Chapter 1741 Performance Upgrade
Although people in this era still don't understand what a trade surplus and deficit is, anyone who is slightly familiar with Haihan's situation knows that Haihan's annual merchandise export volume is much greater than its import volume. Haihan purchases mostly various raw materials from the outside, and exports almost all mass-produced goods that have been deeply processed and whose prices have increased several times. Haihan also relied on its huge annual trade surplus to achieve rapid accumulation of wealth in just a few years, thus having enough funds to expand its armaments, build an ocean-going fleet, and continuously open up new colonies overseas.
Today, this business model has entered a virtuous cycle. Most of the trade between Haihan and other countries is completed through these transnational businessmen, and a considerable proportion of the development of new colonies relies on businessmen from various countries. After investing money and manpower, the official is only responsible for guidance, management and safety.
This mode of operation has greatly reduced the financial pressure on the government, and businessmen, driven by their profit-seeking nature, will be more proactive than the government in the process of developing new colonies, thus avoiding problems caused by the low efficiency of the bureaucracy. Some drawbacks. For the businessmen participating in this process, this is probably their best opportunity to make a fortune in history. The extremely low operating costs and the loose management system of the new colony allow them to obtain it in a very short period of time. A lot of wealth.
Of course, this operating model is not without its drawbacks. Haihan State relies heavily on commerce, especially cross-border trade. Once a long-lasting trade dispute, war, natural disaster, etc. occurs, it will easily affect the country's economy. Stablize.
In addition, because merchants played such an important position and role in colonial construction, some decisions at the national level were inevitably affected by commercial interests. For matters such as the Ministry of Shipping's formulation of long-distance freight routes, the interests of some large-scale merchants must be taken into consideration and the arrangements for voyages and ports of call along the way should be adjusted based on their actual operating conditions.
The investment promotion and development work of new overseas colonies is more complicated. The official must determine in advance a group of powerful businessmen who can participate in the early operations or even accompany the army, and then formulate plans to allow them to rule the area after they achieve control. More businessmen participate in the public investment plan. During this period, the government often has to make some interest games and compromises with the large businessmen who participated in the early stage. During this period, there are many exchange conditions that cannot be respected by outsiders.
Haihan's cross-border trade has developed to the current stage, and large merchants no longer even regard their own nationality as a restriction. For example, on today's occasion, many merchants from Ming Dynasty treat Fei Cexian as if they are nothing. Of course, this may also have something to do with the tough attitude shown by Haihan leader Tao Donglai during the banquet last night. Businessmen will think that Haihan does not take the Ming envoys seriously, and their business is for Since Haihan was running errands, there was no need to be too concerned about Fei Cexian's existence.
So even though Fei Cexian looked very ugly at the moment, no Ming Chamber of Commerce would give up the competitive opportunity in front of him because of concerns about his feelings. Compared with the envoy of the Ming Dynasty who was frustrated in front of the senior officials of Haihan, of course it is more important to make money. Having money will bring social status. Even if he can't survive in the Ming Dynasty, Haihan will give him For protection, there is no need to fear official figures like Ming Dynasty.
Fei Cexian wanted to stand up and leave several times, but he was reluctant to give up this good opportunity to collect intelligence. After finally getting to the end of the investment promotion period, official personnel began to clear the place and asked private businessmen to leave. Almost all those who stayed were envoys and official representatives from various countries. The reason for taking this measure is that the next step is the long-awaited sales of weapons and equipment by various countries, and this time the sales of weapons are only for the country, and private individuals are not allowed to participate-at least not in such a situation. Public participation in the occasion.
Even people like Li Nai, who are very familiar with Haihan's senior management, cannot stay and watch the competition between different countries today. However, he was quite open-minded about this. Anyway, Furifeng had already taken everything he should get, so he didn't care about the weapons deal.
