"He's gone in the end!" Kraft stared at Wall Street in the distance, a hint of despair in his eyes. After his own institution suffered a colossal loss of $600 million, Kraft, the alliance's commander, was unceremoniously kicked out by furious behind-the-scenes investors.
In their eyes, all of this was clearly caused by Kraft's stupidity. If Kraft hadn't been so foolish, falling step by step into someone else's trap, how could they have lost so much money?
All of this was definitely Kraft's fault.
It was incredibly merciful of him to just kick him out.
As Kraft left Wall Street with all his belongings, he saw Hark waiting for him. However, Hark's situation was slightly better than Kraft's because Hark wasn't just a manager; he had a family behind him.
Although this family was also extremely disappointed in Hark, as one of only two male heirs in the family, Hark, despite suffering heavy losses and even losing most of his chances to inherit the family's power, was not directly kicked out by the family. After all, the family still needed a backup.
Moreover, Hark wasn't actually stupid. He was the first person to question the problematic Chinese procurement delegation. He had even proposed withdrawing from the alliance, but he was stopped by the elders of the family who couldn't accept the reality of suffering losses.
That's right, most of the blame for this incident actually lay with the family elders. However, Hark's willingness to take the blame earned him the understanding of many elders, and he still had a chance to make a comeback... For example, his elder brother committed another foolish act, losing even more funds than Hark.
"What, still can't figure out how you lost?" Seeing his good friend's dejected expression, Hark actually smiled.
"I've figured out most of it. I just don't know who the mastermind is," Kraft said. After collapsing, Kraft had immediately re-examined the entire process and quickly understood all the tactics involved.
This Chinese procurement delegation was merely a tool to confuse them. They used increasing procurement volumes to entice Kraft's alliance to maintain prices.
Even when they realized someone was shorting the market by constantly dumping more soybean futures contracts, they still had to bite the bullet and take them, increasing their cost of holdings.
However, Kraft hadn't figured out who the mastermind behind this was.
It seemed like it was Chinese, but Kraft felt it wasn't.
"Actually, it's very simple to figure out the mastermind. Just figure out who benefited in the end, and one of them must be Chinese!" After stepping out of the game, Hark's gaze and thoughts became clearer. "Through this battle, the Chinese soybean industry suffered no damage. Instead, many of our American grain companies suffered huge losses, and their financial reports this year will be very grim. At the same time, because of their market suppression, many soybean-producing countries are very resentful of them."
"I also heard that the Chinese are preparing to establish dedicated procurement bases in Brazil to communicate and procure directly from local farmers. If they succeed, the entire global soybean market will undergo earth-shattering changes. And with the capabilities of the Chinese, we will likely face fierce competition from Chinese soybean products internationally!"
"The Chinese benefited so greatly, so one of the masterminds must be Chinese!" Hark said.
"So, that means there's another mastermind who isn't Chinese!" Kraft seized on the key point in Hark's words. He wasn't surprised that there was a Chinese mastermind. After all, his target was China, and it was only natural for them to retaliate.
He didn't even hate the Chinese. This was a fair war. If they lost to the opponent on the battlefield, they should admit defeat.
What Kraft truly found unacceptable was the person lurking in the shadows, plotting against him, and that person was likely one of their own.
"I don't know about that!" Hark spread his hands, but the expression on his face clearly indicated that Hark had some inkling.
"Hark, my good friend, you can't let me die without even knowing who killed me, can you?" Kraft said.
"I told you, you just need to look at who the biggest beneficiary is after this incident. Besides the Chinese, who else gained from this? For example, the people who swallowed up several institutions originally valued at up to $10 billion for less than $1 billion!" Hark said calmly. He didn't clearly state who the mastermind was, but Kraft already understood.
He then looked out the window at a towering building, one of Wall Street's landmarks and its tallest office building, housing premier Wall Street institutions like Goldman Sachs and Lehman Brothers.
However, as Kraft looked at the rooftop of this building, he vaguely saw someone standing there. Before Kraft could react, this person leaped directly from the rooftop.
A strong wind was blowing outside at that moment. The dark figure that leaped down was first buffeted by the wind and slammed against the glass, then bounced off like a discarded toy before falling heavily onto the roof of a black sedan parked on the roadside.
The entire car roof was crushed into a concave trough half the size of the car body. Then, the dark figure turned into a pool of bright red meat paste on the ground, scaring the passersby into screaming.
"Who was that!" Hark was greatly startled.
"It was Little John!" Kraft's expression was also somewhat pale, but he said calmly, "When I left that building, I saw him heading towards the rooftop. And he didn't take the elevator; he tried to take the stairs. I knew his fate was sealed then."
