn't cause the loss, and when he arrived on the scene, it had already been made extremely unfavorable by the people before him. And the one who thinks they can only hold on is Tomohiro Fukawa, he believes that retreating now is absolutely not an option. If others take advantage of the situation and push up the price, they will have no room to maneuver, and at that time, it won't be a matter of admitting defeat, but rather a direct explosion! Moreover, this will also drag down all Japanese merchants who participated in this speculation in Shanghai, and may even cause widespread bankruptcy among Japanese businesses.

  This debate ended with experts refuting the prince's argument!

  The next morning, Soong Tse-ven boarded a military plane to Lingling. After last night's negotiations, the matter was of great importance, and today Song Kong would meet with Tan Xiao and Chiang Kai-shek together!

  Shazhou and his men made a new plan based on Tan Xiao's phone call last night at three o'clock in the morning, preparing to ambush the Japanese!

  Today's rice opening price is very interesting, it was set by a five-year-old kid, George Soros!

  This financial genius made a fortune by making bold moves in and out of the market the day before, doubling his money! Because he didn't take money seriously, treating it purely as a game, he thought that when everyone was optimistic about a rise, it was time to short; and when everyone was pessimistic, it was time to long. Everyone found this interesting and thought the kid was the most objective person, so they asked him how he saw the market for the next day. He said that since everyone was now bearish, the market would rise, but at first, everyone might just observe for a few minutes, which is when the bulls who got burned yesterday would close their positions, causing the market to open low. Based on this, they came up with an entry strategy: to go long at yesterday's opening price, take over all the stop-loss orders, and then slowly follow the falling market, because the Japanese would definitely counterattack!

  As a result, all varieties of transactions were uniformly flat, and the multi-headed disk was cut off by Sha Xun's group. However, that's it, they no longer enlarged their orders, all small orders hung below, just three minutes, the big disk was pulled up by the Japanese.

  "Short sellers should be afraid now!" Little Soros said suddenly after watching the price rise straight up for a while.

  As soon as the traders heard, they immediately hung out short orders to suppress, and when the shorts wanted to close their positions, they would take them! However, the order volume was not large, and after taking it, the disk did not add more - they just didn't give the Japanese a chance to turn around, now is not the time to build a short position, wait for it to go higher!

  Within an hour of opening, the price recovered yesterday's decline and began to hover - the Japanese also found that someone was deliberately not letting them turn around, but to keep attacking upwards, the risk is too great, whoever can control the price like this and clearly take the stop-loss order must be locked in to eat them!

  "It seems that relying solely on financial means won't solve this problem...". Tomohisa Tachibana let out a deep sigh, exhausted.

  Tomokazu Fukawa sighed, and Yonghui sucked in a breath of cool air: she had just deciphered an urgent telegram sent by Tan Xiao to her: Hurry up with Sha Xun to complete the loan procedures for Qinzhou Bay, and invest all the funds in this grain war. I have reached an agreement with the Song Kong Group to join forces to attack the Japanese! Also, the Japanese funds will arrive before tonight, but cannot be received before the closing of the market this afternoon...

  Yes, before Chiang Kai-shek and Soong Tse-ven arrived, Tan Xiang and Kong Xiangxi had already reached a cooperation. At the time of national and ethnic fate, they did not resolve their previous grievances but fought side by side! According to the Tan-Kong agreement, before Tan's funds arrived, Song and Kong would use all the funds they could raise for investment, and once Tan's funds were in place, they would also be fully invested in the market. Because Song and Kong thought that Tan only had tens of millions, so they actively set out a cooperation profit-sharing plan to deduct 10% of the profit as a subsidy for Tan!

  When Kong Xiangxi learned from Tan Xiao that the Japanese funds would not be available for use until after a night's sleep, he was filled with regret! He regretted not knowing this important piece of information earlier! Otherwise, he could have taken advantage of his own financial superiority and defeated the enemy in one move before the Japanese reinforcements arrived! －－－－This shows just how great a mistake Yoshikawa Shuzo made yesterday!

  Rong Hui had already figured out Kong Xiangxi's plan, and she immediately found Sha Xun, telling him directly that Tan Xiao was planning to use the Qinzhou Bay loan money to enter the market! Sha Xun shrugged - in the past, this would have been a good thing, but now his American allies were almost here, what about the money? No problem...... On the contrary, Tan Xiao's entry into the market had added another person competing for food! Tan Xiao was not satisfied with eating less of Song Kong's share, he thought.

  "Tan has received intel that if we can trap the Japanese today, they will use all of this year's remaining fiscal budget and even more to intervene! He's afraid you won't believe him, so he wants me to directly bring this loan into play to trap the Japanese. However, a general attack still needs to wait until your large funds arrive..."

