The plane landed in Lambatu, the capital of Avare, and was greeted at the airport by Gaijan and Qin Chong's factory director, Gong Zhenxing, with a group of subordinates. After a brief exchange of pleasantries, they took several cars to Ba Tin Province. Although Feng Xiaochen was the person closest to Gai Zhan, he was not of enough rank and could only sit on the bus with most people. Gai Zhan accompanied the two directors of the Ministry of Machinery and the Ministry of Foreign Trade in a car, and talked freely about Sino-Arab friendship all the way.

The scenery on the road is lackluster, Feng Xiaochen has been to Africa many times in his previous life, and he is naturally not interested in seeing such a scene. However, Wang Genji, Wu Shican, Feng Fei and others sat in the car, looking at everything outside and feeling fresh, and from time to time they exclaimed a few times, as if they had forgotten all the hard work along the way.

The journey from Lambatu to Batin was not far, and the convoy drove for an hour on the barely passable road, and the factory was already faintly visible in front of it, and the iconic iron-making blast furnace showed that it was the Batin Iron and Steel Plant that everyone was going to. Closer to the people, what caught people's eyes was colorful flags, as well as bright red banners, some written in English, some written in a script that no one could understand, according to the accompanying Qin Zhong staff, it was the local language of Avare, and few Chinese could recognize it.

The director and chief engineer of the Bating Iron and Steel Plant, as well as the personnel of Qin Chong, who was responsible for the construction of the 1700 mm hot rolling mill, greeted everyone outside the factory gate. After a chaotic exchange of introductions and greetings, Feng Xiaochen was brought to Qin Chong's chief engineer Xu Wenliang and deputy chief engineer Cui Yongfeng. Cui Yongfeng, the chief designer of the hot rolling line, has been here for several months since the equipment was manufactured, and he has been with him to Avalé to guide the installation and commissioning of the site. Xu Wenliang came from China only a few days ago to help carry out the final inspection of the equipment, and then stayed here to wait for the commissioning ceremony.

"Chief Engineer Xu, congratulations, your long-cherished wish has been fulfilled. ”

Feng Xiaochen said with a smile while shaking hands with Xu Wenliang.

He remembered that when he first went to Qinzhong, he heard Xu Wenliang say that his greatest wish in this life was to be able to design a hot rolling production line that reached the international advanced level. Now that this production line has been completed and put into operation, Xu Wenliang's wish should be considered to have come true.

Xu Wenliang had a happy smile on his face, he waved his hand and said, "Director Feng, you can't say that, this production line is mainly designed by Yongfeng, and I am just a consultant." However, I have also thought clearly that if our country wants to catch up with and surpass the world's advanced level, it cannot be done by our generation alone. The achievements of Yongfeng's generation are also our achievements. Speaking of which, we are able to achieve today's results thanks to Director Feng. ”

"Everywhere, I'm a complete layman on metallurgy. Feng Xiaochen said modestly.

Xu Wenliang said with a smile: "If Director Feng is a layman, then I'm afraid there are few people in this door who dare to stay." The technologies we used to exchange patents with Sanli Steel were all inspired by Director Feng, so Director Feng shouldn't have forgotten it, right?"

Feng Xiaochen said: "I just came up with a few ideas, and it was not Chief Engineer Xu and Chief Engineer Cui who directly turned these ideas into technology?"

After greeting Xu Wenliang, Feng Xiaochen turned to Cui Yongfeng again. When he reached out to shake hands with Cui Yongfeng, he couldn't help but be startled, only to see that Cui Yongfeng's whole person had lost weight, and his original dark hair was now half white. He asked in astonishment, "Chief Engineer Cui, what's the matter with you, why is your hair gray?"

"Is it?" Cui Yongfeng touched his head absently, and then said with a smile: "My Niuniu watched fairy tales some time ago, and said that there was an old man who wrote fairy tales, and when there was no ink in writing, he squeezed a little black ink out of his hair, and over time, black hair turned into white hair. I guess that's the same with me, when I drew the drawings, there was no ink, so I squeezed a little out of my hair. ”

In the past two years, Mr. Cui has stayed up late almost every day, and he has to do the overall design and discuss the production process with the workers. Especially in the past few months, I have been debugging equipment in Avare, and I can't even guarantee 4 hours of sleep a day, so won't my hair turn white?" a female technician standing next to Cui Yongfeng said to Feng Xiaochen in a dissatisfied tone. Feng Xiaochen recognized that this person's name was Wu Dandan, and he was Cui Yongfeng's assistant, and it was estimated that he usually had a lot of trouble with Cui Yongfeng for things in life.

"No way, it's stressful. Cui Yongfeng was exposed by Wu Dandan, and could only sigh and say to Feng Xiaochen, "This project was handed over to China by Avarey, and many of their domestic officials and people in the industry are quite complaining. During the time I came to Batin, I was questioned more than once by someone who asked me whether the quality of our products in China is good or not, and whether it is technically reliable. In such a situation, the slightest mistake can be used as a voice for others. Teacher Xu handed over this project to me in charge, do you think I can sleep soundly?"

