A business involving tens of millions of dollars is always a big deal. You can't be too hasty about such a big business, so Huifeng is not in a hurry either.
But within two days,
Whether in Hong Kong, the United Kingdom or the United States, there has been a lot of news about the Hong Kong crisis, causing many people who have invested in Hong Kong to panic.
Hongkong.
global times.
"China's latest war situation, where is Hong Kong going!!!"
"From the second half of last year to the beginning of this year, China and the United States launched a large-scale war, mobilizing more than three million troops. Several wars have ended in failure for Chang, and Chang's rule is already in jeopardy."
"It is almost impossible to get external assistance. Last year, Chang bribed President Johnson's opponent Dewey. President Johnson hated Chang so much that he released a white paper at the beginning of this year, admitting that his investment in Chang had failed and calling him an extremely corrupt element who was bound to fail and would not provide any more assistance."
"After the failure, if the North reaches Hong Kong, will they take Hong Kong back? This possibility is very high. You must know that the North practices public ownership. If the property is confiscated, where will Hong Kong go?"
To be honest,
Anyone who reads these remarks will be frightened.
Experienced the Japanese.
We experienced the Civil War again.
Many people understand the horror of war.
The content of the newspaper immediately sparked heated discussions among Hong Kong citizens and even caused a certain amount of panic. Many families who were already frightened were planning to leave Hong Kong to avoid the disaster.
Even the foreign companies became more and more worried as the war approached and began to plan how to deal with their businesses. There were already many people selling off their industries, and now this situation is becoming more and more common. It can be said that the people are unstable and their hearts are unsettled.
The British Global Times also published a similar article, mainly discussing whether Hong Kong would be lost if the North won and whether this pearl of the East could be preserved.
The Global Times also specially invited several commentators.
Both sides made comments in the newspapers, one side said that the North dared not move, the other side said that Hong Kong would inevitably be lost, each side put forward its own arguments and the discussion was in full swing.
At the beginning, the two sides were evenly matched, but gradually, the argument that the North would take back Hong Kong gradually gained the upper hand, causing many British people who had investments in Hong Kong to become nervous. They sent telegrams to Hong Kong one after another, asking the agents there to handle the industry as soon as possible and bring the funds back to Britain.
In the United States,
Articles about Hong Kong also appeared in some newspapers.
The tone is basically pessimistic.
In fact, the United States is not the focus; the main purpose is to make the news true.
Public opinion influences people's minds.
Many people have seen these comments and have been unconsciously influenced in their judgment. Historically, there was indeed a wave of panic in Hong Kong in the later period, but it was later than it is now. The Global Times report was like a match that ignited firecrackers, which immediately ignited the incident.
Bang~!
When emotions explode,
There was an exodus and panic selling of assets in Hong Kong.
Hadi thought,
I didn't mean it.
It's just that this kind of thing was bound to happen sooner or later, you can't blame me.
Among many enterprises, HSBC Bank was naturally greatly affected. They were originally an investment bank. When the enterprises ran away, no one invested, the mortgaged land price dropped, and all parties were not optimistic, which caused HSBC's assets to shrink rapidly.
HSBC shareholders have been feeling heavy-hearted recently and feel that time is running out.
Because once the North crosses the Yangtze River, it will be the beginning of a great defeat, and by that time it will be impossible to sell anything even if you want to.
Darvell Sassoon contacted David Rockefeller and wanted to talk to him again. David replied that he should wait a moment because he was negotiating with other companies and did not have time for the moment.
The more anxious the other party is, the more you need to sit back and wait for the opportunity to emerge victorious.
......
Hongkong.
Victor received a secret order from his boss. After reading the order, he became excited. If he could accomplish this, he would definitely make a lot of money.
sell penicillin.
Victor got to know Mr. Kong from the south and Mr. Xu from the north. This time Mr. Xu came to trade again. Victor smiled and said:
"Mr. Xu, do you have any acceptance bills from HSBC Bank? Other foreign banks are also fine. If you are willing to give them to me, I can take them."
Mr. Xu was stunned.
"What do you mean, Mr. Victor?"
"Haha, you have occupied the north and sealed so many banks. I believe you must have a lot of bills of acceptance from other banks. These bills of acceptance are worthless in your hands. You might as well sell them to us. You can exchange them for medicines, supplies, or even weapons." Victor said.
Mr. Xu was not surprised that Victor revealed his identity. After all, they had done business so many times that the other party would definitely be able to guess his identity as long as he was not stupid.
But he didn't expect Victor to propose such a deal.
