In April of 82, a major event happened in Xiangjiang, and the ship king Dong Haoyun died!

Since the 1977 global ship king ranking, Bao Yugang ranked first, Dong Haoyun seventh, which made him very unhappy, he wanted to fight for the first!

So he desperately expanded, ordering a 565,000-ton supertanker from Japan, a figure that has never been seen before, and no one has broken this record by 2020.

At the same time, he also bought the Fernevis Group, the second largest shipping company in the United Kingdom, for 150 million pounds, and bought a large number of second-hand freighters at a relatively cheap price from Bao Yugang, who intended to abandon the ship.

In April this year, in order to celebrate the launch of his 150th oil tanker "Charter", Dong Haoyun specially invited the prince and his princess of Monaco to arrive in Xiangjiang first, and then go to Wanwan together, and the princess will personally name the "Charter".

However, since it is the prince of Monaco who is invited, no matter how small Monaco is, it is also a sovereign country, and its prince's visit to Xiangjiang has naturally attracted the attention of the Hong Kong government and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the mainland.

This in itself is nothing, but the ship's "charter" this time is ordered from the Wanwan shipyard, in recent years, the shipping industry has been sluggish, and only a few shipping tycoons who intend to go against the market are still desperately placing orders for the shipyard at this time, Dong Haoyun is the largest of them.

The order of a large ship can drive the employment of thousands or even tens of thousands of people in the entire industrial chain, and one of the main heavy industries of the Wanwan government is shipbuilding, which naturally attaches great importance to Dong Haoyun, which coincides with the fact that this giant ship is the 150th ship of OOCL, and the Wanwan government sent a large number of dignitaries to participate in the launching ceremony in order to express its sincerity.

Now, the Hong Kong government and the mainland government have started preliminary negotiations on the 97 limit, and Tung Haoyun has a close relationship with the Wanwan government, so the Hong Kong government ordered that Tung Haoyun should not be allowed to be picked up at the airport.

Dong Haoyun had prepared everything, but was told that he was not allowed to attend the pick-up ceremony, and in a moment of anger, he suffered a heart attack and finally died in the Hong Kong Sanatorium & Hospital.

"The water ceremony turned into a funeral", this was the headline news of various media during this time.

The death of a generation of ship kings was also a major event in Hong Kong, and businessmen from all walks of life in Hong Kong and Hong Kong government dignitaries were invited to attend the funeral.

Ironically, although Tung Ho-yun's death was due to his own physical problems, the direct cause was an executive order of the Hong Kong government, but the Governor of Hong Kong, MacLehose, and other high-level officials such as the Chief Secretary of the People's Republic of Hong Kong came to the scene, and MacLehose even personally participated in the funeral.

"Xu Sheng, I haven't seen you for a long time. After Bao Yugang chatted with a group of old friends, he came to Xu Zhi and said with a smile.

Xu Zhi also replied: "Bao Sheng seems to have rarely been in Xiangjiang recently. ”

"Recently, the company has a lot of overseas business, often running around in Southeast Asia, Japan, Europe, and the United States, and is very busy. Bao Yugang shook his head and sighed, although he is the world's largest ship king, the history of his fortune is later than that of the Dong family, strictly speaking, Dong Haoyun is still his predecessor.

30 years ago, when Bao Yugang was just an unknown person, Dong Haoyun was already in the shipping industry, and Bao Yugang also went to visit in person to learn from the experience of his predecessors.

It was also the exchange with Dong Haoyun that made Bao Yugang officially make up his mind to enter the shipping industry with all his might.

"Accidents and tomorrow, no one knows which one will come first. Xu Zhi said with a smile.

"Accident and tomorrow!" Bao Yugang tasted it twice and said with a smile: "This sentence is not bad, but unfortunately we people always have too much to let go, and the company we have worked so hard to create is always too uneasy!"

"Of course. Xu Zhi nodded and smiled, there are many billionaires in the world, but except for some rich second generations and some founders who cash out at high prices, no one will be reluctant to give up their own business, this is not for money, because for many super-rich, money is just a number.

