NOVPUB
Chapter 706: Chapter 610: A Market Worth Several Billion Dollars (Seeking Subscriptions!)_1
He thought of the successor he had chosen.
Lang Cai was somewhat troubled. This man was not his son or relative, but the descendant of another veteran military figure in Myanmar, who had originally helped him gain power. That was a condition back then.
However, after taking office, he absorbed a great deal of power and promoted his allies. His influence had long surpassed that of the retired veteran.
He could now totally ignore this person, but that would appear quite ungrateful. And, the man’s descendant was not too bad. Since the old veteran hadn’t died, he had to consider this issue.
The most crucial point was that he had no sons.
That was the key.
He only had two daughters. He couldn’t possibly push his sons-in-law to take over.
That would genuinely create trouble. He could typically have the final say in ordinary matters, and no one would dare to object. But to let those two useless sons-in-law take power -- that would be a complete mockery of Myanmar’s fate.
Not to mention that his subordinates wouldn’t agree, even he himself wouldn’t approve.
He glanced at his watch.
Lang Cai hurried to call the people who hadn’t retreated from the previous confrontation zone. It’s been over a dozen days. Damn, they still hadn’t retreated five kilometers, how slow are they - they should have crawled out by now.
Did they not want to continue?
With this efficiency, how could Myanmar become a powerful country?
......
The next day.
In Myanmar.
Five groups of soldiers arrived in the camps in the five confrontation zones.
As all the soldiers from both sides had retreated, these five camps had been empty for many days. Anything that could be moved has been taken away. If it wasn’t that the ground bricks were too worthless, nobody would leave even a single piece.
Today.
In each confrontation zone, a strange vehicle had arrived.
The body of the vehicle was painted with unique local camouflage colors - it looked a bit like a wheeled potassium transport vehicle. On top of it was a square item that looked like an enlarged and extended telescope. If you look closely, you’ll notice that in the middle of this ’telescope’ was a movable gun barrel.
This was the ’Mine-clearing Vehicle’ that the scientists in the laboratory had re-constructed.
Speaking of this car.
It was exceptionally... shoddy.
Yes, it was shoddy.
There were only minor modifications beneath the car, equipped with several armor plates. The top was replaced by this ’binocular telescope’, which was mainly used to detect mines hidden under the ground.
How could it detect underground mines?
In fact, it had little to do with the car itself - precision ground scanning information was provided by the quantum satellite above. After all, the satellite’s penetration distance was twenty meters - and it could see everything within that range with crystal clarity.
If so.
Why build a ’transparent’ mine-clearing vehicle?
Actually, if Tang Qing wanted, he could just send a few soldiers to clear the mines by detonation. However, the consequences of that were severe, hence this ’shoddy mine-clearing vehicle’ made its debut.
Because he wanted to do this in front of those who were spying on him through telescopes from the other side.
Almost fifty soldiers followed the vehicle from behind, responsible for protecting this ’high-tech equipment’. It seemed quite serious.
......
On the other side.
In a forest.
A group of Myanmar soldiers curiously watched this strange vehicle through binoculars.
"What kind of vehicle is that? It looks like a telescope. Do they use this to find mines? What’s the principle behind it?"
"I don’t know, but they definitely don’t run over it. Otherwise, they wouldn’t use this type of wheeled vehicle."
"Could that telescope be some sort of metal detector? It seems like it."
"We’ll know after we watch. It starts at nine. Just ten more minutes."
"..."
Right at nine o’clock.
The soldiers in area were punctual.
They immediately started to act. The ’shoddy product’ drove to an open area and, all of a sudden, the top of the car was lifted by hydraulic pressure to a height of nearly five meters.
While the Myanmar soldiers were stupefied,
"Bang... Boom..."
After the gunfire, a loud explosion erupted from the ground.
Dirt splattered all around.
Apparently, a mine had been cleared.
But they weren’t done yet.
"Boom...Boom...Boom..."
Every ten seconds or so, a mine was cleared in the confrontation zone. Fortunately, the local climate was humid, and the soil had a high water content; otherwise, it would be a cloud of dust.
Three hours.
Only three hours had passed, and already over a thousand mines had been cleared.
The telescope on the vehicle was continuously firing bullets.
The intensity of the noise made them feel like they were in the midst of a war.
"Since there’s no need to get close, I want to know why there’s such a shield fitted around the tyres."
"... I want to know too."
"..."
They didn’t know how to describe what was happening in their minds.
This clearing efficiency.
It was too high.
The world had never heard of such a way to clear mines – if it had, it would trigger a global frenzy – but the reality before their eyes was undeniable; in three hours over a thousand mines had been cleared, something that couldn’t be chalked up to mere luck. 𝑛𝘰𝑣𝘱𝑢𝑏.𝘤𝑜𝘮
Gazing at the ’telescope’, the Burmese soldiers’ eyes gleamed, itching to snatch it for themselves. If they had such a fantastic device, dealing with the countless minefields laid by those two would be a cinch.
