Even in autumn, Saudi Arabia in the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East is still too hot to stay. The land has not been very quiet since the Second World War, and the Zionist movement finally planted a nail in the otherwise uniform Arab world, and from 1948 to 1982, the Arabs fought five wars on this land, shedding an unknown amount of blood and paying a price.

Moreover, during this period, Iranians and Iraqis fought again, because of sectarian differences, Saudi Arabia, which is also Sunni, is on the same side as Iraq, and is hostile to Iran, which is not an Arab at the same time as Shia. Although after the sixties and seventies, because of oil, Saudi Arabia became a rich country, but it is still very lacking in real national strength.

In a rather luxurious palace in Riyadh, Prince Sultan of Saudi Arabia has a special itinerary today, that is, to meet with representatives from China's Shenghua Economic and Trade Group. What is even more surprising is that the person who introduced this trade representative was actually an air force brigadier general Haidar from Pakistan.

According to Arab custom, the handsome-looking Chinese also had the same beard as the Arab, but he looked much more handsome than the average Arab. In the eyes of the Saudi prince, who was still quite popular in this era, male curly hair and a sophisticated suit, in the eyes of the Saudi prince, this Chinese was very different from those in his impression.

"Mr. Zhao, we meet again." Prince Sultan had received a Western education for a long time, so he behaved closer to Westerners, and it was obviously not the first time he had met this Chinese face to face today.

"Prince Sultan, Gui'an." The man surnamed Zhao also saluted slightly.

Sultanha smiled and said, "First of all, I should congratulate your country on winning a beautiful war, and the well-trained and advanced equipment of your army is impressive!" ”

"Hehe, you've won the prize, in our official narrative, this is not a war we participated in, we prefer to describe it as a conflict, we have no enmity with anyone, and we don't have any intention of bullying others, we can only say that the outbreak of this conflict is too dramatic."

This person has always had a very professional smile on his face, his name is Zhao Jinsong, like Zhou Yutong, he is a senior management talent who came back from abroad, from a French high-tech businessman, and his family background is much more prominent than Zhou Yutong, and he is a red second generation. Because of his identity, after joining the 9527 Project, he gained greater trust than Zhou Yutong, and was appointed by Qi Yiming and the senior management of the Celestial Empire to establish Shenghua Economic and Trade Company, which is actually a company engaged in major national defense equipment export projects. It is similar to AVIC, Poly, Precision Machinery Import and Export, CLP International, etc., which specialize in military marketing. However, since its establishment, Shenghua Group is not similar to these companies that only do import and export trade, but is a consortium enterprise that covers the upper and lower industrial chains.

The planned Shenghua Group will be a behemoth in the form of state-owned shares, private ownership of a small part of the shares, and mutual shareholding between various companies. At present, the subsidiaries of Shenghua Group will include Shenfei which produces F-14 and J-8V, Hongdu which produces Chujiao-6 and L-15, and Changfei which produces helicopters, three shipbuilding enterprises, Bohai Heavy Industry, Jieshi Shipbuilding (which is actually the peripheral shipyard of Huludao base dock) and Qingdao Shipbuilding, JAC Motors, which was established more than ten years ahead of schedule and mainly produces civilian automobiles, Gexun Telecom, which produces precision electronic components and electronic equipment, and Antong Communication, which manufactures communication equipment. Together with Shenghua Corporation, which is mainly responsible for marketing and supporting services, it has formed the first national defense equipment enterprise in China under the modern enterprise management model and across multiple industries.

Zhao Jinsong himself works for the head office and is one of the four executive general managers, in charge of sales.

In fact, the contact with the Saudis was not a decision made by Qi Yiming, the nominal boss of Shenghua, at the beginning, but a whim of Zhao Jinsong. Compared with Qi Yiming, the boss who is already a brilliant and wonderful flower in the thinking world, Zhao Jinsong inherited the kind of courageous, fat, flickering, and daring to fight character of the typical men of the Forty-Nine City.

Because he is a relatively core member of the 9527 project, Zhao Jinsong can access a lot of information that is listed as the most confidential in later generations, and he has found a breakthrough now - Saudi Arabia through a lot of research by himself.

The first contact with Prince Sultan was not smooth, because at that time, China had just provided FC-1 to the Iranians, and the Iranian Air Force had beaten the Iraqis with China's advanced fighters, which made the Saudi side extremely unhappy. Not long after, however, the Iraqis repelled a ground raid by the arrogant Iranians with advanced tanks they had received from China.

Although the Saudis do not like the Chinese's two-headed betting methods, they can't help but reflect that the quality and level of Chinese weapons no longer seem to be that crude and inferior.

