Hardy was having breakfast, and Elaine was sitting next to him, wearing a pearl lace nightgown and holding a copy of the Global Times in her hand, reading quietly to Hardy.

Yilian is a professional host, so she is also a professional newspaper reader.

"The seven member states of the Arab League assembled 43,000 troops, declared war on Israel and launched an attack."

"The Egyptian army entered Palestine from Arish in two routes. The northern route, with the First Brigade as the main force, totaling 5,000 people, marched along the coastal highway through Gaza toward Tel Aviv. The Israeli army desperately resisted in the south of Tel Aviv and attacked the rear of the Egyptian army's vanguard at night."

"On the southern route, Egyptian troops have occupied some important locations and highways in the Negev. The 4th Brigade has passed through Bir Sheba and Hebron and is heading towards Jerusalem."

"The Syrian army, with two mechanized brigades, set out from Quneitra and attacked the southern end of Lake Tiberias. They have successively captured three Jewish settlements on both sides of the Jordan River and are now engaged in a fierce battle with the Israeli army in the southern end of Lake Tiberias."

"Jordan's Arab Legion entered the Arab area of ​​the Old City of Jerusalem yesterday and surrounded the Jewish area of ​​the Old City. Fierce fighting is now underway."

"Lebanese Army captures Malkiya border post in the north."

"The Iraqi army deployed an armored vehicle regiment, an infantry regiment and a mechanized brigade supported by three aviation squadrons. They successively occupied Nablus, Jenin, and Tulkarm, which is only 11 miles from the Mediterranean Sea, threatening the Jewish city of Hedra."

The war lasted only three days.

Israel was being defeated by the Arab coalition and was almost on the verge of collapse. Hadi thought that it was time for the Jews to continue lobbying Congress and President Johnson.

Because of the outbreak of the Middle East war, Johnson ended his "national tour speech" halfway through and hurried back to the White House.

Israeli ambassadors, senior representatives, and various forces have approached Johnson, asking the United States for greater support and making more promises. How could Johnson miss the opportunity?

The next day.

United Nations Security Council.

The US representative submitted a resolution to the Security Council, suggesting that the Security Council order the warring parties to cease fire within 36 hours.

The Soviet Union agreed to the US proposal and accused the Arab countries of launching the attack and demanded that they stop the action.

Britain opposed the US proposal and claimed that it would continue to provide aid to Arab countries. Britain used to be the suzerain of these countries and there are still conflicts of interest between them.

So the proposal failed to pass at that time.

Hardy listened to his men reporting the latest developments and smiled softly. This world is so wonderful. In fact, everything is for profit.

Why does the United States support Israel and why does Britain support the Arabs? Isn't it all out of consideration for their own interests?

He believed that by this time, the Jews must have made a promise to Johnson that they would do whatever it took when faced with a life-and-death situation.

Hardy never thought that Johnson would rely on him alone. That was unrealistic, and Hardy did not have that much power. He was not Rockefeller or Morgan, who could support a president independently. If it was just him, Johnson would most likely fail in the election.

However, he was the first person to invest heavily in Johnson, and this can never be changed. Johnson knows it in his heart, and the outside world also knows that he is one of Johnson's major financial backers.

Now Hardy doesn't need to do much, just continue to provide steady support.

"Ring, ring, ring~!"

The phone on the table rang. Hadi picked it up and heard Janini's voice. "Hadi, you are right. There is a war in the Middle East. But I read in the newspaper that the situation of the Jews is not good. I am afraid they can't hold out for a few more days."

"No, they'll hold on," said Hardy.

"This is a rare opportunity for the Jews. They have been waiting for more than 2,000 years and will not give up easily. Don't forget that there are still many people supporting them. At this time, they will be willing to give up all their resources for their beliefs," said Hardy.

Janini paused.

"I saw that the US representative proposed a ceasefire mediation motion in the Security Council. Has President Johnson agreed to it?"

Hardy knew what the other party meant.

"I don't know."

Giannini did not continue to ask. After all, some things were inappropriate to say over the phone, and who knew if there was any monitoring.

"Hardy, what business are you going to do next?"

Hardy smiled and said, "Financial investment, private equity funds, and insurance industry, I think these industries have great potential in the future."

Giannini did not think much about financial investment and private equity funds. Anyone with a bank would invest in this area. His Bank of America had a lot of business in these areas.

Hardy owns Wells Fargo. Absorbing savings and making loan profits are only the bank's most basic income. If it wants to develop rapidly, financial investment and private equity funds are essential.

Giannini is concerned about the insurance industry mentioned by Hardy. One of the points is that Truman has always wanted to promote "universal health care", that is, a national health insurance plan.

But this affects the interests of large insurance companies.

In 1945, Johnson proposed a national health insurance plan to Congress, which was attacked numerous times at the time and has not been passed to this day. In this election, the national health insurance plan is also one of Johnson's campaign slogans.

To be honest, Johnson was very brave. Even someone as powerful as Roosevelt carefully avoided this question.

"Hardy, are you going to support Johnson's national health insurance plan? I don't think it's a good idea?" Giannini asked.

"Oh, why do you say that?" said Hardy.

"There are more than 2,000 insurance companies in the United States. Almost all of these insurance companies are related to banks, and banks are almost all under the control of the consortium. In other words, the insurance industry is one of the important sources of economic income for the consortium, including our California consortium. The national health insurance plan that Johnson is going to launch will inevitably affect the insurance business income." said Giannini.

Hardy smiled and said, "Maybe there is a way to have the best of both worlds?"

"What can we do?"

