Return to 2000: Captain of the Great Powers

A restaurant in Ginza, Tokyo, is different from the bustling and modern Ginza business atmosphere. This restaurant is an extremely traditional Japanese restaurant. Not only the decoration, but also the etiquette of the staff and the meals all show a traditional atmosphere.

In the private room, Isshin Ji Chuan, President of Jiasu Airlines, and Hideki Nagano, President of JAL, sat facing each other. Light smoke wafted from the corner, filling the room with a strange fragrance.

Hideki Nagano narrowed his eyes, and took a sip of the wine in the glass: "Mr. Ji Chuan, you asked me out, this is the first time."

Even though JAL is going to acquire Jiasu Airlines, but in terms of the performance of both parties, JAL is the more eager one.The main reason is that Ji Chuanyixin knows that JAL is likely to be hopeless, but if it does not merge with JAL, Jiasu Airlines will not be able to rely on its own ability to reform, so it is in the entangled state of wanting to merge but not wanting to merge. Naturally, Ji Chuanyixin appears to be very lazy in terms of initiative.

"I saw Mr. Nagano at the Ministry of Communications meeting this morning." Ji Chuan smiled wholeheartedly, and drank the wine in his glass.

Different from Nagano Hideki's drinking style, and also different from his appearance and temperament, Ji Chuan Yixin was extremely bold in drinking.

Hideki Nagano did not deny it either: "Mr. Xu Cang and I are old friends, so naturally I want to see it."

"Is it old?" Ji Chuan put down the empty cup with all his heart, and the bottom of the cup hit the table with a dull sound: "Then what do you think of Mr. Xu Cang?"

Nagano Hideki was taken aback, but he didn't expect Ji Chuan Yixin to mention Xu Cang suddenly: "You really stumped me."

"Haha, Mr. Nagano doesn't need to think too much. This is a simple question. I'm just curious. There's nothing else to it."

"No other meaning? It's very strange for you to ask this question, isn't it?" Hideki Nagano said with a smile: "However, it doesn't matter. Mr. Xu Cang has already traveled the sea, and he must be a dragon and a phoenix in the future."

Ji Chuan Yixin showed a smile: "It's very good if you think so. Then, let's talk about the merger now. We Jiasu agreed to the merger."

Nagano Hideki's eyes lit up, but he quickly turned to wonder: "We talked for so long before, and there has been no major progress. Why did we suddenly agree to the merger?"

Recently, Hideki Nagano has not heard of any crisis that Jiasu Airlines has encountered.Reasonably speaking, there should still be some possibilities up for grabs. Why did they agree to the merger without warning?Hideki Nagano was caught off guard.

"Then the conditions are clearly defined." Ji Chuan said with a smile: "The purchase price can be negotiated slowly, but there is a hard condition that must be met."

Nagano Hideki's heart tightened, as expected.However, this made him breathe a sigh of relief. It would be nice if he could raise the conditions, but he was afraid that he would be delayed if he didn't raise the conditions. Moreover, it seemed that this was a key condition. It seemed that as long as this condition could be fulfilled, the merger would come to fruition.

"Tell me." Nagano Hideki slightly pushed the wine glass in front of him to the side, and it seemed that he was about to enter the state.

Ji Chuan Yixin also followed Hideki Nagano's movement and pushed the wine glass aside, and at the same time raised two fingers: "Two board seats."

"Two board seats!?" Nagano Hideki was stunned: "Are you crazy? Do you know that our board of directors only has a few people, eight people. How much management power will be divided by adding two board seats?"

Despite the huge size of JAL, the size of the board of directors is not large compared to other companies of the same class, which makes JAL's board seats extremely precious. Ji Chuan wanted two board seats if he wanted to open his mouth.

If agreed, then in the ten-member board of directors, representatives of Jiasu Airlines will occupy two seats.However, the distribution of shares in JAL is extremely scattered. The chairman is also a major shareholder, but his shares do not exceed half. This means that the chairman does not actually have absolute authority. This makes even the chairman need to make friends with directors, which makes the board of directors more precious.

