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

"These little devils are really impatient," Wang Yaotang muttered under his breath.

This all started with the construction of a videotape factory in Shenzhen.

We purchased a large amount of machinery and equipment from the Japanese. According to business practice, it wasn't just about paying money; they would also make many unreasonable demands, especially since the factory was to be built in our hometown.

Although you have spent money to buy the equipment, you cannot decide how to use it.

For example, it may only provide the right to use the equipment and basic operating technology, without transferring the core design drawings or the production process of key components.

For example, subsequent equipment maintenance and upgrades must rely on the Japanese team.

For example, technical services can be used to continuously control the actual usage efficiency of equipment.

For example, it involves sourcing and integrating with the supply chain.

For example, regulations can be set to limit the production volume of products manufactured using imported equipment, and restrictions can be placed on the sales areas of these products.

For example, a product must be certified by relevant Japanese agencies before it can be listed on the market, and the certification process and standards are determined by the Japanese.

For example, they would send technical personnel to participate in production management, give them a say in production processes and quality standards, and require key positions to be trained and assessed by the Japanese before they could take up their posts.

Of course, these restrictions apply to setting up factories in one's hometown. The restrictions are more relaxed in Hong Kong, and even more relaxed in the United States and Europe, or there are no restrictions at all.

In short, it's about tailoring your approach to the individual.

This isn't like the previous poaching of Yamashita Matsumoto; that was a personal issue. This is a business issue.

From a business perspective, companies like Fuji, Hitachi, Panasonic, and JVC are stronger in terms of brand recognition, technology, and industrial scale. Since the technology and equipment belong to them, if you can't reach an agreement, don't buy them.

They seized the initiative.

Wang Yaotang couldn't just point a gun at someone's head and force them to sell things.

Of course, business issues ultimately require human intervention. Just like no matter how complicated and strict the laws and regulations are, if the final enforcers are lax, then no regulations are effective.

However, Wang Yaotang couldn't intervene directly in this matter, so he had someone contact local forces in Yamaguchi for help.

Without a doubt, these Japanese soldiers responsible for negotiations and making decisions cannot be clean; they must have a lot of dirty laundry on their hands. It wouldn't be difficult for these local tyrants in Yamaguchi to find evidence against them. Once they have something on their hands, and offer them some benefits, it's only natural that they'd open up as many loopholes as possible.

Complete liberalization is impossible; it wouldn't pass in company decision-making meetings, for example, regarding patent royalties and technology transfer fees.

To put it another way, even if these devices were made in Hong Kong, Wang Yaotang would still have ways to make them bow down.

No, Hong Kong doesn't have any high-tech equipment...

The Japanese were at least semi-feudal and semi-colonial, while Hong Kong was a colony outright. All these people were thinking about was making quick money; who would bother with scientific research?

There's no need for business negotiations with these underground forces; we can just arrange it for nighttime calls.

10 PM, inside the largest private room of the nightclub.

The door opened, and eight short Japanese soldiers walked in, bowing deeply at a ninety-degree angle as soon as they met. "Good evening, Lord Wang."

"Don't be shy, come, sit down." Wang Yaotang waved from the sofa, inwardly amused, thankful he wasn't surnamed Huang...

Given Wang Yaotang's current status, there's no need for him to get up. It's not a matter of politeness; being too courteous would cause unnecessary misunderstandings. Those Japanese are all perverts; the more ruthless and strict you are, the more they enjoy it.

The people from Yamaguchi were Watanabe Wakagashi, the number two, and Kishibe, the head of the department in charge of daily affairs and finances; the others were not worthy of being named.

The people who came from Sumiyoshi were Chairman Kawaguchi, the number two figure, and Daigo, the head of the organization, who was in charge of operations; the others were not worthy of being named.

After offering a toast, Watanabe and Kawaguchi began praising the luxury and grandeur of the "Night Lightning".

Despite Japan being the world's second-largest economy and boasting recent pronouncements about buying up the United States, and having an extremely vibrant nightlife, there isn't a nightclub this big on Japanese soil.

