I manufacture weapons in the Middle East and am wanted globally?

Seeing Si Yan's indignant expression, Chen Zheng felt a little embarrassed, as if he were a product manager who was being very abusive.

Product managers are wolves in sheep's clothing... beasts!

The product needs to adapt to the customer's mood; I've even heard of TMD wanting to put videos on the product?!

Chen Zheng coughed and said, "Um... Four-Eyes, I want to make something cheap, something disposable, preferably like a condom, something almost everyone can afford!"

"You should have told me sooner!"

Four-Eyes put the wrench back on the workbench, took out a palm-sized notebook from his pocket, turned to a new page, and began to write and draw.

Chen Zheng was speechless after being rebuked; there was nothing he could do, the master chef just had a big temper.

Anyone who has worked in CNC machining in China knows that CNC machine operators have terrible tempers and you almost always have to appease them. There's no way around it; firstly, machine operators are hard to find, and secondly, you have to rely on them to make money!

(Back then, the boss's brother caused trouble, and my master took me, his apprentice, and left. There was no one to operate the four machines... The boss came over that night to treat us to a late-night snack, and after much persuasion, we got them back. He even gave us 500 yuan afterwards.)

"A quadcopter is unnecessary."

As it wrote, it said, "The advantages of quadcopters are good stability and strong wind resistance, but the disadvantages are complex structure, many parts, and high cost. Four motors, four ESCs, four arms, four sets of blades, and a bunch of sensors to maintain balance. For what we are making, it is a pure waste."

Chen Zheng nodded. Although there were some things he didn't understand, it didn't stop him from nodding.

I don't understand it, but it sounds impressive!

Three axes are enough.

Four-Eyes drew one sketch and another on the paper:

One looks like the Mercedes-Benz logo, with three axes arranged in a Y-shape; the other looks like a cross, with four axes in all directions.

"A quadcopter needs to control the speed of four motors simultaneously to adjust its attitude. The flight control algorithm is complex and the sensor requirements are high. A triaxial cogwheel has one less motor, one less ESC, and one less arm. The flight control can be the simplest, and the sensors can be the cheapest. It may not even need accelerometers and gyroscopes, relying purely on mechanical structure for self-stabilization."

It paused, then raised its head.

"Or, the boss could simply not use a multi-rotor. Fixed-wing structures are simpler, with one motor, one ESC, and one servo to control direction. No flight controller is needed; it's purely manual control, relying on feel to fly. We can modify it into a flying wing layout by cutting a few pieces of KT board and gluing it with hot melt glue."

"Can it be used to hang bombs?" Chen Zheng asked.

That hits the nail on the head!

What would I do with a drone that can't carry bombs? Take pictures?

Go to the Qinling Mountains to see if anyone's having sex in the wild?

Everything in the Middle East is geared towards war!

Four-Eyes flipped the paper over and drew a new sketch.

"Both options are fine. For the three-axis multi-rotor option, the frame can be made of three 8mm aluminum tubes, each costing 5 yuan, so three cost 15 yuan. The center plate can be made of plywood, which costs 10 yuan for a large sheet and can make several. The motor mounts can be made of bent angle aluminum, which costs a few cents each."

"The power source is an XXD 2212 KV1000 brushless motor, the cheapest one on the market, costing 25 yuan each, with a tensile strength of up to 600 grams."

"The electric motors are XXD 10A, 5 yuan each, three motors together cost 15 yuan, the propellers are 1045 positive propellers, three for a set cost 5 yuan, the flight controller is KK V2.0, it's an open source project, with prototypes and patch panels, the cost can be controlled within 30 yuan, the battery is a 2S 1000mAh lithium battery, second-hand ones are even cheaper, you can get them for ten or so yuan, all added up..."

"It costs about 192 yuan, which is less than 30 US dollars."

Chen Zheng's eyes lit up, but he didn't say anything.

I didn't make any money, but I learned a lot about how stingy bosses are. Almost every boss is stingy!

Four Eyes added, "The payload that can be carried is between 80 and 120 grams. If a 60-gram warhead is placed, the flight time is about 8 to 10 minutes, and the remote control distance is 300 to 500 meters."

"300 to 500 meters." Chen Zheng bit his lip. "That's a bit close."

"Then let's use fixed-wing aircraft."

"The tailless delta wing design, with KT board used for the wings and fuselage, costs less than 10 yuan in total. The power unit is a 2212 motor and a 20A ESC, costing 25 yuan for the motor and 15 yuan for the ESC. A set of propellers costs 5 yuan, two servos cost 10 yuan, and the battery is a 3S 1300mAh battery, which costs about 65 yuan secondhand. The remote control and receiver are from a secondhand Feimeng or Tiandifei brand, which can be done for 20 yuan."

