This person, engaged in a friendly conversation with Huang He, is none other than Albert Rothschild, the youngest son and an important family member of the Rothschild family, known as the financial king behind Europe and even described in a book as controlling the entire world from behind the scenes.
He is visiting China on behalf of the entire Rothschild family, or more accurately, communicating with Huang He. Naturally, this visit is highly confidential. Apart from a few key individuals, no one knows that the current head of the Rothschild family's most beloved grandson has actually come to China.
"I wouldn't dare. If I have the opportunity, I truly wish to share a drink with the old gentleman!" Huang He said with a chuckle. Albert, also beaming, replied, "Grandfather also wishes to meet Mr. Huang. Grandfather once told me that in this world, a top commercial genius is born every century."
"In the 20th century, that genius was likely Sam Walton. And in the 21st century, it seems to be you!" Albert praised without reservation. "After reviewing the video materials I sent, my grandfather said that the entire world will rely on your brilliance from now on!"
"Not to mention that we've teamed up to play a trick on that old fellow at Goldman Sachs this time. I imagine he'll be spitting blood with anger when he learns the truth!" Albert said excitedly.
Indeed, Goldman Sachs was outmaneuvered by Boss Huang this time, and they collaborated with this representative of the Rothschild family to execute it. This so-called trap was naturally the various magnetic levitation train technology patents that Goldman Sachs acquired for a staggering 500 million Euros.
While these patents, which Goldman Sachs believed would monopolize the future development of magnetic levitation trains, were considered worthless junk by Jiangnan Group.
Of course, the experts at Goldman Sachs were not incompetent, nor were they bribed to provide erroneous intelligence analysis to Goldman Sachs. In fact, these experts' analyses were all correct. These patents indeed acted like a thick wall blocking the path of magnetic levitation trains. If this wall wasn't removed, magnetic levitation trains would have nowhere to go, or would have to take detours around several mountains to proceed, which would likely cost billions of Euros more.
The problem, however, was that this wall was erected in front of the path of conventional magnetic levitation trains, not vacuum high-speed magnetic levitation trains.
Because they had never truly researched vacuum high-speed magnetic levitation trains, nor did they know the technical structure of Jiangnan Group's version of vacuum high-speed magnetic levitation trains.
Therefore, these experts assumed that the existing magnetic levitation train technology could be applied. They believed that all that was needed was to add a pipe to the existing magnetic levitation train technology, create a vacuum inside the pipe, and thus infinitely increase the train's speed. Hence, all existing magnetic levitation train technologies could be applied to vacuum high-speed magnetic levitation trains.
This thinking was not entirely wrong, and it was technically feasible. However, doing so would result in an incredibly massive pipe. The internal diameter of the vacuum pipe would need to be at least 4 meters, otherwise, it could not accommodate a carriage that was 2.8 meters long and 3.2 meters high.
In fact, this was a conservative estimate. Magnetic levitation train technology requires a certain track width and does not support single-rail connections. Therefore, the actual internal diameter of the pipe would likely need to exceed 5 meters.
Jiangnan Group's scientists had already calculated this. If a 5-meter pipe diameter were to be achieved, the cost of the entire pipe would be more than 10 times that of the small pipes currently used by Jiangnan Group. After all, as the pipes get larger, the demand for various materials also increases.
This was only the production cost. Such a massive pipe could not be buried underground and would have to be laid above ground, which would further increase construction costs. In the end, the total cost might be about 15 times that of the technology currently used by Jiangnan Group. This is...
However, after learning of Goldman Sachs Group's various underhanded tactics, if Boss Huang didn't retaliate, he wouldn't be Huang He. But initially, he hadn't thought of using these technology patents to trap Goldman Sachs, as no one could have predicted that Goldman Sachs would be interested in these magnetic levitation train technology patents.
It was precisely because a few months ago, the heads of more than a dozen magnetic levitation train-related companies had jointly sent a representative to find Huang He, proactively offering to sell their magnetic levitation train-related patents to Jiangnan Group.
That's right, it wasn't Boss Huang who wanted to acquire their patents, but these businessmen shamelessly approached him, wanting to sell their patents to Jiangnan Group.
After all, these companies were not like Goldman Sachs, which could produce a detailed report of hundreds of pages by having a group of experts study it from afar. Everything seemed professional and credible.
These individuals had all been involved in the magnetic levitation train industry for years. They were keenly aware of the industry's ups and downs and naturally knew earlier than anyone that magnetic levitation trains would soon become completely redundant.
In fact, as early as when these companies established the world's first magnetic levitation test line in Europe, they understood how unreliable the practical application value of magnetic levitation trains was.
However, the R&D funds invested could not be wasted. Thus, these individuals came up with a self-serving plan. That is, to package the magnetic levitation train technology and sell it to countries with capital but lacking technology, and then trick them into building new magnetic levitation railways in their own countries, thereby recouping their investments.
However, there were only a few such countries. After all, magnetic levitation trains, which were obviously very expensive, would not be of interest to any country other than a few major powers.
Furthermore, the land area of the country must be quite large, otherwise, the value of magnetic levitation trains would not be evident. After all, who would expect a country with weather forecasts that say it will rain in the morning and be sunny in the afternoon to be interested in magnetic levitation trains?
Therefore, the only countries qualified to be targeted were the United States, the European Union, India, China, and Russia.
Russia was ruled out first. This country was too poor and sparsely populated, lacking the potential for magnetic levitation trains.
The European Union was also not feasible. After all, they were all part of the European Union. It wasn't that they were particularly patriotic and unwilling to defraud their own countries, but there were too many countries in the European Union. Getting these countries to collectively agree to build new magnetic levitation railways would be harder than killing them.
The United States was initially the most promising country. However, after seeing that it took 70 years to complete the construction of two subway stations in the United States, they also realized that the United States was not a viable option.
Therefore, the only key targets for public relations efforts were India and China.