King of Industry

The plane took off shortly after the purser left.

In the cabin, after the plane stabilized, Du Yitao, Sun Zhi, and Li Ru invited Mao Zhichun, Wu Jianlong, and Zhao Guoyang to hold an internal seminar.

The main issues discussed are, of course, some issues that need to be paid attention to during this trip.

On the plane, the business class is basically completely occupied by the delegation.

The few bosses sitting at the front and the entourage at the back were separated into two areas by two rows of empty seats, so it didn't affect the meeting or anything at all.

After everyone was seated, Du Yitao, the head of the delegation sitting in the middle, spoke first.

"Chairman Mao and Chairman Wu, this trip of our delegation carries an important mission. The two of you should be more aware of this than me, right?"

After Du Yitao finished speaking, Mao Zhichun and Wu Jianlong looked at each other, nodded and said, "Understood, Director Du, this negotiation with Skoda Automobile Company is very important, we all know it!"

Du Yitao let out a "huh", turned his head to look at Zhao Guoyang and said, "Researcher Zhao, our trip to Prague this time involved not only the acquisition of 'Skoda Auto', but also other business matters."

"You are the chief adviser of our delegation. We may have to listen to you for many things..."

Speaking of this, Du Yitao smiled and said: "Researcher Zhao's ability in the mechanical industry, we have already heard about it."

"I just wonder if you, Researcher Zhao, know anything about the cultural history, business and trade of Czechoslovakia?"

Hearing the big man's question, Zhao Guoyang nodded and said, "Director Du, don't worry about this. I still know a little about the basic situation of Czechoslovakia."

Zhao Guoyang's words are not bragging. In fact, before his rebirth, he visited Czechoslovakia several times.

Although Czechoslovakia is a small country, its industry has always been very developed.

Before World War II, it was the seventh largest industrial country in the world, second only to America, Russia, Germany, England, France, and Apennines.

Compared with emerging industrial countries like island countries, they are even stronger.

Especially in the automobile industry and machine tool manufacturing industry, Czechoslovakia has a world-class level.

Zhao Guoyang went to investigate several times at that time, just to discuss cooperation with a machine tool company in Prague.

At this time, since Director Du asked this question, Zhao Guoyang answered it realistically.

Originally, Zhao Guoyang's answer was very objective, without any exaggeration.

But as a young man in his early twenties, he is so confident about things other than his own job, and he is somewhat disapproving of what others hear.

As the director of the European Department of the Ministry of Foreign Trade, Sun Zhi has always been a person with high self-esteem.

Although the old leader had mentioned Zhao Guoyang in front of him several times, deep down in Sun Zhi's heart, he never took it seriously.

In his opinion, this young "Researcher Zhao" may indeed have two talents in the automobile industry and the machinery industry.

But it would be an exaggeration to say that he is also proficient in foreign trade and commerce and trade between the two countries.

After Zhao Guoyang said these words calmly, Sun Zhi frowned slightly, and said, "Researcher Zhao, I don't doubt what you mean."

"It's just that, with all due respect, it seems that you are also going to Czechoslovakia for the first time, right?"

After hearing what Director Sun said, the current big shots gradually put away their whispered voices and turned their attention to him.

All the people here are people who have been trained for a long time, and they naturally understood the meaning behind Sun Zhi's words in an instant.

Undoubtedly, Director Sun really questioned how much this Zhao Guoyang knew about the humanities, history, and business environment of Czechoslovakia.

Although it was somewhat embarrassing for him to ask this question, from a rational point of view, there was nothing wrong with it.

After all, we are all on the same boat now. If Zhao Guoyang, the "Chief Consultant", does not have real talents, then whether it is Director Du or Sun Zhi, he can make preparations early.

You know, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Foreign Trade must be permanent representatives in Prague.

On the side of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in addition to the customary ambassador to the Czech Republic, there is also a minister who presides over the routine work of the embassy.

Of course, commercial counselors, economic counselors, agricultural counselors, science and technology counselors, education counselors, cultural counselors and other relevant personnel are also indispensable.

Among them, commercial counselors, economic counselors, and agricultural counselors are all under the dual leadership of the foreign department and the foreign trade department.

Now Sun Zhi is worried about Zhao Guoyang's ability in business and trade, and wants to know more about it.

If Zhao Guoyang really failed, the delegation would ask for a few people from the embassy to assist in the daily work of the delegation during their stay in Prague.

After Sun Zhi asked this question, Du Yitao, Li Ru, and Wu Jianlong all cast puzzled looks at Zhao Guoyang.

