Xucheng has not yet had a direct flight to Birmingham, England, so Shen Huai and Sun Yalin will go to Hong Kong first, and they will first meet Song Hongjun in Hong Kong. In order to save money, Shao Zheng did not go abroad with him.

Sun Qiyi avoided it, and Song Hongjun helped gather some insiders in Hong Kong to give Shen Huai the opportunity to promote the project, but the effect was not great.

Although Hong Kong and Taiwan Chinese businessmen are optimistic about the mainland's development since the beginning of reform and opening up, their investment, which is mainly export-oriented production and trade, mainly flowed to Guangnan, Jiangdong, and other southeastern coastal areas with relatively good economic foundations throughout the early 90s.

It seems that the coastal areas from the mouth of the Zhu River to the north took the Zhu River as the boundary, and in the mid-to-early 90s, the investment from Hong Kong and Taiwan dropped sharply. Further north is the coastal areas of the Shandong Peninsula and the Liaodong Peninsula, which can attract investment from Japan and South Korea to a relatively large extent, but Huaihai Province is stuck in the middle and has become a low-lying land in terms of attracting investment.

Song Hongjun is also very helpful in advocating, but many businessmen pay attention to reality.

Hardly anyone would think that a region with a per capita GDP of less than HK$2,500 and a per capita income of less than HK$2,000 would be better off in terms of investment environment.

Shen Huai and Sun Yalin stayed in Hong Kong for two days and only talked about an investment of less than 10 million Hong Kong dollars.

This 10 million is just an investment intention, and there are a few people who can't erase the face of Song Hongjun and Sun Yalin, and promise to take time to go to Donghua to investigate, and it is uncertain whether it can be implemented in the end.

Song Hongjun also had no intention of investing more in the new project, and even persuaded Shen Huai and Sun Yalin to give up on the way to the airport:

"It's not easy for your dad to get mixed with the vice governor, you have to understand his feelings, and I'm afraid that you will mess things up, and he can only be accused of having no way to teach his son - now if you give up the introduction of second-hand steelmaking wire from West Omins, my 10 million will continue to be invested in Meixi Town. I think, as far as Mei Gang is concerned, you have done a solid job, and money and political achievements are indispensable, so why bother to take risks again?"

"This project is very important to the future development of Meigang and Donghua, no matter how hard it is, no matter how big the difficulties, I will overcome; if I give up easily, Meigang will not have today's pattern," Shen Huai said, "Brother Hongjun, if you need funds for other businesses, I will not complain to you about anything......

"What are you talking about, what if I just give you the 10 million for free?" Song Hongjun said with a smile, "I'll just say, if you think it's feasible to introduce steelmaking wire from West Youmins, my 10 million will definitely arrive on time, you don't have to worry about me." ”

Shen Huai also knew that it must have been his father who called Song Hongjun, and Song Hongjun could not siphon out the 10 million funds he promised to invest at the beginning, which was already under pressure.

On the plane, Shen Huai couldn't help but be a little pessimistic about the trip, and asked Sun Yalin: "Do you say that your second uncle Sun Qiyi will also let go of the news in advance......

Sun Yalin glanced at Shen Huai sideways, and said disdainfully: "You said that with your virtue, what else do you need my second uncle to say?" Tell me, who in the Sun family is as stupid and bold as me now, and dares to take money and smash you on you?"

Shen Huai laughed and asked again, "What about your father? I'm afraid we won't be able to meet in Birmingham this time." ”

"It depends on how much he wants to see my daughter?" Sun Yalin said, "It's also your fault, I'm so close to you now, and I'm about to become an outlier and a freak in the Sun family," and said, "It's strange to think about people's hearts, if your second fool father, if he is only a deputy director-level official, he will not expect to be able to stop the governor and minister in this life." In the past year or so, he has jumped two levels in a row, and suddenly jumped to the vice governor, even if countless people say that this is someone else's comfort to your Song family, it can't withstand your second fool's father's extravagant hope to stabilize for a few years, and he can get a governor or minister to do it. Even if it is a vice provincial ministry with real power, it is stronger than now. But if you put up a troublesome and disobedient son like you, and make him uneasy, do you think he will feel very unlucky in his heart?"

Shen Huai smiled, he didn't want to speculate about what his "father's" mentality was, but he had to admit that Sun Yalin sometimes spoke to the point:

If his father didn't want to simply hang as vice governor for two years and then go back to the ministry to get a vice minister-level idle post until retirement, then it is likely to have a closer integration with Su Weijun and Tan Qiping in the Huaihai provincial capital, and politically he may also move closer to the governor Zhao Qiuhua and sing against Tian Jiageng, and the troublesome things are still to come......

Shen Huai and the flight attendants asked for blankets, wrapped themselves in sleep, no longer thought about these headaches, and rushed to Birmingham, England, to meet Zhou Zhibai and Zhao Dong first.

****************

Birmingham is located in the middle of England, as the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution, the industrial system gradually became large-scale as early as the 16th and 17th centuries, and is now the second largest city in the United Kingdom, one of the UK's manufacturing centers, and the world's largest metalworking area. Birmingham has a wide range of industrial sectors, from ferrous metallurgy, non-ferrous metallurgy, machine tools, instruments, carriages, aircraft, chemicals, to military industry, automobiles and other industries are very large.

Almost 30% of the UK's exports are now manufactured in Birmingham. West Omins Industries is just one of Birmingham's many industrial companies.

However, the economy of Western Europe as a whole has been weakened since the 80s, and Birmingham's economy is also shifting to the tertiary industry, finance, tourism and new energy industries, so that Birmingham's traditional industrial clusters are facing drastic adjustments.

