In 1978, I was admitted to Harbin Institute of Technology

Chapter 159 Harbin Institute of Technology actually has a WZ122 tank front prototype! Does the Ministry know about it?

"I didn't bring it up! Director Song, this matter has nothing to do with me. I'm just a student, how can I influence the school's decision..."

He cursed in his heart that this old guy Du Guowang was not a good person and was causing trouble for him.

He explained to Director Song, who had a gloomy face, with a smile on his face.

"How dare you say such a thing? You can't influence it? The school's aerospace major was restored because of you; now you have taken the initiative to propose the establishment of a weapons department, and the tank project is the main focus..."

"I don't!"

Xie Wei's defense was so weak and powerless.

The old guys in the school are more shameless than each other.

It was clearly their fault, but they insist on putting the blame on themselves.

Just because I'm young, I have to bear the blame given to me by these old guys!
"Don't give me that! The theoretical demonstration of the aerodynamic layout has been completed, and we need to use a wind tunnel to verify it. If there are no problems, we can proceed to the next step of research. You are clear about this..."

clear!

Very clear!

But the income of the school-enterprise office is so little, and the school started to develop fighter jets, third-generation fighter jets at that. Before there are any results, the Air Force will not provide any funding!
Supersonic wind tunnel experiments are a must.

Just one trip through the wind tunnel costs nearly two hundred thousand dollars.

Even if Xie Wei took out the Shi Ye model, he couldn't just draw the exterior and aerodynamic layout according to the model he provided and use it directly.

This requires a lot of theoretical argumentation, and then using the data from wind tunnel experiments to determine where improvements are needed.

"Director Song, I really can't solve the funding problem by asking you..."

Facing the father of the third-generation aircraft, Xie Wei could only explain patiently with a bitter face, "I don't even know what projects the school has, let alone the allocation of funds."

"This has nothing to do with the school. All self-funded projects are provided by the School Enterprise Office. Principal Li always told me to look for you!"

"..."

Xie Wei was speechless.

This old guy Li Rui is really a piece of shit. In order to avoid getting in trouble himself, he lets these big guys come and cause trouble for him.

After all, growing vegetables on the moon is the dream of every Chinese. Even after Chang'e 5 brought back the first batch of lunar soil, the "News Broadcast" specifically reported: After expert research, it was found that vegetables cannot be grown on the lunar soil.

But this did not dampen the enthusiasm of the Chinese people to grow vegetables on the moon. After the efforts of scientists, they successfully developed a way to grow vegetables on the moon.

At that time, those cadres who asked what the purpose of going to the moon was were scolded even more harshly.

As someone who has experienced it, Xie Wei knows very well how important the third-generation aircraft is to the whole of China and how important it is to the national self-confidence of the Chinese people.

Make bricks without straw.

He couldn't create money out of thin air.

Or it would be more accurate to say that he was unwilling to do so: the speed at which he made money could never keep up with the speed at which the school leaders and key professors worked on military projects!

The country has spent more than half a century earning money to develop this advanced technology. What does it matter how strong Xie Wei’s personal abilities are?
"I understand your dilemma! But the budget is already tight, and if we add the tank project, the limited budget will be even tighter..."

Seeing Xie Wei's helpless expression, Director Song also sighed and said softly: "The wind tunnel experiment can't be delayed any longer, otherwise it will affect the overall progress."

Xie Wei moved his mouth and almost blurted out "How much do you need?"

The words came to my lips, but I swallowed them back.

Can’t ask!
"Director Song, I really can't help you with this matter."

Xie Wei resisted the urge to ask how much it cost and looked at Director Song, who was worried.

After saying this, Director Song's expression became even more worried.

Seeing that he was about to speak, Xie Wei hurriedly added, "I'll go ask the principal. If I can convince him, I'll try to persuade him to give priority to providing funding for the wind tunnel experiment."

Xie Wei spoke sincerely, and Director Song had no other choice.

That's all.

"Whoo~"

After Director Song left, Xie Wei let out a long sigh. Looking at his back, Xie Wei sighed, "Ah! This day after day!"

Xie Wei really didn't know how to interfere with what projects the school was going to carry out, and it was useless to interfere.

Now he finally understood that there was no old member of Harbin Institute of Technology who didn't want to work on military technology projects.

From Li Rui to Liu Debao, to the department heads, and even the teachers and students of various majors.

"What are you doing here again?"

