At his desk, Minister Xu reviewed the report written by the secretary word by word.

The report is written in the name of the Ministry of Machinery Industry, and the content is to apply for priority use of exhibition resources. Under the instruction of Minister Xu, the secretary did not explain exactly what resources they were, but only brought two sentences in general terms, if you don't read them carefully, it is easy to misunderstand.

Just for these two sentences, the report is full of 2,000 words, including both the Ministry of Machinery Industry's words to prove itself, and the paragraphs expressing the use of resources.

Minister Xu looked at it for a long time, and then said seriously: "It's not good if you don't mention foreign exchange at all, and it's easy to be thought of as a sudden attack by the above when the time comes, hmm...... Let's talk about the bank, let's just say that the capital account will be handed over to us, and it is natural to include foreign exchange, but don't say too specific, you can understand, you can't understand too much, do you understand?"

"Understood. The secretary's throat was dry, and he did understand that it was, but despite writing a lot of reports and accepting many strange requests, a request like Minister Xu was still a hardship among difficulties, which was like playing the trick of picking bones in eggs under the gaze of an old hen, and the worst thing was that he couldn't break the eggshell and hurt the hen.

"Go write it. "Minister Xu will find fault with words, but he will not give up his ideas. With foreign exchange, we can import the necessary equipment, with foreign exchange, we can purchase foreign commodities made with fine workmanship, and with foreign exchange, we can go abroad for inspection and tourism...... As far as the international market is concerned, foreign exchange is the real money, and the renminbi is just a kind of exchange bill, although the scale is very large, but before China's accession to the WTO, its surname is no different from that of Q currency.

For example, Minister Xu, a high-end and high-grade man, once held power, where is he willing to only carry Q coins in his pocket to mix with the world, he is in the Ministry of Machinery Industry, which is a department that wants to be in line with the world, and it is also a department that faces the challenge of joining the WTO, but it is not a self-sufficient department in a small circle like the Ministry of Civil Affairs and the Ministry of Agriculture.

Asking for foreign exchange from the State Council, borrowing foreign exchange from banks, or withholding foreign exchange from the following enterprises, Minister Xu has thought of all the ways he can think of; at present, if the enterprises under the Ministry of Machinery Industry and Dahua Industry share one or two hundred million dollars in foreign exchange, Minister Xu may be a little more reserved, however, the gap between 0 to 4 or even 0 to 5 is really a bit big, so big that Minister Xu cannot be stingy with one or two pens.

His secretary returned to his office with heavy steps, pondered, pulled out thousands of hairs, and finally added the words "bank supervision" and "fund accounts" to the report.

To add something so unformatted to a formatted sentence that it is not eye-catching, it is almost equivalent to rewriting a 2,000-word report.

Two hours later, while Minister Xu was still in the office, the secretary handed in the report again.

His Excellency the Minister spent about 15 minutes reading these two thousand words, and then tapped his finger on the table and said, "Just the fund account, it doesn't seem to be particularly clear, so you try to write the borrowing of funds into it, don't use the word borrowing, but the core concept is to embezzle the funds for a period of time and whitewash it, understand?"

The text secretary fainted when he heard "I don't particularly understand", and thought: Didn't you ask me to write not so clearly?

Minister Xu tapped his fingers on the table again and said, "After writing it out, give it to me immediately, I am in the office today, how long can I change it?"

The secretary began to pull his hair: "I guess it will take two hours." ”

"Hurry up, I'll wait in the office. ”

"Yes. The minister waited, let alone the secretary, and ran back to his desk, pulling his hair with his left hand and grabbing a pen with his right hand.

Heavy two hours later.

Minister Xu knocked on the table and said, "Plus the borrowing of funds is really not good, weaken a little." ”

Heavy four hours later.

Minister Xu knocked on the table and said: "The problem of money must be subtle, and it cannot be completely supervised by the bank, otherwise, those guys who eat people and don't spit out bones will not have to use the funds first." ”

Heavy six hours later.

Minister Xu knocked on the table and said: "The pavilion is the pavilion, and the Ministry of Machinery Industry is the Ministry of Machinery Industry, so we have to make the pavilion and the machinery industry part clear." ”

Heavy eight hours later.

