Xiaomi Heavy Industry, its first entrepreneurial venture!

Chapter 213 A roadside stall! (Third update!)
"This is impossible!" Dane screamed, looking at Baroque with disbelief.

General Atom Electromagnetic Systems is a company under General Dynamics that specializes in developing aircraft carrier-related components.

When it comes to aircraft carrier arresting cables, they dare to claim second place, and nobody dares to claim first.

But now, a company has quietly emerged, pulled out something they've been developing for years, and claimed that their product is stronger and easier to use.

This is a joke!
What a complete joke!

If this thing were so easy to develop, why don't other countries do it?

Is it because you don’t want to?

Or is it that the industry is not mature enough, making it difficult to reap the rewards?
Thinking of all this, Dane's eyes filled with resentment as he looked at Baroque and the other man.

This is how capital orchestrates things.

For a little money, they've even lost all sense of shame!

Baroque was a shrewd man; he noticed the resentment in Dane's eyes.

He frowned and added, "If you don't believe me, the laboratory is here. You can put your aircraft carrier arresting cables together with those from San Francisco Special Alloy for testing and comparison."

His attempt to make amends did not earn Dane's approval; instead, it was met with a cold snort.
"General Baroque, I know what you're thinking; it's nothing more than setting a trap."

"You disregard America's safety for the sake of making money."

There is an old Chinese saying: "If you want to condemn someone, you can always find a pretext."

"You capitalists have won!"

After saying those two sentences, Dane turned and left without looking back, without the slightest hesitation, as if he had made up his mind.

These words left Smith and Baroque speechless. They stared blankly as Dane left, until his figure disappeared from sight, before exchanging a question at the same time:
"I'm not capital, are you capital?"

Do I look like I have the resources?

After asking each other their questions, the two then simultaneously let out a sneer and shrugged.

A long sigh escaped Baroque's lips, and he pointed to the other side of the corridor:
"Let's go to my office and talk in detail."

Back in his office, Baroque had his secretary from next door bring over two cups of coffee. He handed one to Smith, who picked it up and took a sip.
"You did a very good job this time."

"A 35-ton simulator was used to simulate a descent at a speed of 280 kilometers per hour, and no visible deformation was observed after 180 attempts."

"Even if such an arresting cable for an aircraft carrier costs $200 million, it would be excellent value for money."

"Moreover, this time the test was not manipulated as in the past, so we are more confident when we release it to the public."

"What you need to do now is to clean up the mess and not let anyone find out that you... purchased this batch of aircraft carrier arresting cables from China."

"As long as no one finds out and no one knows the details, we can keep this money tree."

Speaking of money trees, Baroque paused, drank half a cup of his unsweetened black coffee, savored the bitterness, then put down the cup and continued:
"Besides manufacturing arresting gear for aircraft carriers, does this company you mentioned make anything else?"

"Or rather, are they interested in doing something else?"

Baroque emphasized these two sentences.

Nobody was stupid, and Smith naturally noticed the difference in tone. He repeated the two sentences in his mind, leaned forward, and tentatively asked:

"Does the general mean we should place more orders?"

When he asked this question, a flicker of excitement crossed Smith's eyes, but it quickly vanished, leaving only worry:
"But General, if we do this and it gets discovered, we'll be in great danger."

"Or rather, by doing this, we are aiding the enemy!"

Smith asked very carefully.

He was just a white-gloved assistant; in the army, he never even reached the rank of second lieutenant.

If it weren't for good luck—his family owned a factory that sold mechanical parts—he wouldn't have gotten involved with the Baroque line.

Baroque was a general with his own network and connections. When trouble arose, he could simply let out a few howls and someone would bail him out.

But Smith is different. He can only howl a couple of times, and people will come running, trample him into the mud, stomp on him a couple more times, and then dig a hole to bury him.

Baroque keenly sensed the change in Smith's mindset. He tapped his fingers on the table and asked with a smile:

"Afraid?"

Before Smith could respond, he gave an answer to his question directly.

