135: Chapter 135
"My Lord, are you certain you wish to use Melta Weapons?" Father Kallun of the Adeptus Mechanicus asked, unwilling to give up.
"Yes, Callun. You and I both know very well that we have no other choice."
Fu Haoran spoke plainly to make the point clear.
"We don't have high-power Laser Cannons; we can't achieve a kill with a single shot."
"Ordinary cannons could do it, but their powerful recoil means they can't be used while moving, or the vehicle will flip over."
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"We have even less stock of Plasma Cannons; we simply can't sustain a decisive field battle with them."
"Only Melta Weapons are currently the only anti-armor weapons we have that can reliably penetrate leman russ armor."
Father Kallun knew Fu Haoran was right, but he also voiced his own difficulties: "Without a complete STC, we can at most produce twenty units a week. Three hundred is simply impossible."
"I know what you want to do, but if the Mechanicus headquarters ever finds out about this, you will be directly labeled a heretic."
Fu Haoran didn't take it seriously at all. Those 'cogboys' always said one thing and did another; in their paranoia, they had caused plenty of trouble themselves.
Seeing that Fu Haoran wasn't taking it seriously, Callun felt it necessary to provide some background information.
"My Lord, Melta Weapons are rare even among the Imperium's Astra Militarum and Space Marines."
"In the Astra Militarum, there is even a regulation that a man may die, but the gun must not be lost."
"Even if an entire company is wiped out, the first priority when reinforcements arrive isn't to save people, but to check the condition of the Melta Guns."
"In fact, in the eyes of us Tech-Priests, the value of a soldier is far less than that of a Melta Weapon."
"So are you sure you want to distribute such precious technology to a suicide squad... even if they are just consumables that will be scrapped after a few dozen shots?"
Fu Haoran flipped open the blueprints, his tone flat:
"They are precious because they cannot be mass-produced."
"Once we can mass-produce them, they will no longer be equipment more precious than human lives."
Fu Haoran loathed the logic of the Adeptus Mechanicus from the bottom of his heart.
They held only blind religious worship for technology, sealing away the fundamental techniques of human survival as holy relics on high shelves. Every other word out of their mouths was about how things couldn't be replicated or how each one broken was one fewer in existence, literally turning technologies that could change the fate of mortals into lost archeotech.
"What I want is not a family heirloom, but a weapon that can win this battle. Even if they are all scrapped after the war, it will be worth it."
Father Kallun looked at the components broken down to the extreme on the blueprints, then at Fu Haoran's calm but unquestionable gaze. He suddenly realized that this Governor was never negotiating with him; he was merely informing him of the outcome.
Father Kallun was silent for a long time before finally speaking: "Very well, as you wish. However, I must warn you, I can make no guarantees regarding durability."
Fu Haoran patted him on the shoulder and turned to walk out.
The communicator suddenly rang, and Wade's voice came through urgently: "Governor, Cole's vanguard battalion has already left the Hive City, three whole days faster than expected!"
Fu Haoran's footsteps paused, his tone turning a few degrees colder: "Understood. I'll be back as soon as possible."
Now, he had to return to 2K World immediately.
Only two weeks had passed in the Warhammer World, but over there, he had nearly five months—enough time to complete the mass production of melta components.
Fu Haoran had split the Melta Gun into core and non-core parts.
The non-core structural components were all assigned to 2K World for mass production.
As for the core melta chambers and focusing crystals, as long as 2K World could barely meet the standards, they were also the responsibility of 2K World.
At worst, 2K World would complete the basic blanks for the core parts, which would then be handed over to Father Kallun for further processing, precision calibration, and assembly.
Fu Haoran even considered taking the risk of handing some rare materials over to suppliers for processing.
...
Shanghai, International Convention Center on the top floor of the CBD.
The conference room, which could hold two hundred people, was packed to capacity. From local state-owned machinery plants and civilian product subsidiaries of military industrial groups in Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Guangdong, to small and medium processing plants, and even individual owners of hardware workshops—everyone had come.
In a corner of the very last row, two men in plain clothes sat, dense streams of data jumping across their laptop screens.
