money player

“Viva! Viva!”

In the small fishing port at the mouth of the Gironde River in Bordeaux, a group of young people cheered in Portuguese style on a small boat.

After a few cheers, the young people disembarked and walked to the train station a few kilometers away.

They were Portuguese youths, the young and middle-aged workforce of Portugal, half of them illiterate, and they were jumping into the Atlantic Ocean.

In 1951, Portugal's per capita GDP was only $210, less than three times that of defeated West Germany. Agriculture accounted for 48% of national income, and the literacy rate was only 44%. Citizens of major cities such as Lisbon and Porto could eat their fill, but not their food. The northern region of Terras-Os Montes was suffering from famine, and many people were eating acorn cakes and wild grass roots.

In 1951, Portugal still clung to its "overseas provinces" theory, never mentioning colonies officially, but referring to all occupied territories as "indivisible overseas provinces of Portugal".

Angola, Mozambique, Portuguese India, Guinea, São Tomé and Príncipe, Macau, Cape Verde, East Timor, and Ocusi are the so-called overseas provinces that Portugal still controls, but only four of them contribute large sums of money to mainland Portugal.

In Angola, the profits from diamonds and coffee went into Salazar's "slush fund"; in Goa, gold, opium, and casino illicit funds became the private domain of certain high-ranking officials, with Lisbon never auditing the accounts; in Mozambique, forced cotton cultivation yielded hundreds of millions of escudos a year; and in Macau, gambling taxes, opium, and smuggling—new sources of wealth.

These four exclaves provided financial support to mainland Portugal, allowing the country to maintain a respectable "late 19th-century level." Salazar was too embarrassed to claim a significant lead, but he could say with satisfaction, "Not the best, but better than the worst."

Whether Portugal is good or bad is not up to the government, represented by Salazar; the people's feet have the right to vote. This year alone, no fewer than 100,000 young Portuguese men have illegally crossed the border to France, Brazil, and the United States.

Portuguese newspapers always report that the country is in a great state of affairs, with GDP growth of a certain percentage and unemployment rate reduction of a certain percentage. They just make it up as if it were a human megaphone. Even though most of the population is illiterate, they still have to understand it, right?

Politics is a game of shrewd people. Politicians are only bad in a variety of ways, not stupid in a clear way. Salazar knew perfectly well whether Portugal was in a good or bad situation—Portugal needed more financial support from its overseas provinces.

Salazar went through the list of overseas provinces and found that there was room for improvement in the oil yield of Macau. Perhaps by replacing the governor with one who was skilled in oil extraction, more oil could be extracted from Macau.

Schbert, a scholar-type naval officer, served as a professor at the Naval Academy for many years, teaching courses including ballistics, calculus, mechanics, and naval artillery.

He served in Macau for several years in the 1920s and became familiar with the situation there. From 1943 to 1948, he served as the head of the Mozambican maritime department. During this period, he increased the port's opium and gold smuggling tax by 400%, and was known in Lisbon as "the most profitable officer in the overseas province".

In short, Sperty was a versatile talent who combined the roles of professor, engineer, colonial official, and naval advisor. He was eloquent and skilled in martial arts, making him very suitable for being sent to Macau.

In 1951, as the regime consolidated, the credibility of the Renminbi continued to rise in the mainland. However, in some remote areas, bartering or pricing in gold and silver was still practiced, and in some small circles in big cities, people still sought after Yuan Shikai silver dollars, eagle dollars, and station dollars, driving up the prices on the black market to very high levels.

The pursuit of silver dollars was not allowed by the government, and the image of silver dollars as hard currency had to be broken. The great public security force was waging a vigorous and occasionally bloody currency war.

During the Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China period, the total number of foreign silver dollars flowing into China reached several billion. Although some were confiscated and melted down by the Nationalist government in the 1930s, a large number still exist. It is conservatively estimated that there are no less than 5 million foreign silver dollars in private hands today, of which the number of Mexican silver dollars may be no less than half.

