In the beginning, India was also very welcoming of this, as India had always boasted of being the number one power in East Asia, not even looking down on Japan.
However, China's development momentum in recent times is well known, which has caused India to lose face. They also urgently needed something to make themselves look respectable, so high-speed maglev trains became a good way to save face.
In the early 21st century, Europe organized a large maglev delegation, led by the German Chancellor, to visit India. The delegation was full of confidence and wanted to sign a contract with India, and India was also very enthusiastic.
Everyone hit it off and almost signed the contract directly.
However, the EU delegation rationally proposed to visit India's railway construction work, and then they saw a scene that they would never forget. India's trains were not only able to carry people inside, but also full on the outside.
Not only were the roofs of the trains full of people, but people were also hanging on both sides of the trains, which left the Europeans numb.
"Are these people hanging outside charged?" a representative asked a local staff member.
"Of course not! We are an independent and democratic country!" the staff member replied proudly.
Although it was unclear what the relationship was between an independent and democratic country and free hanging tickets, it showed a very clear fact: the ordinary people of India could not even afford the cheapest slow train tickets, so how could they afford the high-speed maglev train tickets?
And this kind of maglev train, even if it was full of passengers, might not be able to break even. If every train was empty, what was the point of it all?
So, most European entrepreneurs began to retreat.
Of course, Europeans had not completely given up at this time. They had given up the idea of building and operating maglev trains in India themselves. Instead, they planned to trick the Indian government into paying for the construction of maglev railways, while they themselves would be responsible for operating the railway companies, and these European companies only needed to sell their technology at a high price.
However, before this condition could be expressed, the Indian government directly asked if they could provide a full package of loans for India to build new maglev railways. Moreover, the loan had to be low-interest, repayable in 50 years, and secured by the operating revenue of the maglev railways.
Good heavens, truly good heavens.
The entire delegation fled back to Europe overnight, not daring to stay in India for a moment longer. Therefore, their only target was China. At this time, China also wanted to use high-speed railways to expand China's economic development, so both sides hit it off. At the same time, Europe did not make any excessive demands, only hoping that China would pay for the construction costs, which led to the construction of China's first maglev line.
It was a pity that China was very cautious and did not plan for large-scale construction at the beginning, but insisted on building a short-distance maglev train for practical experimentation, and then there was no then. China never talked to European companies about maglev trains again. Instead, the Chinese people began to be interested in European high-speed trains and were constantly cooperating with the companies that produced high-speed trains.
This immediately made the companies related to maglev trains anxious, because they had invested almost all their capital in the development of maglev train technology, and now they were counting on China to use their technology.
If China also turned to high-speed trains, they would really be finished.
So, when the news came out of China that an enterprise intended to develop vacuum maglev high-speed trains, these European companies became happy instead, and then waited for Jiangnan Group to come to them to buy their technology.
The idea of these Europeans was very simple, exactly the same as Goldman Sachs' idea: Jiangnan Group's technology was nothing more than putting traditional maglev trains into vacuum tubes, so their technology was bound to be a wall that Jiangnan Group could not bypass. Jiangnan Group had to spend a huge amount of money to buy their technology.
These Europeans also formed a unified alliance, agreeing that their technology absolutely could not be sold cheaply, and must be sold at least at double the value, that is, at Goldman Sachs' pricing.
However, they waited and waited, for two or three years, and Jiangnan Group never showed up. It was not that Jiangnan Group did not buy this technology at all. In fact, they had contacted two or three companies at the beginning and had indeed bought the patents from them at double the price.
This greatly encouraged many companies in a short period of time, who thought that Jiangnan Group would eventually come to them, and then they could leave this damned pit.
However, Jiangnan Group never appeared again. Instead, it seemed that Jiangnan Group's vacuum maglev train technology had made progress in China.
This made these European companies panic, and then they collectively approached their behind-the-scenes boss, the Rothschild family.
