50s: Starting with a storage ring

Chapter 836 Money or Industry?

Of the two completed Project 945 Sierra-class nuclear submarines, the first, K-239, is already in service with the Russian Northern Fleet, while the second, K-276, was just launched in July.

If we're going to do it, now's the perfect time. We can take advantage of the fact that the second ship, K-276, is undergoing testing, fake its sinking in an accident, and then secretly bring it back.

He's very familiar with this operation; he's done it twice already.

The first one was a Los Angeles-class nuclear submarine, which has now been sent home for research. The other one is the third ship in the Subi Island fleet.

Submarine No. 3 is a Trafalgar-class nuclear submarine acquired from the British Isles. They are currently in Southeast Asia, outside of the British sphere of influence, so using it discreetly is not a problem.

Sun Zhiwei tallied the location of the target submarine, outlined a route, and planned to head north to check it out in a few days.

The Type 661 cruise missile nuclear submarine, after being disguised multiple times, is now codenamed K-222.

Due to funding shortages, all testing projects have been cancelled, and the submarine has been decommissioned and is currently stored at the naval base in Murmansk.

A total of seven Project 705 attack submarines were built, and all of them are currently in service with various fleets.

However, due to frequent malfunctions, these seven submarines have to stay at the shipyard for several months from time to time. If you want to find them, you should try looking at the Leningrad Admiralty Shipyard.

The Project 685 attack nuclear submarine, Komsomolets (K-278), is currently submerged 340 kilometers below the surface in northern Norway.

Based on the current month, the location where it sank should already be covered by Arctic ice.

The second Project 945 attack submarine was launched in July at the Solmovo shipyard and began outfitting. It's only the end of November, so it may still be in the dry dock or have just started sea trials.

Krasnoyarskaya Sormov Shipyard is an inland shipyard located in Gorky, 400 kilometers east of Moscow.

These places are difficult to travel to. It's winter now, and all four locations are experiencing frigid weather. Two of them are located within the Arctic Circle, where temperatures are below -30 degrees Celsius.

This is much colder than winter in Beijing. Sun Zhiwei looked up at the tropical sun in the sky and felt a little discouraged.

However, these are issues that need to be considered later.

Before that, he needed to go to the monkeys' house to find out what they were up to. He didn't want the monkeys to raid his home while he was away.

These monkeys are really asking for trouble.

Five hours later, the 001 frigate docked at the naval base south of Grand Natuna Island.

This place was originally a base for the Javanese Navy, but it has now been requisitioned by Sun Zhiwei to dock naval vessels and protect Natuna Island.

The prisoners captured from the monkeys' escort ship were left in the city of Nani on the road.

They don't have enough manpower to guard so many prisoners, so they'd better hand them over to the guards and lock them up temporarily, which should come in handy when negotiating with the monkeys later.

Another frigate, hull number 002, and submarine, hull number 003, returned to Subi Island with the captured Petya-class frigate and 10 speedboats.

There are still many people on the island undergoing secondary training. The captured ships need to be piloted by personnel drawn from the training teams in order to quickly form combat capability.

As for the courses they didn't complete, they can only make them up later. Given the current tense situation, Sun Zhiwei had no choice but to let them graduate early.

However, the young men currently in training shouldn't be unhappy. Once they're assigned positions, they'll be officially hired full-time, and their salaries will more than double. I'm sure they'll be very pleased.

Sun Zhiwei did not continue back to Subi Island by boat, as that would be too slow.

He disembarked in Nani, the capital of Natuna Island, halfway through the journey, and then waited at the local temporary airport for Captain Ivan to fly from Hong Kong Island in a Gulfstream III to pick him up.

As for whether the Gulfstream 3 crew members would wonder why their boss suddenly went from Hong Kong Island to Natuna, Sun Zhiwei was too lazy to explain.

After all, this wasn't the first time. Sun Zhiwei often wandered around the world like a street urchin, and then he would call Gulfstream 3 to pick him up.

His reasons were always outdoor tourism and adventure, and the crew members were used to it.

Nani City didn't have an airport before, but now that it's the capital of the Republic of Natuna, it naturally needs this kind of infrastructure.

This temporary airport is only for temporary use; a new, smaller airport is under construction on the other side of the city.

The funds invested in this airport were temporarily borrowed from Pinkerton's account, and will certainly have to be repaid from Natuna's treasury in the future.

Four hours later, Sun Zhiwei returned to Kai Tak Airport on Hong Kong Island.

Shortly after he got off the plane, he received a call from Christie's, asking him to send someone to collect the 428 unsold exhibits. As for the money, he would have to wait and see.

Sun Zhiwei figured that since there were more than 400 items, most of which were small pieces of jewelry and the total volume wasn't very large, he decided to just go and collect them all.

When he arrived at the Alexandra Building, where the Christie’s branch office was located, he did not go directly to the 22nd floor to find Christie’s office, but went up to the 29th floor to take a look at the environment of the Pinkerton office.

The building was only built about ten years ago, and the 29th floor of the Alexandra House has a pretty good location, overlooking Victoria Harbour not far away.

After Sun Zhiwei arrived, he occupied the office of the manager of this branch office, and then made a phone call to Christie's to send the unsold exhibits upstairs.

Not long after, a large group of Christie’s employees, each carrying a large number of boxes, came up the stairs and, under Sun Zhiwei’s instructions, put the collection of exhibits into an empty room next to the office.

Accompanying them was Fran Smith, the general manager of Jasic's branch office, who had come to discuss payment issues with Sun Zhiwei.

“Mr. James, when Mr. Carlson, the company’s chairman, left Hong Kong Island yesterday, he specifically instructed me to come and discuss the auction proceeds with you.”

"Oh? Carlson has already returned to his country?" Although I had already accepted Carlson as a friend, how could he have left so soon after only a few days?

"Yes, sir. The chairman was escorting Ms. Diana back to London and didn't have time to say goodbye to you."

As soon as Fran Smith revealed this news, Sun Zhiwei understood. It seemed that Carlson must have caught the eye of Diana when he visited her in the hospital last time.

With Diana acting as a go-between, it's estimated that Christie's and the Royal Family will have more collaborations in the antique trade in the future.

Christie's influence within the Commonwealth would then reach its peak.

Of course, this also benefits the royal family. With Christie's as a cover, the royal family can have an additional secret channel for monetization.

In the future, many royal assets that are difficult to liquidate can be disposed of anonymously at high prices through Christie's auction house.

(End of this chapter)