Liu Shanmin was not surprised when he received his nephew's call.
Although he had only met Li Long three times, he felt that the young man was smart and very good at grasping the key to a situation.
His nephew did things by the book. The advantage was that he was unlikely to get into trouble in the current complicated, cross-border environment. The disadvantage was just as obvious: he was not good at adapting.
He could not get as far as opening up channels that required greasing the right palms.
As for his other, cleverer nephew, he dared not bring him over because that one was prone to acting recklessly. In this same complicated environment, he might fail to judge the limits and end up a target of a crackdown.
So having Liu Gaolou handle this meant limited profits, but it was safe.
Liu Shanmin had already established a certain amount of influence over there and could steadily ship important parts, equipment, and other things needed back home through legitimate channels. But money was not the only thing he needed over there.
Although the Former Great Empire still had a few years before it collapsed, it was already showing signs of disorder.
In its European regions, people being unable to afford food had become a frequent occurrence. Although Kazakhstan was agricultural, it was still desperately short of light industrial goods. Or rather, the Former Great Empire's light industrial system itself was far from complete, so from the current perspective, everything was in short supply.
US dollars were scarce over there too, but they could be obtained on the black market. Daily necessities such as white sugar could also be obtained, but prices were extremely high, and inflation kept going.
So Liu Shanmin needed those three truckloads of sugar to get