Chapter 322 Warship Procurement

At the beginning of the year in 1931, China was still in the cold winter solar term during the lunar calendar. The sky was gray, and the air seemed to condense into ice fog, covering the entire southern part of China.

After the baptism of the war, China's land once again gained a rare peace, and the government consolidated its territory. Hualian also sold many old arms and ammunition at a good price, and the continuous bilateral trade has driven the economies of the two places.

As the investment boom moved northward, many light industrial commodity manufacturers selected their factory sites in Zhejiang, while Hualian became a large arms industrial base.

It was already January 8 when Liu Haoran returned to Liuzhou. The weather in northern Guangxi had already become colder, and even now, the climate has not become warm at all.

Moreover, after getting used to the indoor heating environment of his home in Guangzhou, returning to his new home in Liuzhou made Liu Haoran feel colder because it was a new house and there was no heating installed yet.

Besides, I didn’t plan to live here for a permanent stay, and it would be colder in less than a month a year, so there is no need to install heating in every room.

Liu Shen returned to Liuzhou for a long time before him. As Liu Haoran expected, Liu Shen's gains in Jinling were not small. Judging from the price reduced by a single weapon, the benefits Liu Shen won for the Chinese army far exceeded Liu Haoran's recent achievements.

The current ** government has received a lot of assistance from the Jewish chaebols in the United States. It is very affordable and is eager to buy more sophisticated weapons and equipment.

Jiang Ruiyuan refused to accept rifles, grenades, light armored vehicles, aircraft, warships and artillery of various calibers. With a big stroke, there was a large number of military orders. Liu Shen was responsible for contacting this matter. He came forward as a personal capacity to comprehensively evaluate the military needs of the ** Army.

Of course, in terms of overall procurement, because it was only 1931, the focus of the ** Army's procurement was not on warships, and the price of ships built by commercial standards did not have much compression space, so the money saved in shipbuilding could not be compared with the money saved in purchasing aircraft.

"Overall, the attitudes of shipyards and downstream manufacturers are still very cooperative." Liu Shen looked over to Liu Haoran: "This is thanks to your demonstration at the Navy Shipyard. After learning that we have reached a package of agreements with the aircraft manufacturer to ensure the interests of the manufacturers through other channels, the military shipyard quickly reached an agreement with us."

For internal members of the China Economic Union, it is very cost-effective to sell industrial finished products to the ** government in exchange for materials and wealth. Compared with foreign prices and service attitudes, the military supplies exported by Hualian are quite affordable in terms of performance and price.

"The main problem now is that the export of warships is very difficult, especially in terms of the export of main ships that can make huge profits, the government needs to approve one by one, instead of just approving a certain model like exporting aircraft, which can be exported in large quantities. Of course, there are indeed not many countries or regions that can afford to buy main warships and need to equip main warships."

Liu Shen is a very qualified arms dealer. He has worked hard on the evolution of the political situation and the research on potential customer groups. However, the only one who can afford warships and will propose purchasing intentions to Hualian is probably the only one who is led by Jiang Ruiyuan.

"We will consider this issue in the future." Liu Haoran looked up at Liu Shen, and gave him the document in his hand, and picked up another report on the coffee table.

"Overall, after the head of state gradually adopted legislative approach and used the setting of authority values ​​to crack down on domestic speculative activities. As well as the noble families who were unwilling to cooperate, the attitudes of the manufacturers began to be soft. The negotiations in several other secondary directions also progressed relatively smoothly."

The incident Liu Haoran talked about is not a trivial matter. The rise of the ancient Chinese Society has also led many local wealthy families to join this industry. However, these people are mainly based on family interests and have always resisted the policy of authority value. Uncontrollable arms smuggling incidents are also rampant.

Many people still remember the incident of Chen Xiaoqi colluding with Hongmen back then, so how could they not worry?

"In the past few days, I have received reports and roughly counted that if we can finally get the highland of ammunition production, in 31 years, we will be able to save about 1 billion yuan in the Navy by just reducing procurement costs."

Both of them laughed. What is the number of 1 billion? There are no 10 of the more than 80 countries around the world, as well as colonies with national nature and no formal national value, and overseas territories, among which there are no one in the year, with a GDP of more than 10 billion.

In other words, the equipment and ammunition procurement fees saved by the Navy within one year are enough to support a medium-sized country for a considerable time.

Liu Haoran was listening while watching the report made by the Economic Planning Department. Now the principal is reading his report. Tan Renhao did not dictate the negotiation process like Gan Yongxing, and he wrote it quite clearly in the report.

This report on the development of the Navy's financial planning has more content, but it is not detailed. It is mainly because the number of ships purchased is smaller than that of aircraft. However, the types are much larger, and the number of spare parts involved is more than ten times more.

The annual procurement quantity of some major warships, such as aircraft carriers and large air defense cruisers, is calculated in single digits, while the procurement of aircraft is basically calculated in hundreds or even thousands of digits. Therefore, this actually adds to the workload of Xinghua News Agency, which is why Liu Shen was asked to be responsible for ship procurement negotiations.