For example, Steve Jobs, who returned to the king in 97, created the studio at that time, was also the majority shareholder of Disney, and was worth billions of dollars, but he still returned to Apple and fought for a company in which he had almost no shares, which is an obsession and even incomprehensible.

In the Oriental culture, this idea is even stronger, and the heads of the four major families of Xiangjiang in later generations are all retired when they are ten years old and can no longer walk.

Xu Zhi continued: "Bao Sheng, although Dong Sheng's death was an accident, the fundamental reason is that his own body is not very healthy, and Bao Sheng has to pay attention to this aspect. ”

"Thank you Xu Sheng for your concern, I check my body every year. Bao Yugang smiled softly: "In the past two years, I have been working hard to reduce the company's debt ratio, whether it is Longfeng International or Wharf, it has reached a relatively safe point."

And Lao Dong cares too much about his business, I don't plan to greatly expand the scale of the company, but Xu Sheng has been making a lot of big moves during this time, which is overwhelming!"

"It's just a normal business layout, but it's actually just an acquisition of some small companies. Xu Zhi said with a smile that although the recent acquisition of the Bank of East Asia, the privatization of Watsons, and the acquisition of Kowloon Bus have dizzy many Hong Kong people, these companies are not large in scale and involve not much capital.

"What are you talking about?" Huo Yingdong also walked over and asked with a smile.

"Huo Sheng, long time no see. Bao Yugang and Xu Zhi greeted each other.

Huo Yingdong shook his head and smiled bitterly: "Xu Sheng, I really should have listened to you at the beginning, investing in other places in the mainland is really hard to explain!"

"Is it because of the White Swan Hotel?" Xu Zhi asked tentatively. At the beginning, Huo Yingdong intended to invest in a five-star hotel in Yuezhou City, and he also wanted to pull Xu Zhi to invest, but Xu Zhi did not agree, but he knew this period of history, and the project of the White Swan Hotel can be said to be full of twists and turns.

At this moment, there are no large number of Western-style decoration materials for building five-star hotels in the mainland, and there is not even a simple water plug for a bathtub, and all materials must be imported.

In addition to Shenhai City, which has been reformed and opened up, the procedures for importing goods in other places are very cumbersome, and a thing needs to run more than a dozen departments, while hotels need to import tens of thousands of materials.

In the end, it was Huo Yingdong who used his relationship in Tianting to get the matter done.

"Yes, but now that the hotel is about to be capped, it's finally over. Huo Yingdong said with a smile: "The opening ceremony of the hotel will be held in a few months, and if you are interested, you can come and join in the fun." ”

"No problem. Xu Zhi smiled and agreed, but he knew that he would not be able to open his business at all in a few months, because out of national defense requirements, the mainland military intended to build an anti-aircraft anti-aircraft gun on the highest building in Guangdong, which made Huo Yingdong miserable, and it took a lot of effort to get a military boss to agree to cancel the plan.

Huo Yingdong sighed and said: "When I went back to Xiangjiang this time, I originally wanted to invite everyone to attend the opening ceremony of the White Swan Hotel, but I didn't expect that as soon as I came back, I encountered the bad news of Lao Dong. ”

In the business world of Xiangjiang, Huo Yingdong and Dong Haoyun belong to the same era, a little earlier than Bao Yugang, and as for the most beautiful real estate five tigers now, it is even more junior.

Bao Yugang sighed: "There is no way to do it when people are old, no matter how rich they are, they can't buy a lifespan." ”

Huo Yingdong didn't say anything more, looked at MacLehose and his party in the distance, and said, "I heard that MacLehose is about to retire and will hold a banquet in the Hong Kong Governor's Mansion, both of them should have received invitations, right?"

"Yes, next Wednesday, evening. Xu Zhi nodded and said, MacLehose has served as the governor of Xiangjiang for two terms, spanning a record of more than a hundred years, and he is not young, the British side has planned to transfer him back, and a new governor will be sent.

Huo Yingdong said: "Although this banquet is to see off MacLehose, I think the real purpose should also be clear to the two of you. ”

"Huo Sheng, don't worry, we're just going to the banquet. Xu Zhi said with a smile.