This seat is not a mascot, but one that can actually affect JAL's decision-making.

"I know." Ji Chuan did not change his face: "But I said that this is the most critical condition. If this condition is not agreed, then Jiasu Airlines will not be merged into JAL."

Hideki Nagano's face turned green, and he snorted coldly: "You think you have a choice? You have lost the ability to innovate yourself now, and you can only rely on stronger ones. Except for us, Japan Airlines, it is ANA. However, ANA is the leader in the domestic market, and they have no intention of deeply cultivating local airport routes. It is absolutely impossible to acquire you. Your only choice is us. The conditions should not be too high. If this transaction fails, you Jiasu Airlines can only slowly stink and rot, and then wait to die."

Hideki Nagano has a clear view of the situation, not to mention holding a firm grip on Jiasu Airlines, but in terms of the fundamental interests of the future, Jiasu Airlines really does not have many choices.Therefore, don't look at the ambiguity of Jiasu Airlines, JAL is not in a hurry, because they know that Jiasu Airlines will eventually agree.

I just didn't expect that Jiasu Airlines had the courage to propose to add two board seats. It was really hard to grasp its own weight. Nagano Hideki felt that he needed to speak clearly.

However, it is clear that Ji Chuan Yixin has been prepared for a long time. He did not have any special reaction to Hideki Nagano's analysis of Jiasu Airlines' words, but changed the subject abruptly: "ANA has persuaded American Airlines to open Japan-US flights, right?"

Hideki Nagano was still calm in front, but when he mentioned the Japan-US route, he really couldn't hold back, and his face sank all of a sudden.

More than 60.00% of JAL's profits come from international routes, and [-]% of the profits of international routes come from Japan-US routes.Of course, JAL does not only cooperate with American Airlines. It also has a cooperative Japan-US route with United Airlines. In addition, it also has its own Japan-US route.

This time, American Airlines ended its cooperation with JAL and switched to All Nippon Airways. In addition to suddenly reducing the profit of JAL's Japan-US routes by one-third, it is still an extremely bad sign.

In the past, JAL has always felt that its dominant position in international routes is as solid as Mount Tai, but the current situation shows that the facts do not seem to be what JAL thinks.

With this opening, is it possible that United Airlines will be won over in the future?
Will JCAB fight to go?

Thinking of JCAB, Hideki Nagano couldn't help but think that the latest batch of official European routes will be selected by ANA first, which in the past was JAL first.

To be honest, it is hard to say whether JCAB is still on the side of JAL.

Now that the scars have been exposed, Hideki Nagano feels a little bit annoyed: "Why are you mentioning this, the international flight has something to do with your Jiasu?"

"It doesn't matter, but shouldn't you feel very anxious? The original dominant international routes have begun to loosen. The reason why JAL is still ahead of ANA is that apart from the huge policy inertia, the rest is the advantage in international routes. What if the advantage in international routes is no longer an advantage?" Ji Chuan said with a sneer: "You said that our Jiasu can't innovate itself, so why not you JAL? There are funds and resources, but they lack the determination to gouge out the sores. Once ANA offsets your dominant position on international routes, Japan Airlines will be ruthlessly torn apart, right? "

Hideki Nagano's face sank completely: "Mr. Ji Chuan, I'm tired of talking too much today, you can go back."

Unexpectedly, Hideki Nagano, who had broken his defense, directly issued an order to evict the guest.

However, Ji Chuan Yixin did not move at all, but flicked his fingernails on the ceramic wine glass, making a continuous and clear sound.

"President Nagano, it's useless to escape, you should be clear."

"If you know that there is nothing you can do, then escaping is shameful, but it is by no means useless. At least I will let Nikko last until I step down." Hideki Nagano said coldly.

Hideki Nagano has a deep understanding of Japan Airlines. From the bottom of his heart, he feels that Japan Airlines is hopeless and it is only a matter of time before its collapse.

