Beauty Lin still gave Liu nglong a lot of face, at least she explained why she was not suitable to suppress them.
The reason is simple, the other party’s actions were comrcial in nature, and they weren’t manipulating strategic goods, not even considered essential goods.
In this case, even the governnt finds it inappropriate to intervene, after all, it’s a market economy now.
And it’s even less suitable for Chief Lin and her team, because their work nature absolutely doesn’t allow abuse of power, otherwise, if it becos a habit, consequences would be unimaginable, so she can only watch helplessly.
However, she was obviously quite angry, she even told Liu nglong, "Ask that person nad Li if they can track down the gray industry chain behind the scenes. If it’s harmful to Guojia’s interests, I can give them a lesson."
Liu nglong pondered, if these two suppliers join hands, would I beco passive again?
He hadn’t figured it out yet, when President Li ca looking for him, saying that the other party, through his financing channel, had sent word: "We can sell you a large quantity of second-hand equipnt, but the price will be slightly higher. If you want to collaborate, that’s fine, we can join forces to suppress the market, but for the equipnt we receive, you will need to buy it at a 20% markup."
The first reaction Liu nglong had after hearing this news was, "Don’t even think about it, I’d rather leave the business than accept extortion!"
Four months ago, he absolutely wouldn’t have said such a thing, but during these past four months, he had earned a lifeti’s worth of money for so people, even if just considered a hundred million, depositing it in the bank, he’d still earn about five million annually in interest.
Also, influenced by the Luohua people, he now acts very domineeringly, not wanting to swallow any indignation.
"I think you’d better ntion this to Sister Hong," President Li suggested seriously, "If Feng Jun is willing to step in, he could crush those guys like squashing a stink bug."
Liu nglong raised his eyebrows in surprise, "Feng Jun has quite a reputation in the scene too?"
President Li rolled his eyes, "In the scene, looking for Sister Hong is enough, even the Overseas Hongn recognize her, but when it cos to Elder Feng, he has official connections."
Liu nglong found he had to refresh his understanding of Lao San, so he made a call to Sister Hong.
As soon as Sister Hong heard, she exploded, "The audacity! I haven’t bullied anyone for years, and they dare to bully ?"
She turned around and made two calls, only to find out that the ones targeting Luohua’s acquisition of equipnt were actually not people from the underworld, but newly erging private hot money, which relied on so underworld big bosses but didn’t fully obey their command.
In a commodity society, money is power, and even the people from the underworld can’t demand much from them.
However, the informant also ntioned that if Sister Hong could introduce them to Feng Jun, the issues might just pass.
"They wish," Sister Hong couldn’t help but sneer, "Doing such low-grade things and still want to see Elder Feng?"
However, after hanging up the phone, she thought about whether to ntion it to Feng Jun.
Actually, for such matters, she doesn’t want to bother Feng Jun because if everything requires his nod, then what’s her value of existence?
It’s known that she’s a strong-willed person, even in the mobile sector, she wishes to make a mark on Shijie Island.
But if these people’s purpose is just to et Feng Jun, she felt she couldn’t arbitrarily refuse.
So she found Feng Jun and explained the situation, "...Do you want to et them or not?"
"No need," Feng Jun decisively shook his head, "I despise these hoarding speculators the most, whether it’s garlic, beans, or ginger... Would doing legitimate business kill them? When I was powerless, they bullied , now they’re forcing to regain my mory."
"Exclude all participants, one by one, from the Cancer Care Center’s blacklist... no!"
After pondering for a mont, he spoke up, "Hold off on the blacklist, tell Liu nglong to increase his external purchase price by ten percent, and later raise it to twenty percent..."
Sister Hong, an expert at dealing, imdiately got what he ant, "Make it seem like we’re anxiously buying up?"
"Exactly," Feng Jun smiled and nodded, "then, suddenly stop... I don’t need to say more, do I?"
Liu nglong quickly received the notification from Sister Hong, and then approached President Li again.
On the sa day, they released the news, raising the purchase price by five percent, coincidentally sealing an equipnt deal for four million, which promptly beca 4.2 million, granting an easy profit of 200,000.
When the news spread, soone in Kuaiji Province sneered, "Five percent... such stinginess, it doesn’t even cover the financing costs!"
Liu nglong’s failure to increase the price wasn’t an issue, but his price raise made the hesitant confident, as soone persisted in spreading rumors—see, they’re not able to hold on!
Two days later, Liu nglong announced another price hike to ten percent, but the result of the price increase was that new speculative capital rushed into the market, repurchasing second-hand old equipnt at a price of twelve percent.