"Fixed-wing aircraft do not require flight control; they are purely manually operated. Pilots need to practice to fly them well. However, their advantages include a long range, allowing them to fly for 15 to 20 minutes at a time, a remote control distance of 1 to 2 kilometers, and a stronger payload capacity, capable of carrying 150 to 200 grams. All of this adds up to about 150 RMB, which is equivalent to 23 USD."

"There's another advantage."

Four-Eyes pushed up his glasses. "Fixed-wing aircraft have fewer parts and a simpler structure. They are twice as fast to assemble as triaxial aircraft. If it is an assembly line, a worker can assemble one in ten minutes."

Chen Zheng stood up, put his hands on his hips, and stared at the sketches drawn by Si Yan for a long time.

"Then let's go with fixed-wing aircraft."

Chen Zheng made the final decision: "Write down what materials you need and get me the parts for 200 units first."

Four-Eyes nodded, then lowered his head and started writing. He finished writing in no time and handed it to Chen Zheng.

Chen Zheng took it and glanced at it.

It's a very long list.

He took a picture with his phone, saved the list to his album, and then opened MSN Messenger to find the chat window with Lao Zhou, with whom he had a business relationship.

The profile picture is grayed out, indicating an offline status.

At this point, China should be...

He took out his phone and glanced at the Beirut time: 5 p.m. Syria and Lebanon are in the UTC+2 time zone, while China is in the UTC+8 time zone, a difference of five hours. 5 p.m. in Syria is 10 p.m. in China.

Old Zhou probably hasn't gone to sleep yet... even if he has, wake him up!

Chen Zheng tapped his finger on the phone screen a few times, typing in the quantities and specifications from the list one by one.

When he typed the last line, his fingers paused for a moment.

He looked up and glanced at the four drones. "Where are the remote controllers and receivers? We can't have just one remote controller for 200 drones, can we?"

"A remote control doesn't need to be provided for each unit."

Four-Eyes shook his head. "Have you ever seen a military unit equip every mortar shell with a scope? If you equip every drone with a remote control, will the remote control explode along with the drone? One remote control can control multiple drones, so they can take turns flying. Ten remote controls will be enough for the first batch."

Chen Zheng did the mental calculations, nodded, and continued typing out the list.

After typing the last word, he sent it to Lao Zhou!

After thinking about it, I decided that calling the other party would be the most reliable option.

However, the signal was intermittent.

Having no other choice, Chen Zheng walked around halfway up the mountain with his phone before finally managing to find a single bar of signal.

Damn it, next time I make money, I'm definitely going to get a satellite phone.

The kind of fishing game that experienced anglers all say is great.

The phone rang several times, and Chen Zheng thought it was going to hang up before it was finally answered.

"Boss Chen!"

Old Zhou's voice was tinged with helplessness, "Don't rush me, I've already reported it to the police in India, we'll definitely find them. Once we find them, I'll kill their whole family!"

"Damn Indians, they'll all be dead sooner or later."

Chen Zheng, who had been in a good mood, became annoyed again upon hearing this. He cursed and shouted, "Alright, this isn't the time to talk about this. I have a new order that needs some materials. Do you have any sourcing channels in Yiwu?"

"Materials? What materials?"

"I sent it to you on MSN, please take a look."

"Let me see."

The sound of typing came from the other end of the phone, interspersed with the muffled voice of Lao Zhou talking to someone next to him. The content was unclear, but it was probably about arranging something.

After about ten seconds, Lao Zhou's voice rang out again, tinged with doubt: "I took a look, and the list is quite long, Boss Chen. What are you doing? These things look like you're making model airplane toys?"

Chen Zheng grinned, the mountain wind blowing into his mouth, making him cough twice. "Just tell me, do you have it or not? Can you handle it? It's a long-term business!"

"Okay, I'll ask around for you and give you the price tomorrow. I have a few old friends in Yiwu who make remote control toy parts. They've been doing this for a while, so it shouldn't be a problem."

"Then please help me finalize this as soon as possible. If the price is too high, don't bother quoting it to me; don't waste our time. If Yiwu can't do it, I'll try the Guangdong region!"

"Okay, okay! I'll definitely give you a low price, Boss Chen, we've cooperated so many times!" Old Zhou said hurriedly.

I hung up the phone.

Chen Zheng put his phone in his pocket. Damn it... It's so comfortable doing business with China. If you don't want to do it, I'll find someone else.

That's the advantage of a complete industrial system.

I'm the client, I'm in charge!

In the Middle East theater of war, you're the client, you're the dog!

I'm not happy, so I'm raising the price for you!

Roll it up! It's even better when rolled up!

After standing there for a while, Chen Zheng bent down and crawled back into the cave.

……

Old Zhou hung up the phone and threw it on the table.

The ashtray on the table was full, and the cigarette butts were piled up like a small mountain.

His mind was a mess.

