I Inherited 5,000 Years of Family Property

The Energy Department’s minister hadn’t noticed the despair on Masumi Aoki’s face but continued, "Although the Middle East has halted their natural gas supply to us, our other suppliers can still provide a small amount of natural gas."

"While other energy sources can replace natural gas, some countries’ energy facilities must be powered by a natural gas network. For this part of the supply, I’m afraid it will be very difficult to spare any for civil power generation, commercial power generation, and industrial power generation."

"Minister, do you mean we need to increase the proportion of coal-fired power generation?" a coal power merchant asked.

There was a hint of joy on his face; if the nation was going to increase the proportion of coal power, it naturally meant that money would be poured into this area. That indicated that these state-owned coal power enterprises would receive a large sum of funds, and there were substantial interests to be excavated.

"Exactly!" the Energy Department’s minister said, "This year’s natural gas proportion can only reach a maximum of 5%, which means that this year’s coal import volume must at least double from the previous year until we find a new natural gas supplier."

"This will likely take about one and a half to two years!"

"Minister, that’s a trivial matter!" a coal power company’s boss said, "We have always maintained a long-term cooperation with Sydney’s Bowen Coalfield. Because our enterprise is quite small, we only import twenty million tons of coal each year. But if the nation needs it, I am confident that we can increase the import to sixty million tons!"

"Minister, it’s pretty much the same with us! Last year we imported twenty-five million tons of high-quality coal from Yinhei’s Sumatran Coalfield. As far as I know, they produce sixty million tons of coal each year for domestic demand, but still have an excess of over thirty million tons each year. I think it’s no problem for us to double our import volume as well!"

Listening to the enthusiastic voices of the coal field bosses, Masumi Aoki suddenly let out a cold laugh.

"President Masumi, why are you laughing?" the Energy Department’s minister suddenly fixed his gaze on Masumi Aoki.

"It’s useless!" Masumi Aoki said bitterly, "This year, our Kaibong country shouldn’t expect to import a single ton of coal from any coal field!"

"Hahaha, President Masumi, you have quite a sense of humor. We have long-term cooperation with those coal fields. Why wouldn’t they earn money if they could? Our contracts last at least three years, and a breach would incur a high penalty. Those coal enterprises wouldn’t do such foolish things!"

"Right, President Masumi, it can’t be that your import volume can’t meet our country’s emergency needs this year, can it? Nipa Corporation is so big; such a trivial matter shouldn’t be a problem for you!"

"Indeed, the coal fields cooperating with Nipa Corporation amount to more than all of ours combined. Importing a few tens of millions or even a hundred million tons more shouldn’t be too difficult, right?"

Even though they were all enterprises from Kaibong country, Nipa Corporation, as a large company, was naturally the target of many envious eyes. They were the largest coal power merchant in the nation, receiving the most resources from the state, and their profits were the highest each year. Many coveted their resources!

"Enough!" Faced with their ridicule, Masumi Aoki shouted angrily, "You idiots have no idea what’s going on! If you don’t believe it, then call your beloved suppliers and ask if they have any coal to sell you!"

Everyone’s expression changed. This was the office of the Energy Department’s minister, not the president’s office of Nipa Corporation. Masumi Aoki dared to slam the table here; wasn’t this showing disrespect to the minister?

But his actions made the other presidents realize there must be a real problem; otherwise, Masumi Aoki wouldn’t have acted so irrationally.

"Let me check first," the president of Nipa Corporation was the first to pull out a phone, "Minister, please excuse me for a moment." Explore stories on novelbuddy

"Mr. Aoki, please feel free," the Energy Department’s minister wasn’t angry. He stared at Masumi Aoki, not the first time he had dealt with him. Masumi Aoki always seemed humble and mild-mannered, at least in front of this high-ranking minister, and had never lost his composure like this before.

"Rosshan, it’s Aoki!"

Everyone pricked up their ears to listen to President Aoki’s conversation.

