92: Chapter 93 The Dilemma of a Beijing Elite: Withdrawing Investment is a Disgrace, Confronting Him is a Firestorm

As the core of public opinion and traffic for the entire campaign, Jiyuan Technology was ordered by Shen Du to carry out a crazy bloodletting that could be called "suicidal."

General Manager Chen Shengqiang gritted his teeth and slashed the revenue sharing ratio for the Spark Live division from the original "30/70 split" directly to a "20/80 split" that was enough to make all competitors collapse.

The streamers and guilds took eighty percent, while the platform only took a negligible twenty percent!

Even more insane, in the newly emerging field of livestream e-commerce, the platform's original meager ten percent net profit service fee was slashed by Shen Du with a wave of his hand to a mere 0.5 percent, which was practically free!

This desperate strategy, which completely violated traditional financial laws and was purely about "losing money to gain noise," pushed the opponents onto a path of no return.

Under the manipulation of Shen Du's cloud-turning and rain-covering hands, the commercial ecosystem of the entire Yangtze River Delta was completely overturned.

He forcibly dragged this era into a barbaric, completely unreasonable money-burning meat grinder ahead of schedule.

In front of this black hole, any conventional business war logic that tried to emphasize "breaking even" seemed as ridiculous and pale as waste paper!

In front of this super meat grinder forcibly driven by two billion US dollars, the arrogance of Young Master Su Chi of the Beijing Circle—who previously looked down from above and thought he could crush everything with his capital volume—was instantly torn to shreds.

The three hundred million US dollars he had just smashed into Shanghai with extreme killing intent and gnashing teeth was originally a "all-in" meant to completely destroy the Shanghai Merchants' defensive line.

However, when this massive sum, enough to buy a third-tier city, plunged headfirst into the bloody frenzy of "universal money-scattering" simultaneously kicked off by Meituan, e-commerce, and Spark Live, a bizarre scene occurred that made all the Northern handlers feel their scalps tingle.

There was no overwhelming defeat, no market panic.

There wasn't even... a slightly larger splash!

This three hundred million US dollars was like being thrown into a bottomless cosmic black hole.

Under the Shanghai Merchants' unscrupulous "subsidization tactics" and the near-manic "wool-gathering" craze of hundreds of millions of netizens, it was consumed by the massive market subsidies in the blink of an eye and completely wiped off the books!

It was gone!

Not even a scrap was left!

Young Master Su Chi sat in the Northern headquarters office, watching the funds account on the screen rapidly return to zero.

His brain went into a freeze that lasted for half a minute.

However, the cruel business war would not give him a chance to breathe.

The physical industries on the front lines were wailing.

If the capital chain broke, all the efforts made previously would be wasted.

In desperation.

The remaining 170 million US dollars in the Beijing Circle's first funding pool was forcibly thrown into the battlefield as emergency ammunition.

But the fate of this money was even more tragic than the last.

In the Southern market, which had already fallen into complete madness and had its consumer desires fully ignited, this 170 million US dollars didn't even give Young Master Su Chi the qualification to see how it disappeared.

The front line had just received the notification that the funds had arrived.

In the very next second, the finance department sent a jarring alert of "insufficient balance, blood loss."

The market.

It was like an ancient beast that could never be satisfied.

It rapidly sucked dry the last bit of the Beijing Circle's circulating blood at a despairing speed!

Time trudged arduously through this suffocating tug-of-war until mid-August.

In this short month or so, the Beijing Circle families, cornered against the wall, went through an agonizing internal game.

The various heads of the families, under immense pressure, gritted their teeth and painfully raised funds a second time.

They even began to sell off some peripheral assets, once again forcibly scraping together five hundred million US dollars.

With hearts full of unwillingness and humiliation, they crazily smashed it into the South.

However, the result was still despairing.

This level of heavy firepower ammunition would have been enough to turn the opponent into ashes in any past local business war.

But when facing Shen Du's suicidal "losing money to conquer the world" strategy, this five hundred million US dollars couldn't even hold out until the end of 2011.

Just as the cold wind of late autumn began to blow, a cold financial report was delivered to Young Master Su Chi's desk.

The funding pool had been completely drained for the second time!

When Young Master Su Chi, with red eyes, held that financial report that had returned to zero again and tried to initiate a third round of fundraising from the Northern families, the reaction of the entire Beijing Circle alliance made him feel a chill even more biting than late autumn.

They retreated.

This group of Northern financial magnates, who were usually arrogant and considered themselves the top rulers of capital, fell into a deathly silence at this meeting, which was rare.

This was not because they were truly hollowed out and couldn't squeeze out another drop of blood.

It was because they... didn't dare to keep throwing money in!

After these two rounds of capital evaporation that could be described as world-destroying, all the Beijing Circle bigwigs finally woke up in the face of this bloody reality.

They realized a terrifying truth that made one shudder:

The group of people over in Shanghai, led by Shen Du, weren't fighting some business war at all; they were fighting for their lives!

If they continued to burn money in this bottomless black hole, the final result would definitely not be a decent "mutual destruction" or "shaking hands and making peace."

Instead, the foundations of both sides would be completely burned up in this once-in-a-century capital fire, reduced to a pile of worthless white ash!

And what made these Northern bigwigs even more horrified were the greedy eyes wandering outside this main battlefield.

The entire Chinese business landscape was not just dominated by the Beijing Circle and the Shanghai Merchants.

In the dark corners, the deep-rooted Zhejiang Merchants, the shrewd and pragmatic Jiangsu Merchants, and the Southern Guangdong Merchants with terrifying cash flow... these equally massive regional financial magnates were currently like a flock of vultures that had smelled the strong scent of blood, circling in the air, staring fixedly at this North-South meat grinder.

When the snipe and the clam fight, the fisherman gains.

Once the Beijing Circle and the Shanghai Merchants exhausted their last bit of vitality in this endless, red-eyed battle to the death, this pack of hungry wolves, who had been secretly swallowing their saliva, would absolutely bare their fangs without hesitation and take advantage of the situation.

They would carve up the corpses, territories, and market shares left behind until nothing was left!

Since they had seen the terrifying stakes, logically, stopping losses and withdrawing capital immediately was the wisest business choice.

However, the most fatal weak spot facing the entire Beijing Circle was like a noose, tightly choking their throats.

As the most top-tier capital circle recognized in China, they valued that supreme "face"!

This war was initiated by them with a high-and-mighty attitude.

The wild claim of "clearing the market with ten billion" was also released by them.

If at this critical juncture, they chose to withdraw capital and stop the war in a dejected manner because they were heartbroken over the money, that would be equivalent to publicly issuing a letter of surrender to all the merchant groups in the world.

This would be equivalent to declaring to the whole world: the arrogant Beijing Circle had been forcibly beaten into submission by the Shanghai Merchants!

Beaten away!

Once this invincible golden body was broken, the Beijing Circle's prestige and right to speak across the country would be gone.

In the future, when they went to other provinces to stake their claims, who would still fear them?

Who would still bow their heads to them?!

To advance was an abyss of eternal damnation, a sea of fire that could be taken advantage of by other merchant groups at any time.

To retreat was a great humiliation, an abyss where a century of dignity would be swept away and they would become the laughingstock of the whole world.

Young Master Su Chi slumped in the chair at the head of the table.

Looking at the Northern giants with their livid faces and silent expressions around the conference table, he deeply understood what true despair was.

The entire Northern Capital camp was thus forced by Shen Du's totally unreasonable and crazy strategy into a desperate situation where they were riding a tiger and unable to get off, stuck in a dilemma!