Chapter 189: This Is the Real Declaration of War

"Declaring war?"

That night, Su Xin sat in his study, watching the many media outlets' takes on the matter online, and couldn't help but smile.

"This is merely non-cooperation."

"The true declaration of war is still to come."

The corners of his mouth turned up, revealing a cold sneer.

At noon, after he had urgently ordered the group to issue the relevant announcement, there were actually other arrangements that were inconvenient to make public.

The so-called three retaliatory measures were just a way to vent anger on the surface.

This announcement was equivalent to telling the whole world that he was angry and would no longer cooperate with Sakura Country; such behavior was essentially devoid of any aggression, and no one could condemn him for it.

After all, Tianqi Group was his, and he had the right to decide who to cooperate with and who not to; such behavior did not violate any international laws, including anti-monopoly laws, in the slightest.

What's more, he was in the right to begin with.

And the means Su Xin was truly prepared to use for an attack, which were not suitable for public disclosure, were of two kinds—

Financial warfare and cyber warfare.

One must know that Tianqi Group had previously spent over 800 billion in funds to acquire shares in or purchase a total of several thousand enterprises globally, among which it had invested about 100 billion Long Coins in the Sakura Country market alone.

This money allowed Tianqi Group's reach to extend into every industry in Sakura Country, including but not limited to courier logistics, film and television entertainment, food, clothing, housing and transportation, finance and insurance, energy and chemicals, mineral resources, real estate and property, and so on.

Moreover, it had grasped a relatively high level of influence in many of these industries; after all, 100 billion Long Coins was truly not a small sum.

Su Xin's so-called financial warfare.

It was to utilize the shares he held in these various Sakura Country enterprises to stir up market trends in related industries through large-scale sell-offs, thereby causing stock market volatility.

Then, he would use the massive cash flow of over 100 billion in his hands to stir up trouble in the Sakura Country stock market.

Su Xin had already issued an urgent order for everyone in the group's Financial Management Department to stop all their current work and concentrate all capital and personnel resources on the Sakura Country financial market.

Stocks, futures, funds, foreign exchange, and so on—all financial products would be tools Su Xin used to wage financial war against Sakura Country.

Tianqi Group's strength was, of course, no match for the entire Sakura Country, but in the financial market, defense is always much harder than offense.

Furthermore, the liquid capital Su Xin had mobilized amounted to over 100 billion, and when added to the assets such as stocks held within the Sakura Country market, it totaled over 200 billion; this was several times more than the capital controlled by Ross, the "bad boy of the financial world" who had once sniped the currencies of multiple Asian countries and caused financial crises in several nations.

Although Sakura Country is a developed nation with an annual GDP as high as 20 to 30 trillion Long Coins, which sounds terrifying, it is not that easy to mobilize hundreds of billions of Long Coins for financial defense.

Plus.

Su Xin did not need to defeat Sakura Country, nor was he considering making money from it; even if he suffered losses himself, it did not matter. Therefore, he only needed to pry open the market and trigger turmoil in the Sakura Country financial market to cause major losses to the entire Sakura Country.

For him, there was no difficulty at all.

As for cyber warfare, that was another even greater trump card, it just needed to wait for the right time.

The next morning.

After Su Xin got up and washed, he stretched his body in the villa courtyard, looked at the clear, cloudless sky, and felt the warm, gentle sunlight, his mood becoming much more relaxed.

After Liu Xuewei also got up, the two of them set off together for the city.

However, at Liu Xuewei's strong insistence, they still brought along two extra bodyguards.

Today was the opening day of Tianfu Mall, so both of them had gotten up relatively early, and it was only a little past nine o'clock when they arrived in the city center.

On the plaza at the entrance of Tianfu Mall, there was a sea of people, and the sound of shouting was incessant.

Some staff members wearing work uniforms printed with the words "Tianfu Mall" stood behind individual small stalls, distributing various gifts to everyone.

At the main entrance behind them, people were coming and going in an endless stream, many of them carrying large and small bags with joyful smiles on their faces.

"It looks quite lively."

"Let's go, let's go in and take a look."

Su Xin smiled and, holding Liu Xuewei's hand, walked toward the mall entrance.

Xiang Lianyun and the other three spread out slightly, their gazes vigilantly observing the surroundings.

Soon, the group merged into the crowd one after another, slowly flowing into the entrance with the crowd.

The interior of the mall was even livelier.

Everywhere were hung small fire-red lanterns, along with various festive red decorations, making people feel the joy of the New Year.

From the moment they entered the door, there were dedicated staff members carefully guiding everyone to place their personal belongings and collect shopping carts; the various thoughtful services made many people feel flattered, but more than that, they felt happy and satisfied.

And while Su Xin was leisurely strolling through the mall.

The Sakura Country stock market also opened.

Many investors were surprised to find that a large sell-off wave had appeared for many stocks.

The sheer volume of these stocks and the breadth of their scope left many investors in shock.

At a glance.

It was almost entirely massive sell orders.

It gave the illusion that the entire stock market was dumping stocks in large quantities.

Even if some of them were high-quality stocks that many people were optimistic about, under such a frantic sell-off, no one dared to step in to buy.

Everyone realized that the Sakura Country stock market had been attacked by a certain large capital conglomerate.

Combined with the news that had shocked the world last night, everyone knew without having to think that this matter must be the work of the Tianqi Group under Su Xin's name.

The top brass of Sakura Country immediately convened an emergency meeting, arranging to mobilize a large amount of funds, which poured into the stock market in a continuous stream, constantly buying up the various stocks being sold off by Tianqi Group.

However, although Sakura Country is the third-largest country in the world by GDP, there are also many places where money needs to be spent, and it was impossible to mobilize a cash flow at the level of 100 billion Long Coins in a short period of time.

Therefore.

Even though Sakura Country kept buying, it was no match for the massive sell orders from Tianqi Group.

This led to the stock prices of various Sakura Country stocks beginning to fall continuously.

Of course.

Stock investors all knew that this was different from the situation when Thor Battery was first released.

These abnormal sell-offs in the stock market were merely a means used by Tianqi Group to attack the Sakura Country stock market, and did not mean that Sakura Country actually had any major negative news.

As long as they could withstand the pressure, the stock market would eventually stabilize, and stock prices would eventually return to their proper levels; therefore, although everyone felt somewhat nervous about the situation in the stock market, it was not enough to trigger a wave of selling.

At most, only a small number of people were worried about the risks and followed Tianqi Group in selling off, preferring to cash out and leave as soon as possible, even if it meant suffering losses.

Sakura Country was not particularly worried about this.

By the afternoon at the latest, they would be able to mobilize enough funds to take over all the stocks sold by Tianqi Group.

Furthermore, major companies were also buying back their own stocks to prevent share prices from falling.

It was equivalent to the Sakura Country government and private enterprises working together to resist the attack from Tianqi Group.

For the Sakura Country government, this financial attack by Tianqi Group, while bringing great pressure, was far from being a crisis.

If it were only this, the turbulence in the Sakura Country stock market would be at most temporary, and the decline in stock prices would only be a brief slump.

But in reality.

Another big problem was what truly made the Sakura Country government the most nervous and worried—

That was the Sakura Country automotive industry.