What he wants to do is not how to reform JAL. I hope that during his tenure, JAL will not explode.

When his term of office expires, will he be flooded later?
Ji Chuan said suddenly with one heart: "Since ANA can move the cake of your international routes, why don't you move the basics of ANA's domestic routes?"

Nagano Hideki was taken aback for a moment, seeing his face almost cursed.

Has JAL ever thought about leveraging ANA's basic domestic routes?Think crazy, okay!

However, Japan Airlines' performance in the domestic route market is so low that it wants to annex Jiasu Airlines to maintain the proportion of domestic routes. Otherwise, after another two years, Japan Airlines will really become lame.

Unlike JAL's basic market in international routes, at least at the current stage, ANA's basic market is in China. If it can destroy ANA's basic domestic route, JAL is 1 willing.

However, this is not done by mouth.

From Hideki Nagano's point of view, Ji Chuan Yishin was not making an idea, but simply making sarcastic remarks.

Looking at Hideki Nagano's expression, Ji Chuan knew what Hideki Nagano was thinking, but he was not annoyed, and his face became serious: "Now, if we only look at the market share of domestic routes, All Nippon Airways is number one, Jiasu is second, and Japan Airlines is third."

That's right, the rankings have changed again.

In the past, Japan Airlines was the second, and Jiasu Airlines was the third.

Originally, Jiasu Airlines was already in decline, but JAL couldn't help it to rot faster, the domestic market shrank sharply, and was beaten by ANA, so that JAL executives began to consider giving up the domestic market altogether.

When it comes to this ranking in the domestic market, Hideki Nagano's originally unattractive face turned black like the bottom of a pot, and he felt that Ji Chuan's intention was intentional.

However, Ji Chuanyi's next sentence directly lifted Hideki Nagano's spirit: "Now you think it is ridiculous that we have two board seats in the conditions for merging with JAL, but if we can surpass ANA to become the leader in domestic airlines, do you think the conditions for those two board seats can't be discussed?"

Shortly after Southwest Flight 3102 took off, the sky was full of stars, but the lights in the cabin had been dimmed.

Under the dim light, and the airflow was abnormally stable after takeoff, Xu Cang was already in low spirits due to the hearing in the morning, so as soon as the plane took off, he felt drowsy and fell into a shallow sleep.

The cabin of the plane was empty, except for some people in the first-class cabin in front, there was no one in the back, and it was deadly silent.

If it wasn't for the light leaking from the curtain gap in the cabin's back cabin, the plane would have been eerily quiet.

Xu Cang went to bed early, and Richard went to bed later than Xu Cang.The first-class seat is close to an independent small sofa, the angle of the back is lowered greatly, and it is equipped with footrests, so it is quite comfortable to lie down.On the contrary, Xia Shuyue's ears moved slightly after taking off, and she always felt some strange sounds, which seemed to come from the abnormal noise of the engine running outside, but the uncoordinated sound was so slight that even Xia Shuyue was not sure, and strongly suspected that she had heard it wrong.

Xia Shuyue's sense of hearing is even sharper than Xu Cang's, which was reflected in the special situation of preparing for the Tianshan Mountains a long time ago.

Originally, Xia Shuyue planned to talk to Xu Cang, but she gave up this idea after hearing the slight snoring sound coming from the direction of Xu Cang's seat.

The sound is indeed very light. Most of the time, it is just a slight abnormal sound caused by the aging of the engine, which does not affect safety in itself.If there is really an obvious problem, the abnormal sound of the engine should be even greater. I guess it is really a little suspicious, and the instruments in the front cockpit are more accurate. If there is no response there, there is basically no problem.

Suddenly, Xia Shuyue focused her eyes, and turned to the direction of the front cabin
At this moment, a curtain separates the front cabin crew cabin from the first-class cabin area, but the curtain cannot be completely covered, and there are still very small gaps on both sides.

Obviously, the lights in the front cabin workshop were not adjusted to dim, and some light was revealed from the gap.

