Courtyard House: A Major Power's Heavy Industry, Hand-Crafted Nuclear Fusion

Spring of 1982, Beijing.

The atmosphere in a large office at the State Planning Commission was oppressive and anxious.

The air was thick with the mingled smells of ink and cigarette smoke. A dozen or so old-fashioned Chinese typewriters were clattering away like machine guns on a battlefield.

"Wrong! Wrong again!"

An elderly section chief with graying hair angrily slammed the document in his hand on the table. "Xiao Wang, what did you do? You typed 'regarding' as 'regarding' on the third page, fifth line! This is an official document to be submitted to the State Council! Not a single word can be wrong!"

The young typist, known as Xiao Wang, turned pale with fright and quickly apologized, "I'm sorry, Section Chief, I... I'll retype it right away."

"Retype? This page has eight hundred words! Retypeing it will take another half hour!"

The old section chief was so anxious he was stamping his feet. "The meeting is at 3 PM, and it's already 1:30! If these 100 documents aren't printed, our entire department will be punished!"

This was the state of affairs for Chinese government agencies in the early 80s.

Office work relied entirely on handwriting and lead type printing.

A Chinese typewriter is a massive behemoth, with over two thousand lead characters arranged on its typeface. Typists need hand-eye coordination to locate the correct character among a dense array of leads and then press the key. Even a skilled typist can only type about forty or fifty characters per minute.

Even more critically, the modifications were made.

If there is even one wrong word, the entire page is invalid.

Adjust paragraphs? Retype the whole thing.

This inefficiency has become an invisible shackle restricting the operation of national administration.

"Section Chief, how about... we try that?"

A young man next to me pointed to the white machine that had just been moved in and was still covered with a dust cloth in the corner.

That was a "trial unit" given to us by Red Star Electronics.

"That one?" The old section chief glanced at it, scoffing dismissively. "That foreign gadget called a computer? Forget it. I heard it's for scientists to calculate missile trajectories. We're writing an article; what does it know about formatting?"

"But... I heard it can 'cut and paste'..."

"Stop talking nonsense! Get to work!"

"Since it's too late, why don't I give it a try?"

Just then, the office door was pushed open.

Su Zheng walked in. Behind him were two staff members carrying a printer as big as a washing machine.

"Minister Su?"

The old section chief was taken aback for a moment, then quickly stood up. "What brings you here?"

"I've come to give you... a set of 'Four Treasures of the Study'."

Su Zheng smiled, walked straight to the Red Star computer, and lifted the dust cover.

Turn on.

The blue red flag window lit up.

Su Zheng skillfully double-clicked a desktop icon—it was an image of a pen and paper.

Software startup.

A pure white virtual sheet of paper with markings appeared on the screen.

At the top is a row of Chinese menus: [File], [Edit], [Format], [Insert].

This is the killer application that Su Zheng and Ye Xinyi developed using the Cangjie language during a month of seclusion—WPS (Word Processing System) v1.0.

"Give me that document." Su Zheng held out his hand.

The old section chief hesitated for a moment before handing over the manuscript, which was covered in revisions.

"Xiao Wang, you read it, I'll type it."

Su was sitting in front of the computer, his ten fingers on the keyboard.

"Regarding...further deepening..."

Xiao Wang began reading from the script.

Su Zheng's fingers began to dance.

Ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta—

The crisp sound of the mechanical keyboard was as dense as a sudden downpour.

On the screen, lines of Song typeface text appeared like flowing water.

There were no pauses or stumbles while searching for type. The intelligent predictive text function of the Pinyin input method allowed Su Zheng to type at an astonishing speed of 120 words per minute!

"So fast?!"

The old section chief was dumbfounded. This speed was three times faster than even the fastest typist under his command!

"stop!"

When they reached the third page, the old section chief suddenly shouted, "Here! This paragraph... the leader said it needs to be moved to the first paragraph!"

In the past, hearing this would have meant "the end of the show," and you would have to start all over again.

But Su Zheng just smiled slightly.

"it is good."

He gripped the mouse and selected the text.

Right-click. Cut.

Scroll the mouse wheel back to the first page.

Cursor positioning.

Right-click. Paste.

Swish!

The entire text was instantly rearranged, and the text before and after it was automatically reformatted without leaving a single gap.

"Amazing..."

The surrounding clerks gasped in surprise.

What seems like an ordinary operation to people in this era was nothing short of magic!

"And here, the title needs to be bolded, and the font size needs to be larger." The old section chief pointed and instructed, completely forgetting that this was a "trial" period.

"no problem."

Su Zheng selected the title.

Click the "B" (bold) button on the toolbar, and then select the font size as "2".

The title on the screen instantly became eye-catching and imposing.

