Chapter 3521: Not Cutting the Leeks?!

Ye Chen returned to Jin Ling with He Yuanjiang, stepped off the helicopter, and went straight to Tianxiang Mansion to meet Steven Rothschild.

Before Ye Chen arrived, Steven Rothschild had already had someone list all the automobile industry companies in which the Rothschild family held shares or control, totaling over six hundred companies spread worldwide.

From top-tier renowned automakers to obscure wiring harness manufacturers, the Rothschild family's investment fund managers had invested money up and down in all of them.

As the saying goes, "Whether there are dates or not, beat the tree twice," the Rothschild family operates this way—ample manpower and abundant capital, once they take a liking to a grove of date trees, their subordinates will go in and beat every tree as much as possible.

When the three met, Steven Rothschild appeared as unassuming as a recent college graduate, nervously rubbing his hands in Ye Chen's presence; when he handed Ye Chen the thick roster, he did so like presenting a treasure, obsequiously saying: "Mr. Ye, the enterprises listed here, to varying degrees, bear the shadow of the Rothschild family; you may peruse them at leisure, and if any product interests you, I will immediately facilitate communication."

Ye Chen took the roster, glanced at it, then passed it to He Yuanjiang beside him, smiling: "Professor He, please take a look—I'm not well-versed in industry matters."

"Alright." He Yuanjiang took the roster, flipped through a few pages, his face immediately showing shock; as he continued turning pages, his expression grew even more astonished.

Only after he had finished flipping through all the rosters did he exclaim in delight to Ye Chen: "Young Master Ye, this roster has nearly exhausted the market's lethal suppliers; I never expected many Huaxia enterprises also to have Rothschild family holdings."

Steven Rothschild hastily clarified: "Regarding those Huaxia enterprises, we hold no direct shares—everything is through venture capital funds for indirect holdings, with a small portion held via trusted individuals or enterprises acting as nominees."

Ye Chen nodded, then asked He Yuanjiang: "Professor He, which of these do you feel would be most useful to us?"

He Yuanjiang said somewhat excitedly: "Young Master Ye, these are basically all useful; if Mr. Rothschild is agreeable, could you help us with introductions? I'll visit these key large enterprises in person, and have the team cover the other small and medium enterprises as well."

Steven Rothschild, exceptionally shrewd, immediately replied: "No problem, this is easily done—Professor He, after you've screened and selected which ones you'd like to visit personally, I'll have people arrange meetings with them, and have them come in succession to Jin Ling to see you!"

He Yuanjiang felt somewhat uneasy and ventured: "Isn't this a bit inappropriate?"

"Nothing inappropriate about it." Steven Rothschild smiled: "To the Rothschild family, they're mere small fry; letting them come once, they won't harbor any resentment—in fact, they'll be especially pleased. So Professor He, just tell me your available time window, and I'll have my assistant notify these enterprises to come over."

Having said that, he suddenly had a brainwave and laughed: "I think Changying Automobile could host a global suppliers conference!"

"A global suppliers conference?" He Yuanjiang asked in surprise: "Mr. Rothschild, do you mean we should use this global suppliers conference as a pretext to openly negotiate with them?"

"Yes." Steven Rothschild nodded, explaining: "Let them come in droves to Huaxia, to Jin Ling, even directly to Professor He's office to pay their respects—no problem. But if the numbers are too large or the commotion too great, it might attract unnecessary attention and scrutiny. However, if we instead frame it as Changying Automobile hosting a global suppliers conference, with them all invited to Jin Ling to attend, the matter becomes far more reasonable."

Ye Chen also couldn't help but praise: "This is a good idea—it not only makes the matter more reasonable, but also lets the world recognize that Changying Automobile already possesses influence in the supply chain, with all top-tier renowned automotive suppliers worldwide gathering in Jin Ling; outsiders will surely be amazed by Changying Automobile's supply chain integration capability."

Steven Rothschild nodded and said: "Exactly—by then, the entire automotive industry's supply chain will undeniably see Changying Automobile's influence at the supply chain end! I dare not say more, but at least Changying Automobile's supply chain end costs will be 10% lower than those of other automakers!"

He Yuanjiang sighed: "For a vehicle costing around 200,000 yuan, excluding the battery, material costs account for roughly 40%, about 80,000 yuan; if the supply chain could further compress this by 8,000 yuan and pass that space to consumers, the vehicle's cost-performance ratio could be further enhanced."

Steven Rothschild asked in surprise: "So you mean Changying Automobile intends to follow the same extreme cost-performance path as those Huaxia new-energy vehicles?"

"Yes." He Yuanjiang said: "A true national-level product must have high cost-performance, high brand recognition, and high product credibility—this inevitably caps the premium, and Young Master Ye himself does not want Changying Automobile to become a high-profit enterprise."

Steven Rothschild couldn't help but sigh: "From my perspective, Changying Automobile currently enjoys such high attention, with Tavana Svet constantly helping promote it; once the car officially launches, it will absolutely be a prime opportunity to 'cut the leeks'—at the launch event, we'll hype technology, data, and sentiment, while secretly compressing material costs to the extreme; each vehicle should earn several thousand USD more, plus the original profit margin, making it easy to earn ten thousand USD per vehicle; selling a few hundred thousand units would yield tens of billions of USD in cash—still very substantial."

After saying that, he couldn't resist adding: "The launch of the first model is a prime opportunity to 'cut the leeks'—those leeks are growing strong in the field; not cutting them would be a real shame! If absolutely necessary, we could pursue the cost-performance route with the second model—after all, with tens of billions of USD in hand, a single advanced production line would recoup its cost."

Steven Rothschild, having grown up steeped in the Rothschild family's ways, sees only profit, nothing else; his projects generally aim to maximize benefits at all costs; once sentiment, dreams, and profit conflict, profit always comes first; he had assumed Ye Chen wanted to squeeze the supply chain merely to expand profit margins and recoup costs quickly, never expecting instead that Ye Chen intended to yield that space to consumers.

In his view, such behavior is foolish and naive—he'd rather seize this good opportunity to make a fortune.

Ye Chen then laughed and said: "Steven, the original intention of the Ye and An families joining forces to create Changying Automobile was not to make money, and I myself am not after money; if I were after money, why would I go to all the trouble of building cars? I have plenty of ways to harvest top-tier billionaires—just casually organize an auction, and I'd earn more than from building cars over several years."

At this, Steven Rothschild finally had a sudden realization.

He secretly thought: "Of course—how could Ye Chen be short of money? If he took out a few Rejuvenation Pills for auction, he could earn trillions of USD as easily as playing; his father, that kind of person, would buy Rejuvenation Pills for trillions of USD without blinking an eye—building cars, in which lifetime could one earn trillions of USD?"

Thinking this, he felt ashamed and said: "Alas, it still has to be Mr. Ye's broad vision—I can't shake off my own vulgar stench of copper; ashamed, ashamed!"