Reborn Tech Maniac

Chapter 664 Looks like this year is an award year

Being able to cooperate with Jerry Brown to this extent can be regarded as a very close relationship, so it is natural to show sincerity.

Tang Huan waved his hand and solemnly explained: "Like you, I am very optimistic about the California High-Speed ​​Rail. But my financial resources have gradually developed, and it is impossible to promise an investment amount that will lead to a leading project from the beginning. Now I am with The amount you mentioned is a very responsible and redeemable figure. However, I still hope that you and the California High-Speed ​​Rail Authority will lead the project."

"Do you think it would be too troublesome and too risky for private individuals to lead such a large-scale public service project?" Having dealt with Tang Huan for so many years, Jerry Brown could more or less guess the mind of the richest man.

"There are indeed considerations in this regard." Tang Huan nodded slightly.

In the United States, private individuals can of course use high-speed rail.This is determined by the difference between the two game rules of "you can do it without breaking the law" and "you can only act within the legal scope".

However, just like the Western Express high-speed railway project was stranded decades later in the original time and space, there will always be some obstacles that make private investors retreat and be discouraged.

Tang Huan sincerely hoped that the California high-speed rail would be put in place as soon as possible, so he naturally chose the solution with the least resistance.

He smiled sarcastically, "There must always be a limit to human greed. The current decline of American railway passenger transportation may not be unrelated to the fact that the railway tycoons were too aggressive. It has reached the point where it cannot continue without making changes. However, the federal government still holds the idea that it is a profiteering industry, and refuses to relax control. While continuing to levy heavy taxes, it ignores the investment in maintenance resources, and even heavily subsidizes Competitors of railways are civil aviation and highways. It can be seen how disgusting private railway companies have become! Therefore, I am very satisfied with the current operating structure of California High Speed ​​Rail. It has explained to all parties and is in a rare balanced state. There is a need to change."

Jerry Brown nodded suddenly, and then he breathed a sigh of relief, "Since Tang Huan doesn't reach out randomly, he won't be in trouble, and the work will be much easier."

In fact, the reason why Tang Huan delegated power so much was because he had his own confidence.For example, the other eight members of the California High Speed ​​Rail Authority are almost all "relationship households", and they can't play tricks at all.

"Of course, I also have some additional suggestions. I hope you can win the terms during the negotiation." Tang Huan said suddenly.

"Please tell me." Jerry Brown took the paper and pen and took notes himself.

"After the California high-speed rail is completed and put into operation in the future, it is difficult to be [-]% sure how long it will take to make a profit. Therefore, we can ask for some financial resources that many people are not aware of or pay attention to as subsidies." Tang Huan said while Indicated that Jerry Brown didn't need to be so formal, and he was just chatting casually.

Seeing Tang Huan look so far, Jerry Brown couldn't help asking curiously, "Can such a good thing happen?"

"Last year, the Vienna Convention aimed at protecting the atmospheric ozone layer was signed and entered into force; the next focus of environmental protection is likely to be the limitation of greenhouse gas emissions. The pressure of all parties to meet the standards must be very different, and some quota transactions will inevitably occur, and then To generate financial resources, California must have at least hundreds of millions of dollars every year."

Tang Huan smiled slightly, "California's high-speed rail plays an important role in energy conservation and environmental protection. The neglected source of income I'm talking about is related to this field, and it's justifiable to fight for it."

"If you really don't want it for nothing, then you have to carefully design the terms of the negotiation." Jerry Brown frowned and used his brains.

……

Tang Huan asked Jerry Brown to cooperate on the California high-speed rail project so that he would not be dragged down by such a long and troublesome project. He had other things to be busy with.For example, another company's IPO.

From receiving the US National Technology Award at the beginning of this year and formally establishing the Hundreds of Chinese Elite Group until now, whenever Tang Huan is in the US, he almost stays on the East Coast.

The reason is largely due to the fact that the past few years have been the golden age of the American economy created by Reaganomics.And Tang Huan wants to take advantage of the rare good market and pick the right time to launch some assets that need to be listed. After PeopleSoft, which provides enterprise IT solutions, it is the turn of EverConn, which develops, manufactures and sells telecommunications equipment. Yongtong made money.

