Homo Sapiens

Controlling Bawei meant controlling a portion of the legitimate and criminal worlds in Chiang Mai Province.

Although Siam and Luzon were both basket cases, Siam was slightly better. At least there weren’t too many flagrant local warlord families.

While the Imperial Family and major clans of Siam were just as arrogant and domineering, they at least maintained a sliver of decorum, and their internal control was relatively strong.

This prevented the power of a Prefect like Bawei from being severely limited. Of course, Bawei also had the backing of a mid-sized family and secretly controlled the Ring Snake Gang.

Using Bawei’s connections, Domino silently wiped out the entire upper echelon of the Ring Snake Gang, taking over the small gang of 1,367 members.

Domino then used Yang Mengjiao’s Hongsawaddy branch to place a Spider Web Manager in Chiang Mai as the secret controller of the Ring Snake Gang, while also demanding Bawei’s cooperation.

Once all these arrangements were made, Domino changed back to her East Asian appearance and took up temporary residence in Chiang Mai Province under the name Mu Qing.

After all, her mission was to coordinate with Yang Mengjiao’s side to completely infiltrate the Golden Triangle Region. Yang Mengjiao was making her move from Hongsawaddy, while she provided support and coordination from Chiang Mai.

Naturally, Chen Jianxiong didn’t have time to personally handle this kind of mission. He was getting busier and busier, and all sorts of matters in the Security Department required his attention, making it impossible for him to be stationed in Bangkok long-term.

Therefore, it was highly likely that Domino would be the one to take over the Siam intelligence station and the Golden Triangle strategy.

「June 16th.」

Bawei accompanied Liu Zhifan for a meeting at the White Orchid Restaurant in Chiang Mai Province, where the two sides commenced talks about investing in and building a factory.

”On behalf of Chiang Mai Province, I welcome your company’s willingness to invest in and build a factory. We can also provide your company with any assistance within our power,” Bawei said with a smile that didn’t reach his eyes.

Liu Zhifan was also all smiles. ”Then I must thank you for your strong support, Prefect. Here’s to a pleasant collaboration.”

The two men lightly clinked their glasses.

The other members of the Bawei Clan present were also very happy, because this beverage and cannery factory would be operated as a joint venture. Qingye Group would hold 67% of the shares, while the Bawei Clan would hold 33% and be responsible for handling all permits and purchasing the factory land.

In addition, the Bawei Clan was also contracted to handle the sales of the canned goods and beverage products in Siam.

Liu Zhifan had wanted to enter Siam’s Bangkok market, but the problem was there were too many major clans there. The Royal Group, controlled by the Siam Imperial Family alone, was not an easy faction to deal with.

So, he used his connection with Domino to focus on Chiang Mai, Siam’s second-largest city.

The technology for a cannery and beverage factory was not difficult, and Chiang Mai Province had a tropical monsoon climate with a high local fruit yield.

This was especially true for the Bawei Clan, one of the local powers. They were also major landowners in the area and could easily procure local fruit to produce canned goods and juices, then import glass bottles from the glass factory in Hongsawaddy.

In reality, packaging was the highest cost component for a bottle of beverage, accounting for 40-60% of the total cost, while the beverage itself only accounted for about 30-40%.

Importing glass bottles from Hongsawaddy might seem like a moronic move.

In fact, at Qingye Group’s glass factory in Hongsawaddy, a 500ml glass bottle, including the cap, cost only $0.012 US Dollar to produce.

In Siam, a 450ml bottle of Coca-Cola retailed for 15 Thai baht, or about $0.45 US Dollar, but its production cost was only about $0.045 US Dollar, of which the packaging cost was approximately $0.032 US Dollar.

See the difference?

Even if transporting the glass bottles added about $0.01 US Dollar to the cost, Qingye Group’s bottles still had a massive competitive advantage.

What’s more, glass bottles had another advantage: they could be recycled and reused long-term, which could further offset transportation costs.

