Chapter 61: Compromise

108 ships, the Xining, are a modified version of the Type 051 missile destroyers.

Back then, the nation was figuring out how to build its own destroyers and happened to snatch some data on the Type 56 destroyers from the Big Brother, which they then applied to the Type 051 upon returning.

The entire Type 051 destroyer series used a 72,000-horsepower steam turbine power system similar to the Type 56, naturally requiring maintenance of the steam turbine units.

The later Type 052 series switched to the more advanced diesel-gas turbine combined power, and after the Type 051s were retired, there were basically no more steam-powered ships.

For warships, steam power units are bulky, inconvenient to start, and have low power generation; they are merely a temporary makeshift solution.

Moreover, unlike diesel or gas turbines, steam turbines are prone to problems without effective human intervention; whether it's pressure loss or overpressure causing pipes to burst, neither is a good thing, and the requirements for personnel quality are also higher.

Hearing there was a way, Huang Dongshun's eyes immediately lit up.

"We need it, we really need it."

"Boss Chen, sorry, we simply can't spare the time."

Inside the Echeng Guesthouse, Chen Ming hung up the phone with a gloomy face.

"Master, four trucking fleets have already rejected us."

On the bed opposite him, Song Haoxiang held a small comic book bought from the street, closed it, and began to complain and sigh.

He thought securing those few boats would mean the job was done, but who knew this was just the beginning.

The day they returned to the city, within ten minutes the wheels were almost removed; luckily, the two of them had gotten off to buy late-night snacks, otherwise the car would have been wrecked.

Chen Ming immediately parked the car inside the guesthouse, thus protecting the four wheels.

They immediately contacted the trucking fleets to haul the boats, but the trucks they had originally arranged said they were busy and dropped the task.

Immediately, all the local trucking fleets they could find became busy; either they hung up upon hearing the Xiangjiang accent, or they opened their mouths like lions, demanding an absurdly high price.

But even if they paid the high price, the fleet bosses would soon call back to cancel on their own.

How could the two of them not understand who was tripping them up, yet they had absolutely no way to deal with Wang Hu.

Let alone the mainland with no foundation at all, even gangs in Xiangjiang scheming in secret are hard to punish.

But sending an off-road vehicle from Xiangjiang was already the limit; the Anti-Smuggling Bureau could only mobilize one truck and couldn't send a fleet to transport the boats.

If the boats can't be shipped out, this 300,000 was spent in vain.

Money was spent, the task wasn't accomplished, and whether they could even return was a question.

Chen Ming sat in the chair and sighed heavily:

"Let's go, let's find that Boss Tang again and see if he has a way; even adding money is fine."

Song Haoxiang asked somewhat strangely:

"But he was very impatient last time; can he help us?"

"Even if he can't, we have to try; relying on ourselves offers no solution."

Chen Ming smiled bitterly; if all else fails, he would try leveraging the identity of the Xiangjiang Anti-Smuggling Bureau; what if it worked?

The two of them dared not waste time, so they went down to start the car while it was still early, and then immediately were dumbfounded.

This time the wheel hubs weren't stolen, but all four tires lay on the ground, weak and deflated.

Each tire had a palm-sized tear, with the deep black inner lining turned out from the inside.

The guesthouse could indeed provide a certain level of security, but slashing tires like this was impossible to prevent unless someone was watching constantly.

Chen Ming and Song Haoxiang immediately checked if the car doors had been pried open; fortunately, nothing inside was missing.

Changing tires at a repair shop would take at least a few hours; they couldn't go to Dawan Village today.

Chen Ming covered his face and said despairingly:

"Call Sir Long; relying on us is definitely impossible."

Sir Long was the superior who facilitated this matter; although he knew he would get scolded over the phone, waiting any longer would only cause more trouble.

Today they slashed tires; tomorrow, they might slash kidneys.

"Boss, great news!"

Wu Lao Er... no, Manager Wu Long sat on the train, happily reporting the results of his trip to Guangxi Province to Tang Wen.

He followed Chen Xiaojie with the diesel engine prototype, bouncing on a truck for a whole day before arriving at Shanwang Agricultural Machinery Factory.

Only there did he discover that Shanwang Agricultural Machinery Factory was indeed a large factory; although the environment wasn't great, it had numerous personnel and a large site, accounting for about 14% of the heavy-duty tractor sales in Guangxi Province.

Named heavy-duty tractors, they were actually a variant of trucks.

In fact, for many logging sites in the mountain valleys, they preferred specialized off-road trucks.

The tractor head's "Four-Like-Nothing" looked like a truck, but the horsepower was ultimately not large enough, and it wasn't as convenient to use as specialized mountain heavy-duty trucks.

But good trucks were too expensive; if you couldn't afford them, you could only make do with the "Four-Like-Nothing" tractors.

The frames of these "Four-Like-Nothing" vehicles weren't much different from regular trucks; many were simply modified from scrapped trucks.

The reason for doing this was that manufacturing vehicles required qualifications; if qualifications couldn't be obtained, one could only rent a car factory's qualifications, and the price was unaffordable for an agricultural machinery factory.

The high-capacity "Four-Like-Nothing" vehicles had reinforced chassis, transmissions, axles, and cabins just like trucks, and some even had four-wheel-drive versions.

But since it wasn't a professional truck factory, the "Four-Like-Nothing" first lacked high-horsepower engines, relying instead on high-gear-ratio transmissions to enhance diesel torque.

Second was assembly quality; the whole vehicle was assembled from various parts without specialized optimization, meaning it was merely at the "usable" level.

Shanwang Agricultural Machinery Factory was, after all, a large-scale factory, so its overall quality was much better than other small factories, lacking only in high-horsepower engines.

The local Yuchai tractors used diesel engines of poor quality, while the high-horsepower engines for trucks were too expensive.

The 25-horsepower diesel engine provided by Gai Jin was installed on a tractor and underwent simple testing; reliability basically passed, and after internal discussion, the Shanwang factory decided to purchase 50 units first to test the waters.

After haggling, the price was 8,700 yuan per unit; additionally, a batch of consumable spare parts like cylinder gaskets was needed, with a total order value of 470,000 yuan, and a 30% down payment would be transferred soon.

But the Shanwang factory wanted to ask if there were high-horsepower diesel engines around 100 to 150 horsepower, with the price needing to be controlled below 16,000 yuan.

This was quite unusual; diesel engines differ from gasoline engines, and reaching 100 horsepower was a terrifying number, with torque and displacement being worlds apart.

A 100-horsepower gasoline engine usually has a displacement of only around 1.3 liters, while a diesel engine of the same horsepower has a displacement of at least 3.5 liters or more.

A 100-horsepower gasoline truck struggles to climb a slope even when empty, but swap in a diesel engine and it can haul a load of wet timber up the hill, roaring all the way.

The reason for capping the price at 16,000 is that this is the upper cost limit the Mountain King factory can accept; otherwise the truck they build would exceed budget.

The 103-horsepower four-cylinder diesel engine Yuchai offered was ruled out precisely because it was too expensive and had too many problems.

Mountain King Agricultural Machinery is looking for ways to expand the market and continue breaking through the bottleneck of high-horsepower transport vehicles.

Wu Long wasn't sure whether Tang Wen could get it, but he agreed to "ask around" anyway.