Korean TV series: King of Peninsula 1997

Chapter 565: Chessboard and Chess Player

It can’t be said to be the jaw line, after all, Zhu Mengyong has started to gain weight.

Li You took a sip of the clear wine and looked at Zhu Mengzhun who was sitting calmly in his original seat. "President Zhu didn't say that Councillor Zhu is here today too."

Zhu Mengyong laughed, "Meng Zhun and Chairman Li worked well together in the last election. I called him here today to discuss things with him."

"Mengzhun," Zhu Mengyong called Zhu Mengzhun, "Have a drink with President Li."

"President Li," Zhu Mengzhun heard the call and knew that the two had finished greeting each other, so he came forward with a glass of wine and greeted Li You, "I have heard of your name for a long time."

Li You nodded, and the two of them clinked their glasses and took a sip each as a greeting.

When the three of them were chatting and clinking glasses, a loud thunder exploded outside the window.

Zhu Mengyong's thumb unconsciously rubbed the jade ring. The wine floating in the celadon glass in front of him made him ignore the loud thunder.

Instead, it was Li You's still young face that made him too concerned.

A monster like this, who at the age of 30 can take charge of the Kinmen Group, which currently has the largest market value in the Korean Peninsula, should not exist.

But he just showed up.

"President Li, what do you think of this wine?" Zhu Mengyong clinked glasses with Li You with a smile. The sound of breaking jade shattered the rain outside.

"I don't drink," Li You pushed his gold-rimmed glasses and said calmly, "Drinking doesn't bring me any harm."

He was telling the truth. After all, with his physique, it was easy for him to drink a thousand cups without getting drunk.

However, when the two people on the other side heard these words, it didn't make the same sense.

"Chairman Lee is too modest," Zhu Mengzhun praised. "Although I have never met Chairman Lee before, everyone in Seoul knows that Chairman Lee has never been drunk at various banquets. If this can be called not being able to drink, then we are nothing."

Li You smiled without saying anything, just clinking glasses with the two of them.

After that loud thunder, the drizzle turned into heavy rain, and now it has begun to wash the windows.

Li You caught a glimpse of Zhu Mengyong glancing at his cell phone, and he became more confident in the accuracy of the information Cui Yixian sent back.

"We've had enough food and wine," Li You said, holding the wine glass between his fingers, and the wine inside was rippling. "President Zhu, do you want to talk about business?"

"Of course," Zhu Mengzhun suddenly said. He sat up straight and put the wine glass back on the table. "We naturally want to talk about business, otherwise why would we bother President Li to come here today?"

"It's just that." Zhu Mengzhun shook his head, "The first move doesn't necessarily mean you win."

Seeing that Zhu Mengzhun was still pretending, Li You turned to Zhu Mengyong who had been silent just now, "President Zhu thinks so too?"

"Or can Councillor Zhu represent Chairman Zhu's opinion?"

Zhu Mengyong narrowed his eyes, put his gaze back on the table, and loosened his collar. "Everyone knows my goal, even our eldest brother knows it. It is undoubtedly the management rights of Daying Ocean."

"Next," he smiled and drank the remaining wine in his glass, his cheeks began to redden, "but this requires the cooperation of President Li, and a perfect opportunity, otherwise it will be just as Meng Zhun said."

"The one who strikes first may not win."

"You can't eat hot tofu in a hurry. It's impossible to get results the next day after finding a project and investing in it," Li You waved his hand. "Councilman Zhu is right."

Seeing that both sides had not revealed their cards, Zhu Mengyong continued, "Most of President Li's previous projects had radical goals. How come he can relax this time? I thought President Li would think these methods were bad."

"If you take too big a step and build a building too high, you will have to worry about whether the foundation is stable," Li You said frankly, without hiding anything. The most important thing for those in power is to balance the pros and cons."

He can't say that he has so many stimuli at work that he doesn't work all day.

Zhu Mengyong sighed, "It's enough for President Li to know this truth."

"I know, but can President Zhu take over Daying Ocean without my help?"

Li You made the matter clear directly.

"President Zhu has his reasons for doing this," Li You said leisurely, "Even if I don't ask, I know that President Zhu's goal can't be so small."

Li You said calmly, "Now that Daying is under the control of Jinmen, we can recover Daying's ocean and organize Daying's industry. It may not be a big concern for me in the future."

"President Zhu, if you want me to help your future troublemakers, you must show your sincerity first."

Zhu Mengyong was stunned and burst out laughing.

He glanced at Zhu Mengzhun on the side and said, "How could anyone on the Korean Peninsula challenge Chairman Li right now?"

"Chairman Lee is now no different from the king of the Korean Peninsula."

Li You smiled and did not respond.

