184: Chapter 184 Cutting Off the Main Artery: The Coastal Logistics Oligarch's Probing Move

"Boss, wait!" Wu Dong hammered his hands on the keyboard, creating a burst of noise.

Lu Chen stopped at the entrance of the control room and turned back.

"What is it?" Lu Chen asked.

"I've found the source." Wu Dong stared at the jumping green code on the screen, his face turning pale. "It's not some official red-headed document issued by a ministry at all. It's a forged transfer of instructions. All the actions to blockade the road network were issued from the internal dispatch system of a single enterprise."

Wu Dong switched the image to the main screen. A huge blue logo lit up.

"Ocean Shipping Group." Wu Dong gritted his teeth.

The pipe wrench in Old Zhou's hand slammed onto the concrete floor, making a loud "clatter."

"Those sons of bitches," Old Zhou cursed aloud. "I should have thought of it earlier. The twelve financial tycoons of Jiangnan have collapsed. These comprador rats hiding in the shadows must be feeling restless."

"What is this Ocean Shipping Group's background?" Lu Chen walked back to the console.

"The largest logistics oligarch on the southeast coast." Old Zhou picked up the pipe wrench. "On the surface, they do shipping. Behind the scenes, they've monopolized all the highway and railway freight marshalling stations in the entire Jiangnan region. Their boss is called General Manager Xu Wanshan. He started out as a white glove for those overseas capital tycoons of Freemasons. Those special steel mills can't ship their goods without going through his fleet and stations."

"He's now having people block the roads with heavy trucks," Wu Dong added. "Under the guise of official maintenance. Our steel is all stuck outside the stations and toll booths."

The scene switched. Shanghai. A top-floor luxury clubhouse.

Crystal chandeliers. Panoramic floor-to-ceiling windows.

General Manager Xu Wanshan leaned back on a leather sofa, holding half a glass of Romanée-Conti.

The encrypted phone on the table had a green light on.

"General Manager Xu." A stiff Chinese accent came from the phone. "Is the road to Jiangcheng completely blocked?"

"Rest assured." General Manager Xu Wanshan swirled his wine glass. "So what if Lu Chen has ten trillion in cash? The railway marshalling and highway networks of the five southeastern provinces all depend on my container fleet to breathe. I'll have the drivers park their trucks across the road. Those twenty thousand tons of steel of his can only rust on the station platforms."

A deep laugh came from the other end of the line.

"Very good." The foreigner's tone was cold. "Washington was just played by him. They even lost a nuclear submarine. This grudge must be settled. He wants to build that reactor chassis of his. He won't get a single inch of steel."

"I know the rules." General Manager Xu Wanshan took a sip of wine. "But, just helping you vent your anger is costing Ocean Shipping quite a bit in daily downtime fees."

"Once it's done, the port throughput rights for our three ports in Australia will all be transferred to you at a low price." The foreigner threw out a bargaining chip.

"Deal." General Manager Xu Wanshan grinned. "I'll go give that Factory Director Lu a sympathy call right now."

Chenguang Factory. Control room.

The red internal phone on the table rang abruptly.

Old Zhou glanced at the caller ID on the directory. His expression sank immediately.

"Boss. It's an encrypted line from Shanghai," Old Zhou said. "It must be General Manager Xu Wanshan."

"Put it through. Speakerphone." Lu Chen leaned back on the worn-out sofa. He reached out and lit a double happiness cigarette.

Old Zhou pressed the speakerphone button.

"President Lu. I've heard much about you." General Manager Xu Wanshan's oily voice came through the phone.

"Who are you?" Lu Chen exhaled a puff of smoke.

"I am General Manager Xu Wanshan of Ocean Shipping," General Manager Xu Wanshan said with a chuckle. "I heard that President Lu has been buying up everything tonight. Quite a temper you have."

"Did you do this?" Lu Chen's tone was flat.

"The subordinates are being unruly. The system is undergoing a full-line maintenance," General Manager Xu Wanshan parried. "President Lu, please understand. After all, with such a large volume of freight, it's normal for some faults to occur."

"How long will the maintenance take?" Lu Chen asked.

"That's hard to say." General Manager Xu Wanshan laughed brazenly on the other end. "If it's fast, ten days or half a month. If it's slow, it might drag on until next year. After all, what President Lu bought is military-grade special steel. Security checks must be strict."

Lu Chen flicked the ash into a paper cup. He didn't reply.

Wu Dong, standing nearby, clenched his fists in anxiety.

