Smith looked at the dense Japanese planes in the sky, and he couldn't believe his eyes.

He put down his binoculars, then rubbed his eyes, looked at the sky again, and confirmed that the planes were all painted in Japanese military livery .

This is Hawaii, which is the territory of the United States, and the airspace over Hawaii is also the territorial airspace of the United States.

If it was just one or two Japanese military planes, it could be said that they were here for military exchanges, but this dense and large number of Japanese military planes appeared in the sky over Hawaii, and they knew what was going on with their butts.

"My God! The Japanese really attacked Hawaii! Smith exclaimed, his legs suddenly weakened, and if he hadn't grabbed the balcony handrail, he would probably collapse to the ground, but the telescope in his hand still didn't hold it and fell to the ground.

For Americans, war is a very distant thing, although more than 20 years ago, the American army participated in World War I, but it was sent to Europe, and the United States did not encounter war on its territory. Therefore, most Americans' perception of war is still stuck in the American Civil War in the mid-nineteenth century.

The Civil War was eighty years ago, and that was too far away. Just like modern people, their understanding of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression is also relatively vague, and modern people can't understand how cruel it was at that time, which can be illustrated by various thunderous plots in film and television works.

Now, the war is once again on the territory of the United States, although it is Hawaii alone, but the shock in Smith's heart is still difficult to describe in words.

In the next second, Smith suddenly realized that he might be unemployed!

As an employee of a sugar company, Smith knew that if there was a war in Hawaii, his company would be doomed.

Sugarcane is the most important cash crop in Hawaii, more than two-thirds of Hawaii is planted with sugarcane, just in terms of production, Hawaii supplies 80% of the sugarcane production in the United States, and the raw sugar produced in Hawaii is also the main source of raw materials for the American sugar industry.

In addition to Hawaii, some southern states in the United States, such as Florida, Louisiana, and Texas, also have sugarcane cultivation, but compared to Hawaii, the sugarcane grown in the United States is too little.

In fact, before the Civil War, sugarcane cultivation in the United States was still extensive. However, after the Civil War, the black slave plantations in the South were emancipated, and they left the South plantations and went to the industrial cities of the North, and since then the amount of sugar cane cultivated in the South plantations has been decreasing year by year.

Because it takes a certain amount of manpower to grow sugarcane. Sugarcane harvesting can also be done with the help of mechanical harvesters, but in the breeding and planting stage, generally can not use mechanical planting, sugarcane seedlings are more fragile, easily damaged, if the use of mechanized planting, seedlings will be destroyed in the process of planting, the survival rate of sugarcane will be very low.

The United States has always practiced the kind of large-scale mechanized farming, and American farmers in the forties were already driving farm tractors to farm. Therefore, sugarcane, which requires manpower, is not suitable for American agriculture. Even in the future when agriculture has been very developed, such as Texas, a major agricultural state in the United States, the degree of mechanization of sugarcane planting is only 40%, and Louisiana and Florida, where the temperature is more suitable, the degree of mechanization of sugarcane planting will be higher, but when planting sugarcane, it still needs to be manually assisted by seedlings.

In later generations, many Chinese people felt that the agriculture of the United States was very advanced, and in fact, the agriculture of large-scale mechanized planting in the United States could be regarded as saving manpower at best, but it could not be regarded as advanced. In terms of crop yield, large-scale mechanized planting is certainly not as good as that kind of intensive farming, and the yield of intensive cultivation is definitely much higher than that of mechanized planting when planting things on the same acre of land.

The most unavoidable thing about large-scale mechanized planting is the waste generated in the process of mechanized operation, such as tomatoes, if you use mechanized harvesting, it will probably cause a loss of 20%, and peppers will be more serious, and the loss will reach 30% if you harvest mechanized. Americans have a lot of land, hundreds of acres are considered small farms, people don't care about these losses, but in China, where arable land is scarce, a family is one acre and three points of land, if there is such a high loss rate, the farmer uncle will have to die of distress!

Even if Japan did not occupy Hawaii, but only sent a few submarines to walk around Hawaii from time to time, American merchant ships did not dare to come to Hawaii to transport sugarcane.

