Shipgirls and Salted Fish Commander, Port Survival Guide

"Bait? Fishing?" Yi Xian said she really didn't know. Why was the commander also like Huan Chang, always saying things she couldn't understand? It seemed she would have to have a good talk with Huan Chang when she got back.

Chapter Forty-Six: We Agreed

meeting room.

‘Dong dong dong~’

The crisp sound resonated in everyone's mind.

‘Crunch~’

The door opened, and a man dressed in a blue-black business suit, high-necked trousers, and red high heels walked in.

Although she was completely covered up, her impressive figure was impossible to hide; her bulging shirt seemed to be groaning, as if it would burst at any moment.

"Sorry, something came up and I was delayed." The beautiful woman pulled out a chair and sat down. Although she apologized, her eyes were sharp and she exuded a fierce aura.

"Ahem, it's nothing, it's nothing. Miss Curaçao is very busy, it's normal to encounter some small things. Anyway, it won't take long, it's alright. Well, if there's nothing else to add, let's begin." A plump middle-aged man at the opposite table hurriedly stood up and said with a laugh.

He was in charge of this misappropriation of resources incident. He originally thought it was just a small matter, and that he could make up for the misappropriated resources and say a few words of comfort and it would be over. So he happily accepted the task.

But when he saw the data, he almost fainted. Not to mention the huge amount of resources misappropriated, the ship girls had somehow suddenly grown up. Before he could figure things out, the pressure of public opinion came crashing down on him like a tidal wave.

Yes, this time the ship girls directly exposed the matter. Although the amount was not specified, the fact that the transportation department misappropriated military resources was indeed revealed.

This completely changed the nature of the entire incident.

Some things, if you don't weigh them, they're nothing; but once you do, they're incredibly heavy.

The most critical issue is that the military also sent people to exert pressure and demand an explanation.

After all, the main force of humanity in fighting the Sirens is the ship girls. If the Transport Department dares to touch the resources of its own main force, then have the resources of these line-filling units also been misappropriated?

The public, the ship girls, and the military are all putting pressure on him. He has been negotiating with more than ten people. In the past ten days, he has been unable to eat or sleep well, and he has lost a lot of weight. His wife can hardly recognize him anymore.

What pained him most was that the ship girls, who were usually unassuming, were now acting like cunning foxes, displaying extremely high aggression. During the negotiations, they put forward conditions that the Maritime Bureau could never accept.

In more jargon, accepting the Royal Army's conditions is tantamount to allowing the army to engage in commerce and grow food. Imagine how terrifying it would be for the authorities if a highly capable military organization gained self-sufficiency.

Because of the stringent conditions, even though the Ministry of Supplies had made significant concessions on some of the regulations in the previous two rounds of negotiations, no consensus was reached.

However, given the current situation, the Royal Navy can afford to drag it out, but the Maritime Bureau simply cannot continue to support it.

He has now been given a strict order: if the third round of negotiations today does not yield a result, he will be replaced. As the Minister of the Materials Department, he is very clear about what it would mean if he were replaced.

So today is his last chance.

"Minister Wang, what constitutes a small matter and what constitutes a big matter? Your attitude sounds so awkward to me." Ignoring Minister Wang's remarks, Curaçao raised an eyebrow and asked in return.

“Of course, our negotiations are the most important thing, while the previous delays regarding Miss Curaçao are minor matters.” Minister Wang didn’t quite understand the significance of Curaçao’s question, thinking she was stalling for time to put pressure on him. So he took the opportunity to back down and followed Curaçao’s line of thought.

In his view, the fact that the misappropriation of resources could force the ship girls, who are usually indifferent to worldly affairs, to come and negotiate with him three times clearly shows that the ship girls care a lot about resources, so negotiations are naturally a big deal.

The fact that it delayed Curaçao for a dozen seconds is naturally nothing worth mentioning.

Within the Department of Transportation, there were quite a few people eyeing his position, especially after learning that if the negotiations didn't succeed today, he would be replaced. It was quite normal for those who were eager to interfere to do so.

