Chapter 315 Integration

Chapter 315 Integration

Chapter 315 Integration
Just as the discussion about brain control helmets at home and abroad is becoming more and more intense.

2029, April 1.

The Qiongzhou Strait Cross-sea Bridge was officially opened.

The Qiongzhou Strait Cross-sea Bridge opened this time is also called the First Qiongzhou Strait Bridge.

The cross-sea bridge chose the western line plan, which is to connect Dengloujiao in Xuwen County at the southern tip of Leizhou Peninsula in Lingnan, and Daolunjiao in Chengmai County on Qiongzhou Island.

The cross-sea bridge is divided into two levels, the lower level is a railway bridge with a design speed of 250 kilometers per hour; the upper level is a highway bridge with a design speed of 100 kilometers per hour.

After the bridge is completed, it will only take 20 minutes to drive across the Qiongzhou Strait.

The western route was chosen because the seabed across which the bridge is built is relatively flat, the geological conditions are relatively good, and the construction technology is relatively mature. According to this plan, the length of the sea-crossing part of the bridge will reach 26.3 kilometers. Although it ranks only third in the world in terms of bridge length, its technical content is very high.

Whether it is the designer, the contractor, or the Minqin Group as a supplier of raw materials, they have all invested a lot of energy and attention in this project.

Because the First Bridge across the Qiongzhou Strait is the world's first movable super-large floating bridge.

Under the current background of global warming and rising sea levels, this type of bridge can avoid some of the troubles of fixed bridges.

After all, once the sea level rises too much, the clearance height of the bridge hole will inevitably be insufficient, making it difficult for ships to pass safely, or even impossible to pass at all.

The movable super-large floating bridge can always maintain a reasonable clearance height between the bridge deck and the sea surface by adjusting the anchoring cables.

In order to cooperate with this movable super-large floating bridge, a section of about 10 kilometers in length was specially designed in the bridgehead connection area on both sides. The height of these two sections can be adjusted to ensure that the roads on both sides are always aligned with the bridge surface and tracks.

"I declare that the Qiongzhou Strait Cross-sea Bridge is officially opened..."

At the bridgehead service stations on both sides of the bridge, the main teams from Qiongzhou and Lingnan, as well as the contractor, designer, and investor Hailufeng Company, were all present. The two sites broadcast live to each other through large screens and announced the opening of the bridge at the same time.

clap clap clap...

There was thunderous applause.

In addition, there are guests from Malaysia, Japan, South Korea, Singapore and other regions.

After participating in the opening ceremony, they followed the minibus arranged by the construction party and slowly drove onto the bridge.

One of the project leaders arranged by the construction party spoke with a portable microphone: "…The length of this bridge across the sea is 26.3 kilometers, and we are now entering the No. floating island."

Everyone looked through the car windows and the gaps in the bridge's protective shell.

You can see the endless sea and some seabirds are flying over the sea in search of food.

The birds sometimes flutter down, sometimes spread their wings and fly high, and sometimes circle in the air.

A Japanese translator asked on behalf of his employer, "Engineer Tian, ​​what is the cost of this all-inclusive bridge deck?"

Engineer Tian smiled and replied: "In fact, the total cost of this bridge is much cheaper than that of a traditional cross-sea bridge. If we want to build a traditional cross-sea bridge with the same traffic capacity, the cost will be about 3.5 to 4 times higher than it is now."

"so cheap?"

The passengers in the car were very surprised by the translation through the translation software.

Another Japanese guest asked directly in half-baked Mandarin: "Can the Tsushima Strait Bridge also adopt this plan?"

Engineer Tian nodded and explained: "Of course, in fact, the movable super-large floating bridge can be easily understood by looking at those large offshore drilling platforms."

Everyone was whispering.

If the current construction cost of the project is taken into account, the Asian Road and Bridge Plan described by Seris before may actually be realized.

After all, the cost of a cross-sea bridge is only one-third to one-quarter of that of a traditional fixed cross-sea bridge.

In addition, the anchoring cables can be adjusted to adapt to fluctuations in sea levels and ensure the navigability of the bridge tunnel, which is indeed very attractive.

Especially for areas such as Japan and Luzon where earthquakes and typhoons occur frequently, the maintenance cost of fixed bridges will be very high.

When a larger earthquake occurs, fixed bridges are prone to structural problems. Even if the materials are good, their ability to resist earthquakes will be very poor after adopting a fixed construction plan.

Why do Japanese people like to use wood to build low-rise houses?