"Wouldn't you try to dissuade him?" Hark frowned. Little John was one of the heads of the financial institutions that operated soybeans with them.
"He's different from us. We still have a way out; he has none. He had already transferred all his remaining assets to his wife and three children yesterday and took on tens of millions of dollars in foreign debt. If he didn't die, he would have a life worse than death!" Kraft said calmly.
"Dead, and all is forgotten!"
Unlike Kraft, Little John had invested his entire fortune in this operation. If everything had gone smoothly, he could have made tens of millions of dollars in profit because he had used leverage.
Then he jumped.
"Plop!" In the next second, there was another loud thud. This time, it was Kraft's turn to be startled, but Hark's expression was very calm.
"Who jumped this time?" Kraft asked curiously.
"It's Blake Thomas from Cargill!" Hark replied.
"Him? Then he really should jump. After all, Cargill lost over $600 million this time, and its stock price dropped by nearly $4 billion. It's already merciful of Cargill's shareholders to give him a chance to end it all!" Kraft said with a cold laugh.
Blake was the Vice President of Cargill, in charge of the group's financial business. He held a high position and usually looked down on managers like Kraft.
Because Cargill was a major client of Wall Street, all managers had to placate this vice president to obtain Cargill's financial agency rights.
This action against the Chinese soybean industry was orchestrated by Blake Thomas. Cargill had invested in many companies in China and had established businesses such as edible oil, soybean feed, pet food, and frozen food. However, they had never been able to open up the domestic market and were suppressed by many domestic enterprises.
Therefore, under Blake Thomas's strong advocacy, Cargill, along with some companies from the United States and Singapore, launched this action against China's soybean industry.
If the plan had followed historical development, Blake Thomas would have smoothly ascended to the CEO position of Cargill based on this great accomplishment and received stock options and rewards of tens of millions or even hundreds of millions of dollars.
However, now that he had failed and caused the company heavy losses, he could only atone for his mistakes with his death and leap to his demise.
It was easy for Blake to jump, but how Cargill would clean up the mess was a headache. Overall, American grain companies would have to endure the pain caused by this failure in the next two to three years.
"Actually, there's one more thing I don't understand," Kraft sighed. "I've figured out all the other actions of the Chinese, but I don't understand the 4 million tons of soybeans they brought in at the last moment."
"We had already calculated all the soybean sources perfectly, and the maximum soybeans that could flow into the market would not exceed 1 million tons. But where did this mysterious 4 million tons come from?"
"I also want to know the answer to this question!" Hark also showed a frustrated expression. He also couldn't figure out where the final 4 million tons of soybeans came from.
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"You mean the final 4 million tons of soybeans are actually the alliance's own soybeans!" In the same room, the old man asked Hao Jianguo in front of him with great surprise.
"Yes!" Hao Jianguo nodded. Seeing that his boss still looked bewildered, he explained, "Huang He borrowed a total of 4 million tons of soybeans from the airdrop, and these 4 million tons of soybeans were gradually acquired by the alliance to stabilize the market."
"But this 4 million tons of soybeans was beyond the alliance's expectations. They didn't even have warehouses ready to store these soybeans. Moreover, because transporting soybeans requires a large amount of transportation and handling fees, and finding another warehouse, the total cost amounts to tens of millions of dollars. Therefore, the alliance only took possession of the soybean bills, but the soybeans themselves were not moved and remained stored in the warehouses, while the alliance continued to pay for the warehouse storage of these soybeans."
"And as far as I know, the alliance didn't even send anyone to verify if these soybeans actually existed. It's estimated that in their eyes, these 4 million tons of soybeans were just data, not food that could satisfy the needs of hundreds of thousands of people in reality."
"But the alliance would never have imagined that these soybeans in the warehouses were actually fake, with only the top layer being real. Ninety percent of the soybeans have already been secretly loaded onto ships and transported to Brazil, waiting for the Chinese procurement delegation to arrive, and then, along with reporters for inspection, they will set sail for China. This is the origin of the 4 million tons of soybeans!" When Hao Jianguo delivered this explanation, he was still somewhat unable to control himself. The plan was too damn brilliant and too damn ruthless.
If Kraft and the others knew the truth, perhaps one more person would have jumped off the rooftop. Huang He had essentially used their own soybeans to bring them down.
As for how to repay these 4 million tons of soybeans in the end, it would be to buy an additional 4 million tons from the market at a price of just over $200 per ton to cover the deficit later.
Well, these 4 million tons were originally stored in the alliance's self-built warehouses, so the transportation costs were omitted, which was simply too cost-effective!
Upon hearing this fact, the old man was also stunned. After a long silence, he sighed and said, "Compared to Huang He, I feel exceptionally pure and kind. I can go to heaven in the future!"