Bankman borrowed 200 million silver dollars and as many Yuan Shikai silver dollars as he wanted from the mainland through the channels he established. The loan terms were: silver dollars converted into 24.43 grams of pure silver and Yuan Shikai silver dollars converted into 23.9 grams of pure silver, with an annual interest rate of +5% in pure silver, and the equivalent value of gold to be repaid within three years at the real-time gold and silver prices.

In addition, the profits earned by the actual operators, represented by Bankman, from manipulating the silver dollars were reduced by 30%.

Bankman was only responsible for lending silver dollars and taking 10% of the profits. The actual operation was carried out by the Macau Ferreira Company, a company named after Alice Santos Ferreira.

In a Western-style house on West Wangyang Hill.

Alice sat on the balcony, swirling a wine glass in her hand, facing west to admire the sunset.

Standing beside her was her secretary, Elcilia Ronaldo, a 25-year-old high-achieving graduate of the University of Coimbra, whom HK Consulting had recruited from Portugal.

Sitting in the living room was Cristiano Santana, a 24-year-old high-achieving graduate of the University of Lisbon. He was a member of "Jump Atlantic" and had previously worked in the Paris office of Golden Logistics, but had been seconded here to assist Alice.

Alice took a sip of her drink and asked, "Has the Eagle Airlines arrived in Mexicali yet?"

Elsilia replied, "We've arrived, and the transaction may already be underway."

In 1951, the United States imposed a strict government price limit on silver at $0.905 per troy ounce. However, the black market was completely out of control. The Korean War pushed silver prices to their global peak. In Chinatowns of New York and Los Angeles, a silver eagle could fetch as much as $3.2 or even $3.5.

However, U.S. Customs strictly controls the import of Eagle dollars, making it difficult to smuggle them into the United States. This also incurs customs clearance costs. In comparison, the cost of directly entering the United States by sea is higher than that of entering the United States by land via the Mexican border.

About 72 years from now, Mexican drug traffickers might not be good drug traffickers anymore, instead of dealing drugs properly, they might smuggle eggs instead. In fact, this has a glorious tradition: in 1951, Mexican drug traffickers weren't doing a good job in their primary business, but they became obsessed with smuggling silver dollars.

Pedro Pérez, a newly emerging drug lord in Mexico, has spent the past two weeks using all sorts of methods—borrowing, stealing, and robbing—to finally raise $400 million in cash to trade with a newly emerging force in Mexicali.

This force is officially known as the Counter-Strike Force, but is referred to as CS.

In a building near the underground Chinatown in Mexicali, Mei Zhidan, codenamed "No Bullets," held a beer bottle in her hand, a cigarette in her mouth, and listened with her eyes closed to the phonograph playing "Rigoletto: The Beautiful Cupid."

"Italy, Italy, Dust2 calling."

Mei Zhidan picked up the walkie-talkie, "Italy is here, Dust2 is speaking."

"B46 has discovered that the terrorists have reached the suspension bridge."

"Received. B51 on high alert. If things go wrong, eliminate all terrorists immediately."

“Copy.”

"B31, B31, Italy calling."

"B31 received, B31 received, Italy please speak."

"Move to Inferno, move to Inferno."

“Copy.”

On a tree outside Pedro Pérez's house, a CS player with a sniper rifle set up said into his walkie-talkie, "Blind shot, ready."

A player wielding a shotgun charged up to the outer wall of Perez's house. "B22, take your positions!"

Another team member came up to him, put away his submachine gun, took off his backpack, and took out a homemade directional explosive device from the bag and stuck it to the wall.

In the shadows directly opposite the two team members, two columns of team members, their backs bent, stood guard with submachine guns.

"Italy, Italy, B31 is in position."

“Copy.”

"Dust2, Dust2, Italy calling."

"Dust2 received, Dust2 received, Italy please speak."

"B31 is ready."

“Copy.”

Calicco Mountains, Mexicali section.

Dust2 emerged from the darkness and walked toward the Mexican crowd standing in front of a Dodge pickup truck.

"Pedro, did you bring the money?"

Pedro Pérez stepped out of the crowd and pointed to the truck bed. "Dustto, where's my eagle?"