Seeing Xie Wei, Li Rui did not hide the displeasure on his face at all.

"Principal, I heard that it was my suggestion that the school establish a weapons industry department."

Looking at Li Rui who was unhappy, Xie Wei sneered, not giving Li Rui any face at all.

really.

After he said this, Principal Li's expression froze for a moment, but soon disappeared.

"What do you mean I heard you proposed it? It was you who proposed it!"

Fuck the dog!
Xie Wei almost went berserk.

The old guy has no martial ethics at all and is completely shameless.

"What did I propose? When did I propose it? Why don't I know about it? When did I become so high-ranking in school? I don't even know it myself."

"Ever since Tang Daoxian wanted to make a single-soldier sniper cannon, tell me whether it has anything to do with you!"

Principal Li had lost all sense of martial ethics and was naturally prepared to respond to Xie Wei's remarks.

Seeing Xie Wei's lips moving, he wanted to open his mouth to refute him, but he did not give Xie Wei a chance to speak, "Don't rush to deny it. The school does not have a teacher of firearms design. You can find Vice Principal Liu and ask him to assign a professional teacher to Tang Daoxian... Our school is based on the principle of people-oriented and cultivating according to interest, so it is naturally not ignored... But it is too wasteful to assign multiple relevant tutors to Tang Daoxian..."

"..."

Principal Li's unreasonable arguments almost made Xie Wei give him a thumbs up.

What he said seemed to make sense and there was no reason to refute it.

"What about the tanks?"

"Tank? What tank? I don't know!"

Li Rui looked puzzled.

Pretend it's real!
Principal Li's performance at this moment is absolutely at the level of an award-winning actor.

"Okay! You guys are awesome!"

Xie Wei knew that the old man had completely lost his shame, and that it was useless for him to say anything, so he turned around and walked out. Who could reason with a shameless leader who had no moral principles?
"Xie Wei, wait!"

Seeing that Xie Wei did not make a fuss and did not even say a harsh word, Principal Li suddenly panicked - he was still counting on Xie Wei to use the school-enterprise office to get more funding for the school.

Otherwise, those projects do not have sufficient funding support.

When it comes to making money, all the leaders in the school combined can’t compare to Xie Wei.

"how?"

Xie Wei turned his head and looked at Principal Li, "Since you don't know the situation, I'll go ask someone who knows..."

"Young man, don't be so impulsive!"

Principal Li stood up from his office chair, walked to Xie Wei, put his hands on his shoulders, asked him to turn around, and then pushed him to sit on the chair opposite the desk.

"As for the tank project, although I don't know the details, I do know some information."

Xie Wei looked at Principal Li with amusement as his face was filled with sincerity.

The old guy's acting skills are unmatched by professional performers.

He didn't say anything either, just looked at Li Rui calmly, waiting for his explanation.

"The school also participated in the WZ-122 tank project. Although Harbin Institute of Technology was the top military engineering school in China at that time, and we had a lot of teaching staff and technical foundation, the situation at that time..."

At this moment, Principal Li's tone was full of seriousness.

"The T-62 that was fished out of the river had no armor that could be penetrated by any of our individual anti-tank weapons at the time. Such weapons and equipment were almost invincible against our armored forces on the battlefield... The WZ-122 project came into being. At that time, the situation in the north was tense and war could break out at any time, which was also the reason why Harbin Military Engineering moved south..."

"What does this have to do with our school?"

"What the outside world knows is that the Armored Forces Department of Harbin Institute of Technology moved south to form the Armored Forces Engineering College, but not many people know that when this part of the relocation took away some of the teachers from the school, they were returned to the school..."

"So, Director Du is actually a teacher in the Armored Forces Department?"

"To be exact, he is a professor in the Armored Forces Department! Many people in the school also came to Harbin Institute of Technology from the school, and stayed in the school when Harbin Institute of Technology was split and relocated... Although the school does not have these majors, it has not reduced research in these areas. It has always had close ties with the Armored Forces Engineering College and the Fifth Ministry of Machine Building."

Li Rui sighed.

He looked at Xie Wei and really wanted to tell Xie Wei that if Xie Wei had not appeared and allowed the school to obtain the right to independently develop projects and raise funds on its own from superiors, and raised funds through the School-Enterprise Office, many old professors who had given up saw hope, and none of these things would have happened.

