Material Empire

U.S. Army Materiel Command, Alexandria, Virginia, USA.

An American officer in a well-dressed military uniform led two entourages striding along the corridor to the door of the reception room. The soldier standing by the door pushed open the door of the reception room in good time, and asked the officer to come in. gesture. The officer nodded slightly, and then walked into the reception room.

On the sofa in the reception room, there were 6 Chinese people sitting, namely Liang Rongjian, Luo Kaimeng, Xiao Weihao, Qin Hai, Ning Mo, and Yu Haitao. The first three were representatives sent by 70X to the United States to promote the new body armor, while Qin Hai and the other three were basically here to watch the fun. Originally, Xu Guoquan just hoped that Qin Hai could accompany Liang Rongjian and his party to the United States so that he could answer some technical questions at any time. But Qin Hai said that his little brothers Ning Mo and Yu Haitao were both very interested in the American soldiers and wanted to follow them to see the excitement, so Xu Guoquan had no choice but to nod in agreement.

Regarding the issue of selling new body armor to the U.S. military, the Science and Industry Committee was a little hesitant, but Xu Guoquan couldn't stand Xu Guoquan's repeated pleading on the phone, and finally had no choice but to agree. As Xu Guoquan himself analyzed, this new type of body armor is not a product included in the scope of military research, and it is difficult to define its classification. Considering that the 70X Institute is indeed in financial difficulties and anxiously waiting for the extra money to buy rice for the pot, the leaders of the Science and Technology Committee are happy to pretend to be deaf and dumb, allowing Xu Guoquan to act cheaply.

After confirming that this business can be done, Xu Guoquan immediately arranged for Liang Rongjian, Luo Kaimeng and Xiao Weihao to go to the United States on behalf of 70X. In fact, when they came from Tongjiang Province this time, they had already made such an arrangement, otherwise they wouldn't have brought an interpreter to Jintang.

Since the development and production of the body armor was done by Qin Hai, Xu Guoquan asked Qin Hai to arrange a technician for him to go to the United States with Liang Rongjian and his party. What he never expected was that Qin Hai actually proposed to do it himself. For this, Xu Guoquan naturally welcomed it with both hands. Qin Hai is able to earn hundreds of millions of dollars at such a young age. He must be a business genius. Being able to let Qin Hai take the lead has doubled his chances of success this time.

Qin Hai agreed to go to the United States with Liang Rongjian and others on the condition that he would bring Ning Mo and Yu Haitao with him, which Xu Guoquan would naturally not refuse. Anyway, Qin Hai said that he, Ning and Yu are all at their own expense. , does not need to be borne by 70X, why does Xu Guoquan object?

The group took a plane in Pujiang, flew directly to New York, and then transferred to Alexandria. Xiao Weihao and Liang Rongjian were in charge of the liaison with the US military. Although Qin Hai was quite capable, he still couldn't handle this kind of military affairs.

After some twists and turns, they finally obtained permission from the U.S. Army Material Command, and were able to go to the headquarters to negotiate the sale of body armor. After they sat for a few minutes in the reception room of Army Materiel Command, the Lord finally arrived.

"Mr. McCartney, we meet again."

Seeing the American officer enter the door, Liang Rongjian froze for a moment, then stood up, walked towards the man, and at the same time greeted him affectionately in English.

The U.S. military officer was McCartney, deputy director of the Second Bureau of the Army Materiel Command. He was notified the first day that a Chinese company was coming to visit today to sell their new body armor, and he was in charge of receiving it. He did not expect that there were actually his acquaintances among the sales representatives of Chinese companies.

Not only did Liang Rongjian and McCartney meet before, but they were also close friends. It's a long story, and it goes back to the so-called "paradigm of peace" in the 1980s. After the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and the United States in 1979, there was a period of "honeymoon period" between the two countries. In order to deal with the common enemy the Soviet Union, the United States launched a number of military cooperation with China, including providing China with some advanced military equipment. It was what was then called a model of peace.

Liang Rongjian, as a member of the military scientific research system, was sent to the United States for a year-long study during that period. At that time, McCartney was the person in charge of the United States. quite close. This time, Xu Guoquan arranged for Liang Rongjian to be the person in charge of sales in the United States, and he also took a fancy to his experience of studying in the United States.

At the end of the 1980s, the relationship between China and the United States broke down, and the Peace Model Project naturally came to an end. After that, Liang Rongjian never heard from McCartney again. Who would have thought that they would meet again on such an occasion.

Hearing Liang Rongjian's greeting, and taking a closer look at the other person's face, McCartney also laughed, stepped forward, and gave Liang Rongjian a bear hug without saying anything.