If he is really the king of the Korean Peninsula, he can do whatever he wants. The first thing he would do now is to kill Daying and Zhu Mengyong.

But he was obviously not. It would be easy to kill Zhu Mengyong, but if something happened to the camp, what would happen to the Korean Peninsula? This was the biggest problem.

At the beginning of Shunyang's collapse, the two major groups, Daying and Tianxia, ​​stepped in to share the pressure. Chen Rongji and Chen Dongji each inherited a part of the industry and fought each other to the death.

Finally, Shunyang was ruined, and it took several years for Li You to find an opportunity to embezzle it.

A complete Daying Group was completely different from the Shunyang Group, which was already on the decline at that time and had fallen into internal strife after losing Chen Yangzhe.

Seeing that Li You was unmoved, Zhu Mengyong just felt uncomfortable with his words.

However, Zhu Mengzhun next to him was stunned for a moment and grasped the key to the problem.

Li You didn't disagree with them taking over the entire Daying Ocean, but he felt that the chips were not enough.

As a presidential candidate, he secretly helped another presidential candidate. This was a precedent on the Korean Peninsula. What else could Li You want?
Zhu Mengzhun was unsure and was thinking hard in his mind.

Li You laughed in his heart as he watched the two people who were unsure of the chips and secretly guessing in their hearts.

On his way here, he received very encouraging news from Choi Ik-hyun in Busan.

At the beginning of the 21st century, global trade grew rapidly and shipbuilding orders actually surged.

This is also the reason why Daying Ocean, which was originally only a part of Daying Group's industry, was able to maintain a stalemate with Zhu Mengyong after being controlled by Zhu Mengyong's elder brother.

Especially in recent years, the global shipping market has been in a period of prosperity.

But it was also because of this that Daying Ocean encountered problems at the end of 2006.

Due to excessive optimism, a large number of high-priced shipbuilding orders were signed.

If we look to the future, the demand for such long-term high-priced shipbuilding orders will drop precipitously when the financial crisis hits in 2008, causing the long-term fixed-price contracts that have been signed to face the risk of cost backlash. The prices of various raw materials such as steel will rise rapidly, which will greatly squeeze profits. But this is looking at it from a future perspective. What is happening in Daying Ocean is happening right now.

Li You didn't pay much attention to Daying Ocean, but it was the leader in shipping and shipbuilding on the Korean Peninsula after all, so he still knew something about it.

Taking advantage of the current industry boom, Daying Ocean is expanding its shipyard facilities on a large scale.

However, the rapid expansion of global shipbuilding capacity has led to an imbalance between supply and demand, and many of Daying Ocean's orders have been diverted, resulting in overcapacity.

This depends on Zhu Mengyong.

In addition to the Beijing Camp, he has made large-scale investments in China.
There is also a shipyard.

This was a move specifically aimed at Zhu Mengyong's own elder brother.

In 2001, China joined the World Trade Organization. Not only did its commodity export trade double, but ships themselves also became a focus of export.

Even because of its ability to radiate the entire industrial chain to economic growth and labor employment, the shipbuilding industry is also seen as an important tool to boost the economy and become a pioneer in going overseas.

The huge investment by Daying Group has given a huge boost to China's shipbuilding industry, which was already on the verge of rapid development.

Starting from 2002, China's shipbuilding orders have shown a discontinuous growth in the following few years.

The volume of new orders received this year has exceeded 60 million tons, and it is estimated that next year.
That is, in 2007, this figure will double to more than 120 million tons.

This ton usually refers to the modified gross tonnage of ships built by a shipyard in one year. It is an internationally accepted unit for calculating shipbuilding capacity. It takes into account factors such as ship type and complexity, and is used for horizontal comparison of shipyard capacity.

Even eighteen years later, the total deadweight tonnage of ships built by China's largest shipyards per year was about 2.6 million deadweight tons.

Today’s shipyards are small and their construction capabilities are weak, but they can withstand the vast land, abundant raw materials and cheap labor.

This has led to too many shipyards, with at least four hundred currently waiting for orders.

However, under the command of Zhu Mengyong, Daying Ocean added a shipyard in the past two years. It also relied on high-skilled workers, and the strong power of the trade union led to high labor costs. Compared with China, an emerging shipbuilding country, its cost competitiveness weakened.

In addition, the surge in international steel prices since 2003 is not worth mentioning for China.

But it is very distressing for Daying Ocean. The price of raw materials has increased, and it is difficult to pass on the costs, so the profit margin has been greatly compressed. Now future orders are starting to flow to China again.

Zhu Mengyong plays chess very well.

Once he succeeds in seizing Daying Ocean, he will be able to take advantage of the situation to further deepen the cooperation between Daying Group and China, and the benefits he will reap will be countless.