This company started with PrivateBrancheXchange - a user-level switch or PBX. This product is a new digital program-controlled switch using the RISC microprocessor Holder-L developed by Tang Huan himself. It is mainly used to connect the internal telephone networks of hotels and large and medium-sized enterprises. And the public telephone network of telecommunications companies can greatly reduce communication costs and provide internal special services such as digital fax.

Not surprisingly, Tang Huan found the most suitable entry point in this field that has been divided up by major manufacturers, and quickly opened up the situation with one blow, especially in emerging Asian markets such as Baodao and Xiangjiang. trend.

On this basis, Yongtong's product line has successfully extended to high-end, and after Tang Huan acquired Pacific Bell, it became the main equipment supplier of Pacific Telecom, and made great contributions to the launch of new services such as caller ID.

In particular, the reason why Pacific Telecom is able to continuously increase the Internet service speed of modem connection method step by step starting from 300bps to 1200bps, 2400bps, 4800bps, and even 9600bps, leaving other peers behind, is the solution of Yongtong.

In addition, Yongtong's product line also includes ADSL, which began to become popular this year, and CableModem, a cable modem that uses cable television networks to provide Internet services.

With the rapid development and growth of Yongtong, some people have begun to describe it as a perfect match with Pacific Telecom, describing it as the monopoly alliance of AT&T and Western Electronics before it was split.

This is not a good sign. Due to the changes in game rules brought by digital technology to the entire communications industry, Yongtong, which has suddenly emerged, has indeed taken the lead in emerging fields, especially in cutting-edge positions such as ADSL and CableModem, which have monopolized a large number of Patents, in turn, set the bar for many established companies, which has the potential to provoke public anger and hatred.

Anyway, according to the established plan, Yongtong will also take advantage of this wave of market conditions to become a public listed company. Tang Huan took the opportunity to distance itself from Pacific Telecom and become a neutral communication technology solution provider with greater independence and wide acceptance of customers from all over the world. business.

The IPOs of Yongtong and PeopleSoft are separate and parallel. The latter is in charge of Goldman Sachs, while the former is handed over to Morgan Stanley. According to the plan, the time is tentatively set for September to October this year.

Everyone is a professional, and Goldman Sachs made PeopleSoft's IPO so successful, and Morgan Stanley can't ruin its reputation. Tang Huan doesn't need to worry about trivial matters.

Seeing that the business at hand was almost done, and the time to go to the Soviet Union was approaching, he was about to leave, so he asked if the accompanying team members had arrived.

Going to the Soviet Union was not that simple. Tang Huan prepared some experts for himself, such as Condoleezza Rice, who was still teaching at Stanford University.In addition, Masako Wada, who comes from a family of senior diplomats and is fluent in English, French, Russian and German, became the chief secretary of the trip.

"Everyone has already gathered at the hotel in New York, and we are waiting for your order." After Masako Wada answered, he hesitated to speak.

"Masako, who has always been cheerful, why is she suddenly twitching?" Tang Huan joked.

"There is one thing, I don't know if I should report it to you." Masako Wada blushed, still showing a bit of annoyance.

"Say it boldly," Tang Huan encouraged.

It turned out that what Masako Wada wanted to report was still related to the California high-speed rail.It is not difficult to understand that a project of this scale, and it is still located in the United States, naturally affects the nerves of all parties.

Obviously, the Shinkansen, the world's first high-speed rail system put into commercial operation, makes the Japanese very proud and confident.

But for such a long time, the richest man’s scope of investigation has been in Europe, and he seems to have forgotten that Japan was the first to successfully turn high-speed railway technology from theory to practice. Is there any misunderstanding in communication here?
After waiting and waiting for Tang Huan to show any public expression of interest, the Japanese finally couldn't sit still, so the Japanese Cabinet Minister of Transportation Hiroshi Mitsuka decided to conduct an interview in person.

However, some preparatory work still needs to be carefully considered, and Masako Wada has naturally become the first public relations target.

Tang Huan's industries are spread all over the world, so his scope of activities is also very large, and he can be called a trapeze artist.

Under such circumstances, the richest man has been repeatedly rumored in the United States, Baodao, Xiangjiang, Europe and other places, but he fell to Japan, which made the Japanese media feel sour. Could it be that the outstanding women of the Yamato nation are not included in others? Fayan?
Fortunately, this situation has changed since last year. Masako Wada, a Harvard University graduate who interned at the Pebble Beach Golf Course, has entered the field of vision of the Japanese elite who come here for leisure. Because she is Tang Huan's secretary, this is a fairly recent person. For the Japanese, the position of dealing with people at a distance is an additional way of communication.

