"Cheng Jun, I heard that your country is preparing for the construction of a 10,000-ton giant ship, as a good neighbor with a strip of water, I would like to extend my sincere greetings to you on behalf of the Great Japanese Empire!"

Just as Cheng Nuo was about to go to the Jiangnan Shipyard to negotiate with their chief engineer, Morgan.

A Japanese man who didn't know where to get his news, took his subordinates, carrying large bags and small bags, and blocked Cheng Nuo at the door of his residence before he set off.

Respectfully handing over a business card, the Japanese devil Iwasaki Hidero bowed slightly, and opened his mouth to speak proficient Chinese: "Introduce yourself, Hidero Iwasaki, an engineer at Mitsubishi Nagasaki Shipyard, is very happy to meet Mr. Cheng!"

Cheng Nuo didn't take the business card in a hurry, and looked at the other party with slightly narrowed eyes: "Mr. Iwasaki, we haven't met before, have we?"

Hidero Iwasaki still maintained the posture he had just now, motionless: "Cheng Jun, I really didn't know each other before this visit, but I believe that after this incident, we will maintain a friendly and close relationship with each other, and I ask Cheng Jun to accept my business card."

Before figuring out the other party's intentions, Cheng Nuo decided to adopt a strategy of adapting to changes with the same, and took the business card in his hand and flipped through it: "Mitsubishi Nagasaki Shipyard, director of Nagasaki Steelworks...... There are quite a lot of positions, let's talk about it, what is the matter with me, I have an appointment here in the afternoon, and as for the matter of intimacy, I will talk about it later."

Iwasaki Hidero smiled slightly, raised his head and said politely: "Cheng Jun, there is a saying in China, called "Nothing is to go to the Three Treasures Palace", and this visit is to reach cooperation with each other and seek common cause!"

Cheng Nuo clasped his arms to his chest and said in a witty tone, "Let's hear it, I also want to know if there is anything we can work with?" Do you want to buy our synthetic ammonia? If so, then you have found the right person, and we are more than happy to plant the "China Brand" flag on the soil of the island nation."

Hidero Iwasaki's face was slightly cramped: "I don't know anything about chemical engineering, but I'm very happy to connect Cheng Jun with our local enterprises, but the premise of all this is that we can reach a consensus on this cooperation first."

Cheng Nuo became interested in this, pinched his chin and said curiously: "I want to hear the content of the cooperation first, as for the consensus issue you said, it depends on the content."

Iwasaki Hidero flashed a trace of joy, and then quickly introduced: "Cooperation, naturally a win-win situation, the business card says that I am the director of Nagasaki Steelworks, producing high-quality steel, I heard that your country is going to build a 10,000-ton giant ship, in addition to congratulations and envy, as a good neighbor, naturally we should think more about East Asia as a whole."

I would like to introduce our advanced steel technology to you to help complete this batch of large orders, so as to make our East Asian brand out and let these Westerners know that we also have top technology in the Far East!"

The high-sounding words are for the good of East Asia, but in fact, Cheng Nuo has already seen through the little ninety-nine in the hearts of the Japanese without listening to what he said.

What is the excellent process, the factory has not been built yet.

What is for East Asians, the order is far away.

What a win-win cooperation, the Japanese win twice.

Like the aforementioned shipyards, during the First World War, the development of Japan's machinery industry also encountered the dilemma of the embargo on raw materials from Europe and the United States, and the situation between the two countries was basically the same.

It is precisely because of this situation that Mitsubishi Nagasaki Shipyard and we are expanding into the steel industry to get rid of the problem of steel procurement.

Unfortunately, by the time Nagasaki Steel Works was completed next year, the First World War had already ended, which undoubtedly put a huge pressure on Mitsubishi, and the steel produced by Nagasaki Steel was no match for the West, both in terms of technology and price, and it was a question of how to survive under the dumping of goods.

Although the First World War is not over yet, and Japan has not sent workers to support, they have also sent female nurses over, and the prophet of Chunjiang Plumbing Duck can naturally smell some extraordinary breath in advance.

"Mr. Iwasaki, I'm afraid I'm going to disappoint you, we have already placed an order for steel, and it is not wise to suddenly break the contract at this time, not only to damage the reputation of our steel factory, but also to make a large amount of compensation!" Cheng Nuo shook his head and rejected the Japanese proposal.

"Cheng Jun, if you agree or something, you naturally have to realize its value by breaking the contract, although you temporarily lose part of your business reputation, but at the same time you can gain the friendship of our Great Japanese Empire, friendship is priceless." Hidero Iwasaki wrote lightly, as if it were a great thing to gain friendship with Japan.

