Chapter 73: Nikolaevich's visit

Nikolaevich really had a headache. When Mr. Meta arrived at Villa 8, the President of Northern Russia, who was about to inherit the mantle of the superpower of the Soviet Union, was looking at the documents on his desk with a face full of annoyance in the presidential office of the Mlin Palace.

Kasia, the President's Chief of Staff, stood in front of Nikolavich's desk, respectfully reporting to him: 'Mr President, according to information from both the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the KGB, at least 30,000 people went to the Cherv Market to buy goods this morning, and the Ministry of Internal Affairs conservatively estimates that at least 80 million roubles flowed through the transaction.'

'80 million? This is only a short morning, and I'm afraid the real number is much higher,'

Nikolaevich let out a bitter smile, and the leader of Northern Russia's face was full of helplessness. He then asked, 'What about the situation at the securities company?'

Kasia answered honestly, 'This morning, it is roughly estimated that 8 billion rubles have been exchanged. Due to the hot ruble market, the ruble exchange rate has risen. As of an hour ago, the ruble exchange rate has skyrocketed by more than 40 percentage points compared to this morning's opening time.'

This report caused Nikolajevich to groan in pain again: 'Why is this happening?'

Nikolajevich's words came from the bottom of his heart, because the current situation was completely different from the script he had originally conceived. At the beginning, he believed that under the attack of those Western consortia, Zhou Ming and the others would definitely not be a match. Even if he had the support of the Kong City consortium behind him, it was simply not comparable to the powerful Western consortia. You have to understand that Kong City has not yet recovered from last year's stock market crash. Furthermore, if the Kong City consortium was really that powerful, it would not have been unable to resist the stock market crash and would have collapsed along with the United States.

On the other hand, it is also common knowledge that the person directing Project TOWER is an American financial warfare expert, and this project must also bring together other top figures in the Western financial world. On the other hand, Zhou Ming grew up in China, a poor and weak country that needed blood transfusions from the Soviet Union in the past. Since the founding of the country, not to mention the capital market, even the commercial market has been under a high-pressure state, and it was only ten years ago that the country cautiously opened its doors.

What does someone from such a country know about finance? He can only be fooled around by those top Western traders.

This was indeed the case before. Didn't the Pivot Plan side take the lead in starting the sudden plunges in the ruble exchange rate several times? In contrast, the Zhou Ming side can only follow in the footsteps of others and pick up the bones.

Although it is not impossible to follow others to reap benefits, in this way, one will be completely passive. Once they want to play any tricks, they can easily dig a pit for Zhou Ming and make him lose a lot. In fact, this time, when the ruble exchange rate suddenly plummeted, Nikolajevic suspected that it was the Americans who were trying to trick Zhou Ming.

However, who knew that Zhou Ming had only shipped in more than 10,000 tons of daily necessities, and now he had turned the situation around and become the most influential person in all of Northern Russia.

Although this result was unexpected, Nikolajevich had no choice but to accept it. He then asked Kasyanov, 'My dear friend, what is the attitude of your office towards this matter?'

Kasyanov thought for a moment and replied, 'Unless we can find other shopping malls to replace the Cherniv Market and solve the problem of the domestic shortage of daily necessities, then they can use the Cherniv Market to keep the ruble flowing in.'

Kasia hesitated for a moment, then continued: 'Or we could resort to administrative intervention, such as imposing heavy taxes on Chinese shops or simply closing down the Cherv Market.'

'These are all stopgap measures,' said Nikolic. "It's easy to use administrative means to close the Cherv Market, and it's also easy to impose heavy taxes. It's a matter of an administrative order. But if you close this Cherv Market, there will be other Cherv Markets opened up. If you impose heavy taxes on Chinese shops, they can just change ownership to North Russian shops and continue selling. Those Chinese people are very clever. None of these methods will work.'

Kasia had to tell him his final solution: "You can also use some economic measures.'

Nikolaevich glanced at Kasia. Although he did not say it explicitly, Kasia's last remark about economic measures made Nikolaevich think of nothing else. This was to overprint rubles and artificially cause inflation. This was indeed the best way to deal with Zhou Ming, because Zhou Ming's goal was to use the trading of daily necessities to accumulate rubles and then use the rubles in his hands to do things.

In this situation, as long as the government continuously overprints rubles, the rubles in Zhou Ming's hands will become worthless.

This is a radical solution, but the key is which president can make this decision? Even if Nikolayevich is determined to use shock therapy to save Northern Russia, he cannot push his country to the brink of chaos like this.

In the end, Nikolayevich could only sigh: 'It seems we must find this Mr. Zhou Ming from China and have a good talk.'