Wang Yaotang listened to their compliments with a smile, while Awei loudly introduced, "Our nightclub has a floor area of ​​over 7 square feet (6500 square meters), can accommodate 2000 people at the same time, and an average of 4000 people per day. The minimum charge in the lobby is HK$500, and the minimum charge in the VIP room is HK$3000. The daily turnover is US$40, and the annual turnover is US$1.44 million!"

“Sugai!” The eight Japanese soldiers stared wide-eyed and exclaimed in unison.

"Wang Jun truly lives up to his reputation as the strongest dragon in East Asia. The size and luxury of Nightclub are unparalleled in Asia, making it the most powerful nightclub!"

The largest nightclub in Japan is 'Biba' in Kabukicho, Shinjuku, which occupies four floors but has an area of ​​only 2200 square meters.

Club Heights in Sapporo was one of the largest nightclubs of its time, with an area of ​​only 990 square meters, but it could accommodate 300 hostesses and more than a thousand guests.

The most representative 'Maharaja Discotheque Saloon' is known for its Indian-themed decor and large dance floor, with a single location not exceeding 2000 square meters.
Located in Kawasaki City, this Live House opened in 1988 and has a capacity of 1300 people and a floor area of ​​1500 square meters.

The nightlife venues controlled by Yamaguchi and Sumiyoshi are even smaller, consisting mainly of bars and brothels, in order to diversify risk.

Of course, in the Japanese's words, this is about emphasizing privacy rather than physical size, and service quality rather than venue area.

It's definitely not because of scarce land resources or high land and housing prices.

It's cute even though it's small.

You could sense the intense envy and jealousy emanating from these eight people. With an annual turnover of $1.44 million, that's incredibly lucrative!
After showering Wang Yaotang with praise, Watanabe and Kawaguchi finally revealed the purpose of their visit.

In recent years, they have also started making 'erotic films', which sold well and made them a lot of money. However, the market for these films is limited. Even in a small area, there are local underground forces, and the market is completely divided up. Now, the large organization is no longer satisfied with the local market and wants to use Wang Yaotang's power to sell to Southeast Asia.

Meanwhile, the market for adult films is growing, and thanks to Hong Kong's convenience as a videotape distribution center, they have been sold throughout Southeast Asia and Europe.
Wang Jing and his gang have made a lot of money over the years, and they've started to have artistic pursuits. They've put more energy into the film market. In addition, Sheng Yi, influenced by Wang Yaotang, has become increasingly shady and has also started to shift his focus to the film market. The number of adult films produced has not only not increased, but has actually decreased.

Now, the other three major forces, including Prince Rong, have become the main force in the adult film industry. Now, the two Japanese companies also want to get a share of the pie. They have promised that all videotapes will be purchased from Wang Yaotang's factory and recorded by Yaoguang.

Wang Yaotang scoffed at this, saying that even after the videotape factory went into production, it might not be able to meet its own needs for the first few years, so where would it sell anything to them?

As for recording, if it weren't for supporting the videotape factory, Wang Yaotang would have sold Yaoguang.

Recording itself doesn't involve much technology, and the machines have also dropped in price significantly. All sorts of underworld forces in Hong Kong are doing it, but Yaoguang's large purchase volume allows them to squeeze various costs to the extreme, which is why they dominate the market, but their profits have also shrunk considerably.

He has already planned to move some of his factories to Shenzhen to make up for the losses by taking advantage of the lower labor costs there. Of course, he will not be able to record adult films there; they will have to stay in Hong Kong.

Of course, it doesn't matter who you sell to, you'll still earn the same channel fee.

Seeing that Wang Yaotang had agreed, Watanabe and Kawaguchi were overjoyed and got up to down three cups in a row.

It's not that the Japanese have no one overseas; it's that if Wang Yaotang doesn't give his approval, it will be very difficult for them to ship goods out. All shipping companies that use the South China Sea-Malacca route have to give Wang Yaotang some face.

