50s: Starting with a storage ring

Chapter 563 The visitor is evil

Money is a must, but in Zaire, money can't buy much, so you can give less.

More importantly, supplies, all kinds of supplies, must be delivered to them.

This is no simple matter. There are only a handful of flights to Kinshasa from all over the world, and there is only one flight from Paris per week, which is a medium-sized aircraft.

Of course, only medium-sized aircraft can be used, and only experienced pilots can land safely.

Large aircraft simply cannot land because the runway is not up to standard. If they were to attempt a landing, the most likely outcome would be a crash and loss of life.

So even if we manage to get the supplies, how to transport them is another problem.

As for the supplies themselves, he didn't see them as a problem at all; as long as he had the money, it was simply a matter of purchasing them from other countries.

Sun Zhiwei learned a lot about the medical team's deeds from Captain Xiao and was prepared to donate supplies to support them, but he would not provide excessive support.

As far as he knew, Zaire's current leader, Mobutu, was a military man who came to power and was very naive in foreign affairs. He was not only obsessed with power but also incompetent in economic matters.

More than a decade after the founding of the People's Republic of China, the domestic situation has not improved much.

Zaire is not without resources; it is rich in forests and water resources, and has reserves of more than 20 kinds of non-ferrous metals, which occupies an important position in the world.

Of these, copper reserves are 7500 million tons, accounting for 15% of the world's total; and cobalt reserves are 450 million tons, accounting for 50% of the world's total.

The current situation is that they have resources but don't know how to use them, and that's their biggest problem.

This situation is unlikely to improve much in the foreseeable future, until the current leader Mobutu steps down, but that will be in the 1990s.

Sun Zhiwei was supporting the medical team, not this African country.

He has already decided which supplies to provide, with a focus on improving the living conditions and medical safety of medical personnel.

For example, a large quantity of high-grade protective suits, medical disinfection equipment, tea, and other daily necessities.

He already had tea in his space, and the other medical supplies weren't high-tech products either; they were available in Africa.

He was referring to Johannesburg, where South Africa's technology and economy are doing quite well, and he could buy the medical supplies he needed there.

Johannesburg is only about 2000 kilometers from Kinshasa, a distance that even a small plane can fly between.

Having figured out where to source the supplies, Sun Zhiwei was ready to get started.

Before work was stopped that night, the construction team had already dug three pits. Under the cover of darkness, Sun Zhiwei secretly placed five empty oil tanks next to the pits in the backyard of the hospital.

The next day, he paid nearby residents to come and clean the old oil tanks. By evening, the oil tanks were clean, and the five pits had been dug.

At this point, everyone worked together to place the empty oil cans into the pit, where they fit perfectly. After the oil cans were in place, they filled the surrounding soil back in, leaving only the openings of the five oil cans exposed.

On the third night, Sun Zhiwei filled the five tanker trucks in the space with diesel fuel and then placed them in the open space in the backyard in the middle of the night.

The next morning, what Captain Xiao and his team saw was a convoy of trucks fully loaded with diesel fuel, which had arrived overnight.

Sun Zhiwei said that the drivers had gone to find a place to sleep, so they had to do it themselves to put the diesel fuel from the tanker truck into the underground storage tank.

It's not technically difficult; you just insert the tanker truck's pipe into the opening of the underground oil tank, turn on the switch, and let the oil flow in. Five trucks, five tanks of oil, perfectly matching five underground oil storage tanks, can operate simultaneously, and the oil discharge is completed in an hour or two.

The promised 150 tons of diesel oil has now arrived, and the remaining finishing touches are to install an oil pumping system on these storage tanks.

He didn't plan to do it himself anymore. This kind of oil pumping equipment is actually the same as the refueling equipment at gas stations. Although it's not available for sale in Zaire, it's available across the river.

He only needs to send someone over to buy one set, and they'll even provide on-site installation.

That evening, after Sun Zhiwei took away five oil tankers, he left Captain Xiao a box of cash, totaling $1 million.

This is the money he donated to the medical team. He will not interfere with how the medical team uses it.

However, he was not optimistic that Captain Xiao would be able to use the money well. The most likely scenario was that it would be handed over to the country as foreign exchange, and then supplies would be allocated from within the country.

These days, foreign exchange is highly sought after, and every penny spent domestically must be carefully calculated.

The medical team unexpectedly received $100 million, a rare return on investment for a foreign medical aid project.

If Captain Xiao's superiors don't know how to report and claim credit, then it means they are not qualified to be officials.

But that was none of his business, because that very night, a new flight to Paris took off, and he had already left Zaire on that flight overnight.

He would not change his promise regarding the supplies, but he was no longer needed in the area.

He received an urgent message yesterday from Theodore Ellis, the manager of the New York Magnificent Jewellery store, saying that someone from the De Beers Group wanted to talk to him.

Sun Zhiwei immediately knew what the other party wanted to do. De Beers now monopolizes most of the world's diamond mines, especially the mining, sales and pricing of gem-quality diamonds.

Whenever a new diamond mine is discovered, they try to bring it into their own diamond alliance in order to maintain their industry monopoly.

The 'Moon Angel' diamond exhibited by Rosewood Jewelry last year, as well as the two gem-quality diamonds that appeared at his wedding with Tong Jiajia, did not come from their channels, so how could they not care?

De Beers, this century-old conglomerate, is no pushover. They usually start by making acquisitions, and if that fails, they resort to drastic measures to achieve their goals.

They will only compromise and negotiate if their opponent is too strong.

This set of behavioral logic originated from one person: Ernst Oppenheimer, whose story is legendary.

He was born in 1880 into a German Jewish family. In his early years, he worked in diamond sorting and in 1902 he went to South Africa to participate in diamond mining.

He later became the mayor of Kimberley, the diamond city of South Africa. Subsequently, through numerous high-stakes mergers and acquisitions, he repeatedly doubled his net worth and eventually monopolized most of South Africa's diamond mines.

Ernst, who held a large amount of capital, did not stop there; he set his sights on De Beers.

At this time, Ernst, who held a large number of diamonds, seriously threatened De Beers' monopoly in the diamond industry, and De Beers had no choice but to take the initiative to negotiate with him.

With the confidence that diamonds were his asset, Ernst stated his demands directly: to join the De Beers board of directors.

In 1926, Ernst merged with De Beers Diamonds by exchanging all his assets for shares.

Three years later, Ernst became chairman of the De Beers Group.

(End of this chapter)