Seeing the majestic Japanese Minister of Transport Mitsuka Hiroki approaching him, Wada Masako was secretly vain about this kind of power, but at the same time felt quite pressured, and didn't know how to raise it in front of Tang Huan.

After listening to the report from the Japanese female secretary he carefully selected, Tang Huan couldn't help laughing to himself. The reason why he "snubbed" the Japanese side was because he knew the Shinkansen very well, so naturally there was no need to waste time.

Unexpectedly, the Japanese were the first to lose their composure.Is it possible that oil and water can be extracted from this?

"Of course there is no problem to meet, but I have to wait until I finish my trip to the Soviet Union." Tang Huan gave Masako Wada a positive answer.

"But Mr. Mitsuka has arrived in New York and wants to visit you as soon as possible." Masako Wada glanced at Tang Huan secretly and whispered.

She couldn't help but think of Hiroshi Mitsuka's instructions before, "We can't wait until the trip to the Soviet Union to meet again, because in that case, Tang Huan will inevitably contact European high-speed railway operators and manufacturing companies, and Japan will be too passive."

"So impatient." Tang Huan laughed and shook his head, "Then ask him if he wants to go to the Soviet Union with me and we can talk on the plane."

……

In fact, Tang Huan just said it casually, but Hiroshi Mitsuka hurriedly followed him regardless of his status.

Why are the Japanese so impatient?

Because the Japanese state-owned railways, the developer and operator of the Shinkansen, are now suffering serious losses, so that the Nakasone Yasuhiro Cabinet has listed it as a key privatization target.

Originally, although there were adverse effects such as the increase in automobile popularity and the increase in costs and the government's suppression of price increases, Japan's Tokaido Shinkansen, which is the main artery of east-west transportation and is burdened with repaying construction debt, was still profitable.

However, when Kakuei Tanaka came to power in 1972, the situation began to change subtly.

Kakuei Tanaka was elected as the leader of the Liberal Democratic Party in the presidential election in July 1972 and became the Prime Minister of Japan. Before that, he served as the Minister of Trade and Industry of Japan. The book——"On the Transformation of the Japanese Archipelago" was extremely successful. According to the statistics of the Japan Publishing Science Research Institute, it ranked No. 7 in the sales of the best-selling books of the year. It even published a simplified Chinese version in China in September of that year.

The general meaning of this book is: to connect the Japanese archipelago with high-speed transportation networks such as expressways and Shinkansen to promote the industrialization of various places in Japan and solve public problems such as uneven urban and rural development and over-densification of population.

In particular, he cited the successful examples of adjusting the economic layout of Italy and the United States, and advocated transforming northern Japan into an industrial zone and southern Japan into an agricultural zone, which was the opposite of Japan's industrial distribution at that time.

These expositions have become one of the important contents of Kakuei Tanaka's administration.In November 1972, 11 new routes were added to the Shinkansen expansion plan, which is the central pillar of the theory of reforming the Japanese archipelago.

As a result, "island reconstruction boom" began to occur across Japan. As long as areas were regarded as candidates for the implementation of the Japanese archipelago reconstruction theory, there would be a rush to buy land locally, and land prices began to rise rapidly, which in turn affected commodity prices and caused inflation. Coupled with the unfortunate coincidence of the world oil crisis, it worsened into a real social problem that the Tanaka cabinet had to face.

By 1975, these new constructions were frozen, and the Japanese National Railways, which was forced to undertake many local railway construction projects, was miserable and fell into a quagmire of losses because it could not recover the cost.

Now the California high-speed rail is being actively prepared, but there is no ready-made package solution in the United States, and it must be imported. It can be described as an excellent business opportunity. How could the Japanese National Railways and the Ministry of Transport not be tempted?

While Tang Huan listened to Hiroshi Mitsuka's attentive introduction, he glanced at the newly delivered documents on the coffee table from time to time. On it was an announcement in advance that the Soviet Union was going to award him the International Lenin Peace Prize and the Lenin Medal in recognition of his contribution. .

"This is too enthusiastic, and two of them came at once. It seems that this year is not only the International Year of Peace, but also the year of receiving awards." Tang Huan couldn't help being a little embarrassed, should he accept it or not?
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(End of this chapter)