Era: Beginning from the Modu Translation Studio

Chapter 458: Military Technology that Stuck the Neck

1981, New Year’s Day.

In an ordinary house in Pujiang City, the curtains were closed and everything was silent.

There was an open mail package on the desk, still looking like it had just been opened.

The sound of firecrackers, which came from far and near, had no effect on the person on the bed at all.

It was not until a series of phone calls rang that Jiang Shan moved over wrapped in a quilt:
"Hello~"

A hoarse greeting caused the person on the other end of the line to be visibly startled:
"Jiangshan? Is it Jiangshan?"

"Well, I am Jiangshan."

Jiangshan felt that the voice sounded familiar, but he just couldn't remember who it was.

"Why are you so listless on the first day of the new year?"

Rao Bin suddenly sensed something: "From the sound, are you feeling unwell?"

"Are you...?"

Jiang Shan seemed to understand what was going on: "Minister... Rao?"

Oh my god, why would the Ministry of Machinery call me on the first day of the new year?
"Did you hear that?" Rao Bin said with a smile on the phone, "Happy New Year, Comrade Jiangshan."

Ever since the slogan "There must be a road before the car reaches the mountain, and there must be Dongfeng cars on the road" appeared, Rao Bin has taken a fancy to Jiangshan.

"Happy New Year, Raobu,"

After determining who was on the other side, Jiang Shan immediately began to organize his words:

"I wish you good health, a happy family, smooth work, and everything goes well..."

"Alright, alright, now that we know you can write and speak, let's not do this anymore."

"Well, I'll listen to you."

"Xiao Jiang, have you finished the tasks you took on at the Tourism Bureau recently?"

"It's already been completed,"

Jiang Shan thought to himself that I had even used up all the mineral water in the Foreign Trade Department:
"You called me today, it wouldn't be our Dongfeng Truck... again?"

"It's not Dongfeng's business. I have more than one Dongfeng under my command..."

The country is unknown.

Not to mention New Year's Day, even on New Year's Eve, Rao Bin's team didn't have a day off.

There is no way. As fierce as the first two years of reform and opening up were, 1981 was just as difficult.

"Ordinarily, I shouldn't call you at this time, but..."

On the other end of the phone, there came the sound of Rao Bin lighting a cigarette: "Well, let me tell you a story first."

"You said it, I'm listening."

Jiangshan, wearing a full set of royal blue workers, peasants and soldiers uniforms, curled up on the sofa wrapped in a quilt.

Like the person opposite him, he also lit a cigarette.

"In 1945, when the Kuomintang and the Communist Party were holding talks in Chongqing, they suddenly announced that they would interrupt the meeting.

Not for any other reason, but because the leaders of both the Kuomintang and the Communist Party wanted to pay their respects to the same person..."

Hearing this, Jiang Shan paused for a moment:
"Who on earth is this person? How could he make both leaders concerned at the same time?"

"Want to know?"

Rao Bin smiled and said, "If you want to know, just listen to me and I will tell you slowly.

In 1901, an Englishman appeared in Langfang, ringing a bell and shouting.

This man was said to be a missionary, but in fact he was just a salesman for the British Brunner Soda Company.

At that time, the only people we saw were people whose bodies were filled with impurities and alkali.

When I saw the evenly-crystallized, snow-colored soda ash in his hands, it was like seeing a treasure.

As a result, British soda ash opened up the market in China without much effort.

Speaking of alkali, since it can be called the mother of industry, it already shows its importance. "

"That's right," Jiang Shan nodded, "soap, glass, printing and dyeing, paper... countless industries cannot do without it."

"Therefore, the Solvay alkali process, which has a low extraction cost,
Helped the British to earn a lot of gold and silver in all walks of life in our country."

Rao Bin continued: "But even so, they are still not satisfied and want to raise prices.

If they are unhappy, they can cut off the supply of products to any factory they want.

Once a factory is stopped from supplying by Brunemont Soda Company.

It won't be long before the company faces the crisis of bankruptcy.

Finally, we can only ask the middleman to help us mediate and increase the price to resume the supply of raw materials..."

Jiangshan felt that Minister Rao's words sounded familiar.

"We can't do anything about it. Who can stop us from making soda ash?"

Rao Bin sighed and said, “During that period, soda ash became a chain around our country’s neck in the history of modern industry.

If we want to go further, we must break the monopoly of foreigners and extract soda ash independently.”

"But in old China, where people's livelihood was in depression, there was no money, no people, no technology... it was simply not easy."

"It's definitely not easy," Jiang Shan knew without thinking, "otherwise, it wouldn't be called a bottleneck technology."

