Back in 1978, I was admitted to Northwestern Polytechnical University.

Chapter 196 Third Line 011, A Magnificent Transformation!
Base 083, Factory 4433.

As the first hint of dawn appeared in the eastern sky, a rooster in the distance began to crow, and an excited voice rang out from a bungalow nestled in the woods.

"It's done! The exact same circuit has been replicated on this silicon wafer! Our 8086 chip is finally made!"

"Great! Great! Our Factory 4433 is saved!" Li Guofu, his eyes red, looked at the personnel in charge of chip inspection with excitement: "With this product, our Factory 4433 can make a lot of money!"

"Yes, our factory can produce a thousand of these chips every month. According to the promise made by Northwestern Polytechnical University, we can get five hundred yuan for each chip, which is... five hundred thousand yuan!"

In the past, 500,000 yuan would have been nothing to them, but things are different now. In this third-tier city, they have to find projects on their own. Countless factories are struggling to make ends meet, but now their factory can earn 500,000 yuan a month, which is 6 million yuan a year! With more than 3,000 workers, each person is averaging 2,000 yuan in output value. This is definitely enough to make countless peers envious!
"Send a telegram to the capital immediately to report the good news!"

"Factory manager, do you think if we announce this news, other factories will place orders with us? If more manufacturers come to purchase, can we..." Guo Sihai, the head of the sales department, was interrupted by Li Guofu before he could finish speaking.

"Of course not! This project was given by Northwestern Polytechnical University, and we promised to supply them with goods. We can't follow the capitalist model. Since we promised Northwestern Polytechnical University, we have to keep our word!"

Li Guofu shook his head repeatedly. "What are you dreaming about? This chip can only be used by Northwestern Polytechnical University. Other brother units... have tried to imitate it, but they just couldn't make it work!"
"Next, continue surveying and mapping other supporting chips!" Li Guofu said. "These chips will all be produced by us, so Northwestern Polytechnical University won't need to import chips anymore. Our Factory 4433 can also save the country valuable foreign exchange. Come on, comrades, a better life is beckoning us!"

"Director Li, people from Base 011 have come to learn from us!"

011 Base?

In Guizhou's three major production bases, everyone was struggling to make ends meet. Factory 4433 was the first to emerge from this situation, so it's quite normal for other sister units to come and learn from its experience.

"Okay, let them wait in the conference room. We'll go wash our faces and change our clothes first."

During this period, everyone in the factory was busy, often working day and night without rest. Li Guofu, the factory director, was also extremely busy.

"Factory Director, wouldn't it be better for us to set a better example for our brother units by going out like this?" Guo Sihai continued.

Let our fellow units see how hard we work!
Li Guofu's expression was complicated: "You little rascal, you've got all this on your mind! Okay, then so be it!"

Inside the meeting room, a group of people dressed in Zhongshan suits had complex, even somewhat apprehensive, expressions.

The leader was a middle-aged man in his fifties. He picked up his teacup, took a sip to moisten his throat, and then said, "We came here this time to learn from our brother units. You are the first in the third-line base to have contact with Northwestern Polytechnical University. We are about to go to Northwestern Polytechnical University, so we came here first to find out what kind of institution Northwestern Polytechnical University is."

“Northwestern Polytechnical University has strong research capabilities, and many of the products they develop are world-class,” Li Guofu said. “Take computers for example. Apart from the United States, Northwestern Polytechnical University was the first to use the 8086 chip in a microcomputer. To this day, even Europe does not have a similar product. Therefore, after our chips are manufactured, they can not only meet domestic needs, but can even be exported to Europe!”

What about the aviation industry?

“Then that’s even more remarkable, Lao Yu, you should know! Many of the parts produced by Northwestern Polytechnical University are supplied to companies in Europe and the United States. Recently, they’re even going to jointly develop a passenger plane with Boeing.” Li Guofu said, “By the way, remember, Northwestern Polytechnical University has the utmost contempt for those who beg for alms. If you want to cooperate with them, you have to be self-reliant and strong. To be honest, Northwestern Polytechnical University doesn’t owe us anything. Their good life now is the result of their own hard work.”

