Riding the wind of rebirth

"In 1991, Sony released the first commercially available lithium-ion battery. This was the first truly commercially available lithium-ion battery product. This marked the beginning of the lithium-ion battery era. In the following years, several Japanese companies released their own lithium-ion battery products, and the safety of lithium batteries was finally guaranteed."

"This process is also very long, with numerous research institutions and companies vying for this future direction."

"If our country does not intervene in this direction of development in time, we will suffer a great loss in the future in the field of energy storage media."

"However, one good thing about this direction is that everyone is still exploring it, and the industry started quite late, while we already have considerable strength to participate in the competition." Zhou Zhi continued, "Therefore, this year, when several patent articles about lithium phosphate cathodes began to be disclosed internationally, our group also obtained one of them, namely the patent for lithium iron phosphate battery cathode material."

"Also acquired were the gel polymer electrolyte battery patents from the Abrahan team and Bellcore's Tarascon group, whose products currently have outstanding performance."

"The purpose of this patent is to add a certain amount of organic solvent as a plasticizer to the solid electrolyte, making the original solid electrolyte into a gel-like state like jelly. This allows many of the properties of liquid electrolytes to be retained, while also achieving better electrochemical stability, safety and mechanical resistance."

"The next step is to organize these patents and develop lithium iron phosphate polymer lithium-ion batteries."

"In the near future, we will also conduct research toward all-solid-state electrolyte lithium batteries."

Zhouzhi's biggest advantage lies here: because it has a future-oriented perspective and knows what the ultimate success stories will be, it can avoid the current phenomenon of many lithium battery research and production companies "getting up early but arriving late" and directly catch the most valuable big fish in the patent pool.

"Patents alone are not enough. We had to find a company with battery production and design capabilities to cooperate with. So we found Lantian Sunshine Group, which has a good cooperative relationship with us, has experience in battery production, and whose UPS products are designated by the state as quality-exempt and can replace foreign products."

"Blue Sky Sunshine Group's UPS products require a large number of batteries as energy storage configurations. They are also very interested in the research and development of new batteries. In addition, our province is a major lithium resource province, and we receive support from both the national and provincial levels."

“Although we are only the patent licensor, we can still suggest to them that we establish an experimental center in Liangshan Prefecture. After all, the rare earth materials electronics industry is a direction that cannot be ignored in the future. This place is very close to rare earth, graphite and other resources. Building the experimental center here can be considered as taking advantage of the proximity.”

With Zhou Zhi's assurance, Li Yutang was naturally overjoyed. The farewell banquet had not been in vain; the gains were immense.

"Are you driving or flying back this time?" Li Yutang asked.

Zhou Zhi had a sudden thought: "Xiao Miao has never ridden in a soft sleeper car before. If she can take the train back, we'll ship the car with her."

Li Yutang smiled: "It's good for young people to experience more of life. You can spend another day exploring the city tomorrow. I'll have my secretary arrange the sleeper berths."

Li Yutang was also a very busy man among the local warlords. Zhou Zhi had already seen his secretary come to the door to inquire several times, but Li Yutang had given him a look to send her away each time. So he smiled and said, "Then I'll have to trouble you again, Brother Li. I've said everything I can think of today, and I've taken up so much of your time again."

Li Yutang laughed and said, "That's all for tonight. You young people can stay a while longer. I still have to meet with a few people."

"Thank you for your hard work." Zhou Zhi and the others stood up to see them off.

After Li Yutang and Liu Meie left, Wu Renzhong breathed a sigh of relief: "You're all still hungry, aren't you? How about we go get some skewers on the street?" "I'm full," Mai Xiaomiao answered honestly.

Shamaricong laughed: "Xiao Miao, aren't you nervous around anyone?"

"No, not really." Mai Xiaomiao glanced at Zhou Zhi: "I was quite nervous meeting Zhou Zhi's parents, especially his aunt."

"Is it all right now?" Zhou Zhi laughed. "Don't you guys still video chat quite often now?"

“How about we go sing at Red Dragonfly Karaoke? There’s a barbecue stand right outside,” Shama said. “I’m really not full.”

So everyone moved on to the karaoke bar outside the nursing school to sing and grab some skewers.

The next day, Wu Renzhong and Shama had to go to work, so Zhou Zhi took Mai Xiaomiao and hailed a tricycle to tour Xichang City.

There's not much to see in Xichang City itself; apart from the alliance statues by the river, there's just an old city enclosed by city walls.

However, the two of them were basically just passing through Xichang, and it wasn't until they were about to leave that they were able to really explore the city properly.

Zhou Zhi and Mai Xiaomiao got off the tricycle at Datongmen and began to stroll around this quiet old town.

Xichang has been an important town on the southwestern border of China since ancient times. From the Qin and Han dynasties onwards, successive regimes established prefectures, states, and administrative offices here and appointed officials. During the Ming Dynasty, Jianchang Guard was established under the Sichuan Provincial Military Command, and the construction of the city began in the 20th year of the Hongwu reign.

The city was originally an earthen city, and forty years later, bricks and stones were used to encase the earthen city.

The ruins of the ancient city are actually quite small. When it was first built, it was roughly square, with each of the four walls being a little over a kilometer long. Later, due to the river changing its course and frequent floods, the southeast corner of the city was eroded into an arc shape, making the area of ​​Jianchang Ancient City even smaller, and its shape also looked almost like another folding fan.

However, the city wall was built with stone slabs as a base and then covered with blue bricks. The thickest part of the city wall at the base was 20 meters and the height was 11 meters, so it was built quite solidly. Except for the Ningyuan Gate on the west side, which was destroyed, the other three city gates were fortunate enough to be preserved.

However, the entire old town has undergone nearly a century of major renovations during the Republic of China and the People's Republic of China, and it has long been unrecognizable. Apart from some sections of the city walls, city gates, and some remaining old stone slab streets and ancient buildings in the Shita Street area in the west of the city, as well as some small stone steps and wells, there is no trace of the old town at all.

However, on the stone slabs of Datongmen, Zhouzhi found a stone inscription in regular script with the date clearly written: "Erected on an auspicious day in the fourth month of the twentieth year of Hongwu".

On the surrounding city walls, Zhou Zhi and Mai Xiaomiao also discovered many "dated bricks" marked with the reign titles of Wanli, Dashun, Qianlong, Jiaqing, Daoguang, Xianfeng, Tongzhi, Guangxu, and Xuantong.

Although only a few ruins remain, the remnants proudly testify to the old town's long and rich history. (End of Chapter)