Chapter 355: Morgan's Conditions

At 10 o'clock on the morning of the 7th of April, Zhou Ming had just finished breakfast when he sat in the room Martin had prepared for him, awaiting the start of the conference call with the Morgan family. Chinese

On hearing the news, Martin's first reaction was to be shocked. As someone who had already set one foot in the elite of high society, Martin was well aware of the horror of the Morgan family. The United States is undoubtedly the country with the most powerful financial forces in the world today. Finance is also an important force that controls the lifeblood of modern America. Banks such as the Bank of China, the Bank of Brighton and CitiBank are all leaders among the world's banks.

Behind these banks, there is one or more families in control, many of which are centuries-old financial dynasties. However, when it comes to the number one financial family in the United States, there is no dispute that it is the Morgans.

In the United States, J.P. Morgan is known as the Napoleon of Wall Street. This title alone is enough to make the name J.P. Morgan shine around the world. Of course, he was worthy of the title. Not only did he save the US economy twice, but at the peak of J.P. Morgan's financial empire, nearly 30% of all American companies were directly or indirectly under the control of the J.P. Morgan consortium.

This is an extremely exaggerated figure, which can no longer be described as a monopoly, but rather a kind of control over everything, a kind of invincible emptiness and loneliness.

Although the subsequent sinking of the Titanic signalled the collapse of the Morgan Empire, the entire United States began to take revenge on the entire Morgan consortium after the death of J. P. Morgan. Many businesses that originally belonged enterprises belonging to the Morgan family were infiltrated by other consortia through political or so-called legal means, resulting in a significant decline in the strength of the Morgan family. However, even so, the Morgan family is still one of the top families in the United States.

And after experiencing a situation where all the major conglomerates in the United States banded together against them, the entire Morgan family seems to have matured, and no longer so aggressively demands control over control of more enterprises, but rather to focus on the financial arms and information high-tech industries, and work with other consortia to jointly control the economic lifeblood of the country, and become the largest contractor for the Department of Defense.

It was also due to the subsequent information technology explosion that the Morgan family, after more than half a century of nirvana, finally returned to the top of the United States, and no one has been able to shake it since then.

It can be said that the Morgan family has always been a legendary presence in Martin's heart, and now Zhou Ming is actually going to talk to the head of the Morgan family on the phone, how can this not shock him?

Perhaps for someone who has met the president before, the US president is just that, especially since the president changes every four years. But the head of Morgan is different. He is the emperor of the financial empire, and if he does not die, his power will last forever.

Therefore, for Martin, he revered the head of the Morgan family more than the president.

For this reason, when he got the news, Martin immediately vacated his study and prepared the most advanced equipment for Zhou Ming, using the most advanced encryption methods to ensure that their telephone conference would be smooth and not be eavesdropped by anyone, including himself.

Because of this, Martin also became even more awed by Zhou Ming, because he felt that since Zhou Ming could talk on the phone with the head of the Morgan family, what kind of identity did he have behind him?

This result made Zhou Ming very helpless, because it was only due to the Tang family. After all, the Tang family is also the core family of the California consortium. Not to mention that it is no problem to invite the head of the Morgan family to chat, but Zhou Ming was in Martin's eyes.

However, Zhou Ming did not explain too much to Martin. He let him continue to misunderstand as long as it did not delay things.

Time quickly passed to 11:30. As the scheduled conference call was due to begin at 12:00, Ming dialed the number in advance. All the equipment had been pre-adjusted, so Ming only needed to dial the pre-set number to begin the conference call.

Almost as soon as he dialed the number, it was connected, and it was obvious that Tang Ran and Lin Muqing had been waiting there the whole time.

'Brother Ming, it's Ran. You called so early, do you miss me and Sister Muqing?' Tang Ran asked with a smile, and it could be heard that she was very happy.

Zhou Ming, however, deliberately teased Tang Ran: 'I miss Muqing, but I don't miss you naughty boy.'

Tang Ran was unhappy at that time: 'What? Brother Ming, where am I naughty? I've always been very good!'

Tang Ran was very unhappy and wanted to prove it to Zhou Ming. It wasn't until Lin Muqing told her over there that Tang Ran realised that Zhou Ming was deliberately teasing her. She scolded Zhou Ming again, and Zhou Ming had to soothe her for a while before she calmed down.

But they laughed and joked so much that the time passed quickly. It was already twelve o'clock, the time they had agreed with Jack, head of the Morgan family. However, Jack was late in connecting to the line, which made them feel very strange.

'What's the situation with Jack? The Morgans are still in control of the international telephone company! In the end, they can't even set up a basic conference call. Their technicians should all be fired!'

Tang Ran kept complaining over there, while Zhou Ming immediately frowned. He wouldn't be naive enough to think that the Morgans would encountered some insurmountable technical difficulties. His lateness either had a specific purpose, such as trying to intimidate him, or they simply didn't take him and the others seriously. And for Zhou Ming, neither of these was obviously what he wanted.

