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

Chapter 255 Changhong Factory: A Typical Example of Military-to-Civilian Conversion

Inside the adjacent factory building, the assembly of the JF-17 Thunder was proceeding in an orderly manner.

The fuselage frame is largely complete, and the internal equipment is being installed one after another. Although the skin is not yet on, the outline of the aircraft can still be seen.

With air intakes on both sides, leading-edge extensions, and a medium aspect ratio trapezoidal wing, the fuselage looks about the same size as the Super-7, but this upgrade makes it look more modern.

"Excellent, excellent. This aircraft is small and agile, perfect for our air force..."

"Its designation is that of an export-oriented fighter jet, suitable for countries with small land areas. Our territory is vast, so it's not suitable for operating this kind of fighter jet." This wasn't the first time Qin Liang had explained this to the Air Force. The Air Force doesn't have the money, so they equip themselves with fewer aircraft, but they must be medium or heavy fighter jets. Light aircraft like this are just a waste of resources.

Fighter jets specifically designed for export should not be used domestically.

Beside him, Old Song's expression was complicated. He was really worried that the Air Force leaders would take a fancy to the JF-17 Thunder and abandon the J-9 project. Now, Qin Liang was sticking to his original intention and strongly supporting the J-9, and the Air Force had unconditional trust in Qin Liang... The J-9 project had come this far thanks to Qin Liang's support.

“Comrade Qin Liang, we have a different opinion on what you’re saying.” At this moment, Air Force Leader Zhang spoke up.

"Over the years, our air force's main fighter jet has been the J-6, which has a combat radius of only 500 kilometers. So we build an air force base every 500 kilometers to form a dense air defense network. Over the years, our four or five thousand J-6s have been enough to meet the needs of homeland air defense."

Old Song's heart tightened once again.

"Yes, and besides, although the JF-17's airframe is small, with a fuel-efficient turbofan engine, its range can reach 2,000 kilometers. Moreover, we are also developing similar turbofan engines domestically, so it will definitely be domestically produced in the future. The JF-17 is cheap and can completely replace the J-6 one-to-one..."

Old Song became even more nervous, his eyes filled with anticipation as he looked at Qin Liang, hoping that Qin Liang could persuade the Air Force.

"Ladies and gentlemen, times are changing, and many of our previous ways of thinking need to change as well. Back then, we advocated guerrilla warfare in the air. Now, after several wars, don't you all understand? What is air combat about now?"

Qin Liang looked at everyone: "Whose aircraft is larger, who carries more weapons and ammunition, and whose radar can see further! In these aspects, heavy and medium-sized aircraft have a great advantage! Take the twin-engine Q-6 for example, the combat effectiveness of this one aircraft is equivalent to four JF-17 Thunders! And the consumption of this one aircraft is definitely less than that of four JF-17 Thunders! The Air Force should have reduced its size long ago and upgraded from quantitative advantage to qualitative advantage in order to cope with future wars!"

"Everyone, we're having a banquet at Tianfu Restaurant. Shall we go eat together?" Old Tu quickly tried to smooth things over. No one could convince anyone else right now, and if they continued, they would start arguing, which wouldn't be good for anyone.

"Tianfu Tower? I've heard it's on par with the Jianguo Hotel. We've never been there before!" Old Lin said with a broad smile, "Let's go!"

Tianfu Tower, Chengdu's most luxurious garden villa-style hotel, is a state guesthouse of Sichuan Province. Given how wealthy Factory 132 is now, it's only natural that they would provide the highest level of accommodation and dining for everyone.

Before they knew it, it got dark outside. Everyone strode outside and parked their cars at the entrance of Factory 132.

"We're here thanks to you, Liangzi!" Old Lin said with a smile as he walked to the Hongqi sedan. "If it were just us, we would be staying at the 132 Factory's guesthouse and eating at the 132 Factory's canteen. But with you here, our meals and lodging have been upgraded immediately!"

Qin Liang smiled and was about to say a few words of modesty when he saw an old Shanghai sedan speeding towards him.

"Dear leaders, you mentioned on the phone that you needed Changhong's help to produce airborne equipment, so we came immediately. Please rest assured, our factory guarantees to complete the task assigned by our superiors! Even if it means losing money, we will prioritize meeting the needs of the military!"

Looking at the four cadres who got out of the car, Old Lin was very satisfied: "Good, not bad. Factory 780 is indeed a military factory. It has awareness and a future! Come on, let's go eat together. We'll talk at the dinner table!"

Inside a private dining room at Tianfu Lou restaurant.

Wang Zhidong, the factory director of Changhong Machinery Factory, spoke eloquently about Changhong's development over the years.

"In recent years, we realized the demand for television sets from the general public, so we started trial production. To date, we have successfully developed five models of black and white television sets and four models of color television sets. In particular, last year, we reached an agreement with Panasonic to purchase Panasonic's color television components and assemble them domestically. Changhong now has the first color television production line in the country..."

