In 1978, I was admitted to Harbin Institute of Technology

Chapter 219 Foreign clients look down on rocket launchers? Then let's show them the power of a Type 59 tank!

Xie Wei was truly dumbfounded.

He stared at Li Rui with his mouth slightly open, his mind a complete mess. The questions he had originally intended to ask Old Man Li were now stuck in his throat.

At this moment, even Xie Wei felt that his brain was not working properly.

Li Rui's few simple words revealed a great deal of information.

Old Li didn't want the school to know he was back; the foreign weapons procurement delegation simply didn't respect the school...

"Could it be?"

Xie Wei thought of a possibility: Could it be that the old man has been missing for so long because of this business?
“Yes, ever since I left school, I’ve always hoped to make this happen. Whether it’s the Middle East or Southeast Asia, they all have clear procurement goals and are unwilling to add extra procurement items…”

Li Rui didn't let Xie Wei guess for too long, and said softly while drinking tea, "Otherwise, I would have contacted you already."

"Now?"

Xie Wei was unsure why the old man had sought him out.

"You were the one who proposed the plan in the first place, so you should have a way to persuade them, right?"

The old man's question was also full of uncertainty.

Seeing Xie Wei's astonished expression, he sighed helplessly.

"Xie Wei, if we can't get orders for these projects that we've invested so much in, and we can't recoup our investment, many of the school's projects will be affected, especially the long-range rocket artillery project, which has taken up too much funding..."

Before Li Rui could speak, Zhang Mingqiu, who had been silent all along, spoke up.

"What can I do? I can't even break contact with them!"

Xie Wei looked helpless.

Jordan came to help Saddam Hussein purchase fighter jets, but Xie Wei was unsure whether other weapons and equipment were also purchased.

Theoretically, Thailand's purchase was for armored vehicles to defend against invading monkey forces.

"You mean, if you can get in touch with them, you can persuade them?"

Li Rui perked up, staring intently at Xie Wei, afraid he would give a negative answer.

"do not know."

Xie Wei shook his head.

Even though he had extensive experience in business negotiations, he had never sold weapons before, especially when the client had no intention of buying.

"Have you considered taking them directly to the firing range to see the power? Didn't you say before that you would take an inspection team to visit the long-range artillery live-fire test?"

Xie Wei frowned and asked Li Rui.

The original plan was to take the inspection team directly to the site for a visit. "Didn't the military even order a batch of rocket launchers for testing?"

"The test was a real-world test. It was convenient, but the results weren't ideal, so the troops went silent, and the Jiangbei Machinery Factory also went silent..."

Li Rui calmly explained, and seeing that Xie Wei was about to ask something, he continued before Xie Wei could ask, "You mean the improved warhead, which I haven't let Zhai Xinguo's team test, right? If the power is great enough, do you think the military would agree to export it?"

"..."

Xie Wei was at a loss for words.

Betraying national interests?

Endangering national defense security?

How could exporting just one rocket launcher endanger national defense security?

It is utterly ridiculous for a country to rely on rocket launchers to ensure its national defense.

Xie Wei understood why Li Rui did this: the country's industrial base was weak and its foundation was poor. They would keep the slightly more advanced military technologies they used secret, for fear that if the enemy knew the details, they could deploy targeted armed forces when war broke out, resulting in considerable losses.

That's not actually the case.

We are already lagging behind, so unless it's a super weapon or key equipment, that would really endanger national defense security.

How can individual weapons be used?
Unless the course of the war can be changed.

As the pace of reform and opening up accelerates, the need for everything to give way to economic infrastructure development will become more apparent, with national defense being the most affected sector.

If it weren't for the eight-year Iran-Iraq War, who knows what the future of China's military industry would have been like.

"The inspection team has arrived? What are their plans?"

"In a few days, a delegation from Thailand will visit the tank testing range in the north to observe tank testing in person..."

"Tank testing, besides testing mobility and firepower, should also test protection capabilities, right? Is there any way to suggest using our cannons to fire live ammunition at Type 69 tanks?"

"what?"

Li Rui and Zhang Mingqiu's eyes widened suddenly.

The look in Xie Wei's eyes turned to terror.

The Type 69 tank's protection was already weak. The rocket launcher developed by Tang Daoxian and Zhai Xinguo was initially tested with a conventional warhead, which was not very effective against fortifications. However, Xie Wei later provided a warhead with a double-cone shaped charge structure, which theoretically enabled the specially developed anti-armor version to achieve a penetration rate of over 85% against 180mm/65° homogeneous armor.

The static armor penetration thickness is over 580 mm of homogeneous armor.

