Chapter 287: Crazy, crazy

On the morning of February, Zhou Ming was playing video games in the bomb shelter under the Presidential Palace. Since the disastrous defeat in Cuba, the United States had begun retaliatory attacks on Iraq. From 6:00 in the morning until almost 5:00 in the afternoon, the air raids had hardly stopped. 

God knows how many bombs the angry Americans dropped in Iraq in that one day. Zhou Ming felt the whole room shake from time to time due to the violent explosions, giving him a real feeling of being back in the war years.

Suddenly the door to the room was flung open and Acting President Majid hurried in, mumbling 'crazy' over and over again.

Zhou Ming put down the game console, looked up meaningfully at him and asked, 'What's crazy? The American bombing? I told you before, victory comes at a price. We wiped out one of their infantry regiments of 6,000 men in Cuba. They will definitely retaliate. After all, this is the first defeat they have suffered since the war began. How could they possibly let this go?'

But Majid shook his head and said, 'No. Mr. Zhou Ming, I was of course mentally prepared for the American air strikes. I had already arranged for all the troops to take cover to minimise the losses. I'm not talking about the air strikes, but the oil! Mr Zhou Ming, do you still remember when you asked me to use the family fortune to invest in international crude oil futures?

Zhou Ming thought for a moment. He did ask Majid to invest in oil futures before Operation Tiger Kill, with the aim of getting some money out of him for the arms bill.

Although the Saudi royal family still had to pay for the arms, it was not a big deal to let an unrelated country pay for the arms. Of course, what was more important was that if there was a chance to get a large sum of money from Iraq, it was not unacceptable. He said that since he was fighting so hard on this side for the war effort in Iraq, it was not too much to ask for some money.

With this in mind, Zhou Ming nodded and said, 'That's true. According to the time difference, the futures market in the United States should be open, right?'

To this question, Majid nodded like a chick pecking at rice, saying, 'The market opened an hour ago, and oil prices have been been rising. It has already risen by more than 30% and I heard an analysis on the New York financial radio saying that it could hit 50% in a single day!'

'That's really good news. So how much money have you or your family invested in it?' asked Zhou Ming.

'Ten billion dollars!' Magid replied happily.

'That's not bad. If the analysis you heard predicts a daily increase of more than 50%, you could make more than half a billion dollars today, which would at least cover part of the cost of the arms,' said Zhou Ming.

Zhou Ming words were like a bucket of cold water poured directly over his head, instantly sobering him up from the euphoria of making money. indeed, his investment was not his own, but Zhou Ming had deliberately told him in order to claim the cost of the arms. The money earned in the international crude oil futures market was basically paid to him as the cost of the arms.

Seeing Ma Jide's mood was a bit down, so Zhou Ming continued, 'But now that the futures price of international crude oil has reached such a high level, as a major oil-producing country, is Iraq worried about not making money?'

Zhou Ming seeing that Majid was still confused, had to continue explaining: 'The so-called oil futures actually refer to a special kind of contract on the stock exchange. Put simply, I want to buy oil now, and you want to mine oil. We sign a contract that says you will give me a certain amount and quality of oil in a week's time. That's oil futures.'

'Of course, there are specific procedures and methods for trading futures, but that's the general idea,' said.

Faced with Zhou Ming's explanation, Majid seemed to understand a little. He asked blankly, 'Mr. Zhou Ming, do you mean that I have to use the oil I produce to trade in this kind of futures?'

Zhou Ming smiled at him and gave him a thumbs-up: 'Yes, that's exactly what I mean. After all, no matter how futures fluctuate, they must ultimately be delivered in kind. For this reason, I believe that when oil prices were falling, many oil companies secretly bought back many futures contracts, so that they could get the oil they wanted at a low price in the future.'

'Then since futures are ultimately delivered in kind, then now, on the contrary, you have the physical goods, and with the current surge in futures prices, I think someone will definitely be willing to help you turn the physical goods into futures.' Zhou Ming continued, 'In that case, as long as you sell the oil as futures, the money will naturally come in, won't it?'

Maji nodded vigorously, agreeing. But then he asked doubtfully, 'But Iraq is currently under sanctions, so who can help me?'

'Don't worry about that. Just make sure you can supply the standard amount of oil.'

Zhou Ming said, and let Majid leave his room. Then, when the US air strikes paused for a moment, Zhou Ming went to the ground, took out his satellite phone, and dialed Lin Moqing's number.

The phone was immediately connected, and then Lin Muzhen's voice came through: 'Is this Zhou Ming?'

Although Lin Muzhen had deliberately hidden her emotions, Zhou Ming could still hear the concern behind this ordinary question.