"You're scared!"

With a very certain tone, Baroque finished speaking, stood up, walked to the window with his hands behind his back, and reached out to pull back the thick curtains.

The office is in a mediocre location, facing west.

Fortunately, the visibility was good, and Washington, D.C. could be seen in the distance.

Pointing to the bustling city in the distance, Baroque, with his back turned, continued to laugh and say:

"I was born in 1952."

"In my limited childhood memories, my parents would always say things like, 'If it were President Roosevelt, what would have happened?'"

These words planted a seed in my young heart.

"That is to become President America!"

"This wish stayed with me until I was 22."

"In 1974, I officially became a member of the American Navy Technical Service."

"Started serving in the Navy."

"It was from that moment that I realized the world was skewed. The world was not as fair, humble, reasonable, democratic, and free as they described."

My beautiful wish has been shattered.

"But people need to live and have something to rely on."

"That's why I want to make money, to make more and more money!"

The voice that spoke was very deep, one voice after another, each one clear and resonant.

Hearing this, Smith stood up and came to Baroque's side. After looking at the distant city for a while, he casually asked the person next to him:

"General Baroque, do you mean you want to become capital, and then, through a roundabout way, transform this country into what you imagine it to be?"

This sentence silenced Baroque. Just when Smith thought he had hit the nail on the head, Baroque raised his hand and pointed to the city across the street:

"Do you see that villa over there?"

"Let's build a blue-tiled house with a mountain behind us!"

“Mine! It covers an area of ​​3 acres.”

"I just want to say that with more money, you can have a better life and see a better world."

"Besides, you're already on a pirate ship, there's no turning back. The only thing you can do now is to expand yourself, make yourself capital, and turn others into roadside trash."

"Otherwise, you're just a nobody on the street!"

"You're not even worth mentioning on the side of the road. Someone could easily wipe you out with a wave of their hand."

"Now, answer my question: can that manufacturer do something else?"

"Or rather, do you have any ideas about doing something else?"

Having prepared himself mentally with those words, Smith was no longer afraid when he heard Baroque's question again; all that remained was a desire for money.

There's also a fear of the road surface.

He pondered for a moment, then nodded: "Knowing how greedy that person is, if we offer him enough benefits, he will definitely try every means to get them." "That's good!" Baroque lowered the curtains, turned back to his desk, grabbed a sheet of white paper and a pen, the pen lingering on the paper for a long time, but in the end, he didn't write a single word.

He looked up and said, "I'll be taking the results of the arresting gear test to General Curtis later."

"If there are no unforeseen circumstances, General Curtis will become the spokesperson for this supplier adjustment in a few days, and based on this, he will release the preliminary results of the supplier adjustment."

"In other words, from this moment on, we are now in direct confrontation with General Atoms Electromagnetic Systems."

"Even against the entire General Dynamics."

"What you need to do is control the parts of General Atoms Electromagnetic Systems."

“Once they use this as a threat, you need to fix these things as quickly as possible.”

"To create an image for General Curtis, and for everyone in the entire naval system."

"That's your San Francisco Special Alloy, capable of taking responsibility."

"As long as we cultivate this image well, we'll have plenty of money in the future."

"Understand?"

"Understood!" Smith nodded, keeping it in mind.

Just as he was about to speak, he saw Baroque across from him pick up the phone and start calling his secretary.

Less than 10 minutes after the phone call ended, Baroque's secretary appeared in the office, placed a document on Baroque's desk, and then turned and left.

Turning around, the document fell into Smith's hands, and Baroque's voice followed: "This document contains a list of parts supplied by the General Atom Electromagnetic System, as well as the corresponding parameter requirements."

"Take it, modify it a bit, and go see which company can meet these requirements."

"If we meet the requirements, we will have a money tree."

"Whenever we want money, we just shake our phones and we can get countless amounts of money."

When the topic turned to banknotes, Baroque became even more excited. In the end, he simply closed his eyes, took two deep breaths, and seemed to smell the faint scent of ink on the banknotes.

