Chapter 12: Success is the Only Option

【12】Success is the Only Option

The silver Jiabao minivan, flanked by two black sedans for protection, drove like a ghost toward the trans-temporal landing site located in the suburbs of Beijing. Wei Guo was driving, Xu Qishan sat in the passenger seat, and Cao Xiaoqiang sat in the second row with Minister Li. In the very back of the vehicle were 25 iron crates, covered by an inconspicuous, tattered cloth. Each crate contained twenty kilograms of gold.

"Xiaoqiang, this is the maximum amount of gold that can be mobilized from the state's current treasury reserves. Do you realize how heavy the burden on your shoulders is?" Minister Li said with extreme solemnity.

Seeing Xiaoqiang nod heavily, he paused before continuing

"The nation and its people have placed a high-stakes bet on you. This mission! Success is the only option, failure is not permitted! The Chairman and the Premier trust you deeply, and I have great confidence in you. I believe you will complete the mission perfectly and return in triumph. Remember! Be careful in everything, be cautious and then cautious again, and put safety above all else!" Minister Li emphasized, his tone firm.

"I know. This will be the first mission I complete for the country. I will give it my all and strive to deliver a result that satisfies the nation," Xiaoqiang replied.

"Take this gun." After a moment of silence, Minister Li suddenly pulled a pistol from the briefcase beside him.

"I didn't intend for you to carry a firearm during your transit, but since you are carrying so much gold, if you are exposed and targeted, your life could be in danger. Take it for self-defense. Remember, do not use it unless absolutely necessary. Keep the existence of the gun strictly confidential; do not let anyone there know about it," Minister Li instructed gravely.

"I understand, Minister Li."

Xiaoqiang took the pistol to examine it. It was a 9mm Luger P08, fully loaded with eight rounds and well-maintained. After Minister Li taught Xiaoqiang how to disengage the safety and other operations, Xiaoqiang carefully tucked the gun into the inner pocket of his suit. Although he had never fired a gun in his life, the solid weight of the iron made him feel incredibly confident.

Soon, the car approached the landing site. From a distance, Xiaoqiang could see that the area was heavily guarded; the entire region had been cordoned off by the military. The spot where the fifty heavy trucks had originally been parked became the center of the perimeter. Upon arrival, Xiaoqiang got out of the car to shake hands and bid farewell to Minister Li. Under the watchful eyes of Minister Li, Wei Guo, and Xu Qishan, Xiaoqiang activated the blood sacrifice.

After turning the headlights back on, Xiaoqiang drove toward home. The Beijing night was filled with a thin mist. Xiaoqiang parked the car downstairs and began moving the gold. Fortunately, there was an elevator in the 21st century; otherwise, Xiaoqiang would have surely broken his back. After more than an hour of struggling, all twenty-five crates of gold were moved into his home.

Xiaoqiang glanced at his watch; it was already eleven o'clock at night. He opened the refrigerator to make a bowl of instant noodles, but before he could even eat, he fell into a deep sleep on the bed, snoring.

Early the next morning, Xiaoqiang contacted Manager Feng of the Yayi Gold Shop using the business card. Xiaoqiang claimed that he had underground channels in the south for acquiring gold and currently had 500 kilograms of spot gold on hand that he wished to offload to Manager Feng.

"Boss Cao, your volume this time is quite large. My shop hasn't finished digesting the last batch of goods we brought in. It’s a bit difficult for me to take in so much at once."

"Then what do you suggest?" Xiaoqiang asked.

Manager Feng replied over the phone: "Don't worry, leave this to me. I've been in the gold business for many years and have a bit of a reputation in the industry. It won't be a problem to find buyers for this gold. I can take 200 kilograms myself, and I'll help my friends take the remaining 300 kilograms. How about this: wait for my call. Once I've made the arrangements, I'll notify you immediately. It'll be quick, give me an hour."

Xiaoqiang hung up the phone and waited anxiously for Manager Feng's call.

As it turned out, it took less than half an hour for Manager Feng to call back, and they agreed on a time for him to come and pick up the goods.

The transaction went very smoothly. Although Xiaoqiang was nervous from start to finish, fearing the kind of "black-on-black" double-crosses or robberies often seen on TV, it turned out he was overthinking it. The Luger in his pocket lay quietly, finding no use.

