Rebirth in 1960, My Industrial Age

Chapter 391 The Man Who Robbed the Russians

"Dad, you're back just in time. We were just about to have dinner."

When Zhou Xianyang saw his father return, he quickly greeted him, saying, "The three-year-old ham tastes especially delicious after being stewed in soup by Chef Yang."

When Zhou Fengnian entered the house, he saw that his parents were both there, and even Zhou Yiyi, whom he rarely saw, had returned. So he said, "I'll go wash my hands and be right back."

After washing his hands, Zhou Fengnian sat down and glanced at the dishes on the table. Like a ham feast, it was almost entirely made of ham.

"Are you planning to get tired of this one meal? Don't you know how to add something else?"

Zhou Xianyang laughed and said, "I brought back twenty hams this time. I bought up all the hams from an entire village. Of course, I'm going to eat my fill today."
Oh, and my uncle also said that this ham makes a delicious soup, so he's planning to send someone over there to buy some.

In the afternoon, he not only delivered a gift to his mother-in-law, but also gave a portion of the ham he brought back to his uncles, aunts, and sister-in-law. However, for those who lived far away, he asked his employees to deliver them. In any case, the gifts were delivered.

Zhou Fengnian tasted it and nodded: "It's really good, quite fragrant. I'll ask Chef Yang to stew it a few more times in the future."

Zhou Linlin said, "Dad, you come home so late every day, even if I stew it a few more times, you still won't get to drink it."

"Then why don't you, as my daughter, send it to me?"

"Of course!"

Zhou Linlin immediately perked up and said, "Wait here, I'll bring it to you tomorrow."

Zhou Yan interjected, "Stop joking. If anyone's going to deliver it, it's not your turn. Zhou Linlin, don't even think about leaving the house before you finish your homework tonight."

As a mother, she immediately saw through her daughter's thoughts and firmly rejected the idea, declaring that going out to play under the guise of delivering soup was simply out of the question.
She graduated from high school despite her difficult circumstances, so if her children, now living in such privileged conditions, can't even get into university, Zhou Yan feels she has failed as a mother in education.

Zhou Fengnian was busy with national affairs, so Zhou Yan understood, and the responsibility of educating the family naturally fell on her shoulders.

Zhou Xianyang asked, "Dad, what have you been busy with lately? You haven't even rested on Sunday."

"Working with your Uncle Bai Kang, dealing with those foreigners, they really are a hassle."

Zhou Fengnian only complained about the foreigners a couple of times, and then said nothing more, as the Ministry of Foreign Trade's affairs had to be kept secret.

Once the Lunar New Year was over, all the key personnel in the communications business department went out of town, either to the Guangdong Special Economic Zone or to Shanghai. Only one deputy director remained in Beijing.

Although a new deputy leader has taken over, he has not been in office long enough and lacks experience. He is also not very clear about how to win the European telecommunications business, so he asked Zhou Fengnian to go back and provide guidance.

Based on the available manpower and resources in the communications business department, and the bottom lines of those two countries, Zhou Fengnian and others from the Fourth Ministry of Machinery Industry came up with a joint venture plan.

However, they seemed to know about Xiao Rizi's cooperation plan and were somewhat resistant to the joint venture telecommunications company. Perhaps this was also related to their desire to develop their own communication standards and their reluctance to use China's.

It's also possible that Amei reminded them that they could no longer live like ordinary people and allow China to develop its telecommunications business in their country.

Anyway, as soon as they brought it up, they were met with resistance from the other party.

Although they offered a high price, Zhou Fengnian and others were reluctant; compared to technology and the market, money was probably the least valuable option.

They have no trouble buying high-end chips. They can use them domestically, and if they just make a fuss, many countries will want to buy them. Without advanced lithography machines, they can only produce low- to mid-range chips and are completely out of the running for high-end chips.

Even if these two countries don't want it, they have no trouble selling their high-end chips, so they are very reluctant to agree to use the lowest value of foreign exchange to facilitate this trade.

This is not one of those cheap industrial products, but rather a product of cutting-edge technology.

It wasn't entirely about foreigners wanting to buy high-end chips, but Zhou Fengnian spent the morning helping out and inquired about the progress before returning to the Academy of Sciences to attend to other matters.

Weekends are supposed to be a time for rest, but recently Zhou Fengnian has been swamped with trivial matters, all of which are related to scientific research and engineering, keeping him busy.

"Yi Yi, will you come to Hong Kong with me next month?"

As they were finishing their meal, Zhou Xianyang suddenly asked, "I'm going to the Canton Fair in a few days, and I'll stop by Hong Kong on the way. The film industry there is quite thriving. If you'd like to go, let's go check it out together?"

