Waterloo!

In the financial circles of another world, whenever the financial crisis and stock market disaster are mentioned, people, especially journalists who are keen to attract the public with sensational headlines, will always subconsciously think of the Emperor of France on June 15, 1815, and then use the emperor who is actually not very short (the 1.7-meter-tall Emperor is actually a little taller than the 1.67-meter-tall Iron Father, saying that the Emperor is short, how can you make the iron comradeship embarrassing) to analogize those companies in the same situation as His Majesty the Emperor.

There is no Battle of Waterloo or the Emperor of France in this world, but that doesn't stop people from using equally sensational headlines to draw attention to the poor worms who have lost all their way at the table.

Collapse and avalanche are the most commonly mentioned words, and some people simply describe Charlemagne as a bloody hell in order to attract attention, full of the remains of sinners who have fallen into hell because of suicide.

Of course, it was not exaggerated to that extent, but the tragic wave of suicides did occur in large numbers ten days after the start of the economic war, reaching its peak on the twentieth day. In those days when even the sun lost its color, almost every day I could hear a certain lord kill his family with a gun after going bankrupt, and then shoot himself; a certain landlord and his family threw themselves into a well; a certain politician suddenly rushed to the railroad tracks when a train entered the station; and a certain bureaucrat pulled a grenade while having lunch with his family......

There are so many tragic events, not only do people lament whether all this is the annihilation of humanity or the degradation of morality.

"It's really unfortunate. ”

Dressed in the black uniform of the Guards, Nidhogg spread his hands and said with a pretense of regret:

"If you don't die, you won't die. Such a simple truth, but it is always forgotten. ”

Needless to say, like all wars, economic warfare is equally immoral. The victims are equally numerous. In terms of harmfulness to society, economic warfare is more terrible than biological warfare and chemical warfare, and is a disaster second only to nuclear war. The destruction of humanity, law, morality goes even beyond nuclear weapons.

It's unfortunate.

Nidhogg's words were not like sighs, nor were they of pity. The captain of the Guards had always been ruthless, and he certainly had no sympathy for anyone who dared to be an enemy of the dictator. In addition, regardless of camp positions, races, and beliefs, Nidhogg still does not sympathize with those who have failed in speculation and fallen to the bottom of hell.

Speculation is gambling in the first place, and the moment you bet on your entire life, you should be aware of the future when the bet fails and the gates of hell are open. There are so many bloody examples out there, still clinging to the dream of getting rich overnight and the luck that they are exceptional, so what awaits them is destined to be a tragic and bloody ending.

By the end of the month, Yalfheim had mobilized no less than 2.5 million tons of grain (only 500,000 tons of grain had been mobilized in the preparatory stage for the Rhine campaign), half of the national output of cotton yarn and cotton cloth in the Charlemagne market, and nearly 70 percent of Charlemagne's social capital had been absorbed by the banks affiliated with the consortium. Everything is ready, and the death knell of the speculative group is about to be sounded.

On the first day of Thermidor, trading companies affiliated with the consortium in the major cities of the occupied territory of Yalfheim began to sell cotton yarn one after another. When the speculators saw that there was cotton yarn released, no matter what the price was, they rushed to eat it. What can puzzle the speculative groups and the onlookers is that while the trading company sells cotton yarn and cotton cloth, it is actually gradually raising the price, and has begun to move all the way to the black market price. This kind of behavior is too contrary to Yalfheim's own position, and there is no clear purpose, and people can only temporarily interpret it as Yalfheim is also arbitraging through price increases.

Speculators choose to ignore the questions they don't understand. The most important thing now is how to further capture the benefits of this wave of price increases.

Judging from past experience, in-demand commodities can rise several times a day, which can not only cope with the interest on the loan, but also make huge profits. Rather than thinking about the problem that will not yield results for a while, it is important to seize all the time and money to eat more cotton yarn and gauze. Before you know it, the money in the pockets of the speculative group has been sucked dry, and all the money has been replaced with cotton yarn and gauze, but the trading company is still constantly shipping. Since the banks affiliated with the consortium refused to lend money, the speculators borrowed usury and paid a staggering 50 percent or even 100 percent interest every day just to eat more cotton yarn.

