Contini's visit, to a certain extent, was Stalin's hope to prove the correctness of his theory by the hands of outsiders, so he gave a very high courtesy, not only cleaned the city of Sochi many days in advance, but also cleaned up several of the best holiday villas, and when Contini arrived at the Sochi pier by steamer, not only did the People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs (Minister) Chicherin personally greet him, but also held a grand welcome ceremony - several Young Pioneers dressed in bright costumes saluted and presented flowers to Contini and Ida, Checherin also accompanied him down the red carpet, inspected the guard of honor and fired a gun salute.

In terms of rank, this is to treat Contini as the Italian foreign minister - although Contini is close to this level in Italy, after all, he has no government status, which has to be said that the Soviet reception staff are very attentive.

In the face of the reporter's interview, he said with a smile: "From the enthusiastic smiling faces of these Young Pioneers, and from the clean and clean and spotless cityscape of Sochi, I have come to a preliminary conclusion that under the leadership of the Russian Bolsheviks with Comrade Stalin as the core, earth-shaking changes have indeed taken place in the Soviets......

All the reporters and officials present, including Chicherin, were stunned for a moment after listening to the interpreter's introduction, because the Communist Party of China (CPB) still emphasizes collective leadership, and there is no such thing as "Comrade Stalin as the core" at all. Do you also agree with Marxism-Leninism? ”

Checherin was relieved to hear the question, and finally the journalist was still a little politically conscious, and instead of asking the "core", he asked such a somewhat "tricky" question - it is well known that Contini was a young revolutionary theoretician, and an anti-Bolshevik theoretician, and now as soon as this "comrade" is spoken, the matter is over. Of course, he will not embarrass Contini, and if he wants to, the news will not be reported tomorrow.

Contini smiled slightly: "The so-called comrade is what I call Mr. Stalin from the bottom of my heart, if you only define comrades as the group of people who agree with the ideas of the Bolsheviks, then I am afraid that Mr. Stalin and I are not comrades; If, according to my proposition, you define comrades as statesmen who serve the country and the people, who are full of hope to develop their country, get rid of the oppression of international powers, and enable the broadest masses of the people to live a good life, I believe that I and Mr. Stalin have the same language -- the passion and mission of our Party in Italy to carry out the great cause of revitalizing the economy and realizing national rejuvenation, and Mr. Stalin in the Soviet Union to carry out the noble cause of restoring the economy and building socialism in one country, Isn't it worthy of a comrade? ”

Chicherin took the lead in applauding: This sentence is very good, which not only unambiguously explains the differences between the two great powers, Italy and the Soviet Union, but also shows that there is a common language and common interests between the two, and this has laid a good foundation for the next step of negotiations.

Contini's words arrived at Stalin's desk that afternoon, and in addition to Chicherin, he personally reported to Yagda, the second deputy head of the Main Directorate of State Political Defense, which had a feared name - Cheka, Dzerzhinsky was the head of the Cheka, and Stalin's close comrade-in-arms and staunch supporter, and he did not hesitate to side with Stalin when dealing with the old and new opposition. Therefore, all the Cheka dignitaries below him were from the Stalin system, so they attached great importance to Contini's arrival, and the seemingly ordinary people on the dock, except for the Young Pioneers who laid flowers and a few reporters, were all Cheka plainclothes disguises, and even these carefully selected Young Pioneers were also the second generation of Zhengmianghong-the father was usually a loyal cadre of the party and the government.

"Interesting...... Interesting......" Stalin laughed and asked Checherin, "what do you think?" ”

"There may be more surprises than that......," Chicherin laughed, "I had dinner with them at noon, and during the dinner I casually talked about the Italian repair and refit of the Goben for Turkey, and I took the opportunity to ask if I could ask Italy to improve the Gangut-class battleships for us, and guess what he said?" He said, Mr. Minister, why improve the Gangut class? The design of warships of this class is outdated, and no matter how much they are improved, they cannot keep up with the advanced pace of the world, and it is time to build new warships - the Soviets are not signatories to the Washington Arms Treaty, and they are not bound by this article......"

Chicherin deliberately asked this question to see if he could get some cheap from Italy, and Contini deliberately or unintentionally wanted to promote the construction of Soviet battleships - the woolly bear put more power into the sea, and he had less energy on land, so he enthusiastically promoted the Caracciolo-class battleships, saying that they could be exported to the Soviet Union.

"Italy wants to build us capital ships?"

