Chapter 422: Calling the National Team to Carry the Sedan Chair—Do You Qualify?

The call connected, and Ye Ning pressed speaker.

Wang Shanghong's voice came through, carrying a sense of inquiry after a weight was lifted.

"Comrade Qingshan, over in New York… has the dust settled?"

Apparently, the sudden top‑level quake at Morgan Stanley has already been reported back to the country at the fastest speed.

"Report, Minister Wang, the appetizer is just finished, the main course hasn't arrived yet."

Lu Qingshan's reply made the people in the apartment, who had only just settled their nerves, tense up again.

Wang Shanghong seemed to smile on the other end, and his tone grew a bit more familiar.

"Your appetizer is heftier than anyone else's full Manchu‑Han feast. Speak up—what do you need us to cooperate on?"

He has already figured out Lu Qingshan's temperament; this young man never makes calls without purpose.

"I need a voice."

Lu Qingshan walked to the window, watching the brightly lit streets in the distance.

"A voice coming from our Huaxia."

"What voice?"

"I need our Sovereign Fund, or the overseas investment divisions of a few large state‑owned banks, to 'casually' leak a piece of news to the market after Hong Kong Island and Singapore open tomorrow."

Lu Qingshan's voice was low, but the content silenced everyone in the apartment, as well as Wang Shanghong on the other end.

"Just say they are closely monitoring the turmoil in the United States financial market and believe it is an excellent chance to acquire some high‑quality financial institutions. In the potential acquisition list, they can 'inadvertently' mention Lehman Brothers."

A death‑like silence.

David Cohen's mouth once again formed an "O" shape.

He had just recovered from the frenzy of "ordering the Federal Reserve," and now Lu Qingshan tossed out an even more unfathomable request.

Have Huaxia's National Team step in personally to front a private investor's hunt operation?

This is no longer just carrying a sedan chair; it's inviting the Jade Emperor himself to be the honor guard!

On the other end, Wang Shanghong's breathing vanished.

He could not at all grasp Lu Qingshan's intention behind the request.

They already knew exactly what Lehman Brothers were—a pile of nuclear waste about to explode; anyone who touches it dies.

Now Lu Qingshan actually wants the National Team to touch that thing? Even if only verbally?

If this causes a market misjudgment and state assets suffer losses, who will bear the responsibility?

"Comrade Qingshan, this joke cannot be made." Wang Shanghong's tone became unprecedentedly serious, "It concerns the nation's financial credibility."

"I'm not joking."

Lu Qingshan turned, looking at his team members' faces, each filled with astonishment.

"Minister Wang, do you still recall how you positioned me? Pathfinder."

"A Pathfinder uses the lowest cost to probe how deep the water is and how many hidden reefs lie beneath."

"Now Li Jiasheng's son, having allied with an old‑established British Jewish family, wants to stab me in the back while I'm at war with Wall Street. They think they're the yellow bird, but they don't know that mantis catching a cicada has always been my specialty."

"I have the National Team release this voice not to actually buy. This is called 'Strategic Ambiguity', also 'Public Opinion Deterrence'."

Lu Qingshan's voice carried a powerful persuasiveness.

"First, this Smoke Bomb will leave everyone on Wall Street unable to discern our true intent. They'll wonder whether Huaxia is seizing the chance to scoop up assets, which will greatly cloud their judgment and shield my main offensive."

"Second, this also precisely numbs Li Zexun and Zoe Shason. The more they think Lehman is beyond rescue, the more they'll believe that my pulling the National Team into the fray is a last‑ditch, desperate move. They'll crazily add more Short Selling, thrusting their own necks deeper into the noose I've prepared for them."

"I don't need the National Team to spend a single cent; I only need an attitude—an attitude enough to cause my enemies to make a fatal misjudgment about me."

"With a vague, ethereal rumor, exchange for a catastrophic failure of a pro‑Anglo‑American billionaire family on Hong Kong Island and the Anglo‑American Capital Alliance, and also test Wall Street's genuine reaction to our national capital."

Lu Qingshan concluded.

"Minister Wang, do you think this deal is worthwhile?"

On the other end, Wang Shanghong remained silent for a long while.

He was completely subdued by the intricate, interlocking Financial Strangle War Lu Qingshan described.

This is no longer a simple investment.

