The rise of a great power: starting with military industry

Chapter 78 Rich and Rich
Iron boss!

These three words alone perfectly capture the unique status of the railway system.

It is an independent system and a real power unit that is not managed by local governments. It has great autonomy and even has its own public security, procuratorial and judicial systems. It is a small kingdom in its own right.

Design, construction, operation and maintenance in one!
The administrative level of Panshan Machinery Factory is only at the district and department level, which is totally inadequate in front of Boss Tie.

For example, the leader of the railway expert group that came this time has the same level as Liu Tao.

"We have surveyed the 21 kilometers connecting the Chengdu-Kunming Railway. According to the construction status of the Chengdu-Kunming Railway, the average cost per kilometer is 282 million yuan, and the cost of 21 kilometers is 5922 million yuan. Can your Panshan Machinery Factory really fund it on your own?" The leader of the expert group, Li Jian, asked with doubt.

The construction of the Chengdu-Kunming Railway began in 1958. Between 1959 and 1969, the construction was suspended several times and then resumed. It was not until July 1970, 7 that the Chengdu-Kunming Railway was completed and put into operation. The total investment reached a staggering 1 billion yuan, with an average cost of 30.75 million yuan per kilometer, which is more than four times the average cost of plain railways.

The cost of building the 21-kilometer railway was as high as 5922 million yuan.

Li Jian didn't believe that a small factory like Panshan Machinery Factory could come up with that much money.

"Our factory will provide the funding, so there is no problem with that. I just want to know when we can start construction? How long will it take?" Liu Tao asked.

Li Jian said: "As long as the funds are in place, we can start construction and it will be completed in two years!"

For the railway boss, building 21 kilometers of railway is no big deal.

What the railway boss lacks is not the team to build railways, but funds.

"Funds are not a problem. We can set up a special bank account and use the funds for specific purposes!" said Liu Tao.

Nearly 60 million yuan, this is indeed a lot of money.

Even now, this is all the money that can be used in the account of Panshan Machinery Factory.

But he was not afraid, because the Egyptian goods would be delivered soon, and he would receive a large sum of money, which was enough to support the development of Panshan Machinery Factory.

Li Jian told Liu Tao some more rules.

The railway boss has his own rules. For example, although the construction cost of this section of railway was paid by Panshan Machinery Factory, the maintenance, management and operation are all handled by the railway boss.

The railway boss will build a station here for unified management, maintenance and operation, and Panshan Machinery Factory cannot interfere.

Liu Tao agreed to all of this.

After all, having such a railway is of great significance to Panshan Machinery Factory.

Directly connect Panshan Machinery Factory to Kunming City, shortening the road journey from 2 hours to half an hour.

This will be the most important external transportation hub for Panshan Machinery Factory in the future.

Since there was an opportunity to build it now, Liu Tao naturally had to seize the chance. Otherwise, if he wanted to build it in the future, the investment might be ten or a hundred times greater, and even if he had the money he might not be able to build it.

The matter was settled in just three days. Panshan Machinery Factory set up a special account, and 5922 million yuan of funds were transferred to this special account at once. The expert group also began geological surveying.

At this time, Wang Tiezhu also brought a group of experts to Panshan Machinery Factory.

When he saw the three anti-aircraft machine guns, Wang Tiezhu couldn't help but walk forward and touch them with his hands.

"This anti-aircraft machine gun is so beautiful!" Wang Tiezhu couldn't help but exaggerate. He suddenly discovered that the firearms developed by Liu Tao had a characteristic, that is, they were very good-looking and looked very delicate in appearance.

Liu Tao smiled and said, "Director, appearance is fighting power!"

The more advanced the weapon, the higher the requirements for manufacturing technology. Not to mention, these three anti-aircraft machine guns were all made by Liu Tao, which is definitely the highest requirement for current manufacturing technology and absolutely perfect.

Unless the machinery and equipment are updated in the future with higher processing precision and better materials, there is basically no room for improvement.

"It looks good but is useless. It's a silver spear candle head!" said Wang Tiezhu.

"We will wait for the expert group to test it and then use actual test performance to speak for itself." Liu Tao is full of confidence in this anti-aircraft machine gun.

Accompanying Wang Tiezhu this time were several anti-aircraft soldiers, for whom Wang Tiezhu had requested assistance from the military district. They had all previously operated Type 54 anti-aircraft machine guns.

As Liu Tao explained, these anti-aircraft soldiers soon mastered the basics.

The expert group conducted the test and Liu Tao didn't need to say much. They conducted special tests on each item.

For example, testing the effective range, testing the different power at different ranges, testing the power of different types of ammunition, and so on.

The three anti-aircraft machine guns were tested separately to test different items. The progress was quite fast and a series of tests could be completed by tomorrow.

Liu Tao took Wang Tiezhu away from the testing site and came to the office.

"Director, what do you think of the rifle-fired grenade launcher and the sniper grenade launcher?" Liu Tao asked.

He has already started trial production here, and the output is still very limited, but the warehouse also has these two weapons and the corresponding types of ammunition.

He didn't want Panshan Machinery Factory to start small-scale production while there was no movement from above.

"The information has been sent to the Fifth Ministry of Machine Building, and there should be news soon." Wang Tiezhu said, "Besides, didn't you say before that whether there is approval from above will not affect your factory's production? You are going to sell to overseas customers!"

"This is different. If approved by the higher-ups, we can also officially get the military's purchase order, right?" Liu Tao said quickly.

You know, no matter how small a mosquito meat is, it is still meat.

He didn't want to miss out on the military's purchase order.

"Haha, I heard that you provided some materials to the 40th and 41st Divisions for experiments. Are you worried that the higher-ups won't approve it?" Wang Tiezhu looked at Liu Tao with a smile.

He is very well-informed.

Liu Tao smiled. Both weapons have been officially equipped to the Wolf Warrior Squad. He also provided a little bit to the 40th and 41st Divisions for experiments.

The manufacturing cost of a rifle grenade is 3 to 7 yuan, and the planned purchase price is 5 to 10 yuan, which means that you can make about 2 to 3 yuan for each rifle grenade. This is definitely a conscience price.

The current cost of a sniper grenade rifle is as high as 10 yuan. Such a high price means that even one cannot afford to buy it out of their own pocket. After all, the funds that a division can mobilize are limited. Even if Liu Tao provides it at cost price, he can only purchase two or three sniper grenade rifles at most.

Moreover, not only is the sniper grenade launcher expensive, the ammunition is also expensive!

It is unrealistic to rely on the 40th and 41st Divisions for this kind of purchase; it has to be formally purchased by the military.

In this way, even if the military's official purchase volume will not be large, it will still be considerable.

As for this kind of weapon, the ones who can really make money are the rich people in the Middle East!

Of course, as long as he can pay, Liu Tao dares to sell it even if it is a devil.

Making money? It's not shabby to do business with the devil!
A qualified arms dealer doesn’t care whether the client is an angel or a devil, but only cares about how much money he can make!
Liu Tao has a deep understanding of how lucrative the profits from arms are, and he has tasted the benefits of them better than anyone else in the country today.

(End of this chapter)