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Episode 89 Cheers to Roast Suckling Pig

Episode 89 Cheers to the Roast Suckling Pig

"The Gonggong number is 22.7587 million mingyang, and the asking price is 13.65 million mingyang. The Xiangyu number and the Han signal are each about 13.36 million mingyang, and the asking price is 10.68 million mingyang."

Xiang Xiaoqiang read the "quotation" sent from Nanjing, and thought about the famous battleship costs in the 1920s, 1930s, and World War II, as well as the price comparisons between Mingyang and major foreign currencies at that time.

The Mingyang exchange rate against the U.S. dollar is 1:0.7; the Mingyang exchange rate against the British pound is 1:0.14; the Mingyang exchange rate against the Reichsmark is 1:1.75...

Xiang Xiaoqiang stared at the difference between the construction costs and quotations of the two classes of ships, and he always felt that something was wrong. The Zhurong class cost 22.7587 million, and the Hanxin class cost 13.36 million. The difference was so big that it was in line with the difference between a battle cruiser and a heavy cruiser. But

The asking price of the Zhurong class is only 13.65 million, while the asking price of the Hanxin class reaches 10.68 million, which can be said to be almost the same.

He grabbed a pen and paper and tried to figure out the discounts. But he hadn't calculated multiplication and division by hand in n years, and he couldn't figure it out after a long time.

"Qiu Qiu!" Xiang Xiaoqiang scratched his head for a long time, and finally got fed up and ordered Qiu Qiu, "Calculate for me how much discount I get for these two classes of warships."

Qiu Qiu said "Oh", grabbed a pen and paper, flicked it a few times, and said:

"The Gonggong ship is discounted by 40%, and the two ships of Han Signal are discounted by 20%."

Xiang Xiaoqiang tilted his head and looked at the numbers on the paper, raised his head and asked the three old men in front of him:

"The Gonggong is a battle cruiser, so why is the price we charge so low? The Han Xin-class is a heavy cruiser, but the price we charge is so high?"

Both diplomats looked at Wang Hexiang. Before Wang Hexiang could say anything, Qiu Qiu said first:

"Oh, it's very simple. Gonggong is old and Han Xin is new."

Wang Hexiang nodded and chuckled:

"Madam, you are right. The Gonggong was built in 1923 and is already 13 years old. Not long ago, it suffered a torpedo during the Battle of Java. The Han Xin class was built in 1930.

It was built in 1931. The ship is only five or six years old and has no

No matter how used it is, it is basically 80% new... But in my opinion, the Gonggong is even depreciated, has outdated technology, and an overhaul after being torpedoed. Now it will not exceed 10 million Mingyang. But those two ships

The heavy patrol is more cost-effective, and it can be worth eight to nine million now."

Qiu Qiu smiled and said:

"That's quite a lot. Haha, Mr. Wang, if we sell them, our navy can have a good battleship again, right?"

Wang Hexiang smiled and said:

"It's true that you can have a battleship, but a 'good battleship' is not enough. Today's battleships in various countries were still built more than ten years ago. At that time, our Yongle class was also considered a mainstream battleship, and it would cost more than 3,000 to build one.

Wan Mingyang, now he has passed these ten years

In a few years, if a new ship is built, new materials and new technologies will definitely be piled up in large quantities, and the cost will definitely go up. Now to build another mainstream ship, it is estimated that it will cost up to 40 million. If you want to build one, it's not bad

', I'm afraid it must be close to 50 million."

Xiang Xiaoqiang asked: "What if we build an aircraft carrier of the same tonnage?"

Wang Hexiang immediately said:

"Well, not counting aircraft, it would be great to build two. They are more than 30,000 tons and can carry seventy or eighty aircraft. However, aircraft carriers are not the right way after all and cannot replace battleships.

of."

After all, battleships are still expensive! No wonder no one wants to build battleships once an aircraft carrier has proven itself. The cost performance of aircraft carriers is really unmatched by battleships.

Although Xiang Xiaoqiang has always known that battleships are more expensive than aircraft carriers, he has never seriously compared how expensive they are. Now that Wang Hexiang, a military industry expert, said it, he immediately gave up the idea of ​​obtaining the Bismarck blueprints from Germany.

He stood up and turned around a few times, thinking: According to Wang Hexiang, with the 180 million Mingyang obtained from the Netherlands, if we want to build mainstream battleships, we can only build 4-5 ships now.

If we build aircraft carriers of the same level, we can build 8-9 aircraft carriers.

Eight, or nine 30,000-ton aircraft carriers! Oh my god, they are invincible at sea!

Xiang Xiaoqiang's blood boiled for a moment. Although he also knew that all the money could not be used for one thing, he still acted like this. In fact, Xiang Xiaoqiang, like most military fans, liked battleships far more than aircraft carriers.

