Chapter 435 Frolov Is a Good Man
The group's senior management meeting quickly reached a decision. The opportunity of the Petrov Machine Tool Factory cannot be missed, but major changes must be made in the specific cooperation conditions. Since Frolov is just a "karate", the relationship between Linji Group and him must be repositioned, making him a worker instead of a collaborator.
A fortress must be broken through at its weakest point. Everyone agreed that the engineer Yakob brought by Frolov should be the weakest of the three, so Tang Zifeng decided to test him first.
In order to create maximum psychological pressure on Jacob, Tang Zifeng did not choose to talk to him at the Canglong Research Institute, which Jacob was already familiar with. Instead, he found an office in the old factory of Linyi Machinery and asked people to Jacob brought it over.
When Jacob entered the office building, he felt something strange. When he was politely invited into the office, he was completely dumbfounded.
What kind of conference room is this? It's clearly an interrogation room, okay? There were several tables at one end of the room, and a few cold-faced men were sitting behind them. There was a lone chair in the middle of the room. Jacob didn't need anyone else's instructions to know that it was the seat reserved for him.
"Jacob, sit down."
Tang Zifeng, who was sitting on the interrogation table, pointed at the chair and ordered to Jacob.
"But, I don't know what this means!" Jacob argued. He spoke in English, which Tang Zifeng could understand. At the same time, he could hear some vibrato of life in his voice.
"Sit down first. I'll ask you a few questions and you'll understand." Tang Zifeng said.
Tang Zifeng had been the general manager for the past few years and had gained some official authority. Yakob couldn't bear the pressure and sat down on the chair obediently.
"Yakob, you claimed to be an engineer at the Petrov Machine Tool Factory, and in this capacity you had three days of technical exchanges with engineers from our Canglong Research Institute. Is that true?" Tang Zifeng asked. Thanks to Xiao Wenjun's one-to-one tutoring, Tang Zifeng's spoken English is also very good, and he can communicate with Jacob without the help of a translator.
"Yes. But I am indeed an engineer at the Petrov Machine Tool Factory." Yakob said.
"You are lying!" Tang Zifeng sternly said, "We have sent people to Kazan to investigate. There is no engineer named Yakob at the Petrov Machine Tool Factory! You used a fake identity to sneak into China, and What are your intentions in having technical exchanges with our engineers? Are you sent by Western companies to act as industrial spies?"
"No, no, no, I am definitely not an industrial spy!"
Jacob was completely panicked. In just a few days, people were able to send people to Kazan to investigate his identity. This shows that this Linji Group has a great background. It may be a Chinese military industrial enterprise with a very high level of confidentiality. Yakob also experienced the former Soviet Union and knew what the term "Western spy" meant in a socialist country.
In the former Soviet Union, if a foreigner was identified as a "Western spy", he would spend the rest of his life in Siberia. Jacob didn't know whether there was a place in China similar to Siberia, but he definitely didn't want to find out about it himself.
"Mr. Tang, please listen to my explanation! Indeed, I admit that I am not an engineer at Petrov Machine Tool Factory. I am a professor at Moscow University. Frolov paid me to hire me to come to China. You can tell me about this Frolov asks for confirmation.”
The frightened Jacob didn't have time to think about whether there was any flaw in Tang Zifeng's words, and quickly started to blame him.
"What's the purpose of him hiring you to come to China? Is it to spy on our technical intelligence?"
"No, no, absolutely not! I can swear to God. He just asked me to communicate with Chinese engineers in order to convince the Chinese that Petrov Machine Tool Factory has strong technical strength. Other than that, I don't need to do anything Not a single word of the technical content I have communicated with my colleagues in your company these days has been reported to Frolov.”
"You said that Frolov wants us to believe that the Petrov Machine Tool Factory has strong technical strength, but what is the real situation?"
"The true situation……"
Jacob trembled, and looked at Tang Zifeng with a bit of surprise and grievance in his eyes.
Damn it, you sent people to the Petrov Machine Tool Factory to investigate my identity. Don’t you still know what this factory is about? What you just said is completely deceiving me. In fact, you have not done any investigation at all. They say beautiful women can deceive, how come you, a handsome man with delicate features, can also deceive others?
When Tang Zifeng saw Jacob's expression, he knew that he had seen through his trick. This guy's emotional intelligence was low, but his IQ was not low. He was a technical master who could scare Lao Qin into a daze. What about logical analysis? His ability is incredible.
However, even if you react, what can you do? You have personally admitted that you falsified your identity, can you take it back now? Are you being unfairly accused of being an industrial espionage if you use a false identity to conduct technical exchanges with engineers from a large research institution?
