Material Empire

The decline and subsequent disintegration of the former Soviet Union was the last grand feast of dividing up the inheritance of great powers in the 20th century. As a traveler, Qin Hai will naturally not forget it. In fact, as early as a few years ago, he had been secretly preparing, but the time was not yet ripe. Recently, there have been more and more news about the Soviet Union's economic difficulties and social chaos coming from various channels. Qin Hai knew that it was time for him to act.

People like Fan Zhiyuan and Ji Zhenrong grew up with orthodox education, and they never had the words "to take advantage of the fire" in their minds, and of course they never thought of going to the collapsing Soviet Union to reap any benefits at this time. Hearing Qin Hai's categorical statement that he would go to the Soviet Union to attract talents, they felt dizzy and couldn't tell whether Qin Hai's proposal was good or bad. However, since Qin Hai said that everything will be arranged by him, Fan and Ji didn't say much, and just prepared relevant materials according to Qin Hai's instructions.

The so-called relevant materials are actually collecting information about the Soviet scientific and technological circles, and listing those talents worth recruiting. Both Huaqing University and the Chemical Design Institute have many old scholars who stayed in the Soviet Union in the 1950s. In addition, the Chemical Design Institute was also established with the help of the Soviet Union. Many old people have worked with Soviet experts. What Fan Zhiyuan and Ji Zhenrong had to do was to talk to these old people and ask them to provide as many clues as possible about the Soviet Union.

Qin Hai left after making some arrangements at the Chemical Engineering Design Institute. He asked the driver to take him near the Sanli River, then got off the car and walked into a tree-lined small courtyard to visit Wang Zheyi. family dinner.

The Sanli River area is a famous concentration area of ​​ministries and commissions, and these small courtyards are the family courtyards of various ministries and commissions. These family buildings, which were built in the 1950s, should have belonged to the most high-end mansions in Beijing at that time, but by the early 1990s, they seemed a bit outdated. Wang Zheyi gave Qin Hai her building number, unit number, and room number, and Qin Hai came to her door without much effort.

"Tuk-tuk..."

Qin Hai raised his hand, and just knocked twice on the door, the door opened, and Wang Zheyi's delighted smile appeared inside the door:

"Qin Hai, are you here? Really on time!"

"Hehe, of course you have to be on time when you come to Miss Wang's house for the banquet." Qin Hai replied with a smile.

"Hmph, who doesn't know that Boss Qin has a full-time driver now, if you squeeze the bus, will you be on time?" Wang Zheyi teased, turned sideways, and let Qin Hai into the house.

"Is Xiao Qin here?" A man in his early 50s appeared behind Wang Zheyi and greeted Qin Hai with a smile.

Wang Zheyi hurriedly introduced Qin Hai: "Qin Hai, this is my father;...Dad, this is Qin Hai."

"Hello, Uncle Wang." Qin Haike nodded politely to Wang Zheyi's father. He had heard from Wang Zheyi that her father's name was Wang Hongsheng and he worked in the State Planning Commission. Qin Hai was not surprised by this news. Those who could live in Sanlihe were naturally the children of the ministries and committees. Judging from Wang Zheyi's various styles, they did fit the characteristics of the children of the big courtyard.

Wang Hongsheng was like a general office cadre, wearing a somewhat worn woolen cardigan, reading glasses on the bridge of his nose, and holding a few newspapers in his hand, looking amiable. He nodded to Qin Hai, and said: "Zhe Yi always mentioned you, saying that you are a business genius, so I have admired your name for a long time."

Qin Hai said politely: "Don't dare, I'm just a junior in front of Uncle. I have always heard that Uncle works in the State Planning Commission, but our company has never dealt with the Planning Commission in the past, so we have never had the chance to visit Uncle .”

Wang Hongsheng said: "I heard that you are entrusting Huaqing University and the Chemical Engineering Design Institute to design an 800,000-ton ethylene plant. If you want to undertake such a large project, you must go to the Planning Commission to approve the project. Then you may I will become a frequent visitor of our Planning Commission. However, I can make it clear in advance that I am just an ordinary cadre in the Planning Commission. I have no position and no authority. I can't help you much. "

"Dad! Who said I asked you for help." Wang Zheyi held his father's hand and complained, "You can't always let the guests stand at the door and talk to you?"

"Oh, I was confused." Wang Hongsheng seemed to be doting on this daughter. Hearing what Wang Zheyi said, he quickly apologized, "Come on, Xiao Qin, let's sit in the living room."

Qin Hai followed Wang Hongsheng to the living room, and at the same time secretly observed Wang Zheyi's home. This is a three-bedroom house. The living room is nearly 20 square meters, which is very spacious according to the residential standards of the year. The furnishings in the living room are relatively simple. There is a sofa with a cloth cover, a 21-inch color TV, and several bookcases occupying an entire wall, which are full of various books.