This is using finance as a board and national credibility as pieces, a single game that could reshape the world order!

And Lu Qingshan is the one moving the pieces.

"…I need to seek approval." After a long pause, Wang Shanghong managed to squeeze those five words from his throat.

"Of course." Lu Qingshan sounded very understanding, "I'll await your message before dawn."

When the call hung up, the apartment was so quiet you could hear a pin drop.

Lu Qingjun looked at his older brother, feeling as if he were looking at an alien.

He stammered, "Brother… you… you've also counted Minister Wang into this?"

"This isn't scheming; this is a Yang Plan."

Lu Qingshan sat back on the sofa, lifting the glass of thoroughly chilled champagne.

"Everyone knows this is a trap, yet everyone must follow the path I've drawn into it, because the bait inside the trap is a greed they cannot resist."

As soon as he finished speaking, David Cohen could no longer hold back; he spun around the room like a headless fly, muttering under his breath.

"Madman… a complete madman… dragging Rockefeller, the Federal Reserve, Huaxia's National Team… all the gods onto your table… Boss, what exactly are you trying to do? Do you want to buy the entire Earth?"

Lu Qingshan looked at his near‑breaking demeanor and shook his head.

"I just want to get what rightfully belongs to us."

…

New York, Waldorf Hotel, top‑floor presidential suite.

The rich cigar smoke and single‑malt whisky aroma mingled together.

Li Zexun, dressed in a well‑tailored silk nightgown, reclined comfortably on the sofa, holding a glass of amber‑colored liquor in his hand.

Opposite him, Zoe Shason was toying with an ancient silver coin, a confident smile on her face.

"Zoe, is your information reliable? That idiot Wilson really made massive purchases of Lehman Brothers stock in the London market?" Li Zexun took a sip of his drink and asked with keen interest.

"Absolutely certain." Zoe flicked the silver coin up and caught it steadily, "My contact within the London Family saw it with his own eyes. The Shason Family's trading desk placed a massive buy order as soon as the market opened. The entire London Financial City thought he was crazy."

"Hahaha!" Li Zexun burst into a hearty laugh, "That Lu Qingshan is rather interesting. He thinks that with Wilson's money in Europe he can lift that wreck of Lehman? What a pipe dream!"

Zoe also laughed, her smile tinged with contempt.

"He's just bluffing. He only just went head‑to‑head with Morgan Stanley; we don't know what tactics he used, but he luckily won a half‑step. Now he's all show and no substance. He wants to fabricate a Long and Short war illusion, push the price up, and scare off us shorts."

"Unfortunately, his little tricks are, in front of us, like a three‑year‑old's game." Li Zexun's face was full of intellectual superiority.

At that moment, Li Zexun's personal assistant, with a strange expression, knocked and entered.

"Mr. Li, Ms. Zoe, we just received a… very strange report from Hong Kong Island," the assistant said.

"Go on."

"Multiple media outlets in Hong Kong Island and Singapore are reporting that Huaxia's Sovereign Fund is evaluating the possibility of acquiring Lehman Brothers."

The assistant's words caused the laughter in the room to halt abruptly.

Li Zexun and Zoe exchanged a glance, each seeing astonishment in the other's reaction.

But only a few seconds later, that astonishment turned into an even stronger exhilaration and contempt.

"Hahahahaha!" Li Zexun laughed until he was bent over, tears nearly spilling, "What a desperate ploy! He really is out of tricks! He actually wants to drag their nation's National Team in to take over Lehman's mess!"

Zoe also shook her head, the mockery on her face undisguised.

"This is the funniest financial joke I've ever heard. Are all Huaxia people idiots? They would use their citizens' pension funds to buy a pile of toxic assets that are about to become worthless?"

"That precisely shows that Lu Qingshan has no cards left to play!" Li Zexun sprang to his feet, downed the remaining drink in one gulp, a greedy, ruthless glint flashing in his eyes.

"He thought that enlisting the National Team would scare us? He's wrong! It instead gives us a chance to wipe them out in one sweep!"

He walked up to Zoe and gave her shoulder a firm pat.

"Zoe, pass the word down!"

"All short positions, crank the Leverage up to the maximum!"

"I'll have Lu Qingshan, and that so‑called Huaxia National Team behind him, buried together on Wall Street!"

"I'll make him know who the true master is in New York!"