1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 7 While Preparations Are In Progress ([-])

Another small team from Tianjin arrived in Guangzhou only one day later than the group from Nongongkou.It is said to be a team, but in fact there are only two young people, one is called Sun Changmi and the other is called Yue Zhiyun. The two are high school classmates. After graduation, they were admitted to Dalian Maritime University. Sun Changmi majored in navigation technology, Yue Zhiyun. Zhiyun is a double major in marine engineering and marine electrical engineering. After graduation, he is now working in Tianjin Xingang Shipbuilding Industry.Although this qualification is still far from the expert level, he is already the only sailing and ship expert among the current traversal team.

The preparatory committee has already decided to use Sanya Yulin Port as the crossing point. Considering the local environment, the large-scale gathering of materials and personnel for the crossing operation cannot be carried out directly in Yulin Port. You must know that this place is now the station of the South China Sea Fleet. , any bells and whistles may bring unexpected troubles.Therefore, the crossing plan formulated by the Preparatory Committee is to use ships to carry materials and personnel, quietly complete a maritime assembly in the offshore waters outside Yulin Port, and then use the wormhole controller for the last one-way crossing.

The drawback of this plan has been put forward by people of insight before, that is, the team lacks a talent pool with navigational knowledge and ship driving skills.Sun Changmi and Yue Zhiyun are both development objects that the Preparatory Committee has spent a long time in contact with. Tao Donglai believes that in addition to professional knowledge, these two young people have a spirit of risk-taking. It really proved that his judgment was correct.Under the arrangement of the Preparatory Committee, the two young people went to Yuexiu Mountain to visit the Ming Dynasty Guangzhou City Wall at dawn, together with several other newly joined technical backbones. Before returning to the hotel, they had already decided to join the crossing plan.

The two young people did not rush back to Tianjin to go through the resignation formalities of the unit, but stayed in Guangzhou and immediately threw themselves into the preparatory work.After learning about the progress of the current preparations, the shipping department, which originally existed on paper, was immediately set up by the two of them.This was originally a good thing, but three days later Tao Donglai saw the preparation plan and the purchase list handed in by the two, and he suddenly became restless.

According to the current list of pre-purchasing materials of the Preparatory Committee, the ship purchase plan developed by Sun Changmi and Yue Zhiyun is also quite large.According to the calculation of the Preparatory Committee, the initial estimate of the weight of the materials that need to be transported to another time and space is at least 7000 tons. First of all, to ship various industrial equipment, construction machinery and other large pieces, at least one must have a deadweight of more than 4000 tons. General cargo ships with self-unloading capability or ro-ro wheels with side ramps.According to the plan of Sun and Yue, this ship will be the main force of material transportation. The bigger the tonnage, the better. This may cost a considerable amount of money, but at the same time, it can effectively reduce the number of ships passing through the fleet, and the corresponding reduction will be reduced accordingly. Given the required crewing pressure, it is an option that deserves serious consideration for traversal teams.Fortunately, Yulin Port is a natural deep-water port, and ships with a [-]-ton class do not have to worry about hitting rocks or running aground in the harbor even if they are not guided by a channel.

In addition to this main ship, the fleet also needs to prepare several offshore barges as needed to act as oil tankers, bulk carriers and other professional vessels.The reason why it is recommended to use an offshore barge instead of buying a professional vessel in the plan is also considering that the crew reserve of the team is seriously insufficient. The offshore barge can be directly pushed or towed by a high-horsepower tugboat, and it does not even need to have self-propelled capability.If you finally buy a few barges to form a small fleet, then this fleet only needs to buy a high-horsepower tugboat and can be driven with a very small crew, and the price will be much cheaper than buying a professional boat, maybe It can make up a considerable part of the difference in buying a big boat.

In addition, the two-person team also listed a special proposal to buy a decommissioned landing craft, which aroused the interest of the Preparatory Committee.Yan Chujie asked: "Since there are offshore barges in your plan, then the barges can also directly wash the beach, why do you have to use landing craft?"

"Mr. Yan used to be in the army, right?" Now the titles of several major members of the preparatory committee have been given the suffix of the general word. Although the two newcomers have only just arrived, they have already followed the local customs.

Before Yan Chujie could answer, Sun Changmi continued: "We have to take into account the actual situation of landing at Yulin Port. The draft of the main ship is estimated to be 6-8 meters. It was obviously impossible to dock directly in the port environment at that time. Therefore, we must first unload some construction machinery, build a simple dock, and at the same time level the ground of the landing site to prepare for the subsequent unloading of materials by ships. Unpowered barges lack self-unloading capability and cannot be used for carrying and need to be the first to land The landing craft does not have this problem. In addition, we can also use the landing craft to transfer some heavy equipment that is inconvenient to load and unload on the temporary wharf.”

Tao Donglai interjected and asked, "Can you buy decommissioned landing craft on the market? Will the price be scary?"

"The landing craft built in the early 90s have been in service for more than 20 years, and most of them are already in the phase-out stage. There are quite a few of them on the market. As for the price..." Sun Changmi pondered for a while before saying: "Actually, it is very expensive. Cheap, the price of a landing craft below 50 tons will not exceed [-], and the condition of the ship is generally not too bad.”