Yu Ximing took a deep breath: "Yes, times have changed. Before, the whole country acted as one, but now..."

Mr. Yu was born in Northeast China in 1927. He watched Japanese planes fly overhead from a young age and aspired to serve the country through aviation. After graduating from the Capital Aviation Institute in 1953, he joined Factory 112, starting as a designer and working his way up to factory director. In 1966, when the country was building the Third Front bases, he volunteered to come to the First Design Institute of Base 011 to take on the role of technical leader. Now he is the chief designer and deputy director of the Science and Technology Committee of Base 011.

Looking back now, if he hadn't come out and had stayed in Northeast China, he could have lived a peaceful life, but now he would have to worry about the survival of the entire base... However, he doesn't regret it, because at that time, the country needed him!
Now, the task of reform and leading the Third Front bases out of poverty has fallen on his shoulders!
Two years ago, he and other leaders of Base 011 begged and pleaded until they finally secured the MiG-21 trainer jet project. For them, this project was crucial to the future development of Base 011! Just as they were working intensively on the reverse engineering, news came from above that this trainer jet was outdated and that a completely new trainer jet needed to be designed based on the Super-7!
For them, who had only ever been in contact with the J-6 fighter jet, this was like trying to run before they could even walk!
How to do?
We cannot bow our heads, we cannot be afraid of difficulties, we must rise to the challenge and forge a path for the third-line base!

“Now it’s a market economy, it’s different from the past,” Li Guofu said. “If you still cling to the old ideas, you’ll be eliminated by the times. Northwestern Polytechnical University and Factory 132 are typical examples of companies that have embraced the market economy. By the way, we just made a chip, we need to go and tell Northwestern Polytechnical University the good news. If you want to come, we can go together!”

"Good!" Now, the anxiety in everyone's eyes finally disappeared. With Li Guofu by their side, they felt more confident!

"Director Li, let us tell you about the difficulties you've encountered in the reform process!"

"Well, the first difficulty was money. The higher-ups helped us with half of it, and we solved the other half with loans and employee contributions..."

In the past, we relied on funding from higher authorities and no one thought about the money issue. Now, in a market economy, money is the biggest problem!

Everyone felt a heavy weight in their hearts.

Loans? People in this era are very reluctant to take on heavy burdens! Self-financing? In recent years, the 011 base has often been unable to pay wages, so where would the employees find spare money!
That afternoon, the group left Factory 4433 and, after a long journey of two days and two nights, finally arrived at Northwestern Polytechnical University.

"This Fifth Department Building, is it newly built?" Li Guofu was also stunned when he saw the brand-new building.

"Yes, our aeronautical department originally had too little space, which made it inconvenient to carry out research, so we built this one."

"How much will this cost?"

"Not much, less than a million..."

The guests fell silent. One million was nothing to Northwestern Polytechnical University, but to them, it was a huge sum of money!

Looking at everyone's expressions, Director Luo felt somewhat helpless. He really wasn't pretending; this was the truth!
"Let's go up to the fifth-floor conference room." After saying that, Director Luo glanced at his watch: "Qin Liang is busy with other projects lately. I'll have someone call him after we get into the conference room."

"Other projects? What projects?"

As soon as Old Yu finished speaking, he regretted it. This was definitely a top-secret project, and he shouldn't have asked such a question!
“A collaborative project with Boeing,” Director Luo said with a smile. “We have a lot of projects on hand right now, and we’re too busy to handle everything. Please forgive us… cough cough.”

That sounds like I'm showing off again.

Inside the meeting room, fine jasmine tea was brewed, and everyone chatted for a few moments before a young man hurriedly walked in.

"Director Li, you're moving too slowly! In a market economy, time is money! It's taken you so long to copy the 8086 chip, and the matching chips will take even longer! Are you all snails?"

Li Guofu chuckled awkwardly, "Comrade Qin Liang, don't worry, don't worry..." "How can I not worry!" Qin Liang rolled his eyes at him, "We still have other chip imitation projects to complete. If you can't handle them all, we'll just hand them over to other factories..."

"No, no, we can eat it, we can eat it!" Li Guofu was covered in sweat: "The integration level of those supporting chips is not very high. We can produce the supporting chips in two months, no, within one month! As for the other chips... what kind of chips are they?"

