In 1978, I was admitted to Harbin Institute of Technology

Chapter 431 Damn it! The technology is still too outdated; they can't even raise enough for a $50 billion order.

"Sir, do you know the cause of last year's international oil crisis?"

Amidst everyone's eager anticipation, Xie Wei didn't offer an explanation, but instead asked another question.

Li Rui glared at Xie Wei, trying his best to suppress his anger: "Isn't it just that the production capacity of the North Sea oil and gas field has increased, and a large amount of crude oil not included in OPEC's plan has appeared on the market? Kid, don't keep me in suspense, hurry up and tell me, or I'll beat you up!"

Everyone else almost gave Li Rui a thumbs up.

Didn't they think the same way?

Unfortunately, they couldn't afford to mess with Xie Wei.

"The reasons for last year's sharp drop in international crude oil prices are indeed multifaceted. The core root cause lies in the petrodollar system... In 79, total international crude oil production exceeded 30 billion tons, reaching 31.171 billion tons. Under OPEC's quota system, major international oil-producing countries reduced their oil production... However, the North Sea oil fields, along with other emerging oil-producing countries and even OPEC members, were producing crude oil outside of the planned quotas... By 85, total international crude oil production had decreased to 26.74 billion tons. Logically, with such a significant reduction in production, international crude oil prices should have risen sharply. But what happened?"

Xie Wei's words left everyone completely bewildered.

They had no idea what the Iraqis's massive increase in arms purchase orders had to do with this.

What does this have to do with the plunge in international crude oil prices?

“之前我们就说过，大户家的石油收入从81年的1190亿美元降低到84年的360亿美元，85年进一步降低到260亿美元……诸位觉得，这正常么？”

"Regardless of whether it's normal or not, just get to the core issue! We're not economists, and nobody studies these problems!"

Li Rui was completely fed up.

Xie Wei's statements were all supported by data, making them very convincing.

The problem is that we're discussing a huge order from Iraq!

Xie Wei looked at Li Rui speechlessly, "If I didn't understand these basics, and I were to give my analysis on Iraq's purchase of so many advanced weapons and equipment, the leaders would definitely think it's nonsense."

"will not!"

Li Rui said without hesitation.

Xie Wei looked at Long Yaohua.

Long Yaohua nodded, indicating his support for Li Rui's statement: "Xie Wei, the higher-ups will give full consideration to all the proposals you put forward."

Although he didn't say anything else, he made it very clear that nobody wanted to hear him spouting nonsense about the international oil crisis; they just wanted to know why Iraq suddenly purchased such a large amount of weapons and equipment.

"Okay~"

Xie Wei looked at Long Yaohua speechlessly.

It wasn't that he wanted to waste time, but he hoped to give Long Yaohua and the others a heads-up now—the Soviet Union would disintegrate in just over four years!

We must make all kinds of preparations within these four years, especially in terms of building up our pool of translators.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, they went to poach people, technology, and equipment...

"Crude oil! Iraq needs a larger market for its crude oil! And the crude oil used to pay for weapons and equipment purchases is definitely unplanned. Another major problem is that Iraq and Persia have started a war of naval raids, so Iraq's crude oil can only be transported through pipelines from Jordan and other major countries..."

Zhang Mingqiu frowned, feeling that Xie Wei's reasoning was too far-fetched.

"Our relationship with Persia isn't too bad. Iraq will definitely let us transport our own crude oil."

Xie Wei added.

Last year, OPEC members frantically increased production, and emerging oil-producing countries that had not joined OPEC also expanded production at a frenzied pace.

Otherwise, if two of the world's leading oil-producing countries were to go to war, most of their oil fields would be attacked, crude oil production would be reduced on a large scale, and international crude oil prices would not be so low.

Everyone was silent.

Xie Wei was just stating his opinion; currently, China does not import much crude oil from the Middle East, and there are few ocean-going cargo ships.

Shipping companies from Hong Kong frequently travel there, but Hong Kong is still less than 10 years away from returning to China.

"After Brezhnev's reforms failed, the Soviet economy began to experience serious problems. Andropov's later reforms were somewhat successful, but unfortunately, he died too young… Now, Gorbachev's reforms have essentially no hope of success…"

Xie Wei said seriously.

"Xie Wei, you just talked about Iraqi crude oil, and now you're talking about Soviet reforms. We're here to discuss Iraq's arms procurement! We should be discussing how to fulfill such a large order!"

Li Rui really didn't expect Xie Wei to go so far.

"What if international crude oil prices have remained low because of Western pressure? What if they were using oil prices as a weapon to wage a war without gunfire, yet one that could profoundly impact the world and even bring down the Soviet Union?"

what?
Xie Wei's series of rhetorical questions left everyone speechless.

