The rise of a great power: starting with military industry

Chapter 65 We are arms dealers
Fifth Ministry of Machine Building, conference room.

It's twelve o'clock late at night and the lights are on.

Wang Baoguo and other leaders sat in the conference room, listening attentively to Liu Tao, who was reeking of alcohol and had red eyes, reporting the situation.

"Leaders, this is the situation. After the contract is drafted, we can sign the agreement." Liu Tao reported, "Just like last time, pay half of the deposit first, and then pay the remaining half of the balance after the goods arrive at the dock for inspection."

Wang Baoguo and others were all excited.

They didn't expect that Liu Tao actually got another big order this time. This order was much bigger than the previous one and was worth nearly 100 million US dollars!

One hundred million dollars!
This is almost as much as the 1.67 million US dollars that the Third Ministry of Machine Building boasts about every day!
The key point is that the Third Machine Ministry's $1.67 million can only be paid after the goods are delivered. But it's different for them, they can get half of the deposit very quickly!

"Comrade Liu Tao, how much is the rebate this time?" asked a leader.

"The situation this time is special. Apart from Egypt, the bill is paid by a few wealthy people and no rebate is required." Liu Tao reported truthfully.

Another leader frowned slightly, "Isn't this bad? They didn't pay for it themselves. Isn't it against the rules?"

"Leaders, we are not providing free aid, but paid aid. We are now arms dealers." Liu Tao said as a matter of course, "As long as we can receive the money, does it matter who pays us?"

Several leaders were stunned and opened their mouths to say something, but after thinking about it, they felt that what Liu Tao said was correct.

I feel like something is wrong, but it also seems very reasonable!

"Our Panshan Machinery Factory is just an arms dealer. As a businessman, our goal is to sell arms and get money. As for where the other party gets the money, it should not be considered by arms dealers." Liu Tao said.

He felt that these leaders were thinking too much.

"Comrade Liu Tao is right. We have to change our previous inherent mindset. In the past, we provided free aid, but now we have to be arms dealers. As businessmen, we do business and as long as we can get the money, we don't care about anything else," said Wang Baoguo.

After discussing it for a while, they felt there was nothing wrong with it, and no one mentioned this issue anymore.

A leader said: "Pistol, rifle, and light machine gun bullets are easy to solve. Just take them out from the warehouse. It's just the right time to clear out the inventory, and then store the newly produced bullets in the ammunition depot."

"Only one-sixth of the ammunition prepared by Red Dragon's Roar has been consumed. It's no problem to clear out the inventory appropriately." Wang Baoguo nodded, "Your Panshan Machinery Factory should focus more on producing firearms!"

If possible, they would rather let other military factories produce together and complete the order as soon as possible. After all, if the order is completed earlier, the money can be used.

It’s just a pity that only Panshan Machinery Factory can produce heavy machine guns, heavy sniper rifles and corresponding bullets.

Other military factories can produce pistols, automatic rifles, and light machine guns, but the quality of their products is not as good as that of Panshan Machinery Factory. From time to time, the military would complain and return unqualified guns.

Such an important order was naturally given to Panshan Machinery Factory.

Liu Tao said: "In fact, leaders, we can also clear out the inventory of previously produced firearms. We should be able to sell them at a low price. If we keep them in the ammunition depot, it will cost a lot of money every year for maintenance."

The previous pistols, rifles, machine guns, etc. were all second-hand goods, and their performance was also poor, so it was naturally impossible to sell them at a high price.

But this thing can actually be sold if you want to.

After all, the vast majority of countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America are not picky.

When the war breaks out, it is good enough to have weapons and ammunition. There is no reason to be picky.

"That won't work. If a war breaks out, how can we defend our country without sufficient reserves?" A leader rejected it without hesitation.

Although the decision-makers have made it clear that peace and development are the themes of the times and the focus in the future will be on economic construction, the extreme thinking of many years is deeply rooted and it is impossible to change it easily.

The weapons and ammunition reserves from the past twenty years are massive, and they are all for the S3 season!

The weapons and ammunition reserves in the southwest alone are frighteningly large.

The country's weapons and ammunition reserves are even more massive. It is estimated that when the S3 season starts, these weapons and ammunition reserves can support the soldiers for five or six years even if the military factories are destroyed. Liu Tao muttered to himself, it seems that these leaders are still too conservative.

However, he believed that once the Panshan Machinery Factory developed and produced weapons and ammunition continuously, these leaders would gradually agree to clear out the inventory.

As for what consequences would be caused by selling so many weapons and ammunition, Liu Tao had no control over it.

A dead Taoist friend is not a poor Taoist!
As long as it doesn’t happen to China, it doesn’t matter how huge the flood is.

The world is now dominated by two poles, and if the sky falls, these two tall guys will hold it up.

The next day, around ten o'clock in the morning, the three contract agreements were drafted, in six copies, two each in Chinese, English and Arabic.

Liu Tao stamped it, and the stamp was the stamp of Panshan Machinery Factory.

As for the account, it is still the original account.

Liu Tao took the contract agreements and went to sign the contracts one by one. In order to make it easier for Liu Tao to sign the contracts, a jeep in the department was assigned to Liu Tao for use, and a special driver drove this jeep to take Liu Tao there.

By noon, the contract agreement had been signed.

After returning to the Fifth Ministry of Machine Building, Wang Baoguo gave him a document.

However, in view of his previous outstanding performance, the department rewarded him with 20,000 yuan.

There is no doubt that this is a huge sum of money.

Liu Tao's current salary is 159 yuan a month, 1908 yuan a year. 2 yuan is equivalent to his total salary income for almost 11 years.

"Once you complete this order, you will be given more rewards!" Wang Baoguo emphasized.

You know, his monthly salary is only 355 yuan, and 2 yuan is almost equivalent to his total salary for five years.

He has been working for so long, but his savings are less than two thousand yuan.

This award was also the result of many discussions within the department and was finally approved.

Of course, the document was not a reward for him negotiating the contract, but a reward for his outstanding performance.

"Leader, this is too much!" Liu Tao looked hesitant.

He had previously developed firearms and semi-automatic bullet production lines, and had received many awards, which had already made him a millionaire.

But these 20,000 yuan is still a huge sum of money for him.

The main reason is that there is no precedent, so it is easy to give people an excuse.

"Not much, not much at all!" Wang Baoguo said, "That's 2220.3 million US dollars, which is very valuable to the ministry and the country."

At this position, Wang Baoguo knew very well how much the country lacked foreign exchange.

Foreign exchange is needed in all aspects, and it is far from enough to treat one yuan as ten yuan.

Without foreign exchange, we can’t import anything we want.

Now, there is a large amount of foreign exchange in the account of the Fifth Ministry of Machine Building. I don’t know how many people have been trying to steal this foreign exchange during this period of time.

To be honest, Panshan Machinery Factory suffered a loss when settling accounts with RMB.

But there is no way, everyone is in great shortage of foreign exchange, especially US dollars.

(End of this chapter)