Doctor, I'm really strong!

Absolutely. Liu Jiuli built a factory area directly in the sixth district and solved all the raw material problems during the construction process with the all-purpose factory. A small portion was directly imported from Lungmen, so there was no need to go through Chernobog.

Inside Lungmen, the Taikoo Group certainly wouldn't dare to act recklessly. Governor Wei Yanwu wouldn't tolerate such behavior. He might be easy to talk to normally, but when it comes to crossing red lines, anyone who crosses them will die. He wouldn't compromise, even if it meant fighting the Taikoo Group to the death.

Since this is Yan Kingdom territory, if Wei Yanwu compromises on this issue, he'll be out of a job.

Now, with Liu Jiuli added to the list, the bottom line issue combined with the threat of the Fourth Calamity means that trying it will be fatal.

As a result, Swire Group's security company searched high and low for Future Technology's caravan but couldn't find it. Instead, they bullied many poor small companies passing by, making a lot of extra money. They almost cleared out all the side quests but didn't do any of the main quests.

Cheng Jiali didn't dare to go too far. After all, this was Yan Kingdom territory. It was okay to cause trouble for a while, but going too far would be like throwing Wei Yanwu's face on the ground and trampling on it. The Swire family of Taigu Group might be okay with that, but the Cheng family, who acted as dogs, would not.

Dogs should know their place and status, and not do anything that might overstep their bounds, or they'll be cooked.

With the external turmoil over, we can only address the issue from within.

Cheng Jiali ordered, "Get our men moving."

Three days have passed...

It's a beautiful day, and nothing happens with future technology.

Cheng Jiali roared in fury: "What are those good-for-nothings doing!"

The subordinates looked at each other, and finally pushed out a young, unlucky fellow to explain, "Sir, we contacted the people inside, but there was no response."

No response, what's going on? Did all those people betray us?

Cheng Jiali dismissed this completely absurd possibility. What was there to bribe about those thugs and mercenaries? Unless there was a bald guy named Yuri in the opposing camp, it was impossible to pick out all those fleas.

Besides, even if someone betrays us, so what? It's no big deal. We have their records in our hands. If we want to deal with them, we just need to secretly notify Future Technology. Then, these clueless ants will be eliminated by Future Technology itself. Spies are never welcome anywhere.

After much thought, Cheng Jiali concluded that there was only one possibility: Future Technology was conducting some kind of intensive training program.

He had heard about this before, but he scoffed at it at the time. After all, I could understand if you trained social elites, but why should I train a group of low-end people struggling to survive at the bottom of society? Do you think you have so much money that you can just burn it for fun?

So there's nothing to worry about; the advantage lies with me.

The current methods are ineffective, but that doesn't mean they will never be effective. After analyzing Future Technology's business structure, Cheng Jiali decided to use the massive scale of the Swire Group to crush it.

For example, in the Lungmen market, there are spices, sugar, fruits, canned goods, and other light industrial products. I wonder if those barbarians from the north can make such beautiful things?

Actually, the shirt Cheng Jiali is wearing now is produced using future technology.

But you think you can turn the tables on Taikoo Group with just this little advantage? Young man, don't be too arrogant. Watch my master's lightning five-whip combo!

So almost overnight, Swire Group's products that overlapped with future technologies began to drop in price, which was essentially price competition, the most vicious kind of market competition.

Throw money, throw money, crush your competitors with money, then monopolize and raise prices—simple, brutal, and effective.

If this were done in the Central Plains of Yan, the imperial court would immediately crack down on it, letting them know what it means to have "granaries deeper than you can imagine."

But this is Longmen, the stage for Yan Kingdom to experiment with a market economy, so Governor Wei Yanwu's government is a small government (relative to Yan Kingdom's court, but slightly larger than other countries' governments), and it will not intervene in this kind of market competition.

"That's it?" Liu Jiuli said with a look of disdain.

What era are we living in? It's still the same old three things. Can't you come up with something new?

Talulah shrugged: "If we were a publicly traded company, they could still target our stock now."

Liu Jiuli is the sole and absolute controlling shareholder of Future Technology Co., Ltd. Unless Liu Jiuli wants to sell the company, no one else can say anything. As for undermining him, do you think your head is as hard as his fist?

"Then let's lower the price and see who can't hold out first."

Liu Jiuli doesn't care about this so-called competition at all. His domestic trade is mainly based on physical goods, and the shopping vouchers circulate within the six districts. As long as he controls the prices of goods inside and outside the districts and prevents the outside from being cheaper than the inside, the economic cycle will not have any problems. On the contrary, Swire Group cannot afford to suffer losses for a long time.

