Chapter 83: A New Era
Kyoto, Imperial Palace.
As soon as Fan Ren’s airplane landed, he was urgently picked up by a private car and brought here.
At the main entrance, Li Jiandong had already been waiting for a long time.
“Chief Li.”
Fan Ren got out of the car, greeted him, and went forward to say hello.
Li Jiandong’s eyes had some bloodshot veins, clearly showing he hadn’t slept well. He nodded and said somewhat nervously, “That project—Elder Ye’s attitude has always been to persist in taking the path of steady development.”
Before he could finish speaking, Fan Ren interrupted softly, “Chief Li, I know what you mean. Don’t worry. Even if we get no results today, Xinghai will proceed alone, steadfastly carrying out the relevant plans. At that time, we will ask for your strong support.”
After saying this, without waiting for Li Jiandong’s reply, Fan Ren took the lead and walked into the Imperial Palace.
Li Jiandong behind him was stunned for a moment. He felt that today’s Fan Ren was somewhat different.
In that same dim room, the elderly person already showed some fatigue in his expression. Meeting them today was time squeezed out from his extremely busy schedule.
“You’ve come. Sit.”
Seeing Fan Ren and Li Jiandong come in, he didn’t stand up. Sitting on the sofa, he beckoned with his hand.
“Elder Ye, I’m very sorry to take time out of your busy schedule.”
Fan Ren saw the elderly person looking listless and felt a twinge of guilt in his heart.
“No matter. I won’t see others, but you have made great contributions to Great Xia. No matter how busy, I must see you.”
Ye Rongshan rallied his spirits and returned to his usual amiable demeanor.
“Elder Ye, it’s like this: Today, the South Australia side suddenly raised the ore export price by 2%. Afterward, someone from their side passed word that as long as we tell them the uses of ordinary crystal stone, the ore price can return to normal.”
Fan Ren then realized why Li Jiandong hadn’t slept well last night—the reason was here.
Hearing this, anger immediately rose uncontrollably in his heart.
“Ore prices involve all aspects of industrial development. How can they just raise them at will?”
Li Jiandong glanced at him, his eyes full of helplessness.
“They’ve done this sort of thing more than once or twice. There’s no way around it. Currently, 70% of Great Xia’s ore demand comes from imports, and South Australia accounts for 60% of the total imports. A very helpless reality is that the import price of ore is in their hands.”
Elder Ye’s tone was also extremely helpless. Moreover, in the foreseeable long period, there were no conditions to change this situation.
But Fan Ren did not fall silent because of this. Scenes from the plans he had made last night kept flashing through his mind.
He sorted out his thoughts and sat up straight.
“Elder Ye, it’s precisely because of this factor that I think it’s time for us to make a change.
Thank you and Chief Li for your support. The tri-titanium alloy proportion refined from lunar soil is extremely high—over ten times that of ordinary crystal stone on Earth.
Elder Ye, before this, I still need to emphasize to you the huge changes this metal will bring to industry in future development.”
Fan Ren paused here and, seeing that Ye Rongshan did not refute him, continued.
“Currently, in our industrial metal composition, aluminum alloy occupies an absolute proportion. From electronic components to mechanical equipment, to cars, airplanes, spacecraft, and more, all cannot do without it.
But at the same time, it is precisely aluminum alloy that limits industrial development. What I mean is not that aluminum alloy is bad, but that we currently can’t find a substitute for it—it’s just the best helpless choice.
Moreover, we also heavily rely on imports for aluminum ore, with pricing power always in the hands of other forces.”
Hearing this, Li Jiandong sighed. Fan Ren was not wrong, although a large part of the reason was that Great Xia’s industrial scale was too massive.
Its ore demand surpassed the total of all other global forces, leading to being controlled in pricing.
“But now it’s different. From the refinement results of lunar soil, we already have the opportunity to change this situation.
Just 360,000 kilometers above our heads, there exists an ordinary crystal stone ore with nearly unlimited supply for us and extremely low mining difficulty.
Elder Ye, Chief Li. For the following words, please don’t laugh at me for wild fantasies.”
Fan Ren stopped, looking solemnly at the two Great Xia high-level officials before him.
Hearing this, Ye Rongshan’s emotions were somewhat stirred by him. He waved his hand dismissively, unconcerned.
