What the hell is a private enterprise?

Chapter 463 Space Carrier? (200 monthly votes in June)

Despite years of external praise, Li Ka-shing has maintained a rare level of caution.

He thoroughly investigated Tang Wen's rise to power and ultimately concluded that Tang Wen's identity was fake.

The real background might be that he is a scion secretly trained by a powerful family, using an "ordinary" background to cover up his past and achieve certain goals.

But that doesn’t mean he has to give way; the business world has its own rules.

Gai Jin may have a large business empire, but his financial situation is riddled with problems, indicating that his backing is not very powerful. He can't even launder money properly; he's just putting on airs as a billionaire.

The Li family not only possesses substantial assets, but also represents significant distribution channels.

The world's view of China is still separated by many barriers, while China's view of the world is naturally filtered. Both sides are tentatively exchanging ideas, but these exchanges are limited to superficial areas.

If certain inconvenient or sensitive transactions are involved, they are often handled through intermediaries—Hong Kong and Southeast Asia, which have connections on both sides, often play this role.

For example, if a company like Hans wants to sell its products in China, it will often look for agents in Hong Kong, who will then expand its business channels in China.

For domestic products that want to be exported, it is often faster and more convenient to go through Hong Kong for a quick wash.

Li Ka-shing considers himself to be in a special position. If Tang Wen's assassination attempt hadn't caused such a big stir, theoretically, even inviting Tang Wen to visit would have been a great honor.

He didn't care much about verbal sparring, but was Gaijin's counterattack even possible? Did they have the strength to do so?
"Has the source of the funds been thoroughly investigated? Is Soros also trying to take a piece of our flesh?"

"It's possible, but I don't think so. This group of funds is aiming to take down Huangpu Industrial directly, which doesn't make sense!"

"It must be the Americans who made the move. Who else could move so much money so silently and covertly? ...Do these barbarians also consider me an enemy?"

Li Ka-shing was quite angry, but also filled with fear:

He's clearly been labeled a queen, so why are these mad dogs even tearing apart their allies?
But how could he possibly withstand it on his own, or even the Hong Kong authorities, unless...

He closed his eyes:

"Xiao Chao, tell them that Huangpu and Cheung Kong Holdings are not only our foundation, but also the cornerstone of Hong Kong's financial system and the hope of national enterprises. If there is any shock, the consequences will be unimaginable. Countless large and small enterprises and ordinary people who depend on us will be torn apart, their families destroyed, and their lives ruined!"

Li Xiaochao certainly knew who "they" referred to; his father was trying to justify himself by invoking righteousness.

This move can be considered the ultimate trump card: bringing in outside help. After all, they are so kind as to be willing to make an investment, shouldn't they be protected?
What's even better is that once the banner of righteousness is raised, Tang Wen has no choice but to shut up, no matter how much he tries to cause trouble.

……

Aviation Machinery Plant

Tang Wen originally wanted to see Chang Busi, but the latter wasn't there, so he decided to check out other projects as well.

The progress in replicating CH47C is astonishingly fast.

At the end of June, the first core machine based on the T55L11 began trial operation.

Over the past two months, while coordinating the landing of the McDonnell Douglas MD-11, the aircraft machinery factory has rushed to produce the first airframe of the CH-47C through manual trial production.

However, the CH47C is an old product from many years ago. The version that Tang Wen saw had undergone many changes in appearance. Overall, it looked like it had less wind resistance and had an indescribable feel of domestically produced equipment.

"The first prototype of the copied engine will be ready for testing next month. As for the rest... we just need to assemble the shell. We'll make the hydraulic components ourselves, and buy the rest from other factories."

Huang Hao pushed up his thick glasses. After several months of work, he was completely convinced that Tang Wen hadn't taken his previous criticisms in the newspaper to heart.

Now he's assisting Changbus in researching the McDonnell Douglas 11 while also leading the CH47C reverse engineering project. Tang Wen looked at him incredulously and asked:

"I know that the Institute of Technology has poached a lot of top talents from other institutes, but how come you're making such a fast pace!"

The imitation of the Chinook was purely an internal operation of the aviation machinery factory. Apart from the prototype and original data, there was no cheating involved. However, the rapid pace of development truly refreshed Tang Wen's understanding of the domestic aviation industry at that time.

Huang Hao's response was to rub his fingers together:

"Money? Money makes things so much easier. The funding for replicating the helicopter is more than we could use for other projects, but it's still a lot more than that. We've ordered over 300 million yuan worth of new equipment these past few days, which was impossible before."

Moreover, the team is easier to manage. Director Chang pays salaries and relocation allowances according to your standards, and senior engineers and above are even provided with cars. Everyone is very obedient because of the money, and efficiency is much higher!

The reason was so simple and straightforward that Tang Wen actually began to believe it.

Huang Hao: "Of course, the airframe we are building now is just for testing mechanics. The prototype that can actually fly will be at least a year from now, but I am confident that we will finalize the mass production model in 99."

Now there's only one question left:

"what is the problem?"

"The Chinook uses seven drive shafts to transmit power to the front and rear propellers, which results in too much efficiency loss. We want to modify it to four or five shafts, but this requires very advanced high-precision machine tools, which are simply unavailable."

"I'll find a way."

Tang Wen nodded. Machine tools... I'll see if I can visit one next time I go abroad, and if necessary, I'll spend some money to make a replica.

Tang Wen chatted with Huang Hao for a while, and then Chang Busi arrived. Tang Wen immediately pulled him aside.
"Old Chang, my science fiction IP needs your brains again."

Changbus: "I've almost finished drawing the stealth version of the Super Swift. But Tang, with you designing these for me every day, I feel like I'm almost running a science fiction story in my head too. Should I become a writer after I retire?"

Tang Wen: "..."

"Ahem, anyway, you've noticed that the types of aircraft I asked you to design before seem rather monotonous, and that there might be some problems with them?"

Changbus already knew roughly what kind of story Tang Wen was writing; he had been reading The Man in the High Castle these past few days in his spare time, and immediately said:

"Right now we only have fighter jets, and they are short-range frontline fighter jets. If we need to protect a large area, we will also need high-speed patrol and reconnaissance aircraft and long-range fighter jets."

"That's it. Suppose... well, to defend millions of square kilometers, we need a fighter jet that can stay airborne for ten or even twenty hours at a time and has certain high-altitude and high-speed performance. How should it be designed?"

Changbus: "Flying Leopard? But even with aerial refueling, the Flying Leopard can only basically meet your requirements."

"It's too big and too heavy. Let's stick to the historical setting I set beforehand."

Tang Wen shook his head. Besides the fact that aircraft carriers are difficult to take off, another reason is that the development cost of such large aircraft is also considerable, which does not conform to the idea of ​​cheap consumption.

But this posed a problem for Changbus. With the best technology available in the 1950s, how could they possibly build a qualified aircraft? If they could, it must have already been tested in history.

With the aircraft stranded for over twenty hours, there was no choice but to build huge and cumbersome bombers and transport planes.

Wait, what if we mounted fighter jets on these big guys?
When you need to intercept it, just release it; it's practically perfect.

Moreover, this isn't just pure fantasy; the US and Russia actually did it!

(End of this chapter)