The rise of great powers: starting from military industry

Liu Tao looked curious.

Factory 256 is a large military factory, the largest manufacturer of armored vehicles in the entire Southwest, and is directly under the jurisdiction of the Fifth Machinery Department!

The armored vehicles produced by Factory 256 have appeared in military parades and been inspected by the party and the country.

Logically speaking, such a large factory should be very moist.

Even if the army has no orders, superiors will allocate a large amount of funds to Factory 256. The normal operation of the factory should not be a problem.

No matter what, it looked like Wang Baoguo was throwing away his burden.

Zhang Zhen looked at Liu Tao's expression and knew that Liu Tao didn't know much about Factory 256, so he explained briefly.

Factory 256 is located in Shancheng. It is the largest special vehicle manufacturing plant in the entire southwest. It has a large number of equipment and can carry out the production of vehicle body welding, oil and gas suspension, hydraulic parts, parts heat treatment and surface treatment. It has good blanking, It has stamping and forging processing production capabilities and strong manufacturing capabilities for car bodies, transmissions, motions, controls, sheet metal parts, power auxiliary devices, and general assembly and adjustment capabilities. It even has the largest power transmission comprehensive test bed in Southwest China.

The entire 256 Factory has a total of 4,000 employees, covering an area of ​​more than 3,000 acres, and more than 20,000 people including family members.

Since the second half of last year, Factory 256 has no planned targets. The factory director calls from time to time to complain to his superiors and ask for targets!

But you must know that at this time, priority must be given to several large tank manufacturing plants in the north.

For example, a machine factory!

The No. 1 Machinery Factory was one of the 156 key construction projects during the country's "First Five-Year Plan" period. With the help of Big Brother in the North, it produced the famous Type 59 tank in China by introducing a full set of production technology for the T-54a tank. The No. 1 Machine Factory has since become the largest tank manufacturer in China.

Adding Factory 256 to Panshan Machinery Factory means that Panshan Machinery Factory will be responsible for paying wages to the employees of Factory 256 and responsible for the food, drink and toileting of Factory 256.

To a certain extent, this is shedding of baggage.

"Panshan Machinery Factory is a reform pilot plant and is responsible for shouldering the burden of reform." Wang Baoguo said with a smile.

Liu Tao's heart moved and he quickly asked: "Leader, if Factory 256 produces this self-propelled anti-aircraft gun, can it be exported?"

"I heard that the unit price of West Germany's 'Cheetah' self-propelled anti-aircraft gun is as high as 4.4 million US dollars, which is more expensive than the Leopard 2 main battle tank. Will anyone buy it if it is so expensive?" Wang Baoguo was startled.

Zhang Zhen thought for a moment: "It can be exported, but the performance of the export needs to be appropriately reduced. You can't export it the same as the one you use for your own use, right? For this kind of national important weapon, we still have to pay attention to leaks."

Good guy, does this mean you can use the monkey version for export? ?

Liu Tao thought about it and figured it out.

Self-propelled anti-aircraft guns and main battle tanks are different from firearms. They are heavy weapons. It is not an exaggeration to say that they are important weapons of the country.

Naturally, some technical indicators must be limited.

And this is also international practice. Europe, the United States, and the Soviet Union all did this.

Tanks, armored vehicles, aircraft, warships, the personal version and the export version are completely different things.

"Thank you, leader, I understand!" Liu Tao smiled.

It couldn't be easier to reduce some performance.

It's not easy to improve performance, but it's not easy to reduce performance?

As long as you can earn U.S. dollars from exports, the price you sell to the troops will be lower, and it will be regarded as supporting national defense construction.

But if it cannot be exported and can only rely on army orders, how many self-propelled artillery can the army purchase in a year?

Liu Tao knows how economical the army is now.

They are reluctant to purchase heavy machine guns and heavy sniper rifles.

Anti-aircraft machine guns are all buy one, get one free.

In the Fifth Machinery Department, Liu Tao also saw two Xerox 860 personal computers brought over by Huo Yingdong.

This is a personal computer released this year with 128K memory. It is also the first to have the word processing tool BravoX, a graphical GUI, a circular touchpad on the right side of the keyboard, and the XEROX Network System (XNS) protocol. It can be connected to XEROX files and printers through network cables. and mail servers, etc.

A computer costs two thousand dollars!

It looks ugly and performs very poorly.

The memory is only 128K memory!

Of course, this is not the most expensive one. 1 launched the IBM5100, which sold for an astonishing US$10,000!

Now in the United States, the Apple II is the best-selling personal computer. It is configured with a 1MHz CPU, 4KB of memory, two 5.25-inch floppy drives, a color monitor and a built-in keyboard. It sells for $1,928 and has occupied the United States for five consecutive years. No. 1 position in PC sales rankings.

Liu Tao was not used to using these two computers. He wanted to use them for research.

For several days, Liu Tao was studying these two computers.

Unknowingly, a few days passed quietly.

He also had to make the return journey.

This time when he returned to Panshan Machinery Factory, it was not just Liu Tao alone, but a large group of people.

At the airport, Wang Baoguo personally led the team and introduced everyone.

The leader was a man of about sixty years old, wearing a simple military uniform, shaking hands with Liu Tao with one hand, and his other sleeve was empty.

Liu Tao, on the other hand, was in awe and showed respect.

He still remembered in his mind that he had watched a documentary that introduced China's third-generation main battle tank, in which this man was the chief designer!

The year he was appointed as the third-generation tank master, he was already 66 years old. He shouldered the heavy responsibility, overcame many difficulties, and finally allowed China to have its own third-generation tank.

This old man had participated in the Anti-Japanese War and was fearless in the face of the enemy. During the resistance, he showed his extraordinary talent in military industry. After the war ended, he studied tirelessly, mastered a lot of knowledge, and has been working hard for the country's military industry until now.

"Zhu Yusheng was admitted to the Huangfu Military Academy at the age of 19, and entered the Anti-Japanese University to study military affairs at the age of 19. During the war, he created and improved more than 20 kinds of weapons and combat equipment according to combat needs. He currently serves as the deputy director of the Weapons Science Research Institute of the Fifth Ministry of Machinery He is in charge of scientific research and is also the leader of this expert group!" Wang Baoguo solemnly introduced Zhu Yusheng.

It can be said that Zhu Yusheng is an outstanding student and a precious technical talent.

"I wish you the best, Dean! I've heard about this great name for a long time!" Liu Tao couldn't help but feel a little excited.

He knew that Zhu Yusheng's right arm was blown off while organizing a mortar test-fire in front of the enemy in January 1948.

Liu Tao is full of respect for this hero of the military industry system.

In this era of talent shortage, Zhu Yusheng is among the top talents.

Even though he broke his right arm, he never gave up on himself. Instead, he walked on firmly and continued to learn.

If we talk about technology in the field of armored vehicles, Zhu Yusheng can be ranked among the top five across the country.

The most important thing is his will, an extremely strong will, perseverance, and the spirit of fighting against heaven and earth, which Liu Tao admires the most.

This man can be said to have dedicated his whole life to the motherland and contributed to the rejuvenation of the motherland.

Look at the military uniform he is wearing. You don't know how many years he has worn it. You must know that his salary belongs to the high-income group in this era, but his life is so simple.