Feng Xiaochen frequently traveled between China and Europe during this period, and when Bovard called him and asked him to have a second meeting, he happened to visit the Dowling Company in the Netherlands with Han Jiangyue and assist Han Jiangyue to complete the merger and acquisition of the Dowling Company by New Hydraulics.

Dowling is a long-established manufacturer of hydraulic parts in Europe, and its main product was wind turbine reducer. Last time, European wind turbine companies went to China to investigate the production situation of Chinese wind turbine manufacturers, and the president of Dowling, Naiyi, also went. At Xinmin Hydraulics in China, which also produces wind turbine reducers, Nai saw a more spectacular production line than Dowling, and learned that the cost of the new hydraulics' deceleration mechanism was less than half that of Dowling, and that its cost would drop further as more new equipment was put in.

Seeing this, Nye made a decisive decision to close the Dowling factory in Europe and hand over all orders to the new hydraulic OEM. He calculated that even after paying a contract fee to New Hydraulics, Dowling's profit per reducer was more than double that of the past.

According to Nye's idea, Dowling will focus mainly on R&D and sales after abandoning production, and its R&D center and sales center are located in Europe, which can ensure that most of the profits are obtained by Europeans.

The ideal is beautiful, but the reality is very skinny. Less than half a year after the full transfer of production to China, Dowling's R&D department was in an awkward position. Many problems in the production process need engineers to go to the site to deal with them, and sending people from Europe to China to guide production is a very time-consuming, laborious and expensive thing. In the beginning, the engineers were still interested in traveling to China, but after everyone had made a few trips, they made the trip a burden, and each time they had to draw lots to decide who to send there.

Further on, bigger problems arise. Due to the disconnection from the production process, Dowling's European R&D center is unable to grasp the technical dynamics, and some new ideas generated in the production process cannot be fed back to the R&D center, and some ideas of the R&D center often prove to be difficult to implement. In contrast, New Hydraulics' own R&D center can track technical hotspots at any time, and has repeatedly been able to comply with production requirements and propose solutions, pressing its European counterparts below.

Under pressure, Nye finally had to decide to move part of the European R&D center to China, which was directly linked to the production process. When one department moved, communication with other departments became a problem, and other departments moved to China one after another. Because most European engineers are not willing to leave their homeland and work in China for a long time, the Dowling R&D Center has laid off some engineers in Europe and recruited a large number of Chinese engineers to work in the Chinese research center.

Further down is a matter of course. Nye found it interesting to maintain a research and development center far away in China, and it might be more efficient to merge it with the new hydraulics research and development center. As for the European headquarters of Dowling, it is better to focus on market development.

In this way, Nye became the European distributor for our new hydraulics. He sells both Dowling's reducer and the new hydraulic reducer, in contrast, it is more profitable to sell the new hydraulic reducer. Han Jiangyue introduced to Feng Xiaochen with a smile.

"Ney, is this considered a loss for Madame and a soldier?" Feng Xiaochen teased.

Han Jiangyue said: "Actually, Nai Yi can't do it if he doesn't do it. He wanted to stay in the R&D center in Europe, but his engineers were paid several times more than us, and even if they were a little more experienced than our new recruits, they would certainly not be able to compete with the three or four of us competing with them alone. Instead of holding on, it is better to subcontract the R&D work to us. ”

"We used to say that China had an advantage in cheap labor, but now that advantage has shifted to the engineers. Our engineers are also the cheapest in the world, which determines that our R&D costs are much lower than in Western countries. Feng Xiaochen concluded.

In some people's minds, technology development is a genius staring at the wall in a daze, and then suddenly a flash of inspiration appears. Based on this understanding, they criticized Chinese university students for their lack of innovation, and called for reducing the burden from elementary school onwards, allowing children to play the piano more and watch more Shakespeare, which is said to cultivate inspiration.

In fact, most of the time technology research and development is piling up money and people, and the daily work of scientific researchers is to constantly do experiments and find the right path in repeated failures. To do these things, you don't need much inspiration, you need to be able to pile up hundreds or thousands of engineers, so that they can accumulate experience like migrant workers moving bricks until they succeed.

Computer professionals often jokingly refer to themselves as "code farmers", but for good reason. Programming is also a research job, but it's not romantic at all, and it's not thrilling either. The vast majority of algorithms are fixed, and what the programmer has to do is pile them up and turn them into a program that solves the problem.

