A challenge?
The Hurricane Conglomerate's Chairman Feng Weihao had, of all things, raised a challenge in front of everyone! This was a turn of events no one had expected — yet, turning it over in the mind, it seemed this was in fact a move well within the Hurricane Conglomerate's calculations too.
For by now the Northern Goose Group's price quote for this T2 Tibetan Mastiff-class Medium Interstellar Destroyer had wholly broken past the range the Hurricane Conglomerate could bear.
A quote of 3 million star coins!
This was as good as taking a knife and driving it straight into the Hurricane Conglomerate's heart.
Perhaps someone might say: then at the worst you, the Hurricane Conglomerate, could just cut your price too. They quote 3 million star coins, and you go 2,500,000! Your build cost is only 200,000 star coins anyway — that still leaves margin for profit, doesn't it?
Though it was true that even with the T2 Hyena cutting its price again and again there'd still be a margin of profit left, that didn't mean the Hurricane Conglomerate could cut the price without limit. Cut your price now to 3 million, or even 2,500,000 — and what were those customers who'd bought your warship at 4 million before to do? What, even, of the customers who'd only just signed contracts and not yet had their warships delivered? My warship's not yet in my hands, and here you go with a great price cut — and cutting it by a full quarter, at that? If the Hurricane Conglomerate truly dared do such a thing, the price it would pay would be quite terrifying!
The one method Chairman Feng Weihao could think of was to raise a challenge against the Northern Goose Group's T2 Tibetan Mastiff!
This sort of challenge was permitted. Because before the procurement fair began, out of consideration for the secrecy of each side's core ship technologies, the Empire's side would not require the publishing of too much core data and technology; it would only test the ship's basic, related data. As for the other performance figures, those were furnished entirely by the ship manufacturers themselves. This led some ship manufacturers to take desperate risks and, to a certain degree, exaggerate the performance of their own warships — or, in pursuit of ship combat power, to neglect data such as reliability and stability. In history it was not unknown for some warships to boast to the skies about their own performance; the combat power shown at the outset would be praiseworthy enough too, but after a few years in service they'd fall into a state of trouble upon trouble, great and small. Of course, the Empire would naturally not swallow the loss in silence, and those ship manufacturers would pay a corresponding price for it. Rare though such cases were, one couldn't rule out that a problem of this kind might genuinely arise. And so, to seek out a measure of fairness at procurement fairs of this sort, the Empire granted participants a "right of challenge." But should the challenge fail, then the challenging party would bear the costs required by the whole process, and would moreover have its participation deposit for this procurement fair confiscated.
This was Chairman Feng Weihao gambling! He didn't believe that this suddenly risen Northern Goose Group could truly have developed a warship that beat his own T2 Hyena outright.
The host came up onto the stage at this point, and solemnly asked the Chairman of the Hurricane Conglomerate below, "May I ask, Chairman Feng Weihao, sir — do you raise a challenge to the credibility of your competitor's T2 Tibetan Mastiff-class Medium Interstellar Destroyer's performance data?"
"I do!" Chairman Feng Weihao said through gritted teeth.
The host at once looked toward the procurement committee's seats. "Next, the procurement committee will deliberate on the challenge the Hurricane Conglomerate has raised against the Northern Goose Group's product. Everyone please wait a short while."
The members of the procurement committee began to deliberate on the matter. To speak the truth, that the T2 Tibetan Mastiff, under such performance, could yet name a quote of this kind, was something none of them had expected. If it truly was as that Li Yaqi said, then to choose the T2 Tibetan Mastiff was, beyond doubt, the finest choice for this procurement order. But set against the long-renowned T2 Hyena, the T2 Tibetan Mastiff was full of far too much mystery and uncertainty.
"Members of the procurement committee — as for the challenge the Hurricane Conglomerate has raised against our group, I can accept it. My suggestion is this: since the Hurricane Conglomerate holds that the performance of the T2 Tibetan Mastiff-class Medium Interstellar Destroyer our group developed and built is a fraud, then let's simply have a straight-out duel! The place where a warship truly displays its own ability should not be an occasion of this sort — it should be in a genuine ship battle." Li Yaqi's words came out astonishing.
The whole assembly was in an uproar! No one had thought Li Yaqi would take it upon herself to propose using her own T2 Tibetan Mastiff for a ship duel against the Hurricane Conglomerate's T2 Hyena. But turning it over in the mind — was this not precisely the finest way to let these two warships prove themselves?
"Please wait a moment; our procurement committee needs to discuss this proposal." The procurement committee members had, by now, begun to deliberate. And the crowd in the hall, too, buzzed with talk.
Within the box:
Chu Xuan sighed in admiration. "This move of Li Yaqi's really is a fine one. First she directly takes out the Hurricane Conglomerate's warship to set her own against, climbing to the top on the back of the T2 Hyena. Then, further, she throws out 3 million star coins — a price the Hurricane Conglomerate has no way whatsoever to compete with. And now, more than that, facing the Hurricane Conglomerate's challenge, she calmly chooses to hold a ship duel! If this T2 Tibetan Mastiff of Li Yaqi's truly is as excellent in performance as she claims — and there truly were such a ship duel — then Li Yaqi would have thoroughly and utterly made the Hurricane Conglomerate's T2 Hyena into her own stepping stone. And a perfectly fine stepping stone at that. In the span of a single day, the T2 Tibetan Mastiff-class Medium Interstellar Destroyer would make its name at one stroke! Seizing all the market share of the T2 Hyena-class Medium Interstellar Destroyer!"
"3 million star coins! This too is a price I completely failed to anticipate," Su Lan said with a nod.
Xue Xiaoxiao, for her part, was rather looking forward to the ship duel to come.
Zhao Wan'er looked at the smiling Zhao Chen and, somehow, kept getting a sense of a scheming profiteer off him; she grew all the more suspicious that the true author of this T2 Tibetan Mastiff-class Medium Interstellar Destroyer was this big brother of hers.
After some tens of minutes of the procurement committee's deliberation, a committee representative stood forth and said, "By the deliberation and decision of our procurement committee: apart from ship number six and ship number seven, the other interstellar destroyers are eliminated from this procurement selection. And we agree to a ship duel between ship number six, the Northern Goose Group, and ship number seven, the Hurricane Conglomerate. This ship duel will take a real battlefield as its reference; each side will dispatch 30 warships to do battle in a designated area. The time is set for five hours from now; the two sides are asked to begin their preparations at once."
The committee representative's words drove the atmosphere of the hall straight to its peak. A peak showdown between two T2 interstellar destroyers — this was simply too thrilling. It would beyond doubt become the most sensational headline of this whole procurement.
Li Yaqi, smiling, met the gaze of Chairman Feng Weihao below the stage; between the two of them, it was as though flint-sparks and lightning leapt through the air. Thereupon, at the staff's request, each departed to go about the work of preparing for this ship duel.