Although the three of them knew a little about Zhao Guoyang, most of their understanding of his abilities came from other people's mouths.

Especially in terms of business and trade, no one has heard anyone talk about the special features of this "Researcher Zhao", so naturally there is some hesitation at the moment.

The only person in the field who has full confidence in Zhao Guoyang is Chairman Mao of Songqi Group.

Mao Zhichun and Zhao Guoyang were the first to know each other, and they knew him very well.

Zhao Guoyang played an important role in both the last trip to the Samba country and the subsequent plans in his own factory.

Therefore, Chairman Mao firmly believed in Zhao Guoyang's ability in business and finance.

After several big shots cast their eyes on him at the same time, Zhao Guoyang took a sip of coffee and said slowly: "Director Sun, it is indeed my first time to go to Czechoslovakia, but this does not mean that I I don’t know much about this country.”

"There is a saying that 'a scholar can know the affairs of the world without going out'. I dare not say how deep my understanding of this country is. At least, there will be no problems in basic communication!"

Hearing Zhao Guoyang's confident words, Sun Zhi's brows furrowed even tighter.

Of course he knew that the other party should be capable. But no matter how capable you are, you should speak in a low-key manner in front of us diplomats traveling all over the world, right?

Although he was already a little upset in his heart, Sun Zhi still didn't show it on the surface.

He pondered for a moment, then asked with a half-smile, "Researcher Zhao is very confident in himself, that's a good thing."

"If you don't mind, I have a few questions here that I would like to ask. Researcher Zhao, can you give me a little answer?"

As the head of the European Department of the Ministry of Foreign Trade, Sun Zhi must be very good at understanding Eastern European countries and analyzing the trade of these countries.

How could the question he asked be so simple?

On the surface, the boss spoke politely, but in his tone, there was obviously an intention to manipulate Zhao Guoyang.

Everyone thought that Zhao Guoyang would not agree easily, but after hearing what the other party said, Zhao Guoyang sat up straight, nodded indifferently and said: "Director Sun, please tell me, if you can answer, I will definitely Do your best!"

Sun Zhi's eyes froze, and he nodded with a smile and said, "Okay, okay, then I'll stop being disrespectful!"

Sun Zhi took a sip of strong tea and said slowly, "First of all, it's the language problem."

"I heard from Director Yao that you are not only proficient in English, but also proficient in Portuguese, French and other languages..."

"So, which language is commonly used in Czechoslovakia? Do you understand, Researcher Zhao? Can you communicate freely with ordinary people in this country while walking on the road?"

After hearing this question, Du Yitao and Li Ru looked at each other and nodded secretly.

Indeed, the language problem is always the biggest problem when visiting foreign countries.

Especially when visiting Eastern European countries such as Czechoslovakia and Serbia, the complexity of the language types is even more troublesome.

Although Zhao Guoyang knew English, French, and Portuguese, these three foreign languages ​​still belonged to the mainstream language family after all, so it wasn't too shocking.

But how much does he know about the languages ​​of Eastern European countries?

This is what everyone is curious about.

After listening to Director Sun's question, Zhao Guoyang calmly answered without much thought: "Director Sun, I still have something to do with the language of the country of Czechoslovakia."

"There are two languages ​​spoken in Czechoslovakia. They are Czech and Slovak. They, along with Polish and Sorbian, belong to the Slavic language family, the West Slavic branch..."

Sun Zhi didn't expect that Zhao Guoyang really understood this, and the muscles on his face trembled a little.

Zhao Guoyang didn't notice the change in the other party's expression, and he continued to speak on his own: "Since Czechoslovakia is a country where the majority of people speak Czech, I will only speak Czech. Director, do you think it's okay?"

"Uh...Okay, okay!" Sun Zhi was startled by Zhao Guoyang's sudden question, and subconsciously nodded.

Zhao Guoyang raised two fingers and said, "Czech is a very difficult language to learn. One of the reasons is that Czech has rich forms."

"According to statistics, the Czech language has more than 200 forms, dozens of times that of English!"

"These different forms in Czech allow the words in a sentence to be combined freely without worrying about word order."

"On the one hand, this is a characteristic of the Czech language; but on the other hand, this linguistic freedom also creates difficulties for scholars of these languages."

Having said that, Zhao Guoyang paused for a moment, and then smiled and said, "However, you don't have to be scared by my words. In fact, the standard Czech language has both written and spoken forms."

"In Prague, in daily oral communication, everyone generally uses the common Czech language, which has the characteristics of the dialect of the Bohemia region, and the inflections are much simpler than the standard language..."