It's not that Li Nai has no interest in the arms business, but he came to Sanya more than half a month in advance this time. He had already used his contacts to go to Tiandu Industrial Zone several times and saw that Haihan was going to sell it this time. Several new weapons for the armies of various countries. As for which country will buy how much, it will not be difficult to find out the real news later. There is really no need to stay here to read it. It is better to go back and drink tea first and wait for the news.
Under the guidance of the staff, Fei Cexian's seat was finally moved from the outside to the front row. Although Ming Dynasty will not directly participate in this arms bidding, as the official representative of Ming Dynasty, Haihan still agreed to let him observe this event on the spot. To use Haihan's usual sales pitch, it's one thing to buy something or not. You can take a look and find out first.
After the venue was adjusted, it became much quieter. The people who remained were basically civil and military officials from various countries, large and small. Everyone relied on their status, so naturally they would not be as noisy as those businessmen. Fei Cexian looked around and saw that there were only about ten tables of people left, not even one-fifth of the number before. However, in terms of the importance and scope of the transaction, it is obvious that this event with relatively few participants is the real highlight today.
Schneider had already come down and sat aside, giving up his position on the stage to Bai Kesi, who was in charge of arms production. For the diplomats in the audience, Bai Kesi can be regarded as an old acquaintance of them, because almost all Haihan arms sales orders have to go through his hands, and all subsequent repairs, maintenance, and upgrades have to be done with Bai Kesi. This deal. If you want to buy weapons and equipment from Haihan, you must burn incense in front of this great god.
The only person present who had never really dealt with Bai Kesi was probably Li Xi. Bai Kesi went to Liaodong last year to preside over negotiations among the three countries, but at that time North Korea sent Luo Dexian to come forward to hold talks with Haihan. When Li Xi later went to Liaodong to observe the battle, Bai Kesi had already finished his errands and headed south back to Sanya. Afterwards, the weapons Haihan provided to North Korea were sent directly to Seoul via Zhoushan Dinghai Port. During this period, Li Xi had no chance to meet Bai Kesi.
However, when he was drinking at Zheng Zha's place last night, he had already heard some general information about Bai Kesi from the Annan people. Knowing that this senior official was in charge of Haihan's ordnance manufacturing and sales, he immediately cheered up and wanted to see the sea. How the Han will sell weapons to various countries.
"Everyone, you must have been impatient to wait just now, right? I don't know about you, but I dozed off while sitting next to you. I would like to ask the Executive Committee to put arms sales before investment activities next time, at least In my part, I don’t think anyone will fall asleep in the audience.”
Following Bai Kesi's teasing, everyone in the audience burst out with good-natured laughter. Schneider unceremoniously made a fist gesture towards the stage to indicate that he was not convinced by Bai Kesi's words. Of course, this kind of teasing is purely a joke. The two parties have worked together for many years and know each other well, so they will not take this matter seriously.
But all joking aside, everyone sitting here knows the importance of the arms sales project. Regardless of whether they buy it or not, whether they can buy it or how much they can buy, for the sake of national security, they must Understand the details of each of Haihan’s public arms sales. Only Baikes probably has the most accurate data on how much weapons and equipment Haihan sells every year. In order to maintain a balance of force among countries in the region and at the same time stimulate consumption, Haihan will hold several public arms sales events from time to time every year. The reason why it is irregular is that in addition to big dates like the Spring Fair and Autumn Fair every year, Haihan will also temporarily hold some small-scale or limited-participant arms sales activities when the situation requires it, such as last September. The bidding held in Sanya for Malta and the Netherlands was of this nature.
By making the quantity of weapons and equipment sold by Haihan public, each country can roughly calculate the armed level of its immediate neighbors and adjust its national defense strategy. Of course, this is only Haihan's official statement to the outside world. In fact, it will still try every means to stimulate an arms race among countries. Only in this way can it create enough buying enthusiasm and allow countries to take the initiative to bid for the weapons and equipment manufactured by Haihan.
