In 1978, I was admitted to Harbin Institute of Technology

Chapter 248 The boomerang from the rocket launcher struck Xie Wei himself.

"Cooperating with Pakistan on fighter jet design is a matter for later; right now, we need to solve the current problems..."

Xie Wei did not discuss the cooperation with Pakistan in fighter jet design and development again.

If we can't even get tank cooperation sorted out, how can we expect them to agree to anything else?
Pakistan doesn't have much money to begin with, and its demands are high.

"Borrowing people from Factory 541 isn't difficult, but getting Factory 617 to help train Pakistani technicians and managers might be a bit challenging..."

Upon hearing Xie Wei's request, Li Rui's brows furrowed instantly.

Last time we asked 617 for core technical personnel, it caused a very unpleasant situation. In the end, Principal Li had to use pressure from higher-level leaders to get them to agree.

Now they're going again...

“We can pay for the training.”

Xie Wei naturally knew that Factory 617 was not so easy to persuade.

The profits that should be shared still need to be paid.

"It's not about money. They produce all models of tanks domestically, and the most advanced experimental tank is also in the workshop..."

Li Rui shook his head.

Is Factory 617 short of money?

Actually, it's bad.

No organization would complain about having too much funding; if it weren't for scientific research, it could use it to provide welfare for its staff.

Compared to other military industrial units in China that have seen their planned orders cut, funding reduced, and are struggling to survive, Factory 617, which produces the king of land warfare for the troops, is naturally doing much better.

It's not so easy to get organizations that can launch several projects at the same time to help cultivate their competitors' clients.
"If that doesn't work, we'll have to turn to our superiors. The $8000 million in foreign exchange is something the country urgently needs, and it's also for more advanced tank technology. The higher-ups won't refuse to support it."

"You didn't come all this way just for this, did you?"

Li Rui was surprised to see Xie Wei's murderous expression.

Xie Wei is not like this on a normal day.

"That's not all. I've looked into the situation at 541. Although there's no concrete news, investment has been reduced, and construction has been slowed down or even suspended. Even those that have been completed are now idle, and some workshops have already begun to convert to civilian production..."

Xie Wei explained the situation of Unit 541 to Li Rui.

Upon hearing Xie Wei recount the details of Base 541, Li Rui's eyes widened in surprise. He exclaimed, "You wouldn't be eyeing Base 541, would you? Kid, if you're thinking about that, I advise you to quickly dismiss the idea. That factory has tens of thousands of employees!"

The initial planned production capacity of the 541 Tank Base was 1800 WZ-122 tanks per year!
Factory 617's plan was to produce 1350 Type 59 tanks annually.

Just by comparing these data, you can tell how big Base 541 is.

Xie Wei's attempt to incorporate such a massive base into the school would not only be disastrous, but the leaders of the Seventh Ministry of Machinery Industry would likely be furious.

How can such a large number of cadres and employees be supported?

"What are you thinking! The tank production plan for Unit 541 is very small, and the matching WZ-122 tank can be considered dead in the womb..."

Base 541 was planned to be too large from the beginning, which led to great difficulties in its later production, operation and transformation. After the completion of some branch factories, it had a huge factory with a final assembly plant, a hull and turret casting plant, two tank gun plants, three tank mechanical parts processing plants, three shell plants, three 580-horsepower tank engine plants, etc., but it only produced a small number of WZ-122 tank test prototypes and Type 59 modified test prototypes.

The most produced was probably the Type 84 bridge-laying tank.

After entering the 90s, most of this huge tank base was eventually abandoned, except for a few branch factories that successfully transformed.

Take over?

Xie Wei never even considered it.

"Then what do you mean?"

"Even cooperation is unlikely. Construction on the 541 site is not yet complete. The tank gun factory, engine factory, and other facilities all need upgrading, and the costs will be substantial..."

Xie Wei sighed, "So, the Soviet-trained experts and the earliest tank specialists trained domestically that were mobilized there back then can't be wasted..."

"Suck~"

Li Rui gasped, then panicked: "Are you planning to wipe out their entire research team? Xie Wei, you know the situation at the university. Even with the $8000 million from Pakistan, it's not enough..."

Although 541 was a war reserve factory of Factory 617, from the very beginning, it was designed to become the largest tank research and manufacturing base in Asia.

In response to the call to "bring good people and good horses to the Third Front" back then, many highly skilled technicians who had returned from studying abroad gave up the superior living conditions in big cities and instead supported the country's Third Front construction.

How could a factory as large as 541 lack such technical personnel?

"If that happens, the conflict with Factory 617 will become even more intractable..."

"What are you thinking! Initially, we only need a group of experienced technicians to participate in the design to speed up the project's development... Although this is a project we're cooperating on with Pakistan, this tank was originally conceived for export..."

