134: Chapter 134 Five Billion Yuan in Cash: A Heavy March into Northwest China

Lu Chen stepped in front of the metal recycling trough, his leather shoe soles crushing the glass shards.

Crunch. Crunch.

"Is this thing really going to choke us to death?" Lu Chen didn't turn back, his eyes fixed on the pile of residue inside.

Wei Jianguo slumped on the ground, his hands gripping his hair tightly, his throat sounding as if it were stuck with a piece of rotten wood.

"President Lu, it has choked us to death; this is our foundation." Wei Jianguo slapped the concrete floor hard. "Without this damn stone, no matter how flowery the blueprints are, they're just scrap metal."

"New Jersey Mining." Lu Chen turned around.

"Yes."

Wei Jianguo swallowed, his eye sockets turning red. "It's an industry controlled by Morgan. The world's only high-purity fluorite crystal vein is in their hands. Late last night, they issued an internal notice: they won't sell a single gram of fluorite to any semiconductor-related enterprise in China. They've welded this only path shut!"

The several old experts nearby lowered their heads one after another.

"President Lu, there's no way out. Even the cleverest housewife can't cook a meal without rice."

"We've searched our domestic geology inside and out; we can't produce this kind of top-tier material. The Americans have the geographical advantage."

"They'd rather let it rot in the warehouse than give us even the slightest chance. They wouldn't even glance at us, no matter how much money we offered."

The workshop was filled with sighs. Thousands of days and nights of overwork had been smashed to pieces by a single stone. The frustration of the older generation of researchers was written all over these hundreds of aged faces.

Lu Chen didn't respond.

He shoved his hands into the pockets of his worn-out jacket and closed his eyes.

His consciousness sank directly into the system inventory. In the corner, that dusty card floated out.

[God-level Associated Mineral Vein Positioning Card].

Lu Chen didn't hesitate.

"Use."

Boom.

A 3D holographic map of China exploded onto his retina. Cold, rigid contour lines fluctuated rapidly. There were no flashy lights or shadows, only extremely precise coordinate axes.

A glaring red beacon descended from the sky.

Bang.

The beacon slammed firmly into a coordinate in the deepest part of the Gobi Desert in the Great Northwest.

A cold system prompt popped up below.

[Target Locked: Ultra-High Purity Associated Fluorite Crystal Mine]

Lu Chen opened his eyes.

He stared at Wei Jianguo's desperate face and scoffed.

"Old Wei, you've read a lot of books, but your bones aren't very hard."

Wei Jianguo was stunned. "President Lu, how did this get to bones?"

"Others say they are the only ones who have it, and you believe them." Lu Chen walked up to Wei Jianguo, looking down at him. "Others say they'll choke you to death, and you just lie down and wait to die?"

Wei Jianguo's face turned red.

"President Lu, science cannot be fabricated out of thin air. I'm not admitting defeat. It's clearly stated in authoritative international geological journals: our country's rock structure cannot compress fluorite of that purity!" Wei Jianguo shouted with his neck stiffened.

"Who runs those journals?" Lu Chen asked.

"The Americans lead them..."

"That's exactly it." Lu Chen curled his lips. "They say there isn't any, and you treat it like an imperial edict. You have to listen to the foreigners' farts to know what's buried under your own ground?"

Wei Jianguo opened his mouth, speechless.

Lu Chen didn't look at him anymore and turned to look at Da Biao.

"Da Biao."

"Brother, I'm here." Da Biao picked up his baton and stepped forward.

"Pick some people." Lu Chen's voice wasn't loud. "From the security team, pick out two hundred of the most agile, courageous, and blood-ready brothers."

Da Biao grinned, revealing a few yellow teeth.

"Got it, Brother. Where are we going and who are we hitting?"

The hundreds of top experts were all confused. They were building a Lithography Machine; why were they suddenly rounding up security guards?

"To the Great Northwest," Lu Chen said.

Wei Jianguo climbed up from the ground, not even bothering to brush the dust off his pants.

"The Great Northwest?" Wei Jianguo rushed forward, waving his hands anxiously. "President Lu, you're crazy! The Great Northwest is all Gobi Desert. Exploration teams have turned it over dozens of times over the years! Where would there be 99.999% pure crystal diamonds?"

"They couldn't find it because they were blind." Lu Chen looked at Wei Jianguo.

"The fluorine content won't reach the level!" Wei Jianguo slapped his thigh in anxiety. "The impurities are grown into the crystal lattice; you can't wash them out! Going there is a waste of effort!"

