I'm in the county town, and you say I'm a big shot?

Chapter 736 "We're going to completely crush ADM, this big short seller!"

Logistics Director Marcos burst in, his face pale, and forgot to knock.

“Calm down, Marcos,” Richard frowned, annoyed. “What could possibly be wrong?”

“Our transportation system… is paralyzed!” Marcos’s voice trembled, and he even forgot basic etiquette.

“锡诺普调度中心刚刚通知，我们预定的六百辆卡车被临时取消。BR-163公路通往港口的MT-130、MT-242和MT-338三条核心支线，被中粮以天价独家协议锁死了至少4周！”

Richard's coffee cup fell to the ground with a "thud," splashing brown liquid all over the floor.

"This is impossible!" He snatched the report, his eyes scanning it rapidly. "Where did they get so many resources and transportation capacity?"

“And it gets worse,” Marcos said in a desperate voice. “Our loading berths in Santarém are under ‘temporary maintenance,’ and the grain conveyor system in Itaki Port requires ‘urgent maintenance,’ with all schedules pointing to the next 30 days! Even the temporary storage area we rented in Verena has been suddenly notified that it has been suspended indefinitely due to ‘failing fire safety inspection’!”

“Boss, this is like a giant net that has been woven in advance. They have not only blocked the highways, but also the ports, warehouses, and even... the inland barge transport capacity on the Madeira River has been cut off in advance! Our beans are now like mice trapped in a maze, unable to leave the production area or enter the port, completely locked inland!”

As if to add the final straw to this fatal blow, an urgent news alert popped up on Richard's computer screen:
[Exclusive] Authoritative Analysis: Systemic logistical bottlenecks in Brazil's central and western regions may lead to a precipitous shortage of high-protein soybeans arriving at ports in April and May.

The report details that despite a bumper harvest, the actual volume of high-protein soybeans meeting delivery standards arriving at ports will be far lower than market expectations due to sudden multi-node logistics bottlenecks. It cannot be ruled out that some traders will face huge default claims due to their inability to fulfill export contracts on time.

“It’s over,” Richard muttered to himself.

Almost simultaneously, the futures market underwent a dramatic change.

The price curve, which was falling just a second ago, suddenly seemed to be violently pulled up by an invisible giant hand, and soared straight up!

In the Central Tower of Hong Kong, the Tuofang Fund Company was also brightly lit.

General Manager Ouyang Shaoqiang watched the curve on the trading room screen begin to reverse. When the price stabilized above 1000 cents and surged with increased volume, he smiled, holding his coffee cup: "OK, ADM's momentum has run out. It's our turn to strike. Afterwards, I'll treat everyone to a late-night snack!"

"Mr. Ouyang, shall we go to Lan Kwai Fong? I heard there's a new nightclub there, the atmosphere is quite nice," a young trader said with a smile while fiddling with his keyboard.

"There are beauties everywhere, right? Ka-Kui, you still want to pick up girls? Be careful your wife finds out!" another young man joked.

"Hehe. I just said that it was President Ouyang who invited us, so it's not my fault."

"You bastard, you're actually trying to pin this on me!"

Laughter filled the trading room.

Also in Yanjing, at the COFCO Futures Trading Center, the previously tense atmosphere in the trading room was instantly ignited when prices regained their footing above 1000 cents and continued to rise.

"It's broken! The short sellers' defenses have been breached!" shouted the young trader, Xiao Li, excitedly.

President Ning remained standing in the same spot, but his tightly pursed lips finally relaxed, revealing a smile that suggested he had everything under control.

Yang Fan was also overjoyed. "Everyone, pay attention! Collaborate with Tuofang Fund to consolidate our position. Target price: 1200 cents! We're going to completely crush ADM, this big short seller!"

At the Chicago Board of Trade.

"Short covering! A huge number of short positions are being closed!" In the Chicago futures market, an ADM trader's exclamation came through the phone on Joseph's desk at ADMI, his voice filled with panic. "Damn it! A huge amount of buying is coming from Hong Kong! They...they seem to have been prepared all along!"

