Chapter 236: Foreigner's Pressure

After a brief exchange of pleasantries, Baron He Wei immediately got to the point: "Sir Chen, have you considered investing in the automotive and semiconductor industries in England? After all, England possesses a more mature industrial system."

"Invest in England?"

Chen Jiajun rubbed his furrowed brow and sighed inwardly.

What was meant to come would come eventually.

At this very moment, he felt he could understand the dilemma faced by that semiconductor leader from Taiwan in his past life.

Setting down his wine glass, Chen Jiajun took a deep breath and said, "Baron He Wei, you should be very clear. Although England has a more mature industrial system, Hong Kong's cheap labor is something England does not possess."

"We can provide you with interest-free loans, as well as several years of tax exemptions..."

Baron He Wei had not yet finished speaking.

Chen Jiajun interrupted him: "I naturally understand, Baron He Wei. If I do not invest in England, then over the next dozen years or so, England will use all-encompassing means to suppress me and my group, won't they?"

"Sir Chen, what are you saying?"

"Sir Chen..."

Mai Lihao and Youde spoke up one after another, but Baron He Wei raised his hand to signal them to be quiet, his eyes fixed intently on Chen Jiajun.

Chen Jiajun chuckled and said, "For example, by legislating through the Hong Kong Legislative Council to force Tesla Group and Guojun Semiconductor to have more than half of their employees be non-Chinese."

"Or, for another example, by having several departments of the Hong Kong government work together to cut off the sales of certain raw materials for automobile production in Hong Kong."

"Of course, a more sophisticated method would be to force Tesla Group and Guojun Semiconductor to go public, arrange for English investors to buy the shares, dilute my stake, eventually suppress the group's stock price, and then arrange for an English automotive group to launch a takeover."

Having said this, Chen Jiajun drained the red wine in his glass:

"I understand very well that I cannot beat you at this game."

"Therefore, I will invest in England. But I have conditions. First, our loan from HSBC must be extended until next year.

Second, the investment in England must be provided with interest-free loans from you, and you must also grant me preferential treatment regarding land policy.

This is my bottom line. Otherwise, I do not agree, and at worst, we can just part ways."

Chen Jiajun knew very well that this condition was impossible for the Foreign Secretary, Baron He Wei, to accept.

The trick to negotiation lies in raising your starting point at the very beginning, so that after making concessions, your position will definitely be much better than a low starting point.

Since investing in England was already unavoidable.

Chen Jiajun naturally had to secure more benefits for himself.

However, even if it meant destroying the production lines of Tesla Group and Guojun Semiconductor in Hong Kong, Chen Jiajun was unwilling to relocate to England.

Therefore, Chen Jiajun needed to buy himself time, preferably by dragging out the negotiation.

After negotiating for a year or two, I will have already run off with Tesla and Guojun Semiconductor, damn it.

Seeing Chen Jiajun adopt a "better to be a shattered jade than an intact tile" negotiating stance right from the start, Baron He Wei, as a mature and seasoned politician, re-evaluated Chen Jiajun.

"Pour wine for Sir Chen."

Baron He Wei eased the tense atmosphere between the two sides and signaled for Youde to pour the wine.

He smiled and said, "It seems Sir Chen still has deep misunderstandings about our England, but since we both have a basis for common understanding, we can discuss the relevant details in the future."

You little brat, as long as you are on this land of Hong Kong, it is a sure thing for my British Empire to handle you.

Of course, since you are so sensible, I shouldn't push too hard.

Youde poured some red wine for Chen Jiajun, and Chen Jiajun let out a "breath" of relief, saying: "Anyway, there is plenty of time, we have plenty of time to discuss."

Baron He Wei was very satisfied with Chen Jiajun's attitude and offered a treat: "Sir Chen, as long as Tesla and Guojun Electronic Technology bring their most advanced production lines to England, I guarantee that your name will appear on next year's New Year Honours List again."

"To be honored again after only one year. Looking at the whole world, who else has such an honor? This time, we will propose to the Queen to grant you the title of KBE."