After Manager Feng and Manager Lü from the Daxiang Gold Shop, who had accompanied him, carefully inspected and weighed the goods, they transferred the funds into Xiaoqiang's account on the spot using a laptop. Xiaoqiang checked his account on his own computer, confirmed the receipt of funds, and signaled for them to call their people up to move the crates. Manager Feng then called the security guards waiting in the armored truck downstairs to come up and move the boxes.

"This is the last crate. That's it then, happy doing business with you." Xiaoqiang shook hands with Managers Feng and Lü to say goodbye.

"Boss Cao is truly remarkable. Your gold acquisition business is so large. There are so many small buyers on the market, and the stronger ones can only acquire ten or twenty kilograms a year at most. If I didn't know better, I'd think Boss Cao owned a gold mine, haha," Manager Lü said with a laugh.

"Well, I have many friends who run small gold mines. Don't worry, gentlemen, there will be more business in the future. The first time is for getting to know each other, the second time we're old friends," Xiaoqiang replied smoothly.

After seeing the two managers off, Xiaoqiang checked his account again as if he still felt uneasy. Looking at the more than 150 million in funds, he relaxed and leaned back in his chair, thinking, "This 500 kilograms of gold would only be worth about 560,000 USD in 1949, which has limited utility. But bringing it to the 21st century to procure supplies—as long as I complete the tasks on my list, I can bring about huge changes to the country. The leftover money will be mine, and I won't have to worry about food or drink for the rest of my life."

Xiaoqiang took a sip of tea to steady his nerves and opened his computer again. First, he went online to purchase 30 million worth of various coal mining-related equipment. According to the "156 Projects" to be signed between China and the Soviet Union in early 1950, ten of the first fifty projects were coal mines, and the total number of coal mine projects would later increase to as many as 25, with a total annual output of over 15 million tons. In the 21st century where Xiaoqiang was now, a single mining area of a large coal enterprise could reach such capacity, and the national capacity exceeded 3.2 billion tons!

Xiaoqiang knew that domestic coal mining from 1949 to 1957 mainly used Soviet technical methods, changing traditional "hole-drilling" mining to long-wall mining, and replacing the primitive, backward "rat-hole" method with inclined deep-well shafts, mining from various depths, and using mine cars to transport coal out through large, railed tunnels. The method of coal extraction changed from hand picks to electric drills and blasting. Today's coal mines use crawler-type roadheaders that rumble forward, and drum-type shearers that dig coal and feed it onto conveyor belts—it is completely mechanized. The tunnel support technology used by the Soviets at the time was just wooden supports, which were sufficient, but certainly far less safe than the I-beam and U-shaped steel supports of the 1960s, let alone today's hydraulic supports or even self-advancing hydraulic supports.

In fact, the best way to increase production in that era was to replace iron picks with electric drills. So, Xiaoqiang consulted experienced merchants, made a list, and finally ordered two thousand various electric mining drills. These included fixed rock drills mounted on iron frames, as well as various mobile dry and wet drills held by hand, plus a large quantity of various drill bits and consumables. The total price was 30 million. According to the merchants, these devices could conservatively produce 60 million tons annually if used in small coal mines. Taking them to 1949, in that era of high spirits, the efficiency would likely be even higher.

After completing the coal mining equipment procurement, Xiaoqiang quickly searched for several paper-making equipment suppliers online. After bargaining, he purchased a specialty paper production line for 7 million to produce paper for explosives; he bought a specialty watermark paper production line for 10 million; then, in a fit of eccentricity, he spent an additional 2 million outside the plan to buy a high-end toilet paper production line to satisfy his own needs in 1949. The total spent was 35 million. Xiaoqiang claimed to be a trader importing for a certain African country and agreed with the manufacturers that all equipment must come with detailed debugging and installation manuals and discs, ensuring that even an illiterate person could complete the debugging and subsequent production tasks by following the manuals.

Xiaoqiang then ordered 200 DVD players and 200 standard CRT televisions so that he could play instructional discs for worker training.

Following Minister Li's instructions, Xiaoqiang contacted a warehouse leasing agent, renewed the warehouse lease for one year, and also rented the 5,000-square-meter large indoor warehouse next to the open-air one.

After spending two days completing the equipment procurement, Xiaoqiang called Zhou Lan, the "glasses girl" from his company, and asked her out for a meal. Zhou Lan readily agreed.

After waiting for Zhou Lan at the entrance of the restaurant, the two went to the private room Xiaoqiang had booked.

"Zhou Lan, my business is developing very well, and I'm preparing to start my own company. How about you quit your job and come help me? Compensation is not an issue; I'll give you a monthly salary of 10,000, with bonuses calculated separately," Xiaoqiang said straight to the point before the food was even served.

