Go back in time and be a chaebol

Chapter 2525 A Big Client Delivered to My Door (Fourth Update, Requesting Monthly Tickets and Subscriptions)
In January, Kunming is a city with a distinctly northern landscape.

The old building, in the East Asian style, had a thick layer of snow on its roof, its outlines clearly defined, and the red brick walls appeared particularly deep and solemn in the low temperature.

The tram clattered along the tracks at a leisurely pace, its windows covered with thick, strangely patterned frost.

Through the car window, Song Guoqiang looked at the street outside with some curiosity. The snow had been repeatedly compacted, forming a dense, slightly grayish white crust on the sidewalk. Stepping on it made a solid and crisp "crunch-crunch-" sound, which could be faintly heard even inside the car.

Of course, the most common sound is the ringing of bicycle bells; bicycles are everywhere here, it's practically a bicycle kingdom.

This is generally how foreigners perceive this place.

"Boss, actually, although Kunming is called the Spring City, the most beautiful season here is actually winter..."

While Tang Zhijie was introducing Chuncheng to his boss, Zheng Weiguo, sitting in the passenger seat, would occasionally glance at this big boss from Hong Kong in the rearview mirror.

This boss was introduced by a company in Hong Kong Island—the CEO of Wing Wo Company. Wing Wo Company is not only the largest real estate developer in Hong Kong Island, but also owns companies in various fields such as oil, aviation, and trade. At the same time, it is also the largest overseas purchaser of Daqing Oil.

This is precisely why Song Guoqiang's visit was highly valued by the higher-ups, who not only arranged a meeting but also provided him with an escort throughout. However, he politely declined, stating that he was there to discuss business and would only discuss business matters.

"We must treat them well and make sure nothing goes wrong."

Just as this thought crossed Zheng Weiguo's mind, he heard Song Guoqiang say:

"Mr. Zheng, may we go to the Fifth Ministry of Machinery Industry first?"

The sudden question startled Zheng Weiguo, who even looked at the other person with some surprise.

The Fifth Ministry of Machine Building, unlike ordinary industrial authorities, was in charge of military production.

"Mr. Song, are you going to the Fifth Ministry of Machinery Industry? To discuss business?"

"Yes, to talk business."

Song Guoqiang stated directly:

"I just don't know if you'd be willing to do this business!"

He said this because this region has never exported weapons; for the past thirty years, they have provided weapons to many countries through grants.

Therefore, even though he had been doing business with this place for many years, Song Guoqiang didn't know who to talk to about this business, since he had always been in the business of ordinary commodities.

He didn't know, and even Jin Liangming didn't know. Moreover, Jin Liangming was unwilling to act as a middleman—according to him, they didn't make money from this; they weren't arms dealers. This was a matter of principle, not something to be discussed.

So, Song Guoqiang came by himself.

They went directly to the relevant authorities.

"Of course we'll do it, Mr. Song. You don't know, but a few days ago, we had a meeting and issued a notice saying that the money each department earns from exporting products will be used by that department itself. If you go there, it'll be like business delivered to your door. But they mainly produce guns and cannons. Mr. Song, are you in that business too?"

Clearly, Zheng Weiguo had no idea that his few words contained a great deal of information. First of all, all the departments here need to make money.

This was unprecedented, and because he had been doing business with them for many years, Song Guoqiang was extremely sensitive to such changes.

He almost instinctively realized that this was an opportunity.

"Businessmen never reject any business that makes money."

Because the ministry needed it urgently, Song Guoqiang didn't even go to the hotel and went directly to the Fifth Ministry of Machinery Industry. As soon as he got off the car, after communicating with the ministry through the reception room that Zheng Weiguo had passed through, more than a dozen people came to greet him in just a short while.

At this moment, Song Guoqiang had no idea how pleasantly surprised these people were by his initiative to come to their door.

After all, the higher-ups have already said that the money earned by each department from exporting products is for the department's own use. For other departments, this is naturally a simple matter.

However, for the Fifth Ministry of Machinery Industry, which was responsible for military production, it was a huge headache—because in the past they only produced according to plan and never considered sales.

Even if they wanted to sell something, they didn't know how. Besides, the Soviet Union, the United States, the SEA, and those big arms dealers practically monopolized the international market. Even if they wanted to sell, they couldn't.

Just when they were having a headache, a customer actually came to their door. How could they not be excited?

The ministry immediately instructed relevant personnel to receive the person and convened an emergency meeting to discuss how to conduct the business.

