Chapter 513

·

·

·

Protagonist:

Chen Yi

Since the Magic Subway became portable, the West River City Fortress's material reserves have proceeded very smoothly. The monthly target of 200,000 tons was broken through in one go, and even 500,000 tons is easily achieved.

For a tens-of-millions-level city like Jiangning, 200,000 tons of materials isn't even enough for daily basic supply rations, but for the West River Water Fortress, a transport volume of 500,000 tons leaves a considerable surplus. Consequently, besides the increase in living materials and stockpiling of production materials, the West River Association's orders have also increased to a considerable degree.

Shipload after shipload of materials are unloaded at the Jiangbei Wharf District, and after inspection and order allocation, they are loaded into the Magic Subway by Divine Art Knights and Martial Arts Hall Students, then await the time to be sent to the West Continent.

Chen Zhongguo's party totaled over thirty people, men and women, old and young all present. They arrived sneakily riding in a bulletproof truck, leaving Chen Yi, who was waiting there, unsure whether to laugh or cry.

"Against the Americans' satellites." Chen Ye coughed awkwardly. The bulletproof truck was brought back by him; in the Jiangning area there absolutely isn't such a bizarre piece of equipment.

Chen Yi laughed heartily a couple of times. After teasing this usually rigorous elder cousin enough, he then broke into a smile, like a guide facing a tour group, and shouted to the old master's party: "Everyone, my shack here blocks UV, infrared, radar, all kinds of signal transmission. Near ones I can't speak for, but spy satellites and such are nothing to worry about. So, laugh if you want to laugh, play if you want to play. Please come this way."

He led the way at the front, heading into the warehouse.

The Japanese craftsmanship and technology were quite good. Not only did they build an extremely important transportation system, but they also left considerable margin, allowing for calm remodeling and expansion of demand.

The newly built bulk warehouse is spacious like the Saint Qiao Kingdom's Magic Square, a place capable of holding 1 million tons of grain, timber, or natural rubber, all erected with steel structures, facilitating both material storage and concealment.

Among the thirty-plus people, the key figures number only seven, representing the Chen Clan's core strength. Among them are representatives of important families within the Chen Clan, as well as lone wolves rising straight to the blue clouds. Maternal great-uncle Xu Chengchu is also among them.

These seven people each bring along some people they trust and Chen Zhongguo trusts. Among them are academic experts and professors, as well as aides in politics, economics, and even party and mass work. Everyone's goal is very clear: to prove, or rather to witness, the existence of the West Continent.

A new world — for any person on the Blue Planet, this signifies a major change. Any tiny detail of information could change the world.

Crucial key moments are the true moments that reflect a person's value.

Who can participate? Who is willing to participate? How many people can they bring? What kind of people can they bring? Every minute and every second changes each person's fate.

Subtle and gradual influence!

Unwavering determination!

Chen Ye came on behalf of his father Chen Guoliang. Because they are of the same junior generation, he stuck close to Chen Yi, and couldn't help but exclaim in admiration: "Heard you bought a port, already thought that was a big move where you'd have no worries about food and drink. Didn't expect your big move was hidden inside the port."

"Back then I actually didn't think that much." Chen Yi had to be honest.

"It's luck and also strength. But when that wormhole opened, it really wouldn't be monitored by American satellites?"

"Silent, noiseless, no omen — if that's what you're asking."

Chen Ye laughed heartily and said: "Still giving Eldest Brother this treatment? Your place is going to get lively very soon."

Chen Yi smiled faintly and did not explain the Magic Subway's new property of being able to move.

The thirty-plus people "sightseeing" together included some listening to Chen Yi speak, and some completely not listening, focused on observing.

Language can sometimes be misleading. When a person encounters a critically important matter, they should first remember every piece of information they can remember.

For future analysis, first-hand data is extremely precious.

Everything happening now, in the eyes of the sightseers, is the most precious first-hand data.

"So much natural rubber — it's from the West Continent, right?" The speaker was a woman who looked shrewd and capable, pointed chin, short hair, wearing invisible contact lenses, dressed in a Chanel suit, exceptionally conspicuous among a group of male social elites.

This was the first relevant question; over half the people turned their heads.

Chen Yi remembered the other party's name and smiled in reply: "Ms. Tong? Natural rubber has the best sales channel."

The answer contained very broad meaning; different people could taste three or four layers of meaning from it.

Ms. Tong examined the busy loading and unloading site and praised: "International market rubber prices have changed dramatically; we were all wondering — so the root is here."

As with most industrial products, from the discovery of natural rubber to natural rubber taking off, it still went through 8 months to a year of preparation time. The West Continent not only expanded its own rubber-tapping slave teams, but also through profits from various light industrial products and cold weapons, firmly attracted merchants from various temples — the West River Water Fortress managing over a hundred thousand slaves is quite difficult, but established chambers of commerce can easily employ several million people to work. Natural rubber forests in the West Continent cannot be called widely distributed, but if you want to find them you can always find them. It can be foreseen that if Chen Yi's high-price purchasing measures continue for a few more years, there will certainly be people willing to plant or transplant rubber on their own, seeking higher costs.

This is just like China's market after the Opium War. Foreign enterprises with capital and funding advantages, whether they wanted tung oil or pig bristles, would have large batches of landlords expand production, large batches of wharf workers and boatmen specializing in transport, and large numbers of national capitalists doing reprocessing.