Those videotapes were just to fill the spare slots on the cargo ship; nobody wanted to offend Wang Yaotang for such a small profit.

After discussing the export of adult films, the two then talked about bringing women to Wang Yaotang's establishments to make money, not only in Hong Kong and Macau, but also in places like Pattaya and Phuket.

Economic prosperity does not mean that everyone can make money. The poor are still poor, and it is even more of a disaster for women who have nothing but beauty. Especially after experiencing a life of luxury because of their beauty, few of them can bear to go back to their previous life of hardship and work hard to earn a little money.

The ultimate fate of most of them is to fall into a consumer trap and then fall into the hands of these underground forces.

Who can these women blame for lacking self-awareness?

The underworld isn't your parents, why should you pay for the sins of women? If you owe money, go out and sell yourself!

"Follow the rules, don't cause trouble, and don't cheat the customers. Just pay the venue fee." Wang Yaotang waved his hand dismissively. These women could enrich the entertainment venue, so why not? Competition among themselves wasn't a bad thing.

With both requests agreed, Watanabe and Kawaguchi became even more enthusiastic in their praise, saying that doing business with Wang Yaotang was truly a pleasure.

After chatting for a while, Wang Yaotang suddenly remembered something and asked, "What's the price of rice where you live?"

"Huh?" Watanabe and Kawaguchi were taken aback, completely unexpected that Wang Yaotang would do this.

Looking at the other three who had come with them, they also shook their heads slightly. They were all high-ranking members of the two factions and never went to the market to buy things, so how could they know?

Representatives from both families stood up, bowed, and apologized. They then hurriedly went out to ask their subordinates. Watanabe and Kawaguchi waved, and the two families relayed the information they had gathered as quickly as possible, almost in a race. Generally speaking, the price of everyday rice is $2.5-$4.17 per kilogram, while the retail price of premium rice is approximately $4.17-$6.67 per kilogram.

Japanese rice prices have long been 8-10 times higher than international rice prices. The official explanation is that this is an agricultural protection policy aimed at maintaining domestic food security and farmers' income. The specific reasons are not open to outsiders.

Anyway, Japan experiences a "US riot" every few years, even during its most economically developed periods.

Watanabe, Kawaguchi, and the others never cared about rice prices; they simply watched Wang Yaotang quietly, waiting for him to continue.

"Do you know what the international price of rice is?" Wang Yaotang asked with a smile.

The eight Japanese soldiers shook their heads, and Wang Yaotang then said, "Around 0.3 US dollars."

"what!"

"so cheap?"

"How can it be!"

Several people exclaimed in surprise.

They don't understand the price of rice, but they know a lot about "rice smuggling." Thinking about it this way, it's easy to understand how rice smuggling could not happen with such a huge price difference.

"Those damned politicians are a bunch of dung beetles, filthy rats!"

"Bagaya road!"

After listening to them swearing for a while, Wang Yaotang curled his lip. Japanese is lacking when it comes to swearing, and these guys are not very cultured and don't know how to swear without using vulgar words. It's boring to listen to.

“Alright, you can also sell rice on the black market in Japan, and the price is much cheaper, so you can do rice business.” Wang Yaotang tapped the table lightly with his wine glass, took a sip, and said, “Even if you only sell it for one-third of the market price, you can still make $0.60 per kilogram of rice, $600 per ton, and $6 million per 10,000 tons.”

"With Tokyo's population of ten million alone, it consumes one million tons of rice a year, generating a profit of six hundred million US dollars."

A collective gasp filled the private room, and the faces of the people inside turned bright red; the number was simply outrageous.

"Of course, you can't actually earn that much. The total amount of rice that the Japanese government imports with zero tariffs is only 77 tons. The profits from this portion go to powerful figures. Based on the retail rice price, they share a profit of $20 billion or more. After all, I'm calculating based on the lowest price, so the actual profit should be $30-40 billion."

