The doctor suffers from amnesia, but not complete amnesia.

Qiao Yelan repeated Kosich's words with a hint of sarcasm.

"I think you should reconsider my very first sentence."

The very first sentence?

Kosiché was a little confused. Which sentence was this?

"I said I wanted to monopolize the smuggling routes—but when did I ever say I wanted to monopolize the smuggling routes between Ursus and Kazimir?"

Qiao Yelan sneered and picked up her teacup.

"The ink on the contract signed after Grand Duke Nicholas's special military operation is still wet. Which Elector of Letania would dare to do business with you now?"

"You were just kicked out of Longmen by the former crown prince of Great Yan. Do you think any Great Yan person would dare to risk offending the imperial court and smuggle goods with Ursus at this time?"

"Oh, you wouldn't be thinking of smuggling with the Eastern Kingdom, would you? That's a bit of a shame. Thanks to Emperor Tovladimir, the Great Yan has already taken over the market there."

"Or are you interested in the Sami people's pickled puffin and canned herring?"

With each word Qiao Yelan spoke, Kosichev's horror grew, until she fell completely silent after he finished speaking.

Although Qiao Yelan was busy creating the [Kasimir Trade Encirclement], that didn't stop him from also creating the [Ursus Trade Encirclement].

He said that if anyone dared to disrupt his trade routes, those nobles would have to pay back double.

Chapter 171 It's time to kneel, Kazimir

Kosiché remained silent, his black shadow churning and swirling unconsciously, yet still entwined around Qiao Yelan, unchanged.

Qiao Yelan's words were always worth pondering—and then she realized a problem.

"...You helped the Great Yan promote Lungmen Dollar, wasn't your goal to connect the markets of the East and West? Logically speaking, you would have gained the most benefits if you had gotten Kazimierz and Ursus to join—I remember you once said that you wouldn't squeeze the future value ceiling of others for temporary gains."

Qiao Yelan felt a sense of relief on her face and in her heart—it seemed that Kosiché had actually taken his economics course seriously when he said he had gone back to take it.

Your love for learning is truly touching to your teacher.

“You’re right. My ultimate goal is to get Ursus and Kazimierz into the LMD system. I won’t squeeze their value ceiling for short-term gains. But the truth is, the so-called monopoly on smuggling routes is just a way to temporarily collect some interest while forcing them to join LMD.”

If Koschitch still had a physical body, she felt she should have swallowed hard, but since she was currently possessed by a ghost, the manifestation was that the shadow stirred again.

Completely monopolize the foreign trade channels of Ursus and Kazimir, and then... collect interest?

That principal... must be an incredibly terrifying number?

"Let's start with Kazimierz—as I said, these guys aren't enthusiastic about joining LMD, and as a specific interpretation of the term 'merchant,' the Business Federation is currently in an arrogant position of waiting for the best price to go on the LMD project, picking and choosing."

"In particular, they are likely to use their capital to demand a share of the Lungmen coin's issuance rights, or even go so far as to launch their own new currency to compete with Lungmen coin—this kind of behavior is intolerable to me."

Qiao Yelan never intended to exclude Kazimierz—Kazimierz is so wealthy, if he were to join the Lungmen Dollar program, it would definitely be twice as effective.

But the premise is that Kazimir must willingly submit, rather than arrogantly seizing benefits.

"Therefore, I had to make the Business Federation kneel down—that's why, even though I knew Kazimierz was a tough nut to crack, I kept those people waiting and came to Ursus myself first, directing Nikolai to create a [trade encirclement around Kazimierz]."

"You have indeed blocked Kazimierz's foreign trade channels, but that won't force them to accept LMD, will it? LMD means circulation, and Kazimierz will eventually gain new foreign trade channels. It's just a temporary problem of goods piling up."

Clearly, Kosiché did learn, but only a little bit.

If those guys in the Business Federation were as naive as Kosichrie, Qiao Yelan would probably have far fewer problems.

"Goods piling up? You underestimate Kazimierz!"

Qiao Yelan gave a cold laugh.

“Since the independence of the Colombian colony, Victoria’s colonial system has almost collapsed, and its industrial capacity has plummeted. Meanwhile, the newly rising Gaul has been completely destroyed, and even its industry has been wiped out... Factories disappeared, the country disappeared, but the population did not disappear—so of course the market did not disappear.”

"So for more than half a century, Casimir's goods spread to places like Columbia, Victoria, Letania, Ursus, and even further south to Sargon, as well as other scattered city-states of all sizes—the Commercial Federation almost monopolized almost all markets except for the Great Yan with the power of a single nation."

Kosichä became increasingly alarmed as she listened. She finally understood why, despite consistently suffering more defeats than victories against Ursus and losing large swaths of territory, Kazimir's army size and strength had never declined, and its national power had never diminished.

"Now, do you understand exactly how much industrial capacity the Business Federation has?"

The black snake remained silent; its industrial capabilities were truly astonishing.

After Qiao Yelan blocked all of Kazimir's foreign trade channels... just how many goods would be piled up in Kazimir?

The man gave a cold smile.

As a member of the Business Federation, Qiao Yelan knew all too well just how much production capacity the Business Federation had.