General Manager Xu Wanshan felt the timing was right. He cleared his throat.

"However, we're all business people. It's easier to travel when you have many friends." General Manager Xu Wanshan revealed his true intentions. "I personally admire President Lu very much. As long as our two companies can reach a deep cooperation, I guarantee that within half an hour, all checkpoints will be cleared. I will personally send a fleet to deliver the goods to you in Jiangcheng."

"What kind of cooperation?" Lu Chen looked at Wu Dong's computer screen, which displayed the global capital flow of the Ocean Group.

"I heard that Chenguang Electronics just built a 28-nanometer Lithography Machine." General Manager Xu Wanshan's tone was greedy. "I don't want much. I only want thirty percent of the foundry share for the Jiangcheng production line. Plus, a three-year exclusive overseas agency right. Once we sign the contract, President Lu's goods will be on the road immediately."

The control room was so quiet that a pin drop could be heard.

Old Zhou was trembling with rage. This was like cutting flesh from the artery of Chenguang Factory with a rusty knife. The Lithography Machine was a national treasure. This bastard opened his mouth and demanded thirty percent of the foundry share and exclusive agency rights. This was equivalent to handing the throat of China's chip industry back to overseas compradors.

"You want a share of the Lithography Machine?" Lu Chen confirmed.

"This is also to protect President Lu," General Manager Xu Wanshan said brazenly. "The tree that stands above the forest will be destroyed by the wind. It's easy to get indigestion if President Lu eats such a big cake alone. I'll share some of it for you, and the overseas guests will also be satisfied. Let's all make money in harmony."

General Manager Xu Wanshan leaned back on the clubhouse sofa, convinced that Lu Chen wouldn't dare to flip the table. The loss from a single day of halted infrastructure construction was astronomical, and there was the military's strict order for that 8,000-acre construction site. Lu Chen had no choice but to compromise.

"General Manager Xu Wanshan, right?" Lu Chen stubbed out the cigarette he had just taken two puffs of in the ashtray.

"I'm listening. Have you figured it out, President Lu?" General Manager Xu Wanshan laughed.

"Retard." Two words. Crisp. Clean. Without any extra embellishment.

On the other end of the line, General Manager Xu Wanshan's laughter stopped abruptly. The clubhouse private room was deathly silent.

"What did you... just call me?" General Manager Xu Wanshan thought he had misheard.

"I called you a retard. Did you hear that clearly?" Lu Chen's voice was filled with a bone-chilling coldness. "Go back and prepare your coffin. Your shipping group can be buried."

"Snap!"

Lu Chen didn't wait for the other party to reply and directly had Old Zhou cut off the communication.

Wu Dong felt his scalp tingle as he listened.

"Boss, that was domineering!" Old Zhou swung his fist hard, but his face immediately fell. "But we've had our fun venting. What about the tens of thousands of tons of steel outside? Da Biao and the others can't just drive their Exoskeleton over and smash hundreds of heavy trucks, can they? That's a local main road."

Lu Chen stood up again and walked to Wu Dong's main console.

"To slaughter a pig like this, we don't need Da Biao's titanium alloy frame." Lu Chen stared at the massive capital network of Ocean Shipping on the screen.

He knew very well that for a monopoly-style logistics oligarch like this, maintaining operations didn't depend on trucks and ships at all. It depended on the terrifying daily cash flow throughput. Refueling, toll fees, terminal loading and unloading settlements, customs declarations. For an enterprise of this size, as long as the cash flow is interrupted for more than two hours, the entire group will immediately fall into widespread shock.

Wu Dong immediately understood what Lu Chen meant. He put his hands back on the keyboard.

"Boss. We have money, but domestic banks aren't under our control," Wu Dong swallowed hard. "Ocean Group is a super VIP of Jiangnan Bank. They have a daily turnover of tens of billions. Conventional methods can't freeze their accounts at all. Even if we ask President Zhao Changfeng to step in, he can't block the Jiangnan headquarters."

Lu Chen pulled out the yellowed black bank card from his jacket's inner pocket. The last four digits were 7890.

It was the ultimate master card bound to the system's "Absolute Defense Mechanism" and all hidden financial interfaces.

"Don't use the rules of domestic banks. Use my rules." Lu Chen slapped the black card onto the table.

"Absolute Defense, full power port. Activate." Lu Chen gave the order.

Wu Dong grabbed the China Construction Bank super platinum U-shield from the desk and plugged it into the data port of the computer case.

Over the past few days, the system had been settling continuously, with 100,000 employees fully staffed, plus the overseas fanaticism critical strikes.

