My Lord, you need to stand up!

Chapter 620 Which lord can't make empty promises?

So after hanging up the phone, I calmed myself down and resisted the urge to call home.

Wei Dong then called Chen Wenliang, which was like asking where the package was.

The smuggler was indeed well-informed: "Three more days. I heard you made a bee in Friulbin?"

This gave Wei Dong a headache, and he even wanted to call Mao'er to talk to this guy: "We may be familiar, but you can still be sued for defamation if you talk nonsense. He committed suicide, and there's a police statement to back it up!"

The mentality of those in the underworld is: "Great tactic! Can we take the computers when this batch arrives? They're definitely hot commodities right now."

Wei Dong was also facing this difficult situation: "My shipments are in Shanghai. There are already 20,000 finished products and 50,000 parts. It's very troublesome to transport them from China. Could you pick them up in Shanghai?"

He experienced the hardship of dealing with train cars three years ago. Now, the various seaports in China are under strict control. He can't possibly bring his few inland river barges to the coast, and ships bound for Hong Kong also have to wait in line.

Chen Wenliang readily agreed, and then approached from a roundabout way: "Is that newly built wharf at the Pearl River Estuary yours? If you can let me dock and unload the cargo, we'll split the profits 50/50."

In that instant, one can clearly understand the meaning of "trading port" as described in history textbooks from ancient times to the present.

They are roads paved with silver.

Shanghai and Guangzhou, which of them didn't become wealthy along this road?

Now that the productivity of the entire mainland is about to explode, and export channels are concentrated on individuals, the wealth they will become is unimaginable!

Even smugglers understand this.

So you still need to have money and confidence to make Wei Dong not even blink at the promised huge fortune: "For all the goods that are legally imported and cleared through customs, I will take as many as you want. I can even give you rebates and benefits. Don't bring a single smuggled item. This is a reform case that is being watched by the whole country. It is the first ocean-going terminal operated outside the country."

Chen Wenliang, with his silver tongue, retorted: "Isn't this all thanks to your word? If you pay less and get a discount, then it's not like that..."

The old security guard at the tax compound instantly understood what tax evasion meant: intentionally or unintentionally underpaying, forgetting, or making a mistake to avoid paying taxes.

Some even use the numerous tax categories to choose the lowest one, euphemistically calling it "legal tax avoidance."

Finally, what's the point? Once the total amount is collected, we can use it to fire at the target!
He really didn't understand customs declaration, foreign trade, or port containers when talking to Rang Weidong, but when it came to tax tricks, he had been watching for decades.

I understood instantly; that's how it works.

Why do various regions establish industrial zones and development zones? Because by doing so, local governments can obtain policy support, such as tax and business tax reductions and exemptions, as well as expedited approval procedures.

The reason why various places later established tax-free zones and bonded ports is the same.

With some policy support, such as tax reductions or exemptions, import and export tariffs can be reduced.

Once I thought about it, I realized that customs officials are also tax officials, but they specifically check tariffs on overseas trade.

Wei Dong laughed heartily: "Boss Chen, I have a large volume of imports and exports, but it definitely doesn't involve customs. They can do whatever they want. But have you ever thought that if you expand your clandestine business, you can still make just as much profit? Those shipping magnates all started from one or two ships. Why can't you become a shipping magnate? The old guys have had enough. It's time to make room for them!"

When the old Hong Kong tycoons told Wei Dong about the underwater world, they were full of teasing and ridicule. Chen Wenliang was indeed the youngest and least experienced among their group of local tycoons who hadn't washed their hands properly, so when it came to rewarding merits, they just casually gave him an agency right to fool him.

Although Wei Dong was young, he controlled the channels for dealing with various places in the mainland. In this day and age, both sides needed such a guarantor and intermediary, which is why he was particularly important.

But Wei Dong only knew about this in the last few years. Once the policies became clearer and more relaxed, and at least the requirement that all external investments must be joint ventures was no longer strictly enforced, Hong Kong businessmen became familiar with the mainland and built trust, and his presence instantly disappeared.

Nobody wants to have an extra middleman taking a cut of the profits or shares.

That's why he's been aggressively expanding his sales to ensure continued demand. That's the benefit of having a third eye; you won't get carried away by the praise you receive now and think it will always be like this.

What he is now reminding Chen Wenliang of is precisely this kind of future.

The smuggler, who usually manipulates, bribes, instigates, and smooths things over with people at every stage, is certainly skilled at appealing to emotions and reason, using threats, inducements, and emotional manipulation. But now, he's actually feeling a bit uneasy. Hey, how did it become that you're the one persuading me: "It's not that easy..."

Wei Dong, who was good at sales, immediately pressed him like a leech: "I've been in Malaysia, running around the ports. Right now, the most mainstream container ships are 30,000 to 40,000 tons, with a capacity of no more than 3,000 containers. Do you think it's possible that the next generation of ships could increase to 5,000 or even 10,000 containers?"

Anyone who watches short videos should remember those videos documenting the daily lives of sailors. Even the old security guard with a missing hand, who had never left Shangzhou, watched these videos with great interest. So what I remember is those containers overflowing with food, neatly stacked like plates taller than a person at a buffet – it was so exaggerated.

