Chapter 26: Is 10,000 yuan expensive?

  "Ten thousand yuan, can you afford it?" Qin Hai asked.

  "Ten thousand bucks!" Ge Dongyan snorted in disdain. "Xiao Qin, I'm serious."

  Qin Hai said seriously: "Xiao Ge, I'm also serious."

  "What, you're not kidding?" said Ge Dongyan, also known as Xiao Ge, his eyes wide with surprise.

  "Of course not," Qin Hai said.

  Ge Dongyan looked at Qin Hai's expression seriously, and indeed couldn't see any hint of teasing. He put the shovel back on the table and asked solemnly: "What do you mean? You should know that this shovel isn't worth that much money. Are you kidding me? Do you not intend to sell it at all?"

  "A shovel certainly doesn't cost this much," said Qin Hai Dao, "what if it were 100 shovels?"

  "What do you want 100 of?" Gu Dongyan asked in astonishment.

  Qin Hai Dao said: "You just mentioned that you have a company commander and a combat advisor, your platoon has dozens of soldiers, your company has hundreds of soldiers, don't they need 100 shovels like this?"

  Ge Dongyan fell silent, his fingers lightly tapping on the table as he began to think about this matter. This shovel was indeed tailored for the military, and if every soldier had one in their backpack, it would bring great convenience during field training. But after all, this was non-standard equipment, could the head of the troops agree to equip each person with one?

  Qin Hai Dao said: "Ge Pai Chang, I don't want to hear any military secrets, but from my observation, you are not an ordinary squad leader. Your troops should be undertaking some special tasks. This equipment is not cheap, but compared to the tasks you undertake, it's very affordable."

  "We brothers racked our brains to design this engineer's shovel, not to make a toy for you, Commander Ge. Just think about how much effort we put into making the mold for this shovel alone! We are all patriotic young people, and we hope to do something within our power for the soldiers. This is why we asked Commander Ge to come here and talk with us."

  "You say I'm not from an ordinary unit, then what unit am I from? What are you guessing based on?" Ge Dongyan stared at Qin Hai with his eyes, but his heart was churning.

  Ge Dongyan was indeed not a platoon leader in an ordinary unit, the troops he served were directly under the Anhui Provincial Military District's Special Operations Company, which was indeed responsible for some special tasks. In the mid-1980s, through summarizing the experience and lessons of the southern Xinjiang self-defense counterattack operations, all military regions began to establish their own special forces, and Ge Dongyan's special operations company was also included in the list of reorganized special forces.

  As for how to build special forces, the head of the military region also had no idea, and only started by selecting some soldiers with good military qualities from various troops to establish the formation. As for issues such as combat methods, training means, equipment, etc., due to the lack of referable experience, they are still in the exploratory stage.

  As for his own military service and troop situation, Ge Dongyan had never revealed to his family, so Man Kui, as his uncle, did not know these details either. Ge Dongyan thought that he hadn't said anything wrong just now, so how did Qin Hai guess his identity?

  Actually, Qin Hai only had some suspicions about Ge Dongyan's identity, and it was not a accurate guess. What made Qin Hai feel the most suspicious was Ge Dongyan's self-made dagger. According to military regulations, soldiers were not allowed to have their own weapons manufactured privately, and only certain special troops had this privilege. Moreover, just now when Ge Dongyan tested his knife on Zhang Lao San, his chopping motion was quite methodical, and his strength was sufficient, clearly the demeanor of a master. If he really was just an ordinary squad leader in our army, then our combat effectiveness would be too terrifying.

  In the face of Ge Dongyan's questioning, Qin Hai just smiled and didn't speak. Some things lose their mystery once they're said out loud, and leaving some mystery to oneself when dealing with Ge Dongyan has its advantages.

  "I see, you're trying to deceive me." Ge Dongyan didn't scare Qin Hai, so he had to find an excuse for himself and said: "The troops are just the troops, what's ordinary or not. However, you're right, such a good entrenching tool can greatly improve our combat effectiveness, we should suggest that the troop leaders introduce this kind of entrenching tool and equip our company."

  But, Little Qin, you should know that our country is now shifting its work focus to economic construction, and the military's funds are extremely tight. It's a bit difficult for the troops to spend 10,000 yuan to purchase 100 army shovels."

