What the hell is a private enterprise?

Chapter 130 Answer
"Team Leader Zhang, you know we're near the sea, so it's normal to have some issues sometimes."

Although Lu Jun didn't say any accurate information, Lao Zhang still understood it, and so did everyone else.

Goose City is very close to Shenzhen and Hong Kong, so there is no need to say much about its characteristic industries.

Traders are popular in the north, while tax-free specialists specialize in specialties in the south.

Eleven years ago, there was a shocking case in which even warships were involved in the duty-free car trade, which caused a sensation after the incident.

Lu Jun's words confirmed Lao Zhang's guess, but did not answer his question.

Seeing that the latter was still staring at him, Yan Jian and the others also looked over, Lu Jun could only smile bitterly:
"I'm not sure about the details. If you really want to know... there seems to be some connection with an overseas Chinese organization called the Dragon Group."

"Dragon, group?"

"Yes, Dragon Group, a very domineering name."

As soon as Lu Jun finished speaking, he began to talk about the origin of the name:
"One time, Tang Wen was out at sea and suddenly received an urgent call asking for help in building a large warehouse. He wanted it done within a day. To do this, they bought up almost all the tarpaulins in the town, mobilized villagers from three or four surrounding villages, and hired a construction team at five times the price. In just one night, they built a 50-meter-high, nearly 300-meter-long warehouse by the sea.

At that time, a village head went to check it out and happened to see the person in charge who was too tired to fall asleep on the roadside. In his sleep, he mentioned this organization and the words "Nanyang" and "Renaissance Project".

Later, the township head came to me to inquire about it, and I checked with the city government, but unfortunately, we found nothing."

"The person talking in his sleep was the village chief of Dawan Village. Later, someone saw him going to the bank to exchange precious metals. Guess what they were? They were silver coins, shiny white silver coins with excellent workmanship. Tang Wen also occasionally gave them to villagers. I even got two."

As Lu Jun spoke, he took out a shiny silver coin from his pocket. He had exchanged it for something from a villager. The texture and size were very good. He would just keep it in his pocket and it didn't show any blackening or wear.

He went to a gold shop for appraisal, and the gold shop owner said that the wear-resistant alloy added to the silver coin is also a very expensive precious metal, not cheaper than silver, and the workmanship is very fine. He was even willing to pay an additional 10% increase on the highest price for his collection.

Lao Zhang took the silver coin and felt it was still slightly warm in his hand. The upward side was printed with an aircraft carrier ready to take off, with the number "8" printed on the front of the deck, and the shapes of different carrier-based aircraft on both sides. It was simple and majestic, and full of oppression.

Turning over to the back, the center is the artistic lettering of "Hornet", and below it is the font "CV-8". Both sides are wrapped by the wings of the Eagles, and even the patterns of the feathers are engraved.

There are lines on the side and the letters "GAIJIN" in reduced size.

He naturally recognized that CV-8 was the USS Hornet. The silver coin was unexpectedly exquisite, almost like a commemorative coin officially issued by the United States.

As a navy man, Lao Zhang immediately took a liking to Gai Jin and carefully admired this exquisite work of art.

Yan Jian, Xiao Jia and others were so wide-eyed that they crouched down very close to see what was going on.

Seeing this, Lu Jun returned to his desk and took out two more from the drawer. Everyone took them. They were a destroyer and a battleship, the Yukikaze and BB64 Wisconsin respectively, and the workmanship was also impeccable.

The few of them played with the three silver coins carefully and had no intention of returning them.

After a long time of looking at the silver coins, Lao Zhang had a basic judgment on Gaijin, or the so-called "Dragon Group":

This is not an ordinary business organization, but one with its own unique creed. The purpose of making this kind of silver coin is definitely not to make money, but to maintain its own way of existence and symbolize a certain belief.

With so many different types of warships, the cost of minting silver coins must be much more expensive than the precious metals themselves, and only a powerful force can do it.

They seem to attach great importance to warships, or the navy.

Old Zhang immediately thought of Gaijin's warships, fishing boats, and fishery patrol boats, and suddenly realized that this was an outward manifestation of the organization's beliefs. "You said the Dragon Group is connected to Nanyang and Fuxing. Is there any connection between these three?"

Lu Jun nodded and continued to answer:

"That township head has very close ties with the head of Dawan Village and Gaijin Company. According to his observation, Gaijin's shipbuilding orders are almost unprofitable, barely covering the cost of materials. Many of their personnel and equipment are imported from the sea, and they can manufacture multiple engines and even assemble aircraft simultaneously.

He concluded that perhaps the Dragon Group was formed from patriotic Chinese in Southeast Asia, using Gaijin as a springboard to export technology and resources to China, ultimately helping us achieve our revival.

“How many people know?”

"Director Gao also knows that there should be a few more people."

"..."

Lao Zhang and Yan Jian exchanged a glance, and the latter spread his hands:
"I don't know about the Dragon Group, but my grandfather and I have both discussed military equipment with Xiao Tang. He's very familiar with high technology and has insights into things like phased arrays, fourth-generation nuclear technology, shaftless pump-propellant, and electromagnetic catapults. He even confidently stated that medium-voltage DC electromagnetic catapults are the future, and that AC catapults won't meet standards for failure rates or size...

Overall, we had a good impression of Xiao Tang. He was very knowledgeable, even knowledgeable about the internet. We couldn't believe he hadn't even graduated from a technical secondary school.

"You haven't even graduated from technical secondary school?!"

Old Zhang was quite surprised. According to Yan Jian, this was at least a college student who was very receptive to foreign things.

Without sufficient academic support, he could hardly understand those technical terms that he thought were trendy.

This is unusual. There was no Internet information explosion at that time, and it was impossible for a technical secondary school student in a township to obtain so much cutting-edge information without leaving home.

Very interesting, very interesting.

Lao Zhang then asked, "What do you think is the most amazing thing Gaijin has ever done?"

Lu Jun's expression immediately turned secretive, and his voice became much softer:
"Let me just say one thing: Gaijin built a ship weighing nearly 10,000 tons without buying a single ton of steel from outside. He only bought dozens of tons of aluminum ingots from the city's electrolytic aluminum plant, as well as a lot of fuel oil."

"..."

After hearing this, one member of the team suddenly slammed the table and said, "This is too arrogant! Are we just decorations... Damn it."

That’s right, the current maritime surveillance system and equipment are indeed not much different. The navy can’t even handle routine patrols, and there is no help from maritime surveillance and coast guard. There are indeed large vacuum areas.

But the importation of 10,000 tons of steel was still too shocking, but Lao Zhang seemed to be thinking about it.

Supporting a shipyard and importing tens of thousands of tons of steel is something that an organization with strong beliefs can do, and it would probably be easy for them.

More importantly, "it" may not be hostile, at least its actions are not visible.

Yan Jian suddenly thought of something, picked up the newspaper, found the light cruiser Yahagi on it, and said as if relieved:
“This boat claims to be a cement sightseeing boat, but it feels too real to me.

But who would build a useless old WWII ship?

Lao Zhang: "That's the answer we need to find ourselves."

(End of this chapter)