Courtyard Houses: From Bronze Compasses to Global Reach

Chapter 105 Taking the Initiative: Global Moves in the Foundation Years

Chapter 105 Taking the Initiative: Global Moves in the Foundation Years

In the study of the Deep Water Bay villa, the faint aroma of tea and the refreshing scent of spiritual fruit from the previous night lingered. Lin Yan stood before the enormous world map, his gaze calm, his fingertips unconsciously tapping lightly on the surface covered by thick glass. Deep within his consciousness, fragments of memories from another time and space, like stars ignited, rapidly coalesced into a clear picture.

"Venezuela... In late 1958, Betancort of the Democratic Action Party had just come to power. Everything was in ruins and there was an urgent need for foreign investment to develop oil... The Rockefeller family acted quickly, sending people to negotiate in person as early as 1959... Their Chase Bank was also eyeing the financial market there..."

His fingertips landed precisely on that uniquely shaped country at the northern tip of South America, paused for a moment, and then slowly swept across North America, Europe, Africa, and Hong Kong in the Far East.

"Vanguard." With a slight thought, his invisible divine sense crossed the Pacific Ocean and connected with the head of the Americas region, who was based in New York.

"Master, please give instructions." Vanguard's response arrived almost instantly, calm and efficient, without the slightest delay.

"There's an urgent job in Venezuela. Our friend Rockefeller is going to try and take over their oil and banks this year. I need you to get there before them." Lin Yan's tone was calm, but his words carried an undeniable sense of urgency.

He explained in detail: "We have two goals. First, the best oil extraction blocks, the more the better. We'll use newly registered offshore companies with clean backgrounds, making sure they're not associated with our publicly known industries, but we need absolute control. Second, we'll find a licensed, promising, but potentially difficult, local bank, acquire a controlling stake, and use it as our cash cow in South America. Who knows, we might even be able to turn the tables on Chase later."

"Strategy?" Vanguard asked directly, his mind racing, already selecting suitable personnel from the internal list.

"The new government lacks money, but even more so, it lacks achievements and credibility," Lin Yan analyzed. "We can offer a slightly higher price than market expectations, and make a full prepayment for the mining rights. This can imply that we have more advanced exploration technology and can produce oil faster. We should also promise to hire and train local workers and improve the community, which they value highly and was a weakness of Rockefeller's in the past." He paused and added, "If necessary, send team members who are good at 'making friends' to talk to officials in key departments to ensure they have 'goodwill' and 'trust' in our proposal."

He was referring to the subtle, pervasive influence of a Golden Core cultivator's spiritual power on others' emotions and judgments.

"As for banks, the logic is even simpler: use money. Our capital is far beyond what Rockefeller could immediately mobilize for this one project."

"Understood." Vanguard immediately understood. "I'll assemble two teams right away. The oil team will be led by 003 and 017; one is an expert in geological exploration, and the other is an excellent negotiator. The finance team will be led by 028; he previously worked in Zurich and is best suited to play the role of a banker. They will represent the 'European United Resources and Development Consortium' and take the fastest flight to Caracas. I guarantee that while the people at Rockefeller are still in New York for meetings and briefings, we'll already be sitting in the offices of the Venezuelan ministers."

"Very good." Lin Yan nodded in satisfaction. "Speed ​​is paramount; we need to create a fait accompli. By the time Mr. Rockefeller Jr. arrives in Caracas in style, he'll find the fattest piece of meat has already been snatched up. Funding from Lin Yi—full guarantee, no upper limit."

"We will never let you down." The vanguard's mind was filled with powerful confidence. For a group of "stalkers" with extraordinary abilities, almost unlimited funds, and knowledge of the course of history, it was not difficult to intercept them first.

Communication ended.

Lin Yan walked to the mahogany wine cabinet next to him, poured himself a small glass of amber-colored spirit wine produced in the space, gently swirled it, and watched the wine cling to the glass.

"Rockefeller..." he murmured to himself, a playful smile playing on his lips. This feeling of transcending time and space, of using information asymmetry to crush established financial magnates, was indeed quite intriguing. He could almost picture a future day when a Rockefeller family delegation sat down full of expectation, only to be politely informed, "I'm sorry, sir, the relevant rights have already been granted to a more sincere European consortium with more favorable terms."

At that time, the only entity that truly controlled that underground black gold and part of the financial lifeline was a shadow called the "Lin family".

He raised his glass, offering a perfunctory toast to the South China Sea bathed in sunlight outside the window.

"Happy New Year, Mr. Rockefeller. I hope you enjoy this 'surprise' I've prepared for you."

An invisible undercurrent of commerce, triggered by Lin Yan's single thought, began to surge rapidly towards the distant South American continent. A silent battle for control of oil and finance had already begun.

But this was merely the first step in the process that began in 1959. The next four years would be a period of rapid development and comprehensive foundation-laying for Lin Yan's global network.

The "Pioneer"-led Americas group was operating on multiple fronts simultaneously. In Venezuela, a delegation from "United European Resources" successfully signed a preliminary agreement with the new Betancorte government with astonishing efficiency and favorable terms, securing exploration and mining concessions for several core blocks in the Lake Maracaibo region. Meanwhile, a medium-sized bank called "Andes Financial Trust," after receiving a "mysterious investment" from Luxembourg, quietly reorganized its board of directors and shifted its business strategy towards aggressive expansion, becoming the first bridgehead for the Lin family's financial layout in Venezuela and South America. When John D. Rockefeller Jr. arrived in Caracas a few months later, he faced a situation where the die was cast. He could only settle for second best, vying for the remaining blocks or attempting to contact and cooperate with this "well-connected" European consortium; the initiative had already shifted.

