Andrei, a second-generation air force pilot, is a spokesperson for the interests of certain groups.
I've worked with this person a few times; aside from being greedy, he has a very good reputation.
They never resorted to opportunistic or substandard products. Xing Baohua mentioned the Tu series, especially the 160 codenamed "White Swan," which had just successfully completed its test flight last year and was in mass production, with an estimated production of over one hundred aircraft.
Could such newly equipped items really be given to Xing Baohua?
No matter how good their relationship was, it was impossible to give him a finished product. When he heard Xing Baohua ask for blueprints, Andrei understood that the technology of the Swan was in the engine. Even if they gave Xing Baohua the blueprints, they wouldn't be able to produce it in a few years.
So they first made an outrageous demand: 2 billion for the complete set of technical drawings.
Xing Baohua laughed and said, "We'll only give you 200 million. The An series, plus the production line and the aircraft, will only cost 3 billion. The Tu-160 is just blueprints, and you want 2 billion? That doesn't make sense. We can't treat our old customers like suckers."
So they negotiated the price down to two hundred million US dollars, and even that was two hundred million, Xing Baohua felt was too much.
Andrei said, "The Xing and An series transport aircraft, although they can be converted into bombers, are still propeller aircraft after all. But the Swan is different. It has the world's largest lifting capacity and the world's largest combat radius. Apart from missiles, there are few aircraft in the world that can catch up with it. So, on behalf of the Tu family, I'll help you lower the price a bit, how about 1.8 billion?"
“Andrei, I’m a businessman, I don’t need this stuff. I mainly give it away as a gift. I’d be heartbroken to spend too much money on it. Here’s three hundred million for you, and you’ll still make a profit,” Xing Baohua said politely.
"Those KGB bastards are keeping a close eye on things. Without huge profits, who would dare take the risk? So, how about I compromise and say 1.5 billion?"
“Brother, this isn’t the way to go. I take a step forward, you take a step back. We’re such good friends. One price, $500 million. If you don’t agree, turn around and find other buyers. Don’t come to me for anything in the future,” Xing Baohua said with a hint of dissatisfaction.
Andrei hesitated for a moment, then surprisingly nodded.
Just make a copy of the blueprints and give it to Xing Baohua.
However, Xing Baohua's spending of 500 million yuan came with conditions: he had to bring a set of engines as samples for the 500 million yuan to be worthwhile.
Andrei shook his head. He'd have to pay more for the engine. Five hundred million just for the blueprints.
Xing Baohua said angrily, "If you don't give me the engine, you don't know that I'm talking to Da Lao about an acquisition. If you don't like it, I'll just replace the White Swan's engine with Da Lao's."
This move really scared Andrei; the aircraft engines made by the great Lao were still very reliable and quite famous.
They provided power systems for fighter planes during World War II.
Andrei kept nagging Xing Baohua, and in the end, he spent 600 million yuan to get all the blueprints and a set of engines.
Xing Baohua essentially swindled himself out of the money. The value of a set of four engines far exceeded 600 million yuan, yet he sold them to Xing Baohua at scrap metal prices.
If it is indeed a scrapped engine, then it will be disposed of as such.
Andrei also showed us a lot of other things, like machine tools, various scrapped cars, and small cargo ships.
Xing Baohua isn't a scrap collector, so why would he need these things? To be honest, some scrap steel is still worth buying, like scrapped T34 steel, which is great for remelting.
Many things were bought in a package, and Xing Baohua didn't know what was included in total. He asked the company secretary to follow up, and they got 50 million US dollars worth of goods.
This 50 million will need to be loaded onto several ships and transported directly back to the Shandong-Qingdao port, and then transported to central Shandong by rail.
Zhanggang Steel is located in central Shandong, which is perfect for processing. If it can't handle the demand, there are other steel companies like Laiwu Steel and Jinan Steel nearby.
As for those machine tools, they can be repaired and still be used. At worst, the China Merchants Group can pay for them and use them to support those black guys and other things outside mainland China.
It's said that Xing Baohua's money is all in the foreign exchange market. He has six or seven hundred million US dollars invested, and he's still losing money in the current market.
Given Xing Baohua's reputation, Andrei said he could provide a deposit of several hundred million, with the remainder to be paid gradually. So, as usual, the funds were transferred through Huahong Bank, which was still able to come up with three to five hundred million.
After the deposit was paid, Andrei's side began the process, with Secretary Dong still in charge of the coordination.
In the European foreign exchange market, the pound sterling fluctuated around 1.85-1.91, and quickly fell back down after reaching 1.9.
Then it slowly climbed up, inching its way up little by little. This time it wasn't exciting anymore; it was like being cut with a dull knife, dragging on and on.
The pound is testing the waters, hesitatingly probing higher levels to gauge reactions from all sides.
This kind of probing had nothing to do with Xing Baohua; they wouldn't care about his feelings at all. So he could only watch the pound rise, then fall, then rise again to break a high, and then fall back down.
The nervous ones weren't Xing Baohua, but their traders.
Although he had given all the instructions on when to cut losses and free up funds to buy more shares, Xing Baohua, who had never failed in Hong Kong and Wall Street, was forced to automatically cut his losses.
That's how finance works, and this is the foreign exchange market, which is the riskiest market and a currency war unlike stocks and futures.
When the news reached Hong Kong, many people were gloating. In the stock market, Xing Baohua's manipulation had caused countless people to suffer greatly, losing almost everything.
Although Xing Baohua did not confirm this, his Huahong Group still experienced a slight drop that day.
This small drop didn't affect the overall situation.
Shareholders worked hard to push up the stock prices of Huahong's three listed companies, only to see them plummet before they could even make a profit, so they're holding onto their shares and refusing to sell.
Without large-scale capital intervention or a significant drop in stock prices, the efforts of individual investors alone managed to hold the market together.
This is a very common situation; in some cases, even a scandal involving the chairman of a listed company can cause the stock price to fall.
But then the price rebounded. This is because ordinary investors are afraid of a drop and sell their shares, which only has a short-term impact on the price.
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