"Don't assume that just because someone comes to your door, the deal is definitely done. I've heard people in the foreign trade department mention this Song Guoqiang; he's a seasoned businessman. Apparently, he also has official SEA connections, so his visit this time probably has some official backing..."

"That's SEA, how could they possibly want our weapons?"

"That's right. Their military strength is no less than that of the United States and the Soviet Union. They also produce their own weapons, so why would they buy them from us?"

As everyone chimed in, they reached a consensus: who cares?
Let's sell the stuff first.

As for how to sell it? It's not difficult.

Basically, compared to them, our only advantage is price.

However, just as they were meeting to discuss countermeasures, the person in charge of receiving them came over to report.

"They gave us a purchase order and asked us to provide a quote by 10 a.m. tomorrow."

"Purchase order?" "Yes, it was a purchase order issued in the name of Siam Defense Supply Company."

Looking at the purchase order, most of them were light weapons, including AKMs, RPGs, and of course machine guns and mortars.

"That's a huge quantity!"

The leader looked at the purchase order, a smile appearing beneath his seemingly serious expression. He addressed the attendees:
"If this deal goes through, it will generate at least 200 million Nan Yuan in foreign exchange!"

The Southern Yuan... is foreign exchange, and also a hard currency.

Then he nodded vigorously and said:

"We must secure this deal. Let the comrades in the department work hard and come up with a quote overnight. Also, invite two comrades from the Foreign Trade Department to come and help us calculate the quote. Even if it means working overtime overnight, we must have the quote ready by 10 a.m. tomorrow."

More than half an hour later, the ministry sent a special car to pick up several colleagues from the Ministry of Foreign Trade. Afterwards, people in the conference room conducted cost accounting.

What is an AKM?

"It's a 7.62mm submachine gun!"

"The unit price of a 7.62mm submachine gun is 420 yuan, which, converted to US dollars, is... Comrade Fang, how much is the current US dollar amount?"

"1 US dollar is worth 1.53 yuan!"

"That's $274.5!"

The comrade from the trade department said:
"Isn't this price too high? It's over two hundred dollars."

And an older colleague in the department also remarked at the opportune moment:
"This price is definitely not acceptable. When we imported this type of rifle from the Soviet Union, it cost less than 100 rubles per rifle. They would sell it for at most $100 or $200. Such an exorbitant price will definitely scare people away."

People who have never been in the arms business before don't even know how to price their weapons; they can only price them by "guessing".

Because they had no idea about the prices of these weapons on the international market, as the Soviet Union and its arms export agencies never published detailed financial data on such transactions.

The only data we can refer to is the price at which these weapons were imported from the Soviet Union more than 20 years ago.

"But if we sell it too low, we'll lose money!"

"Hmm, I can't even do that."

The comrade from the Ministry of Trade said while smoking:
"In order to encourage exports and earn foreign exchange, the state has set an internal settlement price for trade foreign exchange, which is 1 US dollar to 2.80 yuan. If we use the internal settlement price, it would be 150 US dollars."

"This price is about right, $150, which should be acceptable."

"Doing business always requires making money, so let's add another 20% to this!"

"Add 20%? Isn't that too high?"

"It's too high, a full 10% increase, that's a bit outrageous."

"How about we add 15%?"

They quickly reached an agreement, but the overall price had not yet been calculated.

"How many machine guns does that squad use?"

"800 dollars."

"The 12.7mm anti-aircraft machine gun costs 4658.7 yuan..."

"7.62mm rifle bullets, 1300 yuan per 10,000 rounds..."

……

That night, in this conference room, they worked through the night, calculating the unit price of various weapons in order to formulate a price quote.

Because this was a job they had never done before, they could only make adjustments based on the prices set by the ministry.

Having never run a business before, they didn't even know how much profit to add. As for the people in the trade department, they were complete novices when it came to the arms business, and they started to have doubts as they listened to the prices they were offered.

However, since their role was only to provide assistance with exchange rates and foreign trade matters, they didn't say much. But the next morning, the comrade in charge of unit price calculation noticed that the trade department comrade looked a little off, as if he wanted to say something but hesitated. So he took the initiative to go over and ask him. The trade department comrade hesitated for a moment and said:

"At the price you set, I'm afraid the goods won't sell well."

"Not selling well? Why is that?"

The people who had been busy all night in the conference room all looked at the comrades from the foreign trade department with some surprise. What were they saying?
Not selling well?
So what were they busy with all night?
"Not only are they hard to sell, they might even be impossible to sell."

Just then, another person came up with the finishing blow.

"Yes, it definitely won't sell at this price."

(End of this chapter)