On the night Zhou Qingfeng arrived in Moscow, Vice Minister Chuikov signed a secret agreement with him.
The two parties agreed that at the end of September, ‘Holy Light’ would arrange for a cargo ship to depart from Guangzhou and ship all the light industrial products in the first phase of the ‘cans for planes’ project to Vladivostok.
The cargo of 1,500 containers will arrive in Moscow within a week via the Siberian Railway. The last three of the four Tu-154s will also be delivered at the end of the month, completing the first phase of the transaction.
There is an extreme shortage of goods in Moscow's market right now. The shelves are so empty that not even a potato can be found. Citizens queued up overnight and can only buy extremely limited goods.
In comparison, the sharp depreciation of the ruble is nothing to mention. The uncles and aunts of Maozi were even embarrassed to the point of spontaneous barter exchanges.
The first phase of the "cans for planes" was completed five years ahead of the South German Group. It will effectively stabilize the social order in Moscow and is also crucial to stabilizing Chuikov's status.
After the first phase of barter is completed, the Holy Light will continue to transport goods by sea to Vladivostok or Leningrad (St. Petersburg).
The "canned aircraft-for-aircraft" project has entered the second stage. "Holy Light" will obtain ten IL-76 transport aircraft and directly hire Soviet pilots and corresponding ground staff.
These ten IL-76s will be allocated from the Ermao family by the Soviet Aviation Industry Ministry and formed into a fleet specifically responsible for freight transportation from Moscow to the imperial capital.
For example, transporting heavy trucks and tobacco.
If the second phase of the barter goes well, there will be a third phase. Chuikov promised to organize a team of experts to go to Tianyang to inspect the construction of a passenger aircraft overhaul plant.
Personnel will be selected from the Ministry of Aviation Industry, the Central Aerodynamics Research Institute, and the Ilyushin Aircraft Design Bureau. The number shall not be less than twenty. The leader's rank shall not be lower than that of an academician or deputy minister.
This secret agreement will not be made public, and will be refined by negotiators from both sides and implemented as soon as possible. The alliance is currently so divided, with countless careerists popping up like weeds.
After confirming the contract, Zhou Qingfeng and Cui Kefu stood up and shook hands. Both of them were worried about the current situation and hoped to reach a deal as soon as possible.
Chuikov came to the hotel at eight o'clock after dark and left before ten o'clock. He was full of energy but in a hurry. He was either meeting someone or on the way to the meeting.
Zhou Qingfeng was also very busy. He began to contact the visiting and negotiating team members who had arrived earlier, asking them about their current situation and achievements, and asked them to obey the command - if they did not obey, they would not be given funds for the activity.
How can we allow these guys to run around like fleas?
There are really bureaucratic team members who feel that the Holy Light has no right to control them. Such people are immediately blacklisted by the president, refuse to provide any further financial support, and are removed from the team.
After finishing a lot of trivial matters, at twelve o'clock at night, President Zhou was still awake. He did not go through the main entrance of the hotel, but jumped out of the window of his suite like a civet cat and landed firmly on the ground of Lubyanka Square.
The square was deserted, with streetlights illuminating the streets far and wide. Military police and armored vehicles were deployed at the intersections leading to various places. The alliance was in an emergency period now, and no one dared to take key departments lightly.
The temperature had dropped to four or five degrees Celsius late at night, and his breath turned into mist. Zhou Qingfeng, wearing a black coat, turned the corner of the hotel and walked straight along the street.
After walking about two hundred meters, the headlights of a Volkswagen sedan flashed on the side of the road. The window rolled down, revealing the big man Marcos.
Zhou Qingfeng opened the rear door and got in. The Volkswagen immediately started and left quickly. Marco Shi, who was driving, glanced at the rearview mirror and said in a deep voice: "Boss, I didn't expect you to come to Moscow."
"This is not hell, why can't I come?"
"Oh, this place is almost like hell. If you had come a month ago, you would have seen a good show. The great alliance exploded with a bang in front of the whole world."
Marcos deliberately made the sound of an explosion and sighed repeatedly.
"You are not from the Soviet Union, do you need to be so emotional?"
"Don't forget, I am also of Russian descent. This is my second motherland."
Marco Shi grabbed a stack of documents and handed them to the back seat. Zhou Qingfeng took them and opened the document bag and asked casually: "How have you been during this time?"
"That's just to meet old friends and restore some past contacts. Many people think I'm crazy for finally escaping and coming back. In fact, I also think I'm quite stupid."
Marco Shi curled his lips. Zhou Qingfeng in the rearview mirror did not look at him, but was flipping through the pages in the document bag.
The nuclear industry in the Soviet Union was quite large, with multiple agencies managing it. On the civilian side, the Ministry of Nuclear Energy Industry mainly managed nuclear reactors and controlled low-enriched nuclear materials.
If Zhou Qingfeng wanted more than 96% of highly enriched nuclear materials, he could only ask for them from military research institutes. This includes institutions under the Ministry of Medium Machinery Industry and the Military Industrial Commission.
These organizations often only have code names, such as ‘Chelyabinsk-40’, ‘Tomsk-7’, ‘Krasnoyarsk-26’, etc.
The code names and specific locations are not consistent, or even intentionally inconsistent. Only high-level personnel can know the specific locations of these institutions and factories.
"Boss, there is good news and bad news."
"Don't do this to me. If you have anything to say, just say it."
"Nuclear materials are strictly controlled confidential materials, and when the alliance established those research institutions, it considered how to safely store them in a nuclear war environment.
So even though the entire country is in a mess now, all nuclear research institutions and management systems remain stable. I don’t even dare to directly explore the status of those classified institutions, and I dare not mention related issues to anyone.”
"That sounds like bad news. What's the good news?"
Zhou Qingfeng asked "good news", and Ma Keshi grinned, "The good news is that you, the boss, are not the only ones who are eyeing the alliance's nuclear materials and technology.
If we really count, you are the most inconspicuous among them. No one would have thought that you would be bold enough to take a hand."
"My guess is that the people who are most worried about the alliance's nuclear arsenal being out of control are the Americans."
"Yes, Americans are not worried about the alliance's conventional weapons smuggling, nor the proliferation of short-range ballistic missiles, but they are very worried about problems with the alliance's nuclear arsenal.
They even actively provide money and people to demand strict management of the alliance's nuclear arsenal, and they don't care even if someone deliberately embezzles their money."
As long as the alliance's nuclear arsenal is controlled, what's the point of spending some money? Anyway, Yingjiang has money.
The two people in the car laughed, and Marcos said seriously again, "As far as I know, the other four countries on the Security Council require the alliance to strictly manage their nuclear arsenals.
But there are still some countries that want to take advantage of the chaos. They are trying to spend money to lure some researchers and managers to defect, but so far the effect is not good."
All personnel with access to the nuclear arsenal are registered and closely monitored. Therefore, Marcos did not dare to directly investigate them and could only find ways to make insinuations.
Maozi's nuclear arsenal is out of control, which is unacceptable to the five gangsters. Once they join forces, everyone in the global village will be put down.
Only when the alliance is completely disintegrated in a few years and the cost of maintaining the nuclear arsenal is stretched thin, will someone leave secretly or get some nuclear materials to sell for money.
And now...
"There is only one way now." Marcos drove the Volkswagen car around the surrounding streets and returned to the vicinity of Lubyanka Square. He stopped the car and looked back at Zhou Qingfeng in the back seat...