Xie Wei never expected that Principal Li, who liked to haphazardly initiate projects, would also worry about the scale being too large.

They didn't keep me in suspense and shared their thoughts on this matter.

"Sell the technology and equipment of Factory 541? Are you crazy? If you really do it, you won't get along with anyone, not only the military, but also the leaders of the Fifth Ministry of Machinery Industry!"

After hearing this, Li Rui was not relieved at all; on the contrary, he was frightened by Xie Wei's idea.

Selling equipment and production lines from Base 541?
"The country's reform and opening up policy is precisely to ensure that large-scale wars are unlikely to break out again, right? The fate of Unit 541, which exists for war, is basically sealed... Of course, we can't rush this... We must quickly resolve the issue of training technical and managerial personnel for Pakistan's production and manufacturing, and then bring in people from Unit 541..."

"With so many people, where will you house them?"

Li Rui suddenly realized that compared to Xie Wei's madness, he was ultimately too conservative.

I don't know if it was right or wrong of me to cultivate Xie Wei into a principal from the very beginning.

Xie Wei hasn't become a school leader yet!

"The school just built a new teaching building that will be put into use soon, right? That will free up a lot of space in the mechanical and electrical engineering building. Initially, it's just design work, so we can just squeeze in a bit..."

Xie Wei said nonchalantly, "Besides, the classrooms at the Party School are empty most of the time..."

Got it!
This kid had thought all the issues through before he came.

"Okay, I'll go find the relevant leader first..."

"No, please! We can't go to the leaders, otherwise it will be difficult to cooperate with Factory 617. The higher-ups are putting pressure on us, and future cooperation will easily run into problems. Otherwise, I wouldn't have made this special trip here."

This was Xie Wei's real purpose in coming to find Li Rui.

We must work closely with Factory 617.

The Two Camel War was about to break out in a very short time, lasting for eight years. The two countries together bought hundreds of billions of dollars worth of weapons and equipment. Historically, if China had supplied Type 69 tanks and the like at low prices, it wouldn't have made much money.

"you……"

Xie Wei's words made Li Rui's lips twitch several times, but in the end, he said nothing.

"Alright, let's go to 617 first. If you'd known it would be like this, you should have just sent the school's plane; that would have saved a lot of time..."

Li Rui complained. Although there was a railway from the capital to Factory 617, the journey still took quite a while.

"The train arrived just in time, and by the time we returned, the delegation from Iraq would have arrived, and our long-range artillery team would have returned as well..."

The most urgent need for long-range artillery is from the Middle East.

Because of its poverty, Pakistan's need for long-range artillery is far less intense than its need for various heavy artillery pieces and howitzers.

Xie Wei didn't even intend to ask Pakistan to help sell it.

As long as they appeared on the battlefields of the Iran-Iraq War, customers would naturally come.

Xie Wei didn't want to wait a few more years until the top leader was really out of options and came to pay his party dues before selling this huge bomb that would allow the top leader's army to operate safely from a distance.

Therefore, cooperation with 617 is an urgent matter facing Xie Wei.

If one side in a conflict chooses to purchase more advanced tanks, production can only be carried out through Factory 617.

From the very beginning, Base 541 was built to produce the Type 59 variant and the WZ-122 tank. The engine could only be produced with 580 horsepower, and the turret was to be a cast iron turret.

To produce a jointly developed tank, upgrading the production line alone would require an investment of tens of millions.

This cost is something 541 cannot afford.

It is destined that he will have nothing to do with tank production in the future, and Xie Wei cannot turn back the clock of history.

The PLA will not be at war for more than half a century, so there is really no need to invest a lot of money in building the 541 tank base to produce advanced tanks.

That evening, Xie Wei followed Li Rui onto the train bound for Factory 617.

Along the way, Li Rui was very curious about how Xie Wei had persuaded the leaders of 617, but no matter how he asked, Xie Wei remained silent.

They wouldn't even reveal a single detail about selling rocket artillery or how they would cooperate with Pakistan on fighter jet projects.

This made Principal Li extremely unhappy throughout the journey.

"Principal Li, what brings you here again? We really don't have enough people to support you..."

Factory 617 was not very welcoming of Li Rui's visit to the factory again.

Not only did none of the factory's senior leaders come to pick them up at the station, but they also arranged for a deputy section chief from the external relations department to do so.

Chen Rongjie, the head of the external liaison department of Factory 617 whom Xie Wei was familiar with, did not appear.

Li Rui's status is far higher than Xie Wei's.

It is evident how much Factory 617 disliked Principal Li.

"Who said I came here to ask for someone back?"

Li Rui glared at the deputy section chief of the external relations department who was picking him up, not even wanting to know the man's name. "I've come here to give your factory a bribe!"

