As a representative of the Eagle Nation's colonization of Xiangjiang, HSBC's history complements the history of the Eagle Nation's occupation of Xiangjiang, and it has made countless profits for it.
As early as 1865, not long after the Eagles had just established a foothold on Xiangjiang Island, the HSBC Bank was established, and the first generation of the Hong Kong HSBC Bank Building was built.
It's just that at this time, HSBC had just become a bank and was relatively weak. Office buildings were mainly leased, but as HSBC grew and grew.
In 1866, HSBC purchased a large amount of land on Queen's Road, and the plan to build its own building was put on the agenda.
In 1886, the self-built building of HSBC was put into use, and it is also known as the second generation HSBC Building.
Unlike the first-generation building, the design of the front and rear parts of the second-generation building is completely different, and it seems to be composed of two buildings with different styles.
The side facing Queen's Road is dominated by colonnades and octagonal domed roofs, which are of Victorian design, while the side facing Des Voeux Road is dominated by a series of arched corridors.
This will last for fifty years.
By 1933, the HSBC building began to become obsolete, so the wealthy HSBC rebuilt the building and began the construction of the third generation of HSBC Building.
Because of the money, the reconstruction was very fast. In just two years, the building was put into use. Compared with the second-generation building, the third-generation building is more majestic.
The building is 70 meters high and has 13 floors. It was not only the largest building in Asia at the time, but also the first air-conditioned building. Because it was so luxurious, during the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong, the HSBC Bank building became a Japanese military garrison.
Compared to the Eagle Nation people, the Japanese army looked much more ugly. They not only occupied the building but also robbed it. There were two bronze lions in front of the third-generation HSBC Headquarters Building in Hong Kong, which were modeled on the front of the HSBC Bank Building in the Magic City.
After the Japanese army occupied Hong Kong, due to a shortage of supplies, the two bronze lion statues connecting Queen Victoria and John Johnson, the HSBC Bank executive, were transported to Yokohama and stored in a dock warehouse to be melted into munitions materials.
After Japan surrendered in 1945, the two lions were discovered by American soldiers.
Five-star General MacArthur ordered these to be transported back to Xiangjiang and rearranged at the entrance of the Daihui Feng Building.
More than 40 years after the third-generation HSBC Building was put into use, some people believe that it has lagged behind the times. Not to mention places such as Japan and Bangzi, there are many buildings in Hong Kong that are higher than the HSBC Building.
This is something that HSBC, the uncrowned king of Hong Kong, cannot tolerate.
So starting in 1976, HSBC began the construction of the fourth generation of HSBC.
In order to show the world the power of HSBC, HSBC found the famous architect Norman Foster and asked him to design a unique building.
So Norman Foster racked his brains and spent a lot of time to make the design drawings. It took several years from conception to completion of the Fourth Generation Building.
The construction started in July 1981, was completed on May 20, 1985, and was officially opened on April 7, 1986. The then Hong Kong Governor Sir Edward Youde presided over the opening ceremony.
The fourth generation HSBC Tower is 180 meters high, with 46 floors and 4 basement floors. It uses 30,000 tons of steel and 4,500 tons of aluminum. Its construction cost exceeds HK$5 billion.
It was the most expensive building in the world at the time and the first building costing US$1 billion.
In the history of Lei Weidong, the Fourth Generation Building has been the general management office of HSBC Group until 1993, when HSBC Holdings moved the general management office of the group to London.
Compared with the first three generations, the billion-dollar fourth-generation building is magnificent, even if it is located in the City Hall, the Hong Kong Congress, the High Court, the New General Post Office, Connaught Building, Mandarin Hotel, Prince's Building, Standard Chartered Bank and many other ornate buildings. Surrounded by outstanding or famous buildings, it does not look inferior at all.
It is permeated with simple elegance and heavy-tech style, and it also has novel and flexible structural concepts. All of this makes the bank's original idea of becoming the best bank in the world truly transformed into reality.
The building covers an area of 5,000 square meters and has a nearly rectangular plan. After completion, the HSBC Bank, located in the auxiliary road at the southern end of Elephant Square, is located on a strong north-south central axis due to the urban external space.
From the appearance structural point of view, the steel columns and steel trusses are significantly exposed in the building's shape, becoming the protagonist of the facade.
The bottom of the building is completely open, and the escalator extends from the second floor. People can enter the building from the escalator, and the space inside the building is also as open as possible.