Liu Haoran himself is one of the speakers of the parliament and has obtained authorization from the Navy Headquarters. It is not impossible to view such a report. Xinghua News Agency is also the main organizer of the navy's warship production plan. It is also a very necessary thing to understand and analyze the navy's needs and funds in detail.

Faced with the increasingly urgent situation, Zhong Yang has also begun to develop large-tonnage warships, especially aircraft carriers, the core combat power of future maritime hegemony, which must be truly in the hands of the Chinese. Breaking through the original 10,000 tons limit is also a realistic need.

After five years of development, Hualian's own ship production has indeed established a complete industrial system. He has accumulated a lot of experience from the refining of steel, stamping and shaping with super-large forging equipment, and various process techniques.

For warships with more than 10,000 tons, there is no big problem in design or construction. We must take advantage of the fact that Japan is still hesitating and in a difficult situation to have a fleet that can defend its maritime rights and interests to curb the entire Japanese Empire's ambitions for the land of China.

Some outdated warships and old artillery warships can be sold to the ** Army. Jiang Ruiyuan's ruling foundation was also at the estuary of the Yangtze River, and the demand for the navy was urgent.

However, what Liu Haoran pays most attention to was the warship orders from the Hualian Navy.

The characteristics of ship procurement and the issues involved are different from aircraft procurement. Among them, the largest price reduction space is definitely large warships. The prices of aircraft carriers, battleships, cruisers, destroyers and other warships are very high, and the reduction can be even greater.

The price reduction space for small warships and non-combat ships is smaller. But these are the key procurement targets of the Nianhua United Navy this year, so the quantity is much larger, and overall the procurement funds can be saved are more.

In addition, the procurement of warships also includes maintenance costs, and this cost is the big deal, especially the procurement cost of important parts on warships, which is also a special place. Take aircraft carriers as an example. Although the design service life of the catapults on the aircraft carrier is more than five years, this is calculated based on the ordinary combat intensity.

In combat and even training, catapults must be used to the limit. As a result, it is already quite good to use catapults on most aircraft carriers for two years. In the laboratory's extreme use experiments, catapults were even replaced twice within a year.

This key technology involving aircraft carrier combat capability is currently developed by Hualian. The world's eyes are still closely focused on the current maritime overlord - the super battleship

With a huge body, thick armor, and terrifying artillery, these are the focus of this era. As for aircraft carriers that can only rely on aircraft to fight, they only serve as auxiliary comprehensive platforms such as reconnaissance and supply, and are a supporting role in naval battles rather than core.

The price of catapults is not low, so when purchasing an aircraft carrier, you must take this into consideration and purchase excess catapults in advance so that they can be in stock when they need to be replaced, rather than ordering at the manufacturer at that time, which will lead to the inability to use the aircraft carrier normally.

Liu Haoran himself does not have the manufacturing technology of catapults, so he must place an order from Zhong Yang to the Guwenhui Association. Many key equipment must be purchased from Zhong Yang, not because the technology is not shared, but because many manufacturers of the China Economic and Economic Union currently do not have the ability to master the manufacturing capabilities of such equipment.

It is precisely because as a weapon system, warships themselves are more complex than aircraft, so the issues involving warship manufacturing and procurement costs are even more complicated.

Liu Shen was able to complete the negotiations before Liu Haoran, which proved his ability and proved how busy he was during a period of time. His busyness also received high "rewards". It can be said that as long as the negotiations were successful once, the price of a ship was reduced like a war.

Now that the family is big and the business is big, the Guwen Club is no longer a big pot of rice like in the past, but there is a system for everything. Purchasing these equipment and technologies from Zhong Yang is no longer a low price in the past, but a certain amount of authority must be paid, otherwise you will not be able to buy it if you have money.

As an arms dealer with Xinghua News Agency, Liu Shen saved millions or even tens of millions of dollars in funds for the Navy through this achievement, and at least hundreds of aircraft were required to produce at least a few hundred aircraft to compare

Retaining a considerable amount of balance of authority values ​​will give Xinghua News Agency a better capital in its future development. Compared with green banknotes, these are just authority values ​​for book data, which is undoubtedly more important.

Taking the "Snake" cruiser class at that time as an example, its purchase price in 1927 was 5 million, its purchase price in 1928 was 6.5 million, and its original purchase price in 1929 might reach 8 million. After Liu Shen's efforts, this year's purchase price has been reduced by more than 30% on the original basis, only 5.6 million.

Then every purchase of a "Snake" class cruiser will save 2.4 million yuan in funds for Hualian's Navy. The saved authority value is enough to allow Liu Haoran to exchange more technical or equipment products with strategic value from the ancient Chinese Society.

But this brings up a new problem, one that will not occur in purchasing aircraft, that is, the periodicity of warship construction.

When producing aircraft in assembly line, the batch is basically the basis, and the number of each batch is determined by the time of the shipment year and month of the shipment of the batch of aircraft.

Therefore, the production cycle of an aircraft is in months. During mass production, the manufacturing cycle of an aircraft is even less than one month. Therefore, in the annual procurement plan, there will be no problem with the manufacturing cycle of the aircraft.

