What the hell is a private enterprise?

Chapter 603 Uneasy Restlessness

The official reason given by the Empire was that the WTO had added a new member, and the President was very happy, so from now on the two sides should be on friendly terms... what a load of rubbish.

Tang Wen was suspicious, and Lao Zhang didn't believe it, but as the long-dormant Imperial Military-Industrial Complex delegation began to be formed and thick stacks of product data were sent over, the domestic authorities took it seriously.

The A/F-18CE and CH-47D are the two biggest bargaining chips, in addition to many subsystem components such as radar and air-to-air missiles, which are also available for sale.

Although it's basically a shoddy, cringe-worthy version, it's still quite generous for the Empire.

Military trade between the two sides, which had been frozen since 95, not only thawed three years later, but even heated up more dramatically.

Perhaps after launching two battleships and an aircraft carrier in succession, Prism Building believed that domestic payment capabilities had improved, and the product list had become much richer.

Although the domestic audience was initially unsure what the Prism Building was up to, they embraced the spirit of "since we're already here, we might as well take a look," and the two sides quickly held an initial meeting in Anchorage, beginning to send a lot of friendly signals to the outside world.

……

Kerala
Tang Wen's perspective is attached to Bumblebee, who stealthily moves into the interior of the ancient temple in the darkness.

There are actually many legends about the ancient temples of India hiding gold. In fact, almost all temples would accumulate funds from believers to exchange for gold and silver. A small portion was used to create statues for worship, while most of it was secretly hidden away.

However, due to wars and changes in people throughout history, some of the secret treasures in ancient temples were buried and forgotten, and the temple gold discovered in 2011 is from this source.

Tang Wen could only vaguely remember that it was a temple in Kerala, with a total of 6 storage rooms. As for the exact location, there was really no way to find it—there were no satellite maps available to zoom in and out, so it was all a matter of luck and hard work.

Most of the time, the bumblebee can only operate at night. After gathering information in advance and filtering out several suspicious targets, it finally locked onto the Padnama Bawasmi Temple.

According to publicly available information, this temple is entrusted to a royal family, but it looks like a dilapidated earthen building ruin from the outside, although it is indeed quite large in scale.

After entering the temple, the bumblebee chased away several small animals and then began searching for the basement. In the middle of the night, it discovered a cavity under a stone floor. After prying it open, it found half of a secret passage. The front part was compacted with soil and debris, indicating that the interior had collapsed.

But this was no challenge for the Autobots. What would normally take several people several days to complete was quickly dug open by Bumblebee's immense strength, revealing a very spacious enclosed space.

Through Bumblebee's eerie blue eyes, a heavy iron door to a secret chamber appeared. With a few simple movements, it twisted the original lock into a pretzel and tossed it aside.

Under the dim light of the Autobot's eyes, the walls and corners on all sides shimmered with a golden glow.

[Commander: What is that?]

Following Tang Wen's instructions, Bumblebee cautiously crouched forward from the narrow space filled with various treasures, his gaze fixed on the elephant sculpture at the very front.

It was a complete golden elephant sculpture about 1 meter tall. Bumblebee pinched the trunk and spun it around without any care, revealing the pure gold cross-section to the viewer.

This is a pure gold elephant. If it were completely solid, it would weigh at least 2 tons!
Perhaps to protect the sculpture's form, it is supported by a protective frame, but judging from the degree of rust, it has probably been there for hundreds of years.

The other gold artifacts in the secret room were mostly sculptures and pendants, as well as countless rubies, sapphires, and diamonds, and even boxes of gold coins from an unknown era.

One of the shelves contained gold chains that were as thick as dog leashes, at least several hundred of them!
They filled every inch of the space, and each handful contained a wealth that most people couldn't even imagine.

The secret chamber was very large. Bumblebee carefully counted the amount of gold artifacts, which was at least 90 tons. As for the other treasures, it was difficult to count, but there were still more than a dozen boxes of them.

Subsequently, the other five secret chambers were opened one by one by Bumblebee's amazing strength, and each one opened Tang Wen's eyes to a whole new world.

After all six secret chambers were opened and inspected, it was roughly estimated that the gold alone amounted to more than 270 tons, and possibly as much as 350 tons.

This is quite different from the thousands of tons and trillions of yuan in reserves touted by marketing accounts, but it is also reasonable:

It's quite remarkable that a temple could accumulate so much gold over several hundred years, considering that the ancient Indians weren't actually that wealthy.