In the future, technology will only require payment for workers' wages and training costs, and it can solve problems on its own. However, Swire Group needs to respect the overall market environment. Their reliance on the Lungmen Coin trading system means that they must consider costs in everything they do.

Trying to compete with a multi-factory company on cost is like Hai saying he'll compete with the US economically. Where does your confidence come from? Did you get it from India?

As a result, the prices of future technology products began to drop, and there was no limit to the supply.

Yes, unlimited. Just come to our sixth district to get your goods. It's in Lungmen, so it's very safe.

However, at this stage, these merchants still need to come and pick up their goods themselves. Liu Jiuli thinks that a logistics company should be set up to solve this problem. Outsourcing is not impossible, but the mindset of Chinese people is that if you have it, I must have it too, and if possible, I should do it better than you. Only in this way can I feel secure and avoid situations where the mountain I rely on collapses or the person I rely on runs away.

Independence and self-reliance are our motto.

The brutal price cuts began quickly. Swire Group lowered its prices, and Future Technology followed suit, not by much, just one dollar less. I want to see how much cost loss Swire Group can bear.

Chapter 55: The Tiger Cub Becomes a Mother Tiger

The outcome of price competition is obvious: Swire Group has no chance of beating Future Technology.

They incur costs for everything from equipment to raw materials. Even if workers' wages can be reduced, it's impossible to reduce them to the extreme. You can't expect people to be deprived of money for food, can you? The workers in Longmen are guaranteed a minimum wage.

There are no infected people, but the problem is that customers simply won't buy food prepared by infected people.

The same applies to future technologies. Food factories and vertical farms are managed by ordinary people, while in Chernobog, it doesn't matter whether there are infected or ordinary people, since there are more infected than ordinary people there.

After a long period of getting used to and adapting, everyone found that they were not so difficult to get along with each other. Oripathy was not contagious, and life in Chernobog was indeed better than before, so they turned a blind eye to it.

The only cost Liu Jiuli has to pay is the cost of the workers. Raw materials are everywhere, okay? The Sixth District even has a recycling plant that helps Longmen process garbage, directly breaking it down into basic particles, which are then recombined into various commodities.

In this process, Future Technology not only doesn't need to spend a penny, but the Lungmen government has to pay a processing fee for every ton of garbage. This is because Future Technology's harmless treatment is so amazing that it can even harmlessly treat Originium waste and chemical waste. Therefore, the price of different types of garbage has also risen accordingly, and Liu Jiuli directly bundled them together for sale.

There are absolutely no special offers or discounts. Anyway, Future Technology has an absolute monopoly in this industry. If you have any complaints, go find someone else.

Some might say, "Why not just throw them out of the mobile city? There's no need to bury them; just leave everything to nature."

You're so smart, then why doesn't anyone do that?

The reason is very simple: mobile cities cannot be moved at will. They all have their own fixed routes, and the routes vary depending on the city's function. For example, Chernobog, as an industrial city, will have its route pass through various mining areas.

While the routes are relatively fixed, the routes of other moving cities will intersect, which are the switching nodes between train tracks. You pass through and then I pass through. If everyone throws trash at each other, that scene would be a real stunt for Lao Ba.

This happened in Victoria, where two cities dumped garbage in the area they passed through, resulting in severe pollution of the surrounding soil and water sources. The stench of garbage could even be smelled in the underground mines. The two cities fought over this issue, a conflict known as the "Garbage Wars," which is both laughable and pathetic.

Can you believe that the current Victorian coalition government was formed by two families who used to throw trash at each other?

Yes, that was also the predecessor of Londinium. The two cities were ruled by the Aslan family and the Drak family respectively. Later, the two mobile cities merged into one, which can be considered as an unexpected friendship.

Therefore, garbage cannot be littered. At most, there are neighborhood disputes between residents, but if they start fighting within a country, it can turn into a civil war.

If we elevate it to the international level, it becomes a national conflict, or at the very least a border dispute.

Every day, a large amount of garbage from Lungmen is sent to the processing plant in District 6 for treatment, which costs a lot of money. Of course, it is safer than the previous treatment method, and the price is about one-tenth cheaper. Most importantly, it is done locally in Lungmen, saving time, effort and resources.

This led to the establishment of cooperative relationships between Future Technology and many surrounding companies. These companies relied on the high technology of District 6 to improve their profits and could not do without the comfort zone built by Future Technology. Therefore, even though the time was short, they formed an economic alliance with Future Technology.

In a sense, these companies are like the outer ring of future technology. The models of future technology inevitably influence them, forming an invisible united front.

After a week of price war, Cheng Jiali couldn't take it anymore.

Property loss is secondary; the key issue is that Swire Group has been trying for so long without success, and Future Technology is still intact. This is a fatal blow to the dignity of the dominant player, especially since the other party seems to have done nothing all along, with Cheng Jiali just making a fool of himself. What are the onlookers supposed to think?