This is because low-rise wooden houses have better earthquake resistance, so even if they collapse, it is very convenient to carry out rescue work.

Of course, Japan's construction industry is now ready to introduce Minqin Group's integrated foam silicon material. Houses built with this material, especially those below 10 floors, have very high overall strength. As long as they are not fixed to the ground but instead use a floating connection, they can withstand the damage of a magnitude earthquake.

Amidst the discussion.

The minibus drove into the first floating island.

There is a small temporary parking lot here that can accommodate about 50 cars, and there is also a temporary parking lot on the opposite lane.

In addition to serving as a bridge pier, this artificial floating island also serves as a light tower for passing ships, a temporary parking lot, an observation deck, and a special emergency area.

People filed out of the minibus.

The observation deck is an extended semi-suspension bridge, completely covered with special tempered glass.

Standing on it, you can see the ships coming and going.

Due to the influence of recent cold air, there is no common sea fog on the surface of the Qiongzhou Strait today.

"There are a total of six artificial floating islands." A senior executive of Samsung Shipbuilding in South Korea looked at the series of artificial floating islands on the sea with a thoughtful expression on his face.

The senior executive of Hyundai Heavy Industries gently wiped the lenses of his glasses and said, "This span is really amazing. The span between each artificial floating island is about four kilometers."

"What are you going to do nowadays?"

"Haha, what should I do? Of course I will cooperate. Do you, Samsung, still want to take over the Tsushima Strait Bridge project? Don't be so wishful thinking."

The Samsung Shipbuilding executive shook his head and smiled bitterly: "Of course I know this, but I don't know how much of the parts I can get."

"I guess it is distributed according to the population of each region. After all, as the eldest brother, I can't be partial. What's more, with our previous relationship with Seris, we can now get a part of the production share of parts, thanks to Seris's magnanimity." The executive of Hyundai Heavy Industries shook his head in self-mockery.

But they knew it clearly in their hearts.

Although Seris plans to give a portion of the parts share to South Korea, it does not mean that all of these shares will fall into the hands of big chaebols such as Samsung and Hyundai.

Because large chaebols are forces that need to be restricted.

For example, the Samsung Group. Judging from recent developments, even though Lee Jae-young and others took the initiative to join the group and split up the group internally, they still did not get much.

Although the Samsung Group is at best a relatively strong company in the size of South Korea, their rampant dominance in South Korea is not a good sign. Among the South Korean companies that have recently obtained a share of parts production, joint ventures account for about 41%, large chaebols account for about 33%, and the remaining 26% is divided among South Korean small and medium-sized enterprises.

Obviously, these small and medium-sized enterprises, which originally did not have the qualifications, were specially supported as hyenas to split the power of the big capitalists.

It is even more obvious in Japan.

Because Japan's chaebol model is rather special, it is a chaebol that is a consortium of enterprises. In addition, during its economic development process, there are a large number of small handicraft workshop-style businesses left over from the last century, which provides a lot of room for operation.

As long as Seris has an idea, he can support a large number of small and medium-sized enterprises at any time and gradually disintegrate the major Japanese conglomerates.

The first internal force in Japan to be targeted was the notorious Japanese Agricultural Cooperatives.

Domestic agricultural groups including Hailufeng Company and COFCO Group suppressed the Japanese Agricultural Cooperatives in just a few months.

The Japanese may not understand other things, but the sharp drop in agricultural product prices in the market over the past few months is a very intuitive feeling.

The agricultural products and grains transported by airships pushed the prices of agricultural products and grains in Japan to a level similar to that in Seris within almost three months.

Faced with this terrible price war, the Japanese Agricultural Cooperatives dared not even shout out and could only accept it silently.

After all, the previous surge in global food prices, coupled with the impact of abnormal climate, has caused food prices in Japan to increase by nearly 2025% to 300% compared to 500.

With such an exaggerated increase, many ordinary people in Japan can hardly afford rice and can only eat one or two meals a day.

However, food prices in Seris have fallen by nearly 2025% compared to 50.

One rose by 300% to 500%.

A drop of about 50%.

Plus, food prices in Seris are lower than in Japan.

Around September 2028, the price difference of basic food in Seris and Japan reached an astonishing 12 times.

Among them, the food with the largest price difference is rice. For the same kilogram of rice, the retail price in Serbia is about 2.5 yuan, while in Japan it is about 60 yuan. The price difference between the two places is a staggering 24 times.

