Great Power Technology

On the other side, the country.

Minister of Economy and Investment Mueller is also discussing with his staff the bidding for the Taishang project, but unlike Italy, they have decided to devote all their energy to specializing in precision manufacturing and smelting as soon as the bidding announcement was released. direction, and also undertakes a small number of reactor core component manufacturing work classified as Class B.

The former part is their traditional strength, which can ensure that the project requirements are completed with less investment, thereby obtaining benefit distribution; the latter part is of the nature of technological exploration. They hope to use this project to obtain corresponding technical support from China, so as to Improve the country's overall nuclear industry level.

This is a common strategy for all countries participating in the bidding. The only difference lies in the choice of fields and financial investment.

After reviewing the preliminary strategy, Mueller put down the report in his hand and said to Schmidt, the technical staff in front of him:

"If we follow the current direction, we will need to spend 20 billion marks per year in the next three years, and this part of the expenditure will mainly be used in precision carving manufacturing."

"Three years later, our main manufacturing work has been completed, and the expenditure has been reduced to 10 billion marks, which will be used for research and development of reactor core construction applications."

"This is just a rough number. If we can fully mobilize and optimize the configuration of relevant industrial sectors in the future, then the cost of the manufacturing stage will decrease; if China can provide technical support that exceeds expectations, then the cost of component R\u0026D will also decrease. It will go down.”

"All things considered, the cost we will invest in this bid is about 100 billion marks - 20 billion marks of which are redundant premiums used to kill our competitors."

"As far as I know, the island nation is also very interested in this bid. In terms of precision manufacturing, he is on par with us."

"So, we have to overwhelm them with investment to avoid accidentally losing bids."

Schmidt looked at the report in front of him, thought for a moment, and then said:

"I'm not too sensitive about economic figures, but is the premium of 20 billion a bit too high? If it is 25%, should it be reduced to 10%?"

"You know, large expenditures in a short period of time will inevitably crowd out resources in other fields. The Ministry of Science and Technology has also proposed many technical proposals this year, all of which require financial support."

Mueller shook his head and replied:

"Make them wait."

“All the so-called ‘technologies’ they propose, taken together, are not as important as a scrap of large-scale fusion technology.”

"They can wait, but nuclear fusion cannot wait - and neither can the Chinese."

"We cannot miss this opportunity. If we really fall behind, neither history nor the people will forgive us."

After hearing this, Schmidt nodded solemnly and then said:

"I understand, then do as you say."

"Within two days, I will provide a detailed cost breakdown report, listing the costs required in all subdivisions. At that time, we will bid based on this report."

After a moment of pause, Schmidt sighed and said:

"The time is really tight this time. For such a huge project, the bid preparation period is only one week. Isn't this a joke?"

Mueller smiled helplessly and replied:

"You don't understand. This is where Chinese people are smart."

"Actually, there is no problem with the project itself. The reason why they want to release it is simply that the speed of fund expansion cannot keep up with the project schedule."

"You also know how terrifyingly fast their technology has developed in the past few years. Some new technologies even seem to appear out of thin air."

"The same goes for this large-scale fusion. They must have solved all the technical problems long ago. They just need to allocate the application work to the appropriate countries."

"So, does it really take a long time to think about what each country is good at and what its advantages are?"

"For example, we are good at machinery and precision manufacturing, Mao Xiong is good at core-related program control and material refining, Ukraine is good at high-hardness metal welding, and Chou is good at material synthesis. These do not require precise research and analysis. Any country's The management knows this."

"So there's only one thing they really have to filter for: intent."

"They want to determine how interested other countries are in participating in this project if the technology meets the standards."

"And this intention is demonstrated through the bid amount."

"For example, island countries, if converted into a unified soft currency, they may be willing to pay 800 billion, but if we are willing to pay 1 trillion, then China will definitely choose us."

"It's a pretty simple game, isn't it?"

Schmidt nodded slightly. He was a little confused by the series of numbers. They ranged from hundreds of billions to trillions, which was already astonishingly high even for a country.

What is the concept of 100 billion marks?

Converted into food, in extreme cases, it can feed all Chinese people for three years.

Or, it could buy three full fleets of fully equipped aircraft carriers, the Ford-class kind.

But now, all this money has to be invested in an area that is completely unknown to this country. This is no longer considered a risk, but more like a desperate move.

However, this country has actually done a lot of desperate things, such as blitz

Schmidt quickly retracted his chaotic thoughts, coughed and changed the topic.

"I just received a call from Italy's technical department - it's private. They don't seem to be interested in participating in this project."

"No, it is not accurate to say that they will not participate. Judging from the information he disclosed, it seems that they intend to use some method to persuade the Chinese people to open up the technology and let each country open it up independently."

Upon hearing this, Muller smiled contemptuously and replied:

"You want it to be free, right? Why are Italians still so naive until now? Haven't they discovered that the situation has completely changed?"

"Who knows. This is a good thing for us. At least, we have one less competitor."

Schmidt paused, then subconsciously lowered his voice and said:

"If - I mean if, their plan can achieve certain results and put a certain amount of pressure on China, maybe we can win this project at a lower cost. That would be good, right?"

"There's always someone who wants to be the bad guy, now that they've jumped out on their own."

He didn't go on, but Mueller got the message.

"It seems that your expertise is still in the purely technical field. It's useless. No matter how much pressure China receives, their goal will not change."

"This project is not a profit-oriented project, but a results-oriented project."

"It is an unchangeable goal to achieve the actual installation of the Taishang device within five years."

"In order to achieve this goal, there is a lower limit on the cost we need to invest. Once the bid price falls below this lower limit, they will give up on us without hesitation."

"So, if the Italians do this, it will not bring any good except causing trouble to us."

Speaking of this, Mueller frowned slightly.

"You did remind me."

"They can't do this. We have to give them a warning."

"At least officially, we need to make our stance clear."

"The Chinese people will definitely fight back. By that time, it doesn't look like I was accidentally injured."