Seeing the shocked expressions on everyone's faces, Xie Wei was very satisfied.

He didn't rush to speak, but let them continue to be shocked while he processed it first.

"Whoo~"

Long Yaohua let out a long breath and looked at Xie Wei seriously. "You mean that if the Soviet Union's economy is in recession and it needs a lot of foreign exchange to purchase the technology, equipment, and even food needed for domestic development and reform, then if international oil prices remain low for a long time, the Soviet Union's foreign exchange income will decrease sharply, which will then seriously affect domestic development?"

He reacted very quickly.

The Soviet Union has always been one of the models that the new China has been learning from and trying to surpass over the past few decades.

The Soviet Union was undergoing economic reforms and its own reforms and opening up, so it was natural to pay attention to news about the Soviet Union in this regard.

"Correct."

Xie Wei nodded calmly.

It's good that Long Yaohua realized what was happening.

The collapse of the Soviet Union was inevitable, especially after Gorbachev came to power and proposed the "accelerated development strategy," which continued to allocate resources to the already distorted heavy industry sector.

"The United States launched the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), and the Soviet Union had no choice but to follow suit. Already struggling economically, it poured massive amounts of money into extremely expensive fields like aerospace... and these fields demanded highly advanced technologies and electronic equipment such as computers, automatic control systems, and sensors, which the Soviet Union couldn't manufacture itself and had to import..."

Xie Wei also sighed silently.

He knew that saying these words wouldn't change much, but he hoped that Long Yaohua could convey this message to the higher-ups. Once the higher-ups noticed it, many things would change imperceptibly.

"Under such circumstances, it will be difficult for international crude oil prices to rise, and even the prices of precious metals such as gold will continue to fall..."

"So you still agree to accept Iraq's payment in gold? That's not like you at all."

Liu Debao became anxious.

Knowing full well that gold prices would plummet, Xie Wei still agreed to accept payment from Iraq in gold and crude oil.
The current price of gold is still $440 per ounce.

If the price drops, wouldn't we suffer a loss?

"If we didn't accept, would we have these orders? If Soviet crude oil didn't account for more than half of our foreign exchange earnings, wouldn't it be possible for the Iraqis to exchange crude oil for equipment from the Soviets?"

Xie Wei's rebuttal left Liu Debao speechless.

"Also, we need orders to upgrade our production lines!"

"Even if we add production lines and expand capacity, we still can't complete delivery within 28 months. What are you going to do? Even outsourcing will be difficult."

“We will produce 3600 rockets, and the remaining 3600 will be produced by the Iraqis themselves. They have the production line for the YH-150 rockets, and with some modifications, they can produce them. We only need to provide key components such as materials and engines.”

Xie Wei shared his thoughts.

Then everyone realized that perhaps this was exactly what the Iraqis wanted?
No one wants to rely on imports to meet their needs for advanced weaponry.

Long Yaohua's gaze towards Xie Wei was extremely complex.

Especially after learning what Xie Wei was trying to express through his seemingly irrelevant and rambling remarks, Long Yaohua understood.

"If that's the case, delivery can be completed. But currently, domestic crude oil production capacity is constantly increasing, and the domestic supply can't meet the demand..."

"Export what needs to be exported, import what needs to be imported; there's no conflict. Besides, it doesn't require foreign exchange!"

Anyway, Xie Wei doesn't need to worry about these issues.

The leaders discussed the matter for several hours and finally agreed to Xie Wei's proposal. "M7 tactical missiles, aren't you planning to sell some to the other side?"

Li Rui asked Xie Wei.

"They've purchased such a large number of rockets, and they have the technology to combine three missiles into two. They could just modify them and add a guidance system. Why would they spend $42 to buy missiles with a range of only 200 kilometers?"

Xie Wei felt that Li Rui was too greedy.

Even with what we have now, it will drain the Iraqi people's entire fortune.

"We'll produce and assemble 3600 rockets ourselves?"

After listening, Abdullah turned to look at Yitzhak.

Izak then looked toward Tikrit.

"We don't have that kind of technology..."

Tikrit was overjoyed; just as he had expected!
If the Chinese cannot complete production and delivery in a short period of time, then they can only help them upgrade their production lines so that Iraq can have manufacturing capabilities.

As long as they have the raw materials, whether they produce rockets or missiles, or use the materials to produce Abbas or Hussein missiles, it's none of the Chinese people's business, right?

"In our previous collaboration, you purchased the YH-150 rocket production line, and we sent a technical team to help you with the modifications and provided the necessary production equipment..."

"What about the cost?"

Tikrit looked at Shewe.