At this time, Hong Kong cinema was still in its golden age. Although it couldn't compare to Hollywood, its influence was still considerable.

At least in Asia, Hong Kong cinema is the leader; if Zhou Yiyi wants to be an actress, it would be good for her to go and see the behind-the-scenes filming of Hong Kong movies.

However, Zhou Xianyang originally didn't want to go; he didn't even want to go to the Guangdong Special Economic Zone. But he had no choice; his father had assigned him a task, so this time he could only take his sister to go sightseeing.

Zhou Xianyang's Feiyang Electric Appliance Factory has a partnership with Hong Kong, and Zhou Fengnian can also make connections there, so it's quite safe for them to travel to Hong Kong.

"Okay, okay, bro, I want to go!"

It wasn't Zhou Yiyi who spoke up, but Zhou Linlin. As soon as she heard that she was going to Hong Kong, she immediately agreed.

They're both younger sisters, so there's no reason to take the older sister but not him; that's what Zhou Linlin thought anyway.

"You can't go now. We'll talk about it after you get into university."

Before Zhou Xianyang could answer, Zhou Yan spoke first, and said with a very decisive and predictive tone: "There is no room for discussion on this matter, not even if you beg your father."

"dad"

Zhou Fengnian shook his head and said, "Listen to your mother, Linlin. Once you get into university, you can do whatever you want. Dad will support you even if you play for decades."

Zhou Linlin looked at her grandparents again, but her parents also looked away. They were both college students, and they were the ones in the family who most wanted their children and descendants to go to university.

Seeing that no one supported him, Zhou Linlin was so angry that she almost buried her face in her rice bowl.

Zhou Yiyi readily agreed, as Hong Kong is a film center and it would be a good thing to go there.

Now that his children are all grown up, Zhou Fengnian can help out, but he cannot directly control them.

Once Zhou Yiyi returns from Hong Kong, this matter should be put behind us.

Zhou Fengnian is currently very busy, with several major projects requiring his attention.

Zhou Fengnian still has to go on a business trip to Shanghai, but he is considering whether to use more simulations to develop the project results ahead of schedule, which would save him time.

It can also improve related abilities! However, he increasingly felt the preciousness of the simulation attempts, as this was an opportunity that was directly linked to his lifespan. He could accumulate one attempt per month, and only twelve attempts per year.

Even if he lives a long life, living to be a hundred years old is already quite remarkable. Moreover, when he reaches the age of one hundred, Zhou Fengnian is not sure if he will still have the energy to continue simulating.

Simulation attempts are becoming increasingly valuable to Zhou Fengnian, and he's become a bit more cautious when using them.

However, if we can complete several biomedical projects ahead of schedule and achieve the localization of vaccines and drugs for common diseases, it won't be a waste.

------

"Dean Wu?"

After knocking and entering Dean Wu's office, Zhou Fengnian asked, "What happened?"

“Vice President Zhou, you’re also from the National Defense Commission, take a look at this.”

After Dean Wu finished speaking, he handed Zhou Fengnian a document and continued, "Alas, we've lost to the foreigners again. We bought an aircraft carrier, but a large portion of the key technologies were dismantled. Given the current situation, we can learn very little from it."

While listening to what Dean Wu said, Zhou Fengnian began to look at the documents that Dean Wu had handed him.

This was sent from the shipbuilding office. Zhou Fengnian had some recollection of this organization; it seemed to have been established specifically for aircraft carriers, but there had been some setbacks along the way.

It was restarted a few years ago, but it doesn't seem to have achieved much.

China's economy has been developing very well recently, and exports of various cutting-edge industries have accumulated a lot of foreign exchange, so the aircraft carrier project has been restarted.

Zhou Fengnian had heard about this matter, but he was responsible for many things at that time, and China was too big to be aware of all the important projects across the country.

The current situation is that they bought an aircraft carrier, but the important technical parts were dismantled. It's like they spent ten points of money, planned to buy back six points of the carrier, but after buying it, they found that only three points were left.

The technology used in these three areas is still relatively outdated. By the time they learn it, foreign aircraft carrier technology may have been upgraded.

Moreover, with the missing crucial component, their ambition to build an aircraft carrier fleet will be delayed for an even longer period.
After Zhou Fengnian finished reading, he frowned and said, "Foreigners are really dirty. We have to treat them like enemies from now on, or we might fall for their tricks."

"It's no use saying all this now. They were clearly plotting against us. We were too impatient and too eager for our own aircraft carrier, and as a result, we fell into their trap."

