Homo Sapiens

February 2nd, 2021.

Hongsawaddy.

Yangon.

Qiu Yingle, who had secretly departed from Siam, finalized economic and trade cooperation negotiations with Wu Yebao of Hongsawaddy and Gafei of Luzon at the local Qingye Square Hotel.

This cooperation covered several key areas.

The three major groups of Hongsawaddy would cooperate with the three major groups of Siam to establish an automotive industrial base in Chiang Mai.

Additionally, the three parties reached a consensus on food security. Siam, the world’s second-largest rice exporter, and Hongsawaddy, the third-largest, would prioritize ensuring Luzon’s food supply.

In exchange for a stable rice supply, Luzon would provide Siam and Hongsawaddy with iron bamboo materials, as well as transport ships and methane fermentation plants.

Furthermore, Hongsawaddy agreed to set a new discount on the price of some new medicines sold to Siam and Luzon.

Finally, regarding the exchange rates between the Jin Yuan, Thai Baht, and Peso, the three parties agreed to establish a joint bank for trade settlements.

As invited guests, Xie Hua, Xie Bin, Li Xinneng of Dacheng Bank, Zheng Min of Central Group, Su Kangcheng of Sula Group, and others were also paying close attention to this economic and trade cooperation agreement.

Xie Hua glanced around.

On Luzon’s side were the shell companies of the five major families (Homo Sapiens Company was also disguised as one of them), forming the five major groups of Luzon.

Hongsawaddy was represented by three companies: Qingye Group, Development Group, and United Group.

In contrast, Siam still had a considerable amount of remaining private capital. Its three major groups had not yet fully consolidated and hadn’t completely devoured the entire region like Hongsawaddy’s three major groups had.

As the cocktail party began, Xie Bin approached Tian Hemeng and asked in a low voice, "President Tian, by how much will the price of the new medicine drop?"

"Ai Qingling won’t be discounted. Lanf Anning will be reduced to 1,500 Jin Yuan a box. Also, the price of the new test strips will be adjusted to match the price of the regular ones," Tian Hemeng said, gently swirling the red wine in his glass.

"That’s a huge discount!" Xie Bin raised an eyebrow.

In reality, he knew the real reason Lanf Anning and the new test strips were being discounted was that cheaper alternatives had already appeared on the market.

Qingye Group’s intentions were perfectly clear.

They were cutting prices to suppress similar products, preventing competitors’ heavily invested R&D products from turning a significant profit in the early stages and making it impossible for them to quickly recoup their investment.

In the same price range, Qingye Group’s new test strips had the highest accuracy and the fastest detection speed.

Qingye Group had already pocketed the initial profits anyway. Now, of course, they were going to play the long game with low profits and high volume, making their competitors question their life choices.

Tian Hemeng took a sip of red wine. "By the way, after more than half a year of patient feedback and clinical observation, we’ve reformulated the drug. The side effects of Lanf Anning Generation II have been greatly reduced, making them no different from a common cold medicine."

"Oh? That’s truly wonderful news," Xie Bin said congenially, but he couldn’t help but roast them in his head: ’Using hundreds of thousands of patients as test subjects... You people really don’t have any conscience at all, do you.’

Actually, Tian Hemeng knew his company’s methods were underhanded, but compared to saving lives, side effects were a minor issue.

Even though European and American pharmaceutical companies were constantly slandering Qingye Medical on the international internet, it didn’t stop them from placing huge orders with Qingye Group through the Alps Federation’s Roche Pharmaceutical.

Clearly, when it came to life and death, their bodies were more honest than their words.

Now that Lanf Anning had minimal side effects and a lower price, its sales would definitely reach a new level.

As for why a price drop in Siam and Luzon would affect other regions, the reason was actually very simple.

Because Siam and Luzon didn’t restrict foreign trade.

Take Zhengda Company, for example. It acted as an agent in quite a few regions. After all, Qingye Group lacked a network in many places, so Zhengda Company had to reluctantly help them expand their market.

Zhengda Company could actually accept losing the local agency rights in Siam this time. After all, their company had already made a fortune during the high-profit period, and now it was time to let others have a taste.

Moreover, some regions still needed Zhengda Company to continue reselling the new drugs and test strips, so they could still maintain that portion of their profits.

The other people at the event were all in their own little circles, discussing potential collaborations and other matters.

The wealthy merchants from Siam, in particular, looked around and realized their side didn’t have much of an advantage.

Hongsawaddy had pharmaceuticals, healthcare, building materials, rice, gems, and glass.

Luzon had iron bamboo, biogas fermentation technology, gas storage technology, shipbuilding, tropical fruits, aquaculture, and food processing.

Siam, on the other hand, could only offer rice, rubber, tropical fruits, tourism, motorcycles, medicine, tin, and potash. A large portion of these industries overlapped with the other two regions.

What was even more awkward was that in the motorcycle industry, one of the few that didn’t overlap, some of the parts factories had already been acquired by the three major groups due to their push to advance the automotive industry.

The three major groups’ previous frenzy of acquiring motorcycle parts factories in Siam was clearly based on inside information they had received in advance.

This situation was making the wealthy Siamese merchants tear their hair out.

Of course, Siam still had some advantageous industries, such as the tin mines on the Malay Peninsula and the potash mines in regions like Chiang Mai.

However, without exception, all of these were industries belonging to the three major groups, leaving no room for Chinese Merchants like them to get involved.

Fortunately, many of them were in the service, finance, retail, and agricultural processing industries. As long as Siam’s economy could grow, they could naturally rise with it.

But none of them noticed that in a small private room, Qiu Yingle, Gafei, and Wu Yebao were secretly observing these Siamese merchants.

"These guys don’t seem to know their place!" Gafei knew that some of the Siamese merchants had very close ties with the Morgan Clan, Xing Island, and Xiangjiang.

Qiu Yingle was actually even more aware of this. After all, quite a few people had approached her in recent days, using her family connections.

"Just a bunch of fence-sitters. Let them have their fun for a while. Once our net is ready, none of them will escape." Her eyes held a trace of contempt.

Gafei turned his head and asked, "Governor Yebo, how are the preparations on your end?"

"Everything is ready. I will give my full cooperation to Branch Chief Yang when the time comes." Wu Yebao’s expression turned serious.

Then Gafei looked at Qiu Yingle. "And you, Governor Ying Le? The situation in Siam is critical."

Qiu Yingle’s expression also grew serious. "Don’t worry! I’ve already discussed it with Domino. We’ll conduct military exercises near the Kela Isthmus, lock down the surrounding area for a period, and then use the opportunity to transport the goods to Hongsawaddy."

"Good. The boss doesn’t want anything to go wrong with this. The consequences would be unimaginable." Gafei’s tone was very heavy.

The three of them discussed for a long while longer in the small private room before parting ways.

But the forces paying attention to their meeting this time were not limited to just wealthy merchants.

Black Ship, Torch Fire, and several other small countries in Southeast Asia were also secretly watching.

The details of the economic and trade cooperation were announced on television and online that same day, drawing varied reactions from all sides.

However, no one was particularly surprised. In this day and age, all sorts of bizarre alliances, associations, and partnerships were formed, but very few of them ever amounted to anything.

The countries of Southeast Asia already had existing economic cooperation agreements, so the outside world’s reaction was quite lukewarm.

If the European Union and America were to do something like this, that would be eye-catching.

But as for third- and fourth-rate small countries like Hongsawaddy, Siam, and Luzon striking up an economic partnership, the outside world saw it as something that would only be hot for a few days. Afterward, it would surely fizzle out, and they might even turn on each other.

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