"Yes, friendship is priceless, but reparability is priceless." Cheng Nuo was not polite at all, and said, "Even for our factory, it is very painful to have to pay extra money."

Iwasaki Hidero shook his head and continued to persuade: "Before this, we have already heard about the prices of some steel mills in your country, which seems to be very tempting, but in front of us in Nagasaki, it is far from enough, as long as you are willing to cooperate with us in Nagasaki, time will give you a lot of profits."

Cheng Nuo couldn't help but be happy when he saw that the other party was making up nonsense: "Mr. Iwasaki, I don't know if you have ever heard such a sentence, called "Science is borderless, but patents are different", you Japan are willing to support their own companies, why are our own people not willing to support our own things?"

Unexpectedly, at this time, Iwasaki Hidero said seriously: "Because your officials have no spirit of sacrifice, and we are different!"

Hearing this, Cheng Nuo completely retracted the smile on his face: "Sacrificial spirit? If we did not have the spirit of sacrifice, how was the Manchu Qing overthrown and the Republic of China established?"

Iwasaki Hidero shook his head again, his tone tinged with unprecedented fervality: "Compared to your corrupt officialdom, it is clear that we are more sacrificial.

Our officials can achieve a strong nationalism that uses economic development as a means of strengthening the military, and all unethical acts that hinder the development of the national economy are not allowed, and limited resources can be forcibly transferred to strategic industries...... I would like to ask, which of your officials can do this?"

Although Cheng Nuo did not want to admit it, the fact was that the Meiji Restoration of the other side was more successful, and while the bureaucracy was advancing its great cause of nation-building, the development of Japan's machinery industry was advancing by leaps and bounds, and now it is at the forefront of the world.

Even before the outbreak of World War I, Japan had a number of powerful leaders in the military industry, shipbuilding, rolling stock, and electrical machinery.

Moreover, the window of time in which the European powers are busy fighting wars is open not only to China, but also to Japan, and even more so in a few years.

But because of this, it is even more impossible for Cheng Nuo to outsource the steel.

"You have your Japan, I have my homeland, import substitution itself is not a purely economic consideration, but often contains a nationalist component to the development of domestic industries, only thinking about profits through innovation, not the first choice of our factory, Mr. Iwasaki, you should be able to understand what I mean, right?"

Iwasaki Hidero's face froze, and he opened his mouth to continue the persuasion, but thinking of his family's experience in developing industry, he sighed, and then said with a serious face: "Our family's family motto is to use the national concept to govern all businesses, and never forget to be sincere in public service, and I feel the same way in this regard.

However, our family also believes in the principle of "repaying the country in case of emergency", since we can't cooperate normally with each other, then we will be competitors in the future, Cheng Jun, I hope you are ready!"

The change was so fast that Cheng Nuo didn't react for a while, and before he could say a word, he watched Iwasaki Hidero turn around and leave with his subordinates, without dragging his feet at all.

"This little devil has a lot of personality!" Cheng Nuoxin said.

……

On the other side, Iwasaki Hidero was walking on the way back with his subordinates, thinking about how to defeat Cheng Nuo in the business battle later.

At this time, the subordinate next to him, who had been silent just now, suddenly spoke: "Iwasaki-kun, this person is too ignorant of promotion, we cooperate with them, we can afford them, and we actually refused, it is simply insulting us, we must make them look good!"

Iwasaki Hidero frowned and said, "Hiroshi Iwasaki, this is an internal matter of our factory, I have my own arrangements, and my father asked you to come here to study, not to direct me to do something!" Don't forget, I'm still your brother, don't walk with those soldiers!"

A hint of contempt crossed the corner of Iwasaki's eyes, but he hid it well

"Don't worry, I haven't been in contact with my friends since I came to China, and I've been staying at the East Asian Tongbunkan lately, but I've learned a lot from these intelligence experts, so I really don't need to try it?" My dear brother!"

Hidero Iwasaki didn't even think about it, so he directly refused: "I believe in the technology of our Nagasaki Steel Works!"

With that, he turned around and left without looking back.

Iwasaki Hiroshi, who stayed in place, snorted coldly, looked back and clenched his fists in the direction where Cheng Nuo lived, the matter obviously did not start with him.

"Cheng Nuo, I remember you!"

……

In the courtyard, while Cheng Nuo was checking Hidero Iwasaki's business card, Jiang Jiang came over with an apple in his left mouth, leaned out half of his body and said curiously:

"Why do you still have to go, don't you all make an appointment with that foreign old man? Why, if you change your tactics, do you want to dry Morgan and ruin his majesty?"

