Episode 89 Cheers to roast suckling pig

"The cost of the Gonggong number is 22.7587 million Mingyang, and the cost of Xiang Yu and Han Signal is about 13.36 million Mingyang, and the price can be 10.68 million Mingyang."

Xiang Xiaoqiang read the "quotation" sent from Nanjing, and his mind lived through the famous warship cost in the twenties, thirties, and World War II, as well as the comparison of Mingyang against major foreign currencies at this time.

The Ming Ocean is 1:0.7 against the US dollar, 1:0.14 against the British pound, and 1:1.75 against the Imperial Mark......

Xiang Xiaoqiang stared at the cost and quotation difference of these two types of ships, and always felt that something was not quite right. The cost of Zhurong level is 22.7587 million, and the cost of Han Xinlevel is 13.36 million, which is so much worse, which is in line with the difference between battle patrol and heavy patrol. But the price of Zhurong level is only 13.65 million, while the price of Han Xin's level has reached 10.68 million, which can be said to be almost the same.

He grabbed the pen and paper and tried to figure out how many discounts they had made. But I haven't calculated multiplication and division by hand for n years, and I haven't figured it out for a long time.

"Autumn Stream!" Xiang Xiaoqiang scratched his head for a long time, and finally got annoyed, and instructed Qiu Yu to say, "You calculate for me how many discounts these two levels of warships have." ”

Qiu Yu let out an "oh", grabbed the pen and paper a few times, and said:

"The Gonggong is exactly six percent off, and the two ships of Han Signal are exactly eight percent off."

Xiang Xiaoqiang tilted his head to look at the numbers on the paper, looked up and asked the three old men in front of him:

"The Gonggong is a battle patrol, why is our price so low, and Han Xin's class is a heavy patrol, but the price is so high?"

Both diplomats looked at Wang Hexiang. Before Wang Hexiang said it, Qiu Yu preemptively said:

"Oh, it's very simple, the Gonggong number is old, and the Han Xin level is new."

Wang Hexiang nodded and said with a smile:

"Madame is right, the Gonggong was built in 1923, the ship is 13 years old, and not long ago during the Battle of Java, it was torpedoed. One of the Hanxin-class ships was built in 1930 and the other was built in 1931, and the ships are only five or six years old, and they have not been used much, and they are basically eighty percent new. …… However, in my opinion, the Gonggong with depreciation, outdated technology, and a major overhaul of torpedoes will not exceed 10 million Mingyang now. However, the cost performance of those two heavy cruisers is still high, and now they can be worth ** million. ”

Qiu Yun smiled:

"That's a lot, hehe, Lord Wang, sell them, our navy can get a good battleship again, right?"

Wang Hexiang smiled:

"It's true that you can get on a battleship, but not a 'good battleship'. Now the battleships of various countries are still built more than ten years ago. At that time, our Yongle-class was also considered a mainstream battleship, and building one was more than 30 million Ming Yang, and now after more than ten years, if a new ship is launched, new materials and new technologies will definitely be piled up in large quantities, and the cost will definitely go up. Now to build another mainstream one, it is estimated that there are no 40 million that cannot be taken. If you want to build a 'good', I'm afraid you have to get close to 50 million. ”

Xiang Xiaoqiang asked: "What if you build an aircraft carrier of the same tonnage?" ”

Wang Hexiang immediately said:

"Well, if you don't count the planes, it's good to build two. That's more than 30,000 tons, and it can carry seventy or eighty aircraft. However, the aircraft carrier is not the right way after all, and it cannot replace the warship. ”

Speaking of which, battleships are still expensive! It is no wonder that once the aircraft carrier has proven itself, no one wants to build a battleship. The cost performance of aircraft carriers is really incomparable with battleships.

Although Xiang Xiaoqiang has always known that battleships are more expensive than aircraft carriers, he has never seriously compared them to what extent they are expensive. Now listening to Wang Hexiang, a military industry expert, he immediately clicked away from the idea of getting the drawings of the Bismarck from Germany.

He stood up "Teng" and turned around a few times, calculating: The 180 million Mingyang knocked out from the Netherlands, according to Wang Hexiang, if you build mainstream battleships, you can only build 4-5 now. And if you build an aircraft carrier of the same class, you can build 8-9 ships.

Eight, or nine 30,000-ton aircraft carriers! Oh my God, there's no beating!

Xiang Xiaoqiang's heart was boiling for a while. Although he also knew that the money could not be used for one thing, he still did it. In fact, Xiang Xiaoqiang, like most military fans, likes battleships far more than aircraft carriers. However, aircraft carriers will completely eliminate battleships, which is also the basic common sense of everyone in later generations. Now that the "Navy Holiday" is over, what to build is related to the fate of the Ming Empire and the fate of the Chinese nation in this time and space.