  Shason thought for a moment, then picked up the phone and dialed to HSBC Bank... "Alright, go ahead with the procedures now. The first batch of loans worth 100 million yuan can be credited before noon..." Shason quickly communicated with HSBC Bank.

  "One hour after the opening of the market in the afternoon, you will go out and spread the news that a large batch of grain from Hunan is about to arrive immediately......" Rong Hui issued the first order to the old Tan system people who followed her to Shanghai. Then she went with Sha Xun to handle the loan procedures.

  The manipulators of the Soong family also received Song Meiling's order, and began to constantly use small orders to attack the Japanese people's large orders below, slowly accumulating short positions. The Japanese, under constant pressure, although intimidated, could only launch some fake counterattacks. Every time this happened, the Soong family's dumping would yield, seemingly still unable to grasp the opponent's strength and intentions, not daring to fight back. Seeing this, the Japanese began to try to force an attack upwards, but were met with a full-force suppression by the shorts, limited by the current insufficient funds in hand, the Japanese did not dare to make any rash moves.

  As he was aware that the Japanese might launch military intervention ahead of schedule due to unfavorable market conditions, Tan Xiang also sent a telegram to Sa Shuang, requesting him to execute the Nanyang plan immediately. Sa Shuang replied that he had already discussed with the new Governor of the Straits Settlements, Wen Taijin, yesterday and could start recruiting troops today. After receiving the reply, Tan Xiang immediately contacted Huang Xiaoxun and asked him to complete the recruitment of at least 3,000 people in the shortest possible time...

  Just as the telegraph and telephone were in a flurry, Chiang Kai-shek and Soong Tzu-wen arrived at the airport within minutes of each other! Now, this futures war has turned into a national financial war, with Chiang Kai-shek facing off against Prince Ito Hirobumi's Japanese financial forces!

  Kung Hsiang-hsi went to the airport to meet him, but T'an P'ing, who had always been extremely respectful to the leader, did not go. Now he is mobilizing his troops in the First War Zone before going into action!

  "...the situation is that the Japanese want to disrupt our market and create a real Chinese grain famine! And they plan to use military intervention to force us to surrender! We absolutely cannot agree!......" Tan Xiaozhong himself didn't understand futures, but he knew that the officers understood even less; so he gave a slightly vague explanation accompanied by a stirring speech, those officers who had already begun leading soldiers in firearms training were eager to take on the Japanese on the battlefield!

  "Your Excellency! We also have training on the use of firearms from various countries in our daily lives, and we are not unfamiliar with British artillery; we are even more familiar with Vickers heavy machine guns and Browning light machine guns, aren't they just like Maxim and ZB26? We can go up right away!" Liang Shuang immediately represented everyone to ask Tan Xiao for battle! ---------- Tan Xiao's desired effect was achieved.

  Chiang Kai-shek and Soong Tzu-wen had already heard Kong Xiangxi report on the results of his discussion with Tan Pingshan and their countermeasures on the way from the airport to the headquarters. To use troops? To use troops against Japan?! He was shocked and frightened by what he heard! But he did not veto this plan, at least not immediately - this was not proposed by Tan Pingshan, but rather the result of discussions with Kong Xiangxi! Kong Xiangxi also believed that if they didn't fight, it would be impossible to avoid fighting!

  Chiang Kai-shek still wanted to wait and hear Tan Xiao's military action deployment and deduction before making a decision, but the Shanghai beach had already ignited war on the futures market.

  Rong Hui didn't immediately process the loan at HSBC, her first move was to transfer all the available funds in the "Vigilante" fund, approximately $6 million, into a futures account and have Tewada Sorachim immediately start short-selling! So in the last half hour of the morning session, the market had already started to plummet.

  The Japanese made a last-ditch effort to attack again in the last half hour, but this time they were met with Tiwada Sorash's merciless counterattack! The Japanese, who couldn't hold on any longer, could only grit their teeth and launch a desperate counterattack. As a result, within the last half hour, all of Ronghui's approximately 150 million silver dollars turned into worthless IOUs! After Ronghui finished building up its funds, Song Kong Group's funds began to make a fierce killing, forcing the Japanese to fight back with all their might! Both sides were directly placing orders at the limit-down price and limit-up price, one trampling downwards, the other propping upwards, completely engaged in a battle of fund sizes!

  Chiang Kai-shek had already heard Tan Xiao's military report during lunch. If everything went as planned, intensifying the contradictions between Japan and Western countries to the point of being irreconcilable would indeed be a good thing... But what if the Japanese didn't direct their spearhead at the West but rather at China? He still couldn't make up his mind. As he pondered, Tan Xiao saw no other way out and revealed more: "I plan to have that unit which specially plays the role of the Japanese army during exercises and Germany's 'Brandenburg' special training camp ignite that fire..." Tan Xiao said: "Of course, that is a trick used only when there is really no other way out..."

