Chapter 98

Creak——

A Santana suddenly stopped not far from Hu Wenhui. A person who jumped out of the car in a hurry ran over and stood between the three people.

"Old Wang, the chief asked you to go back, quickly, hurry up!"

"Ah?" The person who was obviously the leader of the two people who were stopped was taken aback and asked in surprise, "I'm on a mission, aren't we going to catch the person?"

"Wrong! Wrong!" The person who came over desperately gave a few signals, pulling Old Wang away: "We caught the wrong person, we caught the wrong person!"

"What kind of joke is this? How could we catch the wrong person? I've been here for a long time, mmm—"

Before Old Wang could finish his sentence, the person who ran out later covered his mouth, awkwardly smiled at Hu Wenhai, and dragged the two people who had blocked Hu Wenhai's way into the car.

"Uh, this is just ridiculous." Hu Wenhai couldn't help but touch his nose, watching the Santana disappear at the end of the road in a cloud of dust.

At an airfield near the capital, two F-14 flight demonstrations were unusually scheduled for today.

Currently, there are no qualified F-14 pilots in the country, so the pilots in the front seats are still American military pilots. However, the co-pilots in the back seats are already elite pilots selected from the best of the Air Force.

Thus, in the mouths of some "unprincipled" commentators, the F-14 taking off on the runway has already become one of the "reliable" powerful combat forces of the Chinese Air Force.

However, what attracted the most attention was the four "thick and long" AIM-54 Phoenix missiles hanging under the belly of the F-14 that took off.

When the Iranians saw the Phoenix missiles in the morning, their eyes almost sparkled with drool, wishing they could take a bite.

In the afternoon, the Iraqis had complex emotions in their eyes, but it was clear that they were filled with fear and unwillingness.

The Iranians were willing to do whatever it took to obtain the AIM-54 missiles and F-14 spare parts from China to extend the operational rate of the "Persian Cat" on the battlefield.

The Iraqis' fear of the "Persian Cat" had long been deeply rooted, and they even declared that they would do whatever it took to prevent the Chinese from supplying any F-14 equipment to Iran.

After watching the F-14 demonstration in the morning, the Iranians were eager to negotiate with China over the F-14 deal.

However, the Chinese side used every excuse to postpone the negotiation time until after dinner, which made the members of both the Iranian and Iraqi delegations unable to enjoy their dinner.

However, the Chinese delegation had an unusually good appetite, and all kinds of roasted lamb and ribs ended up benefiting these big-bellied men.

The negotiations with the Chinese side for both Iran and Iraq were almost simultaneous.

The Iranians were in the East Conference Room on the top floor of the terminal, and the Iraqis were in the West Conference Room on the top floor of the terminal.

What was awkward was that sometimes when the arguments got too loud, the other side could faintly hear them.

"Tell me, is this really okay?"

During the break, the two Chinese team leaders coincidentally went to the toilet to "relieve themselves." After shaking, one of the team leaders said with a pained expression.

"Well, after all, we China are one of the five permanent members of the UN, such blatant extortion is too..."

Too unprincipled, although this phrase was not said by the team leader, the other team leader still felt a strong sense of agreement.

"Ah, indeed, it's really too unprincipled..."

The two team leaders looked at each other and smiled bitterly, shaking their heads. "I heard this idea was thought up by that little guy Hu Wenhai."

"Ah, yes." The other nodded, feeling the same way. "No wonder he could get a billion dollars from the Americans, his ruthlessness is really unmatched!"

"On my side, the Iranians have already agreed to two million dollars per Phoenix missile, a fourfold profit. With 50 missiles, we can get four F-14s back."

The team leader negotiating with the Iraqis pursed his lips and snorted, "On my side, we've already agreed on the信息化改装 of two divisions, with each division having a deal worth four hundred million dollars."

"I still have F-14 spare parts, AWG-9 radar, fifteen million dollars each!"

"Two Galaxy 1 supercomputers, one hundred million dollars each!"

"The Iranians want to buy the Sea Eagle 2 and DF-11, that's a billion-dollar deal!"

"Hey, you can even sell the DF-11?"

The Iranian team leader looked up at the sky and whispered, "We have a neighbor called Silla, right?"

"Damn..."

The two team leaders looked at each other, suddenly missing their lost innocence.

Just as the two team leaders were about to step back into the conference room with renewed energy to negotiate with the Iranians and Iraqis, a drama with no principles was also playing out in the capital.

