<h4>Chapter 329: Freshwater from Lake Baikal</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Nyoi-Bo Studio <strong>Editor: </strong>Nyoi-Bo Studio


    Just like what theizens and investment analysts said, managing the desert was an investment with no return. Only saints or imbeciles would be willing to do so.


    Commercial investment value was zero? Chen Jin was obviously no fool. He had conducted sufficient research beforehand, as well as simtions on theputer.


    Commonly, these were the few main expenditures on managing desertnd:


    First would be thebor cost for ttening the desertnd and the construction of roads and irrigation facilities totaling at about 2000 dors per mu. Secondly would be the cost of purchasing seedlings, fertilizers, and agriculture machinery at around 1500 dors per mu. Lastly would be water. Every mu ofnd would need more than a hundred tons of irrigation annually. The expenditure on the water for each mu ofnd would be at least a thousand dors every year.


    Moreover, it waspulsory to sustain efforts for 10 years and above to ensure some form of return. There would be no ie generated in between. Comprehensively, ording to traditional reforming means, transforming one mu ofnd would cost at least 15 thousand dors and above.


    After the reformation, the profit generated by ntations would hardly exceed 500 dors for each mu ofnd. This would imply that the recovery period would be above 30 years. It would truly be more than 50 years before developers could expect some real ie. Thus, this field was hailed as “the most unprofitable industry.” But if it were Xing Hai Technologies who was onto this course of action, the situation may bepletely different.


    Xing Hai Technologies’s contracted desert would not require any humanbor as work would all be performed by robots, saving them more than 70% ofbor costs. The costs of seedlings, fertilizers, and agricultural implements were basically the same.


    Another thing would be water. The cost of water in the desert areas exceeded 10 dors per ton with annual water consumption per mu ofnd at more than 100 cubic meters. This was the main expenditure that was almost impossible to cut short. However, Xing Hai Technologies have several ways to trim down this expenditure.


    Lake Baikal, located in Russia, was thergest freshwaterke on the Eurasian continent and the deepestke in the world with an average depth of 730 meters. The total freshwater resource thatke Baikal held was 23.6 trillion cubic meters, equivalent to the water volume of the fivekes in Northern Mbined and exceeding that of the whole Baltic sea. Theke’s absolute reserves of clean water ount for 20% of the world’s freshwater reserves and its water storage ounted for 85% of the total Russianke water.


    Based on 100 cubic meters of water per mu per year, 50 thousand square kilometers of desertnd had water consumptions of not over 7.5 billion tons per year. Freshwater supplies ofke Baikal alone would suffice Chen Jin’s desert for 3146 years. Moreover, the water resources of theke would be automatically replenished by rainfall, snowfall, and groundwater. Hence, it could be described as “inexhaustible.”


    In addition, Lake Baikal was only some 1800 kilometers away from the northeast corner of the Taklimakan Desert. It was equivalent to pumping freshwater from water-rich provinces in the central region. Compared to siphoning seawater from nearby, it would still save on the cost of desalinating the seawater. Hence, Chen Jin’s sight was set onke Baikal’s freshwater supplies.


    “Go directly to the Russians for water. They should be fine with 10 cents per ton of water, I guess. 10 billion tons will be a billion dors, a rather significant amount.


    “For the construction costs of the 2000 kilometers pipeline, we will be using high-pressure carbon fiber pipelines which will cost us 10 million dors per kilometer. 2000 kilometers would mean 20 billion dors. Added up with high-power pumps, ry pumps, high-voltage cables andbor, manpower by robots, it would require us about 30 billion dorsprehensively.


    “Thest thing remaining would be the electric bills generated during the water pumping process.” Pumping a ton of water should require a 10-kilowatt hour. Assuming that each kilowatt-hour costs 10 cents, the cost for pumping each ton of water would be one dor.


    “Summing them up with the costs of acquiring water and the pipeline construction fees, it ispletely possible for us to push average transportation costs per ton of water to below three dors! In that way, on water usage alone, Xing Hai Technologies will get to save 70% of the cost.”