"If we import through normal channels, the tariff alone is $2.5 per kilogram, leaving little profit. So you can only resort to smuggling. But if it has too much impact on the market, cutting off someone's livelihood is like killing their parents, and those powerful people will definitely..."

"So what!" Watanabe exclaimed, snorting heavily. "According to you, it's one-third of the market price, and that's calculated based on the lowest price. It should actually be higher, $6 million. That's enough for us to take the risk!"

"How much money can you make in a year selling contraband drugs!" Kawaguchi shouted, his face red and neck bulging.

"Wang Jun, can you get 100 million tons of rice?" The two men stared intently at Wang Yaotang.

"No." Wang Yaotang shook his head with a smile.

The little quacks inside the room stared in disbelief, like castrated roosters with their necks being choked.

“Selling rice isn’t as easy as you think. Do you know that 100 tons requires a large warehouse? Have you thought about how to transport it, how to store it, and how to sell it?” Wang Yaotang’s lips curled into a sneer. “1 million tons? You can’t handle that!”

"Go back and make a good plan before contacting me again. I'll get you some rice to test the waters. Let's start with 1000 tons. With a smaller quantity, we can sell it at a higher price, and we can still guarantee a profit of $100 million."

1000 tons sounds like a lot, but the Yamaguchi and Sumiyoshi families could easily squander it. These underground forces have a great influence on small and medium-sized restaurants; a small restaurant can consume 1 ton of rice in one or two months.

The little idiots calmed down a bit, stood up and bowed, then downed three cups in a row to show their respect.

It wasn't that he wanted to get involved in the rice market; it was just that Luo Wenhua from China Resources had mentioned it seemingly unintentionally during a meal.

In the 70s, Laojia rice occupied 70% of the Hong Kong market. Starting in the 80s, Siamese rice rapidly occupied the market. By 88, Laojia rice's market share had fallen to 12%. Following this trend, it was unknown whether it could reach 6% by 97.

But in the 80s, Siamese rice was still more expensive than rice from my hometown. If you say that there was no intervention from the Hong Kong British government during this process, nobody would believe it.

It's nothing more than trying every possible way to get rid of the influence of one's hometown. Regardless of the actual effect, it doesn't matter much to a troublemaker like me; what I want is the pleasure of causing trouble.

Based on current international rice prices, my hometown loses $5000 million in foreign exchange every year. It's not that we can't afford the loss, but it's disgusting!

The family would rather let Wang Yaotang earn this money than let those compradors earn it!
After thinking it over, Wang Yaotang realized that he owned a dock, had shipping capacity, and wielded considerable influence in Myanmar and Siam, two major rice exporting countries, not to mention his influence in Hong Kong and Macau. With such a complete set of leverage, he felt he would be doing himself a disservice if he didn't get involved.

Besides, although the grain trade may not be very profitable, people need to eat, and this stuff is extremely important. Holding it gives you a lot of bargaining power.

However, before entering the Hong Kong market, he planned to test the waters with Little Baga. The more markets he controlled, the greater his influence would be.

Xiao Baga hurriedly returned the next day. After two more busy days, Wang Yaotang flew to Yongxing Island on a Y-5, where Wei Jinzhong was resting.

"How have things been lately?" Wang Yaotang asked with a smile on the yacht.

Yongxing Island is undergoing large-scale construction. Due to the need to reclaim land and build dikes, the population of the island has suddenly increased from 500 to 3000. Accommodation has become a major problem, and most people are living in tents. Wang Yaotang has moored his yacht here for his crew members with buzz cuts to use for repairs.

“Very good. Construction on Nanwei Island has almost come to a standstill. Dafei is really useful!” Wei Jinzhong grinned.

Wang Yaotang, a glass of wine on the island, said, "Tell me, I love to hear it."

"Our harassment of the transport lines disgusted the Annamese to the point of nausea. Laying mines only takes an hour, but clearing them takes a day. Later, when the high-speed boats arrived, it got even more interesting. They would rush up from three sides at a speed of 90 kilometers per hour like fleas. The 107mm rocket launcher could fire more than 100 rockets in just half a minute. That wasn't even enough time for the Annamese escort fleet to output its artillery parameters..."