Dean Wu paused for a moment, and after four or five seconds continued, "The Shipbuilding Office wants to continue the aircraft carrier project. The National Defense Commission wants to inquire about our plans and will definitely provide support in the end. You should assess whether this project is feasible."

Zhou Fengnian is the vice president in charge of scientific research projects, and his rank is the same as Zhou Fengnian's. It can be said that Zhou Fengnian and Zhou Fengnian only have different divisions of labor, and there is no difference in their status and power.

Therefore, Dean Wu will definitely need Zhou Fengnian's opinion on this matter.

"It's impossible. We probably have to start it; we can't just leave it sitting there."

After thinking quietly for a while, Zhou Fengnian continued, "The National Defense Commission probably intends to continue, but developing it independently will be very troublesome and will likely take a long time. Moreover, catching up with foreign countries from scratch could take more than a decade."
We don't have many people available anymore. We've just started a whole bunch of projects, and many people involved have joined the high-tech development project team.

He could develop it himself, and he could also take his time by relying on the simulation space, but the amount of work involved in an aircraft carrier project is too large, and doing it once a month would be too time-consuming.

The shipbuilding office and the National Defense Commission were aware of this, which is why they planned to buy it from abroad. However, they were tricked in a power struggle after just one purchase, and they lost.

"How do we buy it from the kangaroo? Or should we ask the Russians?"

Zhou Fengnian asked, "I remember that more than 100,000 Russians fled last year, and there may be 200,000 this year, and even more next year. Given their current social situation, could we try to find a solution from Russia?"

The Russians who are fleeing now are all elites, either those with some family wealth or those with some ability.

Old Ge also wanted to reform and open up last year, but the more he reformed, the more his family collapsed. It was as if he was on an accelerator, making his own situation worse and worse.

Zhou Fengnian had read a lot of information about Mao Zedong, so he had a fairly good understanding of this subject.

"Is that so? I'm not sure, I should probably talk to my supervisor about it."

Dean Wu wasn't very clear on this matter; he was focused on domestic development and paid little attention to foreign affairs. Zhou Fengnian was more like a strategic development consultant; the prerequisite for developing one's own business was understanding the progress of one's competitors.

"I definitely have to say it. I've mentioned it before, but that was several years ago."

After thinking for a moment, Zhou Fengnian said, "Dean, I'll go report to the leadership first, and then reply to the National Defense Commission."

Dean Wu reminded him, "Then you should tell them, Vice Dean Zhou."

"Okay, I'll make a call when I get back."

Zhou Fengnian had many of his positions removed, but he still held the position of deputy director of the National Defense Commission, so having him make the call was considered as reporting to someone from within the party.

Before returning to his office, Zhou Fengnian first asked Qian Zhi to make an appointment with Director Zhang of the General Office, and then he called the National Defense Commission back.

After making the call, Qian Zhi knocked on the door and came in to report that the Zhonghai office had already made an appointment for him.

As dusk fell, it was dinnertime when we left Zhonghai.

After getting into the car, Zhou Fengnian called his secretary and asked, "Qian Zhi, is anyone looking for me this afternoon?"

"Sir, Dean Wu came to see you, and the Foreign Trade Department of the Ministry of Foreign Trade also called you. I told several leaders that you were busy and that the reply time is temporarily scheduled for tomorrow. Sir, would you like to change the time?"

After listening, Zhou Fengnian thought for a moment and said, "No need, let's leave it at that. I won't go back today. You should go back after you're done with your work."

After saying that, Zhou Fengnian hung up the phone.

I talked a lot with my boss today, mainly about the measures taken by the Russians. However, he mostly offered suggestions and then asked the professionals to consider whether they were feasible.

Currently, a large number of talented individuals are fleeing from Russia, and they haven't opened any channels for them to do so. Zhou Fengnian, however, thinks it might be worthwhile to bring in a group of Russian researchers.
Those who manage to escape usually have some connections in the local area. As more people are taken in, they can also make contact with the Russians. Then, through these connections, they can gradually persuade the Russians to sell the aircraft carrier.

We can also manipulate the Russians in trade. At least this red alliance is on its last legs, riddled with internal conflicts, and they are brothers in the red camp. Selling the aircraft carrier is killing two birds with one stone.
Zhou Fengnian only offered a superficial suggestion; how to implement it in detail still needs to be considered by professionals.

However, it is unlikely that we can purchase aircraft carriers from Western countries, as they are too vigilant against us.

Developing it ourselves is possible, but the time frame would be too long, and the investment would far exceed the cost of purchasing an aircraft carrier from abroad.
Zhou Fengnian went over today to make a 'bill', but he couldn't say how to choose, because he would have to take responsibility if he did.

(End of this chapter)