Three days later, Liu nglong increased the price by fifteen percent and then stated that it was impossible to raise the price any further.
Another three days later, Liu nglong raised the price to twenty percent, stating that this price could only be maintained for a few days before it would drop.
Indeed, Feng Jun only needed to provide an idea, and others would naturally perfect the operational details.
When the price increased to twenty percent, so savvy individuals took the opportunity to sell — it couldn’t go any higher.
But there were also those who claid, with prices already this high, and short supply in the market, why can’t it go higher?
When the price rose to fifteen and twenty percent, Liu nglong made a few more deals. The deals weren’t too big or too small, totaling over forty million.
The other second-hand equipnt was bought by speculative capital at even higher prices, and the booming second-hand market directly resulted in hundreds of billions in trading volu — by then, even small-ti speculators were entering the market.
This market appeared rather abruptly, never mind the scattered previous transactions. Liu nglong spent four months and nearly eight hundred million to establish the market from the ground up, but it also attracted the attention of speculative capital.
Speculative capital is very sensitive and remarkably quick to converge, often resulting in "if you don’t include , I’ll form another group" situations, so it’s not surprising to see trading volus in the billions.
However, at the sa ti, they wanted to secure more market share, so they often placed orders by paying deposits — the goods still with you, only deposits were paid, calculated at the floating price.
For example, if Liu nglong marked up by twenty percent, these speculators would pay a deposit of twenty-two or twenty-three percent, and they agreed that if Liu nglong continued to raise prices, they would increase the deposit.
Ultimately, they didn’t pay the principal for the equipnt, only the excess, and didn’t take delivery, comforting sellers that whenever they couldn’t match Liu nglong’s asking price, the seller could sell directly to Liu nglong and return their deposit.
Such trading behavior carried certain risks, but the goods didn’t stay in their hands, so they could quickly seize more equipnt. Initially, only speculators with insufficient funds operated this way, but later, even major investors adopted the practice.
So, it wasn’t surprising for a high trading volu of billions to occur quickly.
Three days after Liu nglong increased the price by twenty percent, he directly announced that he would no longer be involved in second-hand equipnt trading.
The news shocked the entire market because he was the only end custor. If he didn’t receive goods, who would they sell to?
Soone panicked and dumped their goods, only for major investors to pick them up and mock them for their short-sightedness — you can’t see through such petty tricks, yet you dare do this line of work?
The panic was tily curbed, but the prices in the second-hand equipnt market still fell by about ten percent, remaining above the initial price Liu nglong purchased at, but the markup was only eight or nine percent.
Three more days passed, with no response from Liu nglong or President Li, and on the fourth day, both took their teams abroad for a trip. The first stop was Siam, and rumors had it they planned to visit other places as well.
With that, the market exploded, dropping by more than ten points, unable to maintain even the original price level.
However, funds still flowed in to pick up the pieces, so rumors spread that so were maliciously washing the market, and then the prices... actually rebounded a bit.
Another three days passed, and Liu nglong was having a great ti in Siam. Finally, soone contacted Chief Lin to ask whether the second-hand equipnt would be purchased or not.
Beauty Lin really didn’t want to get involved in these ssy affairs anymore. She was kindly helping, yet people kept ignoring her, making her feel disheartened, and so even questioned her motives. But, nonetheless, ultimately, she was part of the system and couldn’t act willfully.
In fact, through monitoring, she was already aware of subsequent developnts, but she still called Liu nglong to confirm and then replied that the second-hand equipnt purchase had been halted, and those funds might be used to order steam locomotives.
Those seeking information from Beauty Lin must have been from state-owned enterprises — speculative capitals in Kuaiji didn’t dare to confront Beauty Lin directly and then inquire about the situation.
People from state-owned enterprises, known for being loose with their words, quickly spread the news throughout the second-hand equipnt market.
Everyone in the second-hand equipnt market assud they were well-inford, but truly inford people were only a handful.
So, so discreetly investigated recent projects Luohua had negotiated and indeed found out that Luohua was recently ordering locomotive engines, carriages, and so tracks for steam locomotives.
The order wasn’t large, and the technical requirents weren’t high, but it tied up a lot of funds, and building railways isn’t sothing small investnts can handle. Often, underdeveloped countries’ railway constructions are funded by contractors in advance.
Adding insult to injury, Luohua was recently ordering various parts for tractors and motorcycles — the order quantity was considerable, indicating plans to set up an assembly plant.
The components for an assembly plant generally occupy significant funds, and crucially, with an assembly plant, the next step would likely be localized production, requiring further investnt.
That sa day, the second-hand equipnt market experienced a cliff-like drop.
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