Business is tough these days, and foreign trade companies are springing up like mushrooms after rain. On just the Liuhua Road-Zhanqian Road commercial street in Yuexiu District, eight out of ten shops have "foreign trade" signs. When you walk in, the owners all claim to be "veterans" when they hand you their business cards.

Copy shops all claim to be export-oriented.

Private foreign traders like him are squeezed even more. Large clients have dedicated purchasing companies to handle their business, while small clients find factories online themselves. He is caught in the middle and suffers from both sides.

I'm over 40 years old, with elderly parents to support and young children to raise. I still have 12 years left on my mortgage, and my son will be taking the college entrance exam in two years. Tutoring costs 300 yuan per lesson.

"Just do it." He muttered to himself, put a cigarette in his mouth, reached out and rummaged around on the table, pulling out a crumpled contact book.

It's one of those old-fashioned loose-leaf notebooks with a blue plastic cover. The edges are worn white, and some of the pages inside are torn and held together with transparent tape.

The notebook contains the phone numbers of about a hundred people, mostly accumulated over the years from attending trade shows, marketing events, and drinking parties. He can't even remember who some of them are anymore, but he hasn't thrown it away because some of his old contacts won't post their numbers on social media after they change theirs; they can only be found in this notebook.

He turned to the page with the word "W" and ran his finger over each name.

Hardware, bathroom fixtures, valves... My fingers stopped when I got to the middle.

Wang Desheng.

Deputy Sales Manager of Yi Niao Wangda Toy Factory.

This factory is quite large; it reportedly supplies Mattel and Kidswant, so it's a very big business.

He dialed the number.

beep - beep - beep -

It rang four or five times before they answered.

"Hey?" A man's voice, with a Zhejiang accent, said. The background noise was loud, with people shouting "Pong," "Gang," and the sound of mahjong tiles being rubbed together.

"Manager Wang? I'm Zhou Yuan, from a foreign trade company."

"Zhou Yuan..."

There was a pause on the other end, but the clatter of mahjong tiles continued. Someone urged, "Hurry up, hurry up!" Then Wang Desheng's voice rang out again, sounding somewhat distracted, "Oh, Boss Zhou, what's wrong?"

"I need a shipment."

Old Zhou pulled Chen Zheng's list from MSN and read it aloud: "Fifty sheets each of 3mm and 5mm KT boards, one hundred 2212 brushless motors, one hundred 20A ESCs, two hundred sets each of 8-inch and 10-inch propellers..."

Before he could finish reading, Wang Desheng interrupted him.

"The order is too small, we won't do it! Okay, I'm entertaining clients right now, let's talk again later."

After saying that, he hung up abruptly!

Old Zhou paused, stunned, upon hearing the busy tone on the phone, then burst into a tirade, "Damn it! You idiot, you'll go bankrupt and end up in jail sooner or later!"

But if Butcher Wang is gone, will we stop eating meat?

Old Zhou found another number.

His surname is Liu, and his given name is Liu Zhiyuan. He has a stall in the Yiwu International Logistics Center, specializing in LCL (Less than Container Load) shipments to the Middle East.

I answered the phone after it rang twice.

"Boss Zhou, it's so late, aren't you asleep yet?"

"Boss Liu, I have an order."

There was a chuckle on the other end: "I knew it. Calling so late must mean something good. You're a lucky charm."

Old Zhou chuckled and recited the quantity.

Where is the delivery address?

"Syria!"

Liu Zhiyuan thought for a moment and said, "For things like motors and batteries, air freight is difficult. Lithium batteries are considered dangerous goods and require special channels, which are much more expensive. Sea freight is slow. Is your friend in a hurry?"

"Urgent, very urgent."

"Then we'll have to use air freight. I'll figure out how to handle the batteries; I'll find a freight forwarder that handles hazardous materials. The freight cost will be around $8 to $10 per kilogram. How much does your shipment weigh?"

Old Zhou glanced at the list and estimated, "About 50 kilograms."

"The shipping cost is $400 to $500, plus customs declaration, clearance, and local delivery, the whole process will cost $600 to $700."

Old Zhou thought for a moment, "Don't rush the freight. Calculate the price for me first. By the way, make the price cheaper. The other party is Chinese, not foreigners. Don't try to fool us."

Foreigners, get half price when you meet them!

Kind-hearted people will give you more, while unscrupulous people will stuff cement slabs into your cardboard boxes.

"Okay, I'll talk to them for you and get back to you tomorrow."

"I'll treat you to dinner another day, Mr. Liu."

"I'm treating you to dinner, so you need to get me more orders, Boss Zhou. My whole family depends on you for food."

Old Zhou laughed and cursed, then hung up the phone.

People are just different.

Look how pleasant it is to listen to someone speak.

He picked up a cigarette…

"Are there model airplane competitions in the Middle East?"

Have!

Of course there are, there's also hide-and-seek.

……