No.
They needed to report up immediately – they wanted this thing too.
One of them reported back promptly while the others continued to stare dumbfounded at the giant machine, unbothered by the loud pounding coming from the other side. It wasn’t irritating due to their considerable distance away.
Myanmar.
Yangon.
Lang Cai, who had just finished a meeting, received the news and was stunned. He hadn’t anticipated Ling doing something this significant. Without hesitating, he immediately rang Ling.
"Deputy Leader Ling, can we borrow that mine-clearing vehicle of yours?" Lang Cai asked hopefully. This was a good thing, it was better to get it into his bowl first and figure out what to do with it later.
"No." Ling replied.
"..." Lang Cai’s face stiffened.
Such a straightforward refusal?
Ling then said: "However, we can rent it to you, because the entire operation can only be completed by our personnel. It involves a lot of specialised knowledge and it’s also the first military equipment service project to be introduced by our Myanmar Economic Zone."
If this ’inferior product’ were used by others, wouldn’t the cat be out of the bag?
"Military equipment service? No...do you mean you made this vehicle yourself?" Lang Cai asked in shock. He had just caught onto Ling’s phrasing.
"No, only some of the core technology belongs to us, the rest was cobbled together," Ling answered casually.
Lang Cai breathed a sigh of relief; making motorcycles was one thing, but he was reluctant to believe they could manufacture cars. The entire auto industry of Southeast Asia was practically nonexistent in comparison. So he asked:
"What exactly do you mean by service?"
Ling explained: "The concept is straightforward. We undertake the task of clearing minefields for different countries and we charge a service fee. Currently, we’re only conducting tests and the collected data will be a marketing highlight – a demonstration project, so to speak. In future, we’ll charge per mine cleared."
"Per mine? How much are you planning to charge?" Lang Cai asked in confusion.
"One hundred dollars per mine." Ling said calmly.
"What?" Lang Cai exclaimed.
A hundred dollars a mine? That was highway robbery!
The world had over a billion mines buried underground since World War II. Removal was difficult due to dodgy records which resulted in enormous harm to people worldwide.
Every day, people are maimed or killed by accidental detonation.
That’s why there’s a strong demand for mine clearance in those countries. However, no method currently existed that could completely clear mines from a safe distance. If it did, that company is set to make a killing.
Even if Ling secured a third of the global mine clearance market and charged a hundred dollars per mine, that’s still a business worth billions of dollars.
As for the other two-thirds, Ling probably couldn’t get his hands on it, due to many areas using mines for defence, particularly in the Middle East. Clearing mines there is tantamount to joining the war, an opportunity Ling would certainly steer clear of.
But it’s a certainty that there’s a lawful need for mine clearance covering at least a third of the total.
Oh hell.
Why not just go rob a bank instead?
Billions of dollars! That’s more than Myanmar’s foreign exchange reserves.
Lang Cai swallowed hard, then tried to negotiate: "Deputy Leader Ling, are you really going to charge so much? You should know that a hundred dollars is no small sum. The countries in need are short of dollars, like Cambodia and Laos. They’re even poorer than us."
"You can rest assured, Mr. President. We take minerals as payment if you don’t have dollars. We’re merely giving a rough pricing range. With the data collected, and following debugging and production, we’ll be offering this service to the public by the end of the month. However, for domestic needs in Myanmar, we’ll run it at a loss and only charge one hundred Asia dollars per mine." Ling spoke slowly.
If they didn’t have money, they could mortgage things. That was something Tang Qing was happier to see.
Truth be told, what Tang Qing was really striving for and plotting was ’power’, not money. He was already in a position to print money. As long as he developed his operation well, his money would be recognised by other countries.
He was interested in ’follow-up influence’ that resulted from this development, such as developing a breakthrough in friendly relations with other countries and enhancing his image. Those were his key objectives.
Tang Qing was even willing to forego any money and let others pay with mineral resources, using this as a breakthrough to develop a good relationship with the local government, and subsequently seek further interests and cooperation. This would also be a boost to the internationalisation of the Asia dollar.
"..."
Lang Cai was speechless.
He wanted to ask if they could possibly not charge at all, but they had already set a rate, which was eight times cheaper than the international standard. What else did you want?
One hundred dollars.
If mineral resources could be used as payment, Lang Cai knew that many countries would be willing to accept that. It might hurt them to fork out hard cash, but it was much easier to accept payment in mineral resources.
After all, they were there in the ground for anyone to dig up.
That meant that this one item alone could generate Ling at least a billion dollars over the next few years. Although he can tax fifteen percent of it, it really depended on how much Ling calculated as the cost. Even if the cost accounted for half, Myanmar should get not less than fifty million dollars.
This was a significant amount.
But Lang Cai wasn’t exactly thrilled. The amount that Myanmar could get depended on Ling’s mood.
