Chapter 224

Sun Cheng did not mind exposing his cooperation with Russia, because he knew better than anyone that while there might be cooperation between nations, they could never be truly intimate.

Therefore, even if Russia and China both knew the other was cooperating with him, it would be extremely difficult for them to open up their gains to each other.

In other words, his business of selling the same product to two different parties had great potential.

The Prime Minister's smile did not change; his excellent cultivation and shrewdness made it seem as if he had not heard the deeper meaning revealed in Sun Cheng's words.

However, among the dozen or so people who came with him, a few frowned or looked nervous, which exposed a thing or two.

As if suddenly remembering something, Sun Cheng did not wait for the other party to speak and suddenly said, "Oh, right. Due to some circumstances, there are a few types of items we originally planned to trade that must now be removed!"

His Core stirred, and his eyes immediately bloomed with two beams of azure light, projecting a wall of light in front of him and the others.

Without him even operating it, several types of tradeable goods that he had previously shown to the Chinese side immediately disappeared from the light wall.

The Prime Minister stared at it, and his expression finally changed.

He frowned slightly, quickly looked up at Sun Cheng, and asked, "Mr. Frenzy, why have the options concerning nuclear submarines been cancelled?"

"This is a request from the Russian side!"

Sun Cheng answered very crisply, "The improvement plans for those three types of nuclear submarines were originally collected and modified by my Workers for the sake of Russia. Unfortunately, our contact during my trip to Russia a few days ago went very smoothly. Therefore, in response to their request, I will keep my promise and will not sell these three nuclear submarine improvement plans to any other country or force besides Russia!"

He was indeed not lying; Russia had been very tough regarding the technology for their three types of submarines. For this reason, Vladimir even slammed the table, using the fact that the Russian side would buy the modification plans for the three nuclear submarines themselves as leverage to demand that he take them off the shelf and stop selling them to third parties.

In the end, Sun Cheng reluctantly agreed to the Russian side's request. As a condition, he also took the opportunity to force Russia to agree to his payment-before-delivery transaction plan and finally got the Russian side to agree to deliver the first batch of resources to him in one week.

Seeing that the Chinese side looked a bit unhappy, and since this was, after all, the motherland of his other world, he naturally had a much greater fondness for this country than for Russia.

After pondering for a moment, his Core stirred, and some changes soon appeared on the light wall.

"How about this, China is the first country I have contacted after all. If you still need this type of technology, I can appropriately provide you with some compensation..."

The technology trade categories for nuclear submarines reappeared on the light wall, but there were no longer any complete ship plans; all the tradeable content consisted of various technologies broken down into parts.

For example, ultra-high-strength Titanium Steel Alloy, or better Pressure-bearing Structure Design, or various equipment manufactured by the Workers and Pressurized Water Nuclear Reactor.

"Moreover, my previous promise remains. You can choose to buy only the technology, or you can choose to trade for physical goods. I might as well reveal a piece of information to you: the Russian side has placed an order with me to manufacture nuclear submarines on their behalf..."

On his originally somewhat ferocious mechanical face, a standard, mercenary merchant's expression was now revealed, causing some strange emotions to arise in the hearts of everyone present.

The Prime Minister nodded slightly and politely instructed the two elders behind him who were slightly older than himself, "Wu Lao, Xu Lao, please come over and take a look..."

These two appeared to be experts in China's nuclear submarine design field. After receiving the order, they responded and walked to the light wall, looking at the newly added nuclear submarine technology trade category on the screen.

Sun Cheng ignored them, looked back at the Prime Minister, and asked, "Your Excellency, I have left you three days. I wonder how you have considered it?"

"Mr. Frenzy, we in China attach great importance to this transaction, and we also intend to establish a deeper exchange and cooperative relationship with you. Regarding the pricing, except for the Sanxia Dam, which concerns our country's power supply and cannot be used for trade, we can agree to your other requirements..."

This was the rhythm of wanting to bundle all the technologies he had brought out for trade!

The Chinese side's performance was clearly much more magnanimous than Russia's.

Of course, this magnanimity was also related to the economic strength of both China and Russia.

Fifty tons of finished metal might seem like a lot, but in reality, most of it was carbon steel and titanium steel. Although China's real estate boom in the last two years had driven up steel prices, the average cost was at most 5,000 RMB per ton. Even counting other rare metals, the average cost per ton of metal was pulled up to about 40,000 RMB, making the cost of this item at least 20 billion RMB.

The same was true for rare earths. Although China's rare earth reserves were abundant, the selling price had always been low. Counting some of the rare earth reserves, the average cost per ton of rare earth at current market prices would not exceed 300,000, with a total expenditure of about 3 billion.

Compared to Russia, China's 2006 GDP was already 2.5 trillion USD, while Russia's was only over 730 billion USD; the latter's economic environment was far inferior to China's.

In addition, after invading the equipment in that office in Beidu last time, Sun Cheng reckoned that the other party would definitely conduct an investigation afterwards, so he left a rough introduction of dozens of tradeable technologies on the equipment's hard drive when he evacuated.

He believed that the Chinese side must have discovered what he left behind and had studied it carefully over the past few days; otherwise, it would be impossible for them to cherish this opportunity to overtake on a bend so much.

Only...

For a Mechanical Life, while resources were important, energy was a matter of life and death.

Although Sun Cheng had squeezed some Enriched Uranium out of the Polar Bear's hands during his trip to Russia, the Thermonuclear Reactor required a steady stream of nuclear fuel. This supply channel was controlled by Russia, and strictly speaking, it still carried considerable risks.

Therefore, Sun Cheng was determined to obtain a large-scale hydroelectric power station from China.

"With all due respect, at your human construction speed, the Sanxia Dam will take at least several more years to complete. But if handed over to my Workers to build, it could be put into use in two or three months. A few years is enough for you to build even more hydroelectric power stations. How about this, I will make another concession: I can send a team of Workers to work for you for half a year."

The Workers he mentioned here were naturally not the real Decepticon Workers, but industrial robots manufactured by the Workers.

The load-bearing and actual operational capabilities of industrial robots were both above those of normal workers; strictly speaking, one industrial robot could be worth at least three human workers.

Moreover, they neither needed to eat nor rest, and could work continuously for twenty-four hours.

One only needed to slightly modify their programs to allow the industrial robots to adapt to various operations.

This was one of Sun Cheng's trump cards. One week later, with the handover of Russian resources, Base No. 2 could manufacture hundreds of industrial robots in a very short time by running at full capacity.

By then, let alone continuing to expand Base No. 2 and building a Thermonuclear Reactor.

Even counting the manufacturing of submarines for Russia and the construction of the Sanxia, it would not be a difficult task.

PS:

I didn't finish until 2:30 in the morning, so I went to sleep first. I only finished it after I got up. This chapter is to make up for the day before yesterday and does not count towards today's two-chapter update.