After inhaling the non-existent scent of ink, he abruptly opened his eyes and said to Smith in a leisurely tone, "Go ahead and get busy!"

Having received permission, Smith left with the documents. Once his figure disappeared down the corridor, Baroque got up and walked back into the laboratory.

After asking the lab's testing staff for a complete test video and related test data, he drove towards the Pentagon.

As soon as he entered Curtis's office, before he could even speak, Curtis applauded him.

After the sounds of slapping and popping faded away, Curtis asked with a smile:

"How does it feel to stir up a hornet's nest?"

“It feels pretty good!” Baroque replied, handing over what he was carrying.

"What's this?" Curtis asked, but his hands moved quickly, tearing open the bag in no time.

He was visibly disappointed to see that the bag contained documents and a hard drive.

He tapped his fingernail twice on the hard drive casing and asked:
"This is?"

"Videos and data on the testing of the new aircraft carrier arresting gear."

Upon hearing that it was a test video, Curtis's face fell, and he showed little interest.

He tapped the hard drive enclosure twice with his finger and said softly:
"Is it necessary to test this thing extra? As long as it works, it's fine."

"By the way, I'm going to Florida for vacation next week, so if you need my approval for anything, you'd better do it soon."

These two sentences made Baroque curse inwardly.

They're all despicable people.

I'm going on vacation to Florida. If I want money, I should just say so. We're all reasonable people, there's no need to beat around the bush.

Despite his inner grumbling, Baroque showed no impatience on his face. Instead, he bent down, leaned forward, and pushed the documents and hard drive forward again.

"General, I think you'd better watch the test video first, and then decide whether or not you want to go on vacation to Florida."

After hearing what Baroque said, Curtis also knew what was on the hard drive.

With a nod, he connected the hard drive to the computer and clicked to play the video.

Seeing that it was the same familiar venue and the same familiar testing method, Curtis remained calm, dragged the mouse, and clicked to speed up the playback.

Three times the speed was too slow, so he directly increased it to five times.

The equipment and people in the video begin to move rapidly, so fast that it's hard to keep up with the eye.

After playing for half a day, Curtis realized something was wrong.

He suddenly pressed the space bar to pause the video, and his gaze fell on the lower left corner of the surveillance video.

There, there was a half-person-high LED screen.

The screen displays the number of tests, the time taken, and other simulation parameters.

As a naval officer, he was very familiar with those simulation parameters, but the only thing he wasn't familiar with was the number of tests.

147.

Upon seeing the number, he paused for a moment, then dragged the mouse to the end of the video.

The number in the video has reached 201, and below the count, the same parameters as before are displayed.

Upon seeing this number, he dragged the mouse again to bring the video to the front.

Instead of looking at the number of times or the parameters, they looked at the monitoring time.

He then played it at double speed, watching time flow by.

After playing it at double speed for a few minutes, he adjusted the speed to five times.

The flow of time is the same.

There was no stuttering or frame skipping in the middle, and the video was fine.

At that moment, Baroque's words from not long ago echoed in his ears.

Read this before deciding whether or not to go on vacation to Florida.

If this data is true.

He doesn't need to go on vacation to Florida at all; he should go on vacation to Congress!
He's going to ask for money!
Such a leap in technological progress, wouldn't it be reasonable to give hundreds of millions of dollars in support funds?
Snapped!
He pressed the space bar to pause the video, then looked up at Baroque:

"Explain it!"

Baroque had been waiting for this moment. He straightened up, crossed his arms, and calmly said, "This is the result of this supplier adjustment."

“There are clearly better suppliers in our country.”

"But it has been suppressed because of those boring people."

“I didn’t speak up before the test results came out.”

"Now, General Curtis."

“You can stand on the stage and loudly proclaim to Congress, to the people of the country, and to the world.”

"America, always ahead of the pack!"

"General, isn't it more interesting to stand in the Capitol and announce this news to the world than to go on vacation to Florida?"

(End of this chapter)