"The integration level isn't as high as a CPU, but they're all dedicated chips, like the A/D and D/A converter chips on airborne radar, or the dedicated DSP chips used for Lorentz transformation... There are probably more than thirty kinds... What? Is there a problem?"

Li Guofu took a deep breath: "Our factory... has insufficient production capacity!"

Not only is the technology of the Eastern chip industry several years behind that of the West, but the key issue is production capacity. Almost all chip factories in the East are small workshops, making large-scale mass production very difficult!
"If production capacity is insufficient, then expand it. Your factory is probably located in a remote mountain village, right? Perfect timing! Take this opportunity to build a new factory and purchase equipment in a nearby big city. This 8086 chip production can be expanded to five thousand, or even ten thousand per month, no problem. It can be produced for at least five years!"

Move out!
Li Guofu said with a bitter expression, "Comrade Qin Liang, moving this out will cost a lot of money!"

"There's no future in these remote mountain villages. If you want to develop, you have to move out. Putting aside everything else, when you recruit college graduates, they'll all turn around and leave when they see factories in these remote villages. Do you believe me? If third-tier factories want to develop in the long term, they have to move to big cities! Money isn't a big deal. You've already mass-produced 8086 chips, and the profits are flowing in continuously. Just borrow a few million from the bank!"

Li Guofu gritted his teeth: "Fine, we'll listen to you!"

"Okay, then let's go back and start planning. Get the cleanroom and such built as soon as possible. We'll look for equipment domestically first, and if we can't find it, we'll order it from abroad..." After making these arrangements, Qin Liang thought for a moment, then continued, "Alright, that's about it for now. I'm going back..."

"Wait a minute!" Director Luo spoke up: "Liangzi, this time, the people who came to our Northwestern Polytechnical University are not only comrades from Factory 4433, but also these people from Base 011. This Comrade Lao Yu is the chief designer of the First Design Institute of Base 011."

Mr. Yu?
Qin Liang had just thought that too many people from Factory 4433 were coming to report good news, which he didn't like and therefore had to criticize. Now he realized that he was wrong to criticize them; there were even people from Base 011 here!
He knew that Mr. Yu was the designer of the J-6A all-weather aircraft, the JJ-7 aircraft, and the JJ-7P aircraft. He had made contributions to the take-off of the Mountain Eagle. He never expected that he would actually appear here!
"Mr. Yu, welcome, welcome!" Qin Liang extended his hand warmly: "I'm sorry for neglecting you just now."

This isn't right. Qin Liang has always been aloof and arrogant, so why is he acting like this now...? Li Guofu felt a slight displeasure.

"Comrade Qin Liang, we've come to learn from your experience. Factory 132 is willing to give us a copy of the blueprints for the Super-7 and will even mark the parts that are the same as the J-7, reducing our workload. However, for this two-seat modification, we still need to ask Northwestern Polytechnical University for help! We know that you need ten million yuan in R&D funding, and we will try our best to raise that amount."

"Ahem, well..." Qin Liang thought for a moment and said, "If nothing unexpected happens, the overseas customers will place an order, at least four aircraft. Don't worry too much about the funding."

"Unfair! Unfair!" Li Guofu almost shouted. "You make all sorts of demands on our Factory 4433, but when we get to Base 011, you... What happened to the promise of self-reliance for the Third Front base?" But he didn't dare, after all, Factory 4433 would rely on Northwestern Polytechnical University for its livelihood from now on!

“Conditions there must be tough, but producing the Super 7 trainer version is still possible. As Super 7 exports increase, the demand for these trainer versions will also rise. Once you get the orders, you'll need to find a way to relocate the factory. There's no future in this remote mountain village. Back then…”

We can't blame the leaders back then, after all, the international situation they faced was extremely perilous. But in retrospect, it still resulted in a huge waste. The manpower, material resources, and financial resources invested in building a factory in a remote mountain village were far greater than those invested in a city.

"Let's not talk about the past, let's talk about the future," Qin Liang said. "Is your 011 base planning to focus on trainer aircraft in the future?"

Yu Ximing took a deep breath: "Comrade Qin Liang, please feel free to give us any suggestions you may have!"