The large aircraft fires and then runs away. The input shelling parameters cannot keep up with the speed of the large aircraft at all. The key is that the large aircraft is too fast and too small, so it is impossible to hit it.

This meant that the transport fleet had to organize a large number of ships for escort each time, which greatly tied down the Annamese forces, infuriating the Annamese.

"Later, even Su-22s were deployed for escort, but it was useless. The Su-22s are fast and caught the big aircraft twice, but we can't expect them to drop bombs on the big aircraft." Wei Jinzhong shrugged. "The only weapons that can deal with the big aircraft are the 30mm cannons mounted at the root of the left and right wings, but each cannon only has 80 rounds of ammunition. The Su-22's stall speed is 190 kilometers per hour, and under safe conditions, it needs to maintain a speed of at least 250 kilometers per hour. It's wishful thinking to destroy the big aircraft with 160 cannons when it can't be relatively stationary."

"Didn't they use armed helicopters?" Wang Yaotang asked.

“We used it.” Wei Jinzhong continued, “But our attack locations are all 200 to 4000 kilometers away from the coastline. What is the combat radius of armed helicopters? After 200 kilometers, we have to keep following them. Fuel consumption is a factor. How long can they stay aloft? If we see a small black dot in the sky, the attack plan will be postponed and it will be over.”

"Can attack helicopters be mounted on tank landing craft?" Wang Yaotang asked with a smile.

"They tried once and gave up. They didn't have a hangar, so they just parked on the deck. Before they could take off, they were hit by shrapnel from a 107mm gun and were injured. They forced their way off and chased after them to retaliate, but they were so scared by a Red Parrot 5 that they wet themselves. They didn't dare to get any closer and could only watch our big plane fly away."

Wang Yaotang laughed heartily, and after he finished laughing, he said, "According to what you said, the actual damage wasn't that great, it was just disgusting?"

"It certainly won't cause much damage. We won't stop the ship completely to fire. We'll just keep firing as we feel it. We don't even know where the next shot will hit. Whether we'll get hit or not depends on luck."

This is terrible! Wang Yaotang laughed until his stomach hurt.

Ultimately, the problem is that there aren't enough ships in the Annamite Sea. If there were more shipborne helicopters patrolling the air in rotation, and high-speed gunboats surrounding them from all sides, even a large aircraft carrier wouldn't be able to escape due to insufficient fuel.

"So, the construction on Nanwei Island hasn't actually stopped?" Wang Yaotang said after he had finished laughing.

"It can only be described as a delay. We tried to attract their attention with the large aircraft carriers first, and then attacked them once with three 0s, which severely damaged their fleet again. After that, they arranged for two Poison Spiders to join the escort, and we didn't dare to get any closer."

Wang Yaotang sighed, "If only we had submarines."

"Even if we had them, it wouldn't be of any use. Our submarines are too noisy, and the Russians have very strong sonar technology. There's not much chance of getting close. If we want to attack, we'll have to use missiles for beyond-visual-range strikes."

The decision on when to use missiles rests solely with Wang Yaotang; the 0⑶⒎ missile version is still hidden.

Wang Yaotang is waiting, waiting for the Type 05 to join the fleet, waiting for his bankrupt version of the aircraft carrier to be launched, waiting for his carrier-based aircraft to arrive, and then he will give the Annamese a hard time!
"How were the guests from Siam doing?"

"They had a great time. Of the eight reefs they took down, they took down five by themselves. In particular, they were ambushed by the Annamese when they took down the fifth one, and they fought a fierce battle near the reef..."

"Is anyone hurt?" Wang Yaotang was startled.

"It's just a minor injury, nothing serious. They were terrified at first, but once they were safe, they were jumping and skipping around, even more excited than us. They were all red-faced and bloated with excitement."

"Hahaha, tell me about it..." (End of Chapter)