Go back in time and be a chaebol

Chapter 1064 Breaking through the blockade (first update, please subscribe)
"Cough cough..."

In the teahouse, coughing sounds were heard one after another, and many of the diners had caught a cold.

The waiter who was pushing the cart to serve food coughed from time to time, occasionally twisted his nose, then wiped it on a towel and continued to serve breakfast.

As for runny nose, sneezing, coughing and the like, for people, it's just a cold and nothing serious at all.

"Cough cough..."

After coughing into his handkerchief, Li Hongji put it away and spoke to Jin Liangming in front of him.

"Sorry, I accidentally caught a cold."

"It's okay, it's okay. Recently, people have been suffering from colds everywhere. When I was traveling from Chuncheng to Suicheng, the whole carriage was filled with people suffering from colds."

Jin Liangming laughed again and said:

"There's an old doctor in Suicheng who's particularly good at treating colds and flu. I'll ask my friend there to get some medicine and send it over."

“That’s a problem for Boss Jin.”

Although they called him boss, Li Hongji, who was used to dealing with them, knew that they were not just businessmen. Businessmen were just a cover. For them, asking the old doctor to prescribe medicine was just a piece of cake.

"We are all family, why should we be polite? By the way, I read in the newspaper yesterday that Nanyang's GDP last year reached a staggering 617 billion US dollars, surpassing the UK by more than 30 billion US dollars, ranking third in the world. Even its steel production has exceeded 2300 million tons. It's really not easy!"

Jin Liangming's tone was slightly flattering. Although the situation seemed tense last year, the business exchanges between them have never stopped. Tangshan is still very willing to export goods to Nanyang. After all, Nanyang's demand for Tangshan's goods is diverse. In addition to general agricultural products and local specialties, even common fruits such as apples, pears, and hawthorns are imported from the mainland. For this reason, Nanyang has specially developed refrigerated containers. However, because the two countries do not have direct trade relations, the trade between the two sides is negotiated in Hong Kong Island.

In recent years, Tangshan has exported agricultural products and local specialties to Nanyang, and imported industrial products and machinery and equipment from Nanyang. The business cooperation between the two sides is quite harmonious.

"Tangshan is also amazing. I heard that your steel production has exceeded 400 million tons. This progress is really amazing. When we defeated the reactionaries, Tangshan was still poor."

"Yes, if you think about it, the real construction has only been in the last few years. After all, we have been at war for the past few years, so we don't have that much energy for construction. This year, the output may exceed 600 million tons! If there is another five-year plan, the steel output will be at least to million tons!"

There was a hint of pride in Jin Liangming's expression. After all, the country's construction achievements were obvious to all.

"So, in order to achieve this goal, we hope to import some metallurgical equipment from Nanyang, including oxygen top-blown converters, which have high output and fast production speed. We hope to introduce three 30-ton oxygen top-blown converters and related equipment. The price is negotiable."

As the inventor of the oxygen top-blown converter, it is well known that Nanyang's metallurgical equipment is extremely advanced. For Tangshan, which is committed to developing the metallurgical industry, it naturally hopes to import some advanced equipment.

Facing Jin Liangming's request, Li Hongji thought for a moment and said.

"Boss Jin, you should know that we are a member of the Batumi community. According to relevant agreements, metallurgical equipment is regulated equipment. Although it is not prohibited to export, due to restrictions such as quantity control, the export of these industrial equipment requires approval from the Batumi community. Given the current situation, the possibility of obtaining approval is not great."

"So, I said the price is negotiable."

Jin Liangming smiled.

In fact, China still likes to do business with Southeast Asia very much. The reason is that Southeast Asia has a high demand for domestic goods, especially local specialties. Last year alone, China exported more than 2 million US dollars worth of goods to Southeast Asia, and most of them were tea, local products and the like. The market demand for those local specialties outside of Southeast Asia is not large, but Southeast Asia... is different from other countries. They are all Tang people, so naturally they need domestic local specialties.

Because the trade between the two sides is booming, they are much more generous in bidding.

"This one……"

After thinking for a moment, Li Hongji said.

"I need to negotiate with relevant domestic companies. You know, this incident is very troublesome."

Although he said so, Li Hongji knew very well that the trade principles between Nanyang and Tangshan were very simple - basically there were no principles. Enterprises would carefully avoid things like the Batumi Agreement. This was not just because of interests. After all, Nanyang people were almost all first-generation immigrants. They were born and raised in Tangshan and had extremely strong feelings for Tangshan. Although the situation at the official level was very tense now, for enterprises, they did not mind exporting goods to Nanyang, even if they were some sensitive and regulated goods.

"Because it's troublesome, the profit is high."

Shrugging his shoulders, Li Hongji changed the subject.