"Neck-blocking technology?"

Rao Bin, who heard this statement for the first time, thought it was quite vivid:

“Fortunately, they soon got unstuck.

In 1911, after the Xinhai Revolution broke out, Fan Xudong, who had studied abroad for ten years, decided to return to his homeland.

Within two years after returning to China, he founded China's first modern chemical enterprise: Jiuda Refined Salt Company.

Afterwards, there were many calls abroad: Chinese compatriots should work harder and be determined to produce Chinese alkali.

He knew that if the Chinese wanted to advance modern industry, they had no choice but to first conquer the alkali production door that the Westerners were guarding. "

But he also knew very well that he couldn't accomplish this alone and had to find like-minded people. "

Jiang Shan: "So, he called out to the outside world?"

"You know what, this trick of his is really effective,"

Rao Bin said: "Not long after, a comrade really came to visit.

This comrade's name is Chen Diaofu, and he was originally a technician in a soft drink factory.

Due to the unstable supply of soda ash, the factory owner gave Chen Diaofu some money in a fit of anger.

He was commissioned to develop modern alkali production technology.

But just when Chen Diaofu's experiment was about to make a breakthrough, the factory's funding chain was broken.

Although the soda factory had given up on its own, Chen Diaofu, who had mastered many of the key points of alkali production, was unwilling to give up.

Fortunately, at this time, he heard what Fan Xudong said..."

Jiang Shan said on the phone: "Chinese compatriots should work harder and be determined to produce Chinese alkali."

"That's right," Rao Bin nodded and smiled:

“Thus, two like-minded people, one from the south and one from the north, finally met.

One side is rich, the other side is talented.

Soon, Fan Xudong set up a laboratory according to the order given by Chen Diaofu.

As for Fan Xudong, the owner of a salt factory, the large amount of crude salt needed for alkali production was naturally a piece of cake.

Just three months after the two met, the reactor was set up in the Fan family compound.

The first operation of the furnace was a success, although only 9000 grams of soda ash were extracted.

But faced with this pile of snow-white alkali powder, all the technicians present jumped up excitedly.

Fan Xudong and Chen Diaofu even hugged each other.

They knew that the technology of refining soda ash had long been a hindrance to the development of my country's industry.
We finally took it down ourselves..."

Jiang Shan was happy just by hearing this: "The bottleneck technology has been broken through." "That's right," Rao Bin said, "It was not until then that the Chinese people knew that

The cost of soda ash, which was once so high-end, is now so low.

However, because of this, Fan Xudong was subjected to various threats from the British Brunner Mond Company.

Not only that, even domestic warlords kept coming to cause trouble.

In 1945, Fan Xudong, who helped my country break the technical constraints of alkali and acid production,
Due to long-term fatigue and harassment, he died of a sudden illness..."

After a moment of silence, Jiang Shan understood: "So, the Chongqing talks were interrupted because of him?"

"You guessed it, this is the comrade who won the key to industry for our country."

Rao Bin continued, “But the other comrade, Chen Diaofu, is also remarkable.

After helping Fan Xudong produce soda ash, he founded a paint factory in Tianjin.

We have successfully developed a three-treasure paint that can be sprayed, brushed and baked.

And named this paint "Lighthouse" brand. "

After the founding of New China, this paint factory absorbed more than 40 small paint factories and merged into a large-scale Tianjin paint factory.

In the mid-50s, Tianjin Dengta Paint Factory received an urgent task from our department.

They were asked to develop more than 80 kinds of special coatings for aircraft, ship skins, radar covers and other parts...

Do you know Jiangshan?"

Jiangshan, who was listening attentively at this time, immediately pricked up his ears.

"Our country's first homemade aircraft, the first Red Flag car,

Rao Bin said, listing all the treasures:
"The first Jiefang truck, Dongfeng truck, Dongfanghong tractor,

The Wuhan Yangtze River Bridge, the Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge, and the first artificial satellite all used Lighthouse brand paint.”

At this moment, Jiang Shan could already guess why Rao Bin called him.

As for those “firsts” he just mentioned, most of them are under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Machinery.

Especially those cars, they are all representative works of Rao’s department.

"In the next ten years," Rao Bu continued:
"The Lighthouse Paint Factory has started to continuously research and innovate for our country's military and aerospace coatings.

Just before the New Year, some leaders of Tianjin Dengta Paint Factory went to your Pujiang. "

Jiang Shan wrapped himself in the quilt and asked: "Come to our city?"