"Oh, Mr. Liang, it's great to see you." McCannis said unabashedly.

When Americans do things, they don't have so many concerns about political correctness. To put it bluntly, Sino-US relations are still on the eve of breaking the ice, and there are still some taboos between them. The fact that McCartney was able to treat Liang Rongjian with such enthusiasm made the eyes of Qin Hai, Xiao Weihao and others shine.

"Mr. Liang, is there a reason why you are not wearing a military uniform?" McCartney asked Liang Rongjian to sit down, then sat on the sofa opposite him, and asked Liang Rongjian.

"I'm no longer in the military." Liang Rongjian replied with a smile.

"Really?" McCartney looked at Liang Rongjian with a teasing look in his eyes.

Liang Rongjian nodded seriously, and said: "I have left the military field, and now I am the sales representative of China Qilin Company, and I came to the United States for business."

If you want to sell body armor to the US military, of course you cannot use the name of 70X, because the relationship between the two parties is still a little tense, and it is too sensitive to conduct transactions directly between the military. Liang Rongjian came this time in the name of a company called Qilin. This "Qilin" is actually the homonym of 70 in 70X Institute, and this company was temporarily established one day before Liang Rongjian left Jintang. Even the business registration process was completely omitted. company.

McCartney is a smart man. He had dealt with the Chinese military a lot and knew some of the rules of the Chinese military. Liang Rongjian said that he had already left the military. He was a salesman of Qilin Company. McCartney knew very well that this was just a cover to deceive others. It must be inextricably linked with the military.

"I heard that you have developed a new type of body armor. Is there anything special about it?" McCartney no longer asked Liang Rongjian's identity, but directly entered the topic of today's meeting.

"We have used a new type of fiber that is different from Kevlar to manufacture this new type of body armor. In theory, its protection capacity is equivalent to 2.5 times that of Kevlar. We have also developed a body armor based on this new type of fiber. military helmet." Liang Rongjian replied according to the caliber discussed with Qin Hai along the way.

McCartney asked, "Did you bring a sample?"

"Bring it." Qin Hai got up and took a backpack, took out a body armor and a helmet from it, and handed them to Liang Rongjian. After Liang Rongjian took it, he handed it over to McCartney.

"Such a thin body armor?" McCarnes was slightly taken aback as he got the body armor and helmet. From the appearance, he can see that this kind of body armor is lighter and thinner than Kevlar body armor, even if the protection performance is similar, its technical level is higher than that of Kevlar body armor. In his mind, the equipment level of the Chinese army is far behind that of the US military. It is unexpected that in such a field as body armor, the Chinese have come to the forefront.

After looking at it for a while, he handed the two pieces of equipment to the two attendants who had just come in with him, asking them to study them too. The two attendants held the body armor and helmets and looked left and right, their faces gradually becoming serious.

"What fiber are you using, can you tell me?" One of the attendants asked Liang Rongjian after studying for a while.

"HSHMPE." Six letters popped out of Qin Hai's mouth.

"High-strength high-modulus polyethylene?" The follower directly reported the full name of the English abbreviation. Ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene can also be called high-strength high-modulus polyethylene. This material has come out as early as the 1970s, but it has not yet achieved industrial production. Some people in the United States are also studying the industrial production of this material, so this subordinate of McCartney knows about it.

"Mr. Seitzler is a professional researcher of high-strength fibers, and he has a deep research on Kevlar fibers." McCartney pointed to his entourage and introduced to Liang Rongjian and others.

"Dear sir, as far as I know, high-strength and high-modulus polyethylene fibers cannot be industrialized at present. If your body armor is made of this fiber, can you guarantee sufficient output?" Seitzler asked bluntly .

Qin Hai smiled slightly and said: "Mr. Seitzler, what you know is out of date. In fact, we have already achieved mass production of high-strength high-modulus polyethylene. If you need it, we can guarantee no less than 5 Thousands of pieces of this new body armor."

"Mass production? How did you do it?" Seitzler was a little surprised. He knew the difficulty of this technology, and he hadn't heard of China's accumulation in this area before. Why all of a sudden, the Chinese claimed What about the mass production technology?

Qin Hai smiled and said nothing. Seitzler's question was too abrupt. Who would easily reveal the core technology?

"Sorry, Sorry..." Seitzler also reacted, knowing that he asked a question that shouldn't be asked, and he explained: "Sir, please don't get me wrong, I don't want to know your technical secrets, I just wonder that you are When did the research on this fiber start? As far as I know, the Dutch company that first obtained the patent for high-strength high-modulus polyethylene fiber could not achieve mass production. Otherwise, this fiber should have been used in the manufacture of body armor long ago. "