Zhou Ming thought for a moment and said to Tang Ran in a low voice, 'Don't be in such a hurry. Maybe something has happened to him over there. After all, it's the Morgan family, controlling such a large family business, so it's be unexpected. Let's just wait patiently. When you took the qualification exam for inheritance, didn't we choose Jack Company? It sounds similar to Jack this time, so let's just consider it a trial.'

Zhou Ming said this, but he waited until 2 o'clock before the big shot, the head of the Morgan family, appeared on the line.

'So, you're still here? This is Jack Morgan. Let's get started. What do you want to discuss?' Those were Jack's first words after connecting the call.

This made Zhou Ming's brow furrow even deeper, because there was no apology in Jack's words. Obviously, he didn't take this conference call or himself and the new head of the Down clan, Tang Ran, seriously. Or perhaps he did it on purpose, just to make himself angry. But either way, it didn't bode well.

Zhou Ming said in a very amiable manner, 'Of course we should start the meeting soon. We know that Mr. Jack is the head of the Morgan family and must be very busy. Just like this time, the conference call scheduled for 12 o'clock didn't start until 2 o'clock.'

Zhou Ming said this on purpose, just to give him a little nudge, but Jack just took it all in his stride and said, 'Yes, that's right.'

Tang Ran was very unhappy to hear this: 'Mr. Jack, even a three-year-old knows that you have to apologise when you do something wrong. As the head of the Morgan family, don't you understand this simple truth?'

Jack was delighted: 'Ms Tang Ran, if you really want, I can apologise to you, but I'm afraid our conference call will have to end here.'

This time, without waiting for Tang Ran to speak, Zhou Ming said, 'So let's end it here, Mr. Jack. Are you going to hang up first, or are we going to hang up first? I don't think Mr. Jack came two hours late just to hang up on us once.'

There was a moment of silence on Jack's end before he said, 'This is Mr. Zhou Ming, right? As expected, he is quite interesting. Well, I was in the wrong for being late this time, and I sincerely apologise. I am very sorry.'

Zhou Ming also said, 'We also apologise to Mr Jack for our tone and some inappropriate words we used just now.'

After apologising to each other, Zhou Ming said to Jack, 'Dear Mr Jack, this time we invited you to participate in this conference call because we currently have a plan targeting the Daewood family, and we hope to cooperate with the Morgan family.'

Jack said, 'I think you should know, Mr. Zhou Ming, that our Morgan family is a business family that has continued for nearly 200 years. And in our family tradition, there is a very important ancestral teaching, which is that in order to carry out any cooperation, we must clearly know where our interests lie.'

'Of course, no businessman would be willing to do a losing business,' said Zhou Ming. 'The biggest benefit of this plan against the Daewood family is on Daewood Bank.'

Zhou Ming paused deliberately here and then said, 'I know that the Morgan family is the number one financial family in the United States, but if there is an opportunity to add another feather to the family's banner, I don't think the Morgan family will refuse, because no one will ever say they don't want more wealth.'

'It seems that Mr. Zhou Ming is very confident that he can defeat the Daewood Bank?' Jack asked over the phone.

Zhou Ming did not give a direct answer, but said, 'Mr. Jack, as the head of the Morgan family, I think you must know the financial market very well. Then I think you must also know about the recent troubles encountered by Daewood Bank. Not only is not only has its share price been falling, but it has also experienced a very serious run on the bank. Every day, hundreds of people queue outside the doors of Daewood Bank to withdraw their money, and the bank's reputation has been seriously damaged as a result!'

'Mr. Zhou Ming, what you have said is not enough to convince me,' Jack said. 'Or I can be more direct. Before this conference call, George of the Daewood family also called me and expressed his willingness to use all the shares of General Motors he controls in exchange for the support of the Morgan family. Do you understand what I mean, Mr. Zhou Ming?'

He had already said it so bluntly, so how could Zhou Ming not understand? So Zhou Ming asked, 'So I wonder what kind of chip we need to come up with in order to tempt Mr. Jack?'

'What a clever boy!' Jack said with a smile. 'Mr. Zhou Ming, Ms. Tang Ran, I heard that recently Jingwei Private Bank and Tangyin Institutional Asset Management Company have transferred their shares. So can the shares of Tangren Retail Bank, which is also a subsidiary of Tangren Bank, be sold to JPMorgan Chase Bank? Or I know that the Daewood family still controls 80 billion US dollars of shares in Tang Bank, and we don't mind.'

'I'm sorry, but this is a condition we cannot accept!' Zhou Ming said.

'Mr. Zhou Ming, if I remember correctly, you are not a member of the Tang family, so with all due respect, you do not have much say in this,' Jack reminded him.

Tang Ran then said in all righteousness, 'What Mr. Zhou Ming said is what the Tang family means.'

'Originally, I heard that Mr. Zhou Ming could be the head of the Tang family, and I didn't believe it, but now it seems to be the case,' Jack continued, 'in that case, it seems that our conference call will have to end here if we are not willing to make concessions to each other.'