This decision was not unexpected. Kasia nodded and said, 'Yes, Mr. President, I will contact them immediately.'

Nikolaevich raised his arm, however: 'No need to contact. This time I will go myself.'

Kasia looked at Nikolaevich in surprise. His decision was completely unexpected. Nikolaevich was the president of the Northern Russian Republic and had already moved into the Mulin Palace. But who was Zhou Ming? Just a Chinese opportunist. Even if he had now mastered the ruble through the trade in daily necessities, it was not a reason for the president of a country to pay him a personal visit.

Kasia couldn't understand what Nikolajevic was thinking, but as Nikolajevic's chief of staff, he could only carry out orders.

The travel of a country's head of state is generally scheduled in advance, and they certainly can't go wherever they want like Dr. Mondo. However, in many cases, the itinerary may be changed at the last minute due to some special reasons or special people. However, this kind of thing is generally very sudden, but today's incident with Zhou Ming is obviously an exception.

Half an hour later, Nikolaevich's convoy set off for the Chelf market, and at this moment in the reception room of the Chelf market management office, Li Chengtong and Director Qian and the others were still in a state of extraordinary excitement.

But they couldn't help being excited. After all, controlling a country's currency and becoming the master of a country is the ultimate achievement of a businessman, the dream of every man.

But despite their excitement, they had not completely lost their senses. At this time, Tong Gang expressed a little concern: 'Zhou Ming, I admit that your idea is very good and practical under the current circumstances, but you seem to have forgotten one thing, and that is the current political system in Northern Russia.'

Tong Gang continued, 'This is a very totalitarian system. Although the new President of Northern Russia, Nikolayevich, is carrying out privatisation reforms, the idea that is imprinted in people's minds is not so easy to get rid of. So, if this were the United States, Zhou Ming, I wouldn't worry about what you're doing, but this is Krisko, and I'm worried that they will intervene with strong administrative measures, and then there will be trouble.'

Hearing Tong Gang's words, Director Qian immediately responded: 'Chairman Tong, are you saying that the North Russian government will send someone to forcibly shut down our Cherv Market?'

As if to prove something, as soon as Director Qian's words fell, the sound of sirens immediately sounded outside.

It was as if thunder had suddenly rumbled. The siren startled everyone in the room. Li Cheng and Tong Gang were fine, after all, as wealthy people in Gangcheng, they had the mental strength to deal with this. However, Director Qian on the other side could not calm down. He was first stunned, then stood up in panic: 'What should we do? The government of Northern Russia is really coming to forcefully shut down our Cherv Market. From the sound of so many sirens, there must be a lot of cars here. The situation is such that they will arrest us all, and maybe even execute us. What should we do?'

Zhou Ming was also stunned for a moment, but not because of the sirens outside, but because of the Director Qian's rich imagination.

Director Qian then fixed his gaze on Zhou Ming and said to him, 'Mr Zhou Ming, you were the one who came up with the idea of selling daily necessities at our Chelf Market, so now you have to come up with a solution, or I'll report you.'

Faced with Director Qian's words, Karelina, who had been acting as Zhou Ming's translator, immediately stood up and spoke up for Zhou Ming, saying, 'Director Qian, you are wrong to say that. When Mr. Zhou Ming first said that he wanted to sell daily necessities at the Chelf Market, you were overjoyed and couldn't wait to help Mr. Zhou Ming carry the things yourself. Now you're like this. Do you still have any sense of responsibility?'

'That was a different situation!' Director Qian said weakly, looking very insecure.

Seeing that he had backed down, Katerina pursued him relentlessly, 'What do you mean by "this time and that time"? Do you think we transported all those 10,000 tons of daily necessities in by ourselves, without your help? You were the one smiling wider than anyone else when we got the benefits, but now that something's going to go wrong, you want to run away and shirk your responsibilities. I'm telling you, it's not going to be that easy!'

Director Qian bowed his head. At this point, Zhou Ming stepped forward and said to Director Qian with a smile, 'Director Qian, don't be so pessimistic! From what I can see, the sirens outside may not be a bad thing.'

Zhou Ming's words surprised Director Qian for a moment, and then Zhou Ming continued, 'Perhaps it's the President of Northern Russia coming here for a visit.'

Director Qian stared at Zhou Ming, wondering where he got the confidence to say such things. Who did he think he was? He was just a speculator selling daily necessities. Why would the President of Northern Russia come here on his own initiative?

But the next development of the story completely dumbfounded Director Qian. He heard a flurry of footsteps, and the secretary of the management office hurriedly pushed open the door to the reception room and reported an incredible thing to Director Qian: 'Gentlemen, there's trouble! The President of Northern Russia, Mr Nikolayevich, is here!'

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