On the other side of the sea, there is the May Club office.
"Are you kidding!? Evander actually has a gold mine?! Is it such a big mine?"
Houston roared hysterically, his eyes full of unwillingness and anger.
How is this possible?
Can these Chinese people really predict the future?
Or is it that their luck is so strong that they can dig out gold even if they choose a piece of land at random? !
You know, South Africa has not conducted inspections of the Evander area before, but no matter which inspection result it was, there was no evidence that there were large-scale gold mines buried under the mountains in the White River area!
In addition, the terrain there is rugged and development is difficult, so it has not been included in the list of "mines with development value" from beginning to end.
According to the evaluation report of professional organizations at that time, the gold reserves in the Evander-White River area must reach at least 200 tons and the ore grade must reach 5 or above to have development value.
Everyone believes that this goal is basically impossible to achieve.
But I never expected that according to China's actual survey results, the goal was not only achieved, but also doubled.
Houston took a deep breath, suppressed his already somewhat out-of-control emotions, and then continued to ask:
"Is it possible that it is fake news? Is it possible that they deliberately released it to save themselves face in order to ease the public opinion storm in the country?"
The assistant shook his head sadly and replied:
"There is basically no such possibility."
"The South African Department of Mines and Energy has made a public statement acknowledging the newly discovered mine in the White River area."
"Moreover, their next step is to seek cooperation with China in mining."
"When the dust settled, we thought we had won. Unexpectedly, the game had not reached the last minute."
Hearing the assistant's words, Houston's heart skipped a beat.
"The game did not develop to the last moment."
This sentence was like a thorn, piercing deeply into his bone marrow.
So in the end, when is the last moment of the game?
Wait until they take over all of Africa?
Or should we wait until they take over the entire world?
He felt like he had seen the ending, but he couldn't accept that ending anyway.
That’s all.
At least the Los Angeles project is progressing smoothly.
etc.
It seems that I haven't cared about the progress of this high-speed rail project for a while.
"Is the Los Angeles-San Francisco high-speed rail project still going well?"
He asked quickly.
"So far it's going pretty well."
"According to feedback from the front, we have completed more than two-thirds of the project work, and the time is just over half. No matter how complicated the follow-up work is, the demonstration section line can be completed on time."
"However, the progress of the Chinese people is not slow either."
"The large-scale equipment they use is even more advanced than ours to some extent. We expect that they will complete the 30-kilometer project before us."
"Are you going to lose to them again?"
Houston raised his eyebrows and asked in a stern tone.
"This can't be considered a loss. We have never included project time in the competition, and investors don't care about this."
"As long as we can finish it on time, then our goal will be achieved."
Hearing this, Houston finally nodded.
But he couldn't help but ask one more question, just wanting to get a definite answer:
"You mean, whether we are slower than them or not, it will not affect the original purpose of this project, that is, it will not affect the activity of the capital market, right?"
"right."
The assistant said firmly.
"That's good."
Houston breathed a sigh of relief.
In his view, as long as the financial market can take this opportunity to stabilize, all the failures will no longer matter.
However, what he didn't know was that at this very moment, the entire Los Angeles project was on the verge of collapse.
Los Angeles-San Francisco high-speed rail demonstration section.
Evans stood bored in front of the nearly completed tunnel, almost completely unaware of what he should do.
You can't blame him. Ever since he joined this project, he has actually been existing in a state that is almost a "mascot". He has not done any serious work at all. What he has to do every day is not to accept interviews, but to memorize lines and practice. modeling.
After more than a month, he could no longer keep up with the progress.
But now, after the initial popularity was snatched away by China's amazing construction machinery, he has regained his "freedom" again.
But such freedom also comes at a price.
The price is that no one on the construction site is willing to take him to play.
He once tried to ask the project leader for some work, but the other person called him a big star as soon as they met, with undisguised sarcasm in his tone.
As a result, Evans also lost his temper.
Since you don't want to take me, then I won't do anything.
Anyway, the salary will still be paid. After these three months, even if I go to interviews or work as a model in the future, it will be enough for me to live on.
