What the hell is a private enterprise?

Chapter 454 Arsenal Ship? NO!

"In any case, Goose City welcomes all investors, especially giant capital like Cheung Kong Holdings."

Gao Yuliang knew that Tang Wen wasn't particularly interested in real estate. Apart from buying some land around the car factory for future expansion, he hadn't done any other land transactions, leaving a lot of lucrative opportunities for local real estate developers.

But small real estate developers can only build some shops and a few small buildings at most, which is definitely incomparable to super-rich businessmen like Li Ka-shing.

As a city adjacent to the open port of Shenzhen, Goose City's original strategy was to serve as a talent reserve and resource supplier, specifically reserved to "suck blood" from Shenzhen, or to put it more nicely, to play an upstream role.

Li Ka-shing's proposal to build shopping malls, horse farms, golf courses, and resorts aligns well with the ideas of many locals. The previous Echeng tourist area and the amusement park under construction have also proven that there is a sufficient source of tourists from surrounding cities, with a high proportion of tourists coming from Hong Kong.

First, infrastructure development will boost employment and the economy. Then, by retaining these people in the local area long-term, it's not hard to imagine that the service industry will flourish.

Wouldn't it be perfect if the northeast became a golden industrial zone and the southern and northwestern mountainous areas became tourist areas?

Not only was the offer tempting, but Li Ka-shing also gave an irresistible reason:

"We in Hong Kong feel very sorry for what happened to Mr. Tang. If this money can improve the local situation, it would be a small but significant compensation."

When the bespectacled, scholarly-looking, and polite elderly tycoon spoke, Gao Yuliang and the others accompanying him nodded and applauded enthusiastically.

That's vision, that's what vision is all about!

After some mutual flattery, the group continued their journey with Li Ka-shing, visiting some preserved historical sites and even lingering briefly outside the Flying Leap Motors factory, though they couldn't go in since Tang Wen wasn't there.

The day's schedule was light. After dinner, Li Ka-shing returned to his hotel to rest, and his servant found Gao Yuliang:

"Our master wishes to pay a visit to Mr. Tang. Does he have some free time recently?"

"Oh, I'll contact him and ask."

……

"One billion dollars?"

Tang Wen actually knew that Li Ka-shing was coming to invest, but he didn't care much about him, since in the end, Gai Jin would take over anyway.

He wasn't surprised that the other party wanted to meet him, but he became more wary when he discussed the specific investment plan with Gao Yuliang:

"Old Gao, back then, the Oriental Plaza in the capital only cost 20 billion US dollars. How could this piece of land in Goose City be worth 10 billion US dollars?"

"Hong Kong's richest man wouldn't renege on his promise, and I think the idea of ​​shifting consumption downgrades makes a lot of sense."

"No, can you tell me more specifically what projects are included?"

Gao Yuliang then proceeded to outline his grand plans over the phone, while Tang Wen on the other end marked them on a map.

As the labels were placed on the map, his expression shifted from shock to relief.

First, there's the so-called super commercial plaza, which claims to attract a large number of international brands to build a shopping center... Let's assume that this can be realized, but the planned site is not far from the factory cluster in Tamsui.

From today's perspective, they may seem completely unrelated, but in five years at most—which will only happen faster after joining the WTO—serious conflicts will arise between the two sides.

Is it more likely that residents of the shopping plaza will complain about the relocation of the car factory, or is it more likely that the shopping plaza will give way to the car factory?

This is one issue. At the same time, land prices and consumption in the surrounding area will rise sharply, which will be detrimental to the development of the industrial zone.

The most crucial point is that if Li Ka-shing were to use a financial shock as an excuse to postpone development for a few years, and then engage in land hoarding to exploit others... tsk.

If these little schemes aren't a big problem, then investing in golf courses, horse farms, and mountain tourism in northern Goose City is truly ruthless:

water!
The reason why Hong Kong was excluded when McDonnell Douglas was discussing the relocation of its aircraft factory was actually to control the scale of industrial water use in the area. In addition to supplying its own water needs, the local water resources also need to be used to transport water to Hong Kong.

Therefore, the water available for industrial development is limited, just enough to support the Feiyue Automobile Factory.

Horse farms and golf courses are huge water consumers, even more so than car factories.

A large golf course consumes the equivalent of the water required for a car factory with a production capacity of 50 vehicles.