"Hahaha, long time no see," Aoki exchanged pleasantries, "The thing is, this year we hope to increase our import quota from the coal fields. I’m aware that Mr. Rosshan’s mines have at least thirty million tons of stock each year, and I’d like to take all that off your hands, offering you a satisfying price!"

"What?" Suddenly, Aoki seemed to have received some shockingly unexpected news, "How could this be? Mr. Rosshan, we have a contract!"

Aoki’s expression grew increasingly dark, "This... what price have they offered you?"

"200 US dollars a ton? How is that possible? That price is more than double the historical high. Rosshan, you mustn’t be deceived by them!"

"The other party has made the payment already? They have booked a year’s supply of coal? But our..."

"I..."

The sourc𝗲 of this content is freēwēbηovel.c૦m.

Wumu sounded very excited, but before he could finish, the other party had already hung up the phone.

"Mr. Wumu, what’s happened?" the Minister of the Energy Department quickly inquired.

"The owner of the Yinhei Sumatra Coalfield said that someone has taken over their entire coalfield intended for sale to us in Kaibong, offering a price of 200 US dollars per ton, and they’ve also paid the penalty fee for breaking the contract!" Wumu’s face had turned a bit pale, "Mr. Masumi Aoki, what... what is going on?"

"Let me try!" Another president immediately contacted his own suppliers but still brought back despairing news."

"Tsarist Russia’s Berchozl Coalfield has also canceled their cooperation with us; someone has expressly offered to buy all the coal meant for our Kaibong at 180 US dollars per ton!"

"At the Sydney Coalfield, someone has bid 240 US dollars per ton..."

One after another, the presidents made calls and received the same surprising results: coal sales to other countries from these coalfields had no issues, with the price and quantity unchanged; however, all the coal meant for their Kaibong had been snatched up at higher prices!

Just as Masumi Aoki had said, there was no coal available for their Kaibong from any coalfield in the world!

"Mr. Masumi Aoki, what exactly is going on? Please explain!" In the conference room, everyone’s eyes were focused on Masumi Aoki’s face.

"I don’t know what’s happening either, all I know is that this is all done by that Huaxia man named Zhang Menglong!"

"Zhang Menglong? The world’s richest man?"

"Our Kaibong has not offended him, right? Why would he do something like this?"

"I think the Minister might be more aware of this matter than we are!" said Masumi Aoki.

He was certain that these coal businessmen and Zhang Menglong had absolutely no connections, and it was even less likely that they had offended him; there was only one possibility—that their government had done something to harm Zhang Menglong’s interests, so he was retaliating this way!

Of course, this was just a conjecture by Masumi Aoki.

"Are you sure it’s Zhang Menglong?" The Minister’s face turned extremely grave; as a high-ranking state official, he naturally knew that Kaibong had seriously interfered with Zhang Menglong’s import of new earth minerals.

Regardless of whether the Huaxia people could produce high-performance chips, with no raw materials, even if they had the technology, it would be impossible to achieve anything.

"Mr. Oliver from the Bowen Coalfield told me personally," Masumi Aoki said, "I even suspect that Zhang Menglong intentionally let us know that this was all his doing."

"Moreover, I suspect the cutoff of natural gas is also related to him," said Masumi Aoki, "Zhang Menglong told Mr. Oliver that he is buying the coal that was meant for us also as a contribution to combat global warming."

"Bullshit! Is he trying to cut off the lifeline of our Kaibong?"

"What exactly does he want to do?"

"Does he really want to declare war on our entire country by himself?"

"This Huaxia man... bastard..." They had anticipated that Zhang Menglong might retaliate, but they did not expect the counterattack to come so swiftly and fiercely!

Zhang Menglong was not playing by the rules at all, and with his first strike, he had essentially blocked off more than half of their nation’s energy imports! Ultraman fighting monsters didn’t start with blasting rays right off the bat. Don’t young people today have any sense of martial virtue at all?