Besides, if the director hadn't asked him to "finish the show," he would have left this dirty and messy construction site long ago.
Thinking of this, Evans couldn't help but feel a little angry.
In the final analysis, those Chinese people still have to be blamed.
If it weren't for the competition show they created, I could have easily made a lot of money.
Are those machines that good-looking? ——
Okay, it's pretty good-looking.
Even he himself had to admit this.
Thinking of this, Evans shook his head and walked forward casually along the paved railway track.
Directly in front of him is Tunnel No. 01, which has begun construction and is about to be completed. The total length of this tunnel is less than one hundred meters. In theory, the shield machine can complete it in only about 10 days.
But in fact, the tunnel has been repaired for 15 days from the start of construction to now, far exceeding the expected completion time.
what is the reason behind the scene?
Evans was curious.
He crossed the barricade placed at the entrance of the tunnel and tried to walk inside. The staff on the side recognized him and quickly stopped him.
"Evans, this is not the place you should go. There is construction going on here and it is very dangerous!"
"very dangerous?"
Evans looked at the staff member puzzled and continued to ask:
"This is a shield machine. A tunnel less than a hundred meters long. What dangers can there be?"
"Teno, are you just like that project manager and want to make things difficult for me?"
Teno looked around a few times, then pulled Evans aside and lowered his voice and said:
"Evans, we're friends."
"I'm not like those hypocritical mice. No matter what you do, I will treat you as a friend."
"I'm not kidding you, this tunnel is really dangerous."
"Just yesterday we've dealt with two incidents of precast panel ruptures."
"Moreover, there were problems with the installation of the tunnel walls, inadequate sealing of the vaults, problems with the installation of the waterproofing membranes and even the concrete poured on the ground was substandard."
"Yesterday, a heavy truck directly collapsed the ground in the tunnel. I really don't know how they were constructing it at that time."
"Anyway, it's all a mess."
"I have a hunch that even if this tunnel is finally opened to traffic, various problems will continue to arise."
Hearing Teno's words, Evans' eyes widened in shock.
"Teno, are you serious?"
"I always thought that our project was going smoothly!"
"In just over a month, we have completed two-thirds of the work."
"If you didn't do the construction yourself, it's impossible to know where the two-thirds came from."
Teno let out a long sigh, and then continued:
"Everyone is accelerating, not just us, but the entire project team is going crazy."
"For the sake of so-called efficiency, in order not to be left behind by those Chinese people, most of the supervision processes have lost their meaning."
"Even those engineers will give us ideas and teach us how to do it faster."
"How could this be?"
Evans was shocked.
"But it is what it is."
"Why do you think they interviewed you and why they let you go on TV?"
"Everyone knows that this project is just a show, so leave quickly."
"I can't say whether this tunnel will collapse. Anyway, I hope God bless me."
Evans hesitated for a moment, but finally obeyed and walked away from the tunnel.
He was not really afraid of the tunnel collapsing. After all, the characteristics of the shield machine determined that even if the tunnel did collapse, it would not cause too serious consequences.
He just didn't want to have anything to do with it anymore.
At this moment, Evans had a premonition in his heart:
This project will definitely not go smoothly.
It is even possible that if an accident occurs, all project participants may be implicated.
And I, as the "image spokesperson" of this project, will obviously be even more impacted.
no.
I can't stay here for another day.
You must discuss it with the live broadcast director immediately, and then ask the project manager to resign.
As long as you leave, no matter how big the problem is, you can't be traced to yourself.
Even if something happens later, I can use this to establish an image of being "unwilling to be complicit."
Then you can make another fortune.
Thinking of this, Evans quickened his pace.
The director's temporary tent is right in front, a few hundred meters away and can be walked over in five minutes.
But at this moment, a loud noise suddenly came from behind Evans.
He turned his head subconsciously, and a puff of smoke spurted out from the tunnel.
Then, Tenola, who was standing at the entrance of the cave, sounded the alarm.
