Zhao Xin, who hurriedly rushed to the south, called his family again and informed his parents that he might not be able to return home until New Year's Eve.
The continuous traveling all over the world made Zhao Xin extremely tired; but he could not entrust others with signing contracts and paying for it. Counting the time, Zhao Xin transferred three flights in a row before arriving in this seaport city at dusk.
The person who came to pick him up was Ding Guofeng. When Zhao Xin met him, he immediately asked if his cousin Cheng Wen had arrived.
"It'll be there at noon."
"Where are the people?"
"He, Deng Fei, and the ship owner are all waiting for you at the brokerage company at the port."
Fortunately, the owner of the ship was eager to sell the ship for cash, and Zhao Xin kept in touch with Deng Fei during every transfer today. Otherwise, who would have time to do this during the Chinese New Year? It would be serious to go home for dinner.
An hour later, the taxi stopped at the door of a two-story building in the port. Deng Fei and Cheng Wei, who had been waiting for a long time, hurried out of the building to greet him. Behind them were the anxious ship owners who had been waiting for a long time, and people from the brokerage company who were looking forward to getting home from get off work early.
After some courtesy and compliments, Zhao Xin took the opportunity to go to the bathroom and asked Deng Fei privately about the ship.
Deng Fei said that the cargo ship had just undergone annual maintenance two months ago, and its appearance and interior were in very good condition. However, to be on the safe side, we need to go to dry dock to conduct a thorough inspection of the bottom of the ship after the New Year; now that the weather is cold and the Chinese New Year is approaching, it may be too late to arrange a diving inspection.
"Where's the debt?" Zhao Xin's biggest worry is that the ship has a lease dispute or an accident dispute.
"Nothing has been found yet. Both the brokerage company and the ship owner have guaranteed that there is no debt dispute." Deng Fei explained.
While washing his hands, Zhao Xin said to Deng Fei: "After the new year, you have to find a way to check more carefully. If there is a debt dispute, it will be too long."
Deng Fei nodded. The biggest fear when buying a second-hand boat is debt disputes. If you don't understand clearly, if you just buy the front foot and drive the rear foot, it will be impounded.
The two of them returned to the reception room and sat down, and the people from the brokerage company brought over the drafted sales contract. Zhao Xin then asked Deng Fei and his cousin Cheng Wen if they had read it. They both said that after reading it carefully, Zhao Xin skipped a lot of clauses and looked directly at the payment requirements, ship delivery and document delivery time limits.
Zhao Xin noticed that the contract stated that in addition to paying 10% of the ship price as a deposit, 20% of the ship price was also required to be paid directly to the shipowner's company account. He carefully recalled the information he checked while waiting at the airport. According to the terms of SALEFORM 2012 (Norwegian Shipbrokers Association format, the most widely used ship sales contract format in the world), the general down payment is 10% of the ship price. , the remaining amount will be paid after the delivery is completed; moreover, this 10% must be deposited into a designated joint account, and can be fully transferred after the ship is handed over.
Seeing Zhao Xin raising questions, the boss of the brokerage company who was waiting on the side quickly explained that it was precisely because of this condition that many customers who wanted to buy this ship were deterred. However, he assured with credibility that there would be absolutely nothing wrong with the ship.
Zhao Xinxin said that I don’t even know you, and your guarantee is worthless to me.
At this time, the ship owner sitting aside was very embarrassed. He said that he had encountered great difficulties here, otherwise he would not be in a hurry to sell, so he hoped that Zhao Xin could understand and accommodate this condition.
Zhao Xin looked at Deng Fei and saw that he nodded towards him, then stopped talking and continued to look down.
While everyone was waiting anxiously and in silence, thirty minutes later, Zhao Xin read the relevant terms and nodded.
The delighted brokerage company boss quickly handed the signature pen in his hand to Zhao Xin. Zhao Xin paused, then signed his name on the last page of the contract and asked Cheng Wen to stamp it.
Under normal circumstances, Zhao Xin also needs to register another single-shipping company under his own shipping company as the owner of this cargo ship. However, these matters will have to be left to Cheng Wen after the year.