"Then thank you, Baron He Wei."

Chen Jiajun sneered inwardly, but his face remained calm.

Being awarded the CBE previously was only for business convenience and to whitewash himself; now, titles granted by the British monarch held no attraction for Chen Jiajun.

The four of them chatted for a while longer, then walked out of the small office into the reception hall.

The people in the reception hall couldn't help but cast their eyes toward Chen Jiajun. What exactly had the Foreign Secretary Baron He Wei, a member of the Iron Lady's cabinet, and the two Governors discussed with Chen Jiajun?

No one knew.

Only the Foreign Secretary and the two Governors wore smiles of victory, while Chen Jiajun remained silent, his face ashen as he left the reception directly...

The answer was self-evident.

This delighted Chen Songqing of Jianing Group, as he held a grudge against Chen Jiajun.

Watching Chen Jiajun leave, Foreign Secretary Baron He Wei revealed an imperceptible smile and said to Youde: "Youde, it is said that Sir Chen Jiajun owes HSBC billions. Is this true?"

"It is indeed true, but Foreign Secretary, this man, Sir Chen, cannot be touched. How about this, give me some time, and I will talk to him properly."

Youde immediately realized what Baron He Wei wanted to say and said somewhat embarrassedly.

Baron He Wei said: "Of course, didn't I just say I would talk to him slowly? However, some necessary pressure must be applied. You notify HSBC Group to apply some pressure and urge Sir Chen to repay the loan."

Leaving the Government House, Chen Jiajun made a call to He Guorong: "A Rong, gather all the disbanded brothers from the Political Department. Tomorrow, meet at Tuen Mun Butterfly Bay."

"Big Brother, are we starting the operation?"

Hearing this call from Chen Jiajun, He Guorong knew what Chen Jiajun was about to do.

Since half a month ago, when Chen Jiajun asked He Guorong to formulate the operation regarding Boni, He Guorong had been shocked by his Big Brother's earth-shattering strategy.

"Yes."

The next day.

In the conference room of the Guojun Group building at Tuen Mun Butterfly Bay, Chen Jiajun met with a full hundred brothers from the Political Department.

These people basically belonged to the elite among the elite agents of the Political Department. Chen Jiajun glanced over and saw Long Wu, Long Qi, and Long Jiu, whom he had met once before.

Long Wu, Captain of the 19th Company of the South Vietnamese Special Forces, former Political Department agent.

Long Jiu, younger sister of Long Wu, former Senior Inspector of the Political Department.

Long Qi, younger brother of Long Wu, former Senior Inspector of the Political Department.

On the night before the Independent Commission Against Corruption was set to move against the Political Department, He Wei, as the head of the Political Department, handed the Political Department's secret roster to Commissioner of Police Han Yili under the direction of Chen Jiajun; at the same time, he secretly dismissed about one hundred people.

This group of people was now being put to use by Chen Jiajun.

At this moment, the dismissed elites of the Political Department stared wide-eyed as Chen Jiajun walked in.

Many of them wore expressions of excitement; after all, they were well aware of Chen Jiajun's power—he was one of the most influential people in all of Hong Kong, an uncrowned king.

Being able to work under such a person, at the very least, their salaries would be significantly higher than they were in the Political Department.

"Why haven't you called out to Big Brother yet?"

Seeing his subordinates just staring with wide eyes, He Wei immediately spoke up and shouted.

"Clatter." All the former Political Department Agents stood up in unison and shouted together: "Big Brother."

The sound was loud and piercing, filled with a murderous aura.

"Please sit."

Chen Jiajun nodded with satisfaction.

After looking around the room, Chen Jiajun said in a clear voice: "Regarding the operation in Brunei—Broken Sword Operation, you are all already clear on it, right?"

"This mission has no difficulty, but it requires patience. Once successful, you will all be great heroes of Brunei, and even greater heroes of our Guojun Group."

After finishing, Chen Jiajun looked at He Wei and said: "A Rong, you arrange the specific actions."

"Yes."

He Wei nodded decisively.

