After the U.S. government made its decision, it immediately notified the Madagascar government and agreed to their participation in the bidding.
At the same time, the U.S. military also began operations to dismantle all equipment on the four modified Iowa-class battleships.
Then all these equipment were replaced with equipment from World War II. For example, short-range anti-aircraft missiles were all replaced with long-range anti-aircraft guns. The cruise missile system was dismantled, and the Aegis radar system was also dismantled, and all were replaced with old-fashioned radars.
After such a modification, the technical level of the Iowa-class battleships at this time can reach at most the 1960s.
The Minister of the Navy even came to inspect the final disassembly of the four battleships in person. He was satisfied when he saw that the four battleships were completely restored to their old-fashioned condition.
The next weekend, the auction of the Iowa-class battleships officially began.
In fact, before the auction started, well-informed people in various American companies already knew that Madagascar had been defaulted for this auction.
These people came here as pawns, just to raise the price of these four warships to a very high bottom and to severely deceive the Madagascar government.
After the auction hall was full, the auctioneer belatedly arrived and pressed the button in the center of the auction room.
"Everyone, this auction is for four warships that have made great achievements in American history. They are older than all of us here, but they are still American heroes."
"They are the four Iowa-class battleships. They are the USS New Jersey, the USS Missouri, the USS Wisconsin, and the USS Wisconsin."
As soon as the auctioneer finished speaking, thunderous applause erupted from below. They were the last applause for the complete decommissioning of the four veterans.
Next, the formal auction process will begin. The starting price is very cheap, with each warship only costing $1 million.
Because if it is really dismantled and sold for scrap metal, each battleship will only be worth more than 50,000 tons at most. If the cost of dismantling is added, I am afraid that if you don't budget carefully, you will still lose money.
What people didn't expect was that as soon as the auction started, the auction house was very enthusiastic, and the prices of these four battleships soared from US$1 million to US$100 million.
It looks like this is not the final price yet.
The Madagascar staff participating in the auction below were already sweating. They did not expect that several broken warships could be sold for such a high price. If they had not ordered to buy them under the order of their president, they would have left long ago.
.
The price had reached this point, and these people did not dare to bid anymore. They hurriedly walked out of the auction hall and took the phone to write a letter to the President of Madagascar, asking him whether to continue the auction.
And Josh Hamilton was a little confused when he heard this price. At this price, if he had to spend some money, he could buy a small Aegis ship in Xia Kingdom.
So Josh Hamilton hurriedly called Liu Hai and informed him of the current situation at the auction.
After hearing this, Liu Hai immediately understood that the Yankees were trying to trick him, but Liu Hai still desperately wanted these four battleships.
Because now countries no longer build battleships, even if Liu Hai places an order, he may have to redesign them, and the construction time will also take several years.
So Liu Hai gritted his teeth and directly ordered the President of Madagascar to purchase each warship as long as the price did not exceed US$200 million.
After hearing this, the President of Madagascar quickly called the auction house in New York.
The staff participating in the auction over there had no choice but to return to the outside wheat field to bid.
When this staff member left just now, the price at the auction had not increased much, reaching only 110 million US dollars.
This is all controlled by the auctioneer, and the U.S. government is also worried that if the pressure is too strong, the people of Madagascar will simply give up their picks and not buy, and they will lose a lot of money.
When the auctioneer saw the Madagascar staff re-entering the hall, he let go.
Immediately the price began to soar again, and soon reached $250 million.
At this time, Madagascar's gold medalist also began to think for a long time. This was also a strategy.
When the staff member at the auction saw the situation of the Madagascar gold medalist, he knew that this was already his lowest price.
If we continue to raise the price desperately, I am afraid that this auction will be a failure.
So, when the Madagascar staff reported the price to US$260 million, no one in the audience raised a sign.
Seeing that it was a day off, the auctioneer rushed to the hammer.
"Congratulations to the bidder, you have obtained 4 great battleships. People all over the world will envy you from now on."
After hearing this, the staff member's face turned red. He was not excited, but felt ashamed to see others.
I'm afraid tomorrow morning's major newspapers will report on the front page that there is a fool who bought 4 scrapped battleships at a price of US$260 million each.
Sure enough, newspapers began to report on the matter the next day, and the people at the newspaper didn't know where they got the inside information. They all knew that the real buyer behind the scenes was the Xia government.
So these newspapers began to satirize non-stop.
