Before New Year's Day, the Navy finally confirmed the first procurement contract with General Dynamics.

The Navy will formally order three new aircraft from Zhang Cheng's General Dynamics, which will have a total of 350 aircraft, to equip the aircraft carrier Qinghai Lake, as well as to train pilots and spare aircraft. Zhang Cheng offered a price of 200,000 silver dollars for a single machine, including the average price of the engine. The total price without discounts reached 70 million.

Even the wealthy Ming Navy was taken aback by the price that Zhang Cheng threw out. You must know that the cost of a state-of-the-art provincial capital-class battleship is only a little more than 200 million silver dollars. Zhang Cheng's hundreds of planes actually asked for a third of the new battleships! (Currency refers to the pre-World War II exchange rate of 1 US dollar to 4 silver dollars.) ）

"350 aircraft is enough to completely sink any new battleship." Zhang Cheng's words made the navy have to pinch their noses and admit it. The new aircraft has already proven its worth through live-fire exercises.

However, at this time, the navy's budget for the 1931 fiscal year was no longer left, and they proposed to Zhang Cheng to postpone the payment time to the next fiscal year, but Zhang Cheng sternly refused.

Zhang Cheng is now preparing to make a big deal in the stock market in Songjiang Prefecture, and it is the time when he urgently needs money. How could he possibly agree to a deferred payment? Moreover, the devil knows exactly how long it will be postponed. It is impossible for Zhang Cheng to advance a large amount of money on this, and he does not have so much money.

In desperation, the navy had no choice but to go to Shousuke-sama to apply for a special budget allocation. The navy felt that it was a loss to apply for a special budget for such a small amount of money, so it opened its mouth and asked for 300 million!

The council, which had always been the Shousuke-sama's echo bug, quickly approved the appropriation. If there is anyone else in this era who is struggling to maintain this empire, it is only the gray-haired Shousuke-sama.

This money will pay for the first batch of new aircraft, and the Navy is ready to build two more new aircraft carriers. Over the years, with the continuous depreciation of the silver dollar, the cost of various products has become higher and higher. More than 20 years ago, it only cost more than 20 million silver dollars to build a dreadnought, but now the cost of an aircraft carrier is more than 100 million.

Zhang Cheng had already arranged the production line, and when the navy's money hit the account, he immediately began to work day and night. At the same time, Zhang Cheng instructed Xu Mu, who was far away in Songjiang Mansion, to ask how many silver dollars his General Dynamics Company could mortgage to the bank.

General Dynamics, which has won a large order from the Navy, is definitely an excellent stock, which means a large number of naval orders and a steady stream of revenue in the future. As a wholly-owned owner, Zhang Cheng had just expressed his desire to mortgage, and people from several major banks had already taken the initiative to come to the door.

Although I don't know if Zhang Cheng is crazy and actually mortgages the excellent stock of General Dynamics, no one is willing to let go of such a good opportunity. Major banks have issued preferential terms, just waiting for Zhang Cheng to borrow money and not pay it back.

Zhang Cheng is not crazy, he just sees a good opportunity.

Through this period of research, Zhang Cheng keenly noticed that the stock market in Songjiang Prefecture gradually began to surge. It's not just the rubber industry, almost the entire stock market is heating up. Prices, which are already not low, are still climbing rapidly, and a large number of bubbles have begun to appear.

The financial rules of this era are still far from perfect, and there are many loopholes of all kinds. After some analysis, Zhang Cheng quickly came to the conclusion that a large-scale financial crisis was coming.

After the last financial crisis and stock market crash, the whole world has driven a new round of economic growth through the large-scale application of new technologies, mainly the large-scale development of the automobile industry and the shipping industry. But the shadow of the economic crisis remains.

Over the years, in order to stimulate the weak domestic economy and expand exports, Shousuke has continued to promote the depreciation of the silver dollar over the years. It is to delay the outbreak of a new round of economic crisis as much as possible.

The conservative forces of the Ming Dynasty are too strong. They would rather play the capital game of making money through banks and the stock market than take out a large amount of wealth to invest in industry to stimulate the real economy. Under these circumstances, a new round of economic crisis is inevitable. And the immediate trigger is a large-scale stock market crash.

Zhang Cheng had predicted that a large-scale stock market crash would occur soon after the stock market changes, and he immediately made up his mind to raise funds as much as possible to enter the stock market to speculate in exchange for continued start-up capital. That's when he mortgaged General Dynamics immediately after winning the Navy order.

In the end, Zhang Cheng pledged his equity in General Dynamics to a bank syndicate for a two-year low-interest loan of up to 97 million silver dollars.

In addition to leaving part of the necessary funds for production, Zhang Cheng almost exhausted the company's working capital. Coupled with the sum of money that Xu Mu brought to Songjiang Mansion before, the funds in Zhang Cheng's hands reached nearly 200 million silver dollars! (In fact, the entry of large sums of money of this magnitude before the real stock market crash will inevitably alarm the big dealers, and a brutal dark war will follow.) In reality, there is no chance of making such a large amount of money, unless you can lay it out years in advance. This book is just a novel, everything is simple, please don't take it seriously. ）

Under Xu Mu's operation, such a huge amount of money quietly entered the stock market and futures market that began to rise rapidly through many channels. Bought a large number of stocks in rubber, automobile, shipping and other related industries. Then I sat back and watched the prices of these stocks rise as if they were ascending to heaven.

