Era: Starting from divorce from female college student

By December 1985, the global economy had undergone tremendous changes.

Following the signing of the Plaza Accord in September, in October, Takeshita Noboru and his associates took the lead in selling off their dollar assets and US Treasury bonds.

In an instant, the US dollar depreciated and the Japanese yen appreciated.

The market began to fluctuate wildly.

Germany and other countries also began selling off their stocks, and the mark began to appreciate.

Hedge funds that had already started buying yen and mark before September, such as the Quantum Fund, have made a lot of money this time.

Before September, the USD/JPY exchange rate was 258, but now in December, the rate has changed to 188.

This appreciation rate has astonished many people.

In order to devalue the dollar, Reagan, James Baker, and others have indeed resorted to any means necessary.

Toyota, Toshiba, Panasonic, and other companies are all complaining bitterly.

Over the past few months, with the appreciation of the yen, Kimura Enterprises' exports to Sam's country have plummeted.

However, the number of products exported from Beijiang City and delivered to Sam's is slowly increasing.

Even the products available in Yunlan City are increasing, and quite a lot of them at that.

In short, this time, it seems that things are really quite different.

"Dad, should we clear out the inventory now?"

In mid-to-late December, the USD/JPY exchange rate had reached 179 and was still rising. Zhao Mancang was finding it hard to cope, and his hands trembled uncontrollably when he called his father.

"Wait a minute, what's the rush?"

Zhao Mancang was in no hurry; he was very patient.

Whether it's the Japanese yen or the German mark, this wave of appreciation will last for quite some time.

Even in February 1987, they would sign another Louvre Agreement to consolidate the results of the Plaza Accord.

It's utterly ironic and shameless.

In Zhuge Liang's words: I have never seen such a shameless person!
James Baker, Reagan, and their group truly revealed their true intentions, targeting Kimura and Germany.

Therefore, Zhao Mancang was not in a hurry at all under these circumstances.

American capitalists are capable of anything for profit. This wave of buying of the yen and mark has nothing to do with their devaluation.

On the contrary, they will maintain this for a longer period of time, with the yen and the mark appreciating.

Otherwise, the appreciation of the US dollar will only lead to a sharp decline in the international competitiveness of Sam's export products.

"Dad, do you really think the yen and mark will continue to appreciate? With the current profit margin, shouldn't we take our profits and call it a day?"

Zhao Jinshi, on the other end of the phone, couldn't help but ask again.

Zhao Mancang shook his head and said:

"I've analyzed this for you before; the depreciation of the US dollar is an inevitable trend, and it's a major trend that will last for quite some time. You need to pay more attention to the international economy and learn more about the relevant situation. Don't be blinded by the current illusions."

"Alright, I'm not going to waste my breath on you anymore. I'll let you know if I need to liquidate my holdings."

After hanging up the phone, Zhao Mancang couldn't help but feel somewhat disappointed.

It's a good thing that children grow up and have their own ideas.

However, its resilience is still not quite enough.

Therefore, we still need to cultivate their abilities more.

Outside the financial center of Yunlan City, several construction sites are bustling with activity.

A few months ago, when Zhao Mancang took Zheng Ruoyan to New York, they decided to continue building the financial building in Yunlan City.

To develop the financial sector in Yunlan City, we must first improve the infrastructure.

There are so many financial derivatives available, but not many are suitable for local residents of Yunlan City.

In other words, products like deposits and insurance are suitable, but others are not.

This is because most of the new immigrants to Yunlan City are honest and law-abiding residents, even though they suddenly received so much money.

For example, Zhou Xiaoqing, after working for nearly two years, has accumulated savings of almost 300,000 yuan.

Three hundred thousand Yunlan Treasure Notes are equivalent to three hundred and one hundred thousand US dollars.

Due to the depreciation of the US dollar, although the Yunlan Treasure Note was not forced to appreciate, it still appreciated slightly.

This sum of money was something Zhou Xiaoqing would never have dared to dream of a few years ago.

However, even with so much money, he was very careful when spending it.

