Any officer or soldier who comes out of a military academy and knows the location of the Kra Isthmus knows exactly what the Kra Canal means to China. Obviously, when military personnel consider problems, they first consider it from a military point of view.

For Wang Jiaqing, the Kra Canal is a very old, very old topic. Going back up, it can probably be traced back to the time of the fifth king of the Bangkok dynasty more than a hundred years ago. The 5th King Chulalongkorn first proposed the idea of digging the Kra Canal. The aim is to make the shipping lanes between the Pacific and Indian Oceans more convenient.

In recent years, China-ASEAN has carried out a solid research and demonstration, and also once set up a preparatory group, and several major domestic construction machinery manufacturing giants participated in the plan. However, it was only a flash in the pan.

Wang Jiaqing knows very well how much benefit the Kra Canal will bring to the country once it is successfully built. From his point of view, military, political, and economic interests can all be best guaranteed through the construction of the Kra Canal. More importantly, the Kra Canal can bring a fuller voice to national diplomacy and be more conducive to national security.

Obviously, Wang Jiaqing was tempted. Any soldier who has the opportunity to participate in such a project will not be indifferent and will be very excited.

"Mr. Li, I really want to be involved in this matter. Wang Jiaqing said, hesitating for a moment, "But the navy may not let me go lightly." ”

Hu Wenbing said at this time, "Old Wang, don't worry about this. All you need to do is submit an application for a job change, and someone will take care of the rest. ”

Wang Jiaqing returned to his senses, yes, something that was difficult for him to do, wasn't it just Li Mai's words. He smiled and said, "Mr. Li, I am willing to work in your new company." But...... I don't have what it takes to be CEO. ”

Li Mai had expected Wang Jiaqing to say this, smiled, and said, "Old Wang, I know that you will cite various reasons to prove that you are not competent. Let's be honest, it's true that it may be difficult for you to work independently in the short term. But you don't have to worry, I will personally serve as the CEO of the company in the early stage, and when you are familiar with the situation, I will gradually hand over the work to you. ”

After a pause, he said, "In short, you have the ability, you just need to familiarize yourself with the situation." ”

Smiling again, Li Mai stood up and said, "Without further ado, there is something you need to do now." So, you write a professional application now and submit it immediately, I have already said hello, all the way to the green light, tomorrow someone will be sent to hand over the work with you. ”

Wang Jiaqing was stunned for a moment, and then stood up, "Mr. Li, this is too fast." ”

Who knows, Li Mai smiled bitterly and said, "Regarding the construction of the Kra Canal, there are different opinions within the group. Tomorrow afternoon there will be a debate, you studied the Kra Canal project in depth at the military academy back then, and I hope you will succeed in convincing them. ”

"I see. Wang Jiaqing nodded and said, "I'll hurry up and prepare tonight, and I'll do my best." ”

After a few more words, Li Mai and Hu Wenbing hurriedly left the barracks. On the way back, Li Mai and Hu Wenbing were talking.

"After I went to Thailand, my family was left to Zhenhua and your family to watch. At the government level, Zhenhua is at ease with me, and in terms of operation, you are watching, and you are constantly supplying me with soft currency, and you are responsible for the rear. ”

Hu Wenbing nodded and said, "What is the budget for repairing the canal?"

Li Mai shook his head slightly and said, "It was estimated at 300 billion before, but at that time it was only an approximate figure, referring to the budget made by the previous official plan. I thought about it last night, maybe the budget is higher than this figure, and it may greatly exceed the Three Gorges Project. I will talk more about the debate in the afternoon. ”

Hu Wenbing smiled bitterly and said, "Anyway, I couldn't have imagined that in the end, it was your group's department executives who opposed the construction of the Kra Canal." ”

Shaking his head, Li Mai said, "You can't even imagine that your wife is the most opposed." ”

Shrugging his shoulders, Hu Wenbing said, "I told her that I don't have to ask each other about work." What I did in this kind of work, she will never know for the rest of her life. I can't let her be transparent to me. Naturally, I couldn't convince her. ”

Li Mai shook her head helplessly and said, "She is a pure businessman, and she thinks about problems from a different angle than us. So understandable. In the final analysis, she is also thinking about the interests of the group. ”

Hu Wenbing shrugged his shoulders again and said, "You can do it yourself, I can't help it." ”

After nothing else along the way, Li Mai drove home, had lunch with his wife and children, and went to the group headquarters non-stop to continue to study and prepare for the establishment of the Kra Canal Project Company, that is, the legendary preparatory team.

When it came to digging the Kra Canal, Li Mai didn't think of doing it as simple as saying he wanted to. Without a long period of research and demonstration, no one dares to joke with hundreds of billions of dollars in a hot head.

It is not easy to set up a project company, especially a large-scale project of the century involving an investment of more than 300 billion soft yuan. Li Mai has lost count of how many meetings were held to discuss and study, and the meetings with the participation of various personnel lasted for a whole month. To this day, the staffing table placed on Li Mai's desk, in his opinion, still needs to be reconfigured.

In terms of the number of people alone, the entire advance team of the Kra Canal Project Company has exceeded 100 people, and this is only an advance team. All of these people were carefully screened out one by one. This work alone took half a month.