Xia Shuyue's eyesight was excellent, and from the gap, she seemed to see the purser standing in front of the cockpit door, and then there was a very slight knock on the door.

Xia Shuyue couldn't tell whether the abnormal noise of the engine was normal or not, but even though the purser tried his best to control the force of knocking on the door, the sound was still too obvious for Xia Shuyue.

"Knock on the door while climbing?" Xia Shuyue was a little surprised.

Now that Xia Shuyue has also learned how to fly, at least she knows that the initial climbing stage of the plane is the critical stage, unless it is an emergency, how could the flight attendant knock on the door and enter at this time?

However, if it is an emergency, the knock on the door should not be so slight, but rather obvious and urgent.

Of course, Xia Shuyue was just surprised, and didn't have any special reaction.

Xia Shuyue even surpassed Xu Cang's in some parts of her physiological perception ability, but after all, she still has too little experience, and her ability to associate certain information is not strong.She just felt a little strange and didn't think much about it.Perhaps it was because the surroundings were too quiet, Xia Shuyue also felt tired, her eyelids were heavy, and she slowly fell asleep.

In the front cabin workshop, after the purser knocked on the door, the cockpit door opened just like that.

To be honest, this is very inconsistent with the cockpit entry procedure.Some captains with a bad temper saw that the purser knocked on the door to enter at a critical stage, not only would not open the door, but they might even open the intercom, scolding the purser.

But on this flight, the cockpit door really opened just like that, very simple.

As the door opened, the purser saw two people in the cockpit.

It stands to reason that the plane was running extremely smoothly, and the pressure in the cockpit should have dropped sharply, but the faces of the captain and the co-pilot were visibly nervous, and even the co-pilot's forehead was covered in cold sweat.

Seeing the reaction of the two, the purser didn't seem surprised. He entered the cockpit and closed the hatch.

"Is there anything wrong with the cabin?" The captain looked back at the flight attendant.

The purser's expression was not natural: "It's nothing."

"All come up?"

"Well, it's all up." The flight attendant swallowed: "Captain, when do we start?"

The captain was a middle-aged white man with an unshaven beard and some slovenliness.He touched his chin and glanced at the clock on the instrument: "What's the situation with that person now?"

"It seems to be asleep." The purser replied: "I didn't look carefully, but the reading lights in the first-class cabin are not turned on, so I should be asleep."

"Then wait another 15 minutes until he's sound asleep." The captain licked his dry lips: "Also, tell the crew in the rear cabin to wait for me to release the pressure before acting, otherwise the cabin door won't open."

The purser nodded heavily: "Well, I know that."

"Also." The captain continued to urge: "Don't use internal voice to inform, if possible, go to the rear hatch to convey verbally."

The purser pondered for a while: "Okay, I understand."

"Okay, let's go!" The captain said: "The door closing is quieter."

The purser hummed and left the cockpit lightly.

When the purser left, the co-pilot opened the monitoring screen of the front cabin work room, which was the screen of the purser going out.

"Captain, is this all right?" The co-pilot's face was full of worry.

The captain snorted coldly: "What's the matter? You don't need to do anything."

The co-pilot smacked his lips: "I see. However, I found a problem in the pre-flight clearance data just now. In the last paragraph, I was a little restless and didn't read the data much. So I missed it."

The captain frowned: "What's wrong?"

"The No. [-] engine of our plane often responded to high vibration values ​​before, but they were all within the standard. The company checked and found no problems, but let us pay attention to monitoring."

"The vibration value of No. [-] engine is too high?" The captain was taken aback, and immediately opened the detailed information of the engine data, including the engine vibration value information.

The engine vibration value information belongs to the secondary important information in the data. If the normal time does not exceed the limit, it will be hidden.This time the captain took the initiative to open it, and when he saw the vibration value of the No. [-] engine, his face sank all of a sudden.

The vibration value of engine number one has reached three!

Of course, this is still within the standard range, but it is very close to the critical value.