Dust2 clapped its hands, and the sound of truck engines came from the hollow at the foot of the mountain. More than twenty headlights lit up. "200 million eagles, 53.72 tons, twelve trucks are delivered to you."

"Very good, I like generous friends, shall we make the deal now?"

"of course."

After a long inspection period, both parties confirmed the goods and the money.

"Dustto, I need another 200 million eagles by this time next month, is there a problem?"

"no problem."

"Goodbye."

Dust2 drove away in a Dodge pickup truck, and the team members who were lying in ambush did not disappear into the darkness until Pedro Perez and his group left.

"B31, B31, Italy calling."

"B31 received, B31 received, Italy please speak."

"Dust to dust."

“Copy.”

Mei Zhidan put down the walkie-talkie, sat down in front of the radio, and sent a message to Macau using the newly developed "ternary machine code encryption method" C-type encryption mechanism.

The ternary machine code encryption method was based on the core idea provided by Xian Yaowen. It grafted programming language ideas onto the basis of the Soviet balanced ternary and standard ternary systems, which brought about a revolutionary change in the power generation method. It eliminated the limitation of four or N digits representing a Chinese character, and the transmitted signal could be 00100, 00, 10T10T01.

As for the decoding method, it has become quite flexible. Both the transmitting and receiving ends can write their own set of decoding rules, and the same code can be parsed using different programming languages ​​such as Mojo, Python, and Go.

Macao.

The communications officer, codenamed Ouyang Xue, copied down the received code, entered it into her DOS notebook, and ran it according to the program formula. She obtained a very familiar pointing code, and without the aid of a codebook, she was able to decipher the word "OK".

"Cristiano, Mexicali sent a message, OK."

Santana made an OK sign, went to the balcony, and did it again to Alice.

Alice put down her wine glass and looked at Elcilia. "How much are the silver coins from the gold shop selling for today?"

"Highest price: MOP 11.30, lowest price: MOP 10.60."

"Send a message to Hong Kong, asking them to send 20 coins over first to test the market."

Elcilia nodded. "Miss, you should head to the Lisbon Palace Ballroom. Most of the important figures from Macau will be there today."

"Hmm, I need to take a shower."

Wharf Holdings.

The machine for manufacturing silver coins was lifted onto a truck by a crane, and the driver stepped on the gas and drove the machine to the Yuanji Mint, which was next to the Rebirth Brick Factory and had no sign.

Kwai Chung Wild Wharf.

Boxes of "German silver" were moved from the barge to the dock.

German silver is a copper-nickel-zinc alloy that looks very similar to silver, but differs in density. It is priced at $810 per ton, equivalent to 2.7% of the price of silver.

Xu Family Lawn.

Xian Yaowen helped Zhou Ruoyun walk towards the dining table. Before they got close, someone who looked like Xu Runcang came up to them, smiled and nodded at Zhou Ruoyun, "Ruoyun."

“Brother Xu,” Zhou Ruoyun replied sweetly.

Xu Runcang looked at Xian Yaowen and said, "Ruoyun, come sit down. I'd like to have a chat with Mr. Xian."

"it is good."

As soon as Zhou Ruoyun left, Xu Runcang's face darkened, and he said in an unfriendly tone, "Mr. Xian, do you know what your brother did?"

Sin Yiu-man nodded. "I came here to solve the problem."

"How do you plan to resolve this?" Xu Runcang sneered, "Would it be even if I raped your sister-in-law?"

Xian Yaowen smiled faintly and said, "It seems that Mr. Xu is very resentful. In that case, I will have Yaowu come over immediately to apologize. Mr. Xu can do as he pleases, whether he is killed or tortured. If he is lucky enough to survive, I will personally tie him up and send him to the police station to turn himself in."

Xu Runcang's face darkened. "Is this Mr. Xian's sincerity?"

"Isn't allowing Mr. Xu to deal with Yaowu enough of a show of sincerity?"

"you……"

"Runcang, please invite Mr. Xian over." (End of Chapter)