The entire maglev train industry was basically invested by the Rothschild family. The family was very optimistic about maglev trains at the beginning, believing that they would be the third generation of trains to replace traditional trains and high-speed trains, and that they would surely achieve great development in the future. It was definitely right to enter the maglev train industry early.
Therefore, the investments of these maglev train companies were almost all from the Rothschild family, and they had invested nearly 500 million euros in total, which was not a small amount for the Rothschild family. However, they did not expect that it seemed to be on the verge of being wasted.
The Rothschild family naturally could not tolerate their investment being wasted like this. After these companies collectively approached them, although the Rothschild family did not appear in person, they secretly sent their youngest son, Albert Rothschild, to China to represent these companies in discussions with Jiangnan Group to understand the situation.
Before leaving, Albert Rothschild had made a perfect plan, intending to use various means, linguistic art, technical coercion, commercial fraud, and even the "drawing big pies" tactic to deal with Huang He.
The best outcome would naturally be for the Rothschild family to use these patent technologies as shares in Jiangnan Transportation, thus obtaining the key to enter this vacuum maglev train... After careful research, the Rothschild family believed that vacuum high-speed trains were actually the third-generation train technology that could replace high-speed trains in the future.
If they could enter now, it would definitely be a huge profit, so no matter what, they had to find a way to obtain shares in Jiangnan Transportation and further control the entire vacuum high-speed train technology.
If the above goal could not be achieved, then at least they had to find a way to make Jiangnan Group invest to acquire these patents, and at least at the price of 1 billion euros, otherwise the Rothschild family's investment would be a big loss?
When Albert Rothschild voluntarily revealed his identity and found Jiangnan Group, he was indeed warmly received by Jiangnan Group. Huang He personally came forward, and the two had a very pleasant dinner.
However, what made Albert Rothschild uncomfortable was that no matter how he hinted, Huang He did not take the bait. Even when he directly mentioned the topic of maglev trains, Huang He immediately changed the subject, refusing to continue, which made Albert extremely uncomfortable.
At first, Albert wanted to stall and pretend, but after half a month with no response, Albert had no choice but to directly state his position and attitude, willing to represent these maglev train companies to negotiate with Jiangnan Group, and that both parties would jointly operate the vacuum maglev train technology.
"There's no need for that. We are doing very well on our own and don't need any cooperation for now!" Huang He refused with a smile.
"It's impossible. Mr. Huang, you don't need to put on an act here!" Albert said very elegantly and confidently. "Although your delaying tactic for the past half month has been very successful, making me can't help but come to you to talk. But some facts cannot be changed, that is, the patents for maglev train technology are firmly in our hands."
"If you want to develop vacuum high-speed maglev trains, you must obtain the patents in our hands, otherwise you will not be able to move an inch. Is there any way you can change this?"
Albert could never forget the look Huang He gave him when he finished speaking, as if a gorilla was looking at a monkey, which made Albert feel great embarrassment, awkwardness, and humiliation.
Just as Albert was about to get angry, Huang He smiled and said, "How about this, I'll treat you to a video!"
"A video?" Albert was stunned, and then the oversized screen in Huang He's office directly played a video.
It was a video shot at the experimental base, showing the completed vacuum high-speed train being test-run in the pipeline. Just this one video made Albert completely dumbfounded and driven mad.
Albert had also done his homework on maglev train technology before coming. He knew that their technology was entirely based on maglev technology on dual-track rails and roadbeds.
But when he saw the Chinese people's cutting-edge technology, which was completely suspended inside the pipeline, without any visible rails, as if the entire pipeline was the track, Albert suddenly had a feeling.
It was as if he had returned to the 19th century, the envoy of the British Empire who was bragging in front of Empress Dowager Cixi, strongly promoting the idea of helping the Chinese build railways, only he was not an envoy, but the high and mighty British Empress Dowager, and the envoy standing in front of him was a Chinese person who said in broken English, "Your Majesty, would you like foreigners to help you build railways?"