Without Hawaii's sugar cane, all the sugar companies in the United States have to be cool, a company has no raw materials, there is no way to produce, the company does not produce products, it will not be able to make profits, then it is not a matter of falling stock prices, the whole enterprise may go bankrupt!

"It's over, I was really told by that Chinese, Japan really attacked Hawaii!" Smith forced his composure, and then he returned to his room to do two things.

The first thing was to send a telegram to the native company, sending the news of the Japanese attack on Hawaii to the native company; The second thing was to make a phone call and order a ticket back to the continental United States, he knew that he could not continue to stay in Hawaii, even if the company did not recruit him back, he did not want to stay in a dangerous place like Hawaii, and if he was unlucky, he might be killed by a Japanese plane.

……

New York is three hours ahead of Los Angeles and six hours ahead of Hawaii.

The first wave of attacks on Pearl Harbor by Japan was more than seven o'clock in the morning in Hawaii, and it was already more than one o'clock in the afternoon in New York. By the time the governor of Hawaii reported the attack to Washington, the Japanese had already launched a second wave of air raids, and it was almost dinner time in the eastern United States.

Since December 7 was a Sunday, the stock market was not open, and Wall Street stockbrokers were "enjoying the weekend."

New York is not blessed with such a unique climate as Hawaii, and it is already quite cold in New York in December, so New Yorkers will not go out for picnics during this season, they prefer to choose some indoor entertainment. Like watching a movie, watching a musical show, playing bowling, or going to a bar for a drink.

Charlie and Phil, a pair of friends, came to a restaurant, and the two each ordered an apple pie and chatted while eating.

On the radio on the counter, news was playing about President Roosevelt's peace initiative to the Emperor of Japan.

On the European battlefield, the Germans had already invaded the suburbs of Moscow, and the United States feared that Japan would attack the Soviet Union's Siberia, which would lead to the defeat of the Soviet Union, so yesterday, December 6, 1941, President Roosevelt issued a peace proposal to Japan's Emperor Hirohito, hoping that Japan could maintain a "peaceful posture" in the Far East.

Roosevelt's move was seen by many as a gesture of goodwill to Japan, which also led people to think that the possibility of a conflict between the United States and Japan was already very small.

"Do you hear that? The president has already issued a peace initiative to Japan, and it seems that there will be no war between the United States and Japan! Charlie spoke.

"There would have been no war, and Japan would not have dared to do anything to the United States!" Phil paused, then said, "This is good news for Wall Street, the index should rise as soon as the stock market opens tomorrow." ”

"Yes, as long as there is news of peace, the stock market will definitely rise." Charlie nodded.

"Hasn't that Chinese athlete stopped yet? Is he still shorting shares in the sugar industry? Phil asked again.

"No, and in the last trading day, he added another $200,000." Charlie replied.

"What a gambler, and he's still adding weight! I'm afraid he's going to lose all his money this time! Phil shoved a piece of apple pie into his mouth and continued: "Since the defeat of France, we have continued to provide aid to the British, and in addition to weapons, food aid is the largest amount, and those factories that produce food are constantly shipping the produced biscuits to Europe, so the business of the sugar industry will only get better and better." To be honest, as the war progresses, I am quite optimistic about the sugar industry, and their profits will definitely increase significantly. ”

Charlie nodded in agreement: "Yes, maybe when the market opens next Monday, the stock will rise a little higher, and this customer of mine will go bankrupt." It's a shame that I finally found a big customer! ”

In times of war, sugar is definitely an extremely important strategic material, sugar can quickly replenish a lot of energy for the human body, for the front-line soldiers, or refugees who have left their homeland, a few sweet biscuits, enough for them to last a whole day. Compared to bread, biscuits are easier to store, easier to carry, and can provide more energy, which is obviously the best food in wartime, which is why military personnel in various countries will be equipped with compressed biscuits as emergency food.

Today, the United States needs to provide food to Britain, and soon it will provide food aid to the Soviet Union, so now food factories all over the United States are working overtime to produce biscuits, and sugar is needed to make biscuits, so sugar sales are very good. Wall Street investors generally expect a significant increase in profits for the U.S. sugar industry in recent years.

The two were continuing to talk when a slightly hurried voice suddenly sounded on the radio:

"Insert an urgent news, this morning in Hawaii time, that is, at noon in the United States Eastern Time, the U.S. naval base in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, was attacked by the Japanese army, and the casualties are unknown!"

