Chapter 524

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Protagonist:

Chen Yi

A Martial Arts Hall student wearing a bright yellow jacket, holding a green small flag in his left hand and a red small flag in his right hand, stood on a flat road as smooth as a track, continuously directing the heavy trucks coming and going.

All Level 6 and above Martial Arts Hall students, sitting in the cabs fully concentrated, entered and exited the Subway Light Gate at a steady speed of 40 kilometers per hour.

Inside the Light Gate, the Subway Tunnel, which stretched like an airport, also had traffic direction. He stood high in midair, not only waving flags to signal but also shouting non-stop: "Move inward, keep moving inward, only stop when you see the red sign."

The Magic Subway is theoretically infinitely vast, but if vehicles drive too far, the unloading time upon reaching the West Continent becomes too short.

Lady Tong and the Zheng family's eldest son Zheng Pu stood together, introducing to the Chen Clan members of the Channel Committee: "The current bottleneck remains the width of the channel; only one vehicle can pass at a time, at most 10 vehicles per minute, totaling only 1,200 vehicles a day, unable to reach 15,000 tons."

"Can't we accelerate, or switch to larger trucks?" Minister Ma's favorite thing was always swapping equipment.

"At the current speed, only veteran drivers can handle it; the Martial Arts Hall students rely on sharp eyes and quick hands — if the trucks were any larger, they wouldn't be agile enough." Lady Tong had investigated for a week or two and knew the channel's transport capacity inside out.

"Why isn't it as fast as before? I remember Chen Yi saying their maximum single run transported 80,000 tons of supplies."

"That 80,000-ton run took two weeks to load, and unloading also took a week." Zheng Pu paused, waiting for everyone to understand, then continued: "The fastest was actually a 50,000-ton run, completed in three days, but that was loaded by Chen Yi's Divine Art Knights."

"We've heard about these Divine Art Knights several times — what exactly are they?" The speaker was Li Bao, representative of Secretary Li from Anhui Province. The Secretary had joined the second inspection group, then immediately returned to his province to grasp the situation, unlike Transportation Minister Ma, who remained in the Southeast quite leisurely while the struggle in Xijing intensified.

Lady Tong and Zheng Pu shook their heads in unison.

Regarding basic data on the West Continent, the Chen Clan people had obtained some, but it was impossible to have specifics on every aspect. As for core content, even the Martial Arts Hall people knew only a few; the newly arrived Chen Clan officials were equally helpless.

"Let's leave it at that." Minister Ma, the highest-ranking person present, concluded: "If supplies become tight later, we'll ask Mr. Chen to deploy his Divine Art Knights again."

Everyone nodded in agreement. Zheng Pu turned his head and said in a barely audible voice: "Fifty families doing construction — which one isn't short on supplies?"

Lady Tong gave a charming smile and said seriously: "I think the Zhang family's supplies aren't tight."

Zheng Pu let out a "huh" and laughed.

The agreement Zhang Pei signed had become the Chen Clan's laughingstock. He hired over 80 young workers, paying a monthly salary of 1 ton of tungsten steel each, with an introducer's fee of another 1 ton of gift money — equivalent to paying 160 tons of channel fees in the first month alone. Perhaps after a month he could obtain drill bits and such worth several million or tens of millions of RMB, but however you calculated it, it was a loss.

Now, not counting the shares owned by Chen Yi or the Chen Family themselves, the other families each received only a few thousand tons per month, basically all used for factory equipment — cement equipment, small blast furnaces, canned food factories, glass factories, and other basic infrastructure that could produce using West Continent raw materials were extremely popular. Although currently each family's transactions tended toward barter, in three to five months, when more non-Chen Clan families settle in, banknotes will inevitably come rolling in — how could a few million restrict that?

Who knows, a ton of cement might sell for several hundred thousand! The cement tycoon Yan Wu Sheng, brought in by the Zheng family, stated categorically: "Cement is the mother of infrastructure; those who come later and don't treat me as father, don't expect to get any milk."

After the Committee members left, Zheng Pu still huddled beside Tong Xiao and said: "I heard those Knights and such, the high-level ones almost work for Chen Yi for free; Zhang Pei signed such a thick agreement, and now he wants to back out but can't."

Lady Tong had wanted to leave, but hearing his words, she stopped and asked: "What do you mean 'can't back out'?"

Having attracted her attention, Zheng Pu suppressed his inner delight and said: "I heard the Zhang family wanted to back out, but the Knights counter-sued to the West River Public Office, and that Diamond Office Hall stepped in, forcing the Zhang family to fulfill the agreement. They claim it's to protect commercial order — Zhang Pei is done for."

He and Zhang Pei were the same age; competing with him felt more real.

Tong Xiao looked deeply at Zheng Pu and said: "Your Zheng family's information network is truly well-connected."

"The old man steps in, one tops two."

"Exactly."

"Sigh, don't rush off." Zheng Pu clearly had some lingering thoughts, following behind Chanel, making conversation: "The people of that Diamond Office Hall are supposedly all from the Chen Family Martial Arts Hall; if they manage West River City-State, it'll be truly hard for us to operate freely."

"Then what do you want?"

"Don't want anything. No matter how strong, they wouldn't dare challenge the Chen Family. But I do have an idea." Zheng Pu held it back, waiting for Tong Xiao to ask.

The latter simply wouldn't ask; seeing they were about to get in the car, Zheng Pu had no choice but to press on the car door and smile: "Don't rush, I'll tell you, okay?"

