Groups of American consultants in suits were running around, praising Russia's privatization project and the young reformist pioneers in Russia.
Russia's major cities were scrambling to sell off their state-owned assets.
With so many foreigners guiding Russia's reform process, it felt strange. No matter how one looked at it, it felt like the US was selling off Russia.
Enterprises collapsed, workers did not receive their wages, or they would only receive their wages after a few months, and they were often given in kind instead of money, such as towels, soap, cotton wool.
A formerly proud country accepted foreign food aid, the EU's stock of sugar and margarine, and even the US military's surplus rations from the Gulf War …
A superpower was reduced to begging. Russia did not have East Germany's luck, because West Germany had already spent hundreds of billions of dollars on East Germany. Even if Russia was not doing well, it still had its brothers to protect it.
Russia had already liberalized prices for half a year, and prices continued to soar. The price of consumer goods increased by 13 times, natural gas by 15 times, oil by 25 times, and electricity by 50%.
Ordinary people could no longer live, so they could only set up stalls and sell their personal items. Moscow became a huge flea market. The train station was full of beggars and homeless people.
Russia now seemed to be a country of villains. These people owned luxury cars, went to high-end hotels, and spent a lot of money. They built mansions with swimming pools and wine cellars, and were surrounded by 20-meter high walls.
Shootings and robberies in broad daylight happened every day. Sometimes there were open fights in public.
There were Russians and foreigners among the dead. In front of the hotel where Li He lived, he saw an American being shot into a sieve by a Russian with an AK47.
This American was the owner of a shopping center, and he had a business dispute with his Russian partner.
Whether it was a street vendor or the owner of a five-star hotel, they all had to pay protection fees to the mafia.
An era of lawlessness had begun.
Li He was eating breakfast, and before he could react, he was already pressed to the ground by Ding Shiping. Then there was a burst of gunshots and the sound of glass shattering.
The hotel was in chaos. Ding Shiping and Lan Shifang were on top of Li He, and Martici, Ivanov, and the hotel's security immediately began to fight back.
Until the end of the fight, the gunman escaped, and the police did not arrive.
"Get up, get up, I'm not panting!" Li He pushed Ding Shiping and the others away with much difficulty. "You guys need to lose weight."
"Brother Li, it's better if you don't go. We can go," Pan Song said worriedly.
"Bring all your guns." Li He didn't want to court death again, but he couldn't just hide in the hotel every day. Instead of that, he might as well go back to China. He Kuang, Ivanov, and the others had bought their identities as police officers, and they were armed with AK-47s.
What made Li He even more confident was that the car he was riding in was made of alloy steel and weighed four tons. It was the only military car in the world that could compete with Lockheed Martin's military cars. He was not afraid of rocket launchers and submachine guns.
As for Aston Martin, Bugatti Veyron, and Ferrari, Second Elder Li's heart did not waver at all, expressing his disdain.
The predecessor of the car was T-T, which was established in 1909, mainly for the use of senior military officers. Later, it was owned by the Latvian Dartz Company. Except for a few warlords and tycoons, few people knew about this car.
When Li He heard about this car company, he immediately added this company to his acquisition list. Now, in addition to the Bedeleev Research Institute, there was another Dartz Company as a target. He had already sent Iron Ear to Latvia in person.
No matter how much it cost, he must buy it!
He was even prepared to consider local operations and produce real customized luxury cars. Men always had some car dreams.
Therefore, Li He still had security when he went out.
He insisted on going out. This time, he was going to an auction. The Gorky State Assets Management Committee was going to auction 519 state-owned enterprises. Naturally, he had to raise his placard.
Although this kind of thing did not need him to appear in person, it was mainly to see something new and breathe in the fresh air.
Gorky was located in the Volga River Basin. It was the hometown of Gorky, the founder of realistic literature. Before 1932, it was called "Nizhny Novgorod". After the collapse of the Soviet Union, it was renamed "Nizhny Novgorod". It was more than four hours' drive from Moscow.