The operation against Brunei could not simply be won by sending thousands of well-equipped demon slave soldiers to blast away the armed forces on the island and occupy it.

If Chen Jiajun really used such a simple and brutal method to occupy Brunei Island.

I fear it wouldn't be long before relevant forces landed on Brunei Island, and then, without dispute, hunted him down across the world as a criminal who had committed crimes against humanity.

Brunei is a country with a seat at the United Nations; the twentieth century is not the Victorian era, and issues of sovereignty are not a joke.

A place established by illegally occupying the territory of another country is not called a nation.

That is called a pirate gang, or terrorists.

Therefore, the first step of Broken Sword Operation is for the former Political Department personnel to infiltrate Brunei, find suitable seeds within Brunei Island, and support a puppet regime.

For a small country with a population of 50,000, the difficulty is not great.

After announcing the start of Broken Sword Operation, Chen Jiajun immediately called over several elders of the Tuen Mun Lu Family, the Four Heavenly Kings of Tuen Mun—Lu Jinqiang, Lu Yongfu, Lu Jianbo, and Lu Yongquan—as well as Luo Yongjiu and others from Shatin.

"A Jun, where did you kidnap my daughter to? She hasn't been back for a month or two now. What on earth are you people up to?"

"Lu Taigong" Lu Hantao shouted angrily as soon as he entered the Chairman's office.

Others at his age were living lives of leisure, surrounded by children and grandchildren.

Only he was left alone.

His only daughter didn't care about the family; not only did she not care, she didn't even come home.

Not coming home would be one thing, but the key was that she had been living with Chen Jiajun for so long and still hadn't produced a child.

This made Lu Hantao unable to hold his head up in front of his friends.

If it weren't for the busy affairs of Tuen Mun and the Lu Family, he would have already used his cane to beat this bastard who kidnapped his daughter to death.

"Tao Shu, children and grandchildren have their own fortunes, why do you worry so much?"

"That's right, Tao Shu. Young people today prioritize their careers."

"Tao Shu, sit."

Lu Huangfa, Lu Yeqiang, Lu Jinqiang, Lu Yongbo, and others spoke up one after another.

"Dad, I encountered some things in Hong Kong, so I haven't dared to let them return to Hong Kong recently." Chen Jiajun felt slightly guilty.

Chen Jiajun's "Dad" sounded very pleasant, awakening the softness deep within Lu Hantao's heart.

He stopped blowing his beard and glaring, and asked with concern: "A Jun, what exactly happened? What did that English Foreign Secretary say to you yesterday?"

"A Jun, is the reason you called us over today related to this matter?"

As the number two figure of the Lu Family and Chairman of the New Territories Heung Yee Kuk, Lu Huangfa also asked.

Chen Jiajun said in a deep voice: "Foreign Secretary Baron He Wei wants me to move the Tesla and Guojun Electronic Games factories to England. I am currently stalling for time, preparing to transfer these two factories to the Guojun Industrial Zone in the Mainland."

Chen Jiajun knew very well that what Baron He Wei said yesterday about investing in England was just a pretext.

The ultimate goal was definitely to move the production lines of these two factories entirely to England.

For now, he could only transfer these two factories to the Mainland first.

Upon hearing this, Lu Hantao was immediately furious, stood up abruptly, and said: "What? Those Gweilo want to snatch our Tuen Mun factories?"

Lu Huangfa put down his teacup, his expression also looking quite ugly: "A Jun, you aren't joking?"

Both of them knew what this meant.

Currently, there were about twenty thousand workers in the New Territories working under Chen Jiajun's various industries, among whom about five thousand worked in the car factory and the electronic games factory.

Once Chen Jiajun moved these two factories to the Mainland, it meant that over five thousand people would be unemployed.

Chen Jiajun nodded and continued: "Don't worry, I will immediately clear out positions at the Guojun Garment Factory to arrange work for the New Territories villagers first; I will arrange for the Hung Hing Big Dipper at the Guojun Garment Factory to go to the Mainland. I gathered you all here today for this very matter.

I can only do this for now; I, Chen Jiajun, do not want to be a dog for the Gweilo."