"What's the situation now? There won't be any problems with the commissioning of the equipment, right?" Feng Xiaochen asked.

Cui Yongfeng patted his chest and said: "There will be absolutely no problem, I have taken someone to check it dozens of times, and Mr. Xu has also checked it twice, which can be said to be foolproof." Our production line, the integration of the West Dec Klinz and Japan Sanli Steel Institute technology, and add some of our own experience and ideas, the technical level can reach the international standards of the early 80s, the quality is not said, every link can be described as excellence. We have promised the Ministry of Metallurgy and the Heavy Equipment Office that this hot rolling production line will become a benchmark for Chinese equipment in Africa. ”

"Yes, we really have to make this project a benchmark for us. Feng Xiaochen nodded and said, after that, he raised his hand and pointed at the banner above his head, and asked: "Chief Engineer Cui, I have a question, tomorrow is the equipment production celebration, why do these banners have no Chinese?"

"Chinese?" Cui Yongfeng was stunned, he obviously did not think about this question, he looked up, and then said: "This may be because there are not many people in Avalé who understand Chinese, right?" You see, these banners are mainly in two languages, one is Avare, which is written for the country's people, and the other is English, which itself is also one of the official languages of Avalai, and the other is for foreign reporters who come to interview. Avaré attaches great importance to the commissioning of this production line, and tomorrow's celebration has invited several Western media to report, and the reporters of the Western media must know English, but Chinese is not necessary. ”

"Who said it wasn't necessary?" Feng Xiaochen said, "This production line is made by us and represents China's equipment industry." When it came time to hold the celebration, outsiders could not see any Chinese elements, and the content of these banners was only to celebrate the opening of the production line, but there was no mention of who provided the production line. According to such propaganda, who knows that we Chinese can build a high-quality and inexpensive hot rolling production line?"

"That makes sense!" Cui Yongfeng slapped his thigh. He's a tech guy and doesn't pay much attention to the marketing side of things. This time, the banner prepared by the Bating Iron and Steel Plant only has two languages, English and Arabic, and there is no Chinese, and Cui Yongfeng is also thinking in the direction of being most considerate of the other party, and has not thought about whether this is a disadvantage to China. Now listening to Feng Xiaochen's analysis, Cui Yongfeng reacted, isn't it, he is full of thoughts about showing China's industrial level through this project, but people don't give you a chance at all.

"Director Feng, what do you think?" asked Cui Yongfeng.

Feng Xiaochen said: "No, I have to negotiate with Gai Zhan about this matter, and I can't let them be fooled around like this." ”

Feng Xiaochen said that he would do it, he first found Wang Genji and Wu Shican, and told him his thoughts. Wang Genji exploded when he heard this, shouting that he wanted to settle accounts with Gai Zhan. Wu Shican is a little older, but he also expressed displeasure at this. The three of them went to the director of the mechanical department who led the team and talked to him, and the director was a little unsure of how to handle the proportions of this matter, so he simply handed over the power to Feng Xiaochen and his party, and asked them to negotiate with Gai Zhan in the name of the rearmament office, and said that when he needed to come forward, he would not be too late to speak.

Feng Xiaochen originally didn't plan to let the director of the department go to fight with Gai Zhan, with his experience, officials are more cautious when it comes to foreign affairs, or to put it more resentfully, that is, they lack backbone. It is no wonder that Chinese officials have always said that "diplomacy is no trivial matter", as long as it is a foreign-related matter, everyone has to be cautious, for fear that if something is not handled well, there will be a diplomatic dispute. In this regard, Feng Xiaochen is definitely an alternative, in the era before he traveled, China's foreign economic cooperation was already very common, foreign-related matters were not so sensitive, and the Chinese people had been able to communicate with foreign businessmen on an equal footing, whether it was negotiation or struggle, everyone had confidence.

"Minister Gaijan, can I delay you for a few minutes?"

Feng Xiaochen came to Gai Zhan with Wang Jiji and asked politely.

"Absolutely. Gai Zhan smiled all over his face, "Dear Mr. Feng, I didn't have time to talk to you at the airport just now, how are you now?"

"I'm very old. Feng Xiaochen replied casually, "Minister Gai Zhan, I hope that after the celebration, we can find time to talk about it alone." But now, I have something related to the celebration that I would like to ask you about. ”

"Okay, you can ask. Gajan said.

Feng Xiaochen said, "I want to know, why are the banners you hang out only have Avaré and English, but not Chinese?"

"Chinese?" Gai Zhan was a little confused like Cui Yongfeng just now, and he subconsciously asked, "Why should there be Chinese?"

"Because this production line is made in China. Feng Xiaochen replied.