At the start, I had to choose one of four options, and I immediately picked the Brahmin from the cou

"Do you think we can bypass the Li family in this matter?"

Ma Weiguo stubbed out his cigarette in the ashtray, crushed it twice, and then raised his sunken eyes to scan the people sitting there.

Before anyone else could respond, Ma Weiguo continued, "I mean, if—if we don't want to cooperate with Lansheng, or if the conditions Lansheng offers are unacceptable to the county, is there a second option?"

"Requisition".

Liu Changhe put the peanuts back in the dish and patted the salt off his hands.

"In theory, land expropriation can be used. The county can step in and expropriate the land in the south of the city in accordance with the needs of the high-tech zone plan. The 107 mu of land in Lansheng is also within the scope of expropriation, and compensation will be based on the market valuation."

"In theory."

Ma Weiguo sneered.

"First, tell me how the market valuation was determined. Based on the transaction price in early June, it's 120,000 yuan per mu, totaling less than 13 million yuan for 107 mu. Do you think Li Xiao would accept that? When he acquired that land, it was saline-alkali land; what is it now? It's in the core area of ​​a provincial high-tech zone, with a light rail hub right next door. You're offering the price of saline-alkali land to acquire a gold nugget; do you think Li Xiao, Li, or Li Jianguo would agree?"

"Of course, we can't use the June prices. We need to use the current market prices. As soon as the planning documents were released, the prices of old and dilapidated apartments in the surrounding area doubled in a single day. People in Wenzhou were asking for 450,000 yuan a unit and still couldn't get one. Professional appraisal agencies will definitely refer to the surrounding transaction prices—that's at least two or three million yuan per mu. 107 mu, that's more than 200 million yuan."

"More than 200 million yuan, can the county afford it? What is our budgeted revenue from land transfer fees for the whole year? 350 million yuan. The bulk of it has already been spent in the first half of the year—the renovation of the Chengbei sewage treatment plant, the land acquisition for the new campus of the county's No. 1 Middle School, plus the renovation of several county roads. Now, the funds available in the accounts total less than 80 million yuan. The rest will have to be borrowed from banks, but which bank dares to approve a land acquisition loan of this scale for the county these days?"

"Then...could we get developers from the provincial capital to provide the initial funding?"

Sun Zhengming attempted to break the deadlock.

"These past few days, haven't the Hengji people been hanging around Jiangyang County? Even those real estate speculators from Wencheng came with hundreds of millions in cash. The High-tech Zone is such a lucrative piece of land; the county could totally take the lead and introduce external capital for primary land development. They could acquire the land from the Li family, and we could then give them the green light in the subsequent land auctions..."

"Let Henderson provide the funding? Director Sun, are you running Jiangyang County or doing the accounting for the capital in the provincial capital? Henderson is a crocodile that eats people without spitting out the bones. Once they hand over the more than 200 million yuan of expropriation capital, they will swallow the core infrastructure projects, commercial facilities, and even future property management of the entire high-tech zone whole! At that time, the county investment company will not even get a sip of soup, and our team will simply become an office that runs errands for the capitalists."

Sun Zhengming blushed as he was scolded, opened his mouth, but couldn't utter a single word in rebuttal.

Indeed, it's easy to invite a god in, but hard to send him away. Once external capital gains control of the funds, the government's bargaining power will be completely drained.

"Actually, funding is not the most critical problem."

Cao Weidong, who had been silently turning his teacup, finally spoke.

Cao Weidong is a key figure in the county's economic planning department. He's usually a man of few words, but his insight is sharp. He pulled a printed fax from his briefcase and tossed it onto the center of the table. "Take a look at this. This afternoon, Lansheng Capital officially released the entry requirements for next Monday's targeted auction. It's said that the starting price is 100 million."

"One hundred million?!"

Liu Changhe gasped. "Has this kid gone mad? The official document from the provincial high-tech zone has come through, but that land still doesn't have water or electricity. How dare he ask for a whopping 100 million? Does he really think Hengji and those people are easy targets?"

"You think he really wanted to sell the land to Henderson Land? You're so wrong! If he really wanted to sell, he would have already signed the papers and transferred the ownership when Henderson Land offered 100 million. His grand auction, and the constant raising of the entry requirements, weren't about selling the land at all, but about setting a price!"

Ma Weiguo instantly realized what was happening, a cold sweat breaking out on his back. "Old Cao, you mean... he's showing this to us?"

"Yes! He's showing it to the county committee, and even to the city government!"

"He's brought all the most powerful capital in the province to the table in Jiangyang County, using the greed of these financial giants to artificially inflate the value of those 100 acres of saline-alkali land to a terrifying ceiling of 200 million. Next Monday, if some big player from outside the province really bids 200 million, what do you think Li Xiao will do?"

Nobody's a fool. Cao Weidong had made his point clear, and everyone saw through Li Xiao's monstrous, open scheme.

If Li Xiao were to approach the government directly, they would undoubtedly try every means to lower the price and manipulate him. But now, with the backing of capital from across the province, he's proven that the land is worth 400 million yuan on the free market! He can then voluntarily relinquish his exorbitant profits and, under the guise of supporting the construction of the national high-tech zone, return the land to the government…

How will the government repay this enormous favor?

"What a brilliant series of schemes to turn the tables..."

Ma Weiguo slumped back in his chair, took out another cigarette from the pack, and his hand trembled slightly.

"He doesn't want the county to spend two or three hundred million yuan in cash on land acquisition. He'll demand the replacement with high-quality developed land assets, he'll demand interest-free policy loans from the government, and most importantly... I heard that the Provincial Department of Science and Technology has received Lansheng Capital's preliminary review materials. What he really wants is the exclusive operating rights to the high-tech industry incubation platform!"

See you in the picture!

Only at this moment did the core leadership of Jiangyang County fully understand the astonishing appetite of that eighteen-year-old boy!

"This kid...this kid..." Sun Zhengming stammered for a long time, unable to find a suitable word to describe him. This was no ordinary young man who had just finished the college entrance examination; he was clearly a cunning old fox!

"So what do we do now?" Liu Changhe swallowed hard. "Are we just going to watch him lead us by the nose? Are we really going to hand over such a core resource as the incubation platform to a private company?"

"What else can we do but accept it?"

Ma Weiguo took a deep drag on his cigarette, and gave a bitter laugh through the thick smoke:

"The county doesn't have the money to expropriate, and external capital will overstep its bounds. Li Xiao now holds the most crucial trump card, and at the same time, he has paved a perfect stepping stone for us to not only avoid spending real money, but also to smoothly advance the construction of the high-tech zone. The reason why it's called a 'open conspiracy' is because even though we know it's a trap, for the sake of the bigger picture, we have to willingly jump into it."

He threw the cigarette butt on the ground, stomped it out, stood up, straightened his collar, and his tone became more serious than ever before.

"Get ready, Lao Cao. Now that the protagonist of this grand drama has set up the stage right on our doorstep, we, as the hosts, should go and see just how much trouble this dragon that flew out of Jiangyang County can stir up!"