"Ring-ring."

Just then, the telephone rang.

Chen Jiajun picked up the phone; it was HSBC Chief Executive Shen Bi calling, "Sir Chen, is there some misunderstanding between you and Foreign Secretary Baron He Wei?"

Chen Jiajun made a gesture for silence and pressed the speakerphone: "Mr. Shen, what's the matter?"

"Sir Chen, the English Foreign Office has issued an order requiring us at HSBC to withdraw the 9.5 billion loan involving Guojun Group. If you have a misunderstanding with He Wei, resolve it as soon as possible; otherwise, we at HSBC will have no choice but to withdraw the loan."

Shen Bi was also having a massive headache right now.

"Thank you for the reminder, Mr. Shen. I have some things to attend to here; I will call you back later." After finishing, Chen Jiajun hung up the phone.

Draining the tea in his cup in one gulp, Chen Jiajun looked around and sighed, "Everyone, time is pressing."

Lu Hantao roared like an enraged tiger, "A Jun, don't you worry, our tens of thousands of people in Tuen Mun are your backing. Fuck their mothers, whoever makes our Tuen Mun people lose their jobs is our enemy. That Gweilo He Wei, right? Even if I, Lu Hantao, have to risk this old life of mine, I will keep these two factories."

Lu Huangfa slammed his teacup onto the table and said, "That's right, we in Tuen Mun, we in the New Territories, have so many villagers; we will not bow our heads to the Gweilo."

"Everyone, I have already made a decision on this matter," Chen Jiajun shook his head and said.

Upon hearing this, Lu Hantao walked up to Chen Jiajun and said loudly, "A Jun, what do you mean? I'm asking you, everyone calls you the Hong Kong King, have you become a coward who decides to just run away?"

Chen Jiajun sighed and said, "That's not what I mean. It's just that my current focus of work is not here; I don't have the energy to get too entangled with the Gweilo, and I also don't want to get you all involved."

Lu Huangfa said, "What do you mean by not letting us get involved? Tesla and Guojun Electronic Games are not just your factories; they are the pride of our Tuen Mun."

"The moment the Gweilo touches these two factories, we are already unable to stay out of it."

"A Jun, I know you have more important things to do. How about this, leave this matter to us old bones," Lu Hantao said in a deep voice.

Lu Tiansheng patted his chest and said, "Right, leave this matter to us old folks. Whoever touches our lifeline, they'll have to step over my corpse first."

"Tao Shu, Fa Shu, Jiu Shu. You don't need to do this, you old guys. We in Tuen Mun still have so many young and able-bodied people; we aren't dead yet," Lu Jinqiang stood up.

"Right, we aren't dead yet. You old guys don't need to stand in front of us. If the Gweilo wants to touch our factories, we'll fight them to the death."

"Smash the Government House too."

"Fight them to the end."

Lu Yongfu, Lu Jianbo, Lu Yongquan, Lu Yeqiang, and others stood up one after another to express their stance.

Chen Jiajun looked at everyone and was unable to speak for a moment.

Many times, when facing the behemoth of the Hong Kong government and England, Chen Jiajun knew very well that he could not drag the Hongxing into this.

Because once they were dragged in, the nature of the matter would change.

Facing a triad, if the Hong Kong government really struck with lethal intent, the Hongxing would face a situation of no return.

However, what he did not expect was that these villagers in Tuen Mun, who looked like they lacked culture, would stand behind him without hesitation.

Chen Jiajun stood up and said solemnly, "Are you sure?"

"A Jun, why are you being so long-winded?" Lu Taigong glared with wide eyes.

"A Jun, how can you be so indecisive about this kind of thing?" Lu Huangfa said with iron-willed integrity.

"Fine."

Chen Jiajun agreed in one breath. He said slowly, "Dad, Fa Shu, besides the five thousand employees in Tuen Mun, my car factory and electronic game console factory also have thousands of villagers from various walled villages in the New Territories. You all communicate with the other walled villages and stay put for now. I will go and have a meeting with them."

