"Woo..."
A long and shrill train whistle woke Zhao Xiaohai from his deep sleep. Wiping the cold sweat from his forehead caused by the nightmare, he sat up, gently lifted the curtain on the window in front of his head, and looked outside cautiously.
At this time, the train had just entered Irkutsk. Looking towards the border station, one could vaguely see Soviet border guards armed with live ammunition patrolling back and forth at the port.
"Brother Hai, where are we?" Li Qiang, who was sleeping opposite, was obviously woken up by the sound of Zhao Xiaohai getting up. He leaned forward, wiped his sleepy eyes, and asked drowsily.
"We've entered the Russians' territory." Zhao Xiaohai picked up his cup, took a big gulp of the overnight cold tea, and then answered absentmindedly.
It is now 1986, and Sino-Soviet trade was normalized in 1987. However, some people have already followed the first group of Chinese businessmen who entered the Soviet Union as clerks, and after a few years they started to work on their own as traders.
Those who have this vision are not ordinary people, and the most representative one is Mou Zonghong.
It can be said that Mou Zhexi was the one who led a group of people to become profiteers.
In fact, Sino-Soviet border trade has never stopped, and it was mainly small-scale smuggling. However, after 1985, the country began to explore the possibility of Sino-Soviet trade.
Otherwise, Zhao Xiaohai wouldn't have been able to get two carloads to load the goods.
Zhao Xiaohai also understood that this was the beginning of the country testing the waters and planting experimental fields.
A lot of trials are needed before a formal policy is introduced.
Everyone is well aware of the situation in the Soviet Union at that time. People there were rich. Even a small worker earned more than 100 rubles a month. According to the international currency trading price, one ruble could be exchanged for 2.8 US dollars. In terms of RMB, one ruble was equal to nearly 30 yuan.
But the only value of this money is to be used to buy goods. As far as the banknote itself is concerned, it is no different from a piece of waste paper - no, perhaps it is even worse than waste paper. At least it can be used to wipe your butt.
During this period, the Soviet Union experienced a strange phenomenon: goods were in short supply, store shelves were bare, and to buy anything, not only did one have to pay for it, but also needed a "purchase ticket" issued by the civil service. In short, ordinary people had money but couldn't buy anything, and their vast rubles were worthless except when stored in the bank.
Zhao Xiaohai did not have any profound cultural background, and of course it was even less likely that he knew the various issues in economic relations. The only thing he knew was that doing business with the Russians was easy and profitable.
He just needs to be able to speak a few simple Russian words, such as "Hala Shao" (good), "Oqin Halashao" (very good), "Dala Weijie" (hello), "Dawalishi" (comrade), and count on his fingers.
Those Russians are very generous, so generous that they are stupid. They will happily spend forty or fifty rubles to buy a low-quality down jacket that is not worth even twenty or thirty yuan in China; they are willing to spend thousands of rubles at a time to buy a whole pig that you just put on the shelf; they will compete with each other in bidding for a box of canned fish, and fight each other to the point of bloodshed.
As one of the first businessmen to enter the Soviet Union after the country's border trade trial was opened, Zhao Xiao was certain that he would make a fortune in the next three or four years. A net worth of one million four hundred thousand or five hundred thousand a year might not be a big deal in China a few decades later, but in this era, he would be considered a wealthy man.
Now that the Soviet Union is about to disintegrate, it is a treasure land full of business opportunities. In this situation, if he does not seize the time to deal in some pork, low-quality canned food, down jackets and the like, he will be a huge idiot.
This is also the main reason why Zhao Xiaohai decided to take the risk and come to the Soviet Union in person after feeling that the channel through Frunze was not working.
People want to live a life of great success. If they only want to make a little money and live a stable life, then they are not Zhao Xiaohai. He has ambitions, huge ambitions. If he expresses his ambitions at this time, it is estimated that it will scare the train off the tracks.
This time when he left Zhongyuan Province, Zhao Xiaohai brought with him 300,000 rubles in cash and goods worth nearly 500,000 yuan - cigarettes and canned food.
Originally, according to the plan, he wanted to exchange the cash into US dollars in China, but this idea is still a luxury in the current domestic environment. The Russian ruble is not subject to this restriction. Zhao Xiaohai thought that the People's Bank of China should also be aware of the potential crisis in the Soviet Union, and an unprecedented ruble devaluation storm is about to come.
"Brother, what are you thinking about?" Li Qiang jumped down from the upper bunk and said while putting on his clothes.
"Oh, nothing." Zhao Xiaohai came back to his senses, glanced at his younger brother, smiled and said, "Wake up your sister Jin. We'll probably be in Irkutsk in about ten minutes. Hurry and pack your things so you can deal with the border guards in Irkutsk."
"No need to call me, I've been awake for a long time," a clear voice called out, and then, it pulled open the curtains and shouted, "Xiao Hai, are we here already? This is that Irkutsk?!"
Jin Lulu shook her hair, leaned her little head against the car window and looked around, then said with a pout, "It doesn't look that great, so stingy, not even as good as our Greentown."
"Haha, you're right. This place is indeed not as good as Greentown." Zhao Xiaohai gestured for his sister to sit on the berth opposite him, then said with a smile, "But here, we can earn money that we couldn't make in Greentown."
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