On June 18, the American business delegation came to Nanjing.
This ship of Americans first sailed south from the east coast of the United States through the Caribbean, passed through the Panama Canal, and then crossed the Pacific... This brand-new high-speed cruise ship was chartered by these bosses as soon as it was built, and it cost 30+ knots.
After traveling on the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean for more than twenty days, we finally entered Shanghai Port at noon on the 17th. Then we boarded the train without stopping and finally arrived in Nanjing on the evening of the 17th.
The delegation was semi-civilian and semi-official. As soon as the war started in Northern Xinjiang of the Ming Dynasty, especially when the two sides did not declare war on the second day, the bosses from all walks of life in the United States knew it, so they couldn't sit still. Various lobbying organizations
Wandering among the offices in the parliament building, companies also contacted each other to form business delegations and go to Ming Dynasty to dig gold together. Those with branches and offices in Ming Dynasty also had radio waves shuttled over the Pacific Ocean all day long.
They all understand that the Neutrality Law cannot stop them this time.
This time, the bosses are willing, the workers are willing, the congressmen are willing, the White House is willing, and the entire United States is willing. But the Ming Dynasty was suddenly attacked by the Soviet Union and almost panicked, and the weakness of the northwest's lack of combat vehicles was also exposed.
It depends on Ming's own production, and the war may be over when enough is produced. So Ming is also 100 willing. It was only the third day of the war, and the first ship was fully loaded with the boss and the Federation.
The government official's cruise ship left New York and headed to Southampton.
The officials on the ship were mainly President Roosevelt's personal envoy, as well as several officials from the commerce and diplomatic departments. Most of the others were people from the business world. Smaller companies were directly handled by their bosses, while large companies such as
Companies like Ford and General Motors at least send company executives and board members to come.
…
On the night of the 17th, a dinner was held at Wuwang Villa in Nanjing to entertain the arrival of the American business delegation. The host of the banquet was He Ziguang, the Minister of Foreign Affairs. In view of the fact that there were several world-class important figures in the American delegation, and to show Ming Dynasty’s enthusiasm in this regard, Yanping
Wang Zheng Gongyin also attended the banquet in his personal capacity as the owner of the villa.
Although the highest-ranking official in the Ming Dynasty was only a minister, there were still many important people present at the dinner. For example, "Marquis of Yili" Xiang Xiaoqiang and "Princess Jade City" Shang Xiu and his wife, as well as Xiang Xiaoqiang's brother-in-law Ye Ziyu - of course, brother-in-law Ye Ziyu
Yu is not an important person, but that night Daming Ford
The company's president Bai Deli also came to participate, so he would naturally bring his wife and daughter. When Bai Xiaoman came, her fiancé Ye Ziyu naturally had to come. And Ye Ziyu became a key link at this time: one side represented the United States
The fiancée and future father-in-law from the business world, and the sister and brother-in-law who represent the official Ming Dynasty on one side.
The dinner was Chinese-style, and all the food was Chinese food. President Roosevelt's special envoy Smith and Foreign Minister He Ziguang sat together. After three rounds of wine and five dishes, Smith was holding Maotai, and his face was red from drinking. He used half-truths and half-deceptions to
Drunk, he approached He Ziguang and whispered in Chinese:
"Sir... you don't know... our Secretary of State Hull... Hiccup... is planning to visit your country... Haha, come back to your country... Hiccup... is that okay?"
When He Ziguang heard this, he was secretly happy, and he also laughed out of his drunkenness:
"Hiccup... As long as you have no problem, we will have no problem here... Hiccup... I can say it now... Please ask Mr. Hull... to visit our country at a convenient time... Hiccup, I said, this doesn't count for us. A formal meeting?"
Smith laughed, held the Maotai as a gesture, and the two clinked their glasses and drank it all in one gulp.
…
The next day, official negotiations between the two sides began. Shen Rongxuan and several military and political officials personally received Smith and the American delegation.
In fact, this kind of negotiation is not an official negotiation, but more like a buyer and seller discussing an order. For a large number of finished products like cars, and it is basically an order that can be taken by one company, the Ming government only needs to talk to the representatives of the other company. Just talk about it. As for other arms products, as well as hundreds of scattered products, such as cables, barbed wire, special steels, chemicals, etc., the United States cannot send company representatives for each category, but can only negotiate with U.S. official representatives said that they will determine the quantity that can be supplied to Daming based on the product's output, cost, production cycle, etc. in the United States. It is equivalent to making a "purchasing outline" first. As for the specific price of each type, that is Daming Negotiated with their company.
First is the airplane.
Shen Rongxuan asked:
"Mr. Smith, how many DC-3 transport aircraft can you sell to us per month at most in the next six months?"
Smith lowered his head and flipped through the materials and said:
"Well... Mr. Shen, I think, but in terms of output, our output can meet the quantity you require... and the price will not be too much. I believe you will be satisfied... DC-3 is a very It is a transport aircraft that is easy to use and has a good cost-effectiveness... But how many of them we can sell to you every month does not depend on the above factors..."
"Depends on what?"
Smith looked up and asked:
"Are you going to take care of the transportation yourself, or will we provide the transportation? The prices of the two are different, and there may even be a big difference. You know, although the DC-3 is very long-range, with a maximum range of more than 2,000 kilometers, it is still not enough to travel from the west coast Flying to Hawaii is not enough to fly from Hawaii to your country. The Pacific Ocean is too wide, and there is a lack of transfer stations in the middle. At least there is a lack of friendly transfer stations. So we have to split it up and take sea transportation. And that kind of large aircraft, a cargo ship We can’t fit a few planes, so the transportation cost is relatively high... If we package the transportation, with our country’s transportation capacity, we can ship up to about 100 planes to your country every month.”
Shen Rongxuan frowned, turned to the side, discussed with the Minister of Commerce and the Undersecretary of the Navy, and then said:
"At present, it seems that we will probably use a combination of our own transportation + your country's packaged transportation. Our country's shipping capacity is not as good as your country's, but the shipping cost is still lower than your country. Now that our country has just unified the north, there are more With a population of nearly 400 million, labor prices in the South have also been severely impacted... The government must find ways to provide more jobs for the public. In this way, dozens more planes can be transported every month."
"Very good." Smith looked down at the information, wrote something, and then raised his head and asked, "Sir, in addition to large transport aircraft, do you want small aircraft? For example, fighter jets?"
"No," Shen Rongxuan shook his head, "No need. We can produce it ourselves."
Smith smiled and said:
"Our military's fighter jets perform very well."
Shen Rongxuan smiled and said:
“Ours is pretty good too.”
Smith didn't know that Ming Dynasty was already mass-producing "Goshawk", so he could only smile and said:
"Dive bombers... Haha, you already have a better 'Vulture'... I will no longer recommend ours. Do you still want the Thomson submachine gun?"
"No more for the time being. We already have the L-36 submachine gun, which is produced in large enough quantities and cheap enough. It is unlikely that there will be large-volume demand for Thomson submachine guns. Compared with light weapons, we may need heavy weapons, such as artillery. .”
Smith smiled and said:
"Anti-tank gun?"
Shen Rongxuan nodded:
"Anti-tank guns. The Soviet tank cluster is really a headache. We don't have enough anti-tank guns in our assets. Far from enough."