Meigang intends to purchase the electric furnace steel production line that West Youmins will obsolete, and the attitude of West Youmins is welcome. This electric furnace steel line is planned to be phased out soon, and there are only two years left before the scrapping period, and if no manufacturer is willing to take over, it can only be sent directly to the steelmaking furnace as scrap.

Sieumings' offer for this electric furnace wire is also not high, it is slightly higher than the price of scrap.

Siyoumins is not stupid either, for them, it doesn't seem like a big deal to transfer the entire electric furnace wire to Meigang at the price of scrap, but they can save a lot of money on dismantling costs. At the price of labour in Birmingham, the cost of demolition can be in the millions of dollars.

After the transfer to Meigang, Meigang will be responsible for dismantling.

Whether it is the dismantling of the steelmaking line or the reinstallation of the steel line in China, as well as the commissioning of the production line in the future, Meigang will hire a considerable number of engineers from West Youmins to help West Youmins alleviate some of the current pressure of layoffs. The facilities of the steelmaking line are sold cheaply to Meigang, and the steelmaking line has to be put into operation, and there are some technologies of the West Youmins Industrial Group, and the transfer of technology can also allow West Youmins to obtain an additional income.

In order to save costs, Zhao Dong, Pan Cheng and Zhou Zhibai led a team to Birmingham in advance to confirm that the steelmaking line could be used, and the initial contact with Zhongxi Yumins Industrial Group also showed considerable sincerity, so they directly rented a workers' dormitory in West Youmings as a preparatory office for the new project overseas.

For his part, Si Youmins also directly appointed David Allen, the general manager of the steel plant, and others to be responsible for contacting Meigang.

David Allen was only thirty-five or sixteen years old, a classic Caucasian man of England, tall and blond with hair. At such a young age, he can be responsible for the operation of a steel plant with an annual output of 400,000 tons of steel within the conservative West Ummins Industrial Group, which can be regarded as a young and promising background.

However, before this production line was demolished by Meigang, most of the employees of the steel plant would be laid off. Even if David Allen gets a new position within the West Omins Industries, it won't be ideal.

David Allen's expertise is in the operation and management of traditional industries, and the entire Birmingham traditional industrial cluster is shrinking, and another steel plant in West Youmings is likely to be demolished in two years, and David Allen's expertise will be of little use if it remains in Birmingham.

Therefore, in the first few days after Shen Huai came, David Allen did his duty as a professional manager, but he couldn't help but show some depression, not to mention special enthusiasm.

Foreign managers like David Allen often earn more than 100,000 or 200,000 pounds a year, and Mei Gang can't afford it now.

Of course, even if Shen Huai is willing to hire for a long time, people may not be happy.

David Allen and the other project managers who participated in the negotiation were full of doubts and puzzles about Meigang's behavior, and their hearts were full of doubts, why did they bother to dismantle a steelmaking line that was going to be scrapped in two years? Can it really be installed and operated for another ten or eight years?

The poor imagined that the emperor used a golden flat pole all day long, and the emperor wondered why the poor did not have minced meat.

I don't know if Sun Qiyi is behind the scenes, Sun Yalin's father didn't take the time to come to Birmingham, and Shen Huai didn't have time to go to Paris to meet the old Sun family, and he also knew that there would be no ideal results in the past this time.

Because Zhao Dong, Pan Cheng, and Zhou Zhibai led the team in the early stage and did a lot of meticulous work, after Shen Huai arrived, they made decisions quickly.

It also happened that the steelmaking line of West Youmins was planned to officially stop running after Christmas, and Shen Huai could still seize the last two or three days to better observe the actual condition of the equipment when the steelmaking line was running.

The main electric furnace steel line that Meigang is running now is the technology imported from the early 80s from the United Kingdom, which is very close to the line of West Youmings in terms of technology - this is the main reason why Shen Huai must win this line.

With the existing technical strength of Meigang, there is a very big advantage in operating this line. If you miss this village, there will be no such store, and Shen Huai can only grit his teeth.

Shen Huai climbed forward and climbed for three days, and together with Zhou Zhibai, Zhao Dong, and Pan Cheng, he finalized some doubts that could not be determined in the early stage, and officially decided to launch a new project in the workers' dormitory on the outskirts of Birmingham, and started negotiations with West Youmins Industrial Group on demolition and the introduction of related technologies.

Shen Huai decided to demolish the production line at the same time as the factory infrastructure.

It takes about four to six months to dismantle the equipment of the entire production line and ship it back to China. Shen Huai obviously won't let the country sit there and wait empty-handed for these four to six months.

Shen Huai decided that Zhao Dongxian would return to China to prepare for the pre-construction of the project, and he and Pan Chengxian stayed in Birmingham, in the workers' dormitory on the outskirts of Birmingham, to negotiate with the West Omins Industrial Group while translating the drawings of the steel plant.

Shen Huai also wants the domestic design institute to directly apply the infrastructure plan of the West Youmins Iron and Steel Plant, and then make technical considerations in the construction process, so as to save costs and time to the greatest extent and speed up the construction progress of the project.

Zhou Zhibai has Pengyue's share to be responsible for, and it is impossible to focus most of his energy on this project. Since Peng Yue has a business with the British side in the scrap trade, he will be additionally responsible for the transportation of equipment in the future.

Sun Yalin flew to France to continue to be responsible for fundraising.

If there is no more capital to enter, the 100 million capital that was scraped together in the early stage - a considerable part of which is still converted from land - even if the business credit bank borrows tens of millions more, this amount of funds is not enough for three or four months of consumption.

In three or four months, if no new funds come in, there is no way to even ship the dismantled equipment back to China, and the project will naturally have no way to continue.

Shen Huai stayed in Birmingham for 20 days, and when the details of the agreement were finalized, Pan Cheng and the others remained in the UK, and he returned to China alone.