"I don't know either. You know I'm not very proficient in finance and insurance business. These plans were submitted by Wells Fargo, and I'm still considering them," said Hardy.

Giannini's heart moved.

Since Hardy and Johnson have such a good relationship now, why not do the opposite and let Hardy persuade Johnson to give up the national health insurance plan, which is also a great support for Bank of America.

But there was no rush to say it now, as he didn't want Hardy to feel that he was ordering or manipulating him.

After hanging up the phone, Hardy smiled.

To be honest, many presidents in later generations have wanted to promote a national health insurance plan. Nixon mentioned it, Clinton mentioned it, but it was not until Obama's presidency that it was passed with great difficulty, and it still had restrictions. The first thing Comrade Trump did when he came to power was to abolish it.

Hardy knows that Johnson today will definitely not be able to push forward health care reform.

But this does not prevent him from taking advantage of this plan.

Of course, these are things for the future, and now we are just paving the way.

Hardy was thinking about something when the phone on the table rang again. He picked it up and answered it. This time it was Andy calling.

Andy told Hardy that there was news from the shipping company that someone was preparing to purchase a large number of cargo ships, and the price was not low.

"Does anyone know?" Hardy asked.

"Jews."

Hadi immediately understood that the war in the Middle East was raging and Israel was unprepared. It needed a large number of manpower, supplies and weapons and equipment to deal with this war of a large scale for them.

Those weapons and supplies needed to be transported over, and renting a ship was not cheap either. Hardy's transport ship was a very good choice. It could earn back the freighter's money by just making a few trips. Who knew how long this war would last, so the Jews thought it was more cost-effective to buy a ship.

Originally they wanted to buy it from the US military, but the military said that they had already sold all of them to Hadi. Although Hadi did not pay, they had a contract and the ship already belonged to Hadi. As for the payment, he could pay it a few years later.

In fact, Hardy has made a lot of money from selling freighters. After deducting the cost of this 160 million investment, he estimates that he can make 300 million in the end.

"How much are they asking?" Hardy asked.

"Liberty ships are 550,000 each, and Victory ships are 850,000 each. They said they knew the bottom price, and this is more than double the bottom price," said Andy.

Hardy sneered twice.

The lowest price. It was indeed cheap when I was there, but that has nothing to do with you. No one was optimistic about this business at the beginning, but now people are crying and scrambling for it, so naturally I have to raise the price.

Anyway, those Jews have money, so if not now, when will they be cheated?

"Raise the price. Liberty ships are 800,000 each and Victory ships are 1.2 million each. Take it or leave it. If not, we will sell it slowly."

The price of a Liberty ship that costs RMB 180,000 per ship has been increased to RMB 800,000, and the price of a Victory ship that costs RMB 360,000 per ship has been increased to RMB 1.2 million. Don't blame Hardy for that. Who told you to have such a demand?

......

Hadi returned home in the afternoon and turned on the TV to watch the news on ABC, which was reporting on the war in the Middle East.

The Global Times also has reporters stationed in the Middle East. These reporters braved the hail of bullets and went deep into the war zones to report on the war situation there in real time and report back the latest news.

This was better than what the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and Washington Post did, so the reputation of the Global Times grew significantly during this period. Many people in the United States, especially Jews, were concerned about the war in the Middle East, so people subscribed to the Global Times one after another.

As long as you seize the opportunity at any time, you will have the possibility of rising. According to data company analysis, the Global Times is now the fourth largest newspaper in the United States, only after the three major newspapers.

The TV news reported that the current situation in Israel is extremely critical and it may be destroyed by the Arab coalition at any time. Now the State of Israel has issued an appeal, hoping that young Jewish people around the world will go to Israel to join the war and fight against the Arab invasion together.

At the same time, he called on Jews to donate money and materials to help Israel overcome the difficulties.

"Ring, ring, ring."

The living room phone rang and Hardy picked it up.

It's Andy's phone.

"Boss, they agreed to the price you mentioned. They bought 50 ships in total, 30 Liberty ships and 20 Victory ships, for a total price of 48 million US dollars. The payment was made by bank transfer and the money has been received." Andy said.

Hadi thought to himself, those Jews are really rich.

They would surely purchase more supplies and ship them over. Hardy immediately picked up the phone and called Colonel Adam Beach.

"Bichi, find out if the Jews have purchased supplies from the military," Hardy ordered.

"Yes, Mr. Hardy," said Colonel Beach.

Not long after, Beach called Hardy back and said, "Mr. Hardy, the Jews did order a lot of supplies and weapons from the military."

The military's orders had nothing to do with Hardy's post-war supplies sales company. Whoever sold the goods made money; that was the rule of the business world.

"Bichi, I have the contact information of several Jewish buyers. You can take the initiative to communicate with them and ask them if they want weapons. Our products are very up-to-date and cheap. I believe there are many things they need. This is a large order, so you must pay attention to it." Hardy said.

Beach perked up immediately.

"Okay, Mr. Hardy, I'll contact them right away." said Beech.

"By the way, raise the price appropriately. They need it urgently and have the money," Hardy instructed.

"Hey hey I understand Mr. Hardy."

After the war, Hardy would get 30% of the profits from the goods sold by the material sales company. Now that they have a large amount of materials in hand, why not sell them? Making money is the bottom line.

As for competing with the military for business, that doesn't exist. The Logistics Department is also the military. Strictly speaking, it is competing with other arms dealers for business.

Hardy is also an arms dealer, so it depends on one's ability.

As for saying that selling weapons is immoral.

He did not start the war, nor could he stop it. All Hardy had to do was watch the show, make money, and profit from it.