Since October, a large number of rice, artificial rice and flour produced by Seris have been put on the Japanese market. The average retail price of rice in the Japanese market has dropped to around 4.2 yuan per kilogram, which is lower than the lowest price in Japan in recent decades.

Ordinary Japanese people who bought cheap agricultural products and food didn't care about the life or death of the agricultural cooperatives.

If the Japanese Agricultural Cooperative Association dares to talk nonsense now, it will be shot back in minutes.

In fact, even without the intervention of Hailufeng Company and COFCO Group, the Japanese Agricultural Cooperatives would not be able to last long.

why?
The answer is population base.

When it was first established, around 1960, Japan had approximately 1454 million agricultural population.

By 2023, there will only be 116 million agricultural population left.

According to statistics at the beginning of 2028, Japan's agricultural population fell below the one million mark again, leaving only about 92 people, and these people are generally very old.

In this case, how can Japan support agricultural production? Even if mechanization is fully popularized, there is no way to ensure normal agricultural production. Moreover, due to the terrain restrictions of Japan, the large farm model has basically been abandoned. Only mechanized agriculture with intensive farming can be carried out. Under this model, labor cannot be effectively utilized.

For example, Hailufeng Company's large farm of 5 square kilometers in Jirim City in the south of the desert only requires tens of thousands of farm workers.

The arable land area of ​​Japan is only about 4.6 square kilometers. At its peak, it needed 1454 million people, and now it still needs 92 people.

It can be seen that the agricultural models of the two are very different.

Without the support of the agricultural population, the Japanese Agricultural Cooperatives would not be able to stand firm at all.

Now, Japan's urban population generally supports large-scale imports of grain, agricultural products and food from Serbia.

The size of the support groups for both sides varies greatly.

After buying cheap Seris agricultural products, the Japanese people in the cities felt that their previous lives were worse than those of pigs and dogs, and they were extremely angry.

Now ask them to support the Japanese Agricultural Cooperatives?
Anyone who dares to say this on the street will probably be beaten to death.

What's more, with the gradual advancement of the industrial consortium plan, Japan's industrial production has become active again. Although it has lost some core industries, it has gained many relatively labor-intensive industries.

These industries, combined with Huayuan's penetration, have made the production cost of Japanese products only slightly higher than that of Celes.

The reason for this situation is that, on the one hand, Japan's re-industry, coupled with the adjustment of the exchange rate between the Chinese yuan and the Japanese yen, has caused the wage levels of both sides to become almost the same.

On the other hand, the appreciation of the Chinese yuan and the adjustment of working hours in China will naturally level out some of the production costs of both parties.

At the same time, Japan has completely abandoned tariffs after giving up everything, and now many raw materials are imported directly from Serbia.

The few relatively high cost expenditures in Japan are electricity, environmental protection treatment, and water consumption.

After both sides implement zero tariffs on each other, companies on both sides can only compete based on their own abilities.

In fact, the entire Asian industrial complex is currently gradually promoting zero tariffs within its borders.

This situation naturally has both advantages and disadvantages for enterprises.

In fact, Southeast Asia has not benefited from zero tariffs, because after a large number of Serious companies settled in these regions, the first thing they did was to raise the wages of local employees and bring the local wage level to the same level as in China.

The purpose of doing this is naturally to quickly achieve trade rebalancing, but also to avoid too rapid domestic industrial transfer.

At the same time, doing so has another benefit, which is that a large market can be cultivated quickly.

Those areas where a large number of Serious companies have settled have stimulated consumption very strongly, which has led to a steady increase in the amount of industrial and agricultural products exported from the country.

Through such large-scale infrastructure, large markets, and large industries, the industrial level of Southeast Asia has rapidly improved. Although they are mainly labor-intensive industries and the industrial industry is very incomplete, this does not prevent the local economy from continuing to soar.

As the economies of other parts of the world are bleak, the economic surge in East Asia has indeed made many regions envious and jealous.

But be it envy or jealousy, the gradually integrated eastern Asian region is basically difficult to be conquered from the outside.

Just like the Qiongzhou Strait Cross-sea Bridge that has just opened to traffic, no one in the world could do it, but Seris did it.

The successful construction of this cross-sea bridge also means that the previously proposed Asian Road and Bridge Project has become a feasible project, rather than a PPT project.

A feasible project brings different confidence to people.

This has made various places more confident about investing in the construction of cross-sea bridges. Many large companies, large banks, or sovereign funds are trying to join this big plan.

(End of this chapter)