In 1978, I was admitted to Harbin Institute of Technology

Chapter 389 The knife has been sharpened to its finest point, awaiting only Prince Sultan's arrival.
"What can we sell? What can we even sell? There are many things that we can't sell. If the technology isn't advanced enough, not only will we not get a high price, but people won't even look at it."

Xie Wei sighed.

China now has very few pieces of equipment that the world envies.

Even if the military has not yet equipped itself with it, it cannot be sold for national defense and security reasons, and also to prevent the international community from inferring China's true technological level.

"The Long-Range Rocket System 300, will you sell this?"

Li Rui asked Xie Wei.

Xie Wei nodded, "If the other party is willing to take it, we'll definitely sell it. It was originally designed and developed to expand into the international market... To this day, our troops don't even have 150..."

"..."

An awkward expression appeared on Li Rui's face.

It's not that the military doesn't want to equip itself, but rather that it simply can't afford to.

A single rocket launcher firing a salvo can cost millions. Although the range and power are sufficient, it is simply too expensive for the PLA, with excessively high operating costs.

The 300mm telescopic fire is more expensive.

"We also sold the Counterattack-1 and Counterattack-2 air defense missile systems."

"Huh? It hasn't been tested yet?"

Li Rui's lips twitched a few times. He came here because he was worried that Xie Wei would sell off the advanced and good stuff, but it turned out that Xie Wei still wanted to sell the good stuff.

The military didn't even use it.

But he couldn't very well refute it.

"If they want it, they can definitely test it. Wealthy families can just dig a few shovelfuls of sand and find oil; they don't care about the money..."

"What do you mean?"

Li Rui suddenly stared wide-eyed at Xie Wei.

"Let them pay to watch the target practice. But to sell these, I might have to meet with their manager first."

Xie Wei had not originally planned to meet Prince Sultan.

But Prince Sultan didn't see it, so there was no way these equipment could be sold.

"Although this is currently the most advanced in the country, the Counterattack-1 has a range of only 30 kilometers and an interception altitude of 12000 meters; the Counterattack-2, although with a longer range and higher altitude, only has a range of 50 kilometers and an altitude of 28000 meters..."

Xie Wei spoke up.

Originally, the Counterattack 2 was discontinued shortly after its design was completed and six 1:5 scale model missiles were test-fired because its interception range overlapped with that of Counterattack 1.

Counterattack One was also discontinued in 80.

The technical data was originally intended for the school to use as a technical reserve. Xie Wei was well aware of the market for advanced air defense weapons, so he supported the school in restarting the two projects.

However, the technical specifications are very different from before, and the performance is much better than it was twenty years ago.

"Selling them will not only provide us with the funds we need for development, but it will also show the international community that although our fighter jets are not advanced enough, our defensive weapons, such as air defense missiles, are not bad..."

Xie Wei didn't elaborate on why they were selling the counter-aircraft missiles, saying, "Actually, we have better ones. Whether it's the seeker or the guidance technology..."

After listening, Li Rui also did not express his own opinion.

This time, Xie Wei didn't hide anything and told him the truth, which put him at ease.

"Okay, I'll go back and report to my superiors first. If there's an opportunity, you can go and meet with their person in charge."

He made no promises to Xie Wei.

Xie Wei was also aware of this.

"Principal Li is gone? He didn't even come home for a simple meal when he came."

When Mo Lingyu saw Xie Wei return, she didn't ask Li Rui what he wanted to see Xie Wei about.

As Xie Wei's family member, she had previously been involved in classified projects at school, so she naturally knew what she could and could not ask.

“He’s busy. He was just here on business and chatted with me on the way… Since you’re pregnant and he didn’t bring any nice gifts, he’s naturally embarrassed to come over for a meal.”

Xie Wei said with a smile.

Mo Lingyu's pregnancy sickness finally ended. Xie Wei was busy with work during this time, but after his parents returned to Rongcheng, he had to come back every night to cook for Mo Lingyu.

“Lingyu, I’m busy with work and sometimes I don’t have time to come back to cook. Xie Rou didn’t even get a break during the New Year… How about we send a telegram to our mother and ask her to come here and take care of you for a while?”

Xie Wei was cooking while chatting with Mo Lingyu, who was standing next to him picking vegetables.

He has to go to the capital in a few days to wait for Prince Sultan. He needs to persuade the prince to purchase these weapons and equipment. There is still a lot of preparation work to be done.

After the deal is finalized, he will be even busier.

My mother is extremely busy right now. Although she said she would come to take care of Mo Lingyu once she made arrangements, Xie Jianguo reminded Xie Wei that Liu Mei might not be willing to take care of the child now, and at most she would come to take care of her during her postpartum period when she was about to give birth.

He asked Xie Wei to find someone to take care of Mo Lingyu in advance.

