Munitions Empire-Chapter 946 - 869, you guys shouldn’t waste any more time

Chapter 946: 869, you guys shouldn’t waste any more time Chapter 946: 869, you guys shouldn’t waste any more time “You needn’t waste anymore time, it’s just a new type of fighter jet, and it’s not like we don’t have any, it depends whether you’re willing to buy or not.” On the couch, a salesperson from Great Tang Group crossed his legs, removed the cigarette from his mouth, and arrogantly exhaled a cloud of smoke.

“Sir, that’s exactly what we want! The Butcher Fighter! We would like to purchase!” The representative from the Suthers Empire, sitting opposite, smiled attentively and poured another glass of wine for him.

As various countries began to popularize high-quality seeds and extensively use fertilizers and pesticides, their food production increased.

The increase in food meant that the pressure from food scarcity was becoming lighter, hence there was more food available for making wine—resultantly, fruit wines began to proliferate in the market and their quality improved.

Of course, the various types of wine produced in Chang’an of the Great Tang Empire were still the top-notch ones, but the already renowned Brunas, and several other local specialty wines, started to become popular on a large scale.

At the moment, they were drinking a grape wine specially produced by Dorne, which had a particularly smooth taste and a unique flavor.

“The Butcher costs 13,900 gold coins per unit, how many would you like?” the salesperson didn’t refuse but quoted a price that sounded discouraging to any prospective buyer.

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It was a joke; for a thing like fighter jets, a hundred units might not even suffice, and just purchasing jets alone would cost nearly a million—who could afford that?

Nowadays, nobody was naive anymore; everyone knew that purchasing fighter jets wasn’t a one-off deal, and comparatively, the initial cost of the jet itself was actually the cheapest.

Once you’ve bought the jets, of course, you would need to purchase a series of supporting services, such as ground crew training, pilot training, commander training…

Along with maintenance tools, refueling vehicles, corresponding weapons and ammunition, engine repair parts… Just a sub-project would cost a few thousand gold coins, and a full set would run into tens of millions in costs.

Currently, all countries still owed money to the Great Tang Empire, with debts being repaid in installments; who would have that much money to buy fighter jets?

The representative from the Suthers Empire sat there, his face filled with embarrassment, “Sir… you must be joking, we can’t afford such a large sum of money… Do you think, could you make it a bit cheaper?”

“Since you’ve mentioned it, I will give you a discount… 13,700 gold coins, how about that? Isn’t that generous of me? If you buy 100 jets, I just gave you a discount of 20,000 gold coins at once!” The salesperson from the Great Tang Group showed two fingers and waved them in front of the other party’s face.

After saying this, he flicked his cigarette ash and added, “You know the rules, one fighter jet, this amount for the rebate…”

While speaking, he held up one finger—industry insiders were all aware that this represented a 100 gold coin rebate.

Selling anything relies on relationships, even when it comes to arms. The responsibility for procurement has always been a lucrative position, where one can easily get ample kickbacks.

A rebate of 100 gold coins per jet indeed showed the sincerity of the Great Tang Group. However, the representative from the Suthers Empire still looked bitter because he genuinely couldn’t afford such expensive equipment.

In fact, compared to others, this price couldn’t be considered expensive: When the Great Tang Empire once sold aircraft technology, they had extorted a billion gold coins from another country.

Now, selling the Butcher Fighters, 100 units would probably not even cost 20 million, which was very conscientious. If the countries really had spare cash, buying 500 units wouldn’t be impossible.

After all, everyone was hoping to acquire a sufficient number of fighter jets to establish an air defense network and protect their increasingly vulnerable logistics supply lines.

But now… everyone is genuinely poor, who could afford such expensive equipment? The Air Force requires money to build, don’t the Army and Navy also need it? After investing so much, how would they even get by?

That said, although everyone spent a billion gold coins to purchase the aircraft technology from the Great Tang initially, there really were no complaints about the price being too high.

During the massive purchase of aircraft technology last time, countries obtained a large number of pilots with basic flying skills. In the recent era of civil aviation development over the last six months, all countries reaped the benefits from their last purchase.

This is no joke, precisely because everyone already had hundreds of pilots that they could immediately establish a sufficiently functional civil aviation network.

It was also because of this foundation in civil aviation that everyone saved a lot of time and earned some wealth through air transportation. Looking back now, that one billion upfront investment was surely a bargain.

This is also the biggest reason why countries weren’t so opposed to purchasing technology from the Tang Country: it was proven afterwards that purchasing technology and equipment from the Great Tang Group was worth more than the price paid.