Not only Li You is pushing the trend, Zhu Mengyong is also playing chess, and he is playing very successfully.

Originally, Daying Ocean did maintain an advantage in areas such as ultra-large container ships, but this year Zhu Mengyong invested in technology, allowing China to catch up at an accelerated pace. Daying Ocean must continue to invest in research and development to maintain its leading position, which has once again increased its financial burden.

However, Daying Ocean kept this matter secret very well. At least now Busan seems to be thriving and Daying Ocean’s stock price is still rising.

After all, before the financial crisis in 2008, banks had been over-lending to the shipbuilding industry, but in fact Daying Ocean has now begun to fall into multiple difficulties.

Due to the difficulties in refinancing and the decrease in new orders, cash flow pressure began to increase dramatically.

What Li You didn't know was that the value of his ship assets in his previous life would fluctuate with the market's prosperity. During the industry's downturn, companies would face huge asset write-offs. In 2009, Hyundai Merchant Marine's annual loss reached 1.2 trillion won.

Daying Haiyang could not escape either, but because of Li You's arrival, he killed Zhu Rongyi and allowed the Zhu brothers to take the throne and fight for power ahead of time. Zhu Mengyong personally blew up Lei Xian.

In simple terms, Daying Ocean invested too much in building new shipyards, but could not attract much new investment, and profitable new orders flowed in large quantities to China, which led to...
Daying Ocean is so poor that its cash flow is about to be cut off.

That means Daying Ocean's shipping industry can still make profits, otherwise Daying Ocean would have gone bankrupt long ago.

It can only be said that Zhu Rongyi had vision. He let his second son Zhu Mengyong take over instead of his eldest son Zhu Mengyuan.

In the short term, there is no difference between the two men. Zhu Mengyuan is more tough, while Zhu Mengyong seems to have better business acumen.

But after a little longer time, just a few years, Zhu Mengyong defeated Zhu Mengyuan.

Zhu Mengyuan is in charge of Daying Ocean, which is on the rise. However, it is useless no matter how tough he is if he manages Daying Ocean into this state.

So now Zhu Mengyong is eager to take action against Daying Haiyang.

As for why Li You was involved.
When discussing this matter two years ago, he really needed Li You to bring the Kinmen Group to help. However, since the explosion of Daying Ocean this year, he no longer had to drag Li You along. If he didn't, he would be beaten by Li You.

Daying Group was about to swallow up Daying Ocean, but Kinmen Group injected capital into Daying Ocean from behind and then stabbed Daying Group from behind.
Zhu Mengyong found this scene scary.

By then, not only would Daying Ocean not be able to be taken back, but Daying Group would also be damaged, so it would take the initiative to divide the interests of other places with Li You.

This led to many meetings this year at the end of the year.

Li You is now being boycotted politically by many members of Congress, so they divide the political benefits with Li You in exchange for Li You's letting go.

However, nothing has been made public yet. Zhu Mengyong and Zhu Mengjun are weighing their own bargaining chips, while Li You is thinking about the information he has received and wants more.

Li You was a little curious. Could it be that the old fellow Zhu Rongyi had predicted that his eldest son Zhu Mengyuan would fail, so he deliberately left the Daying Ocean to Zhu Mengyuan, in order to make him a whetstone for Zhu Mengyong?
He was not sure whether the news was true or not, but he always felt that Zhu Rongyi, who knew the personalities of his two sons well, did it on purpose. Otherwise, no one could explain why he gave the position of chairman to Zhu Mengyong, but threw the important Daying Ocean to Zhu Mengyuan.

The room was eerily silent.

Zhu Mengyong pondered for a long time, and felt that Li You knew something, otherwise his attitude would not be so blunt.
But Li You had the same attitude before.

"Chairman Li," it was Zhu Mengzhun, a member of parliament, who made the connection in his mind.

"You want the mayor of Busan?"

Li You glanced at him, drank the wine slowly, and then nodded, "Yes."

"Mayor of Busan." When Zhu Mengzhun heard this, he knew that Li You was thinking far ahead.

Daying Group can swallow up Daying Ocean, but in return... Li You will take away the mayor of Busan and impose restrictions on Daying Ocean in Busan.

Zhu Mengzhun couldn’t guess the other functions, but this one was too obvious.

You will become a great concern to me in the future, so I will naturally send someone to supervise you.

"I see," Zhu Mengyong, although his political sense was slightly weaker, also knew what this meant.

"President Li is still worried about the camp."

"It's hard to feel at ease with President Zhu here."

Zhu Mengyong hesitated for a short while before making the final decision. "President Li, it's a deal."

(End of this chapter)