Great Power Reclamation

In the conference room on the top floor of the Warrior Group's North American headquarters in Manhattan, the air pressure was so low it felt like you could wring water out of it.

Outside the enormous floor-to-ceiling windows, the grey surface of the Hudson River reflected the low-hanging leaden clouds in the sky. Ye Feng stood before the window, his back straight as a javelin, his gaze piercing through the glass, landing on the invisible battlefield further away.

Emily strode in, the sound of her high heels clicking on the floor particularly clear in the silence.

She placed a thin, yet incredibly heavy document on the conference table:
"Mr. Ye, the press conference of the hawkish senators is over. This is the full text of the CASA bill, which was finally submitted to the full Senate for debate. The core provisions... remain unchanged."

She took a deep breath, her voice carrying a barely perceptible tension:

"More importantly, they publicly named Junken Electromechanical, calling it a 'systemic and structural threat to U.S. technological sovereignty and economic security'."

"The bill demands that, once passed, a 'highest level of review' be immediately launched into all of Warrior Group's chip-related businesses in the United States, and hints that a... total embargo is not out of the question."

At the conference table, James, the North American General Counsel of Warrior Group, stood with a grim face and his fingers clenched so tightly they turned white.

"'Systemic and structural threat'? This is a blatant declaration of war! Once we are labeled with this, all our operations in the United States, from chip sales to joint R&D, and even potential future technical support for our Irish factory, will be frozen indefinitely! Wall Street will immediately withdraw its loans, and the supply chain will collapse instantly!"

Sarah, the vice president in charge of government relations, rubbed her temples:
“They are determined to achieve their goal in one fell swoop this time. They have joined forces with some extreme hardliners and used the panic stirred up by the recent leaks of secrets from the military-industrial complex to package CASA as a matter of ‘national survival’.”

"The voices of the moderates... have been suppressed. The situation for next week's debate and vote... is extremely pessimistic."

Ye Feng slowly turned around. His face was expressionless, but his eyes were as cold as the ice that had never melted beneath the Siberian permafrost.

He didn't look at the document, his gaze sweeping over the tense faces of every trusted confidant present.

"To achieve everything in one battle?" His voice wasn't loud, but it was as sharp as tempered steel. "They think they're the only ones who can overturn the table?"

The conference room fell silent instantly. James and Sarah stared at Ye Feng in astonishment, while Emily's fingers unconsciously clenched.

Ye Feng walked to the conference table, placed his hands on the cold surface, leaned forward slightly, and scanned the crowd with a gaze that seemed almost tangible:
"Pass the order to implement the highest level of the 'Shield Mountain' contingency plan—'shutdown'."

The word "shutdown" pierced the deathly silence of the conference room like an icicle.

James gasped sharply, his voice trembling:

"President Ye! This...this is directly cutting off chip supplies to our core American customers? Especially OEMs like GM and Ford? This...this is tantamount to detonating an economic nuclear bomb! We will be completely isolated from the entire Western market! Antitrust lawsuits, exorbitant compensation..."

"Compensation?" Ye Feng interrupted him, a cold, unsmiling smile curving his lips.

"Let them sue. Our contract has a force majeure clause that clearly states 'unforeseen and insurmountable supply disruptions caused by changes in the importing country's policies. Lucy's CASA is that sword hanging over our heads. We are just proactively mitigating the risk before it falls."

His gaze was sharp as a knife. "As for isolation? James, tell me, when GM and Ford's production lines were completely paralyzed due to the lack of chips, causing the entire North American auto industry supply chain to collapse, were Wall Street and Washington busy isolating us first, or busy putting out the fire?"

Sarah, pale-faced, tried one last time to salvage the situation:

"President Ye, this is too extreme! Perhaps we could first restrict some high-end chips, or raise prices significantly as a warning? Cutting off the supply directly would completely sever the relationship!"

"Tear it?" Ye Feng straightened up, his voice resolute.
"The moment they slapped the label of 'systemic threat,' their true colors were already revealed! Mild warnings? They'll only see it as weakness!"

He surveyed the crowd, his gaze unwavering as a rock:

"The 'shutdown' is not the goal, but a means. It's to tell everyone that the Warrior Group's chips are not cheap commodities they can summon and dismiss at will!"

"This is to make them and the forces behind them see clearly that if they want to exclude us from the game, they themselves will pay an unbearable price! Let Mary Barra of General Motors put pressure on Washington for us!"