This building shows the achievements of modern technology in every aspect and belongs to the "heavy-tech" architectural style. Although this kind of building does not have any additional decoration, the actual cost is quite expensive.
The common feature of these famous high-tech buildings is that the structure is fully exposed, showing the original shape of various mechanical and electrical equipment, but without making people feel obtrusive.
At the same time, the appearance of the entire building is rich and varied, which is very different from traditional skyscrapers. The eight groups of staggered combined columns seem to have the power to penetrate the sky, which is reminiscent of the Gothic style, while the symmetrical pattern makes it solemn and elegant. It has a taste of classicism.
The green leaves hanging from the courtyard platform from time to time express the interest of nature, and the breath of humanity and nature nourishes the originally somewhat rigid exterior lines in silent places.
It stands tall and has the style of a metropolitan building. It is also changeable and has a rustic atmosphere, which complements the style of Hong Kong, a city full of vitality and unique feelings.
Judging from its internal space, the entire floor structure is suspended on two rows of eight sets of combined steel columns with an east-west distance of 38.4 meters and varying heights. Elevator rooms, workshops, toilets, etc. are all arranged on the outside of the two rows of combined columns, so the central part has great flexibility in use.
The building has a total of 33 floors, divided into five groups and suspended from the composite columns by diagonal suspension structures. From the bottom to the top, each group decreases from eight structural layers to four structural layers; while the height of the diagonally suspended structure is two structural layers.
Eight sets of combined columns divide the floor plan into three bays from south to north, each bay is 16.2 meters wide. Since the eight groups of combined columns are of different heights, the number of bays on the floor plane also changes accordingly with its height.
There are three bays below the 28th floor, two bays on the 30th to 35th floors, and one bay on the 37th to 41st floors. In addition, the two structural layers where the diagonal suspension structure is located are treated as one-floor usable space. On the plane, one of the bays is used as an indoor public rest hall and elevator group parking floor, while the two bays on both sides are opened as Outdoor garden deck.
In the floor plan, the two sets of combined columns in the east and west are connected by a 3.5-meter-wide channel belt. Translucent prefabricated panels are laid on the channel belt to allow natural light to penetrate into the central part of the floor plan.
The usable area between the passage strips is laid with 11.1 meters long and 2.4 meters wide prefabricated steel floor slabs. Each floor slab can be disassembled and moved without affecting the entire structure. Therefore, some floor slabs can be "abandoned" to form a small-scale atrium. Escalators solve local vertical traffic.
It can be said that as long as the HSBC Tower is in Hong Kong, people in Hong Kong will not ignore the role of HSBC, just like the famous saying of Chen Haonan in the movie Young and Dangerous.
"If you can, go and collect protection fees from HSBC."
This simple line illustrates HSBC's dominant position in Hong Kong.
Why did Lei Weidong choose to launch the clone army in Xiangjiang and let them rob the HSBC Bank instead of launching it in Switzerland and rob the Swiss bank?
The reason is simple. Lei Weidong's purpose is not just to grab money and gold.
If it were really a matter of money to grab gold, Lei Weidong would definitely choose Switzerland, where there is not only the largest private gold trading market in the world, the "Zurich" gold trading market.
It is said that the "Zurich" gold trading market alone has more than 1,000 tons of gold kept in the Swiss Central Bank.
If you include the Swiss Bank's own gold reserves and the wealth stored in Switzerland by countries around the world, even HSBC cannot compare with Switzerland.
The reason why Lei Weidong let the clone army rob the HSBC Bank is very simple. Lei Weidong wants to swallow up the HSBC Bank and take back this century-old bank that has sucked blood for hundreds of years.
This cannot be compared with ordinary business competition. Ordinary people think that business competition means negotiating and signing contracts and negotiating contracts.
Infighting, mergers and reorganizations, financial speculation, insider trading, and treating guests to dinner are worldly things.
In fact, these are superficial phenomena and the lowest level of competition in business.
Real business competition, especially high-end competition, has long lost its human sophistication. It can be said that poisoning, killing people, stealing official seals, and physically destroying enemies. These methods of returning to nature and approaching Taoism are the real high-end games.
HSBC's ability to become so big relies on its ability to withstand the empire's global influence and its invincible Eagle Kingdom fleet.
It can be said that it is impossible for Lei Weidong to win over HSBC through policy and commercial means, even if he has more money, not to mention that there are many Chinese people such as Li Jiacheng on the board of directors of HSBC.