Then there is the registration of a company and so on, the establishment of an offshore company and so on, which are directly operated by the new team.

Li Mai took out an A4 piece of paper from the drawer with various numbers and simple text descriptions, and looked at it with a frown and meditated. Here are the thoughts and some key numbers that he jotted down in his head. Undoubtedly, the most important thing is the budget. He now has almost 400 billion yuan of funds in his hands, and in addition to the working capital needed for the operation of the group company, what he can use is actually the 50 billion US dollars of foreign exchange in the special account, which is about 300 billion soft yuan. According to the current situation of the gun regiment construction group, it can provide at least 10 billion soft yuan a year. If it takes 10 years to build the canal, more than 400 billion yuan will be invested in it. This is just a budget based on the previous scenario.

Ten years is too long, and if Li Mai wants to shorten the construction period as much as possible, it means that special excavation methods will have to be used, in other words, the cost will rise.

For example, blasting with nuclear material can significantly increase the speed of excavation, but the cost will be doubled. More critically, environmental governance in the later stage will be a bottomless pit, if there is no very good means of control. Moreover, it is still unknown whether the Thai side will allow the use of such a method.

If this method cannot be implemented, there is only one way to shorten the construction period - a large increase in construction machinery and skilled workers, and the whole line will be rolled out and started at the same time. In that case, the banknotes would have to be pulled directly from the banknote printing plant, which would have to run at full capacity.

In the debate, there was a debate on the budget, and how much to invest and what the prospects for profit were the most important concerns of the opponents. Li Mai seriously thought about how to convince everyone in the dialectical meeting. Admittedly, Li Mai could have taken the Markla Canal project to work with all his might, but that would at least make the dissenting executives lose confidence in the Gun Regiment Construction Group. It is the long-term solution to create an environment that is as democratic and fair as possible, to absorb all kinds of different opinions, and to strive for every strategic decision made by the group to be made by the group.

didn't say anything, but said that when Li Mai and Hu Wenbing went to invite Wang Jiaqing in person, Tang Zheng was on the plane.

He was on a Lunan Airlines flight to Nangang somewhere in Sichuan. Guntuan Water Conservancy and Hydropower Co., Ltd. took over a project in Sichuan, and Tang Zheng, as the chief engineer of the group and deputy general manager of the water conservancy and hydropower company, went to inspect the construction progress of the project. When he was in Sichuan, he heard some news that the group was going to set up a new company to operate the Kra Canal project.

He is all too familiar with the Kra Canal project, which is regarded by many insiders as the crown jewel as a veteran of water conservancy and hydropower. It is the third Grand Canal in the world with the same status after the Panama Canal and the Suez Canal.

Being able to participate in it is the honor of a practitioner's life.

Looking at the group as a whole, Tang Zheng believes that no one is more suitable to be the CEO of the Kra Canal Project Company. Because in the whole group, there is no one else who has a deep technical background and is proficient in business management. Moreover, Tang Zheng believes that with the good personal relationship between him and Li Mai, Li Mai will also let him take charge of this company.

But he received news that Li Mai planned to be the general manager of him, and above him there was the president and CEO. It is clear that the power of one person is divided among three people, and he is the last one.

Sitting on the wide and comfortable seat in the first class, Tang Zheng closed his eyes and recuperated, and it was difficult to think about it for a while. What does the big boss think? Who else can be the CEO besides himself? Is it possible to hire externally? Is the external appointment reliable? He knows that the president is Lava, and Lava is the woman of the big boss, although the big boss has never expressed this, but everyone knows it. If Rava is the CEO, then Tang Zheng will not have other ideas. Because it's easy to understand – the big boss has to keep a firm grip on the company, which is about the group's future growth strategy.

The problem is that the CEO position is now vacant.

"Mr. Tang, Mr. Tang?"

Tang Zheng came back to his senses, opened his eyes, and followed the voice, but it was the beautiful face of the flight attendant, very close.

"Mr. Tang, we are about to land, please allow me to put on your seat belt. The stewardess smiled sweetly, and her eight white teeth were exposed.

"Oh. Tang Zheng sat down and nodded.

The flight attendant squatted down and stretched out her white arm to buckle Tang Zheng's seat belt. Tang Zheng looked down, and from a condescending angle, he could see the contents of the flight attendant's chest, which was very full, the light blue uniform was black underwear, and the short skirt below seemed to be unable to wrap the round buttocks, and the large white legs exposed made people's hearts beat faster. Suddenly, Tang Zheng only felt a hot breath coming up from his lower abdomen.

"Is Miss interested in teaching me how to use a seat belt?" Tang Zheng said pointedly.

The flight attendant was slightly stunned, buckled her seat belt, half-squatted on the ground, looked at Tang Zheng with a smile, and said, "Willing to serve you." ”

Tang Zheng pulled the corners of his mouth and smiled, took out the notebook and pen he carried with him, wrote down the name of the hotel and the room number with a brush, tore off a sheet, and handed it to the flight attendant.

The flight attendant took it and took a look, but she was not embarrassed at all, she just smiled at Tang Zheng, threw a wink, got up and twisted her ass and left.

Tang Zheng sighed, alas, the depression in his heart could only be vented on the stewardess just now.