"Tell me about it. You also know our party's policy, which is lenient for those who confess and strict for those who resist. You just took Frolov's money and didn't help him do bad things. It's still too late to turn around now. If you persist in your obsession, The person you talk to next will not be me, but officials from our national security department." Tang Zifeng said to Yakob with a smile.
Yakob sighed and said: "The Petrov Machine Tool Factory was one of the largest machine tool factories in our country during the former Soviet Union. It was indeed very strong. After the disintegration of the Soviet Union, the Russian economy could not recover for a long time. , a large number of companies went bankrupt, the demand for machine tools dropped to less than 1/10 of the original, and all Russian machine tool companies could no longer operate.
"Some companies were merged by Western machine tool companies, and some went bankrupt. Although the Petrov Machine Tool Factory did not go bankrupt, its production capacity was almost completely lost. In the past ten years, it has basically not produced CNC machine tools, and it is impossible to talk about it. It has the research capabilities of CNC machine tools.”
"During the former Soviet Union, your CNC machine tool technology was still good. How come it all collapsed all of a sudden?" Qin Zhongnian couldn't help but interjected and asked. The old man is still obsessed with the decline of the Russian machine tool industry and wants to know what happened.
Yakob said: "The machine tool industry in the Soviet Union was based on a complete industrial system. At that time, each union republic was responsible for the production of part of the machine tool components. For example, large castings were undertaken by Belarusian companies. Grating components are undertaken by Ukrainian companies. Everyone has their own division of labor and cooperate with each other. This is how the powerful machine tool manufacturing industry of the former Soviet Union emerged.
"After the disintegration of the Soviet Union, all the republics became independent. How could we collaborate if we all had different ideas? Ukraine's Red Flag Research Institute was originally the most powerful grating element research institution in the Soviet Union, providing grating elements to machine tool companies across the Soviet Union. After Ukraine became independent, they felt that it was unnecessary to continue spending money to support such an institute, so they cut off all the funding for the institute.
"In this way, the original machine tool factories in Russia can only purchase grating components from the West. The Western CNC technology system is very different from ours. Western grating components cannot be directly used in our machine tool products, and the requirements The other party redesigned it based on our situation, but they didn't bother to do it.
"so……"
Having said this, Jacob spread his hands and looked helpless, and everyone present understood his subtext.
"You said that the Petrov Machine Tool Factory no longer produces CNC machine tools, so what is the purpose of Frolov purchasing optical machines from China?" Tang Zifeng asked.
Yakob said: "He didn't tell me, but when I chatted with Avakyan privately, I learned that Frolov had some contacts with some machine tool dealers in Eastern Europe, and he must have considered purchasing from China. The optical machines that arrived were resold to these agents.”
"But Longfor Machinery Company said that they had bought CNC systems from Frolov, and these CNC systems were produced by Petrov Machine Tool Factory." Tang Zifeng said.
A smile appeared on Jacob's face: "It's very simple. I think when he sells those Chinese machine tools to Eastern Europe, he will also put the Petrov brand on them. There are some small companies in Europe that can produce according to customer needs. Some unbranded CNC systems are, by the way, OEM. It should be very easy for Frolov to purchase these CNC systems at low prices and sell them to Chinese friends at a higher price."
"You just mentioned Avakyan, was he also someone hired by Frolov from outside?"
"That's not true. He was originally an employee of the Petrov Machine Tool Factory. Frolov was the director of the Petrov Machine Tool Factory before the collapse of the Soviet Union. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Petrov Machine Tool Factory was privatized. Frolov Love is still the director of the factory. It is said that he promised that as long as he remains the director, the Petrov Machine Tool Factory will never fire an original employee."
"Is there such a thing?" Qin Zhongnian looked surprised. He turned to Tang Zifeng and said, "Xiao Tang, this Frolov is not simple. He can be regarded as a good person if he can make such a promise. Let's go back and talk to him When he negotiates, you still have to give him enough respect."
Tang Zifeng glanced at Qin Zhongnian speechlessly, but he also knew that this was the old gentleman's world view. After all, this old gentleman was also an absolutely good person. He did not answer Qin Zhongnian's words, but asked Jacob:
"Mr. Jacob, let me ask the last question. How much did Frolov pay you to hire you to come to China?"
"This..." Jacob didn't know how to answer for a moment. It wasn't that he wanted to keep it a secret, but he felt that talking about money was too tacky and he couldn't express it.
Tang Zifeng smiled brightly at him: "Professor Yakob, I don't mean anything else. I just want to say, are you interested in working in China? No matter how much money Frolov gives you, I will double it."