    In the end, the total cost held by Xing Hai Technologies for transforming each acre of desertnd would only be at approximately 6000 to 7000 dors. The cost was less than halfpared to traditional methods.


    At the end of the investment period and when the payback period dawned, with the technology in Xing Hai Technologies’s possession, there would be literally no difficulty for them to generate an average profit of 700 dors per acre ofnd. Hence, it would only take them ten years to expect a return. In only 20 years, Xing Hai Technologies would start to profit and be an agricultural giant.


    “20 years. No otherpany would ept such a lengthy return cycle, but I can. I can afford to expend this little amount of time. I am willing to make a long-term investment and I can afford to y this kind of waiting game.”


    Therefore, Chen Jin once again summoned Ling Jundong and dispatched him to Russia to negotiate about a “water purchasing” partnership.


    Ling Jundong had his eyes wide opened. “10 cents for every ton?” He shook his head hard. “Mr. Chen, the Russians are no fools, they know the value of freshwater, it is impossible that they’ll sell them to us at 10 cents per ton. Mr. Chen, you are too oblivious about the Russian’s personality. They are not that generous!”


    “I am wary of that.” Chen Jin said faintly, “With their personality, if they were to know that someone wants to buy their freshwater, buying it from them and them alone, they would definitely sell their freshwater at the price of oil. They will have no mercy for such a sulentmb.”


    “And you still want me to offer them 10 cents per ton? Won’t they directly throw me outside?” Ling Jundong shook his head. This was asking for trouble in the face of the battle-born!


    However, Chen Jin was confident as he said, “Old Ling, the Russian’s economic development has been very fast over the past two years with a lot of achievements in science and technology. They’ve evene out with a genuine fifth-generation fighter jet. This means that they are using our intelligent learning machine, virtual factory, work assistant and other products I perhaps? And they manage to produce some results with our help.”


    “Yes, the Russians are our biggest client. We have sold more than eight million learning machines and more than 100 virtual factories in Russia,” Ling Jundong nodded.


    “There are more Russian yers in the ‘100% Science Lab’ as well. Am I correct?”


    “There are more than 2000 of them, closing in 3000. The best among them already has a C gradeboratory.” Ling Jundong was, too, very familiar in this matter.


    “That’s why I think the Russians would agree to sell us their freshwater at 10 cents per ton.” Chen Jin said, “You’d just have to ask their leaders, would they like to buy the university level intelligent learning machine? Would they want the 99.99% simtion degree virtual factory?”


    Speaking of the virtual factory, just recently, Xing Hai Technologies had sessfully developed the million billion supeputer “Supernova 3.” It was incorporated with the “Virtual Factory 3.0” and had simtion degrees of eight 9’s behind the numerator, which was more than two generations ahead from the previous four instances.


    “Besides, about the ‘100% Science Lab,’ ask their leaders, are theycking credits to extract their ‘technical data’? Now, they have another alternative to acquiring those credits. For every ton of water they sell us, they will be gifted 0.1 credits in game. 10 billion tons of water will trante into a billion credits... I assume that they are wary of the value of these credits.”


    “One billion credits will definitely be more valuable than one billion dors cash and they will definitely take this into ount!”


    “With these three trump cards, do you think they wouldply with 10 cents per ton of freshwater from Lake Baikal?” Chen Jin asked.


    “Uhm...” Ling Jundong had some thoughts. “I think any normal person would have agreed. But Mr. Chen, the Russians are not that normal. They can’t be on the losing end, if they were, some will riot and make things go south.” He still wasn’t that confident.


    “If we can’t reach on a partnership, then we shall cklist them! In the future, they will not be entitled to any upgrade services that other clients will get to enjoy. For the ‘Science Lab,’ hike their withdrawal prices to the maximum. We shall fulfill their wish and let them starve to death while holding onto all their treasure. It is not like we can’t get fresh water from elsewhere; it is just that it’ll cost more.”


    “!!!” Ling Jundong’s face was covered in sweat. This was not simply asking for trouble; it would be them, pulling off a miracle. But who should the Russians me that it was Xing Hai Technologies that had mastered the core technologies? They could do whatever they want with core technology at hand!