During World War II, the military industry developed rapidly and became one of the heavy weapons of the Soviet Union. The machinery industry was the leading industry, accounting for more than 70% of the industrial output. The products included cars, ships, airplanes, military products, and hangars.
Other than the Makaryevsky Grand Market, the most famous place here was the Gorky Automobile Factory. The Chinese called it the "Gaz" factory. The cars produced were large, sturdy, and durable. It was once the official car of the Soviet Union and many other socialist countries. It was also the prototype of China's first generation Hongqi sedan. It was widely used in China.
Even though many people were reluctant to scrap it, many movie companies bought it to use as props. Therefore, most of the two-door and canvas cars that appeared in Chinese movies were Gaz.
"Let's walk around." When they reached the place, there was still some time before the auction. Li He wanted to walk around the Makaryevsky Grand Market.
Li He drove by himself and found the directions on the map. He liked the powerful performance of military cars and enjoyed driving.
When the mighty convoy of more than 20 people entered the Makaryevsky Grand Market, it did not cause much of a reaction. This was because there were many people and cars here. It was a second-hand car trading market.
But when Ivanov took the lead and ran amok in the crowd, it finally caused a lot of people to be unhappy. After all, they were not called the "Fighting Nation" for nothing. Many people were ready to scold them or even hit them. But when they saw the submachine guns on their shoulders and pistols on their waists, they shut their mouths and obediently made way for them.
For the sake of his own life, Li He ignored the curses around him and wandered around on his own. He was considering whether or not he should buy a few more heavy trucks. As the number of heavy equipment that had to be shipped back to the country increased, trucks were becoming more and more insufficient.
As for manpower, China did not lack manpower.
Li He said to Jiang Baojian, "Buy another 300, old and new."
It was good to buy them and use them as logistics trucks in the future. The logistics park in Qingpu was still empty. In the future, there would be thousands of trucks. Just the thought of it was domineering.
Jiang Baojian and the owner of the car dealership had a dispute over the exchange rate. This was because the owner of the car dealership wanted to use the official exchange rate.
In Russia's official exchange rate system, there were four main exchange rates: the official exchange rate, the commercial exchange rate, the exclusive exchange rate, and the auction exchange rate.
If you include the unrecognized black market exchange rate, there would be five.
To Li He, the official exchange rate was the worst.
The official exchange rate was 1 USD for 11 Rubles, while the black market exchange rate could be exchanged for more than 200 Rubles. The difference was huge, and even a fool would not agree to it.
Li He said to Jiang Baojian, "Ask him if his brain was squeezed by the door. How could he make such a request?"
Pan Song looked at the owner's expression and smiled at Li He. "He wants a rebate. This is how they usually do it."
Indeed, after Jiang Baojian gave out 10,000 USD, the owner of the car dealership said that for the sake of friendship, each truck would only cost 150 USD! Although it was a second-hand car, it was so cheap that you couldn't find it anywhere else in the world!
Li He was speechless. He did not expect the car dealership to do this. He immediately said to Jiang Baojian. "Buy another 3,000 trucks."
Jiang Baojian said. "They said they don't have that many trucks."
Li He replied nonchalantly. "Any dump truck is fine as long as it can carry a load. Just deliver the goods before the end of the year. "
“ok，ok。” The owner of the car dealership agreed loudly in English. To him, this was a double benefit for his personal income and the country.
Li He was overjoyed to get such a great deal.
The group of people excitedly went to Gorky City's State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission.
The auction was hosted by the Gorky City Bank, and it mainly auctioned off privatized securities, including the local power companies, shops, and machinery factories.
Li He was not interested in these at first, but there was the Gorky Power Plant that he had admired for a long time. After he started working, the first cryogenic rocket engine he came into contact with came from this factory, and he was very familiar with it.
Unfortunately, this factory lost orders from the military at the end of the 1980s, and its efficiency declined. It switched to producing civilian vehicle engines. Unfortunately, it was still half-dead and was now in bankruptcy.
Also, many of the mechanics textbooks that he had read were from the experts and professors in this factory.
What made him the most miserable were the Soviet-style textbooks. He could not help but feel that the Russians' mathematics and mechanics textbooks were really hard!