The Absolute Defense Mechanism granted by the system had evolved to a point that defied physics.

It was no longer just a passive shield to defend against others auditing accounts. It could now reverse-hack any target connected to the global financial network.

"Target: Ocean Shipping Group Global Settlement Center."

Lu Chen's tone was cold. "Within one minute. I want all of his corporate accounts, private accounts, bridge funds, and credit limits to be zeroed out. He shouldn't be able to swipe enough money to even buy a pack of printer paper at the convenience store downstairs."

Wu Dong's fingers flew, leaving afterimages.

As a string of dark blue garbled code spread across the screen,

"Port access complete," Wu Dong shouted, "Absolute priority judgment passed. Locking the core financial gateway of Ocean Shipping. Starting the vacuum extraction."

Inside the luxury clubhouse in Shanghai, General Manager Xu Wanshan's face was livid.

The red wine glass in his hand was smashed heavily onto the floor. Wine-red liquid splattered everywhere.

"You shameless bumpkin," General Manager Xu Wanshan cursed through gritted teeth. "Do you think I'm joking? I'm going to order all the roads leading to Jiangcheng to be completely blocked with concrete blocks right now!"

He grabbed the walkie-talkie and switched it directly to the general dispatch channel.

"Hello. Is this general dispatch? This is General Manager Xu Wanshan. Issue the highest order immediately, all stations..."

Before he could finish, the door of the clubhouse private room was kicked open.

The financial director of Ocean Group rushed in, scrambling and rolling, having lost one of his shoes. His face was deathly pale, as if he had seen a ghost.

"General Manager Xu... General Manager Xu, something happened!" The financial director collapsed at General Manager Xu Wanshan's feet.

"What are you panicking about!" General Manager Xu Wanshan kicked him. "If the sky falls, I'll hold it up."

"The sky really has fallen!" The financial director didn't care about the pain and hugged General Manager Xu Wanshan's leg tightly, his voice trembling uncontrollably. "Just now. Just a moment ago. In less than a second. All the funds in our group's accounts across more than thirty banks globally... suddenly evaporated!"

General Manager Xu Wanshan was stunned. Then he cursed loudly.

"Bullshit! Over thirty billion in liquid funds. How could they evaporate? It must be a system glitch." General Manager Xu Wanshan didn't believe it at all.

"It's not a glitch! It's a hedge override! Forced zeroing!" The financial director began to cry loudly. "It's not just the account balances. Our credit vouchers and electronic drafts are all locked. Now all the terminals are waiting for us to pay today's loading and unloading fees. We can't pay. The fuel cards for the container truck drivers underneath are all suspended. All the vehicles are stopped at gas stations and can't move!"

General Manager Xu Wanshan's head "buzzed." All the blood in his body rushed to his head.

He pushed the financial director away and grabbed his phone, frantically dialing the Jiangnan Bank headquarters. It wouldn't go through. Busy signal. He dialed the private line again. Still a dead tone.

Cold sweat instantly soaked his silk shirt. With trembling hands, he pulled out his overseas private bearer black card. He used his phone to log in and check the balance.

Password entered. Facial recognition. The screen spun. Two seconds later, a blood-red prompt popped up.

"Account Balance: 0.00. This account has been frozen indefinitely by special authority."

Meanwhile. Jiangcheng Chenguang Factory control room.

On the big screen, the massive capital network of Ocean Shipping had turned into a dead gray. After the figures representing liquid funds plummeted to the bottom, they completely froze at zero.

"Boss. It's all drained," Wu Dong wiped the sweat from his forehead. "They can't even transfer a single yuan now. The entire logistics group is brain-dead."

Lu Chen picked up the walkie-talkie on the table. He switched directly to the perimeter security channel.

"Da Biao." Lu Chen spoke.

"Big Brother. The brothers have geared up. As long as you give the word, we'll go and smash the stations right now." Da Biao's raspy voice came through, with the background sound of massed hydraulic pumps running dully.

"No need to smash the stations. If you smash them, the goods will be damaged." Lu Chen took the car keys from the table. "Come with me to the Nanchang highway toll gate."

"Why go there?" Da Biao was stunned.

Lu Chen tossed the car keys to Old Zhou, curled his lips into a smile, his eyes devoid of any warmth.

"Those truck drivers from Ocean Shipping running long-distance must have no money to refuel or eat right now." Lu Chen strode out of the control room. "Let's go to the scene and set up a stall. Let's do some cash recruiting. And by the way, take over their fleet."