The root cause of Liu Hanhe and others' predicament boils down to one word—lack of money.
If the three of them could gather another 1 billion in cash, why would they fear a price plunge?
Let it drop, I'll buy it all!
But the reality is, Han Lie controlled the timing of his move too precisely and chose the battlefield too well, forcing them to empty their ammunition without truly controlling the market.
Stock market manipulation is actually very similar to "hoarding to create artificial scarcity"; the core logic is the same.
What did ancient unscrupulous merchants fear most when they monopolized the food market?
They feared the government opening the granaries to forcibly control food prices.
Landlords are not very afraid (like listed companies); their food is their own, free of cost, so they can simply choose not to sell.
Grain merchants fear (the main players); they buy expensive food from landlords and stand to lose greatly if the prices drop.