而69式坦克的防护能力，哪怕是用破甲能力100mm/65°的70-1式62毫米反坦克火箭筒都能摧毁。

"Xie Wei, this is no joke! If we can't destroy the Type 69 tank, what will happen to our rocket launchers? If we destroy the Type 69 main battle tank, will our customers still buy our tanks?"

No matter the outcome, it's not a good one.

Li Rui's expression turned serious.

"Yes, this plan is not advisable... If the Type 69 tank can be easily destroyed by a man-portable rocket launcher, it will have a very significant impact on our national defense security..."

Zhang Mingqiu also reminded Xie Wei.

They're just selling rocket launchers, nothing special.

However, selling rocket launchers that could seriously threaten the most advanced tanks equipped by the military would truly endanger national defense security.

Seeing their tense expressions, Xie Wei didn't rush to explain. He took out a cigarette, lit it for them, sat back down, took a drag of his cigarette, and drank some tea. Just as the two were about to lose their temper and start fighting, he calmly said, "Although the Type 69 tank has some performance improvements over the Type 59 tank, it's not much... It's far behind the Soviet T-62. Does the international community not know that?"

"But……"

Zhang Mingqiu felt that Xie Wei's idea was wrong.

"Principal Zhang, there's no 'but' about it. The Type 69 tank hasn't been widely deployed in the military because its performance improvements aren't significant... As for whether it will affect exports, that's not the case either. Its biggest advantage is its low price! The countries that buy these tanks are unlikely to have very advanced adversaries..."

Since the idea was to shoot down a Type 69 tank to demonstrate the power of a disposable rocket launcher, Xie Wei had naturally prepared his explanation.

"Besides, if it can destroy even a single-soldier rocket launcher, can the troops really be equipped with it under the current circumstances? The troops should still be requesting that the Type 69 tank be further modified to improve its performance, right?"

Even Principal Li found Xie Wei's explanation quite reasonable.

At the same time, I also felt that something was wrong.

Is it really okay to destroy a tank that a customer intends to buy right in front of them?
"Also, destroying such a tank in front of the customer will definitely cause them concern. We can sell a more expensive upgraded version... Besides, as long as the tanks they purchase are superior to those of their competitors, this is not a problem..."

Xie Wei continued.

"You mean to use the T-54/55 as an example?"

"No, we can switch to targeting Type 59 tanks."

After some thought, Xie Wei felt that engaging the Type 69 tanks was indeed quite risky. After all, orders for several thousand tanks would soon be coming in.

59 is fine.

"This should be fine."

Upon hearing this, Li Rui immediately perked up, "The main armored force of the monkeys is the T-54/55, and the export version is even inferior to the Type 59 tank... while the Type 59 tank, the whole world knows how good it is..."

Although the Type 69 tank's performance isn't much better than the Type 59, it is still an improvement.

"But how can we get our superiors to agree?"

Zhang Mingqiu expressed his concerns.

Watching Li Rui and Xie Wei use the 617 tank as a target in order to sell rocket launchers, he felt extremely complicated.

He was especially worried when he saw the two of them talking in increasingly lower voices and with more obvious smiles on their faces.

Harbin Institute of Technology is a university!
This shows a trend of turning into international arms dealers. What should we do?
"Xie Wei, are you sure this won't cause any problems?"

On the way back, Zhang Mingqiu, even more worried, asked Xie Wei.

"What problem could there be? The real problem would be if the school couldn't recoup its huge investment in research and development! Otherwise, why would Principal Li have secretly come back?"

Zhang Mingqiu fell silent.

Li Rui did indeed return secretly, in order to recoup funds for some of the school's military technology achievements, thereby solving the problem of insufficient funding for the school's military technology projects.

"Furthermore, if the weapons and equipment developed by the school cannot be sold, even if we have customers in the future, the relevant departments will not consider actively helping us to promote them..."

After Xie Wei returned to school, he once again sought out Zhai Xinguo and Tang Daoxian.

"We have prototypes of both types of warheads, but we haven't tested them yet..."

Tang Daoxian looked helpless. "Live-fire tests should have been conducted long ago, but Principal Li had instructed us not to conduct them without prior notice, which has left us unsure how to improve the system..."

"So you've been focusing on the sniper grenade launcher project all this time?"

"Yes, after numerous tests and improvements, the current sniper grenade launcher can guarantee an accuracy of within 1 meter at a range of 300 meters, and its kill radius has also been increased to 7.5 meters..."

"Great! Great! How many samples do you have?"

"Five of them, what's wrong?"

Tang Daoxian asked Xie Wei with a puzzled look.