"Oh, that's good." Tao Donglai felt relieved.However, his good mood didn't last long, because the red words with a total budget of 3000 million at the end of the plan were too dazzling to be ignored.

"Does it really cost so much?" Tao Donglai asked through gritted teeth.It's not that he was stingy with the money, anyway, he's going to go bankrupt and play time travel. At that time, it's useless to keep the money. What you buy is not a buy.The main reason is that the capital expenditure was too fast and too much during this time. At present, his company's accounts simply cannot take out such a large amount of funds at one time for these prodigals to squander.The budget that was finally cut down from Meng He a few days ago was handed over to Mr. Yuan's family to purchase various agricultural crops and improved breeds of poultry and livestock.

"It's really going to cost so much!" This time, Yue Zhiyun grabbed the conversation: "This boat is not buying something on Taobao. After buying it and confirming the receipt, we have to pre-calculate some unpredictable maintenance and renovation costs. , plus the oil and daily maintenance before the crossing operation. If there is a surplus in the budget, we can also purchase a few small-tonnage iron-hulled fishing boats for early sea fishing and short-distance transportation.”

After a brief discussion by the Preparatory Committee, Tao Donglai announced the final decision: "The Preparatory Committee agrees in principle with the procurement plan of the Ministry of Shipping, but since the Preparatory Committee's book funds are relatively tight, the implementation of the procurement plan will be delayed for a while. time."

Sun and Yue did not express any dissatisfaction or objection to this, but Sun Changmi reminded the committee members one thing before leaving: "The sooner the boat is purchased, the earlier the crew training can start."

After the two went out, Tao Donglai sighed and said, "Everyone, it's just June, and there's still half a year left this year. I have good news and bad news. Which one do you want to hear first?"

"Let's talk about the good news first." Ning Qi answered in a hurry.

"The good news is that so far, the main departments of our team's industry, agriculture, chemical industry, information and communication, shipping, construction, military and police have basically set up a shelf, and we only need to keep recruiting personnel in the time before the crossing. , it is enough to improve this infrastructure.”

"What about the bad news?"

"The bad news is that the funds on hand can no longer keep up with the growth rate of the procurement budget. My company shares can be sold for cash, but most of the real estate under my name is land and real estate under development. I want to dispose of it quickly. It’s not that easy. Let me tell you, before the end of the year, I can at most come up with three to forty million funds, and the budget proposal we have received now is about to exceed this figure. If we can’t figure out before that If there is a good solution, the organizing committee will fall into bankruptcy before the crossing is successful."

Yan Chujie, Ning Qi, and Meng He used to rely on salaries to make ends meet. They really had no say in solving the funding gap. Gu Kai returned to the United States the day before and said that there were a few people there who were very interested in the crossing operation. see you.So in fact, the only person who can discuss a solution with Tao Donglai is Bai Kesi.

Bai Ke thought about it and said: "If we consider that we will not come back after we go, it may be necessary to try to take some unconventional methods to raise funds."

Although the wording of "unconventional method" is very clever, none of the three-year-olds present here naturally understood Baix's overtones.Yan Chujie, who has the strongest concept of abiding by discipline and law, first expressed his clear objection: "No, even if we won't come back in the future, we can't do things that endanger national interests before we leave!"

Meng He rolled his eyes: "It's as if we are digging around here and pulling people into the gang, so it's not harming national interests."

"Can that be the same? At least what we are doing now hasn't violated the law. Can the method that Baix said do not violate the law?" Yan Chujie called out his name in a hurry.

Bai Kesi was not angry, he adjusted his glasses and said, "Actually, the truth cannot be said so absolutely. Even if you violate the law, it depends on which country's law you violated. Even if you violate the law, it may not harm the national interests of our country. ."

Tao Donglai's eyes lit up: "Old Bai, you are in foreign trade, and there must be many ways to go about it. If you have any way to tell me!"

Bai Kesi waved his hand and said, "I can't come up with a specific solution, but I know someone must have a solution. Do you remember that I recommended someone to you a few days ago?"

Tao Donglai thought about it and said, "Did you say that you can let him pick the person in charge of business and finance?"

"It's him." Baix nodded and said, "This guy's resume is quite good. He graduated from Stanford Business School and worked as a bottom-level stock broker on Wall Street for a few years. Later, he went to Lehman Brothers to do venture capital evaluation. In 08 When Lehman collapsed due to the financial crisis, he jumped to Deloitte and worked in cross-border tax audit for two years. Now he quit his job and started a foreign trade company in Shanghai. I had business dealings with him before, and I know how this guy works. Very wild, it happened that he came to Guangzhou to do business some time ago, so I tested his tone. I didn't expect him to be very interested in what we were going to do, and he had asked more than once how to join our plan. Seriously , I think the funding problem we have now, he may have a solution."

Tao Donglai thought for a moment and then asked, "When can I see him?"

Baix took out his phone: "It's only two or three hours from Shanghai. He should be able to appear in front of you within today."

(End of this chapter)