"Du Guowang is engaged in automation control. In the WZ-122 project, automation technology is a core and difficult technology. It is difficult to achieve it based on the previous foundation. And you have developed the HZ-80 chip. Through detailed research on this universal chip, he has seen the possibility of realizing some technologies that were previously impossible..."

Li Rui's words made Xie Wei really not know how to respond.

Every Chinese person has a dream of building a strong army.

A strong military is the foundation of a strong country.

This is something that has been engraved into the bones of almost every Chinese person after being bullied for a hundred years.

Having advanced weapons and equipment is not to bully others, but to avoid being bullied by anyone.

At present, there are no advanced weapons and equipment.

"In fact, before this, after the army gave up the main project development of the WZ-122 tank project and switched to the development of parts and key technologies, the professors and teachers related to the school did not give up..."

Li Rui also felt that his words were somewhat empty, especially when he saw Xie Wei's mocking expression.

"In this case, I will take you to a place."

Xie Wei didn't know where Li Rui was going to take him.

Since he wants to take me there, I'll just go with him and take a look.

It has been almost a year since Xie Wei arrived at the school, and he has not been to many places in the school. He usually stays in the training rooms, classrooms, dormitories of various departments, and the school building.

I seldom go to the library.

Whenever I needed any books or materials, I would ask my roommates to help me borrow them from the library.

What's more, Xie Wei didn't need to borrow books by himself. The professors and mentors who were involved in various projects would take the initiative to provide Xie Wei with professional books for self-study, and then explain them in detail to Xie Wei when he was working on the project.

"Outside the school?"

As he walked out of the school gate, Xie Wei was very surprised.

"Yes, it's next to the school."

Li Rui nodded but did not stop.

Along the way, neither of them spoke. Xie Wei didn't ask, and Li Rui didn't speak.

Not far from the school gate, on the route where Xie Wei usually goes for his morning jog, about 700 meters away from the school, there is a Soviet-style brick and wood structure factory building.

The red brick walls of the factory building have long been mottled, the factory gate is also dilapidated, and a lot of weeds have grown around it.

An abandoned factory?
However, after Li Rui pushed open the rusty iron gate and entered the interior, and went into the workshop that looked equally dilapidated from the outside, Xie Wei discovered that there was another world inside!

What caught the eye was a tank with a wedge-shaped turret, a low body and a thick gun barrel!
There are two missile launchers on each side of the turret.

Correct!
A tank.

A tank that carries its own missile launcher!
Various parts and tools were neatly arranged on the workbenches around the tank, but Xie Wei could not recognize many of them with his skills.

There was no one in the workshop, but there was not a speck of dust on the floor. It was obvious that someone was often tidying up or even working there.

"this?"

Seeing the tank in front of him, Xie Wei's brain froze.

Harbin Institute of Technology is a university in the aerospace system. In the next few decades, it will continue to supply talents to the aerospace system. The aerospace field is its strong point.

I've never heard of Harbin Institute of Technology developing tanks!

Tanks, that is the business scope of the Armored Forces Engineering Academy.

"This project was actually already under study before the Harbin Institute of Technology was split up. If anything, it can be considered a pre-demonstration project for the WZ-122 project. Before that, there were only theoretical research and design... After the Harbin Institute of Technology moved south, these were left behind. This is why the school still has some faculty and staff from the Harbin Institute of Technology's Armored Forces Department..."

"The tank gun has a caliber of 115 mm smoothbore gun, is equipped with a 580 horsepower diesel engine, and has a combat weight of 37.8 tons..."

"In the past few years, Du Guowang and others did not give up and used various channels to produce this prototype. However, due to funding, manpower and other issues, this tank prototype could not be moved..."

"That's not right. Didn't we have a 115mm smoothbore cannon before?"

The 115mm smoothbore gun was equipped by the Soviet Union on the T-62 and the early T-64. After discovering that the 115mm smoothbore gun was not powerful enough, the T-64 was improved and equipped with a 125mm caliber smoothbore gun.

This established the T-64 as the forerunner of the third generation of tanks.

Even decades later, the T-64 is still the trump card of the Soviet armored forces, and is simply incomparable to the T-72.

"It's true that we haven't done it before. The WZ-122 tank is an improved 120mm smoothbore gun based on this gun... This prototype is only used to verify some technologies..."

Looking at the tank prototype in the workshop that has never appeared in any picture, Xie Wei really wanted to ask Li Rui: Does the department know that the school is doing this?

(End of this chapter)