The rise of a great power: starting with military industry

Chapter 144 Customer is God

Noon.

Liu Tao completed all the procedures.

All you need to do is go back to Kunming and visit the bank, and the money will appear directly in Panshan Machinery Factory’s account in Kunming.

According to regulations, no matter how much foreign exchange is earned, the bank will issue more RMB accordingly after settlement!

The current exchange rate is 1 US dollar = 1.49 RMB.

It is naturally impossible for the bank to really settle 17.5 billion US dollars and only print 26.075 billion RMB.

If this were the case, the Fifth Ministry of Machine Building would have suffered a huge loss if it settled the payment to Panshan Machinery Factory at the rate of 1 USD = 1.75 RMB.

The Fifth Ministry of Machine Building always settled the bills with Panshan Machinery Factory happily. Liu Tao knew without hesitation that they would definitely make some profit from it.

Liu Tao suspected that the settlement made by the Fifth Ministry of Machine Building to the bank was 1 USD = 2 RMB or even more!
Although the economy has now implemented a dual-track system, in fact, in a sense, bank foreign exchange settlement is also a dual-track system.

The exchange rate ratio of bank foreign exchange settlement is far different from that in the market.

There is a lot of room for maneuver here.

After finishing his business, Liu Tao went to the military base.

This military base is a tank unit military base and also a tank crew training base.

The entire base is very large, with a variety of terrains, including dirt roads, grasslands, hillsides, and trenches.
There are eight Type 80 self-propelled anti-aircraft guns and five Type 80 tanks. Each self-propelled anti-aircraft gun and tank has a three-person crew, who are now taking the time to familiarize themselves with the self-propelled anti-aircraft guns and tanks.

There are also soldiers operating heavy machine guns, heavy sniper rifles, and anti-aircraft machine guns.

Engineers are building bunkers, obstacles, and targets.
This will be the venue for tomorrow’s performance for our distinguished guests!

78式手枪、78式自动步枪、78式通用机枪、78式重机枪、78式重狙枪、78式狙击步枪、78式枪榴炮、78式狙击榴弹枪乃至于几个月刚刚研制成的新型防弹衣，全都出现了。

In order to obtain the order and to ensure long-term cooperation in the future, Liu Tao invested a huge amount of money this time.

Add to that the target drone, and the entire performance, and the cost will be huge.

After checking once, Liu Tao found that there were no problems with the weapons and equipment, and he secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

Command center, the commander is making deployments.

Security work, performance procedures, etc.

Except for a Type 80 self-propelled anti-aircraft gun and a Type 80 tank that just arrived three days ago, the rest have been here for a long time.

"Director Liu, is it necessary to use so many target drones this time?" The commander looked distressed.

The commander is well aware of how much it costs to perform a play.

Abandoned cars, scrapped tanks, bunker construction, and more than a dozen target drones!
They had never been so extravagant.

Throughout the year, the training bullets used are limited, let alone the real bullets we have now.

Bullets are fine, but what are really expensive are the avant-garde air defense missiles, tank shells and target drones!
For example, the fin-stabilized discarding armored carbine, one round is worth ten years of his salary!

"You can't catch a wolf without sacrificing a lamb. We have to do it no matter how much it costs. Even if there is no order, we can use it as a practical training for the soldiers!" said Liu Tao.

Liu Tao knew very well how poor the army was.

For such a long time, no live-fire shooting has been conducted and only a few training rounds have been fired.

I guess they don't drive tanks or self-propelled anti-aircraft guns out for much time every day, just to save fuel.

A tank like the Type 80 can consume more than 400 liters of diesel per kilometers, making it a real oil-guzzler.

So far, the troops have placed orders for five Type 5 self-propelled anti-aircraft guns and ten Type 80 tanks, plus the corresponding artillery shells and training shells.

This is the price Liu Tao gave for self-propelled anti-aircraft guns at 300 million yuan per vehicle and tanks at 100 million yuan per vehicle. After the plan to streamline the troops was released, the troops became even more stingy.

Currently, of the eight self-propelled anti-aircraft guns at the base, four are self-use versions, and of the five tanks, two are self-use versions. The others are export versions, which are temporarily loaned to the troops for training purposes.

From the outside, it is difficult to tell the difference between the self-use version and the foreign trade version.

When guiding customers to view, they are guided to the foreign trade version.

As for firearms, there is no difference between personal use version and export trade version.

The commander secretly marveled that Liu Tao really was rich and willful.

With just this amount of money, you can buy a Type 80 tank.

The next morning, there was a hint of coolness in the autumn air.

Liu Tao, Liu Zhenbang and other people from the Fifth Ministry of Machine Building met up and arrived at the military base ahead of time.

The security here today is much stricter than usual.

After waiting for about an hour, the convoy slowly drove into the base.

When he saw the middle-aged man who was about fifty years old, Liu Tao knew that he was Prince Abdul.

Such a big shot in a high position naturally has a unique temperament.

When Liu Tao saw another leader, he secretly sighed in his heart. This leader was personally accompanying him, which showed how much importance the country attached to this negotiation.

"Prince Abdul, this is the chief designer of the Type 80 self-propelled anti-aircraft gun and the Type 80 tank." The leader introduced Liu Tao with a smile, and the translator on the side immediately translated it into Arabic.

Prince Abdul praised in Arabic and the atmosphere was very friendly.

Liu Tao spoke in Arabic: "Your Excellency Prince Abdul, welcome to China. I hope you will enjoy your trip."

“I didn’t expect that you, at such a young age, could actually understand Arabic. You are indeed a genius.” Prince Abdul’s eyes lit up and he praised again.

Liu Tao communicated with Prince Abdul in Arabic. He started learning Arabic last year and can now communicate normally in Arabic.

The leader also looked at Liu Tao with surprise.

He didn't expect that Liu Tao actually learned Arabic.

However, I feel more relieved and look forward to achieving good results in this negotiation.

Now the country needs to spend foreign exchange everywhere. The foreign affairs department needs to use foreign exchange overseas, government-sponsored students need to use foreign exchange to study abroad at prestigious overseas universities, and purchasing advanced machines, production lines, and books from abroad also requires foreign exchange. Importing cars and engineering vehicles also requires large amounts of foreign exchange.

If Liu Tao had not opened up a new situation in the export of weapons and equipment and earned a large amount of foreign exchange, the country's foreign exchange reserves would have been negative by now.

Instead of like now, the country still has more than 2 billion in foreign exchange reserves.

Now that they saw that Liu Tao could greet Prince Abdul in Arabic, the leaders became more optimistic about Liu Tao.

Afterwards, everyone came to the shooting range, where there were weapon racks with guns on them.

Liu Tao introduced each type of firearm to Prince Abdul and asked Prince Abdul and others to try them out themselves.

You can only know whether a weapon is good or not by using it yourself.

This is especially true for an insider like Prince Abdul.

No matter how much you say, it's better to experience it yourself.

Since there is no strong brand effect like Soviet or American weapons, if you want to be competitive, cost-effectiveness is the top priority, followed by service attitude. You should treat customers as gods instead of being high above them, wanting to sell at a high price and attach a bunch of conditions.

(End of this chapter)