  "Why use it only when there's no other way!?" Chiang Kai-shek, upon hearing this scheme, suddenly became extremely decisive: "If the Japanese are definitely going to take military action, then we must be decisive too! As soon as there's a sign of it, use it immediately!"

  Tan Xiao and Kong Xiangxi exchanged a sly smile: they just needed this statement from Chiang Kai-shek! These old enemies had become incredibly tacit; perhaps precisely because they had been adversaries for so long, they understood each other too well!

  Just as Tan Xiao and they finally reached a consensus on the military action, Shanghai had already won or lost! In the afternoon, as soon as the opening bell rang, after Rong Hui's 100 million joined the battle group, the Japanese were completely unable to hold on. They resisted for less than five minutes, and after the last sum of money was turned into a long order, the grain price was locked in the limit-down board in the next second - a total value of 60 million long orders was eaten up by Rong Hui all at once! Then, her next order went straight to the limit-down board again!

  Song Ailing had seen Rong Hui's trading skills in another situation, and she was stunned! This woman who looked so gentle and soft-spoken turned out to be more ruthless than any man she had ever met! Wasn't she afraid of being attacked by foreign funds? Song Ailing couldn't understand why she didn't dare to fight back with her money; of course, she didn't know about the Jewish rescue agreement between Sha Xun and Tan Xiao.

  The grain transport team led by Wang Hongbiao has set out, in fact, they had already set out. The food they carried was not much, in fact, it was prepared for them by the various armies along the way; when they set out, they didn't take away a single grain of food from the local area, all they brought were bullets! On the day they received the order, which was yesterday, under the support of 200 cars' transport capacity, they set off immediately; when Chiang Kai-shek agreed to this adventure, in fact, they had already arrived at Xiangdongbei. As for why they didn't take the water route, it's still because they were worried that the Japanese would play tricks on the Yangtze River.

  In Shanghai, after all grain varieties fell to the limit and stopped trading for half an hour, they reopened after a meeting at the exchange, resulting in a second limit-down in half an hour!

  "Get the Marines to land at once! Surround the Exchange!" Tomohisa Fukawa shouted in a flurry! Prince Takahito of Inaba scowled, wanting to mobilize the Marines, but it wasn't something that could be done casually, not even by him as a prince! It had to go through the military department, at least the Navy Department! Moreover, unfortunately for him, Prince Inaba was a supporter of the Army, while the Navy was under the control of Fushimi Palace, which was infamous for its scandals involving women in the Imperial Family! The Navy didn't take orders from him!

  Today is the worst day for Japanese merchants since Shanghai opened up! In the second limit-down, due to insufficient margin, nearly 99% of Japanese accounts were forcibly liquidated! As for the main account of Prince Takahito of Saninomiya, it also had to be forcibly liquidated! At the last minute, the Japanese-funded banks in the concession sent over supplementary margin certificates, which could support until the first hour of trading the next day. If no additional funds were supplemented within the first hour, liquidation would still have to be carried out!

  Today, Ronghui's short position that was opened on the second limit-up day was closed with a profit of over 80 million yuan. Song Kong also closed some of his new short positions today and made a similar amount of profit. Moreover, he increased his floating profit by 140 million yuan! Now, apart from the positions held, the available funds of Song Kong Group have increased to nearly 600 million yuan, while Ronghui has nearly 200 million yuan in hand, adding up to almost 800 million yuan.

  Tomokazu Fukawa slumped powerlessly into his chair. The current Prince of Izanomiya, Takeru-no-Miya, was handling a three billion yen transaction, but this money would vanish like smoke if the stock price plummeted again tomorrow! However, according to the rules, trading could resume after the meeting and the limit down could be expanded! Unless there was enough capital to prop up the price and stage a comeback at the opening bell tomorrow... In his view, apart from having the Marine Corps land and surround the exchange, forcing it to suspend trading, there was no other way out!

  Sassoon is very depressed today! After the close of trading today, after the counter was counted, everything was formally handed over to two foreign banks, and they were all clear about the inside story of the transaction: in addition to the more than 500 million yuan floating loss that had already appeared, the Japanese government calculated that the losses of those Japanese merchants who followed suit had reached 800 million yuan, and nearly 300 million yuan had been settled and divided by companies such as Ronghua, Song Kong Group, local grain merchants, and foreign firms! This was originally a big piece of fat that Sassoon planned to eat! Now it's gone!

  "I think now Mr. Sassoon can give financing to the Japanese." Rong Hui said: "In this way, they can expand their losses and let them see the opportunity to turn over in the market...... You should be clear that we are not yet prepared to deal with the Japanese military action!"

  Yes, only by increasing their losses - first lend them money, then win it back, and become their creditor; this is the only way to get the original planned profit. There's no other way; Sassoon had a calm expression: "This is a good method......" In his heart, he was almost suffocated by the sudden loss of face in front of Rong Hui!