"Behavior." Tong Xiao rolled her eyes, yet it made Zheng Pu's bones go soft.

"It's simple really. According to Chen Yi, in two more months the West Continent will be announced to other factions, right? Our Chen Clan families will naturally listen to the Chen Family, but what about other factions? Even if they listen at first, will they later? Can that bunch from the Diamond Office Hall suppress those types?"

He fired off a string of questions, then answered himself: "In my view, each Chen Clan family should send people to station in West River City-State for joint management, seize the initiative first, and the later factions won't dare make trouble."

"That's an argument." Tong Xiao listened, still intending to get in the car.

"Hey, how come?"

"You think Chen Yi hasn't thought of that?"

Zheng Pu touched his forehead; if before someone didn't know Chen Yi, now no one doesn't know him. He smiled sheepishly: "Look at what you're saying. If we propose it, isn't he seizing the initiative? He might be waiting for us to propose it."

"Then how do you know the other families aren't waiting for Chen Yi to propose it?"

This time Zheng Pu was truly stunned.

The car door went "bang" with a dull thud and closed.

Another Mercedes-Benz queued up to Zheng Pu; the driver actively got out to open the door.

Zheng Pu got in, turned back to look — heavy trucks roared toward the port warehouses, endless. Busy, not the slightest change, as if leaving these Chen Clan pillars behind, everything proceeded as usual.

"Boss, where to?" the driver looked at him through the rearview mirror.

"Where did Chen Yi open the Shuangtong Securities?"

"Right next to Jiangning Bank, not many people go there."

Zheng Pu chuckled, thinking: If you knew Shuangtong Securities is Shuangtong Bank, your teeth would fall out from shock.

"Go there?" Once on the main road, the driver asked again.

"Mm."

The Mercedes-Benz interior instantly fell quiet.

Zheng Pu lightly flipped open the cement factory's project proposal, took out a pen to review it.

Considering the upcoming large-scale construction activities, the Zheng family hoped to complete Phase 1 of the cement factory within 1 month — that is, during three round trips — and put it into production in the following month. The West Continent already had two small-to-medium cement factories and a volcanic ash cement factory about to close, used for road and civilian factory construction. All military construction was completed with reinforced concrete transported from Earth; if calculated by cost, it was far more expensive than building a factory. Chen Yi, lacking manpower and energy to expand, had placed the larger newer cement factory later in the schedule. The Zheng family naturally wouldn't be picky — this business with huge demand hadn't been eliminated even into the 21st century, and in a sense actually surpassed the profits of energy enterprises like power and water conservancy.

However, according to the final game-theory result of the channel, the Zheng family's monthly entry quota was only 4,500 tons, return quota 4,000 tons — insufficient to meet the target. In this situation, the tacit method formed among families was trading: using entry quota to exchange for return quota, even adding other conditions. Zheng Pu's responsibility was to judge these conditions.

A bit like a sports team's professional manager, only with heavier responsibilities.

"Shuangtong Securities" had only a dark small storefront.

To its left was a tax office, to its right a pawnshop; looking up you could see Jiangning Bank's blue glass office building, but walking over took a while.

A Wuguan Inspection Team Member stood at the door carrying armor, serving as this securities company's distinctive security. Besides this, a new company without firecrackers and flower baskets could not arouse depositors' interest at all.

"Boss, it's here."

Zheng Pu grunted and began organizing his things; by the time the driver opened the door, he could just put them into the trunk.

After locking up and getting out, Zheng Pu looked up at the building under "Tong Da Zheng Quan."

"This is a house from the 80s, right?" Zheng Pu frowned at the pitch-black bricks and smiled, "He wouldn't go that far, would he?"

"Maybe he's saving money."

"Chen Yi lacks money. Hehe." Only those who went to the West Continent and joined the Channel Committee knew how much gold and platinum he had brought back from the West Continent; those open-pit precious metal mines were simply treasure chests for storing banknotes—prying open a room-sized chunk of earth and stone could exchange for a suitcase of cash. Not to mention income from other resources.

The driver's eyes lit up, and he enthusiastically pushed open the pitch-black glass door, smiling and asking, "So, the Chen Group isn't short of money at all?"

"Bought more stocks?" Zheng Pu glared at him and said, "What's wrong with having some money? Gambling harms the body."

"Yes."

"After buying, leave it for a while and live well in the future."

"Thank you, Boss, I know what to do now." The driver laughed hehe, with the same double entendre.

The Inspection Team Member covered head to toe in thick leather armor watched the two until the driver returned to the car.

Zheng Pu silently passed through the empty lobby, pushed open the iron door, and passed through the corridor again.

Behind the Yingbi, everything suddenly opened up.

"Everyone's here?"

At least seven or eight people were present; not only was Zheng Pu's father Zheng Cao there, but also Xijing officials clearly not from the Chen Clan.

"Coming." Chen Yi turned his head slightly, the corners of his mouth curling as he said, "We're watching a bank robbery."

"What?"

"Quietly." Zheng Pu's father Zheng Cao was nervous as if watching a play.

On the screen, several special forces soldiers in tight clothing were fearlessly and unrestrainedly moving gold onto the portable conveyor belt.

"How is that possible?"

"They thought someone was helping them and turned off the recording." Zheng Cao spoke while glancing at the Xijing official whose face was as black as iron.

... (Unfinished. If you like this work, welcome to Qidian (qidian. com) to vote for recommendation tickets and monthly tickets; your support is my greatest motivation.)