Hong Kong Island: From a small stall to a global supplier

In old Europe, such public speeches were a daily occurrence. After all, Hitler built his empire through a series of speeches, and there were successful examples to learn from.

Once something becomes commonly used, it will eventually become an industry, and public speaking is one such example.

People like Mario have their own private offices, some of which are dedicated to public speaking, while there are also professional 'public speaking companies' in various cities that connect people who need to give speeches.

These people have some prestige in the local area, can smooth things over between the legitimate and criminal worlds, and have connections with local community organizations, the Red Cross, workers' rights organizations, religious organizations, women's organizations, student organizations, and so on.

There's strength in numbers, and it's always easier to get things done when you're organized.

Once a speech order is placed, in addition to coordinating with officials, the police, and local underworld forces to keep them from causing trouble, the most important task for the speech organization is to contact these shady organizations, give them money to operate, and bring people over to participate in the speech at a specific time.

They are all organized and disciplined.

Of course, those who can come out to listen to lectures during the daytime working hours are either staff members of various organizations, unemployed people who are just loafing around, or students who have too much free time and don't know what to do with it, but the largest group is housewives...

This is also the root of the growing 'female power' in the future. After all, the speaker can clearly see who is there and who shouts the loudest.

It's not that shouting loudly will necessarily bring in votes, but a dry and uninspired speech is like attending a funeral. If it's broadcast on TV, it will only make people laugh. Even without attacks from opponents, ordinary people won't believe it.

Hai Dazhi and his group had never experienced any of these things, but Wang Yaotang had organized quite a few marches, so it was similar. Therefore, the group of them spread out to observe the surroundings. They couldn't get close to the organizations with a lot of women; they were too gossipy, and if they went in, they would be exposed after just a few words.

Those community organizations are off-limits; they are all women from the community who know each other.

Students... Which one of them looks like a student?

The options available are the Red Cross, workers' rights organizations, and religious organizations.

Once a target is selected, take advantage of the chaos to slip to the back of the line and follow the organizer's crowd into the park square.

To prevent chaos, stampedes, and other incidents, the park square is specially divided into several sections by iron fences, with each group having its own designated area.

After entering the park, Hai Dazhi followed the crowd, smiling as he accepted the small flag from the organizer, then quickly turned around to observe his surroundings.

Based on the location of the podium and one's own position, and using long-term security experience to judge the standing positions of security personnel, one can calculate where to fire a shot to hit the target.

Throwing grenades isn't a good idea. This isn't a press conference; the distance and positioning are impossible to control. More importantly, the football environment in old Europe means there are a lot of people who are prone to making rash moves...

If you encounter someone with good technique who instinctively stops the ball when they see something flying towards them, that's fine. But if they're someone who likes to kick the ball, it could fly off somewhere in the world.

In this respect, professional soldiers are at a disadvantage... Long-term training makes their first instinct to move away and lie down, while professional security personnel would tackle and protect the target.

Wang Yaotang dared to design it this way in Hong Kong because he knew there were no capable security personnel on site, and the venue was the Governor's House, so no one expected anyone to do this.

However, public speeches are not an option. Historically, all successful assassinations during public speeches have involved the use of guns.

The park square was now noisy and crowded. Hai Dazhi and the other three had all put on makeup and agreed to split up and act separately. Whoever had the opportunity would make the move. He simply observed the surroundings for a while and then quietly retreated, trying not to attract attention by switching to another group.

The position of the main podium is fixed, and the position where the target stands is also fixed. After mentally simulating the security situation, I stood still.

About seventeen or eighteen minutes later, almost all the people who came to listen to the speech had arrived, and cameras had been set up around them. A group of people walked out from the passageway left behind the main stage. A middle-aged man with chestnut hair, about 175 cm tall and with a fairly well-proportioned figure, walked up under the protection of four security guards.

Wasn't he supposed to be bald? Hai Dazhi raised an eyebrow. Was he wearing a wig?

As Mario approached the main stage, he began waving to the surrounding crowd, and the shills arranged by the local organizers cooperated by shouting and creating a lively atmosphere.

Seeing that the crowd was drawn to his target, Hai Dazhi began to walk forward little by little. He paid no attention to what the guy was babbling about. He just kept his head down and walked forward. Then he stopped. The spot he had chosen had been taken by several people.

But it didn't really matter. Hai Dazhi looked up at Mario, reached under his left armpit, pulled out a CZ75, and pulled the trigger while grazing the ear of the person in front of him.

