Goods entering North Korea via Yanji and Longjing were subject to more complex procedures. All convoys entering North Korea were required to immediately complete a transfer process. The cargo must be quickly transferred to military vehicles assigned by Park Jin-eun and then transported to Zaoshan Bay within two days. Within these two days, all entry and exit procedures for the goods were completed.
The goods were loaded at Zaoshan Bay and sailed north. After reaching the waters off Posiet Bay, they were delivered to a waiting Soviet military vessel. From there, they were immediately transported to Posiet Harbor. In this way, Zhao's Trading Company's exports completed the re-export process via North Korea in less than four days, ultimately reaching the Soviet Far East Military District.
Currently, factional strife within the Soviet Far Eastern Military District was quite serious, but thanks to the covert manipulation of those with ulterior motives, this factional struggle had no impact on Zhao Xiaohai's business. His goods were unloaded at the port of Posyet and then escorted by a special Soviet troop to Ussuriysk. There, they were loaded onto a specially dispatched military train, passing through Khabarovsk and Birobidzhan before finally arriving in Blagoveshchensk, completing the entire shipment process.
As the company's financial director, Jin Lulu was the only person besides Zhao Xiaohai and Brother Bao who understood the entire shipping process. When she first learned about this inside story, she stared in unladylike amazement, her mouth hanging open. She was dazed for a long time. In her opinion, Zhao Xiaohai wasn't just trading anymore; it was more like providing logistics for frontline troops during wartime. She couldn't understand why those arrogant Russian soldiers would cooperate with him so honestly.
What's the most profitable business these days? In the past, Leopard Brother would have answered: Lending money. If asked what's more lucrative than lending money, he'd have replied: Robbing a bank. Now, if asked what's more lucrative than robbing a bank, he'd answer without hesitation: Import and export business with the "little foxes."
Indeed, for Brother Leopard, this June was definitely a golden June. In just half a month, as the first batch of goods were sold in the Soviet Union, Zhao's Import and Export Trading Company transferred a profit share of 2.1 million yuan to his account, and this amount of money was equivalent to his total capital income for the whole of last year.
Such huge profits obviously stimulated Brother Leopard. In order to ship as much as possible and make more money, he tried his best and used various names to open more than a dozen shell import and export trading companies in several cities in order to obtain more import and export quotas.
Later, as the Soviet market became increasingly short of daily necessities, Leopard realized the wisdom of his decision. His monthly profits, calculated at the end of the month, almost doubled. In Jin Lulu's words, they weren't making money; they were robbing it.
However, what Leopard never could have imagined was that the profits he reaped from Zhao's Import and Export Trading Company were less than 12% of the company's actual net income. The "little fox" he referred to had, through inflated shipping prices and excessive depreciation orders, directly siphoned off over 30% of the company's net income. Leopard was indeed a very experienced businessman, adept at checking accounts, but unfortunately, he had no knowledge of the sales situation in the Soviet Union. To be frank, even if he knew the company's accounts were false, he would have had no way to verify them.
Who was Zhao Xiaohai? It could be argued that in his previous life, he lived solely to deal with his partners. Furthermore, he had already established a firm foothold in the Soviet Union. If necessary, the entire Soviet Far East trade port, even the Russian foreign trade companies, would collude with him to commit fraud. In this situation, what role could a single person like Leopard play?
So, how much did Zhao Xiaohai earn from the first trade in June? Apart from Zhao Xiaohai, no one else would know this, and even if others knew, they would probably find it hard to believe.
A 500-gram bag of soy sauce, shipped from China to North Korea and then back to Blagoveshchensk, netted 1.94 rubles per bag after deducting shipping costs, necessary depreciation, and taxes, equivalent to a net profit of $5 per bag. A 50-kilogram bag of flour, after deducting costs and taxes, netted over 47 rubles per bag, equivalent to a net profit of $131.6 per bag. A pure cotton spring shirt for adults, after deducting costs and taxes, netted nearly 100 rubles per piece, equivalent to a net profit of $280 per piece... If such staggering profit figures were made public, who would believe them? Who would dare to believe them? Yet, it is the truth, a truth that could not be truer.
The gradual depletion of market supply has caused the prices of daily necessities in the Soviet Union to soar. The above profit data are only for June, and by July and August, the prices of daily necessities will increase even more sharply. For Zhao Xiaohai, the golden age of exchanging flour for Lada cars is about to come.
However, the soaring prices also made Zhao Xiaohai feel a crisis. Everyone knows that soaring prices are actually equivalent to inflation. In the case of inflation, once the Soviet government relaxes its supervision of monetary finance, the crazy devaluation of the ruble will follow.
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