His wife, Zhu Qinmei, had previously discussed buying a Mercedes-Benz with him, but he stopped her.

Zhou Xiaoqing feels insecure if she doesn't have enough savings.

Both Zhou Xiaoqing and Zhu Qinmei are now very satisfied with their lives in Yunlan City.

Therefore, we can see from ordinary people like Zhou Xiaoqing and Zhu Qinmei that they are indeed only suitable for saving money, and secondly, for buying insurance.

Of course, there are also some gamblers who choose other paths.

Hou Xiaoqiang is an ordinary grassroots worker in Yunlan City, managing several villages including Niudongping Village.

At this point in the year, his basic salary has increased from 2,500 yuan to 3,000 yuan.

His wife has given birth to another child and is already trying to conceive another one.

The family has over 60,000 yuan in savings.

But compared to Zhou Xiaoqing and her group, this sum of money is very little.

He immigrated to Yunlan City much earlier than Zhou Xiaoqing and the others, yet he has now been overtaken.

That definitely won't work.

So in September of this year, after the Plaza Accord was released, Hou Xiaoqiang discussed it with his wife and then went to the financial center of Yunlan City to purchase a product.

That means he's going long on the yen; he's very optimistic about the yen's rise.

After all, Hou Xiaoqiang had already read the detailed contents of the Plaza Accord.

Based on this information, the appreciation of the yen is inevitable.

He went directly to a bank in Yunlan City and applied for a 10x leverage, which means he invested 600,000 yuan to go long on Japanese yen, with a margin of 60,000 yuan.

He could actually take out a loan, but given his job and related expenses, the maximum loan amount would not exceed 50,000 yuan, so he did not take out a loan.

Leverage is sufficient; there's no need to be so greedy.

However, after October, the yen did indeed appreciate, and Hou Xiaoqiang was filled with regret, wishing he had taken out a loan instead.

So he made a quick decision and immediately went to borrow another 50,000 yuan, and then went to another bank to leverage it tenfold.

At this point, he invested 110,000 yuan in the foreign exchange market to go long on the Japanese yen.

Now in December, when the USD/JPY exchange rate reached 180, he decisively sold off all his holdings. From 253 to 180, he made a considerable profit.

The profit was a full 624,000 yuan, even after deducting the 50,000 yuan loan, the 60,000 yuan principal, and other miscellaneous interest.

Hou Xiaoqiang, who had earned 624,000 yuan, decisively withdrew from the market and then bought a Mercedes-Benz and a Ferrari.

In 1985, a Ferrari sports car was priced at around $400,000.

Hou Xiaoqiang didn't refuse the price at all, nor did his wife.

They chose to drive supercars here because they are both very young.

In other words, their budget wasn't enough; otherwise, they might have chosen something else.

With a new supercar at home, and having replaced their old sedan with a Mercedes-Benz, plus over 100,000 yuan in savings, Hou Xiaoqiang and his wife were already very content.

"So, are we really going to never touch foreign exchange again?"

"Why touch anything? There aren't any good opportunities right now. Unless you're absolutely certain of winning, don't touch these things."

His wife was infatuated, but Hou Xiaoqiang wasn't.

The capitalist's sickle is meant to harvest people like Hou Xiaoqiang.

In short, don't get carried away, or you'll inevitably be exploited by capitalists.

Hou Xiaoqiang didn't get carried away or blindly follow the trend. After making money, he wisely stopped.

However, quite a few gamblers still lost.

Yunlan City, Niudongping Village, the last quarter of this year's grain harvest season.

The villagers who stayed at home were all busy working in the fields.

Even though many of their families have saved tens or hundreds of thousands of yuan because someone has gone out to work, they still have no intention of giving up farming.

Each of the three quarters of the year produces a considerable amount of grain, so people are determined not to give it up.

Besides, many families are now wealthy and have purchased modern machinery to cultivate these rice and wheat fields, so they can still earn a considerable amount of money every year.

Zhao Mancang happened to be driving through Niudongping Village today. Looking at the ripe rice fields swaying in the wind in the distance, he fell into deep thought.

