Chapter 95

"Lin, I'm very sorry! Our Leland company cannot provide a financing loan to a car factory in a certain province of China! Nor can we guarantee your commercial loan with a British bank!" After consulting with his colleagues, Kent shook his head and refused Lin Qiangsheng's request.

At this moment, Lin Qiangsheng was in a luxury hotel room on the Champs-Élysées, facing two negotiation liaison representatives from the British Leland Motor Company.

After hearing the words of the liaison officer Kent, Lin Qiangsheng nodded silently and still tried to persuade, "Kent, can't we really reach this deal? We are indeed very sincere about buying this engine factory from Leland, and we do have the ability to repay in the future! You can see that the materials and photos I provided prove that we are a car manufacturing plant with a solid manufacturing foundation! The cars we produce are being bought by the public in long queues! Look at the joy on their faces! This is not fake! The Chinese car market is huge, and we are very optimistic about its development!"

Kent looked at the photos on the table that Lin Qiangsheng was pointing to, showing some Chinese car buyers driving out of the factory with joy. These were all taken by Lin Qiangsheng in his spare time at the factory gate.

Kent nodded and said, "Indeed, your explanation and photos have indeed moved us at Leland. That's why we came! The factory and equipment, as well as the customers, in the photos don't seem fake. However, Leland cannot currently process financing applications for foreign companies!"

Lin Qiangsheng sighed deeply, a sense of great frustration overwhelming him.

Three days ago, after Lin Qiangsheng sent the fax, he quickly received replies from the French Citroën, Renault, and Peugeot companies, all willing to negotiate cooperation with this local car manufacturing plant in China.

Subsequently, he received a reply from the British Leland Motor Company, stating that they would send people to meet in Paris.

To avoid delaying the trip, the delegation left Deputy Team Leader Song and Lin Xiangrong behind, while the others continued on. They stayed in France for two days, and the next destination was Germany.

Deputy Team Leader Song's wife was quite unhappy about being left behind, complaining to her husband. However, Deputy Team Leader Song was quite generous and did not make things difficult for the Lin family.

He naturally had his own calculations. As a vice governor in the province, he was not a member of the Standing Committee. The current Standing Committee members were all elderly people in their 60s. Deputy Team Leader Song, confident in his youth, wanted to advance further. If he could introduce a major project this time, it would add a significant achievement to his resume. Therefore, he stayed behind enthusiastically.

The arrival of the British Leland company representatives brought them a huge surprise!

The temporary liaison officer Kent from Leland provided the three with several pieces of good news. Leland Group had several production lines for sale, including a Dolomite Sprint four-cylinder engine production line, the assembly line from the closed Chilwell factory, and part of the assembly line from the Abingdon factory.

If the Chinese side had other purchasing intentions, Leland could also sell other automotive parts production lines, and the British were willing to provide them as long as they were paid!

The surprise was indeed a surprise, but the British prices gave the three a cold shower. For the four-cylinder engine, the British were only willing to provide 8-valve technology, not their main 16-valve engine, and the price was very high. The British were asking for $20 million for the production line and engine technology! An automobile assembly line was priced at $8 million, and if they added $3 million, the semi-defunct Abingdon factory's assembly line could also be sold. In today's currency, $20 million at that time would be equivalent to $200 million today!

Although the equipment the British were selling was somewhat outdated, it was from the mid-1960s to the early 1970s. Even so, it was much better than the domestic equipment! The best domestic equipment was still from the 1950s Soviet technology, which was far behind!

The British mechanical processing precision was not only much higher, but it also included some high-end multi-angle machining tools, which were not available domestically. The engine production line was a complete set of technical equipment, unlike the piecemeal equipment in domestic factories, which was very cumbersome to use.

If they had these production lines, the car factory would truly be upgraded! The production equipment would be improved by several levels, and the quality and speed of car production would be significantly enhanced, truly entering the modern production era of the automotive industry!

According to Lin Qiangsheng's estimate, the British equipment and technology could match the technology and equipment that Hyundai invested $100 million to build in 1974. At that time, the car production technology had not yet implemented large-scale numerical control automation. The production equipment that the Koreans bought, the Europeans and Americans would not sell them their advanced products, at least one or two levels lower. Therefore, the British equipment and technology were not much different.