He knew that aircraft carriers were cheaper than battleships, but he didn't expect them to be so cheap. By converting the resources for building battleships to building aircraft carriers, he could build twice as much, and this surprising prospect shocked him at once.

Xiang Xiaoqiang immediately decided that after returning to China, he would persuade Zhu Yourong at all costs to immediately stop all battleship construction plans and switch to building aircraft carriers. Time and money were limited, and they could not be wasted on the flashy battleships.

……

The next morning, the negotiations took place at the hotel where Xiang Xiaoqiang was staying. The representative of the German side was the head of diplomacy of the Nazi party, Ribbentrop. Because Xiang Xiaoqiang did not come in an official capacity, it was inconvenient for Foreign Minister Niu Wright to come forward. Xiang Xiaoqiang secretly laughed: Even the prime minister has seen it, but it is inconvenient to meet a foreign minister.

In fact, he also knew that at this time, Ribbentrop had a faint tendency to replace Niu Wright. Ribbentrop was deeply valued by Hitler, and in many major diplomatic activities, Hitler had only sent Ribbentrop, not Niu Wright.

Ribbentrop today brought a large group of industrial, scientific, technological, and economic experts to discuss the issue of economic and technological cooperation between the two sides with the Xiang Xiaoqiang delegation. After a day of talks, the two sides basically finalized that Germany would transfer the chemical industry, ferrous metallurgical industry, nonferrous metallurgical industry, machinery manufacturing industry, automobile manufacturing industry, aircraft manufacturing industry, electronics industry, and arms industry to Daming starting this year...... and a series of technology, production lines, and technical personnel.

These things are all things that Daming has been friends with Britain for decades and has never gotten from Britain.

Now, Daming's industry is about to be upgraded.

Daming provides Germany with a total of 3 million to 3.5 million tons of rice, wheat, corn and other grains every year, and 1 million to 1.5 million tons of pork, accounting for about half of Germany's own consumption. In addition, large quantities of tungsten, cobalt, manganese, lead-zinc, bauxite, tin, nickel, chromium, titanium, vanadium will be supplied to Germany every year...... and other non-ferrous metal ores. In addition, there are also the shipbuilding technology that Daming is better at, and the construction technology of the permanent defense line, and Daming will also send a large number of technicians to Germany.

After talking for so many days, I have talked about the most today. A few days ago, Xiang Xiaoqiang mainly talked with Hitler, and the two sides talked about some political transactions, so they should be cautious, and they had to talk about every word for a long time. The political deal is basically opened, and the following technical and economic transactions are much faster to negotiate.

Unlike the other days, he didn't go to the table much today, because they talked about things he didn't understand. It was three old advisers grinding their saliva with a bunch of Germans at the negotiating table. But at the end of this day, Xiang Xiaoqiang was also dizzy. He, Qiu Yu, and a few guards, each got a transmitter, and kept receiving and receiving telegrams in the next room, contacting the country. Nanjing is also very busy now, and several conference rooms in the residence of the first assistant are crowded with ministers, experts, and representatives of large companies from various ministries, clamoring and shouting, and remotely controlling the negotiations in Berlin.

The German officials, the Ming officials, and the Xiang Xiaoqiang delegation, everyone was very excited. Because just today, they witnessed the integration of the resources of the two world powers. Regardless of the ideologies and the nature of the regimes of the two countries, as well as their respective political aims, the contribution of this incident alone to the development of human productive forces is immeasurable.

……

But after talking for a day, it was still only partial. According to estimates between the two sides, it will take at least two to three days to hold talks before a rough blueprint for economic and technological cooperation between the two sides can be drawn.

Because he had received a series of banquets from the German side these days, and because the negotiations were held at his own residence today, Xiang Xiaoqiang held a banquet in a Chinese restaurant in Berlin in the evening to entertain Ribbentrop and them. Because of the large number of people, and considering that the Germans are fond of pork, Xiang Xiaoqiang called a crispy hanging oven roast pig. The roast pig is Cantonese-style, with a dark yellow and crispy skin and a sweet sauce with sesame seeds brushed on the surface, which made a bunch of Germans smile.

During the banquet, Ribbentrop poured a few glasses of liquor on Xiaoqiang, and then tried to find out about the three warships with him with a smile.

"Oh, the warship is it......" Xiang Xiaoqiang nibbled on the pork knuckle and said vaguely while chewing, "...... I've asked for you, for now...... Let's chirp, chirp...... Our domestic ...... Let's chirp, chirp...... The argument is quite strong...... Let's ......."

"Uh-huh." Ribbentrop blinked, leaned closer to the translator, and listened carefully.