Old Zhou from the Third Bureau of National Security frowned and whispered to the technician beside him: "Keep a close eye. Fu Haoran is already on the high-level key monitoring list."
Old Zhou really couldn't figure it out. A month ago, when he took over, the subject was just a young man in his late twenties who had somehow obtained his first pot of gold and then started an entrepreneurial journey of buying everything in sight.
Unlike other nouveau riche, who spent money like water on quick-cash grey industries in the hope of creating another myth once they had wealth...
...or at the very least, invested in finance or simply sold courses to scam money.
But this guy was different; he didn't touch a single financial product.
He did touch real estate, but he was building factories!
And he was building factories in America!
Was this commendable courage, or just having more money than sense?
In a sense, he did spend money like water—buying land, buying factories, buying ports!
Building factories wasn't enough; he even started a shipyard!
I mean, shipyards in America are almost extinct. What were you thinking, going there to open a shipyard?
Incredibly, he started right off by building massive ships of over a hundred thousand tons!
People who didn't know better would think he was building new aircraft carriers for America!
It caused quite a misunderstanding on many military forums.
Yet, such a shipyard, established for less than a year, first headhunted people on a massive scale, then took on American ship repair orders, raking in four to five hundred million US dollars.
You ask how the domestic authorities knew?
Don't forget, all his employees' social security was paid domestically! Then he paid the minimum wage in America.
Other procurement went through domestic channels, so it wasn't hard to calculate the rough costs.
That wasn't all; later, he led tens of thousands of employees to demand unpaid wages by force!
If a group of "terrorists" hadn't appeared in Washington halfway through, that armed wage demand would likely have been unavoidable.
But the subsequent "Campaign to Suppress the Rebellion" was also ridiculous. "Terrorists" that the regular army couldn't handle were dealt with by him leading a group of militia, retaking the capital in just two days.
Although no combat videos were released and the White House tried its best to cover it up, judging by the damage to the city afterward, that battle was no less than a large-scale engagement.
Yet afterward, besides finding damaged American tanks, no other armored vehicles could be found, which was extremely inconsistent with the situation on the ground.
There were too many irrational things about him.
And those were just the things that could be verified. Rumors were even more fantastic, saying he wiped out mercenaries overnight, destroyed century-old families... but none of these could be proven.
Now, his titles were piled up to a terrifying degree—Savior of Washington, the youngest Honorary Major General of the National Guard, specially authorized military supplier, a tech tycoon appearing out of thin air, the overlord of the North American new energy sector, the uncrowned king of Yellowstone Ranch, and an underground king even the CIA feared.
Old Zhou didn't quite believe it.
After all, his rise was too short—only three years at most. How could he have done so many things?
It must be wild rumors from unofficial histories.
"These self-media days, they'll make up anything for traffic. Official history isn't necessarily accurate, but unofficial history is definitely wild!"
Normally this wouldn't matter, but the problem was that Fu Haoran's nationality hadn't changed!
Yes, he hadn't changed his nationality at all, he hadn't even gotten an American green card!
This was very awkward.
Should he be considered a normal entrepreneur or a key monitoring target?
Just as Old Zhou was pondering how to classify the matter, the video conference began.
Looking at the incredibly young Fu Haoran on the screen, a burst of whispering instantly broke out below.
"Is this CEO Fu? He's way too young."
"Yeah, have you heard of him before?"
"No, previously it was all phone and email conversations. This is the first time meeting online."
...
Professor Qin Zhengfeng, arranged by the National Security Bureau, pushed up his glasses, his face full of confusion.
This venue was too chaotic.
On the left sat the chief engineer of a local state-owned enterprise; on the right sat an individual owner of a sheet metal plant. In the front row was the chairman of a listed heavy industry group, and in the back row was a young boss who had just graduated and opened a processing plant. It was as mixed as a vegetable market.
From the chatter, one could even hear that many people were participating for the first time.
However, these whispers instantly fell silent as Fu Haoran began to speak.
"I've called you all here today for only one thing." Fu Haoran got straight to the point, and a diagram showing the breakdown of over a hundred components appeared on the projection. "These are parts for industrial-grade high-precision metal cutting equipment. The blueprints, tolerances, and material requirements are all there."