What's worse is that they all chose locations near water sources under the guise of tourist attractions. With a little dirty trickery, they could easily create a city-wide water shortage, causing factories to shut down intermittently.

The explicit ban on building golf courses in water source areas wouldn't have been implemented until 04 in the original timeline. Now… probably not many people are aware of this, and even if they are, Li Ka-shing could easily resolve it. Noticing Tang Wen's sullen expression as he stared at the map, the ship girl, who was lying on the large bed flipping through a notebook, swung her legs, revealing a puzzled look:

"Has anyone angered the commander? Should I take care of him, or send Little Bee?"

After hesitating for half a second between executing him with naval guns and the Autobots' merciless iron fists, Tang Wen finally spoke to Gao Yuliang on the phone:

“Cheung Kong Holdings has plenty of money. I suggest we don’t convert the land into shares for the city, but sell it directly at the price. We can’t pin our hopes on the future.”

Gao Yuliang pondered the meaning of these words, feeling as if Li Ka-shing was about to go bankrupt and become a high-risk individual.
Is that possible? Probably not!
However, Tang Wen didn't explain further. Even if the land was acquired and developed, it would take a long time, and he was no longer planning to let Superman continue flying in the sky.

……

At night, a colossal vessel silently travels along the Pearl River.

Only the necessary lights were turned on on the ship, and two tugboats were scouting ahead.

On one of the tugboats, Tomohiro Uchimura cautiously observed both sides with a night-vision low-light binocular.

It wasn't until more than an hour later, when they arrived at the wide estuary, that he finally put down his night vision goggles with a sigh of relief.

Not only him, but Horikawa Eita and Iwaki Masao were also extremely nervous just now.

According to the original plan, although it was not allowed to publicly announce the event to anger the Navy, some Japanese expatriates would still spontaneously organize a warm send-off event.

Just three days earlier, as the battleship was preparing to set sail, a group of fishermen and river freighters prevented it from happening:

Heaven knows why these fishermen scoffed at the talk of selling to the United States, saying they would absolutely not allow it to be sold to Japan, and directly blocked the narrow shipyard waterway with their boats.

They sought help from the shipyard, which immediately took the matter seriously and reported it up the chain of command. Eventually, two men wearing peaked caps were sent up in a motorboat to persuade them, but they were chased away by the fierce fishermen.

Upon hearing this, Zhao Hande angrily denounced the fishermen for their lawlessness and demanded that they be severely punished. He then sent people to give the fishermen a serious reprimand and education before expelling them.

Not long after they left, a large group of coal-hauling cargo ships, yachts, and dragon boats gathered around, supposedly to support their people.

Zhao Hande wanted to take strong measures, but Uchimura Tomohiro, who was afraid of making a big fuss, disagreed. He said that if they were allowed to spread rumors everywhere, the battleship could not be taken out.

He begged and pleaded with several local chambers of commerce, and finally managed to find out, through roundabout means, that the battleship might have originally been delivered to the South China Sea Fleet.

understood.

Despite pressure from both China and the United States, and after securing another secret deal, the Chamber of Commerce president advised him to leave quietly at night, and sure enough, the journey was smooth.

Exhausted, Tomohiro Uchimura lay weakly on the tugboat deck and said:

"Finally out. When Yamato once again dominates Asia, I will definitely tell this story on TV."

"It's hard to say."

Masao Iwaki suddenly interrupted his interest; his expression was obscured in the darkness, only a bitter voice could be heard:
"The second phase of reforms will probably not go as planned unless Johnson steps down."

"What does this have to do with him?"

Tomohiro Uchimura was completely confused. Japan had risked nearly $40 billion and several advanced warships; if they couldn't even get this much "dog food" (a metaphor for something of little value), that would be too disappointing.

Masao Iwaki: "You don't understand military affairs. I can only say that the second-stage modification is an arsenal ship that conforms to the Tokyo University route."

"So what? American technology will only get better."

“Yes, but that’s even more unacceptable. That’s the line that Johnson’s arch-enemy, Burda, insists on, and he can’t possibly support it.”

"But I've heard that the Empire itself is developing arsenal ships."

"is it?"

Masao Iwaki snorted twice and said coldly:

"I haven't seen Johnson express his support in any official news report."

(End of this chapter)