Minister Xu knocked on the table...... The text secretary, who hadn't slept for a day and a night, heard this voice, and simply fell to the ground neatly, not forgetting to pull his hair in a delirious way.

"Here, send him to rest and let Xiao Liu write. Minister Xu sighed lightly: "Hurry up, the exhibition will end in one day." ”

The secretary called out to two people, dragged the secretary on the ground and left.

The ill-fated report began to receive a new round of baptism.

It wasn't until the thirteenth revision that Minister Xu was slightly satisfied and said, "That's the only way to go......"

Hearing this answer, the third secretary shed tears of joy. It seems to be a common practice that the more important the report, the more it needs to be revised, but nevertheless, the number of revisions reached thirteen times is still gaunting, especially in such a short period of time and with such high demands.

Minister Xu picked up the hot towel on the table, wiped his face, pushed away the chair, and said, "I want to return to China as soon as possible, as soon as possible." ”

"The show won't end until tomorrow. The secretary reminded.

"By the end of the show, it's too late. Minister Xu sighed and said, "The news of my return should be kept secret, take an ordinary flight, and buy a ticket with cash." ”

……

The last day of the show. Dahua Industrial once again negotiated an order for an LNG ship, plus the previous orders, which can be regarded as filling up the production capacity of Dahua Shipbuilding next year. As one of the most complex systems projects in the world, the construction of LNG ships has never been a company's business, and Dahua Shipbuilding can only complete such orders with the cooperation of a well-equipped super-large enterprise like China Shipbuilding Industry Co., Ltd. Therefore, in order to avoid breach of contract, Yan Xuecan and other shipping industry managers pay attention to the signing of orders and are more critical of contracts.

Under the premise that the price is 10% cheaper, the newly signed contract does not have a definite delivery time, but this is also a common practice in the shipping industry, which is one of the manifestations of large companies and big bullying customers. On the one hand, the number of docks is limited, and there are restrictions on raw materials, funds, etc., on the other hand, during the order period of up to one or two years, the shipping company often encounters many special problems, such as troublesome trade unions, if the delivery time is imposed, the shrewd and shameless trade unions can take the form of a full-scale strike to plunder all the profits of the shipyard, or, to plunder the part above the profits.

One of the secrets of the success of Chinese companies is the absence of trade unions. Although the interests of workers cannot be fully protected, the company has obtained a great deal of business to ensure that they can enter the international market under the condition of backward technology.

The trade unions of state-owned enterprises are only in name only, and apart from deducting 2% of their wages on a monthly basis, they rarely take positive action, but they save a pitiful little energy, and then help them get some orders at relatively low prices.

Although it was less than Dahua Industrial's gains, dozens of state-owned enterprises put together and finally got nearly 200 million US dollars in orders, making the total orders of the pavilion reach 700 million US dollars. This figure greatly exceeded Director Lu's expectations, and in his excitement, he asked him to take out a large amount of money and entrust the embassy to hold a banquet and invite familiar or unfamiliar political and business people.

At the same time, Minister Xu quietly returned to the capital to visit Fei Lao.

Like many veterans, Fei Lao allocates more time to thinking and less to specific affairs, so it is not easy to meet Fei Lao, even a ministerial-level cadre like Minister Xu needs something to see before he can have the honor to meet.

The stepping stone that Minister Xu borrowed was his elaborate report. In order to send these two thousand words to Fei Lao's desk, he also worked hard.

As for how long it will take to get a response, Minister Xu actually doesn't know, so he can only go home and worry about going home.

Fortunately, only two days later, Minister Xu was notified by the Fei Office.

At two o'clock in the afternoon, Minister Xu, who was dressed in a new costume, came to Fei Lao's courtyard with full courage and confidence.

The defense mode of loosening on the outside and tightening on the inside made Minister Xu slowly relax.

"Please follow me. The smile of the staff of the Fei Office was as if it had been accurately measured, standard and rigid.

Minister Xu didn't care about anything else, nodded slightly, and followed.

Under the eyelids of the two black-clothed guards, the study room of the two of them one after the other, unexpectedly, there were not only Fei Lao's comfortable chairs on the backrest, but also two other people in the room.

Minister Xu looked at it and shouted in surprise: "Old Su, Old Liu......"

The two nodded slightly, but didn't say anything.

Minister Xu was nervous again and sat down next to the door.

