Chapter 53: billion investment in place! Lucy, I want to see the aircraft carrier!

Ballroom.

There were delicious dishes in front of the three people, but no one chose to pick up their chopsticks.

"Cooperate with Daxia in research and development? I think forget it."

Abdul didn't even hesitate, and decisively refused: "Excuse me, given our current capabilities in Saudi Arabia, this research and development path is not the direction we want to take."

One of the reasons for this is that Saudi Arabia is rich. Their oil reserves are the second largest in the world, and they are all of the best quality oil. You can find oil if you dig in any pit. Their natural gas, gold, silver and other minerals are also among the best in the world.

You can get a lot of money just by digging something underground. Why do you need to do research and development to earn hard-earned money?
The second point is that Saudi Arabia is not suitable for scientific research and development. Let’s not talk about whether it has the ability or not. 95% of the land area is desert. There are not many places that can be developed. Where can you build factories? Where can you build cities?
Moreover, although Saudi Arabia is rich, it only appears rich because it is too small and its finances are all controlled by the royal family. Last year, the country's GDP was only more than 400 billion US dollars. The GDP of the southern provinces of Daxia is much higher than theirs.

Therefore, their current focus is basically on tourism, derivative industries, financial investment and other industries, in preparation for the days when oil resources are depleted in the future.

Scientific research and development? Whoever wants to go can go. Saudi Arabia just needs to buy, buy and buy.

"Mr. Ambassador Abdul, I think you misunderstood."

Zhang Yuli was not in a hurry. He smiled and said, "The cooperative development project is not what you think. You can think of it as a commercial project. We are looking for angel investors."

Who said this project must be a scientific research project? Can't Daxia discuss business cooperation with Saudi Arabia?

"Business project cooperation? What kind of cooperation?" Abdul's eyes revealed doubt.

All the previous cooperation with Daxia was either to sell weapons or to trick them into investing money in the research and development of some military equipment and high-tech projects.

"Ambassador Abdul, we come here with great sincerity."

Zheng Lixing knew it was his turn to take action, and he immediately chimed in: "The project we want to cooperate with you on this time is called small drones, which have great potential in the commercial field."

"A small drone? What is its use?" Abdul frowned.

Currently, all drones in the market are for military use. For example, the Skylark drone, which played a huge role in the battlefield in Afghanistan a few years ago, was mainly used for reconnaissance.

He has never heard of it in the commercial field, and is not sure what applications it has at present.

Zheng Lixing explained: "This model is only a few dozen centimeters in size, but it has a remote sensing real-time transmission capability of several kilometers, a flight altitude of one to two thousand meters, and a flight time of about half an hour. The civilian market can use it to take pictures of various scenic spots and explore places that were previously inaccessible."

"At the same time, drones can also be equipped with various tools, which can play a variety of functions. For example, by adding a clamp, they can remotely drop items in a designated area. This can improve the efficiency of many production processes."

"Hush, remotely controlled delivery to a designated area several kilometers away?" Abdul shuddered.

The first thing that came to his mind was not the benefits this thing could have in the commercial field, but if this thing were used for reconnaissance and air strikes on the battlefields of the Middle East, wouldn't it be invincible?
"The most important thing is that its production cost may only be a few hundred yuan." Zheng Lixing raised an imperceptible smile at the corner of his mouth.

Now that things have come to this, if this rich man is still not interested, then he can only ask for temporary approval of funds from above.

"A few hundred dollars?"

"No, it's the production cost of several hundred RMB." Zhang Yuli said with a smile.

Abdul was a little tempted: "How much money do I need to invest?"

"We in Saudi Arabia do not need any R&D cooperation. All we need is Daxia to guarantee that after the equipment is developed, it will be sold to us at the lowest price."

Saudi Arabia has no interest in any R&D cooperation, but no matter how much of this kind of weapons and equipment they have, it is not enough.

What's more, this thing is so cheap. Abdul said he would buy a million or eight hundred thousand of them just for fun.

"Ten billion RMB, Ambassador Abdul." Zhang Yuli held up a finger and said, "In the future, we will sell the small drones we produce to you at the lowest price, and you will get 10% of the net profit."

Abdul shook his head: "No, we can lend Daxia 10 billion interest-free loans, and we don't need any profit sharing."

"The condition remains that this type of drone must be sold to us at the lowest price, and Saudi Arabia has the right of first refusal for subsequent development models."

He was not worried that Daxia would do the same as those people on Wall Street and turn the net profit into a loss to steal the 10% profit share. There was no need for that. Ten billion yuan was only a little over a billion U.S. dollars. For Saudi Arabia, wasn't it just the money from selling oil for a day or two? Wasn't it enough for them to buy a few Dongfeng engines back then?
Instead, if he directly lent the money to Daxia as an interest-free loan, not only could he meet his own needs, he would not be involved in such a complicated situation, and Daxia would also owe him a favor.

After all, Saudi Arabia has always positioned itself as a chess piece that follows orders, rather than a chess player who dares to overturn the table.

After continuing the negotiation for half an hour.

"President Zhang, Academician Zheng, I am very optimistic about this cooperation project." Abdul stood up and stretched out his hand: "I will go back and inform the royal family. I believe it will be approved soon."

"Then we will wait for your good news."

Zhang Yuli and Zheng Lixing shook hands with him and watched him leave the banquet hall.

Until Abdul's back disappeared.