After the agreement was signed, the ship owner happily invited Zhao Xin to have dinner with him to express his gratitude.
I’m definitely going to drink again! Thinking of this, Zhao Xin declined on the grounds that he was very tired and had to catch a flight tomorrow morning.
When several people returned to the hotel, it was already nine o'clock in the evening. Zhao Xin ordered a seafood porridge to be delivered to the guest room. He still had something to discuss with Deng Fei. Cheng Wen and Ding Guofeng went out to drink and supper together.
Zhao Xin asked Deng Fei not to rush into the water after inspecting the dry dock on the cargo ship after the year; after the delivery procedures are completed, the hull must be modified.
"Ah?" Deng Fei was surprised, and he quickly asked: "What do you want to change?"
"The bow deck needs to be thickened and the various hull structures should be strengthened to prevent damage to the hull due to severe vibrations on the deck. One of the three cargo holds needs to be equipped with a small lift. We need to put things on it."
"What are you going to put in?" Deng Fei vaguely guessed something in his mind.
"122-caliber howitzer." Zhao Xin slowly drank his porridge and stopped to say. "I will tell you the specific recoil data in a few days."
Deng Fei rolled his eyes. As a former Marine who has a certain understanding of the history of "cannons on cargo ships", he recalled for a while and said: "I suggest it be changed like this..."
As an outsider, Zhao Xin originally wanted to weld the cannon chassis to the ship deck. But fortunately he didn't say it, otherwise it would be embarrassing.
Through Deng Fei's suggestion, Zhao Xin understood that welding was not possible at all. Otherwise, every time a gun is fired, the recoil force of more than 3,000 kilograms will be borne entirely by the deck and hull; and no matter how strong the welding is, it will not last long. If the welding falls off, the gun body will recoil three to four meters, and the body will stand up. The man behind the artillery will either die or be disabled.
Dunphy's suggestion was to solve the problem of the rear seat of the gun by adding bolts to the deck, then using a few pulling wires, and laying sandbags and cork. In this case, as long as the cargo hatch cover is thickened, three 122 howitzers can be set up.
After resisting his tiredness, Zhao Xin thought for a while and said: "You still have to leave the other two warehouses. We have to transport hungry people from the island country. Therefore, there are at most two cannons, and heavy equipment can be installed on the side of the ship. Machine guns will take care of it.”
The reason why Zhao Xin wanted to solve the problem of insufficient firepower in this way was because in the list that Andrew submitted to him, the quotations for weapons and ammunition were very cheap. So much so that Zhao Xin suspected that Andrew's uncle and nephew were reselling supplies in the arsenal.
"By the way, have you chosen the type of small patrol boat?" Zhao Xin asked with a yawn.
"Just order the offshore patrol boat with the aluminum alloy shell directly. But it will take 150 days to deliver it."
"It's too late, there's not enough time. We need to directly buy the spot goods that are about to be completed and launched, even if we pay more. We have to leave in more than a month..."
"Okay, then I'll go to the shipyard after the third day of junior high school and ask. They don't take a break during the Chinese New Year." As soon as Deng Fei finished speaking, he heard a slight snore. He turned around and saw that Zhao Xin was already leaning against the bedside. Fell asleep.
Zhao Xin did not wait until the third day of the lunar new year. Since Deng Fei said that the shipyard would not be closed during the New Year, he set off to a certain city in southern Jiangsu early the next morning.
The shipyard is located in Linjiang Industrial Park. After Zhao Xin arrived, he called according to the contact number given by Deng Fei. The sales manager of the other party originally planned to go home for the New Year, and there was no business at all during this New Year. But Zhao Xin's call shocked him, and he thought to himself that he was lucky not to leave, otherwise he would have lost such a big order.
After some wrangling, two new patrol boats that had been launched were bought by Zhao Xin at a price that was one-third more than the selling price. Both parties were happy.
When he boarded the flight home, Zhao Xin was too tired to say a word.