In fact, everyone knows that Li Jiacheng's entry was just a show, and the real power lies in the hands of the people of the Eagle Kingdom.
Therefore, we can only find another way to rob the HSBC Bank's vault and emptying it out is only the first step, and bombarding the HSBC Bank Building and turning it into ruins is the second step.
As for the third step!
"Weidong, the call from Xiangjiang is from Sister Salena. I have something urgent to call you." While the clone army was invincible in Xiangjiang, Lei Weidong led people to clean up Mrs. M's lair.
Collect important items such as gold, foreign exchange, and jewelry, and then evacuate everyone to the warship and prepare to go home.
Just after boarding the ship, Salena called.
Because she was at sea, the phone call couldn't go through. Salina, who was anxious to find Lei Weidong, could only call the warship and ask Ya Zi to transfer it.
"Salena, why are you in such a hurry? The call has been made to the warship." Lei Weidong asked as he picked up the satellite phone on the warship.
"Weidong, something big happened. An army appeared on Xiangjiang Street. An army composed of dozens of tanks lifted Xiangjiang into the sky." Salina did not go to the scene, but through the TV broadcast, Salina understood every move at the scene. .
As a strong woman in the shopping mall, Salina keenly felt that the army's robbery of the HSBC bank's vault was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. If she did it well, even if she could not win against HSBC, she could still make a lot of money.
"There are still dozens of tanks on Xiangjiang Street. Could it be that we can't fight from the north?" When Salena said that tanks appeared in Xiangjiang, Lei Weidong's surprised tone made even Salena on the other end of the street confused. feel.
"It's not the army from the north. I asked experts to see it. The army that appeared on Xiangjiang Street was American soldiers, and the tank was the M1A1 tank that made a big splash in the Bendou War.
Coupled with the matching armored vehicles and Humvees, it is 100% a beautiful army. Knowing that Lei Weidong had misunderstood, Salina quickly explained it to him.
Not only Salena, but also many people in Xiangjiang knew that the army that robbed the treasury belonged to the beautiful country. It was said that the Hong Kong Governor had already made suggestions to the beautiful country, asking the beautiful country to find out which army and subordinates committed the crime and came to Hong Kong to rob.
"They were robbing the treasury, did they succeed?" Lei Weidong asked knowingly.
"I don't know, but the soldiers have entered the vault, and the gunfire stopped after a while. They probably have completely occupied the vault, but I don't know if they have moved the gold out.
Frontline reporters did not report.
But there is news that you will definitely like, that is, more than a dozen tanks, plus armored vehicles and self-propelled artillery, went to the headquarters building of HSBC Bank. I guess they were not there to have a meal. HSBC Bank is in trouble this time.
Even if gold can keep most of it, if the office building is bombed, the stock will definitely fall sharply and fall by an unexpected number. "
"You want to buy the bottom?" Lei Weidong asked.
"right!"
Salina nodded and replied: "I hope to get your support, Weidong, to grant me the right to mobilize all funds. HSBC does not need Standard Chartered and can handle it with more than one billion US dollars.
If HSBC wants to handle it, it will need at least several billion or even tens of billions of dollars. "
"If you want to copy it, go ahead and get the mainland capital to act together. HSBC is Gui Lao's card. We alone cannot resist the pressure. We must get the mainland capital to act together."
bear
Xin Salena eats alone, Lei Weidong specifically reminded her.
"Don't worry, I won't make such a rudimentary mistake." Salena responded with a smile, "The Eastern Group can be so big because my ability is only a small part. The main thing I love is your influence, Wei Dong.
If you hadn't held real power in the police force and prevented those who were against the autumn wind from daring to act rashly, the Eastern Group would have been carved up by hungry wolves long ago.
In order to swallow up HSBC this time, I not only made an agreement with Sister Hua to let Huajia Capital take the lead, but also contacted the capital in Shanghai. This time HSBC can be said to be doomed. "
"Very good, Le Huizhong, be prepared. Report the losses of HSBC as much as you can. Especially if the HSBC building collapses, you must record it and show it on the TV station in a loop. You must control public opinion and don't let ghosts The guy flipped."
Lei Weidong ordered.
For a bank to become bigger and stronger, it must have soft power in addition to hard power. If Lei Weidong did not come forward, the ghosts who control public opinion would easily confuse right and wrong and make HSBC's losses seem small.
In order to restore investors' confidence in HSBC and use investors' money to tide over the difficulties, I have to find a way to defeat Gui Lao's plan.
