The Tyrant Billionaire

Victor's group had a number of professional intelligence-gathering agents, and it didn't take them long to locate the Communist Party members entrenched in Hong Kong. After establishing initial contact, a meeting was scheduled between Victor, representing a financial group, and Xu, one of the Communist Party leaders.

The next afternoon.

The Communist Party representative, Mr. Xu, arrived in Hong Kong and met Victor at a small villa.

"Hello, Mr. Victor. I'm Xu Manyan," the middle-aged man greeted warmly, shaking Victor's hand with both hands.

The two sat down to talk.

During their exchange of pleasantries, Xu Manyan made it clear that they were open to any form of business exchange or investment the financial group behind Mr. Victor was interested in conducting with them. He admitted that their resources were so limited that they could barely maintain sufficient ammunition for their soldiers.

As for food, they typically provided only half, leaving the soldiers to scavenge for the rest. Furthermore, the support from the Soviet Union was not free—they had to pay for it with whatever they looted from the rich along their way.

"Mr. Xu, do you have any HSBC promissory notes? Other foreign bank promissory notes would also work. If you're willing to sell, I'll buy them."

Mr. Xu was taken aback.

"Mr. Victor, what do you mean?"

"Haha, Mr. Xu, the Communist Party has already confiscated many banks. I believe you must have a lot of promissory notes from those banks. These notes are worthless in your hands, so why not sell them to us? You can exchange them for medicine, supplies, or even weapons."

Mr. Xu wasn't surprised that Victor knew they had looted banks before. After all, the other party was part of a financial group with ties to many banks.

What truly surprised him was the nature of Victor's proposal.

"Mr. Victor, I can't make this decision on my own. I'll need to contact someone. Also, may I ask what price you're offering?" Mr. Xu inquired.

"One hundred to one on face value, no legal tender, only USD, GBP, HKD, or other stable currencies from reliable national banks," Victor replied.

"One hundred to one? Isn't that too low?" Mr. Xu frowned.

"These are just worthless pieces of paper in your hands. They're worth nothing. If I buy them and attempt to cash them out, there's no guarantee that other banks will even honor them. I'll have to fight a tough legal battle, and it might not even succeed."

Mr. Xu thought for a moment. "I can't give you an answer right now. I need to consult others. And, are you really willing to exchange them for weapons?"

Victor smiled,

"We have transactions with the Filipinos for weapons. Most of those goods end up in your hands anyway, so trading with you would just mean exchanging promissory notes for supplies. Though, we might still need to go through the Filipinos."

Mr. Xu nodded, tipped his hat, and left.

Within half a day, Mr. Xu returned.

"Mr. Victor, we agree to the deal, but the price is too low. Our boss's offer is fifty to one; otherwise, there's no need for this deal."

Victor shook his head.

"Mr. Xu, your boss is mistaken. We are the Hardy Group—we don't negotiate, we set the prices. One hundred to one is what we consider a fair deal. If that's not acceptable, there's no point, and the deal is off."

In fact, the Communist Party had already agreed to a 100:1 ratio, but Mr. Xu had been instructed to negotiate for a better deal. So, he raised the offer.

However, Victor was an experienced negotiator who had already proven himself by establishing the Hardy Foundation in Europe. To him, someone like Mr. Xu was just a child learning to walk.

Victor smiled. In truth, Hardy had set the minimum of the deal at fifty to one, but he had insisted on keeping it one hundred to one, without exceeding the time limit set for the negotiation by Hardy.

Three days passed in the blink of an eye.

That evening, a car pulled up downstairs, and Mr. Xu, carrying a suitcase, walked into the Global Time Hong Kong branch, making his way upstairs with ease.

He placed the suitcase on the table.

"Mr. Victor, I've brought the bank promissory notes. They are in various currencies, including USD, GBP, HKD, francs, yen, rupees, and reais. The total value, calculated in U.S. dollars, is $61.25 million."n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

"Previously, you asked us to prioritize HSBC notes, so we specifically sourced HSBC promissory notes. In addition to those, we also acquired over five thousand savings certificates, amounting to $26.66 million."

"According to the exchange rate of one hundred to one, you should pay me $612,500."

"No problem. Once everything is verified, we can complete the transaction," Victor said, instructing his men to verify the documents.

While they waited, the two sat and drank tea.

"With these 612,500, what does Mr. Xu intend to purchase?" Victor asked.

Mr. Xu pondered for a moment before replying, "To be honest, Mr. Victor, when you ask what we lack, the list is long."

"Medicines, medical equipment, weapons, ammunition, planes, warships, cotton, food, cloth, machine tools."

Victor spread his hands. "Mr. Xu, 612,500 U.S. dollars can't buy all of that."

Mr. Xu sighed. "Ah, then I can only purchase the most critical supplies. Here, I have a list, and I hope Mr. Victor can help me prepare them."

He pulled out a few sheets of paper from his pocket and handed them to Victor.

Victor mouth twitched slightly at that statment.

He opened the list.

There were dozens of types of medicines and quantities and for weapons, they didn't want conventional arms. They asked for anti aircraft guns, with plenty of ammunition, large caliber cannons, and shells.

Additionally, they wanted fighter planes. If not entire planes, then just engines would do. They had seized several aircraft, but many engines were damaged. The planes could be repaired, but they didn't have the technology to fix the engines.

There were also other weaponry and equipment on the list.