Xiang Xiaoqiang swallowed a large piece of meat in his mouth, poured a sip of beer, and then gasped and said:

“…… There are two factions, and the quarrel is quite fierce, one faction advocates selling it, and the money from the sale is posted on the new ship, so that the financial burden is a little smaller......"

"Uh-huh!" Ribbentrop stared at him with small eyes and nodded incessantly, indicating that he seriously supported this view.

"But the other faction advocates keeping it for its own use. Because our shipbuilding race with Japan will start soon, and Japan will not sell its old ships. People only think that more is better. What's wrong with the old one, the old one is also a deterrent. Especially in the arms race, who doesn't want to have a little more in their hands...... Therefore, these two factions have argued quite fiercely, and now we, the first assistant, our majesty, don't know who to listen to. Alas, I am for the first faction. I also know that you are short of warships, and I also want to sell domestic warships to you, but, alas, it is difficult! ”

"Uh-huh." Ribbentrop nodded again, his cunning little eyes blinked twice, and he already understood in his heart: Xiang Xiaoqiang was deliberately making things difficult, pretending not to sell, but fortunately he was in a favorable position in bargaining, and Germany did not dare to let go of bargaining.

Ribbentrop didn't say anything, nor did he continue to mention it, but moved on to something else. Xiang Xiaoqiang was very surprised, felt a little miscalculated, and looked forward to him bringing up this talk again.

The atmosphere at the table was full of laughter again. After a while, Ribbentrop raised his glass and offered another toast. But what is the toast to?

So far, the two sides have toasted more than a dozen times, and there are many obvious tricks: toasts to the friendship between the two countries, toasts to the health of the two heads of state, toasts to the birthdays of General Xiang Xiaoqiang and Chancellor Hitler, toasts to the smooth signing of the agreement between the two countries, toasts to Germany's industrial technology, toasts to Daming's grain and minerals, toasts to the friendship ship Yuxuan and Princess Yong'an, and even toasts to tonight's meal with a glass of wine.

Cheers to the warship! Cheers to the warship! Xiang Xiaoqiang shouted hard in his heart.

"Well, friends," said Ribbentrop, with his little eyes sparkling, grinning, "let us toast to this roast suckling pig!" ”

There was a lot of laughter at the table, and everyone raised their glasses and touched them "dang" above the suckling pig.

……

After a while, Xiang Xiaoqiang went to the toilet, and Song Ruhai also quietly followed.

After entering the bathroom, Song Ruhai saw that there was no one, lowered his voice and reproached Xiaoqiang:

"My lord, the Germans took the initiative to ask about the battleship, and our quotation code is, what are you selling! Ribbentrop is a veteran of diplomatic negotiations, so how can you think of being clever in front of him? He and Hitler were two different kinds of people at all! Yes, you talk to Hitler, Hitler eats you, Ribbentrop doesn't! Hitler's negotiations were completely based on feelings, but Ribbentrop was a professional at this! …… My lord, the price code given to us in China is to let us quote it, you are like this, it is not good to make people think that we are insincere...... My lord, when he mentions it again, don't do it like this time! ”

Xiang Xiaoqiang's face turned red and white, and he nodded honestly to admit his mistake.

Not long after the two returned to the dinner table, Ribbentrop seemed to understand that Xiang Xiaoqiang had just been trained, and he came over again with a smile and a grin, and then asked about the battleship.

This time, Xiang Xiaoqiang didn't dare to sell his bereak anymore. His face burned, he glanced at Ribbentrop, opened his mouth and said:

"The total number of workers is 13.65 million Mingyang, and Xiang Yu and Han signal are all 10.68 million Mingyang. These are all prices quoted in China. We are still arguing at home, but if your country really wants it, I can help you fight for it. Let's see how it is exchanged, if we pay in full, our cabinet can only use gold. ”

Ribbentrop's eyes widened, and he exclaimed softly:

"Sir, I heard you right, more than 10 million Mingyang? And to pay all in gold? Have you ever calculated how much gold that is? More than twenty tons! Twenty tons is a large percentage of any country's gold reserves. The Third Reich had twenty tons of gold, but we couldn't take twenty tons of gold out just to buy three old warships. ”

Then he quickly added:

"Also, the price is too much for us to afford."

Xiang Xiaoqiang smiled, shook his head, and said very understandingly:

"I know your difficulties. That's why we're still arguing in the country! If an agreement is reached and it is said to be sold, the conditions will definitely be more relaxed. …… However, if you really want to, I can help you plan and see if there is any other way than to buy it with gold, such as paying for it in gold in part and other forms in other forms. ”

"For example, Mingyang?"

Xiang Xiaoqiang raised his eyebrows and said with a smile:

"Talent, for example?"