Lin Qiangsheng and his father were naturally very envious of the British equipment. Moreover, according to Lin Qiangsheng's knowledge, Leland was currently a state-owned enterprise. It was the most difficult period for Leland. If it were another half year, after Margaret Thatcher took office, she would provide Leland with a huge $4 billion aid. With this $4 billion aid, Leland would not change its fate and would still struggle, renaming itself Rover in 1986.

This was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, how could they let it slip away!

After a warm discussion with Kent, Lin Qiangsheng and his father asked the British man to wait for their good news.

However, after returning and consulting with Deputy Team Leader Song Hui, and then calling back to China to seek the provincial government's approval for signing the contract, they found that the situation in China had changed. The provincial government could not approve the contract, and the central government was blocking them!

Deputy Team Leader Song Hui, after understanding the situation, learned that after their overseas inspection, the domestic situation had changed dramatically. It was no longer allowed to negotiate cooperation projects with foreign countries!

In 1978, China signed 22 large-scale introduction projects, totaling $7.8 billion, all paid in cash.

This cash was obtained by selling a large amount of oil resources abroad. China's annual oil production was only 100 million tons, with Daqing producing half, 50 million tons annually.

Among these 22 large-scale introduction projects, there were 10 sets of coal mining and coal selection equipment. If the equipment was in place, the factories were built, and coal could be exported abroad, repayment was possible.

However, some people in the central government proposed that the $7.8 billion in equipment coming in was not just about foreign capital and equipment. The domestic matching funds would exceed 35 billion RMB. Moreover, with so many large projects starting simultaneously, there was a huge shortage of construction materials!

The central government had no good solution to the huge funding and material shortages. At the end of January, someone formally proposed that the introduction of so many projects was too blind and that it was necessary to take emergency measures to halt some projects!

The pressure from the central government was immense. H Province had a 300,000-ton oil refinery and a 300,000-ton ethylene plant. Although these were central government decisions, and Daqing Oilfield was a central enterprise, H Province had no decision-making power, not even the ability to intervene. However, any decision made by the province was also taken seriously by the central government.

The content of the negotiations between the provincial car factory and the British Leland company also reached the leaders' desks. The leaders were furious to see that a small car factory was still trying to introduce foreign projects and borrow more than $35 million from abroad. The leaders immediately called H Province's leaders personally, sternly reprimanding them and ordering them not to introduce this project and not to continue negotiations.

Upon receiving the call from the provincial government, Deputy Governor Song Hui immediately became disheartened. The order from above was to stop negotiations. What was the point of the inspection team now? They might as well pack up and go home.

Lin Qiangsheng was also extremely anxious. The British equipment and technology were right there. Establishing a connection with Leland was like forming a good relationship, which could be a big client in the future! Even a small part of their wealth would be more than he could ever have! He never thought that their first contact would end in such disappointment.

Today, Lin Qiangsheng came alone to discuss with Kent whether they could finance the project independently. Kent told him that without the guarantee of their local government, Leland would not provide any funding.

The liaison officer Kent, seeing Lin Qiangsheng's dejected face, shrugged and said, "I'm sorry, Lin. Without the guarantee of your local government, Leland cannot provide a financing loan to your factory! This is very, very complicated!"

Lin Qiangsheng nodded and said, "I understand!"

He stood up, bowed slightly, turned, and walked out of Kent's hotel room, leaving the hotel.

The middle-aged white man next to Kent said, "This young Chinese man is very ambitious and sincere!"

Kent shook his head and said, "I admire his attitude, but it doesn't help!"

Walking down the street, Lin Qiangsheng sighed deeply, walking along the Champs-Élysées towards the Eiffel Tower. He looked up at the tall tower and made a gesture as if he were flying.

After looking for a while, Lin Qiangsheng suddenly felt like singing. He fumbled and started singing "Old Boy," adjusting a few times before slowly singing:

That is the person I think of day and night, deeply love.

How can I express my feelings?

Will she accept me?

Maybe I will never tell her those words.

I am destined to wander.

How can I have any attachments?

Dreams are always out of reach.

Should I give up?

Flowers bloom and fall, and it's the rainy season again.

Spring, where are you?

...............

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