“Sir… we really don’t have the money this time. Regarding the budget from above, I won’t conceal it from you; for one plane… they’ve only approved 5000 gold coins…” the representative from the Suthers Empire awkwardly said.

There was no way around it; that’s just the situation in the country, even though they gained some industrial base from acquiring Northern Ridge, the Suthers Empire was still not a wealthy nation.

Even because the import of products from the Great Tang Group required going through customs in other countries, they also had to pay extra transit fees, which made them even poorer.

Fortunately, they were a landlocked country and did not need to build their own navy, so they were able to save a large sum of money, which alleviated some of the financial pressure.

Thanks to the economic reforms carried out with the help of the Great Tang Group’s dandelion assistance in previous years, they had accumulated some savings, and life was still manageable.

“5000? Are you kidding? Butcher Fighter! Qin Country is practically begging us to sell them, but we’ve refused!” The salesman from the Great Tang Group feigned a shocked expression on purpose.

What he said was indeed the truth, as Qin Country had genuinely wanted to purchase the Butcher Fighter but had been rejected by Tang Country.

The reason was that selling the Butcher Fighter would indeed cause huge problems with identifying friend from foe: nowadays, identification systems were quite imperfect, mostly relying on visual recognition to determine the identity of the other side.

Once the two countries used the same equipment, it would bring significant challenges to identification: even if they didn’t use the same equipment, they still needed to add paint schemes to enhance the identification effects, let alone the same model.

Therefore, Tang Country had ultimately abandoned the idea of selling the Butcher Fighter in the Western Continent, but they were still looking to sell the surplus Butcher Fighters to other countries and make a profit.

The result of the discussions was that, if there were countries on the Eastern Continent that wanted the Butcher, they would sell it at a higher price, making room for subsequent strategic adjustments.

This was why the sales personnel from Tang Country on the Eastern Continent dared to agree to sell the Butcher Fighter.

“However!” Just when the other party was about to give up, the salesman from the Great Tang Group reignited their hope, “If you can’t afford the Butcher Fighter… perhaps buying something else… might be possible.”

He rubbed his chin and pretended to think deeply, “Although the performance is a little inferior, it’s definitely much better than the junk you’re currently using… would you be interested?”

“Do you mean?” The representative from Suthers leaned in cautiously and anxiously asked.

“Earlier, during the internal fighter jet tender within the Great Tang Empire, there were several fighter jet designs. They were not as competitive as the Butcher… but you know, even though the performance is slightly inferior, it’s not much less, and it’s definitely sufficient.” The salesman leaned in and whispered mysteriously, “Don’t worry, they are all excellent designs, at least ten times better than the junk you’ve come up with!”

The representative from Suthers pondered briefly, “Sir, are you saying… the performance is not much worse than the Butcher’s?”

“At least ninety percent of the performance!” The salesman assured him earnestly. He looked around and lowered his voice, “If the pilot is a bit more experienced, there’s at least a forty percent chance of defeating the Butcher!”

“Hisss…” Hearing this, the representative from Suthers gasped, genuinely contemplating.

If what the other party said was true, it was indeed worth considering since Suthers hadn’t planned on confronting the Great Tang Empire head-on in the short term anyway. Slight inferiority in fighter jet performance was an acceptable fact.

Even if the neighboring countries acquired the Butcher Fighter, Suthers’s fighter jets would still possess ninety percent of their combat effectiveness. Although slightly inferior, they would still be combat-capable.

Thinking it over, this alternative option… was indeed feasible.

On the other hand, the failed fighter jet designs mentioned by the salesman from the Great Tang Group were completely fabricated.

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In fact, those planes were designed later specifically for export to poorer countries. Most were early World War II models, with performance that was more or less similar.

While slightly inferior to the Butcher, they were indeed much better compared to the junk developed by other countries. The performance of various planes also varied, with differences reflected in the prices.

If you were poor, then you could buy Japan’s Type 97 Fighter, although the landing gear couldn’t retract and the performance wasn’t that great, it was still much better than a biplane.

If you were a bit wealthier, then you could opt for French models like the MS405 or MS406, which performed better, but still not as good as the FW-190 Fighter.

And if you had more money, then you could consider the UK’s Hurricane Fighter, which was sturdy, durable, and performed excellently—truly a quality recommendation.

Of course, if customers wanted even more advanced fighter jets, there were still options available: the Mig-1 Fighter and the P-40 Fighter were both decent choices.

The ultimate package for the most VIP customers included the Tang Army’s own Butcher FW-190 Fighter, or the Spitfire Fighter, ME-109 Fighter, or even the Zero if you dared…

——-

Two updates today, will continue to make it up tomorrow.