50s: Starting with a storage ring

Chapter 871 The Story of Buying a Boat
A day later, Sun Zhiwei successfully transferred in Moscow and flew to Tokyo. During the flight, he had already contacted the group's headquarters in New York, and the acquisition team in Tokyo had completed the acquisition.

The acquisition team is preparing to hire a temporary crew locally to sail the ship back because the group does not have a subsidiary specializing in maritime transport.

Sun Zhiwei did not stop their recruitment efforts, but instead contacted Subi Island and asked them to send a group of people to take over one of the ships.

Cargo ships require very few crew members; a 5-ton large lake-type bulk carrier needs 22 crew members.

The fourth batch of soldiers on Subi Island has begun training. Most of these soldiers are from the Navy, and many of them know how to operate ships. It can be said that the island is not short of sailors.

Therefore, it's not a problem to transfer a group of veterans over there and use them for a few months.

Now that Subi Island's strength has increased, a year ago, he would have had a headache dealing with dozens of cargo ship drivers.

Actually, sailors are easy to find; the key is that they must be reliable, and there is no one more reliable than veterans.

Most importantly, Ji Yongjia's No. 4 submarine was destroyed recently, so they are unwilling to drive surface ships.

So this time he instructed Dong Haoyang to send Ji Yongjia and his 21 crew members to Tokyo. Together with Ji Yongjia, they made a total of 22 people, which was just enough to receive a 5-ton bulk carrier.

He called Ji Yongjia over for a reason: four titanium alloy submarines and one damaged Type 004 submarine all needed to be sent back to China for repair and maintenance at a shipyard.

These submarines are very valuable. Currently, only the Soviet Union and the United States are capable of industrializing the mass production of titanium alloys. The titanium alloy material itself is extremely valuable.

Currently, the price of pure titanium on the international market is around 150-200 yuan/kg, while titanium alloys are even more expensive, let's say 200 yuan/kg.

At the current exchange rate of 1:3.5, the cost of one ton of titanium alloy is around $5 to $6.

而建造3600吨级的705型钛合金攻击型核潜艇时，钛合金的用量就达到600吨，光是其外壳的成本就在3000-3600万美元之间。

The other three titanium alloy nuclear submarines have a larger displacement, use more titanium alloy, and are therefore more expensive.

For example, the Komsomolskaya Pelajaran cost over $600 billion to build, including the manpower, equipment, and missiles used.

That's equivalent to the cost of four Ford-class aircraft carriers.

A rough estimate suggests that the total value of these four titanium alloy submarines is around $100-200 billion.

It is said that wealth is a powerful motivator, but for the scientists and researchers working on submarine development, these submarines were even more appealing than money.

If Sun Zhiwei didn't have anyone watching, he could be 100% certain that they would seize these titanium alloy nuclear submarines.

He was already prepared to negotiate with the leaders before sending these submarines back.

The goal is to utilize three damaged titanium alloy submarines: the "Komsomolskaya Pravda", "K-222", and "K-123".

In exchange for the leaders' approval, he was allowed to take away the complete "Costroma" Sierra-class Project 945 attack nuclear submarine.

He believed the leaders would agree that for a country, one or two powerful, unseen nuclear submarines were not essential; the main thing was to absorb their advanced technology.

Even the might of one or two nuclear submarines cannot support a country's vast coastline.

Only by mastering the technology contained in these submarines, and being able to mass-produce them, or even innovate upon them, can we truly benefit the country.

But it's different for Sun Zhiwei. He only has one company, and even with a large armed force, he can only manage a few thousand people, at most ten thousand, and it's not easy to maintain that scale in the long term.

Because he's responsible for paying these people's salaries. At the current average soldier's salary of $1800 per month, paying salaries for 1 people would cost $2.16 million a year. This doesn't even include the equipment, insurance, and other benefits he'd have to provide. Even with his vast wealth, he couldn't afford such a drain.

I can't afford to raise them, I can't afford to raise them.

Therefore, he demanded fewer but better ships, and the "Costroma" perfectly met his requirements, one ship being worth ten.

What has he been doing all this time, enduring the cold in the Arctic? It's all to bring back a usable titanium alloy nuclear submarine.

If those researchers detain him, wouldn't he suffer a huge loss?

As the saying goes, "where there's a policy, there's a countermeasure." No matter how well the leaders make arrangements with Sun Zhiwei, if the subordinates want to delay, they can always find an excuse to drag things out for three to five months.

Sun Zhiwei is a big shot; he might be willing to kill someone directly, but he doesn't have the time to argue or bicker with people.

That Sierra-class nuclear submarine just happened to be prepared for Ji Yongjia's team. Let him take good care of his own ship, and he will definitely do his best.

If he can't even protect his mount, then he shouldn't blame Sun Zhiwei for not giving him a chance; he'll be sent back to driving cargo ships.

Two days later, Sun Zhiwei arrived at Tokyo Haneda Airport and checked into the Imperial Hotel Tokyo in Chiyoda Ward.

The following day, Sun Zhiwei summoned Laune Fisher, the financial representative sent by the group company to purchase the ship, to the hotel. He needed to understand the current situation here.

"Chairman, I have already recruited 200 crew members locally. With just 20 more recruits, we can sail all 10 cargo ships back."

“Not bad, not bad. However, we don’t need to recruit the remaining 20 people. You can take nine boats back this time. I need to keep one boat for myself.”

"In addition, the ships that were purchased were all a few years old. What were the transaction prices?"

"Chairman, all of these are ships that are less than 10 years old. Many of them have not been to sea much and are basically 70-80% new. The average price is $245 million per ship."

"Didn't they say that ships over 10 years old cost $500 million each? How come they're so much cheaper?"

“Boss, 500 million is the price for other companies. We are America’s company, and they don’t dare to ask for a higher price.”

"Can these little dwarfs really be this obedient?"

"Um, President Huang is quite familiar with a major at the Yokohama base here."

Okay, I get it. With Daddy up there keeping things in check, it's not surprising.

It just so happens that the West Point Recycling Company in Cleveland has been operating for quite some time, spending money without any income. It's time to make the scrap metal they recycle generate value.

However, Sun Zhiwei still had a question.

“I remember that Attorney Brown went to Cleveland to set up a shipping team. The company should be set up by now. Why doesn’t he have the shipping company’s crew come and sail the ship back? Why do you have to recruit people here temporarily?”

"Chairman, I have explained this matter to the group."

“The Sanguang Group is currently operating at a loss, but many of their sailors need to eat. In order to get them to willingly lower the price, I decided to hire their company's crew to deliver the ship, which will also give them a way to make a living.”

"After all, as you know, the cost of sailors from Cleveland going abroad is very high. Hiring sailors from the Sanguang Group can save a lot of money."

(End of this chapter)