This batch of gold is estimated to be around $3 to $4 billion. Tang Wen doesn't care much about diamonds, gems, or other treasures, but he's sure he can sell them for a rock-bottom price of $100 million.

I am grateful for my third brother's gift.

It was almost dawn. Bumblebee slowly moved out to cover the secret passage as much as possible, transformed into an abandoned truck, and guarded the corner all day. At dusk, he moved to the seaside, took a simple steel boat from the submarine, and brought it to the temple as a teleportation anchor point. The other end was naturally the Tai Wan Shipyard.

Tang Wen had prepared a smelting furnace long ago. No matter how exquisite the jewelry or sculpture was, it would be thrown directly into the furnace for recasting as soon as it arrived, and then it would flow out as standard gold ingots.

The 400 tons of gold previously acquired from Britain were also among those to be melted down, as it would be quite troublesome if the Royal Mint markings on them were accidentally leaked.

The four ship girls also joined the moving team, working all night to move all the treasures with superhuman strength.

During this process, Tang Wen also determined that the total amount of gold was 335 tons, and there was also about 1 ton of ornaments made of gold and various jewelry. It would be a pity to melt them down directly, and the finished products could be mortgaged for a higher price.

735 tons of gold, which is roughly the same amount of gold previously produced by the British.

Before handing it over, Tang Wen will temporarily become one of the world's top ten holders of gold reserves, truly becoming almost as wealthy as a country.

Even at a very unfavorable exchange rate, the gold coins would amount to over 1200 million, enough to wipe out all gold coin warships and assemble a super fleet powerful enough to overwhelm Europe.

Just as Tang Wen was admiring the gold-plated walls in the warehouse, Boeing offered him a bargaining chip a week after official negotiations:

The company purchased 72 CH47D helicopters for $25 billion, gifted a batch of brand-new parts including engines, and granted the company a national patent for the CH47D helicopter.

This means that the domestic market and sales rights were essentially purchased for $5 million, and cannot be sold to foreign entities.

But unexpectedly, Tang Wen refused outright:

The reason is simple: if you can't sell it to others, why buy a patent?
Is Boeing really going to sue Gaikin for patent disputes in Goose City? If this lawsuit doesn't drag on for 20 years, Tang Wenxin will be considered kind-hearted!
The request for free technology licensing is merely to maintain a superficial relationship; it does not indicate a genuine need for CH47D technology transfer.

Besides, Geyser doesn't need 72 CH-47Ds. Even if they did buy them, they would just resell them to the mainland. If they sold so many GZ-20s, would the market even exist?
Tang Wen's modification conditions:

5亿美元购买20架CH47D以及赠送技术授权，并且全部飞机都要在1999年内交付完毕，每2个月必须交付一批。

Including the previous eight orders, Boeing needs to deliver 28 aircraft within two years. This would be absolutely impossible 20 years from now, or even 10 years from now, but for Boeing at this point, it's a piece of cake.

The Empire's demand for the CH-47 is now low, with only a small number of upgrade orders, but Boeing's production lines still have the capacity to produce hundreds of aircraft per year.

Changbu flew to Shanghai and negotiated with Boeing representatives for three days before finally reaching a preliminary agreement.
9亿美元购买36架CH47D，并赠送价值5000万美元的配件，以及1亿美元购买技术授权许可，总价10亿美元。

1亿美元的技术授权许可中并未言明允许盖金生产CH47D，而是对GZ20与CH47D外观和结构部分达成谅解，同时承认东江WZ2800与T55技术路线高度相仿，由波音作为中间人搭线，向T55发动机生产商霍尼韦尔以5000万美元费用购买核心机专利许可。

Honeywell was surprised to find itself connected with Gekin in this way. They were delighted with the additional revenue brought by the T55 and then turned to Changbus to become a partner of Gekin Aviation, to provide parts for the MD.11 and production equipment services.

……

Tang Wen agreed to sell all 36 CH47D helicopters at par value after discussions with Lao Lu, meaning the Army would receive the 36 heavy helicopters by the end of 99.

However, in actual use, these 36 Chinooks can be mixed with medium-sized Mi-8 and Mi-17 helicopters. It would be too extravagant to have a fleet of heavy helicopters like the old Mi-8.

Organizing three army aviation regiments for a smaller scale, or two army aviation regiments for a larger scale, would be more than enough to build a decent air assault brigade.

However, having helicopters alone is not enough. It would take a lot of effort for Lao Lu to assemble such a large logistics and pilot team. But in any case, it is definitely simpler than the navy and air force.