"I'm not that delicate, and the food in the school cafeteria is pretty good!"

Mo Lingyu said, "Besides, she has to take care of my brothers' children!"

"Alright, you go about your work. If I really need someone to take care of me, I'll just ask the school's logistics department to help me find a caregiver."

To this day, Mo Lingyu has never mentioned her family.

Xie Wei tried to probe several times, but Mo Lingyu refused to bring it up.

"School starts soon, and I still have to go to class! I'll have dinner in the cafeteria before coming back... Ever since my morning sickness ended, Mom has been making me eat lots of meat and fish every day, and I've gained so much weight..."

"That's for the child to eat, not for you!"

Xie Wei actually thinks Mo Lingyu looks better if she's a bit fuller.

"You go ahead with your work, don't worry, the school will arrange a teaching assistant for her."

The next day, before Xie Wei could go to Zhang Mingqiu, Tan Heping, who was in charge of logistics, took the initiative to find Xie Wei and told him that the school would assign a teaching assistant to Mo Lingyu.

"Isn't this against the rules?"

"Rules are made by people. She's already an associate professor, and she's usually busy with Director Yu's technical research and development for computer projects..."

Tan Heping explained, "Also, we've assigned you a teaching assistant and another assistant."

"I don't need it."

Xie Wei is really not used to having an assistant with him.

Should we assign teaching assistants?

The courses he taught in the industrial engineering class weren't complicated, and it wasn't a problem for the teaching assistant to teach with his prepared lesson plans.

"Chu Yunlong and Wei Yong have both left."

Tan Heping reminded Xie Wei, "This is Director Li's idea. Just focus your energy on your work and don't worry about anything else."

"The old man came looking for you?"

Xie Wei was genuinely surprised that Li Rui had actually gone to the school specifically to discuss this matter.
"Hmm. You should have had an assistant a long time ago, but you've always been unwilling. Plus, your work is so demanding, there really aren't many suitable candidates..."

"Now you have it?"

Xie Wei looked at Tan Heping speechlessly, "The school is already short-staffed, there's no need to waste manpower. I can just call if there's anything. Our school's phone is working perfectly fine."

"Qu Hongtao is back."

Tan Heping didn't pick up on Xie Wei's topic, but instead told him that Qu Hongtao had returned.

Because of his past involvement in the car sales at Factory 122, Qu Hongtao was extremely disliked by a group of influential figures at the university. After Xie Wei revealed the inside story, these influential figures found it even more difficult to face Qu Hongtao.

Fortunately, Tan Heping was not involved back then.

Since arriving in the special economic zone, Qu Hongtao has not returned to the school for the past few years, instead sending people back to report on his work. "Principal Qu, thank you for your hard work these past years."

When Xie Wei saw Qu Hongtao at the guesthouse, he was stunned. After not seeing him for several years, Qu Hongtao's hair had turned completely white and his face was full of wrinkles.

She looks exhausted.

"It's not hard work. If you hadn't sent me over there, how would I have known about the earth-shattering changes outside if I stayed at school? I've witnessed the speed of development over there with my own eyes these past few years!"

Qu Hongtao said with a smile.

"Your strategy is really good. More and more people are going into business over there these days, and it's much easier to recruit high-end talent than here in Harbin. Our R&D center over there has been developing very well in recent years."

Qu Hongtao introduced the situation of the office in the special economic zone to Xie Wei.

Although he would have people report back to the school and then have them brief Xie Wei on the situation, and sometimes even ask for Xie Wei's opinion, he still spoke with great excitement as he did so.

What was originally just an office has, in recent years, thanks to Qu Hongtao's efforts, transformed into a large enterprise. It has established its own R&D center, not only transforming the school's technological achievements but also collaborating with many enterprises in the Special Administrative Region and Hong Kong.

"Things are developing well over there. I've discussed it with Principal Zhang and the others, and the branch school plans to focus on computer software development, hardware design, electronic technology, and communication technology as its core majors..."

"That's perfect. The Special Economic Zone mainly focuses on developing these industries, and it's closer to Hong Kong, making it suitable for cultivating talent with an international perspective."

Qu Hongtao nodded, then offered his own suggestion: "However, I think the branch schools there should also train talent in management, economics and trade, especially international trade... In the special economic zone, many companies are focused on exports, lacking high-end management talent and trade talent familiar with the international market... Most of our domestic exports are low-end products with little technological content and low profits..."

Xie Wei was not surprised that Qu Hongtao had this understanding.

He has been at school for the past few years, but he is very concerned about the industrial development of the special economic zone.

"The post and telecommunications bureau in Huadu is already working on building a mobile communication system. Our switchboard has a very small market in the Pearl River Delta."

Qu Hongtao looked worried.

