Great Power Industry: You're a private company building an aircraft carrier?

The navy is an expensive military branch, and that's no exaggeration. Building a single warship can easily cost hundreds of millions!

The Navy's Type 052 destroyer is a large-scale upgrade. Due to the extensive use of imported equipment, the cost has skyrocketed. Although there has been no officially announced price, it is generally estimated to be around two hundred million US dollars.

If inflation is taken into account, this price is not cheaper than the Type 055 destroyer, which will be a 10,000-ton vessel in later generations.

Buying a Hyundai now wouldn't be cheap; $400 million isn't really expensive, and you'd have to negotiate and haggle repeatedly to get that price.

"Engineer Qin, the deals you've made lately have been very cheap. Could you think of a way to negotiate a lower price for us? If you could get it down to two hundred million US dollars per ship..."

"Impossible. I bought scrap metal, while you bought brand new warships. How can they be the same?" Qin Chuan shook his head.

"Do you have any retired or obsolete models that we can buy as scrap metal?"

Qin Chuan shook his head: "No."

According to the Russian plan, 28 Sovremenny-class destroyers were to be built. However, by the time the Soviet Union collapsed, only 15 were in service. The 16th and 17th were built by the Russians by tightening their belts and raising funds. The subsequent two could not be built.

The 17 Sovremenny-class destroyers are the mainstay of the Russian Navy. Because they are boiler-powered, their operating costs are low, so the Russians use them as their main force. They will not be decommissioned until after 98, so don't even think about it now.

The Navy cannot possibly purchase the Sovremenny-class destroyers by buying retired and obsolete old ships! After all, the first Sovremenny-class destroyer was decommissioned in the 80s, making it only a little over a decade old and still very new.

"Unfortunately, we were still thinking of using the method of buying scrap metal to negotiate a lower price with the Russians," Wang Zhenhua said.

Lowering the price?

Qin Chuan's eyes suddenly lit up: "Speaking of lowering prices, I have a way."

"any solution?"

"In Er Mao's No. 61 Commune shipyard, there's still a Slava-class cruiser! We..."

Everyone got excited.

The naval leaders had originally planned to stay until evening to see more of the St. Petersburg helicopter carrier before leaving, but now, thinking about the two unfinished Sovremenny-class destroyers, all the naval leaders were filled with excitement.

Go back and quickly write a report requesting funding!

Liu Zhijie followed, and before leaving, he thanked Qin Chuan again.

Wang Zhenhua glanced in the direction of Laiyang Steel Plant, thinking of going to see his son, but now he could only go back with the others.

"Uncle Wang, don't worry, Xiao Hui will definitely change a lot under my care," Qin Chuan said to Wang Zhenhua. "He will definitely be even more outstanding than his brother!"

"Okay!" Wang Zhenhua nodded and got into the car.

Watching the car drive away, Qin Chuan breathed a sigh of relief, then turned to the person beside him: "Let's go back!"

"Boss, I was wrong..." Antonina looked at Qin Chuan pitifully, "I'll never do it again, that million-dollar reward..."

If she hadn't brought it up, Qin Chuan would have forgotten the awkwardness of noon. But now that Antonina dared to bring it up again, it immediately reminded Qin Chuan of that humiliating moment.

"What reward? I know nothing about it."

"Boss, boss, aren't we going to Da Mao's place next? I..."

"Going to Da Mao's place is to help the navy, not to make money for our Laiyang factory. You don't need to go. Just stay here and think about how to be a good secretary!"

Antonina was helpless.

……

On the way, none of them spoke, gazing at the scenery outside and lost in their own thoughts.

Upon reaching the beach, much of the cargo had already been unloaded, especially the bridge crane, which had been removed and reinstalled nearby. It was now efficiently hoisting various scrap metal from the St. Petersburg.

Wait, when did anyone around here learn this?

Qin Chuan looked toward the operator's cab of the bridge crane, where a figure was climbing down.

"Engineer Zhu?"

Zhu Lijun came to help build the King of Rolling Mills, but today, when he saw this bridge crane in the scrap metal, he immediately helped install it in place, then went up to give instructions and taught a worker how to operate it. Only after the worker had learned how did he come down.

"Qin, you've brought back quite a few treasures this time!" Zhu Lijun said with a smile as he approached Qin Chuan.

"They're all junk. If they're usable, great; if not, they'll go into the steel furnace."

"Scrap metal? It's all treasure. I also saw a shearing machine and a bending machine. When we build the rolling mill, these can be used. By the way, the steelmaking furnace is almost here. Once it arrives, we can smelt steel on-site and then cast the rolling mill."

"Really? That's wonderful! Perfect timing, the high-powered generator is almost here, and our power station will soon be operating at full capacity!"

Currently, the power supply is provided by the auxiliary equipment. Once the steelmaking furnace is up and running, the power consumption will surge, and the main equipment will be needed to operate. Once these devices are properly arranged, Laiyang Steel Plant will be able to leap into the top ten large-scale steelmaking plants in China!

"No worries about electricity, no worries about water, no worries about raw materials. The development of your Laiyang factory is truly enviable."

"It's all because we're poor. If we were a state-owned enterprise, we wouldn't need to go through all this trouble..."

Antonina sat on the beach, gazing at the massive warship with a complex expression on her face.

"Tanya, what's wrong? You seem to be in a bad mood." Yang Xue walked over gently.

The nickname made Antonina feel a sense of familiarity, but she still didn't want to answer.

One million dollars, just like that, gone. How could Qin Chuan do this? He only said a few words.

"Is it because of that million dollars?"

She knew the answer already! Antonina still didn't want to talk to her.

“I can help try to persuade him. After all, he is the boss, and he can’t go back on his word.”

"Really?" Antonina looked at Yang Xue, extremely grateful: "Then hurry up and go talk to her for me!"

"Not now. He's just angry right now. He should keep his promise once he calms down."

"Okay, let's talk about it in an hour, alright?"

"It will take at least a week. Right now, I doubt he'd want to see me. Don't worry, I'll definitely help you."

"Yes, thank you, boss lady."

"Boss lady?" Yang Xue was taken aback: "What did you call me?"

"Boss lady! Don't you like him?"

"then you……"

"I want to sleep with him too, but I won't marry him. I'm willing to be his mistress, but you want to be his wife, right?"

Nearby, a person walked away slowly, disappointed.

That's outrageous! So outrageous! You're eating what's in your bowl while taking what's in the pot. How come all the beautiful women are yours? It's not fair, it's not fair!