Thus, Qingye Group could wage a price war and completely crush other manufacturers.

Don’t underestimate a cost difference of just a few cents. Sometimes, business competition is just that ruthless. A cost difference of a few cents means a gap in the ability of both sides to withstand pressure.

Liu Zhifan had no intention of stopping at just juice and canned goods; he planned to successively move into carbonated drinks, tea beverages, and energy drinks.

When the time came, the Chiang Mai soda company’s 450ml bottle of cola would sell for just 10 Thai baht a bottle, completely killing the market. As long as they didn’t lose money, they would sell at rock-bottom prices.

The people on both Bawei’s and Liu Zhifan’s sides were extremely satisfied with this collaboration.

Bawei, in particular, felt this way. Although this collaboration was an order from Domino, the Bawei Clan stood to gain significant profits from it, which greatly reduced his resistance to submitting to the organization.

He just didn’t know that the bio-chip in his brain was subtly correcting his thoughts.

After the two sides reached a cooperation agreement, Liu Zhifan assigned an employee who was a former Spider Web Manager to take charge of the Chiang Mai Province branch company.

He then quickly returned to Hongsawaddy.

At this point, the Hongsawaddy branch’s sphere of influence had already expanded northward from the previous Deline Province to include Meng State, Karen State, Kachin State, and a small part of the Shan State region.

Their nearest stronghold was now less than one hundred kilometers from the Golden Triangle.

North of Chiang Mai was the Golden Triangle Region, and to the west were Karen State and Meng State, linking everything together perfectly.

Glass products from Tuwah Port could be shipped by sea to Maudanmen Port, the capital of Meng State, then travel north up the Salween River (Nu River) into Siam’s territory to Mai Saliang, and finally be transported by road to Chiang Mai.

This entire route was only about 800 kilometers long.

Furthermore, Qingye Group was already planning to build a second glass factory near Maudanmen Port in Meng State. By then, shipping from the second factory to Chiang Mai would shorten the distance to about 450 kilometers.

Therefore, after staying in Chiang Mai for two days, Liu Zhifan rushed back to the Tuwah headquarters to begin preparations for the second glass factory at Maudanmen Port.

Immediately after, he passed a board resolution to spend 10 million US Dollars to dredge the lower Salween River, increasing its navigable length from the previous 90 kilometers to about 300 kilometers.

Of course, these 300 kilometers included some tributary channels and were only navigable for 500-ton class vessels.

To further improve navigability, it would be necessary to build dams to reduce the river’s gradient, stabilize the water surface, and increase its depth.

However, investing in dam construction was not something Qingye Group could afford at this stage. Even with secret control over the finances of three states, they still couldn’t sustain such a massive project.

But this dredging would at least allow 500-ton class transport ships to reach Siamese territory, which would greatly promote economic development in both regions.

「Meanwhile.」

Qingye Group’s glass products and beverages quickly began to flourish in the coastal areas of Hongsawaddy.

The inexpensive yet high-quality purified water, juice, and glass products brought a huge shock to the already industrially fragile Hongshawa Market.

The local people, whose incomes were already pitifully low, didn’t care about sentiment or brand names. Coupled with the high cost of living in Hongsawaddy, the good-value Qingye Group products were in high demand as soon as they hit the market, with supply unable to keep up.

Especially within the areas controlled by Qingye Group, if the products of other beverage factories overlapped with those of Qingye Beverages, there was basically no room for them to resist.

Relying on this price war, Qingye Group used its profits for expansion and acquisitions. In the month of June alone, it swallowed up three small local beverage factories.

In addition, through connections in both the legitimate and criminal worlds and by means of joint ventures and mergers, the Qingye beverage company now had 12 beverage processing plants under its name.

This kind of snowballing expansion further consolidated Qingye Group’s power in the region.

After all, the processing plants needed workers, and the fruit provided a sales channel for local plantations and farmers. Once this system took root, it would be very difficult for external forces to compete with Qingye Group.