Chapter 77: Can Be Televised

"I just had an urgent need to relieve myself."

Gao Yuliang brushed the tree branches off his clothes and explained expressionlessly.

Secretary Li nodded in understanding, then turned to address Yang Tai and the others who had arrived:

"Director Gao is getting older; he didn't see a restroom along the way and was delayed by a few minutes."

Yang Tai: I believe it.

Although all three strained to hold their expressions and remain serious, there was no real intent to mock.

People nowadays still don't understand PTSD; for those who have experienced war, those cruel images continue to cause impact constantly.

For people of Gao Yuliang's age, they have all witnessed the scenes of Japanese planes wreaking havoc with their own eyes; suddenly, it is easy to be startled.

"Just now, our plane said the convoy had stopped; we thought it had broken down, so we came to check."

Chen Yonggui patched things up again without leaving a trace, and the awkwardness was resolved tacitly by everyone.

Gao Yuliang coughed dryly, looked up at the sky, and said:

"Where is that plane just now?"

"We have already told him to land; that kid flew too low and too dangerously. It wouldn't be good to scare the masses; we must criticize him severely."

Yang Tai spoke while observing Gao Yuliang's expression; fortunately, the latter only nodded:

"Flying so low would indeed be very dangerous if an accident occurred; we must strengthen safety education. But speaking of it, I have also read the project proposal for the tourism zone development in Dawan Village. Little Lu said there were only a few trucks, but I didn't expect a plane to be produced; your efficiency is very high!"

Everyone then noticed that the people accompanying them from the town were in the vehicle behind, including Lu Jun.

Lu Jun had witnessed the entire process just now; after meeting Yang Tai's eyes, he sent a killing glare.

"..."

"This must be Tang Wen, right? Good kid, where did you get the plane from?"

Gao Yuliang took the initiative to shake hands with Tang Wen; the latter hurriedly agreed:

"Director Gao, these are planes replicated with modern craftsmanship; safety is definitely guaranteed, and we will maintain them regularly."

"That must not be cheap, right?"

"Indeed not cheap, but to ensure tourist safety, we must guarantee the quality of the aircraft."

"Then I must go take a look."

Gao Yuliang became interested; now various enterprises were springing up like bamboo shoots after rain, but not many were this interesting.

"Now we have five M-style military trucks, one Willys Jeep, one F4F fighter, and one Zero seaplane scout; the rest are still in preparation."

Inside the shipyard, Gao Yuliang climbed onto the Willys Jeep and said with emotion to the accompanying people:

"I saw this thing when I was young; back then only high-ranking officers could sit in it. Not bad, it really looks the part."

Gao Yuliang opened and inspected the several trucks at the shipyard, discovering they were indeed authentic old trucks; bluffing people would absolutely be no problem.

When he saw the F4F, his eyes lit up even more; he couldn't help but climb into the cockpit, looking at the various instruments and exclaiming in wonder.

Yang Tai transformed into a guide, explaining the uses of various instruments and switches to him, making Gao Yuliang nod continuously.

And in the crowd not far away, Lu Jun quietly gave Tang Wen a thumbs-up and said quietly:

"Awesome, you managed to get all these things.

I heard there was a plane in Dawan Town yesterday; was that you guys too?"

Tang Wen: "It was this F4F fighter; we did a few test flights."

Lu Jun made a "tsk" sound and continued to ask:

"How many planes do you plan to get?"

Tang Wen: "Get a few first to make a statement; increase them after the official opening. If the average daily traffic is around five thousand people, we need at least 30 planes to barely suffice."

"Five thousand people?"

Lu Jun leaned back tactically; five thousand people daily reception in Dawan Village?

Under his skeptical gaze, Tang Wen was not surprised.

Although the future Echeng was not a famous tourist city, just by heavily hyping up a few beaches, the daily traffic on ordinary holidays was twenty or thirty thousand, and during peak periods, sixty or seventy thousand was also possible.

Dawan Village could also hype up the beautiful beach scenery, pleasure boats, and the unique Zhenzhugang-style special projects; even with a discount, a traffic of five thousand should be achievable.

Moreover, there were no homogenized scenic spots in the surrounding areas that could compete; with a little promotion, people would simply find no substitutes.

Although Lu Jun was stunned by the figure of five thousand people, he did not voice any doubt; he only asked:

"Then how long until this tourist village can officially open?"

Tang Wen: "Building roads, renovating beaches, staffing... October or November, just in time for the arrival of autumn."

Lu Jun nodded in approval of this timeline, then suddenly asked:

"Gaijin Power recently handled a purchasing agency business, and the client is from Xiangjiang?"

Tang Wen: "..."

The clickbait headline in the newspaper last time didn't fool Lu Jun; he quickly figured out the inside story, then was left completely confused.

Why would a client from Xiangjiang need a mainland company to help with purchasing?

Every part of this matter was reasonable, but pieced together, it was quite inexplicable.

Gaijin entrusting an Xiangjiang agent to import was still reasonable; the reverse was too strange.

Unless Gaijin could get goods that couldn't even be bought in Xiangjiang, or could get lower prices, but that didn't make sense either.

But today, seeing the F4F and the Zero seaplane scout, he actually found the answer to this question.

If they could even get retired fighter planes, getting a few engines wasn't surprising.

"Gaijin can produce engines and build ships; then all these planes are manufactured by you yourselves.

In the future, remove the import engine labels; remember, they are all Gaijin's own production."

The two sentences burst out of Lu Jun's mouth almost without pause, making Tang Wen suspect he had misheard.

Under Tang Wen's stunned gaze, Lu Jun said in a low voice:

"I've had the contract stamped confidential. To the outside world, we're saying the machines were built by you yourselves."

Tang Wen drew in a deep breath and instantly understood what Lu Jun meant.

Fortunately, that newspaper article was a clickbait headline, deliberately vague about whether the diesel engine was self-produced or imported through an agent — otherwise it would have been Customs showing up here today.

So… the airplane was also independently replicated and assembled by the shipyard, with no connection whatsoever to any overseas collector.

……

Director Gao had just landed the F4F, then remembered that Gaijin was a shipyard, and excitedly rushed off to the dock to see the newly completed Qiaoli.

The thousand-ton-class Qiaoli was no small vessel, and it looked far sharper than an ordinary fishing boat, flying a warship's flag.

Gao Yuliang didn't know much about ships, but he naively believed that bigger meant better, and immediately offered his praise without stint.

"How fast can this kind of fishing boat go?"

"Nineteen knots, roughly over thirty kilometers on land."

"What about a regular fishing boat?"

"Around eight to ten knots."

Gao Yuliang: "That's quite impressive. How many orders does the shipyard have right now?"

Hearing that aside from this one, there was only the single order from Dawan Village itself, Gao Yuliang was slightly disappointed.

Compared with the fishing boats he'd seen elsewhere, the Gaijin Shipyard's boats were both better-looking and faster — how could they have only two orders?

He immediately turned to Secretary Li and said:

"Compile the materials on Gaijin Shipyard and this vessel. This should be the first thousand-ton fishing boat our Echeng has ever produced on its own — we must promote it properly.

Television, newspapers — any of them can run a story!"

Before Secretary Li could reply, Lu Jun hurriedly cut in:

"The TV station has been planning local specialty programs lately — could we do a feature on local specialty businesses?

Like the sightseeing flight tourism project — we could promote it in advance too, so everyone knows we have unique sightseeing here."

"That works."

Gao Yuliang agreed, then added:

"One more thing — don't paint the airplane in too controversial a color scheme."