"This is why I say we must cut off the Jiangnan Group at the root from the network and terminals," the head of the Morgan consortium declared angrily. "If they monopolize these two technologies, they'll be virtually invincible. They're more ruthless than us!" Upon learning that the Jiangnan Group had successfully regained control of the Western Mustang Fund simply by pushing updates through their terminals, rendering their $350 billion acquisition payment useless, the leaders of the Four Dynastic Groups were even more furious.
While their affiliated companies often fell victim to the Jiangnan Group, this was the first time they themselves had been so thoroughly outmaneuvered. The feeling was intensely unpleasant.
"How easy is it to cut off these two points?"
"I won't even mention the network. They already have nearly 100,000 satellites orbiting the Earth. Are you planning to launch 100,000 intercontinental missiles to destroy them all?" the DuPont consortium retorted dismissively. "As for the terminals, what do you expect us to do?"
"Should we develop a new terminal system from scratch?"
"We can. It's not impossible. There are skilled programmers proficient in Han language programming all over the place. We can gather thousands of them to start immediately. I can guarantee that every programmer will be an absolute elite, and we'll have a finished product within a year!"
"But what's the point? As long as we can't solve the problem of the quinary computer chips, we'll never solve the system problem. After all, they only need to make slight changes to the chip structure, and our painstakingly developed system will become obsolete, rendering all our efforts in vain."
"Ultimately, it still comes down to the chips! I don't understand. They were supposed to be 40 years ahead, and in the blink of an eye, they've fallen 40 years behind!" someone from Rockefeller sighed.
"Hey, didn't your laboratory announce that you've created 'Black Gold'? Why haven't you released a finished product yet?" a representative from the Boston consortium asked the Morgan representative.
"Don't even mention it. Although they did create it in the laboratory, we still haven't mastered the technology for industrial-scale mass production. Who knows what kind of technology the Chinese used to achieve this? It's simply incredible!" the Morgan representative said helplessly.
They had spent nearly ten years and still couldn't crack the problem.
"In my opinion, why don't we just stop pursuing this quinary system and stick to our old ways? Can't binary chips still be used to manufacture terminals?" the Boston representative suggested.
"We can, but it's extremely difficult," the Morgan representative replied. "The computing power required for personal terminals is becoming increasingly substantial, basically equivalent to PCs of the same scale. And most importantly, the current trend in personal terminal development is towards intelligent AI, which is the forte of quinary chips. Binary chips will struggle to achieve such results."
"I don't care about all that. I think we should just issue a ban, prohibiting the use of quinary personal terminals. Wouldn't that solve everything!" the Boston representative boldly proposed an extremely anti-human idea. However, the other four consortiums present did not show any opposition; in fact, they seemed to agree with the suggestion.
While this method would undoubtedly trigger widespread opposition, when has this country ever been without crime? As long as the order is forcibly pushed through, it's not a big deal.
"Forget it, it's not time for that yet, and the impact would be too significant. I think we should use the old method: let the Supreme Court issue a decree stating that a person can only hold a maximum of 10,000 equity authorization letters at any given time. Any equity authorization letters exceeding this number will not be recognized," said the DuPont representative.
"Brilliant!" the Boston representative exclaimed, slapping the table excitedly. This method was indeed ingenious. If a person could only accept equity authorization letters from 10,000 individuals, then Little Swift's 88 million equity authorization letters would be rendered void. At most, only 10,000 of them would be effective, which would be no match for their 20% stake.
Thus, a month later, such a decree was indeed issued. Before the Four Dynastic Groups could once again pressure them, Little Swift directly published an open letter to all his supporters, explaining in detail the decree and its consequences.
He ultimately admitted that he could no longer obtain control of the Western Mustang Fund and would voluntarily step down as chairman, handing over the control of the Western Mustang Fund to the Joint Fund.
Little Swift then directly left the headquarters of the Western Mustang Fund and returned to his new home in Detroit to live among his Black brethren.
The Four Dynastic Groups were surprised by Little Swift's decisive departure, so much so that their contingency plans, such as having him killed, could not be utilized.
But Little Swift simply left, and the Joint Fund successfully gained control of the entire Western Mustang Fund.
The first thing they did upon gaining control, besides seizing user data, was to begin mass layoffs of all old employees.
After all, these employees had been with the company since the Little Swift era, and they couldn't be sure if they would secretly work for Little Swift.
Meanwhile, Little Swift no longer mentioned anything related to the Western Mustang Fund. Like Madame de Versailles, he actively participated in various Black rights activities, donating huge sums of money annually to support Black people, providing them with better education and living environments, and seeking more job opportunities for them. It seemed he had completely withdrawn from the financial world and forgotten his title as the "Black Financial God."
On the other hand, the Four Dynastic Groups were busy absorbing the massive fruit that was the Western Mustang Fund. Since Little Swift no longer had any value, they stopped paying attention to him and did not pursue the Jiangnan Group further.
This wasn't to say the Four Dynastic Groups intended to let the Jiangnan Group go, but rather that they knew they couldn't quickly devour the entire Jiangnan Group, so they planned to use a method of gradual encroachment, slowly swallowing the empire built by Boss Huang.
And so, 2028 passed peacefully, and time gradually entered 2029.
During these two years, apart from sporadic gunshots in certain areas, the world was exceptionally calm. For the Chinese, the biggest news revolved around the national football team.
Ten years had now passed since the launch of that youth training program. Even the youngest children were now 15 years old, while the oldest were 19, entering their prime physical condition.
It was from 2029 onwards that the youth training teams, which had entered various national third-tier professional leagues, began to showcase their strength. As their age and physical condition improved, the biggest limitation for the five youth training teams gradually diminished. Moreover, the level of third-tier professional leagues in various countries was indeed limited. For players who had endured ten years of grueling training and were reaching their peak physical condition, these leagues were no longer a significant challenge.
Italy was the first to explode. They had already won the Italian Serie C championship in 2028 and were promoted to Serie B.
Currently, they were ranked in the top three in Serie B and possessed the strength and opportunity to challenge for promotion to Serie A.
The other four youth training teams also successively won their third-tier league championships in 2029 and entered their respective second-tier leagues. According to optimistic analysis by many domestic football commentators, by the time of the next World Cup, these four youth training teams would collectively break into the world's top five leagues, creating an unprecedented legend.
However, that was still a year or two away. Now, an extremely important matter that deserves mention is the new roster for the national football team.
Starting from 2029, a new round of World Cup qualifiers began, and the national team had to announce its new roster, including all the strongest athletes in China, to participate in the journey to qualify for the World Cup.
This was different from four years ago when the young players were still too young to be included in the roster.
Now, these young players were entering their peak physical condition, and all fans believed it was time to call up youth training players aged 17 and above to join the national team.
However, when the national team roster was announced, the fans were stunned. The entire roster was still filled with those familiar and useless names from the Chinese Super League, while not a single one of the youth training players playing abroad was included.
In response to fan questioning, the Football Association provided an explanation: these players had not participated in any Chinese domestic leagues and therefore were not eligible to be included in the national team roster.
Of course, this explanation was quickly debunked by fans. Some fans directly went through all relevant national regulations and found no clause stating that players must have participated in domestic leagues to be eligible for the national team roster.
No country in the world has such a regulation. After all, the truly strong and talented athletes in a country play in the world's top five leagues. Such a ban would directly exclude one's most talented players from the national team!
This was clearly an incredibly foolish rule, and yet the Football Association stated it as such, enraging domestic fans.