Since he took Zheng Ruoyan to New York in October, she has obediently returned to her hometown of Hangzhou to focus on her pregnancy.

As for her parents, Zhao Mancang hasn't visited them yet, but he will naturally go to Hangzhou during New Year's Day.

He's staying in Yunlan City now, so naturally he has something to do.

Most of Yunlan City has been completed, but the soil fertility seems to be declining.

After all, Yunlan City itself was transformed from desert and Gobi, so the land doesn't have much fertility, which is to be expected.

Besides the decline in soil fertility, another reason is the significant drop in groundwater levels.

Today, with the addition of tourists and other outsiders, the total population of Yunlan City has long exceeded ten million.

The water supply for a population of ten million is naturally quite strained.

In addition, a large number of flowers, trees and shrubs are planted on the other side, so the water resources are consumed at a very fast rate.

If we don't come up with a solution soon, things will get really bad.

Therefore, Zhao Mancang inspected the situation in various parts of Yunlan City to see how to solve this problem.

He already had a general plan, but he still needed to think about how to solve the problem.

The villagers of Niudongping Village were sweating profusely as they worked hard to harvest the grain.

But in the distance, dark clouds gathered, as if a sudden downpour was about to strike.

Upon seeing this, Zhao Mancang was not in a hurry to leave. He turned off the engine, parked the car, and stayed where he was, wanting to see what this storm was about to happen.

The villagers had already seen the dark clouds, so they hurriedly gathered up the grain on the flat ground in front of their houses to prevent it from getting wet in the storm.

After the grain is harvested, it still needs to be dried for a few days before it can be brought indoors for storage.

The sunlight in Yunlan City is strong enough because it is located in the equatorial region, so generally speaking, drying for two or three days is enough.

However, every harvest season, they would encounter such sudden winds and rain, which made the villagers very unhappy.

Last year was relatively better, but this year there have been more storms.

In other words, the weather in Yunlan City has changed a lot, and even the new immigrants like those in Niudongping Village can clearly feel it, let alone the older immigrants.

Zhao Mancang doesn't stay in Yunlan City all year round, so he's not that sensitive to changes in the weather.

There are many streams and waterways throughout Yunlan City. These have been formed gradually over the past few years, but the water in these streams and waterways will not stay for long and will soon flow into the sea.

As is well known, Yunlan City has a relatively flat terrain and a long coastline.

It's not so easy to store that rainfall, and a lot of it is wasted every year.

Therefore, Zhao Mancang, who witnessed this scene, was somewhat dissatisfied.

But that's the reality, what can he do?

It seems there's no other way.

Any place with slightly better terrain that could store water resources has been built into a reservoir.

However, another huge problem will still arise: evaporation!
Being near the equator presents a duality: abundant sunlight allows for farming three seasons a year, but there is insufficient water resources.

Zhao Mancang gazed at the torrential rain in the distance and fell into deep thought.

Rain can't be hidden from the sky, what can we do?
After much thought, we still need to build a reservoir.

As the green area within Yunlan City increases and the vegetation gradually improves, the water resources situation within Yunlan City will definitely improve in the future.

After all, these green plants will grow slowly, and a large amount of vegetation can store rainwater and other water resources underground.

On the other hand, building more reservoirs should be able to cope with the water shortage caused by the upcoming population growth.

We can't just not build reservoirs because of evaporation issues, can we?

We shouldn't give up eating for fear of choking.

In addition, as the green plants in Yunlan City become more abundant and lush, the climate within Yunlan City will also begin to change.

It might end up like Southeast Asia, with a tropical rainforest climate.

"Perhaps I could dig a few more underground water tanks to solve the problem of groundwater usage."

Thinking of this, Zhao Mancang couldn't help but smile.

However, there is still a major problem with so-called groundwater, namely the stability of the area where the groundwater is located.

When there is sufficient groundwater, nothing unexpected will happen in these places.

However, once all the groundwater is pumped out, the land will sink, which could easily lead to accidents.

Therefore, these issues need to be clarified in advance.

Just as Zhao Mancang had figured out a solution, his phone rang. (End of Chapter)