But warships, especially large warships, are completely different. Even at this time, Hualian's shipyard has shortened the construction cycle of battleships to one year, and the construction cycle of aircraft carriers to less than ten months. The construction cycle of large cruisers is about eight months, and the construction cycle of destroyers is even only three months.

However, these warships have problems with cross-year construction, which has caused a lot of trouble to the accounting of products when delivering them.

For example, the six "Snake"-class missile cruisers originally planned to be delivered at the end of December will definitely be several of which will be delivered in early February this year. When the Navy pays the procurement fee, before officially accepting the warship, it will pay nearly 70% of the procurement fee in three times. Only after the warship is delivered to the Navy will the last and largest procurement fee be paid.

Then, the procurement fees of these warships that entered service in early February 2019 should be paid in February, and when the Navy made a budget, the money was actually included in the military expenditure in 1930. However, in order to reduce expenditure, the Navy certainly hoped to calculate it into the 30-year land procurement costs, or purchase it according to the 30-year standard.

The problem arises. The difference between an aircraft carrier is millions. I am afraid that any shipyard will not be willing to bear the loss. The Navy is not willing to spend more millions, not to mention that there are a lot of authority quotas involved, which is related to the Navy's development in the next year.

It is precisely because of this problem that Wang Liwen almost broke up with the other six largest shipyards. In fact, the Navy's requirements were a bit too much. After all, the contract was signed in early 1930, and it clearly stated the purchase price paid in four times. In black and white, even if the Navy is awesome, it cannot violate the contract.

If Liu Shen had not mediated at the center and eased the relationship between the two parties, he would not know how much the matter would have been.

Wang Liwen has this temper. After several days of struggling with these six shipyards, the two sides reached a compromise agreement, that is, the shipyard agreed to the Navy to pay the final payment according to the 30-year standard. The Navy also promised to continue to order six aircraft carriers in 32 years, or promised to export six aircraft carriers to meet the shipbuilding capabilities of these six shipyards so as not to be as empty as the shipbuilding platform for building cruisers.

Wang Liwen asked Li Wansheng for instructions. He did not dare to make a decision alone because the Navy only planned to order two aircraft carriers under construction in 30 years, and in 1926 there were 10 cruisers, 12 cruisers in 1927, and 8 aircraft carriers have been confirmed since 1928.

The orders for destroyers are mainly in the UK and Zhong Yang’s own secret dock, so this is not the open order data.

Even if the Navy adds orders for 6 aircraft carriers next year, it is still lower than the procurement level in the previous three years.

In fact, the China Economic and Economic Union was already considering expanding the scale of shipbuilding at this time, and directly using new aircraft carriers instead of purchasing "Snake"-class cruisers.

It was just that the last two ships had been started to be constructed, so they could not be cancelled, so they could only be completed. Of course, the prerequisite was that the Hualian Navy obtained sufficient military budget and also greatly reduced the procurement costs, and there was sufficient funds to expand the fleet.

At least, Liu Haoran will not be so tight when calculating the Navy's equipment procurement plan this year. This can be seen from the actual combat ships and combat aircraft actually purchased in the previous year.

When Liu Haoran finished reading the report at hand, Liu Shen himself almost finished reading the same report document. This time, he also read it very carefully, and nodded while watching.

Seeing this situation, Liu Haoran also laughed: "There is basically no problem with the report of the Planning Department, and the focus is on implementation. I will arrange personnel to be responsible for this. After you reach an agreement with Qingzhu Chemical's ammunition production company, I will discuss in detail the methods for implementing these agreements with the Equipment Technology Office and the head of the logistics department."

Speaking of this, Liu Haoran paused for a moment, and then Liu Shen asked about the trip schedule: "When will we set out?"

"The faster the better." Liu Haoran smiled at him: "If we want to win a decisive victory this year and open up a new battlefield, then the ammunition procurement fee is definitely the highest of all procurement fees. I originally wanted to arrange for Li Quanwang to go to Qingdao, but this person is too rigid and too serious, so I don't know how to adapt. Just so happened that he took sick leave two days ago. I heard that it was an old problem and he is still recuperating in the hospital. Maybe he will have to stay in Dongguan in a few days until the beginning of spring before coming back.

"You prepare first, first understand the issues in ammunition production, and then go to Guangzhou." Liu Haoran yawned. He had been talking to Liu Shen for nearly three hours.

"Old Liu, before you set off, you arrange your entourage staff. All business assistants who performed well in this negotiation can be reused. Maybe there will be opportunities for them to play in the future. For technical aspects, let the technical department do it. You can bring a few more people to take down this project."

"No problem, then I'll set out in two days" received clear instructions, and Liu Shen was not vague and immediately answered seriously.

Seeing that the work was getting more and more busy, Liu Shen was also in pain and happy. In addition to paying attention to the purchase of the Chinese army's own warship, he also had to take the time to continue his trip to Jinling, and go to Jiang Ruiyuan's sucker with Zhou Feihuo, the arms agent of Tianyu Group, to exchange for something real.

Chapter 322 Warship Procurement

Chapter 322: Warship procurement, to the website

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