"Don't do that, our factory manager said that it's a blessing for our factory that you're not taking advantage of us... We wouldn't dare let you give us any benefits..."

Xie Wei looked at the deputy section chief with a somewhat surprised expression, whose attitude was so rude.

At the same time, some were surprised that Li Rui had recently come to Factory 617 to "borrow" personnel, and wondered how he had negotiated with the relevant leadership departments of Factory 617.

Although Li Rui still holds the position of school principal, he is now an officer in the National Defense Science and Technology Commission of the military.

Qin Weidong, who appeared last time, was not among those picking people up at the station.

"What are you looking at? It's all for the school!"

Seeing Xie Wei looking at him, Li Rui glared at Xie Wei in annoyance, then, too lazy to waste words with the deputy section chief who was there to greet him, he walked directly to the 212 jeep next to him.

Xie Wei wanted to greet them, but seeing their unfriendly attitude, he felt a little bitter: persuading the leaders of Factory 617 would probably be more difficult than he expected.

On the first day, the two did not see any of the leaders of Factory 617.

The deputy section chief, who had a dark expression, stayed with him the whole time. Xie Wei guessed that the other party was mainly there to keep Principal Li company.

I wasn't supposed to see Li Rui the next day either.

However, Li Rui went straight to the factory director's office and caught Zhu Zhenhui, who had just received the news and was trying to hide, in the office. Then, he used the phone in Director Zhu's office to call Xie Wei, who was still at the guesthouse.

When Xie Wei arrived, the atmosphere in Zhu Zhenhui's office was very oppressive.

"Here he is. After he finishes speaking, it's up to you whether or not to cooperate. If you're not willing to cooperate, I think 541 is quite willing, since they happen to be free of missions right now."

Upon seeing Xie Wei arrive, Li Rui, with a stern face, uttered a single sentence and then proceeded to drink his tea, ignoring Xie Wei's conversation with Zhu Zhenhui and the others.

"Director Zhu, hello..."

"Hey Xie Wei, get to the point quickly, our time is precious!"

Before Zhu Zhenhui could speak, Tang Kexian interrupted Xie Wei's pleasantries and told him to get down to business.

The other party was, after all, a cadre of a relatively high rank.

What kind of manners are these!
Even if you have a grudge against Principal Li, you can't take it out on yourself.

"Xie Wei, ignore them. The prototype of the Type 69-III tank was almost finished and was about to undergo various tests. Now the army requires an upgrade to the tank's main armor protection capabilities, and the frontal armor protection thickness must reach at least 630 mm of homogeneous steel armor..."

Seeing Xie Wei frown, Li Rui, who was pretending to drink tea and not intending to speak, succinctly revealed the root cause of the terrible attitude of the leaders and cadres of Factory 617!
What the hell!
Xie Wei almost swore.

Boomerang, oh boomerang!
In the end, it backfired on me.

The current exported anti-tank rocket launchers have a theoretical armor penetration thickness of 580 mm. Previously, You Lihua went to the school to investigate and specifically asked Xie Wei and Zhai Xinguo. Xie Wei told him that the improved rocket launcher would have a theoretical armor penetration thickness of 620 mm.

Factory 617 had already manufactured the prototype of the Type 69-III tank, but just before it was about to begin testing, it was ordered by its superiors to increase its armor protection from 480 mm of homogeneous steel armor to 630 mm. You can imagine how much pressure that was under.

Can Xie Wei blame others for having a bad attitude?
"Don't be so unconvinced. After all these years and a lot of money spent, the tanks we've developed can't even withstand a rocket launcher! If the troops were to actually drive tanks like these into battle, they'd just be sitting ducks! We can develop rocket launchers with such strong armor penetration, and foreign technology is so much more advanced than ours. Who knows how much armor their rocket launchers and anti-tank missiles can penetrate?"

Li Rui's face turned serious.

The Type 69-III tank was originally intended as a transitional tank for armored forces, and there was no plan to equip it with more.

But its performance is really too poor.

"Principal Li, everyone knows our current situation. The project is on the verge of success, and the required improvement in defense performance indicators is over 30%..."

Tang Kexian said with a grim expression.

Factory 617 went from assembling its first Type 59 tank using parts provided by the Soviet Union in 58 to starting independent production in 59, a very short period of time.

Ultimately, however, this tank was already outdated at the time.

59式主战坦克是苏联T54的国产版本，这款坦克是在1944年设计的T-44坦克基础上改进而来，第一辆样车与1946年制成，1947年就在哈尔科夫坦克厂投产……

When it was produced domestically, this tank had already been designed for more than ten years!

Before the Type 59 tank was produced, China did not have the capability to produce tanks.

(End of this chapter)