Once Kasimir's foreign trade channels are completely blocked, the Kasimir domestic market cannot support this production capacity. After trade is cut off, the next thing to happen is the rise in raw material prices!

But this isn't the most crucial point yet. The most important part of Qiao Yelan's plan to force the Business Federation to its knees was to allow the information about the "Longmen Coin Project" to be transmitted and allowed to ferment.

Qiao Yelan could have transferred Nikolai to the Kazimierz border long ago after he had already pressured the Electorate of Letania. Why did he spend a whole year in Da Yan before finally sending Nikolai to pressure Kazimierz?

Because he is waiting.

In order to counter the Lungmen Coin Project, the merchants of the Business Federation withdrew all their investments from all over the world back to Kazimierz, intending to use this as leverage to negotiate with the Great Yan and participate in the division of Lungmen Coin profits.

At this moment, Qiao Yelan's plan has officially completed its closed loop.

Due to military and diplomatic crises, Kasimir lost all its foreign trade channels, resulting in domestic overproduction, mountains of goods, and continuously rising raw material prices. Meanwhile, the Business Federation had large sums of cash in hand but found itself without any channels to invest or operate.

Just like the United States in 1929.

So what Casimir will face next is a "delicious feast" that capitalism has no choice but to taste, personally prepared and served by Qiao Yelan.

The Great Depression.

"The merchants of Kazimierz will eventually discover to their horror that the only way to prevent their wealth from shrinking is to invest all their cash in the Lungmen Dollar Project—and the sooner the better."

Kosic remained silent.

However, seeing how Qiao Yelan pressured Kazimir, she suddenly had a sudden realization.

"So... according to your method, economic problems can be solved by military means, right?"

Qiao Yelan: ?

You old hag! What have you even learned?!

He gave a slightly awkward but polite smile.

"...When you apply these economic skills in the future, never reveal my name as your teacher."

Black Snake didn't notice Qiao Yelan's expression; she was still deep in thought—

Why do you feel something is weird?

Then she finally realized a problem.

"Following your method, Kazimierz will indeed kneel on the ground begging to join the LMD program—but I don't see you gain any benefit from it?"

yeah?

Qiao Yelan was stunned for a moment, clearly not expecting that the Black Serpent, who had just revealed his amazing wisdom, would have such insight and ask such a question.

He certainly wouldn't tell Koschche what the ultimate goal of the Black Serpent Lungmen Coin project was—but that didn't mean he needed to fool Koschche.

"How could that be? Where did you see that I couldn't gain any benefit?"

Qiao Yelan smiled gently.

"Right now, you've only made an investment in Ursus, and that part needs time to recoup its costs. Where have you gained any benefits in Kazimierz?"

"The reason why it takes so long to recoup your investment is because the investment is too large. If the investment is not large, the return on investment will be faster, right? Moreover, the situation in Kazimierz is actually similar to that in Ursus."

He decided to give Black Snake a little pointer, otherwise he would feel that it was too embarrassing for him that this person could learn so much.

"First, there will be a huge stockpile of goods in Kazimir, which means that the prices of these goods in Kazimir will plummet in a short period of time—but that doesn't mean that the prices of these goods will drop elsewhere. I can make an astonishing profit by smuggling them into Ursus."

"...Ursus can't possibly consume that many goods, can they?"

“I didn’t say I was only sending them to Ursus. Trilintelme is currently taking in a large number of refugees, but only basic supplies are available. There’s a shortage of goods in the market. It’s normal for me to send these cheap goods there as a means to stabilize the people’s hearts, right?”

Kosiché remained silent.

"Secondly, the decline in commodity prices and the rise in raw material prices will lead merchants to shut down production lines, lay off workers, and sell large quantities of production equipment—which are also inexpensive and of good quality. Coincidentally, Ursus is currently in need of a large amount of factory-related equipment for industrial reform."

"As the Minister of the Imperial Ministry of Industry, and the initiator and implementer of this industrial reform—it's reasonable for me to allocate funds from Ursus's treasury to purchase these devices at normal market prices, isn't it?"

"Similarly, as an opportunist who colludes with Speaker Islam Witt and has no respect for His Majesty the Tsar, it would be quite fitting for me to sell some equipment that didn't appear on the books to the Speaker at a slightly higher black market price to bolster his power, wouldn't it?"

Kosiché froze.

"Finally, a wave of unemployment will occur in Kazimir, resulting in a large surplus of labor."

"...You're not going to take them to Witt's factory to work as laborers, are you?"

Black Snake's voice rose several octaves.

This is probably a bit of a hellish joke.

"Oh, it's not that bad..."

Qiao Yelan waved his hand. He was a respectable businessman; how could he do such a thing?

"However, it seems quite empty after the expansion of Trinityl, and it's lacking in population. Unfortunately, apart from a large number of construction jobs, it has no other appeal now..."

Kosichrie took a deep breath—even though she knew she didn’t need to breathe right now.

But this was the only way to calm her down a little.

Qiao Yelan created problems for Kazimir, and he will solve these problems for Kazimir—and the Kazimir people will thank him.