However, aircraft carriers will completely eliminate battleships. This is also the basic common sense of everyone in future generations. Now that the "Navy Holiday" is over, what to build is related to the fate of the Ming Empire and the fate of the Chinese nation in this time. Xiang Xiaoqiang will definitely understand

clear.

He originally knew that aircraft carriers were cheaper than battleships, but he did not expect them to be so cheap. By diverting the resources from building battleships to building aircraft carriers, he could build twice as many aircraft carriers. This surprising prospect shocked him.

Xiang Xiaoqiang immediately decided that after returning to China, he would persuade Zhu Yourong at all costs to immediately stop all battleship construction plans and switch to aircraft carrier construction. Time and money are limited, and they cannot be wasted on those flashy battleships.

.



The next morning, negotiations were held at the hotel where Xiang Xiaoqiang was staying. The German representative was Ribbentrop, the head of diplomacy of the Nazi Party. Because Xiang Xiaoqiang did not come in an official capacity, it was inconvenient for Foreign Minister Neureiter to come forward.

Xiang Xiaoqiang secretly laughed: I have even met the Prime Minister, but it is inconvenient to meet the Foreign Minister.

In fact, he also knew that at this time, Ribbentrop was already on the verge of replacing Neurath. Ribbentrop was highly valued by Hitler. For many major diplomatic activities, Hitler had only sent Ribbentrop.

Instead of sending Niu Wright.

Today, Ribbentrop brought a large group of experts in industry, science and technology, and economics to discuss economic and technological cooperation issues with Xiang Xiaoqiang's delegation. The two sides discussed for a day and basically finalized that Germany will start from this year.

Daming transferred a series of technologies, production lines, and technical talents in the chemical industry, ferrous metallurgical industry, nonferrous metallurgical industry, machinery manufacturing industry, automobile manufacturing industry, aircraft manufacturing industry, electronics industry, arms industry, etc.

These are things that Ming Dynasty has had good relations with Britain for decades and has never been obtained from Britain.

Now, Daming's industry is about to undergo a major upgrade.

Daming provides Germany with a total of 3 million to 3.5 million tons of rice, wheat, corn and other grains and 1 million to 1.5 million tons of pork every year, accounting for about half of Germany's own consumption. In addition, it will also provide Germany with a large amount of food every year.

Tungsten, cobalt, manganese, lead-zinc, bauxite, tin, nickel, chromium, titanium, vanadium... and other non-ferrous metal ores. In addition, there are shipbuilding technology and permanent defense line construction technology that Daming is better at. Daming also needs

Send a large number of technical personnel to Germany.

After talking for so many days, today is the day that we talked the most. In the past few days, Xiang Xiaoqiang was mainly talking to Hitler. The two sides talked mostly about political transactions, so we should be careful, every word, every word.

It takes a long time to waffle. The political transactions are basically cleared up, and the following technical and economic transactions can be discussed much faster.

Different from the past few days, he didn't go to the negotiation table much today because the talks were all about things he didn't understand. It was just three old consultants chatting with a bunch of Germans at the negotiation table. But at the end of the day, Xi Jinping

Xiaoqiang was also dizzy. He, Qiu Qiu, and several guards each

They all got a transmitter and were constantly sending and receiving telegrams in the next room to communicate with the country. Nanjing is also very busy now. In the official residence of the Chief Minister, several conference rooms are crowded with ministers, experts, and general officials from various ministries.

The company's representatives were noisy and controlled the negotiations in Berlin.

Officials from Germany, officials from Ming Dynasty, and the Xiang Xiaoqiang delegation were all very excited. Because today, they witnessed with their own eyes the resources of two world powers integrated with each other. Putting aside the two countries

The ideology, nature of the regime, and respective political purposes are just the contribution of this matter itself to the development of human productivity, which is also immeasurable.



However, after talking for a whole day, only part of the discussion was still completed. According to estimates from both sides, it will take at least two to three days to finalize a rough blueprint for economic and technical cooperation between the two sides.

Because I have received successive banquets from the German side in the past few days, and today's negotiation was held at my residence, Xiang Xiaoqiang held a banquet in a Chinese restaurant in Berlin in the evening to entertain Ribbentrop and the others. Because there were many people, and considering the

The Germans loved pork, so they ordered Xiaoqiang to have a crispy roasted pig. The roasted pig was Cantonese style, with a dark yellow crispy skin, and a layer of sweet sesame sauce on the surface. The Germans ate it.

Gotta smile.

During the dinner, Ribbentrop poured Xiang Xiaoqiang several glasses of white wine, and then with a smile, he asked him about the three warships.

"Oh, a warship, right..." Xiang Xiaoqiang gnawed on a pork knuckle and said vaguely, "...I've asked for you. At present... there's a debate... in our country... there's a debate...

It’s pretty awesome... ugh, oh, oh, oh..."