"I read your report, it seems that you want to use the income from this international industrial exhibition?" Fei Lao's eyes were half-open and half-closed, and his small eyes were almost invisible.

"We're just thinking about taking advantage of the opportunity of the industrial fair to use the money and buy as much as possible with as little money as possible. It's a good time......" Minister Xu replied cautiously, not admitting that he was trying to embezzle.

Fei Lao nodded and looked at the other two.

"Just watch the video. Su Lao put his neck back and chose a comfortable position.

With Fei Lao's consent, the staff turned on the TV diagonally in front of him.

The snowflakes flickered for two seconds before an offshore drilling rig appeared on the screen.

It stood almost still on all fours, limbs down, arched and eyes pricked up, like a mutated steel octopus.

Minister Xu's ears heard the sound of the sea and the continuous noise of the engine, but only when he looked closely, he could find that there were people running on the drilling platform, and they seemed to be small black dots, barely able to see the shape.

The dull picture, accompanied by a dull sound, lasted more than two minutes.

Just when Minister Xu began to wonder if he was looking at the photo, the sound of the engine on the TV suddenly changed from a continuous noise to an unstable roar.

The screen also seemed to vibrate.

A few seconds later, Minister Xu suddenly realized that it was not the screen that was vibrating, but the only thing in the screen, the huge offshore drilling platform was shaking.

From the bottom up, its vibration amplitude is getting bigger and bigger, and when it reaches the middle derrick, it has been like a six- or seven-magnitude earthquake, and it has swinged visibly with the naked eye.

The noise is getting louder and louder, and there is a "poof" sound of pinching hard-boiled eggs.

"Look at it. As if asleep, Liu Lao slowly sat up straight.

And as he spoke, the derrick, which looked like a pendulum clock, suddenly paused for a few seconds.

Then, the derrick made of pure steel, like a rocket being launched, soared into the sky.

"Fly...... "Something unexpected came out of the TV, and someone near the camera shouted.

And below the derrick, a black horse soared into the sky, pushing the derrick and other large pieces of steel to a height of fifty or sixty meters in the air before letting it fall.

Accompanied by earth-shattering shouts and hoarse screams, there were black spots running wildly on the drilling platform. Regardless of the danger of falling objects, they quickly gathered in the middle of the derrick and tried to spray oil injection, and on the side where the camera was placed, the supervisor began to organize the workers to go to the "rescue".

"Excessive pressure in the reservoir and poor rig fixation led to the accident, but fortunately there were no casualties, and the good news is that we may have discovered a terrific oil field...... This is a report sent by Dahua Industrial. Arrived yesterday afternoon. Liu Lao's hair and beard were white, and he trembled when he spoke.

Minister Xu's heart also trembled, and he asked, "Has the oil field proved it?"

"Video is the best proof of that. Su Lao said slowly: "Both the oil company and CNOOC have sent personnel to understand the situation, whether it is a great oil field or not, Azerbaijan's Dahua oil field needs to be developed immediately." The extension of the China-Kazakhstan oil pipeline will also be appropriately adjusted according to the situation......"

"I see. ”

"Therefore, the application report of the Ministry of Machinery Industry will not be approved. Fei Lao made a long pause and continued: "Not only that, we hope that the Ministry of Machinery Industry can actively assist Dahua Industry to build this oil field in Azerbaijan as quickly as possible." The demand for equipment, machinery and steel in oil field construction is huge, and this is an excellent opportunity. However, any enterprise must complete the contract with quality and quantity, and cannot do things that delay it. ”

"I see. "Minister Xu, who is full of courage and self-confidence, is like a deflated gel, soft and powerless. In 1993, China was a net importer of energy, and China, which has a history as an oil-poor country, has long recognized the importance of energy stability. Whether it is the oil fields of Azerbaijan or the Sino-Kazakh oil pipeline, they are extremely important national cornerstones, compared with the requirements of the Ministry of Machinery Industry, it can really wait.

"Be happy. If it is really as Sioux City said, a great oil field has been discovered, like the Shengli Oilfield or the Daqing Oilfield, which can play a very good role in the economic stability of our country. Fei Lao encouraged Minister Xu.

However, Minister Xu sat in this room and could only feel deep, deep malice.

…… (To be continued.)