Even if his own men don't make a move, many so-called young masters will still come and try to chat him up.

In the past, ship girls basically stayed at their base, and others wanted to see them but had no chance, only able to catch a glimpse of them on television.

Now things are different. With the news of the negotiations spreading, a large number of second-generation talents have come to try their luck, hoping to catch the eye of a certain ship girl.

The second generation's family tacitly approved of these actions. Everyone has witnessed the combat power of the ship girls. It is no exaggeration to say that any one of them could sweep away an entire fleet. With such combat power, who wouldn't be tempted?

The second-generation rich kids wouldn't care about the life or death of a mere minister. Although Minister Wang was considered an elite member of a certain family, if he didn't handle this matter well, his family would be the first to jump out and deal with him.

By then, even leaving behind a complete corpse would be a luxury.

"Hehe, Minister Wang, there are some things I still need to clarify with you." Clearly, Minister Wang's reply did not achieve the result he wanted; in fact, it seemed to have the opposite effect.

Curaçao snorted coldly. What do you mean by saying that being delayed is a minor matter? My commander personally gave the order, and you're telling me it's a minor matter? I think you don't want to work here anymore!

"Uh, sorry, I haven't been resting well lately, and I spoke without thinking. I apologize." Although he didn't know what he had said wrong, it was obvious that Curaçao was angry, so what else could he say? He quickly admitted his mistake and apologized.

Now, forget about apologizing; as long as we can reach an agreement, we'd even make him kneel down, and we'd be happy to negotiate.

"Hmph~" Seeing that Minister Wang's attitude of admitting his mistake was sincere, Curaçao, who was well-mannered, did not continue to pursue the matter. After all, she also wanted to end the negotiations as soon as possible. The commander was already on his way, and if she finished early, she might be able to catch up with him.

With Belfast absent, how could Curaçao, who prides herself on being a royal maid, possibly allow herself to miss the opportunity to greet Jing Su immediately?

The negotiations began, but before Minister Wang could say anything, Curaçao threw a document at him.

"What is this?" Upon receiving the document, Minister Wang's heart tightened. He thought to himself, "This is bad. Are they going to add some more requirements?"

The negotiations weren't initially so difficult; in fact, the Ministry of Transport even had the upper hand at the beginning. However, as the situation escalated and more and more instances of misappropriation were exposed, the situation began to deteriorate.

If Minister Wang were given a time machine, he would definitely travel back to the beginning of the negotiations, knock himself out without saying a word, sign the papers, and quickly settle the matter.

If he had known the situation would escalate to this point, he would have risked losing his ministerial position to push for negotiations.

Anyway, he's been in this position for so many years and has amassed enough wealth to live comfortably for the rest of his life. Minister Wang has already made his decision: as long as he can land safely, he will resign and run away immediately. Whoever wants the position of Minister of Transport can have it. After all this, there's no more money to be made in this position for the time being.

"Minister Wang, we've been talking for so long, and we're tired. We don't want to continue. The contents of this document represent the consensus of all our ship girls. You either sign it or declare today's negotiations a failure."

"Considering the long-term nature of our cooperation, we've already made significant concessions. If you refuse, next time, the demands won't be the same."

After carefully examining the contents of the document, Minister Wang's expression changed repeatedly. Several times he seemed about to say something, but upon seeing Curaçao's expression, he swallowed his words. To reach his position, his skill in reading other people's expressions was top-notch. Clearly, Curaçao wasn't lying, and if he uttered a single "no," he would be truly finished.

"I... I need to consult with my superiors." Sweat beaded on his cheeks as Minister Wang suddenly gritted his teeth and said.

“I’ll wait for you for half an hour,” Curaçao said expressionlessly.

"I'll do it as soon as possible." Minister Wang hurriedly got up and ran to another room to make a phone call.

About twenty minutes later, Minister Wang, as if he had been pulled out of the water, shakily returned to his seat, took a deep breath, and said, "We agree to the terms above."

Chapter 47 You are really excellent.