"Well, this trip to Pujiang is to discuss the research direction of military coatings with the paint factory in Pujiang,"

Rao Bin paused for a few seconds and said:
"Also, let's discuss how to increase production profits without affecting the progress of research and development."

Hearing this, Jiang Shan felt that if he didn't take the initiative...

"Minister Rao, what do you think I can do for our country's paint industry?"

"This is it,"

Minister Rao felt relieved just by listening to it.

Although he had not been in contact with Jiang Shan for a long time, Rao Bin did not treat this guy as an outsider:

"To be honest with you, Xiao Jiang, it has indeed been quite difficult for the Tianjin Paint Factory over the years.

First, the Ministry of Industry gave them a number of loss-making factories of all sizes.

Then we received a series of R&D tasks from our department.”

"That is to say," Jiang Shan said, "this factory has always been fulfilling the tasks assigned by the state."

To put it bluntly, we have been helping the country solve its difficulties.

"I heard that their factory has not been doing well in the past two years,"

Rao Bin called Jiang Shan this time because he couldn't stand it anymore:
"Thinking that they have always been the ones to solve our problems..."

"So, you also want to help them solve their problems?"

"So, I came to find you Jiangshan."

"Your business is my business," Jiang Shanding said without hesitation:
"But... apart from doing publicity and promotion, I can't help with anything else."

"It's your craft that I want."

Rao Bin suddenly slowed down his speech and said:

"Before the Tianjin Paint Factory went to Pujiang, I gave their factory leaders a suggestion: export."

"exit?"

Jiang Shan thought for a moment and said, "Minister Rao, have you heard of Singapore's Lisi Company?"

Wu Qingliang, the founder of Nippon Paint, would create a world-renowned paint brand - Nippon Paint ten years later.

"You mean the Lishi Paint Company, right?"

Rao Bu smiled and said, "What a coincidence, Wu Qingliang, the chairman of Lishi Company, is currently donating to build a primary school in his hometown of Chaozhou."

"He's coming to the mainland too?"

"He has been coming back almost every year in the past two years,"

Rao Bu thought for a moment and said, "Xiao Jiang, I know what you are worried about.
But don't worry, the products of Lishi Company are not at the same level as those of Tianjin Paint Factory.

If our paints and coatings are sold to Southeast Asia, the target groups will naturally be different..."

……

Pujiang City, Kailin Paint Factory.

Although today is the first day of the Lunar New Year, the factory's conference room is still open as usual.

As the leader of China's coatings industry, Kailin Paint Factory was the only manufacturer of ship coatings in my country before liberation.

At this moment, the director of Kailin Paint Factory pointed to a picture on the wall and introduced:

“In 1966, the navy accompanied our factory to inspect a destroyer that had been in the harbor for nearly half a year.

Although the bottom of the ship was coated with anti-fouling paint, it was still clogged with marine life up to 23 centimeters thick.

In other words, in just half a year, the destroyer was forced to increase its weight by nearly 20 tons.

In this way, both the overall mass and the rough surface will affect the destroyer's speed and fuel consumption..."

If a destroyer can't even increase its speed, there is no need to talk about anything else.

It's shocking to see the pictures.

Comrades from Qingdao Paint Factory, Tianjin Paint Factory, Guangzhou Paint Factory, and several comrades from the Sixth Ministry of Machine Building in the conference room all frowned at the same time.

At this time, one of the factory leaders asked, “How long will the antifouling paint used back then last?”

"To be honest," the leader of Kailin Paint Factory said with a wry smile, "It was only two weeks."

"Two weeks?"

“This is too short.”

"So at that time, every half a month, the ships at sea had to be docked for cleaning and repainting,"

The leader of Kailin Factory continued:

"Through continuous efforts, by 1966, our factory had increased the shelf life of antifouling paint for ships to several months."

"But compared with the world average, it is still far from enough,"

At this moment, a comrade from the Sixth Ministry of Machine Building spoke up:

"According to our understanding, the effectiveness period of ship anti-corrosion and anti-fouling in many countries can now be as long as three years..."

Hearing this, many leaders in the conference room began to discuss in low voices.

"During the Korean War, all countries stopped supplying ship coatings to my country,"

The leader of Kailin Paint Factory continued:

"Therefore, this is also the research and development goal that our 418 Ship Collaboration Group must achieve."

In the late 70s and early 80s, while core military technologies were developing steadily, the research and development of supporting auxiliary materials was also put on the agenda.

Today, these key paint and coating factories gathered here to discuss this matter together.

But now, there is a bigger problem facing them: their R&D funding chain is broken!
(End of this chapter)