After the strategy was decided, the Development and Planning Commission and the equipment company began to make intensive arrangements together. On behalf of the Development and Planning Commission, Wang Zhenbin replied to Shuangluo and the other three companies, agreeing to meet with their market leaders, but there were two demands: one was that the meeting with the three companies would be arranged together instead of holding separate talks, and the other was that he hoped that the three companies would send high-level technical department heads to participate in the talks at the same time.

For the latter condition, Albert and others do not think it is strange, because this level of equipment procurement often involves specific technical issues, and it is normal to invite personnel from the technical department to participate in the negotiations. For the former article, everyone is a little puzzled, logically speaking, the best strategy is to negotiate with several competing companies, and each one is the best strategy, how can there be a reason to invite several companies to meet together?

Despite the doubts, the three companies were quick to respond. Subsequently, the China Development and Planning Commission directly issued an invitation letter inviting the marketing personnel and technical personnel of several companies to go to Yubei City, Linhe Province to participate in a so-called "long-distance natural gas compression transmission technology seminar", which lasted for three days.

"Yubei, what kind of city is this?"

After receiving the invitation, Albert and the others were all stunned. They had their men search the map of China for a long time to find this extremely inconspicuous city, and no other information about this city was completely found. They also made long-distance phone calls to the employees of the Chinese representative office, who were limited to knowing that Yubei was a city in northern China and seemed to have some industrial base, but they did not seem to have heard of any particularly well-known companies.

"Does this place have anything to do with the West-to-East Gas Pipeline?" Albert asked a colleague from Seamanz's China office.

"As far as we know, it should be irrelevant, it is neither the starting point nor the end point of the West-East Gas Pipeline, and it is not even a passing city. A colleague responded.

"So, is this a scenic area?"

"I'm sorry, Mr. Albert, but I've never heard of anyone visiting this place...... replied honestly. As a German stationed in China, this representative office employee is very keen to travel in China, but he can feel his conscience and say that Yubei will definitely not rank in the top 100 tourist attractions in China, and if it wants to be ranked in the top 500, I am afraid that I will have to count on the judges to release water.

Despite the doubts, Albert and the others set off at the appointed time, and at the same time really brought a few senior engineers with them. The banner of the other party is a technical seminar, and it is obviously not appropriate for me not to bring a few engineers to the past. In the minds of Albert and others, they felt that this seminar was just a cover played by the Chinese side, and it was estimated that the Chinese Development and Planning Commission was embarrassed to directly talk about the project negotiation, so they held the name of the seminar.

"Mr. Albert, Mr. Maxwin, Mr. Schleyer, welcome, welcome to Yubei. ”

At the rudimentary Yubei Airport, Albert and his entourage were warmly welcomed by the Chinese side. The three of them didn't mean to arrive on the same plane, but the city of Yubei was too small, and there was only one flight from Beijing to Yubei every two days, so they naturally got together.

The first to come forward was Wang Zhenbin, director of the China Development and Planning Commission, whom Albert and others had heard of but had never met.

"Mr. Wang, it's a pleasure to meet you. ”

Albert, Maxwin and Schleier stepped forward respectively, shook hands with Wang Zhenbin warmly, and greeted each other and their respective families.

After saying these words, Wang Zhenbin began to introduce other officials who had come to greet them with him, including Feng Xiaochen, general manager of the China State Equipment Industry Corporation, Qi Ruicang, vice mayor of Yubei City and director of the Government Policy Research Office, and Ren Changbao, director of the Yubei Heavy Machinery Factory. Albert and others also did not understand these official titles of the Chinese, but mechanically shook hands with everyone, smiled, and occasionally patted each other on the shoulder to show affection.

After completing these red tapes, some staff members came forward to invite foreign guests and leaders to board the bus and go to the hotel to stay. Since the personnel of the three companies arrived on the same plane, and there were as many as five or six people in each team, Ren Changbao transferred three medium-sized buses from the factory, and the personnel of each company sat in one, and several officials who picked up the airport were separately accompanied by each car.

The car in which the team of the Seamans company was sitting was accompanied by Qi Ruicang. When the minibus drove out of the airport and headed towards the city of Yubei, Albert sat in the front row, turned his head to look out the window, and began to believe what his colleagues in the representative office said to him, that is, Yubei is definitely not a scenic spot, and the Chinese arranged for them to come to Yubei for a meeting, not a three-day trip to Yubei.