He turned to Emily, his command clear and cold:
"Execute immediately. Notify all customers in the US involved in the supply of automotive-grade chips that, due to unforeseen major policy risks (pointing to the CASA Act), in order to ensure the long-term stability of the supply chain and the interests of customers, all shipments and deliveries of automotive-grade chips from Warrior Group (including Junken Electromechanical) will be suspended immediately, with the resumption time to be determined. The wording is official, calm, and watertight."

Emily took a deep breath, suppressing the turmoil in her heart, and nodded vigorously: "Understood! Execute immediately!"

Ye Feng's last gaze fell on the gray sky outside the window, as if piercing through layers of dark clouds and seeing the desolation that was about to fall from Detroit's roaring assembly lines.

"This first cut," he murmured to himself, his voice so soft that only he could hear it, yet carrying immense force, "must draw blood."

Detroit, the largest assembly plant of General Motors in the world.

Inside the enormous factory, the lights were blazing, as bright as day. Hundreds of robotic arms traced precise and fluid trajectories in the air, and sparks from welding rose and fell like festive fireworks.

The conveyor belt, like a river of steel, carried unfinished chassis, slowly flowing through each assembly station. The roar of engines, the clanging of metal, the whirring of pneumatic tools... all converged into the most magnificent symphony of the industrial age.

Suddenly, as if choked by an invisible giant hand, the magnificent symphony began to break in discord.

At one workstation, the robot responsible for installing the engine control unit (ECU) froze in mid-air with its outstretched robotic arm just as it was about to embed the palm-sized black box covered with precision interfaces into the vehicle frame.

The indicator light flashed wildly from a steady green, eventually turning a glaring red and emitting a series of rapid, sharp alarm sounds.

Immediately afterwards, at another workstation not far away, the robotic arm responsible for installing the vehicle stability system module also stopped moving, and a red warning light came on.

The next workstation, the assembly line responsible for the core boards of the infotainment system, also came to a standstill.

The alarm blared like a plague, spreading rapidly from one workstation to another. Blinding red lights illuminated patches of space, replacing the previously orderly green lights.

The assembly line lost its heartbeat; the conveyor belt slowly slowed down and finally came to a complete stop. The robotic arms hovered in mid-air, like a group of soulless steel sculptures.

In the huge factory, only the low hum of the equipment after it stopped running and the increasingly frequent and piercing alarm sounds remained.

Beside the assembly line, the workers in blue overalls stopped what they were doing, looking at each other blankly, at a loss for what to do.

The supervisors, holding walkie-talkies, were pale-faced, their voices shrill with anxiety and disbelief.
"What's going on? Where's the ECU? Why hasn't the ECU been sent over?!"

"Module! Vehicle stability module out of stock? Are you kidding me! The stock was full yesterday!"

"The system is showing a shortage of core boards? Impossible! The purchase order was confirmed long ago!"

Panic, like an icy tide, instantly engulfed the heart of this industrial behemoth.

The CEO's office at General Motors.

Mary Barra had just finished a video conference and was rubbing her throbbing temples.

The secretary practically burst through the door, her face deathly pale, her voice trembling with tears: "Mary! Something...something terrible has happened! More than two-thirds of the ECU workstations at seventeen major assembly plants worldwide...have stopped simultaneously! And the vehicle stability module, the intelligent driving core board...the system shows...Warrior Group...has cut off supplies! All related chips have been suspended from shipment!"

"what?!"

Mary Borra suddenly stood up, the chair being pulled to the ground by the force, making a screeching sound.

She snatched the tablet from the secretary's hand; the screen clearly displayed an official notification from the Warrior Group's North American headquarters, its wording cold and businesslike—

"Due to unforeseen major policy risks (such as the CASA Act, etc.)... all shipments of automotive-grade chips are suspended..."

Below the notification letter were a waterfall of urgent emails and internal communication alerts from factory managers around the world, all with one core message: Stop production! Stop production! Stop production!

"boom!"

Mary Barra slammed the tablet she was holding onto the gleaming mahogany table! The screen shattered instantly, and spiderweb-like cracks spread outwards.

Her chest heaved violently, her short golden hair seemed to stand on end from extreme anger, and her face, which was usually known for its calm and professionalism, was now distorted with rage, her eyes bloodshot, like a lioness driven to the brink of despair.

"Ye Feng!!"

A near-roaring roar pierced her throat, exploding in the luxurious office and making the glass vibrate.
"How dare he?! How dare he!!!"