Zhang Yuli sighed deeply and said, "We have basically reached an agreement on the Saudi side. The next step is to negotiate with Persia."

"This is not easy to deal with. The grievances between these two countries have accumulated for many years."

This is not just because of the cooperation on small drones, but the entire Middle East and even the world situation requires both parties to sit down and shake hands and make peace.

The friction between these two countries has not only started in recent years; it has been a problem since ancient times.

Although they are both in the Middle East, one is Persian and the other is Arab, and they believe in two different sects of Islam. It is much more difficult to resolve the conflict between the two than to melt a thousand-year-old iceberg. "Lao Zhang, you are thinking too far ahead. Let's take it one step at a time."

Zheng Lixing did not have this doubt: "When the two are facing the same enemy, even the murderer of their father can work together."

The others have been fighting for hundreds of years, how can Daxia reconcile them with just a few words?

Being hasty will only lead to mistakes. Only by waiting for the situation to change can we seize the opportunity for the two sides to reach a consensus on cooperation, put aside their prejudices, and seek the greatest interests of the entire Middle East.

However, a handshake between Persia and Saudi Arabia is probably what the United States, Europe, the United States and other countries least want to see.

"You make sense." Zhang Yuli nodded and took another look at the dishes on the table: "I haven't eaten any of these dishes yet. It's a waste to leave them here. I'll ask the waiter to pack them up and take them back."

I haven't even touched my chopsticks yet, so I'd rather avoid wasting food.

"Then let's have a couple of drinks tonight." Zheng Lixing said cheerfully. This not only solved the most scarce research and development funds for the H-20, but also laid a foreshadowing for the subsequent Saudi-Persian reconciliation. Today can be said to be a great harvest.

the other side.

LLNL laboratory, on a forest path leading to the main laboratory building.

Two people were chatting side by side, and of course their speed could only be described as moving rather than walking.

After all, you have to slack off at work. What's the point of going to work if you don't slack off? If you don't slack off today, won't you dare to work 996 tomorrow? What will you dare to do the day after tomorrow? Lu Ze said he didn't dare to think about it!

Lu Ze suddenly remembered something: "By the way, Lucy, I have something to give you."

After saying that, he took out a long object from his backpack: "The 'Magic Wand' you've always wanted, but it took me a lot of effort to find it."

Although I didn't put in a lot of effort, the Quesanti brother must have put in a lot of effort to get it.

"Hey, it's indeed similar to the one in the video. Do we still sell this here in America?" Lucy's eyes lit up.

She had just said it casually before, but Lu Ze actually helped her find it.

Although Lucy certainly knows that there are no "little fairies" in the world, but who is not a little girl? Maybe there really are?

"Lu Ze, thank you so much. I'll treat you to a big dinner today." Lucy felt that this kind of gratitude must be resolved by treating you to a big dinner of the highest quality.

"Don't worry, I have something else for you, I hope you'll like it." Lu Ze was a little embarrassed and took out a long and thick cylindrical object again.

Looking at the thing Lu Ze was holding, Lucy, with her rich experience, could tell what it was at a glance: "Flashlight?"

“Yes, it’s a solar-powered flashlight.”

Lu Ze was a little embarrassed to say: "But it needs to be aimed at the light source for ten seconds before it can light up for one second."

"What if there is no light source?" Lucy asked, tilting her head.

"Then it definitely doesn't light up."

After Lu Ze finished speaking, he thought Lucy would look confused, but he saw her frowning.

"Something seems wrong here. Pointing at the light source for ten seconds, it lights up for one second? This is impossible."

Lucy seemed to be thinking, "Is its energy conversion efficiency that high? The efficiency of photosynthesis of plants in utilizing sunlight is only 1-5%, and photovoltaic power generation is only around -%. It actually only requires a light source?"

What counts as a light source? Is sunlight considered light? Moonlight? Isn't light a visible electromagnetic wave in essence?
And if this flashlight does not have any requirements for the light source, then wouldn't it be a perpetual motion machine? Inputting a smaller energy light source in exchange for a larger energy output, even a perpetual motion machine is not as powerful as it.

"Hiss" Lu Ze took a breath of cold air, it seemed to be true.

The energy conversion efficiency is so high, can a blue object really achieve this?
Thinking of this, he picked up the flashlight and pressed the switch, but saw that it did not respond at all.

After being exposed to the sun for more than a minute, the flashlight showed a weak battery level, emitting a very weak flash before dimming.

"What the hell is this causing the charging problem?" Lu Ze cursed in his heart.

'So this solar flashlight is charged by solar energy, right?'

Even if you have charged the battery, you still need to aim it at a light source for ten seconds before you can use it for one second. You are simply a waste and you are not worthy of being compared with the genius inventor Leonardo da Vinci.

As expected, how could a blue object be some kind of incredible black technology? He was simply overthinking it.

"Well, it looks like it's just a toy." Lu Ze smiled awkwardly and handed the flashlight over.

"I really like this kind of toy. The inventor is very creative." Lucy took it and her eyes lit up.

Suddenly, she seemed to think of something: "By the way, Lu Ze, the Navy Open Day will be here in two days. Are we going to see the destroyer?"

Time flies by unknowingly and today is already Thursday again.

"Lucy, I want to see the aircraft carrier!" Lu Ze said seriously.

Why would he need destroyers? He's just going to get aircraft carriers!

(First update, the next chapter should be around 6pm. Please give me your monthly votes and recommendation tickets)
(End of this chapter)