Xie Wei didn't pay attention to these things before.

"Get these things ready; there will be testing opportunities soon, especially live-fire grenades..."

Xie Wei didn't say much.

It's still uncertain whether Li Rui can handle it.

Li Rui left Harbin the next morning.

As for how he will persuade his superiors, that depends on Principal Li's methods.

With the outcome uncertain, Xie Wei had no time to worry.

Three days after Li Rui left, Luo Dong led an inspection team from the post and telecommunications bureau to Harbin. After learning about the construction plan for the Harbin telephone exchange system, the team requested to visit the computer room of Harbin Institute of Technology.

The school's telephone network has been replaced with a program-controlled exchange.

In Luo Dong's tests, calls made directly from the school's telephone network could be connected immediately without any manual transfer, demonstrating a fast response time and very clear call quality.

However, once you're fighting your way out of school, there's no difference.

"Sigh, if only we had a high-capacity PBX..."

After learning more about the school's program-controlled switchboard, Luo Dong was somewhat disappointed.

"Director Luo, we are currently researching a 2000-line PBX. The design work is complete, and we are about to enter the prototype manufacturing stage. Although it cannot compare to a 10,000-line PBX, it should not pose a major problem for network deployment..."

Professor Meng Kun, who was standing to the side, began to introduce the current status of the program-controlled exchange project.

With the issue of availability resolved, and with ample funding and sufficient manpower, plus the added advantage of Xie Wei, the technology development process is unlikely to encounter any major errors.

The progress is very fast.

"2000 lines? That might be okay for a small city, but for a city or even a province's telephone connection..."

A post office manager looked utterly disappointed.

"That would require too many switches... For the same capacity of 10,000 lines, the difference between five switches and one switch is still significant."

"But ours is cheap! 700 yuan for a first-tier city."

Xie Wei naturally knew what the other party was thinking.

When Li Rui returned, he told him that the Fuzhou Post and Telecommunications Bureau's visit was not for cooperation, but merely a formality to get Fujitsu to lower its demands when negotiations reached a stalemate.

Therefore, Xie Wei didn't have high hopes.

Only Xie Wei and Zhang Mingqiu in the entire school knew the purpose of the visit. The two did not tell the Harbin Post and Telecommunications Bureau or the technical research and development team. The reason was simple: they wanted the Harbin Post and Telecommunications Bureau to have confidence in the school's switchboard system, and they also wanted the research and development team to have hope.

"Huh? It's so cheap?"

Luo Dong's heart skipped a beat. "The 2000-door and 256-door models are both this price?"

The current exchange rate between the RMB and the USD is 1.5:1. 700 RMB is equivalent to less than 470 USD!
That's only one-third of Fujitsu's price!
More importantly, it's domestically produced and doesn't require foreign exchange.

"Yes, not only that, but the cost of other additional equipment is also included here... This means that if you only want to build a 10000-line switching network, it will only cost 700 million."

Meng Kun was very pleased with the other party's surprise.

He knew that the lowest price quoted by international telecommunications providers was around $1200.

"The plan for Harbin has already been introduced to everyone. Currently, we will first replace the small switches in each branch office. Once the large-capacity switches are developed, we will replace them directly..."

It must be said that the entire inspection team was tempted by the domestically produced program-controlled switch, which cost less than a third of the price of imported ones.

cheap price.

No foreign exchange required!
"How about we wait and see how it goes after the Harbin Post and Telecommunications Bureau's switching system is replaced?"

Back at the guesthouse, someone offered an opinion: "Since we have it domestically, why put up with the Japanese's humiliation! Even if our technology is a little inferior, at least we don't have to worry about foreign exchange, and we don't need to beg them for loans..."

"Yes! Principal Li Rui mentioned before that the school only had a small 256-line switch, probably because he thought the 2000-line switch hadn't been successfully developed, which is why he didn't mention it... Developing a 2000-line high-capacity switch is already sufficient to meet the needs. We can simply wait for them to develop a larger capacity switch in the future and replace it directly..."

"Those Japanese devils are going too far!"

Everyone expressed their opinions.

Nobody wants to be blackmailed by arrogant foreign suppliers.

"Gentlemen, the construction plans provided by Harbin Institute of Technology for Harbin and Chengdu are indeed very good and can meet our needs. In fact, the price is very reasonable for us."

At this point, Luo Dong sighed, then changed the subject and said in a deep voice, "Using the Harbin Institute of Technology's switch system for the entire system is not very practical..."

His tone was full of helplessness.

Everyone stared at Luo Dong in astonishment.

(End of this chapter)