It is worth mentioning that this $100 billion was not drawn from the hundreds of billions of yuan in loans, but was provided by banks in cash, with a premium equivalent to 10 billion yuan.

All of this was done in secret, of course, but when Boeing eagerly announced its intention to place the order, it immediately caused a huge reaction from the outside world.

The sudden emergence of arms sales has already attracted worldwide attention, and many international observers still believe that it will end badly, just like ten years ago, since the products offered by the Empire are really not very sincere.

The first contract, worth a billion dollars, came as a surprise to everyone. Although Boeing sold the aircraft to Geiger and used the civilian designation B234D instead of CH47D, everyone knew exactly who the real buyer was.

What use would Tang Wen have for dozens of helicopters? To land in Annam?
And wasn't Prism Building previously clamoring to sanction Gadkin? How come they've turned around and started doing business?

The signing of the Chinook deal immediately made everyone realize that the Empire might be serious, and that the University of Tokyo had really gotten a good deal!

Public opinion immediately shifted to the plateau following the CH47D, leaving India, which had been silently bearing the sanctions, dumbfounded.

The Prism Building knew better than anyone where these Chinooks would be used, but they still sold them!
The 36 heavy helicopters mean that 1000 mechanized infantrymen, along with various equipment including artillery, can be mobilized at any time, and their deterrent power is enough to change the balance of power.

On February 4, India protested Boeing's helicopter sale agreement to Geigen.

……

[Buy Times: The indiscriminate sale of military equipment seriously affects the regional balance]

The protests from India were intense; within just two days, several celebrities published articles in multiple newspapers demanding that Boeing cancel the arms sale.

"What? A letter of protest?"

Tang Wen opened the envelope, took out the letter, and was both amused and exasperated by what he saw. It was from the Indian embassy.

This thin, unremarkable letter contained an incredibly long protest written in Chinese, which even contained a great deal of criticism of him personally.

Looking at the official seal and the mailing address on the cover, Tang Wen suddenly squinted at Hu Li, who was delivering the mail:
"Could this be a prank?"

"Uh... Actually, our company receives so many letters every day that we just throw most of them away. We only found out about this because the receptionist said someone claiming to be from the embassy called."

The person on the other end of the phone also said that you need to go to Beijing in person to apologize and accept criticism.

As Hu Li spoke, her face twitched uncontrollably, and she quickly explained in a low voice:
"I had someone check the phone number, and it might be real, but the content is indeed..."

It's really true.

It's so bizarre that he wouldn't even buy a plane ticket, yet it makes perfect sense when applied to this guy.

However, in front of Hu Li, Tang Wen took out a lighter and burned the letter, then stomped on the ashes a few times before saying:
"Starting today, we are announcing that due to excessive spam, the company will stop accepting emails and will switch to email from now on."

He didn't take it to heart; now he had to go to Southeast Asia.
It's time to come.

Theoretically, China's early accession to the WTO should have been beneficial to the stability of the Southeast Asian economy, but HSBC's recent sharp stock price fluctuations led to a disaster.

The British had few remaining interests in Southeast Asia, but the Christmas campaign also implicated them.

The turmoil between these two colonial giants allowed Tang Wen to make a fortune with his country, but it was a disaster for the local natives.

Although the Allied forces were victorious and Britain acquired new warships, a short-term trend of overseas withdrawal was still necessary.

Meanwhile, another consequence of the Christmas campaign was that the entire European Union began to strengthen its military preparedness. Previously, they only needed to defend against visible enemies, but now the lost empire could emerge from any corner at any time, so it was essential to prepare for the worst.

Military buildup requires even more funding, so foreign capital, which holds an absolute leading position, began to withdraw in large quantities and return to its homeland. The Southeast Asian economy, which was already heavily dependent on external factors, had just suffered from the financial crisis, and this was like adding insult to injury.

International financiers clearly anticipated this and became even more pessimistic about the Southeast Asian economy.

Finance is all about confidence. Once confidence disappears, the vicious cycle snowballs and can't be stopped. In just one month, the situation deteriorated to a terrible level, even worse than the original timeline.

Java and Luzon suddenly stopped their dispute over Mionas Island and have been eagerly contacting Geigin in the last two weeks in hopes of restarting their oil industry, offering preferential terms.

Tang Wen refused each time with various reasons, but the next time he would receive better and more favorable terms.

Just yesterday, Wang Hu sent a message claiming that a riot had broken out at a university in Australia, and that the situation seemed to be very serious.

Upon receiving the news, Tang Wen did not take it lightly and immediately sensed the restless emotions.

(End of this chapter)