"By the way, Borneo Shipping Company is planning to sell Liberty and Victory recently. What do you think? Are you interested? If you are willing to buy, not only will the price be preferential, but you can also use bank loans. Boss Jin's company can borrow at least 500 million pounds." Since the invention of container ships, shipping companies in Southeast Asia are gradually eliminating bulk carriers such as Liberty. However, bulk carriers are still very popular in the international shipping market, and Tangshan is a good customer.

In Li Hongji's opinion, they would definitely buy ocean-going ships because Tangshan's shipbuilding industry had a weak foundation. At that time, it took 5000-3 years and cost more than 5 million pounds to build a 100-ton steamship. On the other hand, due to the embargo, they could only purchase a small number of ships from the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe through barter trade, but their shipbuilding industry was not developed, so the fleet developed slowly.

At the same time, Tangshan's annual ocean-going foreign trade goods of 1000 million tons and coastal domestic trade goods of 600 million tons had to rely on renting foreign ships, with annual ship renting fees as high as 1500 million pounds, becoming the "pillar of the international ship renting market". In addition to renting Hong Kong ships, half of them were rented from Japanese ships. The Japanese ship merchants who monopolized the shipping market grabbed high profits by raising freight rates.

The people of Southeast Asia had a consensus on the idea of ​​cutting off Japan's control, so Li Hongqi took the initiative to propose exporting merchant ships to them and was even willing to provide loans.

"This... this business is a bit big, I need to discuss it with my family."

A Liberty Ship is worth hundreds of thousands of pounds!
"What a rare opportunity!"

Li Hongji smiled and said,
"You must seize the opportunity."

"I know. By the way, speaking of opportunities, there is one right now. China is planning to hold the 4st Export Commodities Fair in Guangzhou in April. I wonder if Mr. Li is interested in coming to the venue. There are products from various provinces there. I believe you will gain a lot."

"Really?"

Li Hongji said quickly.

"It would be an honor if I could get through, but, you know, my passport is..."

"No problem. I will get a pass for Boss Li when the time comes. Boss Li and his group can enter the country with the pass."

For the two people who were discussing business, they did not seem to be affected by the cold, although Boss Jin wiped his nose with a handkerchief when leaving, but that was all.

……

The spread of disease sometimes occurs faster than expected. Just before the end of the first month of the lunar year, patients with a new type of influenza appeared in Southeast Asia. In just a few weeks, tens of thousands of people were infected. This naturally attracted the attention of the Department of Health, and the epidemic prevention department of the Department of Health immediately launched related work.

Soon, in early March, Cheng Changying, Director of the Department of Health, appeared in the study of the official residence with the first investigation report.

"According to the clues currently obtained, the virus first appeared in Tangshan, western Guizhou. In mid-February, researchers in Tangshan isolated the virus as H2N2, locally known as A2. It spread throughout the country in the same month and became popular in Hong Kong Island. It later spread to Singapore and Southeast Asia and spread to the world. Currently, there are related cases in Japan, the United Kingdom and other places."

Looking through the investigation report provided by the Department of Health, Li Yian frowned.

他并不知道这场被称为“亚洲流感”大流行，在接下来的一年之中，会在造成了全球范围内100万-400万人死亡。而H2N2型病毒出现后，H1N1型病毒即在人群中消失。

"…patients' symptoms generally include shaky legs, chills, sore throat, runny nose and cough; accompanied by sore limbs (adults), headache (children) and high fever. Some children may experience nosebleeds. These symptoms are mostly mild. With simple antipyretic measures, patients usually recover after a period of time in bed. Complications occur in 3% of patients, and the mortality rate is 0.3%. Pneumonia and bronchitis account for 50%."

When introducing the symptoms of a cold, Cheng Changying specifically emphasized.

"From the current tracking, the spread of the H2N2 virus in Southeast Asia is limited to a certain extent because it is located in the tropics. However, due to the convenient air transportation between Southeast Asia and other countries, it is spreading to countries around the world at a speed beyond our imagination. According to information provided by the United States, related diseases have already appeared in the area."

This is exactly the change brought about by the transformation of transportation. Before, it took one or two months for a disease to spread, but now it only takes a few weeks to spread to the whole world.

“Is there anything we can do now to stop its spread?”

Although Li Yian was a layman when it came to influenza, he knew about vaccines after all, so he asked.

“Is it possible to start developing a vaccine?”

Listening to your question, Cheng Changying explained.

"The experts from the Department of Health are working with the Army Institute of Disease Control and pharmaceutical companies such as Jianmin. Jianmin started research in this area earlier. They sent investigators to Hong Kong Island half a month ago to collect relevant information. Dr. Tang Feifan from their laboratory has isolated the H2N2 virus strain. They then gave the virus to three pharmaceutical companies and the Army Institute of Disease Control for the development of a vaccine."

Cheng Changying's answer made Li Yian nodded and said.

"This is great. We must develop a vaccine as soon as possible to protect our people!"

(End of this chapter)