Lu Chen took the half-smoked double happiness cigarette from behind his ear, put it in his mouth, and lit it.

He blew a mouthful of blue smoke into Wei Jianguo's face.

"That crappy book written by foreigners you're obsessed with, turn the page." Lu Chen turned to look at Wu Dong.

"Wu Dong."

"Here!" Wu Dong ran over, clutching a military tablet.

"The foreign exchange settlement account in Old Zhou's hands." Lu Chen pointed at the tablet. "Withdraw five billion in cash and pack it into crates."

Wu Dong gasped.

"President Lu, five billion in cash? Even if you add up all the bank branches in Jiangcheng, there isn't that much physical cash."

"Find President Zhao Changfeng." Lu Chen said, with the cigarette in his mouth. "He just took a 50 billion tax bill from me this morning; he's begging to do things for me right now. Tell him, get me five billion in cash before dark. If even one note is missing, I'll transfer all those tens of billions of US dollars to Yangcheng."

Wu Dong's palms were sweating, and he nodded vigorously.

"Load the five billion in cash into heavy trucks." Lu Chen pointed outside. "Follow Da Biao."

Wei Jianguo felt his scalp tingle.

Five billion in cash, taking two hundred security guards who dared to see blood, to the Gobi Desert of the Great Northwest.

"President Lu, what are you going to do with so much money…" Wei Jianguo asked, trembling.

"Buy land," Lu Chen spat out two words.

Da Biao gripped his baton. "Brother, what if that land already has an owner and they won't sell?"

Lu Chen turned to look at Da Biao.

"Dump five billion in cash on their faces, and they won't sell?" Lu Chen smiled.

"Understood." Da Biao nodded heavily.

Wu Dong listened from the side, heart pounding. This wasn't going to buy land; this was going to seize territory.

Lu Chen walked to the control console on the side, picked up the internal phone, and dialed.

The call connected. Old Zhou's side was full of noisy human voices and the sound of loudspeakers shouting about distributing money.

"Boss, I'm here! We're distributing money at Warehouse No. 1 right now; there are too many people, they're about to break the door down!" Old Zhou yelled at the top of his ragged voice.

"Find someone else to distribute the money." Lu Chen said into the receiver. "Go find Zhao Tiezhu immediately."

"What for, find Zhao Tiezhu?"

"Tell him to stop all the heavy rotary drilling rigs, hundred-ton mining dump trucks, and large excavators at the construction site in the north of the city." Lu Chen ordered.

Old Zhou was stunned on the other end.

"Boss, didn't you just curse the Provincial Party Committee people away? Our construction site needs to keep up with the schedule. If all this equipment stops, that's hundreds of millions in rent burning every day."

"Organize all the equipment into a heavy-duty convoy for me." Lu Chen ignored his words. "Pick the best veteran drivers to operate them and load them onto flatbed trailers."

"Where is this big operation going?" Old Zhou asked.

"Follow Da Biao, to the Great Northwest." Lu Chen hung up the phone.

The receiver slammed onto the base.

The entire workshop was deathly silent. Hundreds of experts looked at Lu Chen as if they were looking at a complete lunatic.

"President Lu…" Wei Jianguo still wanted to speak.

Lu Chen grabbed Wei Jianguo's tattered dust-proof collar and pulled him to his face.

"Old Wei, I've dumped five billion into this, and I've sent the equipment. If I dig that stone back for you, can you get this machine running for me?" Lu Chen stared into his eyes.

Wei Jianguo was trembling all over.

"If you can really dig out this top-tier stone in the Great Northwest…" Wei Jianguo gritted his teeth. "I, Wei Jianguo, will be your dog for the rest of my life, and I won't take a single cent of salary! If I can't build it, I'll twist this damn head off and give it to you as a chamber pot!"

"Good." Lu Chen let go and helped him pat his collar.

Lu Chen turned and walked towards the door. Da Biao and Wu Dong followed closely behind.

The water curtain wall split into a narrow gap.

"Da Biao." Lu Chen said as he walked.

"Brother." Da Biao stepped to catch up.

"The coordinates have been sent to your phone." Lu Chen stepped out of the water curtain, his eyes as cold as ice. "No matter whose name that land is currently under, no matter what deity stands behind it. As long as my heavy trucks arrive, that piece of land must bear the name Lu."

Da Biao stood at attention, his eyes full of fanaticism.

"Tonight, we depart on time." Lu Chen left this sentence behind without looking back.

The thick explosion-proof door slammed shut behind him.

The cold wind of the Great Northwest Gobi Desert had already blown into Jiangcheng in advance.