"Damn it, didn't the company inspect it? Why is it still like this?" The captain scolded, but soon he calmed down: "It doesn't matter, it's all the same anyway."

After more than ten minutes, there was no movement in the originally silent cabin, except for a few slight snores.Not long ago, Xia Shuyue also fell into sleep. This environment is indeed too suitable for sleeping, and the time has also reached the standard sleep time of the biological clock, so it is normal to fall asleep.

But amidst this dead silence, the slightly closed eyes of the burly man sitting in the seat behind Xu Cang's left suddenly opened, and in the darkness shone with a wild light like a wolf.

He waited for a while, adjusted his breathing, and listened quietly for a while to confirm that there was no other movement except for the sound of the engine running, which indicated that everyone else must have fallen asleep.

However, he was still cautious, like a lone wolf hunting, he got up slowly, trying his best to suppress his voice to a minimum.

His steps are steady, not fast, seemingly casual.At this time, even if other people woke up, they would only think that he was going to the bathroom in the front cabin when they saw him.

After walking a few steps, he was already close to Xu Cang's seat, so close that he could even hear the sound of even breathing, which was obviously the breathing of entering sleep.

For some reason, the white man sighed softly, as if it contained great regret.

He slowly opened his coat, put his right hand into his waist, pulled out a pistol from it, stepped forward, turned sideways, and what caught his eyes was Xu Cang who was sleeping soundly with his head on his side.

He slowly raised the pistol, pointed the black muzzle at Xu Cang's head, and sighed softly: "Goodbye, Mr. Xu Cang."

At this moment, Xu Cang, who was in a sleeping state, seemed to feel something, and suddenly opened his eyes.

The white man raised his eyebrows and said with a smile, "I'm sending you my greetings on behalf of Mr. Halliway, Mr. Xu Cang."

Immediately, without another word, he directly pulled the trigger.

In the cockpit, the captain and the co-pilot were always paying attention to the vibration value of the No. [-] engine. Fortunately, even though the vibration value of the No. [-] engine was high, it remained below the critical line and was barely acceptable.

"Is the engine aging?" the co-pilot asked puzzled.

Now there is no icing, and other parameters are running normally, except that the engine vibration value is high, which is more in line with the performance of engine aging.

When you are old, your body is failing.

"It doesn't matter, as long as it doesn't exceed the limit." The captain didn't seem to pay much attention to the condition of the engine, at least he didn't behave too violently.

After hearing the captain's words, the co-pilot also calmed down a little, nodded, and the cockpit immediately fell into silence again.

At this moment, Japanese control's accented English came from the control frequency: "Flight WN3102, radar guidance, now turn left and head towards 090."

The co-pilot conditioned to reply directly: "WN3102, turn left heading."

However, before the co-pilot finished speaking, the captain directly interjected: "WN3102, the heading 090 is affected by the weather, please apply to maintain the planned route."

"Weather?" The co-pilot glanced at the radar, obviously there was no weather at all.

Not to mention the 090 heading, there is not even green in the range of more than 50 angles to the left and right.

The control side can also see the weather, obviously feeling confused about the captain's request: "WN3102, I don't see the weather here."

"WN3102 applies to maintain the planned route." The captain repeated coldly.

"WN3102, turn left immediately and head towards 090." The Japanese controller's tone also became serious: "There is an ionizing radiation area ahead."

"What nonsense ionizing radiation zone!" The captain directly turned off the VHF receiver, and confirmed with the co-pilot again: "Remember, no matter what, we must follow the planned route."

The co-pilot nodded half-understanding, he probably understood what the captain meant.

Because they will never complete the flight.

However, he was concerned about the ionizing radiation zone mentioned by the controller.He had never heard of an "ionizing radiation zone" in his flying career, but logically, controllers shouldn't be joking about it.

This worry increased rapidly with the accumulation of time, so that finally after hesitating again and again, he suddenly said: "Captain, do you want to talk to the control again?"

Before he finished speaking, a burst of gunshots suddenly sounded in the deathly silent cabin.