"Mr. Victor, I can't make the decision on this matter. I need to contact someone. Also, I wonder what price you are willing to buy it for?" Mr. Xu asked.
"The face value is one hundred to one. Don't use French francs. US dollars, British pounds, Hong Kong dollars, etc. Anything from a stable national bank will do." Victor said.
"One hundred to one, isn't that too low?" Mr. Xu frowned.
"Those things are just a piece of waste paper in your hands. They are not worth a penny. If I buy them and exchange them, it is still unclear whether other banks will recognize them. This will be a bad lawsuit. I will have to put in a lot of effort and may not succeed." Victor said.
Mr. Xu thought for a moment and said, "I can't answer you now. I have to go back and ask. Also, is it true that you can exchange those things?"
Victor smiled.
"Mr. Xu, I'm sure you guys know about my dealings with the triads. I think most of those things are in your hands. Trading with you is nothing more than exchanging bills for supplies. I may still need to go through the triads."
Mr. Xu nodded, put on his hat, said goodbye and left.
Only half a day later, Mr. Xu came again.
"Mr. Victor, we agree to the deal, but the price is too low. Our boss offered a fifty-to-one ratio, otherwise there would be no need for the deal."
Victor shook his head.
"At most 80 to 1, otherwise this business will be meaningless and the deal will be cancelled."
In fact, the organization had already agreed to a price of 100:1, but told Mr. Xu that any increase would be better, so he asked for a price increase.
Victor offered 80 to 1, and Mr. Xu had already accepted it in his heart.
"Okay, eighty to one."
Victor smiled. Actually, Hardy had given him a price of 10:1 to do the deal, but he raised it to 80:1, which was far beyond his boss's expectations.
Three days passed in a flash.
That evening, a car parked downstairs. Mr. Xu walked into Hardy Auction Company carrying a box and went up to the second floor with ease.
Put the suitcase on the table.
"Mr. Hardy, the bank acceptances have arrived. There are various funds, including US dollars, British pounds, Hong Kong dollars, francs, Japanese yen, rubles, and reals. According to the US dollar value, the total value is 61.25 million US dollars."
"You said before that we should try to find some HSBC bank documents. We asked someone to find HSBC bank documents. There are not only HSBC bank acceptance bills, but also many savings certificates. There are about 5,000 of them, with a total of 26.66 million US dollars."
"According to the 80-to-1 exchange rate we agreed on earlier, you should pay me $765,625."
"No problem. I'll have someone check it out. As long as it's genuine, we can trade it." Victor asked someone to take the item down for inspection.
The two sat together drinking tea and chatting.
"With more than 700,000 yuan, what does Mr. Xu want?" Victor asked.
Mr. Xu paused for a moment and said, "To be honest, Mr. Victor, you asked me what I was missing. I would say we were missing too many things."
"Medicines, medical equipment, weapons, ammunition, airplanes, battleships, cotton, food, cloth, machine tools ..."
Victor stood up.
"Mr. Xu, you can't buy that many things with over 700,000 US dollars."
Mr. Xu sighed, "Well, so I can only buy the most urgently needed things. I have a catalog here. I hope Mr. Victor can help me prepare it."
Then he took out a few pieces of paper and handed them to Victor.
Victor thought to himself, these people really think things through carefully, they even think about what to buy, they wouldn't have even calculated the price.
Open the directory.
Dozens of types and quantities of medicines, medical equipment types and quantities, and they don't want conventional weapons, they want anti-aircraft guns, equipped with sufficient ammunition, high-powered artillery and shells.
In addition, they also want fighter planes. They don’t need fighter plane engines because they have also received some planes, but many of the engines are broken. They can repair other parts of the planes, but they don’t have the technology to repair the engines.
As long as they had an engine, they would have an extra fighter.
In addition, there are some weapons and equipment and so on.
After reading the list, Victor looked at Mr. Xu and said, "Mr. Xu, many of the things on your list are hard to get. I don't know if I can get them. And there is another problem. The price of these things you want is much more than 700,000. You don't have enough money here."
Mr. Xu looked at Victor seriously and said:
"I know the money is not enough, so I want to talk to Mr. Victor and ask if you can give us some money first. We owe you the money. You want the bank to cash the check. This time, we only found some money because we were in a hurry."
"We know what you are thinking, Mr. Victor. You want to take the money to the banks to cash it out. We can still find bank acceptance bills, savings books, and savings certificates, and we can use them to repay in the future."
Victor pondered.
"I also need to ask for instructions on this matter. How about this? Let's complete this transaction today and prepare medicines and medical equipment for you first. As for the high-powered weapons transaction, I need to ask the boss first."