"This is what 'what you see is what you get' means."

Su Zheng explained, "What you see on the screen is what will be printed out."

Twenty minutes later.

The entire 5,000-word document has been entered, modified, and formatted.

"Print".

Su Zheng pressed the Enter key.

The huge printer next to it started to roar. This was the "Wide-line Chinese Character Printer" independently developed by Red Star Electronics after reverse engineering Canon's dot matrix printer.

nourish - nourish -

Accompanied by rhythmic noise, sheets of paper, still warm, were ejected.

The handwriting is clear, the layout is neat, and the Song typeface is dignified and elegant.

Most importantly, there wasn't a single typo.

The old section chief held the still-warm document, his hands trembling.

"This...that's it?"

He glanced at the clock on the wall.

1:55.

It only took twenty-five minutes!

If we follow the old method, this job will take until tomorrow morning!

"This isn't a machine..."

The old section chief took off his glasses, wiped away the tears from the corners of his eyes, and said, "This is simply... a lifesaver!"

"Minister Su!"

The old section chief suddenly gripped Su Zheng's hand tightly. "How much does this cost? I need to submit a report! I want to buy it! I'll sell everything I own to buy it!"

"This is an office revolution!"

He waved the document excitedly, "With this, the efficiency of our organization will at least triple! Before, writing a report was exhausting, but now... it's a pleasure!"

That afternoon.

This official document, printed using WPS, was placed on the desk of a State Council leader.

The leader looked at the neat layout and listened to the old section chief's report, then fell into deep thought.

a long time.

The leader picked up a pen and wrote a line heavily on the document:

To do a good job, one must first have the right tools. The Red Star computer and WPS system should be fully implemented in central government agencies. This is the first step in administrative modernization.

……

A month later.

A massive wave of "office automation" is sweeping across the country.

From central ministries and commissions to local county bureaus, from large state-owned enterprises to research institutes.

Countless old-fashioned typewriters were thrown into the warehouse, and in their place were rows of Red Star computers that shone with blue light.

Do you know how to use WPS?

It became the most stringent requirement for selecting cadres and recruiting clerks in that era.

The "WPS User Guide" published by Red Star Software Research Institute even outsold the "Xinhua Dictionary".

On Hongxing Electronics' revenue report, the numbers began to explode exponentially.

If Game Boy made money from foreigners, then WPS made money from its "system".

Every organization that purchases computers must purchase a genuine WPS license.

This is a steady, yet enormous, cash flow.

"Minister Su, we've struck it rich!"

Looking at the financial statements, Old Chen grinned from ear to ear. "The profits from government procurement alone this year are enough for us to build two more wafer fabs!"

"This is not just a matter of money."

Su Zheng stood in front of the map in his office, his gaze distant.

"Look."

He pointed to the dense red dots on the map—those were the units where Red Star computers had been deployed.

"We are defining standards."

"When all official document formats, archive storage, and data exchange in China are based on the WPS format (.wps)."

"We have built an insurmountable wall."

"From now on, whether it's Word from the US or Ichitaro from Japan, if they want to enter the Chinese market, they'll have to ask if our WPS will agree first."

"If they are not compatible with our format, they will be unable to move an inch."

This is the ecological barrier.

This is Su Zheng's ambition.

He wants to sell not only products, but also standards and habits.

When a generation gets used to WPS shortcuts, Cangjie input method, and the operating logic of Red Flag Windows.

That kind of habit is the strongest form of national defense.

"However, there is still a problem."

Ye Xinyi walked in, holding a newspaper from the United States. "Look at this."

Su Zheng took the newspaper.

The front-page headline reads: "The Blue Giant Strikes Back: IBM PC to be Released Soon, Featuring Microsoft DOS."

"IBM can't sit still anymore."

Ye Xinyi said, "I heard that in order to compete with us, they even broke the tradition of 'incompatibility' and adopted an open architecture. And... that guy named Bill Gates claimed that their DOS system is more 'professional' than ours."

"major?"

Su Zheng laughed, a laugh tinged with disdain. "A bunch of cavemen still typing command lines, trying to talk to me about expertise?"

He threw the newspaper on the table.

"I like it, pass the word down."

"WPS 2.0 project has been initiated."

"This time, we're going to add a 'spreadsheet' (a prototype of Excel) and a 'PowerPoint' (a prototype of PowerPoint)."

"I want to show IBM what a real...productivity tool is."

"in addition……"

A cold glint flashed in Su Zheng's eyes:

"Since IBM wants to wage a price war and try to encircle us with its open architecture."

"Then let's... drive the price down to the bottom."

"In the next chapter, we'll show this blue giant what it means to... sell at a loss and still not be able to sell."

……