The Grandmother in the Siheyuan

Chapter 556 Shame Leads to Courage

Ultimately, the U.S. Air Force issued a briefing, stating that the weather conditions in the airspace were poor at the time, with strong turbulence overhead, and for the safety of the aircraft, they had no choice but to abandon the operation.

Everyone knows the F-22 is very valuable, so it's understandable. After all, you can't just throw away your precious possession, which cost you one or two hundred million dollars, for a weather balloon.

Ma San slapped his thigh and laughed: "Even air-to-air missiles can't hit 28,000 targets. The Americans are just finished."

The altitude continued to decrease, and after two more descents, the Americans finally shot down the balloon at around 19,000 meters. Surprisingly, their plane launched the missile from less than 18,000 meters.

Ma Shan slapped his thigh and said, "I'm finally relieved. They're not that much more advanced than us. Our J-10 can also reach that level, and our new air-to-air missile is much better than theirs. The only thing to worry about now is that their stealth performance is better than ours, but it still can't hide from our radar."

"Our J-10 engine is still inferior to the F-22's, and its speed is also not as good."

"That's for sure, our J-10 is a generation behind theirs." Ma Shan said with satisfaction, "When our fifth-generation fighter comes out, it will definitely be much better than theirs."

George W. Bush is in crisis because a weather balloon keeps failing, and his opponents are seizing the opportunity to make things difficult for him in Congress.

However, his family was an old and established one. Although his father had only served one term as president, his influence was undeniable. Through Bush's mediation, the crisis was eventually averted.

Not only did he avert disaster, but he also got Congress to pass an initiative that allocated $1.24 billion to research new weapons designed to counter the increasing number of high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft in the future.

The Air Force commander has already reported to him that their aircraft simply cannot cope with altitudes exceeding 20,000 meters unless they launch a Standard Missile 3 and risk ten million US dollars to fight against a much larger enemy.

The $1.24 billion grant was ultimately split between Boeing and Raytheon, which in turn strengthened the two companies' support for Bush.

It must be said that they do have their own abilities, unlike that unreliable Trump who goes against capital all day long and makes a fool of himself, causing the United States to lose face on the international stage.

Perhaps because the US suffered a loss this time, its so-called Agency for International Development started throwing money around, feeding those dogs more dog food so they could bite people.

As a result, a new wave of anti-intellectualism emerged on the internet, with various anti-intellectual remarks appearing one after another, including those about the ballpoint pen refill and the spring of a disposable lighter.

Then another reporter came to interview Liu Hua, who could only shake his head: "I remember I did some popular science before, how can anyone believe such idiotic remarks?"

"After all, we didn't succeed in making it," the reporter said helplessly. "This gave those people an opportunity. As long as we didn't produce it, they assumed we didn't have the technology."

So Liu Hua had his steel plant in Tangshan prepare, and then contacted a CCTV reporter for a video interview, aiming to deliver a decisive blow and see what these barking dogs would dare to say next. That evening, the news broadcast aired, with the reporter, dressed neatly, saying: "Viewers, we are currently at the Taiyi Group Tangshan Special Steel Smelting Base. The company has set aside two furnaces: one for smelting disposable lighter spring steel sheets, and the other for smelting ballpoint pen tip steel."

Just as the reporter finished speaking, the molten steel was poured out of the furnace. After being processed by the equipment, tiny, almost invisible beads from the tip of a ballpoint pen were held in the reporter's hand.

"Academician Liu, I would like to ask if the processing technology of this pen tip steel is particularly difficult."

Liu Hua smiled and said, "We have an old saying: 'What is difficult for those who know how is difficult for those who don't.' This thing is something we haven't studied before, so it seems quite difficult. But actually, as long as we put our minds to it, it's not that difficult. We can even manufacture steel for warships now, so surely we can make something this small?"

Liu Hua smiled as he looked at the camera: "The reason we are processing this stuff is to refute some idiotic rumors on the internet. One hundred tons of steel in this batch is equivalent to the world's annual production. If I process it non-stop for a month, all similar companies in the world will go bankrupt."

This news wasn't just broadcast on CCTV-1; it was also shown on the international channel.

That same day, Swiss and Japanese companies panicked; wasn't this jeopardizing their livelihoods?

When interviewed by the Yomiuri Shimbun, the owners of small Japanese businesses began to rant and rave: "I don't know which idiots believe these rumors, and I don't know which idiots are spreading them. We have witnessed the technological development of our great Eastern country. As Mr. Niu said, the reason they didn't produce before was because the profit was too small. Now those idiots have angered Mr. Liu. They have suffered no losses, but all of us related companies will go bankrupt. To use an idiom from our great Eastern country, we are suffering the consequences of collateral damage. I beg Mr. Liu to have mercy and not let my humble little company go bankrupt. I still have dozens of employees. Once we go bankrupt, their families will face dire straits for the first time."

He knew that he couldn't persuade Liu Hua by just talking about interests, so he could only play the victim card and hope that Liu Hua would be lenient.

In the end, Liu Hua shelved the formula because it was really unnecessary. It was too shameful for such a large company to compete with such tiny ants for food.

For a moment, many of the online trolls shut up, because the examples they cited were all of low technical content, something they knew very well. Just as Liu Hua said, the reason they didn't do it was simply because the profit was too low.

They were afraid that if they provoked Liu Hua again, he would get angry and conquer some low-tech industry.

It's important to understand that the West has already lost its dominance in many industries, especially low-tech ones, which have been largely taken over by China. The remaining sectors represent the livelihoods of many people.

If those lackeys were to smash their rice bowls, how angry would their master be?

Most of the rumors circulating online have quickly subsided, but some attacks have indeed targeted our weaknesses, such as high-tech chips and ultra-precision machine tools, where we still have a way to go.

However, both sides tacitly avoided mentioning the matter. The US was afraid of angering public opinion and affecting trade, while we quietly buried ourselves in research, learning from our mistakes and striving for improvement.

(End of this chapter)