Another wave of commotion broke out below the stage.
The owner of a small hardware factory leaned into the ear of the person next to him. "Cutting equipment parts? Isn't this stuff common as dirt? Is it really worth calling so many people here?"
No one knew that these seemingly unrelated civilian parts, when put together, formed a Multi-melta from Warhammer 40K.
Fu Haoran had broken down every part to the extreme. Each supplier could receive blueprints for at most two parts. Even if National Security gathered all the blueprints, they wouldn't be able to piece together a complete weapon structure; they would only think it was heavy industrial cutting equipment.
The representatives from state-owned enterprises below the stage leafed through the materials nonchalantly.
They were originally here just to fill the numbers... No, to be precise, it was an arrangement from above to come and hear what this rising star had to say.
As for orders, would their state-owned enterprises care about such 'sesame seeds'?
It wasn't even enough to get stuck in their teeth.
Quite a few companies had similar thoughts; if they hadn't been invited, they wouldn't have come at all.
However, Fu Haoran dropped a second sentence, and the entire venue instantly exploded.
"The order rules are simple. I've already marked the base unit price on the blueprints: 15% profit, a 50% upfront deposit, and the balance settled upon delivery."
"The key point is that for every doubling of production, the unit purchase price will rise by 5%, with no upper limit."
As Fu Haoran's voice fell, the room went dead silent for three seconds, followed by a deafening roar of discussion.
Everyone thought they had misheard.
The rule of commercial procurement has always been that the larger the order volume, the lower the price is pushed.
Where was the logic in the price rising as production increased?
A representative from a local state-owned machinery plant in the front row suddenly stood up. "Mr. Fu, did you say that correctly? Production doubles, and the unit price still goes up?"
A representative from a local state-owned machinery plant in the front row suddenly stood up. "Mr. Fu, did you say that correctly? Production doubles, and the unit price still goes up?"
"I said it correctly." Fu Haoran's tone was calm. "I'm not going to talk to you about costs, and I'm not going to haggle with you. I only want one thing—efficiency."
"Within four months, I want at least three hundred sets of complete parts."
"I'll take as many as you have, and you can deliver at any time. Even if you only complete one set, I will pay according to the minimum standard."
"Don't worry about the funds. I have already deposited the full ten billion in procurement capital into a third-party escrow account at a top law firm in Hong Kong. Payment will be made seconds after delivery, with no delays."
"You can check the status of the funds on the law firm's official website at any time."
A lawyer dressed in a custom suit then stood up and bowed slightly. "Hello everyone, I am Shen Jingheng, a partner at Kaison Law Firm in Hong Kong. Our firm is fully responsible for the fund supervision, contract performance, and compliance auditing of this procurement."
"Mr. Fu Haoran's ten billion in procurement supervision funds has been fully transferred to our firm's dedicated escrow account. Relevant vouchers have been uploaded to the shared documents for this meeting; you may verify them at any time."
Fu Haoran put away his smile, and his tone suddenly turned cold. "But let me give you fair warning. If anyone tries to play games and scam the deposit, I will show you the meaning of being ruthlessly wealthy."
"If I can drop ten billion on an order, I can drop a hundred million to make you, your factory, and even your upstream and downstream suppliers completely vanish from the manufacturing industry."
"The legal team from the Hong Kong law firm will follow up throughout the process. Once a breach of contract or order fraud is discovered, not only will you not get a single cent, but you will also bear huge liquidated damages and even face legal prosecution."
The people below were stunned, but their attention was quickly drawn back to the unprecedented order.
The base profit was 15%. If production doubled and the unit price rose by another 5%, and if production quadrupled, the profit would directly double!
Doing this one job would be worth a whole year of work in the past!
The state-owned enterprise representatives, who had been nonchalant just moments ago, were now interested.
However, the quantity of such an order was too small to be truly significant for them.
But with such considerable profit, they would take it first and let their subsidiaries follow up and see.
However, in the back row of the meeting hall, Qin Zhengfeng, a senior military industry professor arranged by National Security, felt more and more that something was wrong as he looked.