When the school introduced the program-controlled switchboard, in order to suppress the technology of domestic program-controlled switchboards, international telecommunications giants lowered their prices and established joint venture factories in China much earlier than in history in order to seize the market.

In recent years, the national telecommunications market has become far more chaotic than in the past, transforming from "seven countries and eight systems" to the current "eight countries and nine systems".

For domestically produced goods, there's only one company, Hongguang.

Apart from the three northeastern provinces and the southwestern region, Harbin Institute of Technology's program-controlled switches do not have a large market share.

Harbin Institute of Technology (HIT) has a low market share of switches, but it has successfully driven down the price of program-controlled switches nationwide—currently, even imported program-controlled switches are only priced at 700-1000 RMB per line.

The low price makes account opening fees even lower, and the number of domestic telephone users has almost exploded in recent years.

Xie Wei also saved the country a lot of money in the construction of the communication system.

Fortunately, the Hongguang Switch Factory has not yet fully absorbed the military's switch business.

"Let's wait and see. We'll release our product once they've opened up the market."

Xie Wei said with a smile.

From the very beginning, the school was working on the development of mobile digital signal technology, but even after achieving results, it did not publicize them or launch them to the market.

To date, the school's program-controlled exchange technology has just surpassed 10,000 lines.

Digital mobile communication technology already exists, and mobile phones have even been designed.

However, once launched to the market, it will soon be crushed by international telecommunications giants.

patent?

It's noisy.

To apply for an international patent, you must first provide the technical documentation.

Xie Wei was aware of the integrity of international capitalists.

Wan Yan is the best example.

Even if they successfully developed a VCD player, it would be bought up and copied by international giants like Toshiba, and then...

"Done?"

Qu Hongtao naturally knew what Xie Wei was talking about. The production plants in the special economic zone had been continuously improving their production technology and cultivating their own supporting factories through the outsourcing of parts.

"It was completed in the second half of last year. An experimental mobile base station has already been built on campus, and for security reasons, all testing is being conducted indoors..."

Xie Wei explained.

Hearing him say that, Qu Hongtao breathed a sigh of relief.

"The school leaders will have a meeting tomorrow to discuss the construction of the branch school there... Funding is currently tight; the higher-ups have only allocated 4800 million yuan for construction so far... The original construction plan was to be divided into three phases."

"what?"

A look of disappointment immediately appeared on Qu Hongtao's face.

He's already 62 years old; he'll have to retire in three more years.

He originally thought he could complete the construction of all the branch schools there.

"Don't worry, the funding shortage problem will probably be resolved in a while, and the plans over there will be completed before you retire."

Xie Wei naturally knew what Qu Hongtao was thinking.

He went to the Special Economic Zone with a heavy burden, and for the past few years he has been preparing to build a branch school there. Now he is being told that he cannot build the branch school in the Special Economic Zone according to the plan before he retires. Anyone would be disappointed.

Xie Wei did not participate in the school meeting the following day.

The aerospace industry is currently short of funds, and many organizations need funding. It's unclear where they found 4000 million yuan to allocate to Harbin Institute of Technology for the construction of a branch campus in the special economic zone.

Zhang Mingqiu, along with Liu Debao and other leaders, even went to the Ministry of Education to request 800 million yuan.

This amount of money isn't even enough for basic teaching buildings and dormitories.

Besides, several laboratories need to be built over there.

If Xie Wei attends the meeting, the entire meeting will likely turn into everyone asking Xie Wei how he plans to solve the funding problem.

How can this be resolved?
Without the Y-9 project, Project 10 wouldn't have progressed so quickly, and there were even supporting projects; the funding wouldn't have been a problem at all.

The only hope is to persuade Prince Sultan to purchase the air defense missile system developed by the school, as well as the Long Range 300 rocket launcher with a range of 300 kilometers.

Even the 8610 tactical missile, with a range of 300 kilometers, was on Xie Wei's list.

All preparations have been completed.

The knife has been sharpened.

Next, we wait for Prince Sultan to arrive.

"What happened? You've seemed restless these past few days."

Mo Lingyu noticed that Xie Wei was acting strangely, and even though she knew it might violate the rules, she still asked him anyway.

"You feel wrong!"

Xie Wei patted Mo Lingyu on the shoulder, "Go to sleep quickly."

"If you can talk about it, please tell me. Although I can't share your burden, at least it will make you feel much better."

Mo Lingyu said softly.

Since they were in the same class, although they hadn't seen each other for several years, she had never seen Xie Wei in such a state.

"It's really nothing. It's just that the school's lack of funding hasn't been properly resolved..."

Not without.

The key is whether Prince Sultan can be persuaded.

It's important to understand that before buying the Dongfeng-3, major investors didn't even consider Chinese weaponry.

(End of this chapter)