"No, it's better than building...... He said that Italy could export drawings and technology to build in the Soviets' own shipyards, and even send people to help and guide us. ”

Stalin suddenly became eager: to build and to help build are two completely different concepts, the former can give the Soviet Union a powerful warship, but the technical level of the military industry is limited; The latter may be slightly less powerful (there is certainly a difference in the level between self-built and foreign-built), but it will allow the technical level to improve by leaps and bounds - with this foundation, it will not be a problem to build more capital ships in the future. This had a fatal attraction for Stalin, who was full of expectations for a big navy.

"What does he want?"

"Money!" Chicherin said with a smile, "He said that the design of the warship, together with the technology and drawings of the 381mm naval gun above, can be exported to us, and the initial price is 3.6 million US dollars." ”

"Isn't that cheap...... How much does it cost to build a new Caracciolo class? ”

"About $10 million to $12 million, but I think there is still a lot of merit in this deal......," Chechelin analyzed, "First of all, Italy sent technology and experts to the Soviet Union to undertake, and we didn't invest so much in shipbuilding costs, and the overall cost may be 1 million to $2 million more than simply buying warships, which is equivalent to exchanging patents and technology for the extra $1 million to $2 million; Secondly, he knew that we could not come up with the money, so he gave a compromise method, which could be offset with agricultural products and primary industrial products, converted at a fixed price agreed by both parties, and repaid in 3-4 years, which was exactly equivalent to a shipbuilding cycle, so that we would not have to worry about Italy being tricked in drawings and technology, and if it did, they would not get the follow-up money; Finally, I believe that this barter trade is a good way to solve the current difficulties of the Soviets in terms of the shortage of foreign exchange, and that we will exchange our primary industrial and agricultural products from Italy for other urgently needed industrial equipment, vehicles, and other much-needed materials, which will help to break the imperialist blockade. ”

"Yes, very thoughtful, very creative, you can talk to Comrade Bukharin about this idea, if it is feasible, we will operate according to this method."

"Understood."

Stalin suddenly asked Jagda: "He is only 22 years old, right?" ”

"Yes, 22 years old, not a graduate of college!" Jagda took out the full set of Contini's files from the briefcase he carried with him and handed them over respectfully, knowing that Comrade Stalin must want to see this.

The Cheka's energy is still not small, Contini has collected and sorted out all the big and small things, except for the illegitimate child, many other aspects are published in great detail, Stalin glanced at the general social relations and let it go, focusing on the United Group, after a few glances, he asked a little incredulously: "The size of his United Group is at least more than 200 million US dollars?" This is all what he tossed up in 3 years? ”

"Yes, a genius-like person, and there is a good and surprising luck...... Yagda said in an emotional tone, "I just got the news today that the United Group announced the discovery of a large oil field in the Algerian exploration block, with medium-term reserves of 1 billion barrels and prospective reserves of 20-5 billion barrels, although the quality of crude oil is not as good as that of Libyan oil fields, but the scale will reach more than 4 times!" According to the agreement, in the next 30 years, for every 100 barrels of oil produced, the United Group can take 62 barrels, and the entire capital market is crazy! ”

Stalin thought to himself, can you not go crazy? Now the price of oil is a little more than $1 a barrel, and if the United Group takes 620 million barrels in the next 10-15 years, it will be at least $700 million - equivalent to 50 of the best battleships or equivalent to the combined capital ships of Britain, France, the United States, Japan, and Italy (referring to the cost of building ships alone)!

Chicherin said with a smile: "The interests are so great, the French will not let him get his wish, and will definitely resort to all kinds of tricks to prevent him from mining smoothly......"

Jagorda shook his head: "It's difficult, it's just a desert there, what's the reason not to let the United Group min?" And the spokesman of the United Group also revealed two points, will soon set up the Algerian Union Oil Company, next year to consider going to the United States with the Union Bank to raise funds and go public, to deal with a joint consortium of the French may have a way, once the listing is successful to become a multinational giant, in the face of several or even a dozen top consortiums, the French government will also consider one or two - is this not the case with capitalist countries? ”

Stalin nodded slightly, and then sighed: "This will cause certain problems for the Soviets - after the exploitation of a large number of new oil fields, international oil prices may fall, which will affect our foreign exchange sources, alas, these headaches will be dealt with by Comrade Bukharin." ”

Chicherin also reacted: Now the Soviets rely on the export of industrial and agricultural products in exchange for a little foreign exchange, and if the price of oil falls, it will definitely affect the source of foreign exchange, which is a great challenge to the cause of socialist construction, but this is also a matter of no choice, who made the United Group so lucky?