"When to make a move?" This is a telegram that Xu Mu sends to Zhang Cheng every night after the stock market closes.

Watching this huge asset in hundreds of millions of dollars change rapidly in their own hands all day long, no matter who they are, they will be full of worry, for fear that the stock market will collapse after the opening of the next day and the wealth will be wiped out in a blink of an eye.

"Read the newspaper." The telegram Zhang Cheng replied to was simple, only three words.

"What do you mean?" Xu Mu, who was already reddened after staring at the stock market all day, failed to understand what Zhang Cheng meant.

"When did the newspapers get the most out of their expectations about the economic outlook and the rise of the stock market, that is, when the stocks were released, you see?" Zhang Cheng's explanation made Xu Mu's eyes light up slightly, thinking about it carefully, it was really like this.

Daming's capital power is very strong. After hundreds of years of overseas colonization, the Ming Dynasty accumulated a huge amount of wealth from all over the world through plundering and exploitation. This wealth is the basis for large-scale capital operations. In order to mobilize these huge funds scattered among the people, the major family consortia have created such a channel as the stock market. Playing the capital game with a small and broad one.

Even Lord Shousuke is helpless against this kind of capital game. Even if he is as strong as Shousuke, it is impossible for him to forcibly stop the huge wealth shuffling game in which almost all domestic giants participate.

After all, such a scale of backlash against Lord Shousuke can't bear it. Therefore, this kind of game can only be a personal self-inflicted blessing, and those who are too greedy will inevitably be unlucky. Anyone with a discerning eye can make a fortune, but it's rare to find anyone who can stay calm in the midst of this frenetic atmosphere, and most of them are losers.

Zhang Cheng is not worried about the stock market, because it is still on the rise. At present, Zhang Cheng's first task is to complete the task of developing new weapons assigned by the army.

During the years when the conservatives were rampant, the Ming Army had been putting its strength into the construction of artillery and cavalry. After realizing that these investments had fallen behind, the Ming Army immediately began to eagerly replace its outdated equipment.

Where is it a simple matter for millions of huge armies to want to regroup? The army leaders, who had been busy all night, finally came up with a preliminary plan.

The first of all this plan is to reorganize the army aviation.

The rapid development of aircraft technology has affected not only the Navy, but also the Army. When all countries in the world began to comprehensively upgrade their air fleets, the Ming Army was not far behind. They also put forward a plan to rebuild their weak air fleet, which was full of slow-flying and even multi-winged old aircraft.

Zhang Cheng's General Dynamics Company won the order for naval aviation, and the army naturally knew about it. The army soon sent an official letter to Zhang Cheng, who was attending classes at the University of the Army, asking Zhang Cheng to design a new aircraft for the army. Because the aircraft designed by Zhang Cheng is the best aircraft that Daming can get at present.

"What kind of aircraft does the army need?" Zhang Cheng's reply can be regarded as stumping the new army leadership. Although they are all reformers and young Zhuang factions in the army, they really don't know what kind of aircraft the army aviation needs.

"So be it." Lieutenant General Shi Qin, who is also the Minister of Army Armament, suggested at a high-level meeting: "I heard that the people in the Navy didn't know what they needed at first, and it was Zhang Cheng who took the initiative to give three new aircraft and an aviation tactic that made the HNA clear about its own development direction." If we can't think of it, how about having that talented kid design planes for road airlines, and at the same time come up with new tactics? ”

"Is he okay?" There will always be dissenting voices.

"Don't forget, he's from the Army." Vice Admiral Shi Qin took a sip of the teacup on the table in front of him, and said with a smile, "He can make up his mind about the affairs of the navy and set the direction of development for the navy." And even more so the Army? ”

"The Navy is not stupid either." The new army commander, Marshal Yang Zhuo, said softly: "As the most technical branch of the army. If Zhang Cheng's stuff was not recognized by the majority of the people, how could the Navy agree to the plan to use a hairy young man? It's the same with us, since the young man has the ability, let him show it. As long as it can be approved by us, it is not a big deal to agree with it like the Navy. You say don't you? ”

"That's right, that's right." The top echelons of the Army who attended the meeting were quick to agree. If you think it's good, use it, and if you don't think it's good, don't use it. Anyway, there is already a navy to do the beginning, and it is not a big deal for the army to follow suit.

This kind of thing was almost unthinkable in the previous era when old men were rampant. The old men rejected any new weapon that had not been proven on the battlefield, and they would not have placed their hopes on a small lieutenant colonel. In fact, this is also the reason why Shousuke-sama can't bear to clean them up.

In this way, Zhang Cheng soon received a notice to go to the army headquarters to explain his future development plan for the army aviation to the army high-level officials. It's definitely an amazing trust.

In the final analysis, Zhang Cheng is just a small lieutenant colonel. If it weren't for the fact that the army's top brass didn't know anything about the tactics of the air force, and if it weren't for Zhang Cheng's amazing performance in the HNA that shocked everyone. Zhang Cheng didn't even have the qualifications to listen to this kind of thing. And now, he has become the main character.

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