The process of designing a car or a machine tool is no different from programming, which is to combine a number of established patterns to make it optimal, and the most important thing to achieve this is to have a large number of inexpensive engineers with basic knowledge.

Since the expansion of university enrollment in 1999, the number of new students admitted by Chinese universities has continued to grow by double-digit percentages each year, and tens of millions of science and engineering talents have been cultivated to date. The vast majority of them are certainly not as skilled as Einstein, but they are good enough to do the day-to-day technical research and development in a factory, and over time, many of them will become skilled engineers, comparable to their European and American counterparts.

The tens of millions of graduates of science and engineering universities are a new demographic dividend formed by China after the beginning of the new century, which is unmatched by any country in the world.

"This time, we plan to buy Dowling's research center and several factories in Europe, and in the future we will send people to Europe to work with European engineers and learn from their experience. The patents that Dowling has accumulated in the past are important to us. With these patents and R&D experience, I am confident that New Hydraulics will become one of the top five hydraulic tool manufacturers in the world. Han Jiangyue said in high spirits.

"I have always admired Mr. Han's courage. Feng Xiaochen said with a smile.

Han Jiangyue glanced at Feng Xiaochen and said, "Don't be sarcastic about me, I, and my fat man, are all thanks to your guidance to have my current achievements." The fat man has now done his business to Africa, and the old man Xu is also flying around with the fat man all day long, I really sweat for him, in case the old man has a mistake, I think it is not enough to squeeze out the fat man's whole body meat. ”

Feng Xiaochen smiled: "You don't have to worry about this. I know about an old engineer like Mr. Xu. If you don't let them do something, they will be full of problems, and if you let them do something, they will be more energetic than ever. I also visited Mr. Xu last month, and the old man was full of red face, and he seemed more energetic than when I first met him 30 years ago. ”

Han Jiangyue burst out laughing, comparing an old man in his 80s with when he was in his 50s, he could still look more energetic, Feng Xiaochen was really big enough. However, she also knew what Feng Xiaochen said, because her father had been depressed for a while after he retired, and then she simply invited her father to the new hydraulic to be the honorary chairman, so that he had the opportunity to go around the workshop, and the old man's spirit immediately came up, and he even learned to drive a CNC machine tool, and he was embarrassed in front of her.

"Our merger and acquisition of Dowling Company is not enough to worry about, but Mr. Yang's merger and acquisition of Promai Construction Machinery is a big deal. Of course, this is also Mr. Feng's big deal. I heard that the U.S. Department of Commerce also intervened in this matter some time ago, how is the situation now?" Han Jiangyue led the conversation back to Feng Xiaochen. Chen Yu Guotou acquired the matter of Promai, Han Jiangyue is very aware, she also booked a number of hydraulic technology patents owned by Prometheus to Feng Xiaochen, hoping that Feng Xiaochen will be able to resell this part of the patent to the new hydraulics after the overall acquisition of Prometheus.

Feng Xiaochen shook the mobile phone in his hand and said, "I just received a call from the European Commission, saying that there was still some trouble in selling sensitive technology to us, but they found a workaround and asked me to come over and talk to them. ”

"What workaround?" Han Jiangyue asked subconsciously.

Feng Xiaochen smiled slightly and said, "They didn't say it on the phone, and I won't speculate, anyway, the money is in my hands, and if it meets my expectations, I will pay for it." If it didn't meet my expectations, they let them keep the factory. ”

Han Jiangyue looked at Feng Xiaochen's eyes, smiled, and said, "Mr. Feng, you can't fool me." I guess their plan has long been in your expectation, right? Promai Construction Machinery Company, you and Mr. Yang are both determined to win, you will not take it lightly. Why, is there any conspiracy that even I have to hide?"

"How can there be a conspiracy!" Feng Xiaochen pretended to raise his face and said: "Comrade Han Jiangyue, you should believe in the character of a state cadre, okay, even if I am no longer a national cadre, my character is still completely credible." ”

Han Jiangyue covered her mouth and smiled: "As a friend, of course I believe in your character. However, those who believe in your character seem to have been swept into the garbage heap by now. Well, I know your business needs to be kept secret, so I won't force you to say it. Things are almost done on my side, so hurry to Stuttgart, and the fat man and I wish you success. ”