In an instant, the cave entrance glowed with red light, and users ran out of the tunnel one after another.
As they ran, they shouted:
"The cave wall collapsed! The cave wall collapsed! Evacuate first! Evacuate first!"
Evans looked at this scene with a pale face.
A thought suddenly appeared in his mind:
It's over.
When this high-speed rail project is over, so is I.
"A major accident occurred in the Los Angeles-San Francisco high-speed rail project. The tunnel collapsed and the shield machine was seriously damaged. The project progress may be delayed."
In NPU, Chen Nian silently looked at the internal information in front of him and shook his head.
Sitting opposite him was a rare visitor he hadn't seen for a long time, Zhang Shuguang.
After coughing, he said:
"I thought these old Americans could have some potential. They claimed to have gathered the strength of the whole country, but they ended up doing this?"
"The shield machine can dig out the hole and collapse it. This is really unprecedented."
Hearing his words, Zhang Shuguang laughed and replied:
"Xiao Nian, if you think so, you probably don't know enough about how the shield machine works."
"Actually, the so-called shield machine is not so much a machine as it is an assembly line."
“In the front, the drill bit part continues to excavate and advance, and in the back, the construction work surface continues to be reinforced, poured, and constructed.”
"Although drill bits play a great role, in order to actually build a tunnel, most of it still relies on manual control."
"Among them, including the pouring of the ground, the installation of the tunnel wall, the so-called 'shield', and the construction of the second concrete reinforcement layer, are all parts that are prone to problems."
"No need to laugh at them, we have had problems ourselves."
"It's just that because we have no experience, we are particularly strict in inspection and supervision. Basically, small problems are solved as soon as they are discovered, and they do not lead to major accidents like theirs."
After hearing Zhang Shuguang's explanation, Chen Nian nodded suddenly.
Of course, he didn't think that the shield machine was just a large earth drilling machine, but his understanding was limited to the "machine" part. He was really not familiar with how man and machine cooperated and how the construction process was carried out.
However, even if he was not familiar with it, he could still imagine how poor the US management of this project was.
Thinking of this, he said:
"This accident will probably scrap their entire Los Angeles high-speed rail project."
"As soon as the news comes out, retail investors are the first to run away, and then those investors will also consider withdrawing their capital."
"It is said that they previously planned to use this project to stimulate the financial market again, but now it seems that it is all in vain."
"They might as well hide it, maybe they can be saved."
Chen Nian's tone was a bit gloating, and Zhang Shuguang couldn't help but smile a little when he heard this.
"You...are just like a child sometimes."
"However, it is impossible for them to hide this accident."
"After all, two unlucky guys died. It's really funny. Even the suspension bridge can collapse. Not only are their engineering quality poor, but their equipment quality is also poor."
"The last time we encountered a cave roof collapse, our suspended bridge still held up."
“It’s better to make your own stuff, I feel confident.”
Zhang Shuguang looked at Chen Nian approvingly, and the latter smiled and modestly did not answer.
After a moment of pause, he turned to Chen Guo, who had been listening and said:
"The Los Angeles-San Francisco project is their last ditch effort to save financial markets."
"This project has consumed all the confidence of investors. Taking advantage of this opportunity, we should take action."
"First attract their capital, whether it is hot money or not, then take it."
"Strategies are being rolled out across all continents. There are more places for us to spend money. No matter how hot it is, we can still swallow it."
"Professor Chen, are you the one to arrange this matter?"
Chen Guo nodded and replied:
"I'll go discuss it with Feiyun."
"That's no problem."
"The news about Jingshi Duan is ready to be released."
"Don't worry, we've already prepared it."
Zhang Shuguang replied with a smile.
A day later, two major pieces of news appeared simultaneously in the international media.
One is "A major accident occurred in the Los Angeles high-speed rail project, the tunnel collapsed, and two people died."
The other one is "The Beijing-Shijiazhuang high-speed railway has entered the final sprint stage, the main project has been completed, and the finishing is about to begin."
Two projects that started from the same starting line, at this moment, the winner was decided in advance.