The bank acceptance bill and savings certificate were checked and there was no problem. The two parties shook hands and reached a deal.
Victor sent a telegram to Hadi, telling him that he had received more than 26 million in banknotes. Hadi thought it was quite a lot.
"Let's start the action according to the plan." said Hardy.
The next day.
The wind is clear and the air is fresh.
An American came to HSBC Bank with a large bank acceptance bill of USD 4.5 million and handed it to the clerk for cash.
The salesperson was surprised by the number on the check and immediately reported it to the manager.
The manager came to check the acceptance bill. This acceptance bill was not fake. It was issued by the Peking branch. However, Peking had been captured by then and the Peking branch of Huifeng Bank was sealed off. In order to protect its own interests, Huifeng Bank made these accounts bad.
It is precisely because of this that HSBC's accounts look so good.
To put it bluntly, it is a collection of debts prepared for default.
"I'm sorry, sir, but we are unable to redeem your bill of exchange because the ledger was lost during the war. We can only redeem it after the war is over and the authenticity of the bill can be verified," the manager said in a formal tone.
The American was very angry and yelled at the manager in the bank lobby: "Look carefully, this is a promissory note issued by your bank. You promised that as long as you have the promissory note, you can redeem it at any of your branches. Now you tell me that the bottom account is lost and cannot be used."
"It's your problem if the account is lost. I have no say in it. I now demand that you pay it immediately. You must do it right now."
The manager waved his hands with a cold expression.
"I'm sorry sir, I can't help you right now. I can't pay you this money until I find the account balance."
"What if the account cannot be found? Does that mean the money does not exist?"
“I can only say that payment can only be made after the bottom account is found.” The manager tried to evade the question.
Americans are angry.
That afternoon.
The Americans found several newspaper reporters and exposed the incident to them. The next day, many Hong Kong newspapers reported the incident, especially the Global Times, which reported the incident in detail and made comments.
"If a bank loses its credibility, what else does it have? HSBC's refusal to pay the bill of exchange is itself a breach of trust. This practice is disgusting and will make many depositors worry about whether they can get their money back."
This news caused quite a stir in Hong Kong.
HSBC is arguably the largest bank in Hong Kong. Now that even it has lost its credibility, people are worried that the money they deposited in the bank will also be in trouble.
Early the next morning.
A large number of people gathered in front of HSBC Bank and swarmed into the bank lobby, demanding to withdraw their money.
If someone pays close attention, they will find that all those who come to withdraw money are members of the Triad gang.
These people held up their savings certificates and savings books and asked for money.
The bank staff discovered that the savings books these people had were all from branches in mainland China, and all of them had been listed as bad debts, so the managers naturally would not allow them to withdraw the money.
When the crowd heard that they were not going to give any money, they immediately went crazy.
A riot broke out in the bank, and the lobby of HSBC was completely blocked. With so much noise and bustle, it was impossible to conduct normal work.
At this time, reporters came over and took pictures of the angry crowd. The headlines in the next day's newspapers were even more explosive.
"HSBC has lost its credibility, and there is a withdrawal squeeze at the head office. People are unable to get money from the bank, and HSBC is suspected of running out of funds."
"Recently, the war in the north has become intense, and many foreign companies have withdrawn from Hong Kong Island. The British capital in Hong Kong may have transferred people's deposits early in order to avoid the crisis. Now there is only an empty shell left. This is worthy of our vigilance."
As soon as this report came out.
Not only the actors arranged by Victor, but also the real depositors of Huifeng could not sit still and rushed to the bank to withdraw money.
Only when you get the cash will you feel at ease.
However, the bank lobby had already been packed with triad members, and ordinary people could not get in at all. Those who could not withdraw their money were really scared, fearing that they would not be able to withdraw their money. Word spread from one person to another, and more and more people gathered outside HSBC Bank, probably no less than 10,000.
Senior management of Huifeng immediately reported to the board of directors.
When the board members heard this, they immediately felt a headache. If a squeeze really happened, even HSBC would not be able to bear it. Most of the bank's money would have to be released. Otherwise, how would the bank make money?
Moreover,
For security reasons, the bank did transfer some of the funds, and now the vault only has a few million Hong Kong dollars and hundreds of thousands of US dollars and British pounds at most.
Once the hole is opened, the money in the bank will be drained out in an instant. When there is really no money left to deal with it, the consequences will be much more serious than they are now.
When David saw the report on Huifeng in the British newspaper, he looked at Hadi in surprise, "Hadi, did you do this?"
"Davi, I think it's time to talk to Huifeng and the others," Hardy said with a smile.
......