149: Chapter 150 A pledge never to withhold a single penny from merchants! A safe haven unshaken by foreign investment incentives.

As an old fox who had been floating and sinking in the sea of commerce for many years.

Wu Tianheng instantly understood the heavy, blood-scented weight within Shen Du's words.

On the other end of the line.

In The Wu Family's spacious study, the heat that had risen due to victory was instantly drained away.

A bead of ice-cold sweat slowly slid down Wu Tianheng's temple, soaking into the collar of his expensive shirt.

He knew the underlying logic of the domestic business circle too well.

These merchants might follow you to advance funds and charge ahead because of the influx of profits.

But once the cornerstone of trust for settlements shattered.

Their total backlash could just as easily chew up the fundamental base of JD.com and Meituan until not even the bone dregs were left.

Wu Tianheng put away all his smugness and fanaticism, his breathing hitched, and his tone instantly sank into a serious, battle-ready state.

"Rest assured, nephew, I understand the life-and-death stakes involved in this."

Wu Tianheng gripped the receiver tightly, as if issuing a military order before the meat grinder of transnational capital:

"From now on, regarding the overall internal finances of JD.com, I will bypass those executives below and personally step in to keep a death grip on all cash flow and transactions."

Pausing for two seconds, this Shanghai tycoon added ruthlessly:

"As for my good-for-nothing son who usually likes to stir up trouble and idle about, although he likes to play, he is not stupid enough to not know the gravity of such a life-threatening matter. I will directly cut off all his approval authority within the group and completely press him outside the safe zone. I will absolutely not let him or anyone below him cause even a penny's worth of trouble on this B-end blood transfusion line that concerns life and death!"

In this transnational bloodbath where tens of billions in funds could vanish in an instant, any internal corruption, friction, or financial delays were the fuses that would detonate a nuclear bomb.

Wu Tianheng made a guarantee over the phone:

"Let me give you the bottom line. As long as The Wu Family is still in Shanghai for one day, every single cashback and subsidy for the merchants below JD.com will absolutely not be delayed by a single day. There won't even be a dime withheld. Even if I have to sell everything I own, I will definitely weld this gate of trust shut for you!"

Ending the call with Wu Tianheng, with a "click," Shen Du tossed his phone casually onto the large office desk.

He turned his leather executive chair, his gaze passing through the fully enclosed floor-to-ceiling glass curtain wall, silently overlooking the Shanghai skyline on the morning of New Year's Day 2013, still shrouded in a grey, cold fog.

Shen Du's brain was like a heartless supercomputer, coldly analyzing the true reason why this defensive war could be fully stabilized.

Why did those millions of calculating, opportunistic bottom-tier merchants dare to bet their livelihoods on Shen Du's platform and willingly advance funds to charge ahead?

Relying on Shen Du's personal charm? Or relying on that ethereal platform reputation? Neither.

This "B-end fund advancement and feedback" defense line would have completely turned into an ignored business joke if executed at any other point in time.

If time were to turn back two years, facing the one billion US dollars in red envelopes thrown down from the other side, these profit-seeking merchants would definitely have defected without hesitation, taking the foreign capital's money and running faster than anyone else.

Shen Du knew deeply that the reason his defense line was unbreakable was because he had precisely hit the three irreproducible macro bottom lines: the right time, the right place, and the right people.

The extreme vicious battle from the year before last, which swept through the powerful families of Beijing and Shanghai and involved two billion US dollars in reckless bombardment, had long since ended, but it was like a commercial nuclear explosion that completely distorted the sinking market at that time.

In that bottomless battle of the titans, countless bottom-tier merchants caught in the middle suffered the bitter consequences of malicious competition and cliff-like drops in traffic. Some made a fortune, but more people lost everything.

It was precisely that turmoil, which left the entire business circle in chaos, that triggered the national leadership to step in with an iron fist, directly invoking the anti-monopoly law for macro-regulation.

The collective post-traumatic stress disorder from malicious business wars, combined with a natural fear of heavy-handed official regulation, had subconsciously forged the delicate psychological defense line of the current domestic business circle.

At this critical juncture, foreign capital's cash dumping, which carried a scent of blood, could not bring long-term security; instead, it would arouse the merchants' instinctive rejection and vigilance.

And the profit-sharing model provided by Shen Du, which was fully compliant and offered stable blood transfusions, happened to become the sturdiest safe haven for millions of merchants in the storm.

Shen Du slowly raised his right hand, his slender fingers tapping lightly on the armrest. "Tap."

He watched the heavy cargo ships slowly passing by on the Huangpu River outside the window. A deep, unfathomable cold sharpness flashed in his eyes as he softly uttered a calm yet murderous sentence:

"I have already hardened the scene. Next, let me see what kind of tricks these Wall Street traders... can still pull in the mud."

January 4, 2013. The cold air of the New Year had not yet completely dissipated from the sky over Shanghai. The president's office on the top floor of Jiyuan Technology headquarters welcomed a special visitor with an aura of someone from within the establishment.

The visitor was named Lu Wangchuan, the person in charge of the Beijing International Trade Office. He was around forty-five years old, sporting a neat and crisp crew cut, and wearing a dark suit without a single unnecessary wrinkle.

He had a square face that commanded respect without anger, and in his gestures, there was none of the slick calculation typical of business tycoons, only the dignity and competence unique to the state apparatus.

After entering the office, Lu Wangchuan did not engage in any meaningless small talk. The assistant, Xu Ze, very perceptively brought over a solid wood guest chair. Lu Wangchuan sat down decisively.

He then directly pulled a document stamped with a red confidential seal from his briefcase and pushed it across the large mahogany desk to Shen Du's side.

"President Shen, this is the first batch of orders ready to go through the gate after the chip factory is completed this year."

Lu Wangchuan's speaking speed was steady and highly penetrating, without any nonsense. "The military-industrial group went to Yu Mountain secretly a few days ago and completed the underlying technical docking with your team. Now that the process is complete, we can place the order directly."

Shen Du leaned back in his executive chair, his gaze slightly lowered, his eyes falling on the document.

After Xu Ze poured tea for the two of them, he exited the office silently and closed the heavy soundproof door behind him.

At this moment, in Shen Du's overseas offshore account, there was over four billion US dollars in cash flow, not a single cent of which had been touched.

That was the pool of capital he had reserved for the long-term establishment and cultivation of a global top-tier chip architect team.

Having grown accustomed to transnational infighting at the ten-billion-dollar level, ordinary commercial orders simply could not cause any physical fluctuation in his emotions.

However, when Shen Du opened the domestic procurement form in front of him and his gaze swept over the total calculated amount in the bottom right corner, which bore a special settlement channel steel seal, his habitually cold and sharp eyes still inevitably paused for a moment.