At a police station in the capital, the chief wiped his cold sweat and smiled, "Comrades of the People's Liberation Army, let's talk things out, the people's army is for the people! We are the people, the people!"

The soldier with a loaded gun on his waist said nothing, not even blinking, just coldly guarding the door, preventing anyone from entering or leaving.

The chief could only sigh and, like a stone waiting for a husband, cast his gaze back to the street outside. Suddenly, his eyes lit up as a Santana sedan drove around the corner.

"Back, back!" The chief cautiously took a step forward, seeing that the guard did not stop him, he quickly ran to the car that had already stopped by the roadside.

"Old Wang, Comrade Wang Changkou!" The chief angrily pulled Old Wang, who was sitting in the passenger seat, and said with a scowl, "Do you know what kind of trouble you've caused! Did you hurt a single hair of Hu Wenhai?"

"Chief, what's going on?" Old Wang was still confused. He was just doing a favor for a friend to bring a young man from another city to Xiucheng. How could this be a big deal?

"Big trouble!"

Before the chief could explain, two people in military uniforms walked over, looked him up and down, and asked coldly, "You're Wang Changkou? Tsk, what a lousy name!"

"Yes, I am, what's it to you?"

"Alright, take him away!" Without any explanation, the person waved his hand, and two soldiers immediately rushed forward, twisting Old Wang's arms behind his back and pressing him into a jet plane position.

"Hey, hey, what's going on, be gentle!" Old Wang struggled a few times, but seeing that the soldiers were really willing to use force, he quickly calmed down. "I need to make a call, I need to report to my superiors, I need to find your leader, what right do you have to arrest me!"

Smack—

The butt of a gun hit Old Wang's head, and the world finally became quiet.

At the office building of China Aviation Technology, a row of military vehicles stopped in front of it in surprise.

China Aviation Technology is an import and export company under the Aviation Industry Department, which is one of the eight industrial departments.

It is well known that China's aviation industry has been rather mediocre. The J-6 was still relatively advanced in its early years, but by the 1980s, it was already comprehensively behind internationally.

The Aviation Industry Department, which was formerly the Third Ministry of Machinery, is not as powerful as the Ministry of Machinery, the Ministry of Ordnance, and the Ministry of Shipbuilding. Even the Ministry of Nuclear Industry and the Ministry of Electrical Industry are a bit stronger. In terms of attention from the top, the Ministry of Aerospace is even more prestigious.

If it weren't for the importance of the aviation industry to national defense, the Chinese aviation industry in the 1980s might have been even less favored.

As a result, although China Aviation Technology is a monopoly, it is only relatively powerful in its own domain. The Aviation Industry Department can compete with the Air Force, but when it comes to China Aviation Technology, it is far less influential.

How could the general manager of China Aviation Technology dare to challenge the Air Force?

Probably, so some things are really a case of "greed clouding one's judgment."

China's foreign exchange reserves were 8.2 billion dollars in 1984, but by 1985, they had sharply decreased to 2.6 billion dollars. At that time, it can be imagined how much the precious foreign exchange reserves were being consumed across the country. And until 1988, China's foreign exchange reserves remained around 2 billion dollars.

This was because, on the one hand, China began to open up and reform, overcoming the economic crisis of the early 1980s, and entered a so-called "honeymoon period" with the United States, leading to a large-scale introduction of foreign technology.

On the other hand, there was a strong demand for various high-end foreign consumer goods in the Chinese market. Just looking at the car smuggling incident in Hainan, one can see how deep the water was.

Suddenly, President Hu had a foreign exchange channel that was almost equivalent to half of China's foreign exchange reserves—ten billion dollars a year, and it was not subject to domestic and foreign exchange management policies.

It can be imagined how big a piece of fat meat this was.

In this matter, China Aviation Technology was just a tool. Even if the Aviation Industry Department did not want China Aviation Technology to be a tool, some things depend not only on the big picture but also on the whims of certain individuals.

If it weren't for the short-sightedness of the general manager of China Aviation Technology, how else could one explain the mess of projects like the MD-82 assembly and the introduction of domestic aircraft...

"Phew, that's a hard head!" In the general manager's office of China Aviation Technology, everything had been turned upside down.

A clearly Russian-descended old military man shook his hand and had someone place the phone on the ground.

The general manager, with two black eyes, glanced fearfully at the old military man and had to pick up the receiver and dial a phone number.

"Hello, I'm looking for Old Kong."

"Hello, Old Kong, I would like to ask if it's possible to split a part of China Aviation Technology and hand it over to the military for management?"

...