Swire Group, is that all?

You have to understand that the business world is like a battlefield. You will definitely have to use some underhanded methods. It's just a matter of how much. When Swire Group entered the market, it bullied many small and medium-sized enterprises, acquiring and devouring them. If it found a good one, it would pounce on it. If it dared to resist, it would find ways to torment it until its capital chain broke and it had no choice but to bow down.

This method is no longer effective against future technology. This is still a new company, and it is run by the Ursus barbarians, whom the Victorians despise the most (from an outsider's perspective).

This inevitably makes people think about something.

"Let's get our newspapers and TV stations moving! I want to see the dirty secrets of future technologies, now, immediately!"

Smearing competitors is also a necessary tactic, but in the past, multiple methods were used simultaneously. However, Cheng Jiali felt that a fledgling company like Future Technology did not need too many tricks, so the plan turned into the current piecemeal approach.

However, it's not too late. It's just a small, well-funded startup company. It's lucky that it managed to survive so far. Now, it's necessary to show you the terrifying propaganda machine of the Swire Group.

That's true. If you don't occupy the propaganda front, someone else will. In particular, Swire Group's focus is on the conflict between infected people and ordinary people, which has historical inertia and is easy to exploit.

For example, in order to save costs, future technologies might use infected individuals to process food, employing extremely dirty raw materials, and so on.

But before Swire Group could even take action, negative stories about the group had already begun appearing on Lungmen's websites and in newspapers.

Liu Jiuli didn't fire the first shot before, but now that the enemy has opened fire, he naturally has to start a full-scale counterattack. Every shell that follows is fired by me, because you fired the first shot, you made the first move.

Liu Jiuli didn't even need to dig up any dirt on the Swire Group; there was plenty of it.

Withholding workers' wages and violently suppressing strikes are minor issues. There are also the infamous cases of mercury-contaminated milk, rotten meat sausages, and sauerkraut trampled on by feet. In their eyes, food safety is simply a matter of "if I think it's safe, then it's safe." As for what happens to the customers, that's none of their business. They take no responsibility for what they sell.

These things are fine when they're not out in the open, but if they get out, they'll be cursed to death in no time.

After all, the lower and middle classes of Longmen can't afford or consume these things. Those who can afford them are either white-collar workers or elites. They are all upper-middle class in society, well-educated, and have the loudest voices online. If they take action, Swire Group will still have a good future.

To make matters worse, when it was broadcast that Swire Group's sauce packets contained rotten meat, the first person to rush to the scene to arrest people was none other than the eldest daughter of the Swire family, Superintendent Little Tiger.

Because many of the Lungmen Guard's operations involve working overtime at night, eating instant noodles after work is a daily routine. Swire usually eats instant noodles from his own family, but he ended up getting caught up in the drama.

"Arrest them! Arrest them all! I'll interrogate them myself!"

At the scene of the arrest, Swire personally oversaw the operation, her expression as terrifying as a tigress, which silenced everyone.

"Isn't that the young lady? Why is she arresting people from her own company?"

"I heard that the instant noodles the young lady used to eat were all produced by us, so, you know what I mean."

"..."

Section 56: Doing What We're supposed to Do

"Hahahahahahahahahahahaha..."

When Liu Jiuli learned that Swire had angrily gone to his company to arrest people, he laughed until tears streamed down his face.

To be caught up in someone else's drama and end up being the victim yourself—that's quite something! The world is truly amazing.

However, Swire Group's performance also made Liu Jiuli realize what the rampant growth of capital is.

Here, capital is the most advanced productive force, representing the next stage of production relations, and has already proven its power in countries such as Colombia and Victoria, replacing the old production relations and beginning to pave the way for hegemony for new productive forces.

This is an inevitable trend in historical development; advanced civilizations will inevitably crave more, as long as humanity remains in this state.

Capital is precisely what excels at activating human desires; this was true during the Age of Exploration, and the new era on Terra will not be any gentler.

Back in the day, at least the Black people had someone to seek justice and file charges against them. But for the infected, discrimination and persecution are as normal as the sun rising in the east and setting in the west on Terra. These cheap laborers will definitely be exploited, and if they are misused, they can be used as an excuse to divert social conflicts.

Infected people are taking jobs away from ordinary people!

Just as the United States could direct its conflicts at Native Americans and Asians in the past, capitalists will do the same thing.

It's impossible to expect them to have a change of heart. The best way to get capitalists to have a change of heart is to place the Soviet Union next to them.

It's important to know that the best treatment for American blue-collar workers was during the Soviet Union's existence. After the Soviet Union collapsed, America's traditional industries became part of the Rust Belt.