At this time, Zhao Jinsong obtained a meeting with Prince Sultan, an important member of the Saudi royal family in charge of national defense, through the mediation of Pakistanis. Saudi Arabia has a relatively close relationship with Pakistan, and Pakistan has strongly supported several wars in the Middle East, and even now there are many Pakistanis in the Saudi army. Moreover, Pakistan is also the only country in the Arab world that has nuclear weapons, and the Saudis consider the brave and brave minibus to be the pride of the Arab world. For minibuses, Saudi Arabia, the big benefactor, is also an important helper in their long-term support against India.

Similarly, the relationship between the Celestial Empire and the minibus is also a close comrade-in-arms, and Pakistan will not suffer a big loss in several Indo-Pakistani wars, which is inseparable from China's help. Moreover, the nuclear weapons in the hands of the minibus were also secretly assisted by the scientists of the Celestial Empire. So at this time, although Saudi Arabia and the Celestial Empire did not have diplomatic relations, there was a common friend such as a minibus who could coordinate.

Prince Sultan said to the visiting Zhao Jinsong: "In fact, at the beginning we were still very skeptical about buying Chinese weapons, and frankly speaking, at least in the Middle East, the image of Chinese weapons is not very positive, although the operation is simple and easy to maintain, but it has also been known for its poor performance and insufficient scientific and technological level." Of course, now the whole world, including China, will not look at it this way, and Chinese weapons have won a reputation for themselves on the battlefield. ”

Zhao Jinsong responded with a smile: "Thank you for your praise." ”

Prince Sultan picked up a folder from the small mahogany table with great value, opened it and turned a few pages, and said: "We are amazed and excited by the variety of weapons you are willing to provide to our country, and I myself am amazed at the achievements of my Chinese friends in the arms industry, and I have always heard that the diligence and intelligence of the Chinese are famous in the world. Although I hate to admit it, perhaps the two smartest peoples in the world are the Jews and the Chinese nation. ”

"You're overdone again." Despite that, Zhao Jinsong still had a secret feeling in his heart.

Mr. Prince took out a piece of paper from the folder, on which was printed a color photo of a fighter, which was the fighter-bomber of the PLA Navy and Air Force of the Celestial Empire, the JH-7 Flying Leopard, whose foreign trade number was FBC-1.

"As you know, China has been paying attention to the Tornado jointly produced by Europe since last year, and we are convinced that this fighter will improve our ground attack capability and further stabilize air defense. Actually, this contract should have been signed immediately, but now that you have found us and given us a new choice, our country is naturally starting to re-evaluate this plan. Prince Sultan said with a smile.

He pulled out another photo from the folder, and Zhao Jinsong, who was familiar with arms and weapons, recognized it at a glance, it was the Tornado fighter that the British were trying to sell to Saudi Arabia.

Zhao Jinsong learned by consulting the top-secret information of the 9527 project, Saudi Arabia has always been one of the largest arms importers in the world, and people who are stupid and have a lot of money are crazy. With abundant petrodollars and a certain intensity of defense pressure, the level of other industries in the country except for the oil industry cannot bear to look at it, so it has led to a large number of weapons that need to be imported. Saudi Arabia has also long been in the top three arms imports.

And in the second half of 1985, the Saudis and the British reached the "Al? Yamaha Arms Trade Agreement", according to the British company BAE later announced, this has been carried out many times before and after, amounting to at least 43 billion pounds, and has brought thousands of jobs to the United Kingdom.

And the first stage of Al? The total amount of the Yamaha agreement is as high as 7 billion US dollars, and the projects involved include 72 IDS (ground-to-ground) and ADV (anti-aircraft interceptor) Tornado fighters, 30 Eagle trainer aircraft, 2 high-speed passenger aircraft, and several anti-ship missiles and air-to-air missiles. And the second stage of Al? The total amount of the Yamaha agreement reached 17 billion.

Zhao Jinsong, as an enterprising professional manager, especially in charge of marketing, could not calm down when he found out that Saudi Arabia was such a big cake. Because he was born in the army compound, he has been touching weapons since he was a child, and his brain is smart and receptive, so Zhao Jinsong understands very well that now the British can provide the Saudis, the Chinese can also provide it, even better and cheaper.

A large part of the reason why the Saudis turned to Britain to buy weapons came from Israel's diplomatic persuasion in the 80s that the United States would not continue to sell F-15C/D fighter jets to Saudi Arabia, thus posing a threat to itself. The Saudis' usual arrogance broke out after this, and in the spirit of "there is no place to stay here", the Saudis approached the United Kingdom, their former suzerain, and thought of using a shocking arms sale to make the Americans look red and make themselves proud.