46: Chapter 46 Capital's Fury, A New Crisis at the Eye of the Storm

"We've hit the jackpot!" Old Zhou was so anxious he kept slapping his thigh.

Lu Chen held a cigarette between his fingers and pointed at the television on the wall.

On the screen, the local Jiangcheng news channel was broadcasting an urgent breaking news segment.

In the footage, the headquarters of Tengfei Electronics had been cordoned off. Wang Teng, handcuffed, was being escorted out of the main entrance by two economic crime investigation police officers. His hair was disheveled, and the arrogance he once possessed was entirely gone; his face was ashen.

The news anchor's voice was solemn.

"This afternoon, the Municipal Joint Inspection Bureau, in conjunction with the Economic Crime Investigation Brigade, launched a surprise crackdown on Tengfei Electronics regarding a case of suspected malicious unfair competition and fabricating facts to disrupt public order. The company's legal representative, Wang, has been criminally detained and will face severe legal punishment..."

Old Zhou watched the screen and spat fiercely.

"Serves him right! This guy was always stabbing people in the back. Now that he's in, he'll get at least ten or eight years. Nobody will dare to trip us up again."

Lu Chen leaned back into his chair.

"The collapse of Tengfei Electronics is just the beginning. Once the minor demons are cleared, the King of Hell is bound to show up."

Old Zhou was puzzled. "Mr. Lu, we have forty billion in cash in our hands now. Who is there left to fear?"

Lu Chen stubbed out his cigarette in the ashtray.

The two blueprints the system had just issued flashed through his mind.

"Old Zhou, our current small factory of a few hundred people can't handle such massive global orders." Lu Chen stood up. "Take half the cash and go to the city to acquire land. Forget this suburban area; I want you to secure all the vacant land in the entire Northern High-tech Development Zone. I'm going to build a super industrial park that covers the entire province."

Old Zhou gasped sharply.

"Secure all of it? That would require a hundred thousand workers!"

"What's a hundred thousand? In the future, even if it's a million, I can afford to support them." Lu Chen's tone was calm, but his eyes were extremely resolute.

On the other side of the ocean. Manhattan, New York, headquarters of the Morgan Consortium.

In the top-floor panoramic conference room, over a dozen representatives of foreign financial conglomerates, sitting in the shadows, stared intently at the large screen in the center of the conference table.

The screen played a loop of Chen Hao using a lighter to burn the battery and testing the data with a full-load motor.

Bang!

The president, sitting at the head of the table, grabbed a crystal wine glass from the table and smashed it hard against the wall. Shards of glass mixed with red wine splattered everywhere.

"This is the sunset industry you reported!"

The president kicked over a chair, his voice echoing in the hall.

"A Chinese contract manufacturing factory on the verge of bankruptcy has come up with a Solid-state battery that can crush us into the sewer!"

On the other end of the screen connection, Jason kept his head down, not daring to speak.

A white executive sitting on the left adjusted his glasses.

"Boss, the situation is dire. According to our think tank's analysis, if the technical specifications of this battery are true and mass production is achievable, all our investments in traditional energy and new energy over the past thirty years will become worthless scrap, and the losses will be calculated in the trillions of dollars."

Another executive chimed in with a cold expression.

"The cost he announced is only forty RMB. Once large-scale distribution begins, global capital will lean toward them, and our technology blockade against China will become a complete joke."

The entire conference room fell into a dead silence.

These financial titans, who controlled the lifeblood of the global economy, were truly terrified. It was a fear that threatened to destroy the very foundation of their rule.

"At all costs."

The president pressed his hands hard onto the conference table. "So what if the technology is strong? If they have no food to eat, they will starve to death all the same! Initiate the Scorched Earth Plan immediately!"

Jason looked up on the screen. "Boss, the Scorched Earth Plan means we have to use every means necessary..."

"Have you checked their raw materials?" the president interrupted him.

"We have."

Jason quickly flipped through the documents. "Their core material, purple niobium-tantalum ore, is mined within their own factory grounds. However, extracting purple niobium-tantalum requires a high-purity catalyst: yttrium star stone. Ninety percent of the global production of this stone is in the hands of several large mining groups we control."

The president sneered.

"Notify the world's three major mining giants. Effective immediately, initiate a total blockade on yttrium star stone! Implement an absolute embargo and supply cutoff against China!"

Jason gasped.

"Boss, if we do that, they won't even be able to get their first trial production line running!"

"Three days."

The president held up three fingers. "Within three days, I want to see that factory shut down. I want all the tens of billions in orders in his hands to turn into penalty fees, and I want to crush him completely!"

The next morning.

The sunlight of Jiangcheng City had just pierced through the morning mist.

Lu Chen sat in his office, eating xiaolongbao delivered from the cafeteria.

The door was kicked open with a bang.

Old Zhou scrambled in, stumbling and falling directly in front of Lu Chen's desk.

"Mr. Lu! Something terrible has happened!"

Old Zhou's face was deathly pale, and the folders in his hands scattered all over the floor.

Lu Chen picked up a tissue and wiped his mouth.

"Old Zhou, you've been with me for so long; why are you still so panicked when something happens? The sky isn't falling. Stand up and speak."

Old Zhou's voice cracked.

"There's a problem with the raw materials! All the global upstream raw material suppliers have unilaterally breached their contracts!"

Lu Chen frowned.

"We have our own purple niobium-tantalum ore; what else could go wrong?"

"The ore is ours! But the supply of yttrium star stone, the catalyst required to refine the ore, has been cut off!"

Old Zhou was so anxious he kept slapping his thigh.

"Chen Hao called me this morning. When the refinement reaches ninety-nine percent, high-purity yttrium star stone must be added. Just this morning, all global suppliers of yttrium star stone breached their contracts. They even paid us double the penalty fees, but they simply won't ship the goods!"

Lu Chen leaned back against his chair.

"Morgan's people move quite fast."

"Mr. Lu, how can you still laugh!"

Old Zhou paced in circles, frantic.

"I checked the black market; now I can't even buy a single gram of yttrium star stone. The current inventory in our lab is only enough for three days!"

Old Zhou crouched on the floor, pulling at his hair.

"Once those three days are up, the production line will come to a complete standstill. We won't be able to deliver on those tens of billions in online orders, and the penalty fees will uproot us entirely! We've been choked at the source!"

Facing the desperate situation where production was about to cease, and the killer blow dealt by the foreign giants to pull the rug out from under them.

Lu Chen showed no panic.

"Get up. Don't make a fool of yourself here."

Lu Chen's voice was flat.

"If they want to choke me, they'd better see if their hands are strong enough."

Lu Chen silently recited "System" in his mind.

The virtual panel unfolded instantly.

In the most prominent corner of the inventory, a card emitting a golden light was slowly flickering.

Lu Chen clicked on the details.

[ God-level Associated Mineral Vein Location Card (Unmined) ]

Lu Chen glanced at the latitude and longitude coordinates marked on the card.

It wasn't Jiangcheng. The destination of the coordinates pointed directly to an uninhabited area deep in the Great Northwest, where there was not a soul for hundreds of miles.

"Old Zhou." Lu Chen closed the panel.

"Huh?" Old Zhou looked up, dazed.

"Go book plane tickets. Notify Da Biao to bring twenty of our best fighters."

Lu Chen stood up and picked up his suit jacket to put it on.

"We're going to the Great Northwest."

"The Great Northwest? What are we going there for?"

Lu Chen walked to the door and pulled it open.

"To prepare a coffin for those self-righteous foreign devils."