Li Jiandong looked at him with expectation in his eyes, showing no sign of mockery.
“In my vision, next, Xinghai will fully invest in aerospace engineering.
Previously, our lunar exploration project has already shown that Great Xia has gone far enough in this area.
And now, we have high-voltage radio technology, high-capacity solid-state battery technology, and extremely superior performance carbon nanotube material. Of course, there’s also the graphene chip.
I believe that applying these technologies to aerospace will bring huge developmental changes.
In the past, we persisted with the idea of steady and slow progress because, for humanity, the Moon indeed had no significant economic value—investing too much would not pay off.
But now, at least we temporarily know that it has ordinary crystal stone, which is extremely important for industrial development.
So, economic value exists!
Therefore, I personally believe that the aerospace undertaking can enter the fast development lane. For this, I represent Xinghai in deciding to invest the 80 billion funds currently in Xinghai’s hands, as well as all future profit surpluses, into the aerospace project.
I have only one goal: go to the Moon and bring back the ordinary crystal stone!
Not only that, in my plan, once we have some tri-titanium alloy, we can continue to invest in researching the controllable nuclear fusion project.
Using it as an energy supply base, and using tri-titanium alloy as the base building material, we can even attempt to build the space elevator from science fiction novels to further reduce mining costs.
Elder Ye, believe me, tri-titanium alloy can fully meet the usage intensity of such a structure.
After completing these steps, I believe our lunar mining plan can enter a true low-cost era.
At that time.”
He spoke all this in one breath, feeling extremely exhilarated in his heart.
But the two Great Xia big shots before him were somewhat dazed.
80 billion in cash invested in aerospace engineering—this figure was lower than Great Xia’s aerospace budget for over ten years.
Not only that, they knew Xinghai’s money-making ability. If invested in this project as Fan Ren said, it would be a staggeringly huge amount.
And what he said next was truly shocking.
As long as there is the first batch of tri-titanium alloy, develop the nuclear fusion project on this basis, then use it to further increase mining output in the aerospace project.
Finally, complete the construction of the space elevator, forming a large closed loop, thereby reducing the development cost of tri-titanium alloy.
It had to be said, this was a grand plan vision.
Ye Rongshan and Li Jiandong looked at each other and saw the shock in each other’s eyes.
Even Li Jiandong, who was mainly aggressive, now felt himself somewhat behind the times.
If not for Fan Ren’s reminder again, he couldn’t even connect the already successfully commercialized technologies like high-voltage radio, solid-state battery, and carbon nanotube to aerospace development.
Ye Rongshan was the same.
He saw the unparalleled confidence in Fan Ren’s eyes, and the vibrant energy that only young people have, charging forward without hesitation.
“Chief Li, what does the Ministry of Industry think?”
Ye Rongshan still maintained a trace of rationality. Although shocked by the grand scene Fan Ren described, he ultimately bore the responsibility for the stability of hundreds of millions of people.
After hearing the question, Li Jiandong came back to his senses. He tried hard to conceal the excitement in his eyes and said with his head down, “General Manager Fan, what you said is currently just simple future planning, but from the professional perspective of a science and engineering person, all of this has extremely high feasibility.”
He couldn’t hold back in the end and raised his head to look at Ye Rongshan.
“Elder Ye, this way, Great Xia will no longer be restricted by any ore import pricing in the future. And it can be foreseen that with this high-strength metal tri-titanium alloy, our industry will take a big step forward. Elder Ye, you know how important this huge advantage is to Great Xia!”
Ye Rongshan could see what the emotion exposed in his eyes meant. He closed his eyes slightly, and after not waiting long, suddenly opened them and looked at Fan Ren.
“Great Xia cannot let you bear the burden alone. Make a plan and hand it to Chief Zhang of Economy and Trade. At that time, I’ll discuss with him how much money we can come up with to support you. Chief Li!”
“Here!”
“We may not match General Manager Fan’s boldness in funding, but the Ministry of Industry will fully cooperate with Xinghai Technology. All equipment calls and aerospace resources will prioritize Xinghai Technology!”
After saying this, Ye Rongshan stood up wearily, waved to the two, and walked out of the room.
Li Jiandong looked at Fan Ren before him, who had returned to his usual steady demeanor, and couldn’t help but sigh inwardly.
A new era was coming.