This is completely different from the container ships he saw at the dock. He's just like a refined young girl eating at a buffet. What a waste!
Chen Wenliang was both amused and exasperated by outsiders: "You think you can just go big if you want to? This kind of 30,000 to 40,000-ton ship is called the Panama Canal type, and the world uses this as the standard because the locks of the Panama Canal are only that wide. If it's too big, it can't pass through and can't switch between the east and west banks of the Citibank. How can it enter the international shipping market?"

Oh, oh, oh, even a layman can understand now.

The United States' global hegemony, accumulated since World War II, is too powerful.

The entire shipping market is geared towards serving Citibank; whether or not a company is favored by the shipping market depends on Citibank as the standard.

Wei Dong was able to instantly realize that the reason why cargo ships could grow so large was because of the rise of the mainland.

It's not that the mainland can compete, but rather that super cargo ships that specialize in the China-US Pacific route don't need to go through the Panama Canal at all.

Even the canal that supplies goods to Europe doesn't have as many restrictions as Panama.

Explaining what a ship lock is to people all over the country might be a bit abstract.

It is precisely in places like Shangzhou, Jiangzhou, and Echang, which are located around the Three Gorges, that one can get through.

Of course, the proliferation of such large-scale ships, in turn, prompted the Panama Canal to improve and expand its locks, but that was thirty years later, something Wei Dong certainly wouldn't notice.

But it is indeed closely related to the rise of the University of Tokyo, ensuring that the University of Tokyo's cargo ships could reach Shinohara directly.

Wei Dong was drugged: "Boss Chen, since you're doing business in the mainland, you know how big the mainland market is. I produce millions of packs of sanitary napkins, tens of thousands of pairs of jeans, and hundreds of thousands of bottles of shampoo and cosmetics every day, and they're all sold out. If you want to spend your whole life doing smuggling and being ostracized by those big shots, that's your fate. But I don't want to sell cured meat for the rest of my life. After a few years, I now have the most advanced port in the mainland. You're an expert, you know what this port means. I also have a 30% stake in the National Container Company. I'm a man who wants to conquer the world, why would I do smuggling? If you want to do this for the rest of your life, then we should never contact each other again."

Towards the end, it even had a bit of an overbearing and domineering feel to it.

Actually, I was getting a bit irritable from the scorching sun that started in the morning, so I quickly sought refuge in the shade on the rooftop.

But it was this spark of temper that ignited Chen Wenliang's anger. Anyone capable of this must be both intelligent and ruthless. Being ostracized by a group of old guys must have happened long ago. Even an outsider like Wei Dong could see that the smuggler was still audacious: "Damn it! What bargaining chips can you offer me, Young Master Dong?"

Wei Dong was unsure whether his use of the word "gan" was a catchphrase he used with his daughter, or whether he had actually agreed to do it.

But let me elaborate: "Why do I say that there will definitely be large ships in the future? The mainland will work desperately to produce for foreign trade. My port is dedicated to sending goods outwards. Where to send them? To Citizens and Europe. Japan is not my target. We will send them to the coastal areas of Shanghai. We mainly send them to North America and Europe. If you can make preparations for large ships in advance, just think about the profits."

Chen Wenliang was a little scared. You really dare to think this way: "Young Master Dong, do you know how much it costs to build a cargo ship weighing tens of thousands of tons?"

Asking Wei Dong to encourage others to take the plunge would definitely involve handing over a knife: "Damn, you do all your business with full cash out in real money? Don't you know how to leverage, find bank guarantees for loans, or find insurance companies to reduce risk?"

Chen Wenliang hesitated for a moment: "I'm a smuggler... Regular banks and insurance companies definitely won't accept our business. Only underground banks would dare to take us on. But can we even offer those interest rates?"

Wei Dong acted like a cunning strategist: "That's why I'm advising you to stick to legitimate business. With your current scale and manpower, isn't it only natural to stick to the legitimate business you're familiar with? I'll put containers and routes on your ships for you. Let me put it this way: every year I import about 10,000 Citibank auto parts, 20,000 Hans auto parts, export over one million computers to Citibank and Southeast Asia, over one million monitors, and hundreds of millions of pairs of jeans. This is just my own business. I'll give it all to you, and as long as it goes through my port and containers, it's all yours!"

Chen Wenliang finally exclaimed in surprise: "Thirty thousand vehicles a year?! You're the biggest supplier, really?!"

Wei Dong chuckled: "Back then, when you came to Pingjing to find me, the place where you met me was the Pingjing Automobile Manufacturing Plant. I was the deputy general manager of the joint venture there. Have you forgotten the photo of Barbara and the Citibank vice president? The current general manager is actually my henchman. He imports parts for 10,000 Cherokees every year. What I need is to run errands from Citibank to the mainland, and then from the mainland to Europe, to Panama!"

Chen Wenliang began to believe it.

A large cargo ship only makes a few round trips a year. The difference between a ship carrying 3,000 containers and one carrying 15,000 containers is obvious – is it profitable or not?

Modern cargo ships are several times larger, yet the number of users remains the same, fuel costs don't even increase several times, and the safety factor is even higher.

I promised myself I would go and investigate and verify it first.

When Wei Dong comes to Shanghai to pick up the computer shipment, he can check the scale of his own business in Shanghai. I already have a front-row seat on the Bund, why would I need to smuggle with you!

Go check out the Shanghai-made Santana; it could be your future customer!

This inspired the smuggler to be full of enthusiasm.

(End of this chapter)