In North America, a long-term strategy of political infiltration is quietly being laid out. Several political action committees have been quietly registered in Delaware and other states, with complex and difficult-to-identify funding sources. They have begun to discreetly identify and fund potential state legislators and congressional candidates who are relatively flexible in their stance or easy to "communicate" with. They are not aiming to immediately create senators, but rather to cast a wide net, build networks, gather information, and attempt to transform a few key figures into core allies through "deep cooperation."

Chase Bank's operations are being closely watched, and some of its businesses in Central and South America are beginning to face regional challenges from institutions such as the Andes Financial Trust, though small, but it is a start.

The pursuit of technology and talent has never ceased. Funds, channeled through multiple offshore foundations and investment companies, have flowed into emerging tech companies in Silicon Valley and top research institutions on the East Coast. The requirements are simple: access to technological advancements, priority purchase rights for patents, and connections with top talent. At universities like Stanford, MIT, and Caltech, emerging elite Chinese students began receiving full scholarships from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSF) and invitations to intern in cutting-edge laboratories. For some of them, their destinies were subtly altered.

The "Cornerstone"—led by Albert von Hohenheim—operated over the next four years in what resembled a meticulously crafted spy network, quietly unfolding. Their primary task was to completely integrate into the environment, establish footholds, and identify targets.

In France, some mid-level officials and technical experts at the Ministry of Energy and EDF (Électricité de France) have found themselves surrounded by more hospitable and insightful "friends" or "advisors" who frequently invite them to wine tastings, discuss cutting-edge technologies, and inadvertently reveal industry insider information. Several financially struggling subsidiaries of Dassault Aviation were included in the detailed investigation list.

In Germany, several new faces with solid technical skills and witty conversation appeared at engineers' salons hosted by companies like Bosch and Siemens. They showed great interest in fuel injection systems and precision instruments. Industry-university cooperation plans with the Technical University of Munich and RWTH Aachen University were put on the agenda, and initial contact began. In the UK, the rules of the City of London were analyzed in detail, and figures from different factions within the Labour and Conservative parties in Parliament were documented and analyzed in an attempt to establish initial connections.

In key European cities such as Paris, London, Frankfurt, and Zurich, a number of unassuming "trading companies," "investment consulting offices," or "cultural exchange foundations" have sprung up. Their business volume may seem small, but they are tastefully decorated and staffed with highly skilled employees. Usually, one or two composed "managers" are in charge of daily operations. These places will become the forward outposts and intelligence hubs of the Lin family's European network.

The "Treasure" team's actions were far more direct and brutal. Leveraging the powerful divine sense of Golden Core cultivators—a perception comparable to the most advanced exploration equipment—they precisely located massive mineral deposits, both those they remembered and those they had newly discovered: gold veins and diamond pipes deep beneath the South African earth, the copper-cobalt belt along the Zambia-Congo border, the oil strata in the Nigerian Delta…

The methods of acquisition are flexible and varied. In some places, they find influential tribal chiefs and buy out the mining rights of land at low prices and with a small amount of "special medicine" or "magical weapons." In other places, they support local agents and set up seemingly legitimate mining companies. In remote and deserted mining areas, night becomes the best cover. They use earth-遁术 (earth-遁术 is a type of magic that allows them to sneak in, manipulate gold spiritual energy to directly extract rich ore veins, and store them in storage magic treasures, leaving behind only seemingly barren rock layers, as if they have never been disturbed. Ship after ship of seemingly ordinary ores, rough diamonds, and even refined gold are continuously transported to Lin Yan's Qiankun Space through various covert channels, providing almost unlimited hard currency and resource support for his global expansion.

Lin Yan deeply understands that talent is the foundation of long-term development. He plans to have Lin Er donate huge sums of money to the University of Hong Kong and the Chinese University of Hong Kong in his personal and group names to establish the "Lin's Science Scholarship," the "Future Engineers Fund," and the "Senior Management Talent Development Program." These programs will be designed to specifically support and select outstanding local students in fields such as engineering, physics, chemistry, finance, and management, providing them with the best learning resources and even opportunities for further study abroad. Long-term service agreements will be signed to build the core team for large-scale technology transfer and industrial upgrading in the future.

At the same time, Lin Yi instructed his real estate companies to quietly purchase large amounts of wasteland and abandoned factories in remote areas such as the New Territories. Ostensibly, the purpose was to build new logistics centers, processing plants, or employee dormitories, but in reality, geological exploration and secret planning and design were being carried out simultaneously to prepare for the future construction of a large-scale underground research base and advanced manufacturing center.

In the financial sphere, the enormous profits amassed from around the world through Lin Yi's complex offshore network began to flow into Hong Kong like rivers flowing into the sea. A financial institution called "Asia United Capital Bank" was quietly established in Central, with astonishingly large capital reserves, but its business appeared somewhat "mysterious" and "selective." It seemed to be more like the core hub for fund allocation, foreign exchange operations, and profit accumulation within the Lin family system, and did not excessively pursue external expansion.

The young chess player in the Deep Water Bay study has laid an unbreakable foundation for his even more magnificent and direct approach to the core of Europe. His chess pieces are now scattered across the board.