After looking at it for a while, Albert turned his head, pretended to be careless, and asked Qi Ruicang, who was sitting next to him: "Mr. Qi, let me take the liberty of asking, why did your National Development and Planning Commission choose to hold this seminar in Yubei?"

"This question, I think, should be the concern of the leaders of the State Development and Planning Commission for our Yubei. Qi Ruicang replied. He had studied in the United States for many years and had no problem communicating with Albert in English.

"Uh-huh?" Albert said in a nasal voice that was questioning.

Qi Ruicang said: "Mr. Albert does not know that Yubei is one of the oldest industrial cities in China. After the reform and opening up, Yubei's enterprises have been aggressive, overcoming difficulties such as resource depletion and aging technology, and successfully realizing the transformation and rejuvenation of the old industrial base. At present, there are more than 300 enterprises in Yubei whose products are sold overseas and are widely welcomed by overseas customers. For example, our Yubei Xinmin reducer factory, originally only the reducer workshop of Yubei Heavy Machinery Factory, after the introduction of foreign investment, the management level and technical level rose rapidly, and the year before last reached a strategic cooperation agreement with the United States Obier reducer company, OEM for Obier company, 85% of the current global sales of Obier reducer are made in Yubei. By the way, I have the impression that Seamans is also one of Obier's customers. ”

"Well, that's true...... Albert replied nemesly, the American Obier reducer company is a world-renowned reducer company, and Hemanz's reducer has indeed been used in the large equipment produced by Hemanz. However, when it comes to Obier's reducer being OEM by the Chinese, especially in this inexplicable city of Yubei, Albert is not clear. What's more, what does this have to do with the West-East Gas Pipeline, what does this deputy mayor, who is said to have graduated from the University of Chicago and speak excellent English, want to say to himself?

"In addition, our Yubei Container Factory is a start-up enterprise for returned international students. The company adopts more than 20 new patents in the United States, produces more than 10 kinds of containers of different specifications, advanced technology, high quality and low price, has occupied 20% of the global container market share in only three years, Mr. Albert is interested in learning more?

Qi Ruicang continued to say things out of tune. This can't be blamed on him, he has worked in China Merchants for several years, and has just been transferred to the director of the Political Research Office and hung up the false title of deputy mayor, and when he speaks, he still can't get rid of the tone of China Merchants officials, and two of the three sentences are promoting Yubei's products.

Albert could only be perfunctory: "If the time can be arranged, I am very interested in seeing this amazing company and their products." ”

"And ......"

"Uh, Mr. Qi, if I can, I want to wait for my assistant to be there, and then listen to Mr. Qi's introduction, do you think it's okay?"

"Of course, I will arrange for the officials of the Yubei China Merchants Bureau to wait for you at any time that is convenient for you. ”

"Thank you, thank you, wow, look, what did I see, the sheep in your country are actually black......"

Seeing Albert pretend to be fuss and turn his head to admire a black sheepdog passing by outside the window, Qi Ruicang smiled proudly. Feng Xiaochen explained that he should not disclose the arrangements of the Development and Planning Commission and the equipment company in advance, and he would catch the other party off guard. Since he can't tell the real reason, of course Qi Ruicang can only be nonsense. Besides, what he said can't be regarded as complete nonsense, what if Albert is really interested in the reducers and containers produced in Yubei? Isn't this another sales opportunity?

Like Albert, Schleier and Maxwin were treated with perfunctory treatment by their Chinese entourage, Wang Zhenbin and Feng Xiaochen. Schleier deliberately mentioned the compressor quotation in front of Wang Zhenbin, but Wang Zhenbin just played haha and did not discuss with Schleier in depth, which made Schleier feel even more weird.

In the evening of the same day, the Yubei Municipal Government hosted a grand banquet to welcome the sales directors and technical authorities of the three large multinational companies, the details of which are needless to say. Albert, Maxwin, and Schleier had something on their minds, and the banquet naturally didn't taste good. The technical experts who came to China for the first time were eye-opening, shouting and feasting, and their favorability towards China exploded instantly, which was something beyond the control of Albert and others. Albert and the other three took the opportunity of clinking glasses to get together and exchange views, but all three said that they had not seen through the Chinese side's arrangements and could only wait and see.

The next day, the three minibuses stopped at the door of the hotel where the guests were staying. Albert and the others had breakfast and got into the car under the guidance of the staff. The vehicle started and headed for the outskirts of the city. Albert didn't look at the scenery again, he folded his hands in front of his chest, closed his eyes and began to recuperate, he had a hunch that there would be some strange things in today's seminar, and he needed to recuperate himself to deal with his opponents.