"Councilor Chen, who authorized the signing of these terms? Isn't this like raising a tiger to cause trouble?" In the dimly lit room, a blond, blue-eyed, high-bridged nose middle-aged man shouted at another person standing by the window with a solemn expression.

"I authorized it. I wonder if Senator Forbes has any advice?" Senator Chen said in a deep voice, exhaling a breath of stale air.

"This..." Forbes' expression froze, somewhat embarrassed, but he quickly said urgently, "I need an explanation."

“Take a look at this, and you’ll understand.” Councilor Chen handed over a document.

"This is?"

"The meeting minutes from the negotiations, the three rounds of negotiations, the conditions of both sides, the participants, every word spoken, and the duration of each round are all recorded. You don't need to look at the rest; just focus on the demands and the timeframe."

"How dare they make such a demand?" Forbes roared after reading the minutes of the first negotiation meeting.

"No rush, read it first and then we'll talk," Councilor Chen interrupted Forbes's outburst.

"These materials? Are they all real?" After a short while, Forbes looked up, his eyes wide with anger.

"It's almost certainly true, maybe even more so. To be honest, I really don't dare let the negotiations continue. Every time we delay, the amount of resources misappropriated will increase. If this drags on for two or three months, every single person sitting in this office will be in jail."

"These parasites! But even so, they've loosened the conditions for resource exchange, and even handed over the manufacturing processes for many materials. If this continues, won't we be helpless against them?" Forbes gritted his teeth.

"Alright, the agreement has already been signed. There's no point in dwelling on these things anymore. I asked the professionals at the research institute, and the materials that have been released this time are mostly things that are difficult to manufacture and have high costs. Only the ship girls will use them. No matter how many are made, they will lose money. The purpose is to find a buyer. Now that we've released them, we're shifting the material burden onto the ship girls. What's wrong with that?"

As for the issue of control, that's something the next government should worry about. Right now, let's think about how to quell this storm. Otherwise, you, me, and those guys standing behind us won't have a good life for the rest of our lives.”

Representative Chen glanced at Forbes and said in an emotionless voice.

The subtext is clear: we're all seasoned veterans, so stop putting on an act in front of me. This mess is too big; calming public anger is the top priority. Continuing to negotiate with the ship girls is just a thankless task.

If this drags on for too long, and their opponents find sufficient evidence, they'll really be in deep trouble.

"I hope Councilor Chen can enlighten me." From Councilor Chen's reaction, Forbes knew that his little scheme had been seen through. He was not ashamed and maintained his previous angry expression. No matter how he changed his expression, his persona remained unchanged. At this moment, he was a warrior who cared about the country and its people.

Because the current government's members of parliament are from Donghuang, the influence of Donghuang culture has spread in political circles. Thanks to this, Forbes feels that he has become half a Donghuang person.

"I plan to set up a special task force to conduct a thorough investigation of the entire senior management in three days. You will be in full charge of this matter."

"This, I, am..." Forbes' face turned pale, and he tried to say something, but was interrupted.

"Do you have some other requests?"

"No, it's okay, I'll take care of it right away~" Forbes gritted his teeth and nodded in agreement.

He knew that if he didn't take the job, his fate would be absolutely dire.

'Damn it, I've been tricked! No wonder those guys specifically called for me to come and demand an explanation; they were just using me as a pawn. Fine, so this is how they treat me, huh? Just you wait!'

Just as Congressman Chen had thought, those who have reached this position are all seasoned shrewd individuals who don't need to think much. Forbes realized he had been tricked, misled into believing it was a golden opportunity to bring down Congressman Chen. And so he believed it, foolishly coming over to confront him, only to be outmaneuvered.

Investigating high-ranking officials—is that something a human being would do?

If you do a bad job, you'll become the perfect scapegoat; if you do a good job, you'll offend a whole bunch of people, and your future career will be completely over.

However, things are not without hope; there are still three days left.

Forbes knew that these three days were an opportunity given to him by Congressman Chen, both a hint and a veiled message, indicating who should be dealt with and who should be let off the hook.

. . . . . .