By the 4th of Thermidor, the general price level reached 2.2 times that of the end of the month, which was the price target set before the start of the economic war in Alfheim, at which the accountants of the Yalfheim Ministry of Finance had carefully calculated that the amount of goods in their hands was equal to the amount of money circulating in the market, and they could already enter the second stage.

On the 5th of Thermidor, trading companies in major cities simultaneously sold gauze and kept lowering prices. The speculators, who still don't know that they are dying, continue to eat. However, the materials of the state-owned company were overwhelming, not only throwing more and more, but also pulling the whole vehicle of gauze into major cities overnight. In the face of this mountain of gauze, even if it uses the financial resources of a country and the whole country, it is impossible to eat it in a hurry......

In the face of the overwhelming quantity of materials, speculators despaired, on the 10th day of the Thermidor, speculators began to sell the gauze in their hands, throwing the wind together, the price of yarn fell in response, and the cotton yarn market fell like an avalanche. The price of gauze on the market at Lüdes fell by half in a day, and speculators lost all their money. However, Alfheim had no intention of sparing them out, and immediately issued three orders to pursue them fiercely: first, all the enterprises under the consortium should deposit their money in the consortium bank, and not to lend money to private banks and enterprises opened by Charlemagne; second, it was stipulated that all Charlemagne's factories were not allowed to close their doors and shut down, and that the wages of the workers should be paid. In case of disobedience, it shall be regarded as an act of hostility and shall be punished with the most severe penalties; thirdly, the collection of taxes shall commence immediately, and the payment of taxes shall not be delayed, and a penalty of 3 per cent of the taxable amount shall be imposed if the payment is delayed for one day.

As soon as the three orders were issued, not only did the speculators involved in veil speculation go bankrupt, but also many private banks closed down as a result.

At the same time that the cotton yarn market is plummeting, the grain market is also full of corpses.

Affected by the war and the monopoly of the market by speculators, Charlemagne continued to suffer from widespread hunger in the country for some time after the armistice. Expecting a large amount of grain to be poured into Charlemagne, the speculative conglomerates were raising money while preparing for the war of cotton yarn, hoarding as much flour and other staple foods as they could on the market, and then waiting for the price to skyrocket.

As a result, like the cotton yarn market, they miscalculated again. Before the full-scale economic war was launched, Alfheim imported large quantities of grain through the overseas colonies, and at the same time activated the long-term reserves of war readiness in various places, and by the first day of Thermidor, Charlemagne's grain depots had stockpiled enough food for all Charlemagnes for a year and a half. At the same time as the massive sale of cotton yarn on the 5th of Thermidor, all the grain wholesale and retail centers controlled by the consortium threw out a million tons of flour in one go (and this is not all the cards in Alfheim), and the price of grain not only did not rise, but fell continuously. In the midst of the collapse in food prices, the only thing speculators can do is to sell off all the food they have hoarded before it depreciates further, which further exacerbates the drop in food prices......

Both wars were lost, and the speculators lost all their money. Charlemagne's speculators, aristocrats, government officials, and military logistics executives committed suicide one after another, and a large number of private wholesalers and private money houses went bankrupt. Overnight, prices across the country stabilized all at once.

"These people would have had the opportunity to live well, and as long as they kept to themselves, they could have lived a prosperous life for the rest of their lives. But they are not willing to cherish life, and they always try to be crazy on the edge of death. In the end, they got their wish and succeeded in their death. As bystanders, we can only shrug our shoulders and send a blessing to their tombstones, leaving a 'deserved' epitaph on their tombstones. ”

Nidhogg pulled a strip of chocolate from his jacket pocket, sniffed it under his nose, and grinned as his slender pupils glanced at the restless man across the desk.

"Non-violent non-cooperation – no cooperation without violence – is the most appropriate assessment of this incident. Don't you think so? Professor Antoine-Laurent de Lavoisier. ”