Chapter 72: The Grand Banquet Begins

It was 11 pm on the night of 1 August 1990, Kuwait time. It was already very late at night, but inside the presidential palace in Baghdad, the capital of Iraq, it was still brightly lit. Countless communication signals were coming and going in the confidential room, and in the study, a bearded old man was standing in front of the window, looking southwest, because that was the direction of Kuwait.

This old man is Saddam Hussein, the President of Iraq. Since 1979, he has been like an emperor, ruling over this ancient land for eleven whole years. Even in faraway China, he is very famous.

Suddenly, the special telephone on his desk rang. Saddam immediately withdrew his gaze from the window and quickly ran to the desk to pick up the phone. However, he did not speak, but instead asked after hearing the order from the other end: 'Can I really do this?'

'Do you think you have a choice? Of course, if you want to give up, we don't mind. It's just that your country needs a war, and besides, can you bear the provocation of a small country?' The other person said, his tone mocking.

Saddam hesitated for a moment and then hung up the phone. His eyes suddenly became fierce. He pressed the phone on the table and called in his secretary. Saddam handed him an order on the table that he had already signed, and said to him, 'Hand it over to the combat command immediately. It must be kept strictly confidential.'

His secretary replied, 'Yes,' and then turned and left the room. Saddam turned and went back to the window. He looked at the night sky to the southwest and said, 'The stars are very bright tonight, but in two hours, I believe they will be even brighter. Just like my country, anyone who dares to provoke me will be torn to pieces, just like the lamb I will be enjoying tonight.'

Safwan is a small town in Iraq near the border with Kuwait. Since the tense relations between the two countries, Saddam has stationed 100,000 troops here, complete with all kinds of tanks and aircraft.

Two hours after Saddam hung up the phone, Safwan immediately came to life. All soldiers assembled urgently at night, and the tanks and planes also lifted their camouflage. With the explosion of a miserable white signal rocket in the night sky, all troops silently and noiselessly formed up in attack formation and drove towards the Kuwait border. Half an hour later, when the first shell exploded at the Kuwait border post, Kuwait sounded the war alarm.

The piercing siren sounded across Kuwait and, through the lens of a reporter, reached the United States, on the other side of the world.

Zhou Minglin, Muqing, Tong Gang, Li Cheng and Irbedov from Northern Russia are still sitting in the conference room of Wharton. It is already 6:00 p.m. Brighton time. They have been sitting here for a full 11 hours, from 7:00 a.m. to the present. However, compared to the tension in the morning, their expressions now seem much more relaxed. This is because a news broadcast is suddenly interrupted by a report on the television in front of them: Iraq has suddenly attacked Kuwait.

On the television screen, fires were breaking out in the Kuwaiti cities, and gunshots could be heard in the distance.

Along with the gunfire came the broadcast of a war correspondent: 'Dear audience, we can see that the Iraqi army has crossed the border of Kuwait and launched an attack on Kuwait. We cannot tell whether this unannounced attack by Iraq is a warning or a long-planned invasion, but we can see that the battle on the front line is fierce, and even the king's younger brother has gone to the front line to direct the battle.'

At this time, someone handed the reporter a piece of paper. The reporter quickly read the content and then said, 'According to the news we just received, the King of Kuwait has just issued a message to the people of Kuwait. He called on all the people of Kuwait to unite and jointly resist the invasion from Iraq. He stated that the Kuwaiti royal family will fight to the end against all invaders!'

'This long-prepared drama has finally begun. In this war, it seems that both the capital involved and Saddam himself cannot wait.' Ilbedov said that it was obvious that he was relieved.

In fact, not only him, but everyone in the conference room, including Zhou Ming, was relieved, because they all knew very well that with the outbreak of this war, the situation in the Middle East would become even more dire. In particular, Iraq and Kuwait are both very important oil-producing countries, and their oil production accounts for nearly one-fifth of the world's total. Now that they are at war, the oil fields will inevitably be destroyed. This will undoubtedly increase market concerns, and the result will be a sharp rise in crude oil prices.

'Well, I'm sure this news will keep the whole world awake, whether it's politicians concerned about the international situation or the capital that runs oil, but we can sleep well.'

Zhou Ming stood up and said to everyone, 'Okay, Chairman Tong, Brother Li and Mr. Yelbeldov, everyone go back and get some rest. That's enough for today. Everyone go home and get some sleep. We've all been sitting here all day, and I'm sure we're all tired. We won't hear about Iraq annexing Kuwait until tomorrow morning.'

Tong Gang noticed the emphasis in Zhou Ming's words and asked him, 'Zhou Ming, are you saying that Iraq will occupy all of Kuwait tomorrow morning?'

'What's the problem? Do you think Kuwait can really fight to the end?' Zhou Ming asked in return, 'To be honest, even if the Kuwaiti royal family has the will to resist, it will not be able to withstand the Iraqi army. At most, after 14 hours, the country of Kuwait will cease to exist. And with the demise of Kuwait, the price of oil will rise like crazy, so let's just wait to collect the money.'