"Wow, Xiaoqiang, you really made it!" Zhou Lan was both surprised and happy, almost jumping up.

"It's alright, I'm importing equipment for foreign merchants and earning some commission. If you come, you'll be the vice president of the company, and you'll be in charge when I'm away." As he spoke, Xiaoqiang took 120,000 in cash out of his bag.

"This is your salary for the first year. If you agree, take the money." Xiaoqiang looked into Zhou Lan's eyes, waiting for her reply.

"With such good conditions, anyone who doesn't take it is a fool. From today on, please take care of me, Boss." Zhou Lan looked at the stacks of RMB, surprised and delighted, and said with a smile.

"Don't be so formal with me. Just keep calling me Xiaoqiang. I will always remember that the day I resigned, you were the only one who ran out of the company to see me off."

Zhou Lan smiled and said nothing.

After the meal, Xiaoqiang took Zhou Lan to an ATM to deposit the money, and the two parted ways to go home.

A week passed, and Xiaoqiang and Zhou Lan were busy as bees, completing the company registration, renting office space, and hiring thirty-five employees specifically for procurement.

First was the procurement of various books and materials. All kinds of university textbooks and scientific and technological books from libraries were continuously sent to the warehouse. However, Xiaoqiang had no interest in the humanities and only ordered everyone to purchase books and materials related to science and engineering.

Second was the purchase of one thousand new computers for scientific calculations, totaling 10 million. There were countless discs of pirated utility software.

After that came the main event: various machine tools. One must know that machine tools are the foundation of industry—the machines that make machines—and are known as "industrial mother machines." The more developed and advanced the foundation, the more developed and advanced the industry can be. As a trans-temporal traveler, Xiaoqiang understood how important this was.

Setting aside CNC machine tools, ordinary machine tools are divided into three categories: cutting, forging, and casting.

Cutting machine tools are further divided into ten types: lathes, milling machines, grinding machines, drilling machines, sawing machines, boring machines, planing machines, slotting machines, drill-milling machines, and thread-processing machines. If there were special production needs, these machines could be used to process and produce various customized special-purpose machine tools.

Forging machine tools are mainly divided into punch presses, shearing machines, bending machines, gear processing machines, thread rolling machines, presses, and plate rolling machines.

Casting machine tools are simpler: cold heading machines and die-casting machines.

Thus, the procurement began. Over a hundred models of various machine tools, with at least two of each model, totaling more than eight hundred general-purpose processing machine tools, were purchased. Xiaoqiang was cautious; the models he bought were not too advanced and were easy to replicate, yet even so, they were already heaven-defying. With such processing capabilities, if taken to 1949, it would absolutely be a world-class precision processing base.

Take the cold heading machine, for example. The world's first cold heading machine appeared in Germany and was used for shell casing processing during World War II. It can shape metal blanks to specified dimensions and shapes at room temperature. One machine costs five or six million.

Die-casting machines spray molten metal into molds under high pressure to cast them into shape and are divided into hot-chamber and cold-chamber types. Each machine also costs several million.

On machine tool procurement, Xiaoqiang spent nearly 60 million, and he also requested a large number of detailed machine tool operation manuals and instructional discs from the merchants.

Finally, Xiaoqiang also bought a blood testing device. This equipment could analyze collected blood samples to prevent virus-infected blood from entering the blood bank. Xiaoqiang hoped this would improve the safety factor of blood transfusions in 1949.

Watching the containers in the warehouse fill up with nearly 10 million worth of books and materials from various disciplines, and with all the specialty paper and machine tool equipment having arrived, it was now November 18th. After completing the planned tasks, Xiaoqiang still had over 5 million in cash in his account.

Next, Xiaoqiang put 3 million into the company account, told Zhou Lan he was going abroad, and instructed her to manage the company and complete the follow-up tasks. He requested that she and the employees not go to the warehouse for three days, as it was now under the control of the purchasing company, and he had already completed the handover with them; they would be moving the supplies away.

Afterward, Xiaoqiang drove the licensed Jiabao alone to the warehouse at night.

Following the instructions of the Blood Soul, Xiaoqiang used an ultra-large soul array for the blood sacrifice this time. After drawing coordinates at the four corners of the warehouse, Xiaoqiang started the blood sacrifice transit in the center of the soul array. In an instant, all the supplies and equipment within the soul array coordinates in the massive warehouse disappeared.