Most of the people in the hall were Westerners and Japanese.
Many people were pointing at Li He, probably recognizing him. On many occasions, Li He was their biggest competitor. Moreover, the biggest impression that Li He gave them was that he was not short of money. At the St. Petersburg auction that had just ended, Li He bought the Baltic Shipping Company for 130 million USD, which broke the auction record in Russia. Everyone was even more shocked!
This made them reevaluate Li He's strength. However, no one could figure out where this nouveau riche came from. He had caught everyone off guard.
For Li He, he mainly wanted to kill the chicken to scare the monkey. He won the first place in the auction to clearly tell these people not to compete with him, they can't compete with him.
If you want to compete, Li He would definitely raise the price in an auction and let the other party be the buyer. For example, Toyota and Siemens were all cheated by him.
If the other party did not follow, he would directly take over.
The Baltic Shipping Company was the result of him being the buyer. In fact, he did not even intend to do shipping. He looked at the financial report of the shipping company. It was terrible, and the ships were old. The only redeeming feature was that they had the most icebreakers in the world, 32 in total. They could operate in the ice during the winter, and they currently had large contracts with European and American oil companies.
Li He was prepared to let Martich run this shipping company.
That's why no company dared to compete with Li He. As long as Li He raised his bid, the other companies will hold back. Peace and harmony were the most important.
When the Gorky Engine Factory's starting bid was announced, Jiang Baojian was the first to raise his bid. As expected, there were no international companies bidding. Only some local Russians were bidding.
The bank staff hosting the auction had never seen such a situation. When did these multinational companies become so timid?
Jiang Baojian, under Li He's instructions, increased the bid by 500,000 USD. As expected, no Russians were willing to bid.
The Gorky Engine Factory changed hands for 1.2 million USD.
Li He felt lonely as a hero. It was not fun without an opponent.
After Jiang Baojian and the rest went to complete the handover procedures, Li He wanted to go to the engine factory. But he thought about it and decided not to. He had too many businesses in his hands. If he went to each factory, he would not be able to manage all of them.
Feng Yu drove his own car and returned to Moscow.
Liu Baoyong told Li He about the Russian Government's opinion on the Bedelev Research Institute. A joint venture was fine, but there was no need to think about other companies.
Li He was puzzled. "They are broke. Can they afford it?"
Liu Baoyong replied. "This is not only a semiconductor research institute. It is also a nuclear energy and space research institute. Even if the Yeltsin Government is short of money, they know what to do. Even if they want to sell it, no one can afford it."
"Forget it." Li He immediately gave up when he heard there was a nuclear energy facility. Even if the Russian Government agreed, he does not dare to take it. He does not want to be hunted by the Americans. "What about a joint venture?"
Liu Baoyong replied. "We will invest in the research institute's semiconductor factory."
"Did they say how much is needed?" This means they need to do some local operations. Li He is very careful this time. He does not want to throw away his money and die in the end.
Liu Baoyong replied. "The research institute wants to produce GaAs IC, and it needs about 50 million USD."
"I am fine with producing GaAs IC." With the demand for wireless communication, the market for GaAs IC will increase. But Li He does not agree with this amount. "It does not need 50 million USD."
"It's good that you understand."
"Who do I have to send money to?" Li He only recently understood the trick.
"Grachev."
"Minister of Defense?" Li He did not expect a research institute to involve such a person.
Liu Baoyong nodded. "You decide. I will not get involved."
Since it was clear, it was easier. That night, Matić went to find David, the former Soviet Union President's assistant, and asked him to send one million USD to Grachev's assistant.
Within a few days, the joint venture between Russia's Delta Bank and Russia's Bedeleev Research Institute was finalized. They only used 3 million USD to get 49% of the Bedeleev Semiconductor factory.
At the signing ceremony, Li He's attention was attracted by one person's eyes. That person slightly lowered his head and stared at Li He. It was as if he wanted to memorize every detail in a few seconds.
His eyes were filled with depression, which made Li He feel uncomfortable.
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