"Bang!" "Bang!"

Mario's chest was spurting blood, and his face was filled with astonishment.

"Bang!" "Bang!"

Just a second later, someone fired from another direction. A bullet shot straight into Mario's open mouth, churning his brains into a paste before ripping open his skull and gushing out.

Gunshots rang out in succession. The four security guards next to him were stunned for a full two seconds before they reacted. Seeing Mario falling to one side, they roared and pounced on him.

The person in front of Hai Dazhi felt two loud bangs like thunder in his ears, cried out in pain, and his body involuntarily shrank his neck and crashed to the side.

Then came a series of screams, and people scattered in panic, making Hai Dazhi stand out.

Hai Dazhi turned around and rushed out in the direction he had chosen beforehand, pulling a tear gas canister from under his right armpit with his left hand, removing the safety, and tossing it behind him.

"Oh!"

A large cloud of smoke billowed out, followed by even more intense screams of panic.

The other three people in the crowd also saw the target fall to the ground. Except for Hai Huayu, who fired a shot almost simultaneously and threw a tear gas canister into the crowd, the other two did not make any moves. They just shouted "terrorist attack," "towards the exit," and "danger here" in the crowd. No one at the scene paid attention to why the man's accent was a bit strange. The panicked crowd just needed one voice to point them in the right direction.

A large crowd surged toward the exit, and Hai Dazhi and his group could easily leave the scene by blending in with the crowd.

As for the dozen or so police officers on duty nearby, they faced a choice between a dangerous killer lurking in the crowd and the safety of an important figure. Even a fool would know which to choose.

More than two hundred people were crowding outwards, but the police rushed towards the podium. That's called doing your duty!

As the crowd rushed out of the park, I got into a car parked nearby and sped off. I had only driven about 200 meters when I saw a police car with flashing red and blue lights rushing towards me.

The two cars passed each other on the road. Hai Huayu kept her speed down. "There was just an accident at the park over there, and you're rushing in like a madman. Isn't that obviously suspicious?"

As the police cars sped past, several officers instinctively glanced at the passing vehicles, only to have them disappear from sight in less than two or three seconds, giving them no chance to think.

"We wasted too much time coming out of the park." Hai Dazhi sighed softly. "These hypocrites certainly know how to pick a place, damn it."

"Luckily, this is a city park. It only took about ten minutes to run out. If we had been any later, we would have been stuck inside by the police, which would have been troublesome," Hai Huayu said with a smile.

"It's nothing special. There were only four vehicles and a maximum of 16 people who just passed by. We have guns and two tear gas canisters. We can easily kill them in a head-on confrontation."

"That's true." It's not a matter of whether they have guns or not; it depends on who has them. These guys are all veterans of war and don't take these police officers seriously at all.

……

Kadoorie's men returned yesterday. Eliascohn had been keeping a close eye on the news from France, and he knew about the assassination attempt during his speech at Mario Park as soon as it was published.

He leaned back in his chair, eyes closed, motionless, showing no sign of happiness.

That guy surnamed Wang is too ruthless!

They act with absolutely no scruples!
And she has such strong hands-on skills!

Just thinking about it makes me shudder.

What is the meaning of life?
Which is more important: money, status, ideals, or freedom?

Although I've become a powerful person controlling billions of assets, but...

Freedom isn't that important.

He chuckled a few times. What does France's business have to do with Hong Kong? They're not going to come and bite their own birds.

Such people have admirers while they're alive, but they're nothing once they're dead.

Eliascohn rubbed his face and pressed the bell; dealing with the merger between CLP Power and HK Electric was still more important.

……

At Tuen Mun Ferry Pier, Wang Yaotang, accompanied by the person in charge from the Fourth Harbor Engineering Bureau, toured the port construction site.

The project has been underway for a year now. Hong Kong is so close to Guangdong that it's no exaggeration to say that the Fourth Harbor Engineering Company is practically on its doorstep. So it was easy to mobilize a lot of resources to get involved. As a result, Tuen Mun Ferry Terminal is now mostly operational.

The most important part of the wharf is the berths. The Tuen Mun Wharf is designed to have one 5-6-ton bulk carrier berth and two 10-ton bulk carrier berths. Currently, berths 1 and 2 are already in use, and the 10-ton berth at berth 3 is also nearing completion.