He stared at the cavity taper, pressure-resistant structure tolerances, and material strength requirements on the blueprints, his mind racing.
"No! Civilian cutting equipment has absolutely no use for geometric tolerances at the 0.01mm level. This cavity with a convergent taper is a typical high-energy jet focusing structure!"
"This pressure-resistant shell is meant to withstand instantaneous temperatures of ten thousand degrees and pressures of a hundred megapascals!"
"This is... this seems to be a high-power military weapon!" Qin Zhengfeng's voice grew less certain as he spoke.
"What?" Old Zhou's nerves instantly tightened, thinking he had misheard.
"I shouldn't be wrong!" Qin Zhengfeng pointed at the blueprints. "If these parts are put together, it's a handheld weapon!"
"Quick, contact our state-owned enterprise representatives. Take part of the order at all costs. We must figure out his production scale and final purpose!"
...
Suxi Town, Jiangsu-Zhejiang.
At one o'clock in the morning, Old Xu, a processing factory owner in town, called over a dozen other factory owners to his own plant.
Having been dragged out of their warm beds in the middle of the night, the owners were all cranky and cursing.
"Are you crazy, Old Xu? Not sleeping in the middle of the night, have you gone mad trying to grab orders?"
"Exactly, what order can't wait until morning? My wife thought I was going out to mess around!"
Old Xu didn't waste words. He slammed his phone onto the table and said, "I just got back from Shanghai. Whether we can take on this big job depends on all of you."
Everyone was half-skeptical. Usually, they were all guarded against each other, terrified of having their orders stolen. Why had Old Xu changed his nature today and shared this voluntarily?
Someone couldn't help but speak up. "Old Xu, this order is too weird. Price increases as production doubles? Could it be a scam? Besides, can our small factories even achieve a 0.01mm tolerance?"
Another sighed. "Even if it's not a scam, expanding production requires money. I don't even have working capital in my factory, so how can I do it?"
Old Xu was prepared. He clicked on the shared meeting document. "Look, the ten billion in supervision funds has already arrived, fully guaranteed by the law firm, with a 50% upfront deposit."
"Even if something goes wrong in the end, the deposit is enough for us to break even."
"As for precision, I've already asked Mr. Fu's people. As long as we follow the blueprints, even if there are slight deviations, they will accept the goods. What he wants is quantity, not ultimate precision."
As the projection appeared, everyone was drawn in by the complex content.
However, what everyone cared about wasn't the technical difficulty, but the 'bounty'.
The sheet metal factory owner who had been cursing the loudest asked in confusion, "Old Xu, why is it written wrong here? Price increases as production doubles? And a 50% deposit?"
"That's right, that's the key." Old Xu lit a cigarette. "If we want to maximize the profit, we have to band together to expand capacity. I definitely can't handle so many orders alone. I called you here because I want us to work together."
It was the first time everyone had encountered such a bizarre situation, and they were all half-skeptical.
"I'm in!" Old Zhai was the first to decide. "My factory is almost at the point where I can't even put food on the table. So what if I'm scammed? A 50% deposit is enough to keep me alive. Even if I don't make money, it's fine."
These words struck a chord with everyone. Manufacturing was becoming harder and harder to do, with razor-thin profits.
Everyone's mindset had shifted from wanting to earn a little less in the past to just not losing money now.
Another person slammed the table and took out his phone to call his wife. "Take out my mom's pension money first. Expand production! This order is a guaranteed win!"
Someone nearby laughed and cursed, "Are you fucking crazy?"
"You're the one who's crazy! With doubled profits, you're an idiot if you don't expand!"
"I do machining. I'll take this bushing! The precision will definitely meet the standard!"
"I do hardware. I'll take all the screw brackets!"
The small owners, who just a few years ago would have fought tooth and nail over an order worth a few tens of thousands, were now instantly united.
No one has a problem with money, and even less so with doubled profits.
Among the owners present, some eyes turned red with greed at the thought of doubled profits.
Of course, more people didn't dare to hope for double; they just hoped this order would allow their factories to survive.
But without exception, no one was willing to let this opportunity pass.