Charlie and Filton were stunned.

"Phil, I heard you right, right? The Pearl Harbor naval base arrived early in the Japanese air raids? Charlie asked incredulously.

"I heard it too! That's impossible! It's not April Fool's Day! For a certain time the announcer went crazy. Phil also had an incredulous look on his face.

"Maybe we're listening to a tricky show! How could Japan launch an attack on Hawaii! Charlie spoke.

Then both fell silent at the same time. Because they all know that this can't be some kind of trick show!

It took several minutes for the two to calm down, and Phil was the first to speak: "What if what is said on the radio is true?" ”

Another few minutes of silence......

Finally, Charlie spoke: "I think we should hurry back to the company and have a look, if Japan really launches an attack on Hawaii, the stock market will definitely plummet tomorrow." We don't yet know about the damage to the Pearl Harbor naval base, and if our Pacific Fleet were wiped out, there would be a stock market crash at the start of trading on Monday! ”

Phil suddenly thought of something, and he asked, "How many stocks of the sugar industry did that Chinese athlete short?" ”

Charlie realized that Hawaii was attacked, and the American sugar industry was about to end! As he introduced to Chen Qun earlier, the Japanese attack on Hawaii, Wall Street-owned sugar stocks, is not much better than waste paper!

"Oh my God, when the market opens tomorrow, I may have to witness the birth of a multimillionaire!" Charlie spoke.

Phil thought of something else, he lowered his voice and said: "That Chinese must have already mastered the inside information, otherwise it would be impossible to make such a big bet at this time!" ”

……

Monday, December 8.

Affected by the news of Japan's air attack on Pearl Harbor, the Dow Jones index plummeted, and even the military industry and shipbuilding industry even fell.

And the worst is naturally the sugar industry, those companies with sugar cane plantations in the United States are slightly better, while those that rely on Hawaiian sugar cane have been sold off hugely, but at this time, how can any fool be willing to take over!

Having lost the most important source of raw materials, it is difficult for these sugar companies to start working, and I don't know how many sugar companies will go bankrupt because of this, and a company that may go bankrupt will have their shares worthless at all!

Wall Street was in a wail, even when the German army invaded Paris, the Dow Jones index did not fall so badly, the last time similar was the Great Depression in 1929, and that stock market crash, I don't know how many rich people went bankrupt overnight, and they had to queue up to jump off the Empire State Building.

When Chen Qiang passed by the vicinity of the Empire State Building today, he also deliberately hid far away, for fear that someone would jump down and smash himself, and those who had a car also tacitly did not park their cars downstairs in the Empire State Building, in case someone jumped off the building, maybe they would smash their cars.

Chen Qiang found a car under a not too high floor, parked his car, and then walked into the investment company.

At this time, the investment company was in a mess, and almost every phone was ringing non-stop.

"Mr. Davis, I started selling early in the morning, but in the current situation, it is impossible to sell at that price, and I expect it to fall by another 5%!"

"Mr. Lucas, I know you're not happy with the price I've offered to sell, but while we're talking, your holdings have fallen another 15 cents, so I'm helping you stop your losses in time. If you want to insist on the original price and refuse to give in, you will lose more! ”

"Mr. Moore, thank goodness, I've sold off all of your stocks, and I have good news, you've only lost $10,000!"

"Mr. Carter, you have to trust my professional judgment, in the next few trading days, those stocks you hold will not rebound, when will they rebound? It's hard to say. If you hold on, you may not be able to go back to the original price until the war is over! ”

One by one, the stockbrokers spoke to their customers on the phone, almost screaming. For these stockbrokers, the advent of the stock market crash will make them lose a lot of customers, not to mention that many stockbrokers also buy stocks, and they also lose all their money.

Chen Qiang came directly to Charlie's room, knocked on the door, and walked in.

After Charlie saw Chen Qiang, he stood up directly and looked at Chen Qiang with a complicated eye.

"Mr. Chen, congratulations, the entire sugar industry in the United States has completely collapsed, and according to the current stock price, if you close the position, you will already be a multimillionaire! But I don't recommend that you do that, I think according to the current trend, maybe by Christmas, your assets will exceed $20 million! ”

——————

Ask for tickets, tickets!