The New York Times reported: “The Xia government entrusted one of his little brothers to purchase four Iowa-class battleships from the U.S. government. We don’t know what his purpose was, but we do know that the U.S. government has achieved brilliant results this time.
victory."
Washington Post: The Xia government has become a fool. The Xia government spent nearly 1 billion US dollars to buy 4 junk ships. What can they do with these 4 old ships? I think the best use is to
They are targets.
Not only American newspapers, but also other newspapers around the world reported the news.
Soon the domestic Internet was flooded with comments about the Xia government's purchase of four battleships.
"What are these four warships for? Are they being targeted by the military?"
"Upstairs, you are wrong. We may be able to convert it into an aircraft carrier."
"Modify an aircraft carrier? Then it's cheaper to build it again."
"This time, our officials were fooled by the US government."
"Being fooled +1"
"Being fooled +2"
…
“Being fooled +12478”
Liu Hai was so angry when he saw these comments that he just gritted his teeth. Now his tone is relatively calm. Some people have already scolded them on the Internet.
He only scolded the official who was in charge of this purchase to pieces.
Others thought it was purchased by the Xia State government, but Liu Hai knew very well that he presided over the purchase. Aren't those people online scolding him?
But he still held it in and didn't dare to reveal it at all, because once he revealed that he bought it himself, he would definitely be searched by human flesh, and finally the word "idiot" would be plastered on his forehead.
The more Liu Hai looked at it, the angrier he became. He wanted to be quiet now and didn't want to stay in modern times, so he greeted Wang Fang and told Wang Fang that he wanted to go abroad soon.
Next, I called Zhang Tao and entrusted him to maintain the four battleships and replace all the equipment exchanged with new ones. It didn’t need to be too advanced, as long as it could reach the level of the 1960s and 1970s.
.
At the same time, he entrusted Zhang Tao to produce a large number of 406mm artillery shells for the Iowa battleship, and also prepared a batch of 406mm artillery barrels.
With spare gun barrels and a large number of shells, the Hua-class battleship can achieve combat effectiveness.
However, after Zhang Tao heard his request, he was really embarrassed. After all, the artillery shells were okay, but the Xia State had never made such a large-caliber artillery barrel according to Iowa and the battleship, and they had no experience.
After receiving Zhang Tao's feedback, Liu Hai also scratched his head. Finally, Liu Hai thought of Russia. As the only military power that could compete with the United States at the time, Russia had very rich technological reserves.
Back then, the Soviet Union had built a Soviet-class battleship, and the cannon on it was of 406 mm caliber. It seemed that it had to ask the Russians for help.
Regarding the Russian official affairs, Liu Hai was really confused, and in the end he had no choice but to entrust Zhang Tao to handle it.
After Liu Hai pushed the matter to Zhang Tao, he took the weapons and equipment he purchased this time and went to the Qing Dynasty plane.
Due to the request from above, Zhang Tao had no choice but to take over this hot potato. Finally, he met the Russian military attache stationed in China through the diplomatic department and asked him to purchase a batch of 406 mm caliber artillery barrels.
After hearing Zhang Tao's request, the military attache was a little surprised, but he immediately reacted. He had also heard about the uproar that had recently been uploaded internationally.
So the military attache looked at Zhang Tao as if he were a fool. Could it be that the gentleman in front of him was in charge of the procurement of four battleships? If so, maybe he could really be cheated. Who would make the other party a fool?
Woolen cloth.
Moreover, he can make the final decision when purchasing this old-fashioned weapon, and there is no need to report to the superiors at all. If it can be sold, it will provide some fresh blood to the cash-strapped Russian military factory.
"Mr. Zhang Tao, our Russian government fully agrees with your procurement requirements. I don't know how many gun barrels you want this time."
When Zhang Tao looked at the other party's eyes, he felt aggrieved, but the matter still had to be done, so he could only grit his teeth and blush, and said: "Each artillery must be equipped with at least 5 barrels, which means we
This time we need to purchase 200 barrels of 406mm artillery pieces."
The military attache's eyes lit up after hearing Zhang Tao's words. This was not a small sum of money.
"Mr. Zhang Tao, the price of the barrels of this strategic cannon is not low. They are the core of the entire battleship. Without them, the battleship is just a decoration."
Zhang Tao sat opposite the military attache, watching the military attache spitting and flying, and kept explaining to Zhang Tao the importance of these artillery pieces.
"Okay sir, you haven't given me a quotation yet." Zhang Tao really couldn't stand listening anymore and asked straight to the point about the price.