What the hell is a private enterprise?

Chapter 469 Panic, Rift (600 monthly votes in June)

Hong Kong, Central Plaza

Outside the stock exchange, anxious shareholders and investors were already crowded, waiting nervously for the moment the doors would open.

Each of them was constantly on the phone or holding a radio, ready to receive news from around the world as soon as possible.

A pack of wolves! They were a pack of wolves!

After the Battle of Antigua, the world was worried that the canal was under threat, but after the Second Fleet was found to be unresponsive, the situation was sluggish for three or four days before it gradually recovered and was able to resume normal navigation almost completely.

However, after the Empire issued the 168-hour deadline, the Lost Empire's retaliation was swift and decisive, directly targeting everyone.

They hadn't forgotten the month-long U-boat attack that the Empire's east coast faced, which forced the mighty Empire to impose a month-long sea ban and expend enormous manpower and resources to resolve the crisis.

Although only two submarines have emerged so far, what's next?

The terror of unrestricted submarine warfare lies in its extreme difficulty to defend against, or in other words, the investment in anti-submarine warfare far exceeds the cost of a surprise attack.

Even if the empire protects the canal, can it monitor the entire vast ocean?
It's not just the canal that's blocked; the entire maritime transport system has become unsafe!

This is the truth behind the extreme panic in the entire shipping industry: what they fear is that the Second Fleet will not fight back and will launch random attacks everywhere!
Maritime transport is the most important channel for global trade and can be considered the foundation of integration.

When shipping encounters problems, many cross-border transactions are delayed, and costs rise... In short, this triggers a chain reaction, which is reflected in the stock market as a sharp drop in all indices!

With a heavy sense of unease, the exchange staff put on their name tags and pushed open the door.

The crowd outside rushed in, and when they looked up, they saw a ghastly green screen.

Meanwhile, in a coffee shop a few hundred meters away, Young Master Li stiffly stirred his spoon, his eyes fixed on the phone on the table.

When the bell rang, he grabbed it and asked anxiously:
"How about it?"

"Young Master, Cheung Kong Holdings... has suspended trading!"

There is no such thing as a daily limit down in Hong Kong stocks, but if the decline exceeds 10% in a short period of time, it will trigger a 5-minute "cooling-off period" that will suspend trading. In essence, this can be considered another form of daily limit down.

And this is only the opening day.

Meanwhile, the voice on the phone continued to ring out. It wasn't just Cheung Kong Holdings; many of its subsidiaries heavily relied on cross-border trade. When shipping was involved in an accident, they were completely thrown off balance and all of them were given the green light all the way!
Just before 5 a.m. this morning, he thought the downturn in the housing market was only somewhat troublesome, something that could be salvaged even if prices fell further. But now…

The spoon, gripped tightly, trembled, making the cup clink and rattle, and he seemed oblivious to the coffee spilling onto his pristine white shirt.

After taking a deep breath and making several more phone calls, he pondered for a long time and finally made a decision that went against his father's wishes: He summoned his private lawyer and assistant.
"Hui Zi, help me contact Tang Wen... Don't let Dad know."

The latter immediately nodded and left, but a while later, Hui Zi approached him again with a grim expression:

"Young Master, we can't get in touch with him."

"Impossible. Tang Wen is waiting for the highest bidder. If you tell them I can give him what he wants, he will agree."

Three minutes later.

"I'm sorry, young master, they're not answering my calls."

"..."

……

Amazonas
Ten F-15s jettisoned their external fuel tanks and first descended to a low altitude to spread out over a wide area for a search, confirming that the airspace was safe enough.

Then the six B-52s in the sky separated, opened their bomb bays, and unleashed a spectacular barrage of cheap, stockpiled bombs into the depths of the rainforest. Less than half a minute later, a patch of lush rainforest erupted from the trees with flashes of light and small explosion clouds, followed by a series of muffled explosions.

Because it uses an airburst strategy, the visual impact is much stronger.

Meanwhile, a small propeller plane carrying an observation team flew low over the distance, with passengers pressed against the windows looking out.

Next to Itamar, Ryan faithfully filmed the scene with his camera.

Although it was only the first and scaled-down bombing, it still made the Pakistani officers on the plane swallow hard.

Six bombers may sound like a small number, but their actual effect is an attack scale that countless small countries can only dream of, and it is enough to deal a heavy blow to a city.

Even so, they still heard Ryan's dissatisfied complaints:
"The Air Force guys are getting more and more perfunctory. They can only use this kind of cheap stuff. They can't even pretend to be serious."

……

As the plane landed, Itamar quickly summoned the core members of the "Brothers of Justice" who were present. His subordinates, the seventh brother Avilo and the fourth brother Paral, had also been on the plane.

The moment the three met, they knew what the other wanted to say:
The Empire's strength is terrifying; can General Itamar still keep his promises?

Although everyone believed that Enrique would surely die a terrible death once he lost the protection of the empire, it seemed that taking action before that was not a good decision.

Itamar was also very nervous, but he could only grit his teeth and cheer them on:
"Look, they didn't bomb any valuable targets this time. The Amazon was completely blacked out. This is our local advantage."

As long as we continue to lie low, we'll eventually find an opportunity and leverage.

Paral: "So, should we continue contacting Hans? They're demanding our identities be revealed, and if that happens, there'll be no going back..."

The small organization, which was driven by impulse, did not have any strong beliefs. Itamar's age had also made him lose the passion of his youth, making it difficult to inspire the fighting spirit of his young subordinates. He could only appease them with vague words and some benefits.

The general's words of comfort had little effect, only managing to get Paral and Aveiro to shout a few slogans as the meeting adjourned.

After leaving, Aveiro went straight to the safe house, opened the tightly sealed double-layered safe, and stared at the exquisite Bismarck ship model inside.

Today, besides feeling shocked and terrified by the bombing, he felt even more humiliated than the rest of the people.

Is it acceptable to drop bombs and herbicides everywhere in the rainforest just to show off and flaunt one's power?
Although Pakistan itself is also developing rainforests on a large scale, environmental organizations at least cover it up to some extent, but now the Empire can destroy it at will!

Dozens of planes entered his airspace and bombed him relentlessly, yet Enrique showed no concern whatsoever.
Where are the Green Organizations? Why isn't anyone criticizing them? And what is the general doing?
General Itamar was once his hero. In his youth, he once killed a bear with his bare hands and was so daring that he dared to break into a gang's territory with just a pistol and kidnap their boss.

But even heroes grow old. He still has fighting spirit, but he is somewhat afraid of dying.

After Avilo left, as darkness fell and the moonlight shone through, Itamar's figure appeared outside the safe house.

He looked at his two subordinates and asked:

"Did anyone else come today?"

"Respected First Brother, Seventh Brother came for a short while."

"What time is it?"

"Around two or three o'clock in the afternoon."

"I'm issuing a new order: from now on, no one is allowed to approach this place without my permission... And you two, help me put the safe in the car, be careful."

"Yes!"

(End of this chapter)