Siheyuan's Journey Through the Ages

Chapter 170 A Greatly Successful Bidding

"We sold the franchise rights to twenty-six of the thirty regions, collected a total of $124.75 million in franchise fees, and received orders worth $637 million. Boss, we were a great success this time." Li Yuanqing excitedly reported the results to Ma Qing after the meeting.

Ma Qing nodded as he looked at the report and said, "Very good. One million and two hundred thousand will be directly transferred to the account of Xiangjiang Zhiwei Technology Co., Ltd. in the name of patent royalties. For every product produced by Jufeng in the future, you will add 10% to the price after calculating the cost and the ex-factory price. This fee will be transferred to Zhiwei Technology's account as patent royalties."

Ma Qing paused and said, "In the future, Jufeng will only retain the technical team responsible for repairing and maintaining the equipment. Zhiwei Technology will be responsible for the research and development of new products. Your responsibility is to manage Jufeng's production, increase production lines, and train workers. I hope that Jufeng's production output value will exceed 100 million Hong Kong dollars and its profit will reach 10 million Hong Kong dollars this year."

"If you can achieve these two goals, I will give you 2% of the shares as a reward." Ma Qing patted Li Yuanqing on the shoulder and made his promise.

Li Yuanqing was so excited by Ma Qing's big pie that he kept promising that he would never let his boss down.

"Mr. Li, I have something to explain to you. Our company is going to form an alliance with Yaguang Zhisu for the purchase of plastic materials. This company is also an industry under my name. The two companies will purchase together. I hope to get a more favorable purchase price from Formosa Plastics."

Ma Qing took out Zheng Yumian's business card and handed it to Li Yuanqing, "When you have time, you can visit the general manager of Yaguang Zhisu and discuss joint procurement with him."

After explaining all this, Ma Qing went to the production workshop and found Sherikov and Xie Liaosha, who had been working at Jufeng Company for almost three months, and brought them back to the office of Zhiwei Technology.

"You two have worked hard over the past six months. You don't have to worry about other things. I have a job that you have to complete within six months." Ma Qing threw out a pile of information and called in a Chinese science and engineering man.

"The three of you must work together. Within six months, I want you to give me a calculator that can do addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. Remember, the smaller the better. I only need it to be able to do addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. The specific requirements, the technical outline of the calculator and the theoretical support are all in these materials. You should study them thoroughly. I want to see the finished product within six months."

"Making a calculator for addition, subtraction, multiplication and division is not a difficult problem in itself, but the difficulty lies in miniaturization and commercialization. Boss, are these materials of yours useful?" Xie Liaosha raised questions while reading the materials.

"I don't know. This is the information I found from a commercial company. I hope it will be helpful to you. However, you and Sherikov were able to make a calculator for horse racing by hand. Were you kidding me at that time?" Ma Qing wondered how these two Russians could say such things.

"But what we make is a purely mechanical calculator, and what you require is an electronic calculator, which is a bit inconsistent with our major." Xie Liaosha retorted.

"A purely mechanical calculator, you Russians are really..." Ma Qing was speechless, pointing at the Chinese who just came in and said, "This is Dr. Qi Langqi who came back from Texas Instruments in the United States. He is an expert in electronic circuits. The three of you should work together first. I will give you money and supplies. I have also equipped you with 10 top students from Hong Kong University. You can start working first."

Ma Qing already has the information and drawings. It would be best if these people could invent a simple microcalculator under Ma Qing's advice. Otherwise, Ma Qing can only find other ways to bring this calculator to market.

Ma Qing took out a HP desktop scientific calculator and handed it to the three people, "This is a calculator that HP launched last year. Its functions are too complicated. You can take it apart and learn from their design ideas. I don't want those miscellaneous functions. I just want addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. If you still can't figure it out, I will have nothing to say." In 1968, HP launched the world's first desktop scientific calculator.

In 1969, Sharp also produced the world's first large-scale integrated circuit (LSI) calculator, SHARP QT-8D.

In 1972, the world's first pocket scientific calculator HP-35 came out. It could perform addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, trigonometric functions and exponential functions. It was also the first portable calculator to enter space.

It is also a calculator that can truly fit in your pocket. It has changed the way scientists, engineers and students work and learn, forcing the slide rule, which was once very popular, to retire. It was awarded the "Milestone" title by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) of the United States (there are only less than 100 such titles in the world).

"Finally, let me remind you that this machine is for you to open up your mind. Don't think of copying it. I want a product that can be patented. Don't make me a knockoff."

Dr. Qi Langqi spoke up at this time and asked a very difficult but realistic question: "Boss, you said that Mr. Sherkov is an outstanding mathematician, Xie Liaosha is proficient in electronic machinery, and I am good at electronic circuits. I am confident that the three of us can work together to make a microcomputer."

Dr. Qi paused for a moment, "But if you want to talk about commercialization, there is not even a production line for electron tubes in Hong Kong, let alone a production line for integrated circuits. Even if we make it in the laboratory, it will be meaningless."

After Dr. Qi finished speaking, the three of them stared at Ma Qing at the same time.

"You don't have to worry about this. I'm working hard on this now. According to my plan, I should be able to get support for the electron tube production line next year. This is not something you should worry about. Just do what I tell you to do."

Ma Qing did not say what the plan was, because he did not think he was some wise and powerful protagonist, and he did not think he could definitely accomplish it. Anyway, the most he would suffer a loss in research and development expenses, which he could still afford.

Looking at the three people walking out of the office with the machine, Ma Qing sighed. He originally thought that with Xiao Qi's help, he should be able to defeat anyone who stands in his way. But in fact, if you really want to make something with some technological content, there are too many things involved.

To be honest, it was just wishful thinking on my part, but fortunately, I should just follow my plan. If I cannot achieve my goal, the plan to produce microcomputers will have to be postponed or cancelled.

Ma Qing leaned against the chair in the office, feeling a little tired. Jufeng Company could be considered to be on the right track. Now he could only wait for time to digest it. Then he could put the resumption of production at the radio factory on the agenda.

(End of this chapter)