"Actually, the trainer aircraft route is also a good one. The Super-7 is a good start. After flying it, pilots will be able to fly third-generation aircraft. The lifespan of this trainer aircraft will be very long, possibly even more than forty years."

For everyone from Base 011, a flame of hope instantly ignited in their hearts. Forty years! On their way here, they were filled with anxiety, unsure of what the future held. Now, the clouds had parted and the sun was shining through!

"However, this trainer aircraft will become low-end in the future. After the Super-7 trainer aircraft makes money, you should also start research and development. Your 011 base has an aircraft design institute with considerable capabilities. As for the research and development direction, there are two possibilities: one is a primary/secondary trainer aircraft, referencing the British Eagle 60 trainer aircraft..."

Pilot training is a complex system engineering project. After learning the theoretical knowledge, one should be able to fly the aircraft. This cannot be done in one step; it must be done gradually. The global practice is to start with propeller aircraft. In China, there is the CJ-5. After flying propeller aircraft, one should fly jet aircraft. In China, the first aircraft flown is the JJ-5, and then the JJ-6.

These aircraft will gradually become outdated and eventually be phased out, so we'll need to provide pilots with a jet aircraft.

In later generations, China had the famous K8, which was not only used domestically but also exported in large quantities. This was started by Factory 320 in 1982 and officially launched in 1987. Now, Factory 320 has the twin-engine Q-6 project. If it wants to pursue a professional ground attack aircraft and bomber route in the future, then this kind of trainer aircraft might as well be set up at Base 011.

"The other is advanced trainer aircraft. Third-generation fighters are expensive, and using the accompanying two-seat version for training is somewhat wasteful. Therefore, we can use a dedicated advanced trainer aircraft. It needs to have top-notch technology such as leading-edge extensions, be able to imitate most of the maneuvers of third-generation fighters, and also have fly-by-wire control. The development of such an aircraft is very risky, but once it is developed, it will be of great significance. It can greatly reduce the training costs of third-generation fighter pilots, can also carry bombs and serve as a makeshift attack aircraft, and for third-world countries, it can even be a mainstay..."

“Let’s develop this kind of advanced jet trainer!” Yu Ximing’s eyes lit up.

"Ahem, this technology is a bit difficult for our 011 base."

Although they had professional aircraft design institutions, they had only been involved in the J-6A all-weather version, and their main focus was on imitation. With their weak technology, it would have been extremely difficult for them to directly build something like the Falcon of later generations!

“Well, there’s also Northwestern Polytechnical University, right? We’ll also pursue joint research and development with Northwestern Polytechnical University!” Yu Ximing said.

Airplane manufacturers all want to build big, good airplanes! Primary trainer aircraft aren't challenging enough; they want to go big, so maybe they can leap from being mediocre to being top-tier?

Qin Liang thought for a moment and nodded: "Okay, let's focus on the Super-7 trainer jet first. We can talk about the other projects later!"

In the 1980s, during a rare honeymoon period with the West, the introduction of trainer jet engines was not difficult at all. The need for advanced trainer jets with two afterburning engines was not a big problem either. Once these aircraft were produced, they could fill a market gap, and there would be a high demand for them worldwide.

By the time the honeymoon period ends, our Eastern aviation industry will have become powerful!

This route is still feasible. As for the design... Northwestern Polytechnical University has wind tunnels and computers, so designing an advanced trainer jet won't require too much effort. Once Yang Wei and his team develop the fly-by-wire system, it can be adapted to various aircraft in the future!
In this way, the third-tier base can also usher in a magnificent transformation!
"Comrade Qin Liang, could you also tell us about the future plans of our Factory 4433?"

"Didn't we already say? Focus on increasing production capacity first when copying chips; we'll talk about design later!" With that, Qin Liang glanced at his watch: "Everyone, that's enough talk, I have to go!"

"Comrade Qin Liang, I've brought along aircraft designers. Could they... stay and participate in the modification of the Super-7 trainer aircraft?" Old Yu asked.

"Okay, let's go!"

　PS: This is a map showing the distribution of the three-line bases. The hole at the bottom leads to the workshop where engines are manufactured.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)