She turned around abruptly, bracing her hands on the French windows, her body trembling slightly with anger.

Outside the window, the city lights of Detroit were gradually illuminating, while before her eyes, she seemed to see countless production lines, representing production, profits, and the lifeline of General Motors, sinking into darkness one after another.

"Without the chips for our soldiers, our production line is just a pile of scrap metal worth hundreds of billions!!"

She slammed her fist into the cold glass, her knuckles turning red instantly.

"Bastards, trash, these damn idiots! They stirred up a hornet's nest! They messed with the wrong people!"

She grabbed the encrypted phone on the table, her knuckles turning white from the force, and her voice changed from a roar to an extremely suppressed, yet even more dangerous, scream:
"Get me the White House Chief of Staff! Immediately! Right now! Also, notify all board members! Emergency meeting! Tell them to either get those lunatics and their bullshit bills out of here right now!"

"Either prepare for the biggest disaster in General Motors' history! Now!!"

She slammed the phone down on the landline, making a jarring sound.

The storm, fueled by Mary Barra's roar, swept across the entire Western industrial world, its epicenter in Detroit.

Wall Street, top floor of the JPMorgan Chase headquarters building.

Jamie Damon stood in front of the huge curved floor-to-ceiling window, overlooking the dazzling and vibrant night view of Manhattan.

However, at this moment, this sea of ​​lights, symbolizing wealth and power, looked to him like a pot of oil about to boil.

He had just hung up a near-hysterical phone call from Frankfurt—

The CEO of Europe’s largest auto parts supplier is on the verge of collapse due to the potential ripple effects of GM’s production halt.

"Ye Feng...did he really do that?"

Dimon's voice was low and heavy with an unbelievable weariness. He turned to look at the core executives and top analysts behind him, whose expressions were equally grave.

"Confirmed, Jamie."

The chief risk officer's voice was dry: "The major North American factories of GM, Ford, and Stellantis are experiencing widespread production shutdowns due to the disruption of core chip supplies."

"The impact is still expanding. The Warriors Group's official announcement directly cited the CASA Act as an 'unforeseen and significant policy risk'."

A senior analyst pointed to the wildly fluctuating data on the screen:

"Panic has begun to spread. Auto stocks have plummeted across the board, and GM's stock price was halted once within half an hour of opening!"

"Supply chain-related technology stocks, raw material stocks, logistics stocks... all have been dragged down. The VIX fear index is skyrocketing!"

“This is no longer a problem in a single industry, Jamie! This is… the trigger for systemic risk! If this continues, confidence in the entire manufacturing supply chain will collapse!”

Damon closed his eyes, pressing his fingers hard against his throbbing temples. He seemed to hear Mary Barra's roars in Detroit, see countless factories fall into silence, and witness the devastation of the stock market.

Ye Feng's move was precise, ruthless, and decisive! He completely disregarded conventional business rules; he directly used the Warrior Group's most core and lethal strategic weapon—the supply chain nuclear button under technological monopoly!
"A bunch of bastards..."

Damon squeezed out the name through clenched teeth, with unprecedented chill and disgust.

The political ambitions of those few individuals are dragging the entire American economy into a completely unnecessary disaster!
"They thought she was cutting off a threat, but she was actually detonating a bomb aimed at our own heart!"

He suddenly opened his eyes, his gaze now devoid of any hesitation, filled only with icy resolve and boundless rage:

"Immediately! Utilize all available resources! Contact the Senate leaders of both parties! Contact the White House Council of Economic Advisers! Contact all swing voters!"

“Tell them that the damn CASA bill is now a Damocles’ sword hanging over Wall Street and the entire American real economy! Ye Feng has proven with his actions that this is not a threat, but a reality!”

He strode to his desk, picked up the dedicated phone line, and his voice was like tempered steel:

"Get me connected to Mary Barra. Also, contact all our allies in the Auto Workers and the National Association of Manufacturers."

"Prepare the most detailed assessment report on the immediate and long-term devastating impact of the military chip supply disruption on the U.S. economy. The data must be shocking! I want it on the desk of every key senator in the Oval Office and the White House within an hour!"

He paused for a moment, his eyes sharp as an eagle's:

"Also, arrange an encrypted line for me. I want to speak with Ye Feng personally."

His voice lowered, carrying a hint of complexity.

"This war, started by a madman, needs to be put out. They thought they were playing politics, but Ye Feng made them realize that they were playing with fire, playing with the very foundation of Western industrial society!" (End of Chapter)