Haihan uses military exercises, military parades, and even waging war to show the outside world the power of its weapons and equipment almost every year, and such propaganda methods have indeed achieved excellent results. The performance of Haihan weapons is already recognized as first-class in the Far East. Even if the performance is deliberately reduced, the monkey version of the equipment used for arms exports is far better than the weapons manufactured by various countries.
Although Haihan's weapons are very expensive, there are many classic examples of using these weapons to win on the battlefield over the years, and military generals from various countries are still flocking to weapons and equipment produced by Haihan. For example, Annan Kingdom, which cooperated with Haihan earlier, its elite troops are now basically fully equipped with Haihanized equipment, and its combat effectiveness is no longer inferior even when compared with Western colonial countries.
And precisely because of the purchase and equipment of a large number of Haihan weapons, Annan has now become the strongest country in the Indochina Peninsula. Although the land area seems to be smaller than that of Siam and Myanmar, in terms of military strength, there is probably no country in the entire Indochina Peninsula. People can compete with it. If the civil war in previous years had not caused too much damage to the country's strength and it was still in the recovery stage after the war, Annan might have launched a large-scale foreign war long ago.
After Zheng Zha arrived in Sanya this time, he had already made a trip to Tiandu Industrial Zone in advance to get a general understanding of the export weapons that Haihan would launch this time so that he could be prepared in advance. For the Zheng family, which is currently in charge of the Annan Kingdom, the country's finances are not good enough to buy as much as they like, so they have to make some trade-offs and choose weapons and equipment suitable for their own use within the budget.
The first weapon that Baikes showed was the rifle, Haihan’s flagship product sold over the years. At present, the rifles exported by Haihan still include the most primitive matchlock gun. Although its performance seems to have been eliminated in the eyes of many Haihan military generals, for foreign armies that do not have such a large military budget, This is still a cheap and easy-to-use individual weapon, but it is more troublesome to operate than a flintlock gun.
However, on an occasion like today, the time of the attendees is precious, and Baikes will not take out low-end weapons such as matchlock guns to demonstrate to buyers. The rifle he took out was an improved version developed based on the export model 1633 flintlock rifle. It was temporarily named the 33A rifle by Haihan Ordnance Industry.
"Everyone, although it seems that the appearance of this gun is not much different from the previous Type 33A rifle, in fact, this Type 33A rifle incorporates the latest achievements of our country's military technology."
At the same time that Baikes began to display his weapons, an assistant behind him removed the large map of the Far East that had been used as the background wall during the investment meeting, which made many people uncomfortable, and then opened a new background. But this time the content is not a map, but several technical features of this rifle, written on the background in very eye-catching calligraphy.
"You have also seen that behind me are the characteristics of this 33A rifle. Light! Accurate! Reliable!" Bai Kesi raised the rifle above his head with one hand: "I will explain to you next These exciting improvements! ”
"We used the latest steel on this rifle and improved the original structure. The barrel is thinner than before, the hammer is smaller than before, and useless and bulky parts have been removed without affecting its use. , reducing the size of the gun stock. After such modification, the weight of the entire rifle is half a kilogram lighter than the Type 33! ”
"Friends, what is this concept? This means that soldiers equipped with this rifle can carry twenty more rounds of ammunition if the load remains unchanged." Bai Kesi was afraid that the audience would not understand the significance of this, and also He added to them: "According to our past actual combat statistics, twenty rounds of bullets can kill at least two to three enemies during a battle. If it is an excellent soldier who can skillfully use a rifle, this number can be at least doubled! ”
Of course, Bai Kesi would not explain that a considerable part of the statistics he published came from a limited number of elite troops. Not all troops can achieve such combat effectiveness. As for the fact that you didn't achieve such a record after buying it, then I'm sorry, the gun must be fine, it's your people who are not.
Bai Kesi said with a serious face: "In order to make this rifle lighter, our Haihan Ordnance Industry spent a year and a half improving more than 20 processes before finally getting this satisfactory result. I think this little The changes are enough to improve the combat effectiveness of the armies of various countries.”
(End of chapter)