On the screen, the price numbers were fluctuating wildly at an unprecedented speed, and long red bullish lines pounded heavily on Richard's heart like war drums. The technical charts that had sustained his confidence were completely destroyed in just a few minutes.

Joseph slumped into his chair, his expensive shirt instantly soaked with cold sweat. Only now did he realize that his seemingly foolish "defying the trend" wasn't about survival at all, but rather about keeping them, the main short sellers, firmly lured into the slaughterhouse of 1000 cents. The true strength of the opposing side—from some mysterious force in Hong Kong—had been patiently accumulating power, waiting for this moment to unleash a fatal, thunderous strike.

Joseph now faces a fatal dilemma:

Holding onto the short position meant facing ever-increasing losses; but closing it now would be tantamount to pushing up prices and hastening his own demise. After a few minutes of silence, he made the difficult choice:

"Close the position!" he said, then slumped into his office chair.

He knew that if he uttered that word, hundreds of millions of dollars of ADIM's funds would vanish, and he would face the wrath of ADM President Lewis.

Lewis is currently in a very difficult situation.

He had just received news of huge losses in the futures market, and a phone call from Richard, the general manager of the Brazilian company, plunged him into another kind of despair.

The company's millions of tons of soybeans stockpiled in the production area could not be converted into life-saving cash flow because transportation channels were blocked.

“Idiots! They’re all idiots!” Lewis finally snapped and yelled into his phone.

Richard, on the other end of the phone, dared not utter a sound, but in his mind he was thinking: They're all idiots.
That wasn't just me, Richard; there were others who made mistakes that angered the boss.
Oh, it should be the futures market.

I lost a lot of money in futures trading this time, but luckily, I had that old guy Joseph to take the fall for me, which helped to appease the boss's anger.

Thinking this, he cautiously asked into the phone, "Mr. Lewis, what... what should we do?"

There was a deathly silence on the other end of the microphone.

After a while, Richard thought Lewis might not be there anymore and was about to ask again cautiously when he finally heard Lewis's voice on the phone, which sounded very tired.

“We have already closed out our positions in the futures market. Richard, contact COFCO and ask if they are willing to take over some of our spot goods.”

When Lewis said those words, I felt as if my entire soul had been emptied out.

This giant, who had dominated the international grain market for decades, tasted the bitterness of being utterly defeated for the first time.

He seemed somewhat lost and dejected, and after closing the door, he went into the suite inside.

Fang Qingye was also preparing to leave.

The news of Qiao Yongfeng's hospitalization was accidentally revealed by Tian Qian during a phone call with Xia He this afternoon. Xia He immediately called Fang Qingye to tell her the news.

Fang Qingye immediately had Yue Kai drive to Huijing, where they met Qiao Yongfeng in a VIP ward at the Provincial People's Hospital. Tian Qian was also there.

Seeing that Qiao Yongfeng's condition had stabilized and his blood pressure had come down, he felt relieved.

It's already past 10 p.m., time to leave.

"Brother Qiao, you should listen to your wife from now on. Don't work so hard. I'll go to the business in Brazil next time," Fang Qingye comforted him.

“That’s right, Fang Qingye is right. You’re 45 years old now, do you still think you’re a young man?! You go to Brazil for several months every year.” Tian Qian complained to her husband.

"Brother Qiao, I didn't expect you to be so interested in soybeans, even braving the scorching sun to harvest them in the Brazilian countryside." Fang Qingye laughed, "To be honest, if we disregard national strategy and look at it purely from a commercial perspective, you won't make much money."

Fang Qingye was also puzzled by this, after all, Qiao Yongfeng was the chairman and general manager of Bangcheng International Trade, and the soybean business in Brazil was only a small part of his group's business.

It is indeed somewhat unusual for a group CEO to spend three or four months of each year in Brazil.

Qiao Yongfeng smiled and said, "Yes, and Philgeri Company will probably lose money this time. After all, we bought nearly 10 tons of soybeans from local farmers at high prices. But why would I do that?"

"Isn't it just that your grandfather was the deputy minister of logistics during the revolution and dealt with grain his whole life?" Tian Qian muttered under her breath.

(End of this chapter)