Zhou Ming nodded in response, and Lin Muqing's concern immediately came flooding back: 'Zhou Ming, how are things with you now? I heard that the United States has launched a large-scale retaliation against Iraq, with more than 2,000 sorties and 300 missiles in one day, nearly a third of which were aimed at Dubadina. You weren't hurt in the attack, were you?'

Perhaps it may sound as if Lin Moucheng was saying all this in a great hurry, and even that many of her words were illogical. If something had really happened to Zhou Ming, how could she have even called him? But when someone is concerned, who can think about logic?

Moreover Zhou Ming not only heard Lin Muqing's voice on the phone, he also heard Tang Ran's voice. Obviously, they were together, and when Tang Ran heard it was her phone, she also spoke into the phone with Lin Muqing.

Thinking that that there were two women on the other side of the world who missed him so much, Zhou Ming felt very warm inside. So he first reported his safety to them: 'Don't worry, Muqing and Ran, I'm doing well here . There was a fierce American bombing today, but I'm in the Presidential Palace, which has underground air-raid facilities. I've been hiding underground, which is why I'm calling you now.'

Hearing Ming, Lin Muqing and Tang Ran there let out a sigh of relief, and their hearts, which had been heavy, finally eased.

At this time Zhou Ming added, 'I'm calling you from outside via a satellite encrypted phone. I don't know when the next round of American bombing will start, so I'll make this short. I'm calling to ask you what the crude oil futures price is on the New York Mercantile Exchange right now.'

'It's gone up like crazy,' answered Lin Muqing. 'The exchange's on-site auction has only just begun for a little over two hours, and the price of light crude oil futures has already risen by more than 40%, breaking the 30-dollar mark a quarter of an hour ago.'

'So then, Muqing, do you think such a rise is a bit strange?' Zhou Ming asked.

'Very very wrong!' Lin Muqing answered without hesitation. 'Indeed, the failure of this battle in Kuwait will prolong the Gulf War and therefore have a significant impact on the price of international crude oil futures. However, but the current increase of 2 hours and 40 points is really exaggerated. It is impossible for us to achieve this on our own, and there must be other hot money coming in to push up the price as well.'

Lin Mu Qing then expressed her thoughts: 'I suspect it was the Addams family and the Rockefeller family, because they were the first to have the financial resources to promote it, and they also had a lot of contracts to sell, which supported them making a lot of money in this price hike.'

'This There is nothing they can do about it. After all, they are old American financial families with very strong resources at their disposal. And due to the particular nature of the war, the news came out came at the crack of dawn in the US, so they had plenty of time to adjust. Under these circumstances, it was simply impossible to ask them not to benefit from market changes at all,' Zhou Ming added, 'but we can play along with them for once.'

As for Zhou Ming's statement, Lin Muqing has not yet had time to express her opinion, but Tang Ran has already come over and said, 'Yes! I hate it when someone dares to make money off Ming's ideas. So how are we going to play with those bad guys? Is Ming brother, are you going to make us sell oil futures again, so that the price of oil goes down?'

'I don't have the ability to hedge against the global market,' Ming Zhou said with a smile, 'but I can cause those people some trouble.'

Ming Zhou then asked, 'I have an idea now, about Iraqi oil. Muqing, do you think any consortium has the ability to help Iraq ship oil out despite the US embargo?'

Lin Mu was a little puzzled by Zhou Ming's idea: 'I don't understand why you want to do this, and there is a war going on there, I'm afraid no company will be willing to do this.'

'I think we can try Edward and his people, I think they will be happy to help,' Zhou Ming said.

After saying After saying this, Zhou Ming hurriedly hung up the phone, and then returned to the underground air-raid shelter together. However, before the door had been closed for less than five minutes, several heavy bombs had already fallen in the courtyard of the Presidential Palace, creating several mushroom clouds.

Meanwhile, in the villa in San Francisco, Lin Muqing and Tang Ran were looking at each other. Tang Ran asked, 'Sister Muqing, why do you think Ming did this? Is it because he wants to compete with Rockefeller for the oil market?'

'This is definitely impossible. Rockefeller is the oil tycoon of the world, and it is simply impossible to compete with him for the oil market.' Lin Muqing thought for a moment and then said, 'Moreover, just now Zhou Ming also said that he just wants to have some fun with them, and he is not really going to compete with the Rockefeller family for the market.'

'Then what is Ming's goal in making this arrangement?' Tang Ran asked curiously, but she didn't intend to answer this question. She continued, 'Oh, never mind, it's Ming's idea anyway, and he wouldn't lie to us, so let's just help him make it happen!'

Lin Muqing looked at Tang Ran helplessly.