"Commander, the Maritime Bureau actually agreed to our demands?"

On the cruise ship, Yi Xian was somewhat surprised as she looked at the negotiation results reported back by the navigator TB.

She had reviewed the resources from the two negotiations repeatedly, so she was naturally clear about the Maritime Safety Administration's attitude.

In the very first negotiation, the first point was already unacceptable to the Maritime Safety Administration.

The first negotiation involved the port area demanding that the Maritime Safety Administration return all owed resources and provide compensation.

But looking at this agreement, it seems quite normal; paying back debts is a matter of course.

However, the Maritime Safety Administration refused; to be precise, it was impossible for them to do so.

The main reason is that the amount of resources the port area is demanding to be repaid is simply impossible to achieve in a short period of time. Compensation is negotiable, and even if the amount is outrageous, it can be discussed slowly.

However, let alone compensating for past debts, even making up for this resource shortage would be a huge problem.

From the port area's perspective, this is all the resources I've always needed. You've always been shortchanging me in every shipment, and this time it's so much less. We're fighting on the front lines, and if you don't fill the gap, how am I supposed to fight?

From the perspective of the Maritime Safety Administration, this is something that is simply impossible to do. It's not that they are unwilling to fill it, but that they simply cannot generate that many resources in a short period of time.

The reason is simple: the size of the ship girls is just too small!

Even if each ship girl is incredibly strong and has explosive combat power, their numbers are limited to less than a thousand. No matter how much resources are spent, there is still a limit.

However, the resources needed for ship girls to sortie are all specially made. Not to mention the ship equipment resources that only ship girls can use, even the sortie resources need to be manufactured through special procedures. Even if these resources are sold on the black market, they still need to be processed again before they can be used normally.

For the Maritime Bureau, producing resources for ship girls to use in sorties is actually a losing proposition. Not only does it require building highly specialized factories, but the production time is also long and orders are few.

With the sheer number of ship girls, it's not even worth mentioning building a market; there's simply no market for them.

Therefore, each time production begins, the ship girls submit a list first, and production proceeds as needed.

In other words, there are few factories that produce resources specifically for ship girls, and the market is small. In the past, they were produced exclusively for ship girls and produced on demand, so there was no incentive to reform the production capacity.

It's impossible to suddenly ask them to fill the resource gaps. Not to mention that all the factories are currently shut down, even if they weren't, and all the factories were operating 24/7, they still wouldn't be able to keep up with the production.

The Maritime Safety Administration is not unwilling to fix the hole, but simply unable to do so within the stipulated time. This has nothing to do with willingness; it is simply beyond its control.

However, the response from the ship girl, or rather Jing Su, was also unsolvable.

What do the problems you've created have to do with us?

There's a war going on at the front right now, and you're diverting military resources. The shortfall is so huge, it definitely won't last a quarter of combat. If something happens at the front, who will take responsibility? Who can take responsibility?

In fact, Jing Su's subtext was very simple: I need resources, not just to ask for an explanation, but to fight a war. Now we don't have enough resources, so we can't continue the war. What should we do?

For this reason, the winds of negotiation have always been in the favor of the port area. When it comes to matters of life and death, the people can still distinguish between what is important and what is urgent.

However, due to the aforementioned issue of insufficient productivity, the first round of negotiations ultimately failed.

Minister Wang of the Transportation Department was originally tasked with stalling for time, but now all the factories are working overtime to produce. The longer the time is delayed, the more advantageous the situation will be for them.

Jing Su was naturally aware of this situation, so she naturally played her second card: the misappropriation of resources was not a one-off incident.

The moment this card was played, the entire room erupted in uproar.

An investigation by secret agents revealed that the Ministry of Transport was seriously misappropriating resources, not only in the port area but also in other departments.

This completely escalated the situation, transforming it from a diplomatic matter into a serious corruption issue, which is where the military's pressure began.

The biggest significance of exposing this matter for the Hong Kong authorities is that they can now make other demands.

"I fought diligently and bravely on the front lines, and you stabbed me in the back, and so many times at that!"