Zhou Ming finished speaking and walked out, and Lin Muqing got up without hesitation and followed. Ildievdorov thought for a moment and followed him. He asked him, 'Mr. Zhou Ming, if I have a friend who also wants to enter the market to buy oil futures right now, do you think it's not too late?'

Zhou Ming stopped in his tracks, but instead of answering right away, he looked at him with a smile and asked in return, 'Do you remember when I placed the order?'

Zhou Ming's question made Ildievdorov suddenly remember what happened in the afternoon. It was at 3:00 p.m.

The floor auction for New York Mercantile Exchange oil futures ended at 4:30 pm, but at 2:30 pm, when the prices of light crude oil and heavy crude oil had fallen to 15.89 and 14.22 US dollars per barrel respectively, Zhou Ming issued an order to Sun Wei to close out the positions and place a buy order for the full amount. At that time, the entire crude oil trading market was still in a continuous decline.

Zhou Ming's decision to go against the trend was incomprehensible to them at the time. Although they all understood that with the breakdown of negotiations between Iraq and Kuwait, war would soon break out driven by capital, they were still unwilling to give up in the face of the readily available profits. After all, it was not impossible to start liquidating positions and placing new orders again at 4 o'clock when the floor auction was almost over.

However, the subsequent developments took them by surprise. They were not sure whether their previous actions had been remembered by someone or whether they had guessed the arrangement of the Brighton consortium.

In short, as Zhou Ming began to liquidate his position, other companies also began to do the same. When countless sell orders were thrown into the market, it immediately triggered chaos. Although anyone with half a brain could see that with the deteriorating situation in the Middle East, oil prices would definitely rise in the future, weren't they still falling? So why not speculate again and wait until the end of the auction to liquidate?

So with this in mind, the oil futures market became increasingly chaotic, with the prices of light and heavy crude oil hovering around 15.9 and 14.3 US dollars respectively, until the last minute.

Since everyone had the same idea, the result was that from 4 o'clock onwards, not only was it impossible to place an order, even closing orders could not be completed.

At this time, Tong Gang, Li Cheng and Yilbedov felt that Zhou Ming was really far-sighted, and he had voluntarily given up the last hour's profits in exchange for a quick liquidation and transaction.

So since it was difficult to place an order even at 4 pm, and now that the auction in the market has ended, it is obviously impossible to place an order with only telephone and online transactions outside the market, given that the war has already begun.

This kind of thinking made Irbedov feel a little discouraged. If only he had asked his old comrades in Northern Russia to place an order earlier, he would not have gotten into such trouble. But then again, not everyone trusts Zhou Ming as much as he does. Even if he had asked them to place an order at that time, I'm afraid they wouldn't have listened to him.

But even if that's what he said, who would listen to that explanation?

Il'yashov already imagined the anger he would face when he returned to Northern Russia.

'Mr. Il'yashov, do you have other friends who are also keeping an eye on the situation in the Gulf and are ready to act at any time?' suddenly asked Zhou Ming.

Il'yashov was taken aback by Zhou Ming's words, but he still nodded apologetically. Zhou Ming then said to him, 'In fact, you have nothing to be embarrassed about. We can all make money together, but the current situation is indeed difficult.'

Zhou Ming thought for a moment and then said, 'You can only try your luck in all the futures markets around the world that are still within the trading time limit. Maybe if you're lucky, you can get a little bit of a position, but you have to act quickly because this will be a worldwide capital feast.'

Zhou Ming's words rekindled Irbedov's confidence. He immediately nodded to Zhou Ming to thank him, then took out his mobile phone and started making a call.

Seeing Irbedov's impatient appearance, Zhou Ming could only smile helplessly.

Subsequently, Zhou Ming and Lin Muqing returned to the hotel room. Looking back at the situation during the day, Zhou Ming said to Lin Muqing, 'With today's incident, you, the chairman of the Hong Kong City Joint Investment Fund, have completely rebelled.'

In response to Zhou Ming's statement, Lin Muqing gave him a blank look and said angrily, 'What kind of talk is this? Do you want me to become one of them?'

Choked by Lin Muqing, Zhou Ming awkwardly touched his nose and said, 'Of course I didn't mean that. I just meant that they are afraid that they will not completely trust you as the chairman in the future, at least in matters involving me.'

'It doesn't matter, anyway, I'm not that interested in the position of chairman of the Hong Kong City Joint Investment Fund. They can fire me if they don't trust me, which I would welcome. But I don't think they are that petty,' Lin Muqing said.

If this was heard by Tong Gang and Li Cheng, they would definitely feel helpless. You have to know that this position is the unachievable wish of many financial practitioners, and now Lin Muqing still doesn't care about it, which is really a waste. However, Lin Muqing is very normal. After all, she is a woman, and only being by the side of her beloved man is her greatest wish.

Zhou Ming naturally understood this as well. He stroked Lin Muqing's hair and said, 'It's true that I was wrong. It seems that I need to make it up to you.'

Before Lin Muqing could ask what she should do to make it up to him, Zhou Ming suddenly picked her up and, to her shocked cries, walked towards the room. Finally, he threw her onto the bed, and without even taking off his clothes, he pounced on her like a hungry tiger.