"Yeah." Ribbentrop blinked, leaned closer to the interpreter, and listened carefully.

Xiang Xiaoqiang swallowed a large piece of meat in his mouth, took a sip of beer, and then gasped and said:

"...There are two factions, and they are quarreling fiercely. One faction advocates selling it and using the money to build the new ship. This way the financial burden will be smaller..."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah!" Ribbentrop stared at him with his small eyes and kept nodding, indicating that he seriously supported this view.

"But the other group advocates keeping them for their own use. Because the shipbuilding competition between us and Japan is about to begin, and Japan will not sell its old ships. They only think that the more the better. Whatever happened to the old ones, the same goes for the old ones.

Deterrence. Especially in an arms race, who doesn’t want to have their own hands

There are more things in it... So, the two factions are arguing very fiercely. Now our chief minister and our majesty don't know who to listen to. Alas, I support the first faction. I also know that you

We are short of warships, and I also want to sell domestic warships to you, but alas, it’s difficult!”

"Yeah." Ribbentrop nodded again, blinked his sly little eyes twice, and already understood in his heart: Xiang Xiaoqiang was deliberately making things difficult, pretending that he didn't want to sell, so he could bargain.

Being in a favorable position also prevents Germany from bargaining.

Ribbentrop didn't say anything or continue to mention the matter, but turned to talk about other things. Xiang Xiaoqiang was surprised and felt that he had made a mistake. He kept looking forward to him bringing up this topic again.

The atmosphere at the dinner table became one of joking again. After a while, Ribbentrop raised his glass and suggested that everyone drink another drink. But why did they drink?

So far, the two sides have toasted more than a dozen times, with a variety of drinks: toasts to the friendship between the two countries, toasts to the health of the two heads of state, toasts to the birthdays of General Xiang Xiaoqiang and Chancellor Hitler, and toasts to the two countries.

Cheers to the successful signing of the China Agreement, toasts to Germany’s industrial technology, toasts to Ming Dynasty’s grain and minerals, toasts to the friendship ships Yu Cong and Yong’an Princess, and even the last glass of wine is a toast to tonight’s meal.

Cheers to the warship! Cheers to the warship! Xiang Xiaoqiang shouted in his heart.

"Well, friends," Ribbentrop said with a smile, his little eyes shining, "let us drink to this roast suckling pig!"

The whole table burst into laughter, and everyone raised their glasses and clinked them on top of the suckling pig.



After a while, Xiang Xiaoqiang went to the toilet, and Song Ruhai followed quietly.

After entering the bathroom, Song Ruhai made sure that no one was there, lowered his voice and scolded Xiang Xiaoqiang:

"Sir, the Germans took the initiative to ask about the battleship, and our quotation code is just that. Why are you selling it? Ribbentrop is a veteran in diplomatic negotiations. How can you think of playing tricks in front of him? He and Hitler are two different people.

This kind of person! Yes, you talk to Hitler, Hitler will accept your tricks, Ribbentrop can

Don’t eat it! Hitler’s negotiations were based entirely on his feelings, but Ribbentrop was a professional at this!... Sir, the price we are given in China is just for us to quote. If you do this, others may think that we have no

Sincerity... Sir, when he mentions it again, you must not do it like this time!"

Xiang Xiaoqiang's face turned red and white, and he nodded to admit his mistake.

Not long after the two of them returned to the dinner table, Ribbentrop seemed to understand that Xiang Xiaoqiang had just been trained, and came over with a smile again, and then asked about the battleship.

Xiang Xiaoqiang didn't dare to behave this time. His face was burning, he glanced at Ribbentrop, opened his mouth and said:

"The Gonggong number is 13.65 million mingyang, the Xiangyu number, and the Han signal are all 10.68 million mingyang. These are the prices reported domestically. We are still arguing in the country, but if your country really wants it, I can help you get it.

.We will see how the exchange is carried out. If we pay everything, our cabinet will tell us that we can only use gold."

Ribbentrop's eyes widened and he exclaimed softly:

"Sir, did I hear you correctly? More than 10 million Mingyang? And it has to be paid in full gold? Have you ever calculated how much gold that is? More than twenty tons! In any country's gold reserves, twenty tons is

It’s a huge proportion. The Third Reich has twenty tons of gold, but we can’t use twenty tons of gold just to buy three old warships.”

Then he quickly added:

"Also, the price is unaffordable for us."

Xiang Xiaoqiang smiled, shook his head, and said with understanding:

"I also know your difficulties. So we are still arguing in our country! If we reach an agreement and say to sell, the conditions will definitely be looser... However, if you really want it, I can help you make plans. Look,

Let’s see if there is any other way besides buying with gold, such as paying part of it in gold and paying the other part in other forms.”

"For example, Ming Yang?"

He raised his eyebrows at Xiaoqiang and said with a smile:

"For example, talent?"


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