……

Afternoon.

HSBC Group conference room.

Chen Jiajun brought the Founder of Tianbo Law Firm, Owens, as well as Huang Dawen and others to meet with the senior management of HSBC. Since Baron He Wei wanted to use aggressive means to force him to submit, he could also use the barbarians' own methods against them.

Therefore, right from the start, Chen Jiajun brought along several senior Queen's Counsel.

Shen Bi, bringing the General Manager of HSBC, Pu Weishi, gave a helpless, bitter smile as soon as he entered the conference room.

"Mr. Shen, is it certain that HSBC must proceed with the withdrawal of loan?" Chen Jiajun looked at Shen Bi, who was sitting opposite him, with an expressionless face.

Shen Bi shook his head and smiled bitterly, "I'm sorry, Sir Chen. Although according to the contract, the repayment deadline has not yet arrived, the pressure from the England Ministry of Foreign Affairs is imminent. I can only try my best to delay it for you..."

"Fine, Mr. Shen, you don't need to say any more."

Chen Jiajun waved his hand and, while smoking a cigar, said, "Since HSBC has already made up its mind, then our Guojun Group can only handle matters according to the regulations. We will entrust the relevant legal work to Tianbo Law Firm to negotiate with your bank."

"Sir Chen, let's discuss things properly. My meaning is that I will try my best to delay time for you, and also give you time to raise the funds as soon as possible."

Shen Bi hurriedly waved his hands to explain; even a behemoth like HSBC had to be three parts wary when facing Tianbo Law Firm.

Queen's Counsel Owens coughed and said, "Shen Bi, my client's loan contracts with HSBC: one is for 5 billion Hong Kong dollars, with a repayment deadline in September, currently 4 months remaining. One is for 1.5 billion, with a repayment deadline in 【month missing】, currently 6 months remaining. There is another one for 3 billion..."

"A total of 9.5 billion."

"Our Tianbo Law Firm's position is that both sides should reach a private agreement as much as possible, to avoid unpleasantness in court."

"My client, Sir Chen's bottom line is that he can repay the debt, but because HSBC is in breach of contract first, he will not pay the relevant interest."

Shen Bi immediately felt the pain; one must know that the annual interest on the 5 billion loan was as high as 700 million, and the interest on the 1.5 billion loan was 210 million—this was 910 million.

He hurriedly said, "Sir Chen, we are all our own people, let's talk things over. Can you let me communicate with Baron He Wei?"

"No need to communicate. Shen Bi, this is my condition now. Since HSBC wants to withdraw the loan, I will pay it back as soon as possible to save others from mocking me for defaulting on debts. But since you at HSBC breached the contract first, I won't pay the interest."

Chen Jiajun waved his hand domineeringly. The members of the Landlord Association had already gathered all the funds from the Japan stock market. Since HSBC breached the contract, he could also play the rogue and default on the interest.

"How about this, everyone sit for a moment. We at HSBC will immediately hold a meeting and give you an answer by this afternoon at the latest, how about that?" Shen Bi sighed and said.

Chen Jiajun nodded, "That's fine."

After seeing Chen Jiajun and the others off, Shen Bi immediately went to see the Foreign Secretary, Baron He Wei, and recounted the results of the morning's communication: "... most importantly, this is a very significant blow to the reputation of our HSBC."

"Hehe, Shen Bi, you haven't been scared off by Sir Chen's bluffing, have you?" Baron He Wei said while swirling his wine glass.

Shen Bi smoked his cigar and shook his head, "Baron He Wei, regarding banking affairs, I believe I have more say than you."

"This person Chen Jiajun never plays by the rules. Moreover, Huo Yingnan of You Rong, He Xin of Aomen Entertainment, Lin Mingze of the Lin Xishen family, and Bao Yugang of Global are all his close friends. What if these Chinese tycoons help him get through this crisis together?"

He did not dare to take this risk. Shen Bi knew deeply the spirit of mutual aid among the Chinese. If Chen Jiajun really raised the funds and repaid the loan, who would he go to to reason with?

(End of this chapter)