The brand-new Tuen Mun Ferry Terminal is one of the most advanced bulk carrier terminals in the world. Dedicated automatic conveyor belts transport goods such as coal, stone, and iron ore directly from the cargo ships, greatly improving loading and unloading speed.

After looking around for a while, Wang Yaotang was quite satisfied. Then the group went to his office for tea and explained the purpose of their visit.

"Mining area construction, huh?" Dong Huaitian from the Fourth Harbor Engineering Bureau said with a smile. "The Dachang Mining Bureau can handle this themselves, didn't they say anything?"

“I do know that. Now the construction of the mining area is done internally by the construction department under the mining bureau. The problem is that the mining bureau back home can get whatever it needs by submitting a report, whether it's personnel, materials or equipment. But now the Da Guang Mining Bureau is developing the mining area in Myanmar, so there's nowhere to submit the report.”

Wang Yaotang said with a wry smile, "That place is really poor and remote. It's not that I look down on them, but it's a problem with the technology and the manufacturers' control. We don't dare to use the cement and steel that we purchase locally. There are significant differences in the performance of different batches. The data they provide is completely unreliable; it's all fucking fake."

As he spoke, Wang Yaotang suddenly seemed to drift off, remembering what Cohen had said about the French requirement that every screw and every bag of cement had to be sourced from France…

This moment is just like that moment!
Shaking his head slightly, Wang Yaotang sighed, "I'm starting to regret investing in mining in Myanmar. It's too troublesome. The materials and equipment needed by the Dachang Mining Bureau have to be purchased from China and imported from other countries."

"Domestic procurement is fine, but overseas equipment procurement is troublesome. Eight-cylinder is a very troublesome problem."

"The other thing is logistics. From land transportation to sea transportation, you have to go through customs on both sides, settle accounts, and so on. Logistics sounds simple, it's just about transporting goods, but do you know how complicated it is?"

"Well," Dong Huaitian thought for a moment and said, "You could try contacting China Resources about this."

"Oh, how so?" Wang Yaotang immediately became interested.

"We encountered similar problems in the construction of Tuen Mun Port. China Resources has always been our partner, since this is an overseas port and the settlement currency is US dollars settled through the Bank of China. All kinds of procurement and logistics are entrusted to China Resources. Our Fourth Harbor Engineering Bureau does not have the relevant import and export qualifications. Now, many domestic companies entrust China Resources to import and export through Hong Kong."

Wang Yaotang slapped his forehead, realizing he had forgotten about China Resources, a giant from the 80s and 90s.

At this time, China Resources' business scope and power were far greater than those of China Resources after the turn of the century.

……

Three days later, at China Resources headquarters.

Luo Wenhua smiled and shook hands with Wang Yaotang, "I've been wanting to meet you, this newly minted Hong Kong tycoon, for a long time. Today, my wish has finally come true."

"Haha, Manager Luo flatters me. It's my fault. I should have come to China Resources to pay my respects earlier," Wang Yaotang said with a smile.

"This is your dock."

"No, it's your dock!"

Hearing this, Luo Wenhua trembled involuntarily for some reason. "Alright, alright, let's go in."

"please."

"please."

This is China Resources. Wang Yaotang changed his usual style and only brought Wei Tao and a few others with him, instead of bringing a dozen or so bodyguards.

The staff at China Resources had heard plenty of gossip about Wang Yaotang, and many of them secretly came out to see this powerful and patriotic Hong Kong tycoon with their own eyes. It was only because Wang Yaotang was used to being watched that he was able to remain calm and composed.

After arriving at the reception room and being served tea, they chatted for a while about everything under the sun, including interesting stories from Hong Kong. Once they had gotten to know each other well, Wang Yaotang finally revealed his purpose: "I want to invest in and jointly establish a joint venture with China Resources to specialize in cross-border trade and international logistics."

Luo Wenhua thought for a moment and said, "In recent years, the export products of our hometown are no longer limited to the Canton Fair. Many companies are independently exploring the path of cross-border trade. During this period, China Resources has a lot of related businesses and does have this need. In principle, there is no problem in forming a joint venture."

Wang Yaotang raised an eyebrow. "There's no problem in principle, so there must be a problem?"

No, I am a patriotic businessman with such close ties to my hometown. Why am I making such a fuss about setting up a joint venture?
Touching his chin, Wang Yaotang asked with great confusion, "I don't know what the problems are, I can't figure it out. Please explain, Mr. Luo."

"This..." Luo Wenhua was somewhat embarrassed.

That's not a good idea. (End of Chapter)