"It's included in these 7200 rockets. We can also provide the formula for solid fuel propellant, but the equipment for the solid fuel production line needs to be discussed separately."

Xie Wei spoke without even thinking.

The solid fuel propellant used in the YH-300 rocket is still an early formula developed by the school, using polyurethane, polybutadiene, and other raw materials as raw materials.

The school's solid fuel formula has now been upgraded to the third generation of composite propellants: potassium perchlorate, ammonium perchlorate and other oxidants are uniformly added to synthetic resin and synthetic rubber.

The old recipe is ready to be sold.

"Really?"

Tikrit looked delighted. "If you're willing to sell the formula technology, can we reduce our rocket orders?"

He spoke while watching Xie Wei's reaction.

The reason for buying so many is precisely for the solid fuel inside and the high explosives loaded inside the warhead!
"Sure, 3600 rockets, the formula and price are separate."

Xie Wei did not object.

"How much would that be?"

"Our school, in collaboration with multiple research institutes and technical teams, spent more than ten years and invested approximately 6.7 million yuan in research funding to develop this formula... Therefore, connecting this formula to the production line would require at least 2.7 million US dollars."

Xie Wei was talking nonsense with a straight face.

Those who knew the inside story, including Liu Debao, inwardly despised Xie Wei, but outwardly remained expressionless—he was too boastful! The first generation formula, in total, did not exceed 1000 million.

"Alright, let's do it that way. Thanks. Of the 3600 rockets, could you provide 1800 finished products, and for the remaining 900, you provide the components and we'll assemble them; for the other 900, you provide the core parts; and we'll produce the rest ourselves?"

Tikrit looked at Shewe with anticipation.

"can!"

Xie Wei's reaction surprised not only the Iraqis, but also Liu Debao and others.

Therefore, the two sides had no further disagreements.

Soon, the basic framework of the contract was signed.

Because the price was too high, even though Xie Wei lowered the price to only $420 million for Counterattack II, Iraq only bought three sets.

The lower-priced Counterattack No. 1 was also reduced in quantity, with only 9 sets available.

Unlike rockets, which typically have five or ten spare missiles, only three spare missiles were included. This resulted in an increase of only 972 Counterattack-1 missiles and 216 Counterattack-2 missiles in the number of spare air defense missiles, with a total cost of only $2.7864 million.

Five long-range artillery battalions, totaling $480 million, and rockets plus production technology, totaling $11.7 billion.

Sherwin reduced the price of 600 tanks to $180 million each, but even with the price reduction, the total price still reached $10.8 billion.

"Total price: US$48.6864 billion."

Xie Wei quickly pressed the calculator, and the result was announced as soon as it appeared.

Less than 50 billion?

This was almost a shared idea between the two sides.

However, Liu Debao and others were somewhat disappointed that the order amount did not reach 50 billion US dollars.

Tikrit and others, however, felt that paying $42 billion with 280 tons of gold, compared to just over $6 million in crude oil, was only a little over 6000 million barrels of crude oil!

Too little!
"This does not include the cost of solid fuel propellant production equipment, etc..."

Xie Wei also felt it was a bit too little.

280 tons of gold is indeed a lot.

There's less crude oil.

If we take this contract back, Saddam Hussein will probably kill these guys in front of him.

"Thanks, how about half payment in gold and half in crude oil?"

Yitzhak asked Shewe.

"no!"

Xie Wei refused without even thinking.

280 tons of gold, not a single gram less.

Xie Wei didn't want to tell the other party that instead of using this gold to exchange for advanced weapons and equipment, they were leaving it there to be looted by the Americans when they invaded Baghdad.

"But this..."

"How about we add something else?"

Xie Wei also knew where the problem lay.

no way.

If we could sell Dongfeng missiles to them, that wouldn't be a problem.

But it's impossible for Dongfeng to be sold to Saddam Hussein.

Selling it to Saddam Hussein is risky; that bastard might just drop a Dongfeng missile into Jerusalem or Tel Aviv one day, which would cause a huge problem.

During the Gulf War, Saddam Hussein launched missiles at both the troublemakers and the big players.

"We can't add any more rockets... We can't add any more tanks... We can't add any more air defense missile systems..."

Tikrit scratched his head.

He does want the technology, but the problem is that Iraq doesn't have that many talented people.

Harbin Institute of Technology disagreed with helping them cultivate design and engineering talents starting from their students.

"How about this? Let's add some self-propelled howitzers, rocket launchers, and sniper grenades to the army... We can just build up the units we discussed before, in organized units... We should be able to scrape together a few hundred million dollars more."

Xie Wei asked helplessly.

(End of this chapter)