The Grandmother in the Siheyuan

Chapter 524 Using one's own spear to attack one's own shield

The workers excitedly took off their hats, waved them in their hands, and shouted, "Success! Success!"

"What are you yelling about?" Liu Hua scolded. "Did we invite you to watch the target practice or just to join in the fun? Have you forgotten your job? Hurry up and check the turret."

The engineers and technicians then remembered their mission; they weren't there to watch the spectacle. They quickly swarmed forward and began checking the turret's condition according to their pre-assigned tasks.

"The turret is functioning normally."

"The radar is functioning normally."

…………

Based on the reports and summaries from various departments, it can be concluded that the 155mm naval gun should have no impact on the ship's hull. Of course, only one shot has been fired so far, and we still need to observe the sustained testing.

They stayed at sea for more than a week, initially trembling with excitement at the sight of the cannons firing, until they got used to it.

Because they fired over a thousand shots in the past week, and they weren't professional artillerymen, they were wearing earplugs to keep their ears shut, otherwise their ears would probably be ruined.

After thousands of shells were tested, the ship was undamaged, the turret's maintenance system was perfect, and apart from the wear and tear on the gun barrel requiring replacement, everything else was perfect.

As for the testing of the 10,000-round close-in weapon system, the navy was very satisfied, as it can perfectly defend against close-in attacks from aircraft.

So now that these two pieces of equipment have been finalized, Liu Hua doesn't need to worry about the next weapon test, which is the test of the dozens of vertical launch units on the ship.

Dijun Company does not yet have the qualifications to produce anti-ship missiles; production is handled by relevant departments and Liu Hua does not need to get involved. However, the explosives for the anti-ship missiles are still produced by Dijun Company, which can be considered as satisfying Liu Hua's sense of participation.

After returning to Shanghai, Liu Hua gave the workers two days off to explore the city before chartering a plane back to Beijing.

Liu Hua felt that he was destined to be a busybody. He had only been back in Beijing for two days when trouble came from Tangshan. The steel plant had run into problems.

After careful questioning, Liu Hua learned that because the flash smelting technology could produce iron so quickly, they had already used up their entire year's iron ore quota in the first half of the year.

Nowadays, domestic iron ore purchases are usually done in groups. Negotiating prices with foreign buyers increases the chances of getting a better deal, and then the ore is distributed domestically.

Now that we're using lightning technology, the iron ore quota we set last year is completely insufficient. If we don't find a solution soon, the flash smelting furnace will have to shut down.

As we all know, once such large industrial equipment is started, it is basically never stopped, and the cost of stopping it for maintenance is astronomical.

Moreover, these large industrial machines will run very well if they are not stopped, but once they stop, all sorts of problems will occur.

This is why, in some products in our country, there is an oversupply. We would rather lose money producing them than stop the equipment from operating, because the losses from stopping would be even greater.

Liu Hua approached the Hebei government to negotiate, and they took the lead in selling iron ore from other factories to Liu Hua's steel mill.

Liu Hua uses a new technology, which gives him a significant advantage in steel prices. He can refine iron ore into iron and then sell it to various steel mills for further processing, which is far more profitable than each steel mill refining iron on its own.

The relevant departments in Hebei Province wholeheartedly supported this proposal. Firstly, it reduced iron smelting costs; secondly, it reduced air pollution; and thirdly, the steel mills used low-cost iron, giving their steel products a price advantage in the market. Therefore, the government took the lead in negotiating on Liu Hua's behalf. In fact, the steel mill owners weren't stupid; they could tell which option was more advantageous just by looking at the price.

After some negotiations, the government decided to subsidize them in exchange for dismantling their own blast furnaces, and then they would transfer all the iron ore to Liu Hua's company, thus achieving three goals at once.

To the delight of TS City, this unexpected move led to a significant development in Tangshan's local steelmaking industry.

Liu Hua remembers that in his previous life, Tangshan's steel production ranked third in the world. The first was China, the second was Hebei Province, and the third was Tangshan.

However, that would have to wait until after 2020. Judging from the current situation, we could reach that scale ten years earlier.

Our steel mills are thriving, but things aren't going so well for the Americans.

As we all know, the United States is at war, and how can war be fought without steel? This is precisely when the United States has a strong demand for steel.

However, American businessmen have astutely noticed that the price of specialty steel in China, across the ocean, seems to be dropping significantly.

Capitalists are just profit-driven parasites; they flock to wherever there's profit to be made.

As a result, downstream manufacturers began importing steel from China on a large scale through trading companies. The market is only so big, and our goods account for the majority, so American steel mills have to reduce production.

As a result, the rust belt that already existed in the central United States began to gradually expand.

Liu Hua was unaware that after he traveled through time, the Vice President of the United States, whose second aunt had grown up in this Rust Belt, later wrote a book called "The Elegy of the Country Bumpkins".

Especially after he became the Vice President of the United States, he liked to criticize us all the time, claiming that we were responsible for his miserable childhood.

In other words, Liu Hua didn't know about this. If he had known, he would have cursed him out, saying that the tragedy of the rednecks wasn't caused by them, but by the capitalists. He said it had nothing to do with them and that they shouldn't try to extort money from them.

When our steel industry is booming internationally, our competitors certainly won't have an easy time. They can't physically destroy their competitors' factories like DuPont did.

So, in order to compete in the market, they could only resort to slander, spreading rumors that our steel products were of poor quality, and conducting all sorts of tests to prove their lies.

Meanwhile, some countries that are not very friendly to us have launched dumping investigations against our steel companies.

To address this issue, the Ministry of Industry organized a special industry-wide meeting to pool wisdom and resources to find a solution to the crisis.

As a veteran, Liu Hua was elected as the vice president of the steel industry association at the beginning of this internal meeting.

"Academician Liu, as a senior figure in our steel industry, you single-handedly created the modern systems of Shougang and Baosteel. I wonder if you have any good suggestions on how to deal with this crisis."

"An anti-dumping investigation? There won't be one this year, but there will be one next year. It's a protective measure." Liu Hua shook his head. "My suggestion is to hire a team of experienced lawyers to deal with it. Whichever country initiates the investigation, hire lawyers from that country. Use their own weapons against them."

(End of this chapter)