Cheng Nuo pinched his business card and said, "That's not it, there should still be respect, don't look at that person has always only had nostrils facing the sky, in fact, his subordinates still have some skills, and some arrogance is understandable."

"Well, woo woo woo~"

It's a pity that all the answers to Cheng Nuo were some whimpering, which made him feel very puzzled, and moved his gaze from the business card to Jiang Jiang's left face, but he didn't expect this guy to eat an apple and also noticed this business card, and he was also extremely curious about it.

"Woo woo~"

"Spit out the apple and talk about people!" Seeing his friend's appearance, Cheng Nuo couldn't help but smile.

"Ah~ can suffocate me." Jiang Jiang Zuo reacted to an apple in his mouth, and quickly took it down and wiped his saliva: "I mean, this business card is Japanese? Then Zhiyuan, you can be careful, these deflated calves don't have a good person, and their stomachs are full of bad water."

Cheng Nuo smiled: "I naturally know this, but ah, there are some aspects that Japan is still worth learning from."

Jiang Jiangzuo swallowed his spit and asked, "I know that some of your math things are transmitted from Japan, and even some new words in the Chinese language are taken from Japanese."

"You are very right, but today we are talking about the machinery industry, especially the shipbuilding industry we are doing, and its success or failure is related to the future industrial prospects of our country." Cheng Nuo nodded, and then added: "The Japanese came over today, no matter what the so-called things were, but they gave me a wake-up call."

Jiang Jiang Zuo asked, "What wake up?"

Cheng Nuo put away his business card, lowered his head and said, "That is, we have to step up, the faster we are, the more obvious it will be that this kind of large-scale military factory will play a role in promoting the development of the industry.

In Japan, for example, their machinery industry began at the Yokosuka Shipyard, followed by the Akabane Works, the Nagasaki Shipyard, the Tokyo Osaka Artillery Factory, and the Onahama Shipyard.

The workers trained by these military enterprises occupied major positions in the Ishikawajima Shipyard and Kawasaki Shipyard that were later established, and the workers of these later large enterprises later spread to other large and small factories, and then produced chemical reactions that could affect the entire Japanese machinery industry."

Jiang Jiang Zuo took the opportunity to say, "You mean that the origin of Japanese machine-making technology is mainly in large arsenals?"

Cheng Nuo nodded: "Especially in the early stage of the development of machinery industry like ours, military enterprises can play an important role in disseminating advanced technology and supplying technical personnel.

If we look at the development trajectory of the machinery industry alone, Meiji Japan and the Manchu Qing Dynasty have great similarities, but why Japan rose up later, and our development is slow, a large part of the reason is that most of the Chinese elite are literati and generally lack strategic vision.

In other words, the Manchu Qing Dynasty did not support such strategic industries enough.

Although Japan also lacks advantages in developing these strategic industries, it is willing to adopt new tariff rates and subsidies to support it.

For example, the powerful Mitsui Zaibatsu had established the Ministry of Industry in the early years, but only the textile mills developed among its enterprises, and the Shibaura Manufacturing (later Toshiba) in the heavy industry sector continued to lose money

。

However, the Japanese government is willing to spend money and support it step by step.

Later, Japan could not only export machinery products to us, but also an important source of machinery technology for us.

By the time of the fall of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, Japan's machine industry had already established an initial advantage over our same industry, which in turn influenced the course of the macro-history of East Asia thereafter.

"Then you say, what does this little devil mean by coming over this time? Do they boast that they have a mature supporting industrial system?" Jiang Jiangzuo took the business card and looked at it, and said thoughtfully.

Cheng Nuo smiled: "Maybe it's neither, but another form of declaration of war."

"Then you have to be more careful, a while ago, Japanese ronins were rampant on the streets, making trouble in the Hongkou vegetable market, although they killed two dog thieves, but we also injured four of them, seeing that this matter is not over, don't let people make a fuss here."

Cheng Nuo nodded: "I'll be careful, I can take this opportunity to transfer the escort team we trained in front of me and test their effectiveness with actual combat."

After the two discussed, Cheng Nuo got in the car and prepared to go to the Jiangnan Shipyard.

On the way, I carefully recalled the details of the meeting with the Japanese Iwasaki Hidero, to see if there was anything I didn't notice at first, and at the same time I was thinking about it in my heart:

"Japan's industrialization led by state investment was financed by small producers in agriculture and cottage industries, and the people bore heavy national debt and military expenditures, the burden of which was passed on to the tenant farmers.

Western countries are passing on to the colonies, and we will have to take this road in the future, but it will only suffer the farmers, and it is not enough to rely on synthetic ammonia fertilizer.

Hab, Hab, if your life is better, we will have a hard time!"