  While Qin Hai and Ge Dongyan were talking, Ning Mo and others sat aside watching like a big show, their emotions fluctuating unpredictably, three fragile hearts trampled by countless wild yaks running wildly, battered and bruised.

  Damn, Qin Hai is really bold, he actually started talking business with the troops. He said that Ge Dongyan's unit isn't an ordinary one, and looking at Ge Dongyan's expression, it seems like he was convinced by Qin Hai. How did Qin Hai find out about this military secret? Why does Ge Dongyan look no different from an average dumb soldier?

  100,000 yuan for 100 army shovels. If Ge Dongyan really agreed to this, how much steel scraps would he need to sweep from the machine tools? The entire Qingfeng Agricultural Machinery Factory wouldn't produce that much alloy steel waste in a year, would it? How does Qin Hai plan to make these army shovels?

  Looking back, the cost of making this shovel, including mold-making fees, machining fees, and electric furnace electricity costs, will not exceed 20 yuan. If one sells for 100 yuan, the profit is 80 yuan. For 100 shovels, it's 8,000 yuan... Wow, 8,000 yuan! That's equivalent to our total salary for 10 or 20 months...

  "Xiao Ge, this matter, I know you can't make the decision either. Take the thing back and ask the team leader for instructions. If the leader is willing to cooperate with us, just come to Qingfeng Agricultural Machinery Factory to find us. My name is Qin Hai, his name is Ning Mo, really can't remember the name, go to Qingfeng factory and ask a sentence, who knows." Qin Hai smiled and let Ning Mo take another shot.

  "Are you saying that I can take this engineer's shovel away?" Ge Dongyan made Qin Hai dizzy, and he asked in a daze.

  Qin Hai turned his head and glanced at Ning Mo and the others, all three of whom showed their support with fervent eyes. He smiled and said to Ge Dongyan, "To be honest, that dagger earlier and this engineer's pickaxe now are both samples, so it wouldn't matter if you took them directly. However, we're all poor workers who have incurred a lot of debt to make these things, so please, Captain Ge, pay us some labor costs or something."

  "No problem." Ge Dongyan was very generous with the money issue, he took out a large handful of cash from his pocket and counted it one by one. When he finished counting, he said somewhat awkwardly: "Sorry, I left all my money at home when I came back to visit relatives this time... now I only have 135 yuan in my pocket... or else, I can borrow some more from my uncle."

  His algorithm was based on Qin Hai's previous quote. Qin Hai said a dagger was 50 yuan, and an iron shovel was 100 yuan, so it should be 150 in total. He had planned to offer up to 100 yuan if the dagger provided by the other party was indeed excellent, but now he suddenly had to buy two things, and the money he brought was a bit tight.

  Qin Hai waved his hand and said, "I've already told you, for these two things, we only charge the cost of labor. You just need to pay 100 yuan. However, this price is not the price for future cooperation, so keep that in mind."

  "Things about cooperation... I don't dare to make a promise, so for these two things, I'll just pay 150 yuan as usual." Ge Dongyan said.

  Qin Hai Dao said: "Business is not as important as personal relationships. Regardless of whether the commander of the troops is willing to cooperate with us or not, I'll only charge you 100 yuan for these two items. If Commander Ge doesn't mind, then we can be friends."

  "What more can be said? We were friends from the start anyway." Ge Dongyan said with a smile.

  "The dishes have arrived!"

  Zhang Lao San and Man Kui returned from the back kitchen, each holding two dishes in their hands. Man Kui also hooked a large plastic bottle of wine with one finger.

  Ge Dongyan took the wine jug from Man Kuai, unscrewed the lid, and first filled Qin Hai's cup. He then poured wine for Ning Mo and others separately. Qin Hai responded to Ge Dongyan's courtesy with just a smile, while Ning Mo and others were somewhat flustered and terrified. They also knew that Ge Dongyan was being so polite to them solely because of Qin Hai's face.

  Ge Dongyan poured wine for Zhang Lao San, Man Kui and himself, then raised his cup and said: "Come on, let's drink to thank Master Qin and these masters for refining such good steel and producing such good equipment for our troops. Everyone, bottoms up!"

  Qin Hai also stood up, raised his wine glass and said: "For our military-civilian cooperation, cheers!"

  "Good, cheers!" everyone shouted in unison.