"Come on, sit down, you're welcome. In the past when Zheyi was studying, he often brought his classmates to play at home." Wang Hongsheng sat down on a single sofa first, pointed to another single sofa, Said to Qin Hai.

"Thank you, Uncle Wang." Qin Hai thanked, sat down, and said, "I heard from my sister that my aunt often cooks some delicious food and asked Zheyi to bring it to her. I will thank uncle and aunt on my sister's behalf. "

Wang Hongsheng said: "It's nothing. I know the food in the school. When the young people are growing up, how can they just eat the school food? By the way, I heard from Zhe Yi that the two students who passed the exam from you There are two girls, one is your sister Qin Shan, and the other is Ning Jing, both of whom study very well. I have been to Anhe many times, and I have also been to your Beixi City. It is indeed a place with outstanding people and talented people. "

"Uncle Wang has won the prize." Qin Hai said.

Wang Zheyi brought a cup of tea and put it in front of Qin Hai, then turned around and sat on the couch in the middle, looked at his father, then at Qin Hai, and asked with a smile: "What are you two talking about?"

"I'm praising Uncle Wang that you are smart and capable." Qin Hai said with a smile.

"I don't believe it." Wang Zheyi curled his lips, "How can you, Boss Qin, have the time to praise me as an ordinary person, you are thinking about big things all day long. By the way, I invited you here today, not to waste your time. Oh, you can tell my dad about your 800,000 tons of ethylene, my dad knows a few people in the oil system, maybe they can give you some ideas... right, dad?"

She said the last sentence to Wang Hongsheng. Wang Hongsheng smiled slightly and said, "What ideas can I come up with? However, I am quite interested in Xiao Qin's idea, if it does not involve any commercial secrets." , I want to listen to Xiao Qin talk, learn and learn."

His words were very low-key, but Qin Hai clearly heard some hints from them. Prior to this, Wang Zheyi did not reveal any special relationship with his father, but only said that he would invite Qin Hai to sit at home and have a meal. At this time, she suddenly asked Qin Hai to tell her father about the big ethylene, obviously her father could help Qin Hai with this matter. Qin Hai didn't know what Wang Hongsheng's position was in the planning committee, which Wang Zheyi kept secret, but as an official of the planning committee, there were so many things that he could help him with.

"Thank you Uncle." Qin Hai said, "Since Uncle asked, I will report my thoughts to Uncle, and ask Uncle to advise me if I am wrong."

"Well, tell me." Wang Hongsheng said.

Qin Haidao: "Ethylene is one of the most important basic chemical raw materials. Organic chemical products made of ethylene include polyethylene, polyvinyl chloride, polystyrene, ABS, polyester, vinylon, ethyl styrene rubber, styrene butadiene rubber, etc. Needless to say, it involves all fields of the national economy. Since 1965, my country has achieved zero breakthrough in ethylene production. Since 1973, it has successively introduced four sets of 300,000-ton ethylene plants, plus other The small device currently has an annual output of about 2 million tons of ethylene, and its output ranks ninth in the world.

Compared with developed countries, the scale of my country's ethylene plants is relatively small, and the total output is too low, which is not suitable for a large country with a population of more than 1 billion. Moreover, for a long time, my country's large-scale ethylene installations have completely relied on imports, which is also incompatible with my country's international status. The State Planning Commission, the Ministry of Petroleum, the Ministry of Machinery, the Major Equipment Office of the State Council and other institutions have been committed to the localization of large-scale ethylene plants, but so far the progress has not been satisfactory. "

"We can't blame the research department for this. The country has many things to do, and the localization of ethylene plants is only one of them. It is impossible to invest too much. This is the main reason for the slow progress of the research work." Wang Hongsheng said in a deep voice.

Qin Hai nodded and said, "The reason Uncle Wang said is very important. My point of view is that the state has no money to do it. Can private organizations pay for it? Uncle Wang may know that I came up with it because of a coincidence. Several new technologies have accumulated a certain amount of funds through export. So I want to use part of the funds on hand to support the research of large-scale ethylene plants. As Zhe Yi said just now, I am inviting Huaqing University, Chemical Industry Design institutes and other units do this work.”

"What is your purpose for doing this?" Wang Hongsheng asked.

Qin Hai laughed and said: "Uncle Wang is making fun of me. I am a businessman, and the purpose of doing things is naturally to make money. I think there will be a blowout in the demand for ethylene in the Chinese market in the future. At that time, the market demand may not be 2 million. Tons, but 4 million tons, 10 million, or even tens of millions of tons. It would be a pity not to occupy such a large market.”

Wang Hongsheng shook his head and said, "I don't think things are that simple, right? If you just want to occupy the ethylene market, you can import ethylene devices from abroad. Why do you have to do research and development yourself? It's like you want to eat eggs, obviously You can buy it in the market, but you have to raise a flock of hens to lay eggs, isn't it superfluous?"