No one is right or wrong; that invisible hand will naturally play its role.

Before meeting the "sightseers," Chen Yi had long since prepared an outline: what questions could be answered, what questions could not be answered — he had a clear bottom line in his heart.

Now speaking of the natural rubber matter, he directly said: "An Indonesian Chinese's self-built company has almost entirely packaged my natural rubber. The rubber from the West Continent has slightly special composition, so new factories must be debugged. The current situation is insufficient division of labor; although the integrated production profit is high, the prospect for increasing it is not large."

"Mr. Chen has far-sighted vision." A quite obvious flattery, but coming from the lady it felt remarkably natural.

Passing the rubber zone, next came the ore and various metal zones. Newly mined rare earths piled up like mountains, continuous and unbroken.

Zhang Pei, from a central ministry/commission, had his eyes light up. He took three steps in two, ran out of the group, cupped a handful of rare earth and rubbed and sniffed it.

"Fluorocarbon cerium ore? Good stuff. How large are the reserves?"

"5 million tons."

"What's the output? There's twenty or thirty thousand tons here, right?" Zhang Pei ran to the front again. After a while, accompanied by Martial Arts Hall Students, he came back and asked in astonishment: "You're preparing to sell the rare earths? Or sell to Japan? The more rare earths they stockpile, the firmer their grip on pricing power. Doing this is giving money to them."

Chen Yi didn't even turn his head. He first flipped open the name list, glanced at it twice, then shook his head and said: "What a waste that you're a cadre from a ministry/commission. I just thought you were from a school."

Finishing speaking, he smiled at the several professors and said: "No belittling intended. Officials consider politics; scholars consider technology."

Zhang Pei was shamed until his face flushed red. He was from the Zhang Family's collateral branch, and had barely competed for this "supposedly important opportunity" quota. His first performance failed, and a bad feeling instantly rose.

Fortunately the final destination was about to be reached. Chen Yi did not continue mocking, but turned to explain: "Developing a new world costs money. What value do saving and frugality have? Forming a virtuous production cycle as quickly as possible is the most important. Otherwise, just the food, drink, clothing, and use of several hundred thousand people would worry me to death. Environmental protection and such tricks — wait until you've reached the West Continent to talk about them."

Chen Yi values rare earths quite highly.

Of course not their "collection" value, but their sales value.

No matter how advanced bacterial metallurgy is, rare earths where one shovel digs up a stack of money are the best resources for the West Continent to mine. Once the mining area is determined, a group of slaves and large livestock are driven in, and in no more than a few days a huge pit appears. Add some mechanized equipment, and the mining volume exceeds even the subway transport capacity.

Previously when the subway couldn't be portable, loading volume and frequency were much less, so metals with high unit value were naturally doubly favored. Now it's different. Chen Yi even directly purchases ores from other temples, ships them all back to Earth in one go, then sells them to enterprises within the West River Association. Although the profit margin has decreased, the total profit amount is increasing.

Zhang Pei's embarrassment no one cared about. Instead, a few of the wealthy gentlemen from the West Continent imagined in their minds and their gazes grew more eager. But the seven core representatives turned a deaf ear.

Once the West Continent's existence is proven, depending on its wealth level, the first thing to change will be the power division within the Chen Clan, and only then the nation's.

Without a doubt, the Chen Family, which controls the "wormhole," will establish an unshakeable supreme power. Any changes the seven families make for this will carry indescribable risk.

The mere profits from natural rubber and rare earth resources are not worthy of a brand new continent's title.

Pushing open a pure steel gate, the silver-white subway came into view.

8 sections long, refreshing like a gluttonous skinny man.

Several hundred Martial Arts Hall students worked with vigorous energy.

"So this is a wormhole?" Chen Ye's sci-fi complex was twisting.

Following his question, a mournful ship's whistle "woo-woo" sounded, and the students withdrew from the platform like flowing water. Various machinery also slowly retracted.

"Come in." Only Chen Yi could adjust the subway; while others hesitated at the doorway for a moment, they entered one after another, driven by curiosity.

22:30.

After a brief, almost non-existent transition time, the political travelers stepped into the Light Gate one after another.

A flash of white light passed in an instant.

When they opened their eyes again, everyone appeared three kilometers from the hot and humid West Continent Transport Village.

Reinforced concrete bunkers, organized armored vehicles on Level 1 alert, fully concealed rapid-fire cannons, and minefields stretching several kilometers wide...

"Just like WWII." The only two old men in the tour group pushed away their grandsons' support and went to touch Divine Art Knight Yin Senchen's face first.

Chen Yi was startled and hurriedly stopped them, pointing at the group of Yin Sen Family Divine Art Knights and saying: "They are your bodyguards on the West Continent. These are all local Noble Knights, with extremely high status; you must show them sufficient respect."

A joke — touching a Divine Art Knight is like letting a rutting zebra rape a lion; it's simply a self-service lewd banquet.

"Visit time is 10 hours; you are free to move about and see whatever you want."

Proving the West Continent's existence is the first priority; proving the West Continent's value is the second priority. Chen Yi knew very well what the politicians wanted to see.

... (Unfinished. If you like this work, welcome to Qidian (qidian. com) to cast Recommendation Tickets and Monthly Tickets; your support is my greatest motivation.)