Qin Liang frowned.

"Liangzi, if you have any ideas, just say them!" Old Lin had figured it out.

"Director Wang, is the highest quality television set in our Changhong factory assembled from imported parts?"

"Yes," Factory Director Wang nodded, "Currently, the televisions we produce are all discrete components, while imported televisions use integrated circuits, one for video and one for audio. The number of components on the circuit board is greatly reduced, which naturally greatly improves the reliability of the television. And the picture tubes, the ones produced by our domestic partner companies simply cannot compare with those from abroad..."

"Can't Changhong produce picture tubes?"

"Yes, our picture tubes are all purchased from Factory 773. They used to manufacture vacuum tubes, and in 59, they produced the first black-and-white television picture tube in the country. However, they still produce them by hand, without an assembly line, so the quality..."

To this day, China still operates on a small-scale workshop model, resulting in lower output, less quality control, and inconsistent quality compared to the mass production lines abroad.

These are all major problems facing the home appliance industry in the East! Historically, it wasn't until 1983 that the first black and white picture tube production line in China was built at Factory 773, with an annual output of 500,000 14-inch and 17-inch black and white picture tubes, which immediately alleviated the shortage of picture tubes for televisions in China.

As for color TV picture tubes, they wouldn't be available until the late 1980s.

In this day and age, people who can afford it all hope to buy an imported color TV, because they know that imported ones are of much better quality than domestic ones.

But in later generations, no one cared anymore, because our domestically produced color TVs were already world-class, and those imported color TVs were only appreciated by a select few.

The same applies to cars. In this era, everyone knows that imported cars are of excellent quality, but in later generations, the quality of our domestically produced cars has also become world-class.

Qin Liang wasn't very familiar with the domestic home appliance industry before, nor did he know the ins and outs of it. But now that he'd encountered it, he had to help push it forward!
"We must be able to produce picture tubes domestically. We can import the entire production line from abroad to significantly improve our television picture tube production capacity and reach world-class levels," Qin Liang said.

Factory Director Wang was overjoyed: "That's right, exactly! Comrade Qin Liang, what you said is exactly what we all feel! Our Changhong Factory has been looking forward to introducing a picture tube production line for a long time!"

Fate cannot be in the hands of others. Since they have chosen the path of manufacturing televisions, they naturally hope to produce their own picture tubes, controlling both quality and output. Unfortunately, importing from abroad is not something they can decide; they have to apply to higher authorities!
Old Lin nodded: "Since Changhong Factory has this idea, then our Air Force can give it our full support. We'll coordinate with the relevant departments to get their approval for your import plan as soon as possible! Liangzi, do you have any other requests?"

Qin Liang thought for a moment: "After Changhong Factory introduced the picture tube production line, it can no longer purchase picture tubes produced by other factories. You can only sell the surplus picture tubes to other factories, and you can't purchase them from other factories. Let's set this period for thirty years for now."

The story of Changhong, the dragon slayer who ultimately became the dragon, is that after they grew and became powerful, they wanted to monopolize the market and bought up all the picture tubes in the country, leaving other TV factories without picture tubes to use.

This is a process from market competition to monopoly. Companies that are in a favorable position in the competition will not be satisfied. They want to continue to expand their market share and destroy their competitors so that they can obtain greater monopoly benefits.

This is detrimental to the market.

Changhong's approach didn't lead to growth or expansion. So what if they bought all the picture tubes? The era of LCD TVs had arrived! Now that everyone is sitting together, Qin Liang has to give them some pointers: leave room for maneuver and don't try to crush all your competitors.

Factory Director Wang was taken aback for a moment, then nodded: "Of course, now that we have our own picture tube production line, we certainly won't be buying picture tubes from outside anymore! On behalf of Changhong Factory, I thank you for your strong support!"

After saying that, he raised his glass.

The other guests from the Changhong factory also raised their glasses.

After a glass of wine, the engineer next to Factory Director Wang spoke up: "Comrade Qin Liang, I heard that Northwestern Polytechnical University is also designing chips. Can you design related chips for our televisions? Televisions with integrated circuits are much better in quality than those with discrete components."

The requirements for integrated circuits in television sets are not high. In the 1980s, Dongfang introduced a complete production line, which completely solved the domestic demand for integrated circuits in television sets. Qin Liang couldn't remember which year it was.

Changhong already has a picture tube production line; what if they add an integrated circuit production line? If they do, they'll control the lifeline of Oriental TVs. How can other companies develop then?

Looking into the expectant eyes of the other person, Qin Liang felt uneasy. As introduced earlier, the speaker was Engineer Ni, who in later generations led Changhong Factory to grow and become a monopoly. The request he just made was actually meant for him.

Now, should we give him a few more pointers?
Thump thump thump... Just then, a series of hurried footsteps sounded.

"Old Lin, Leader Wang, Leader Zhang! The radar station in Chengdu just detected a target at Mach 2.6, at an altitude of 28,000 meters. It turned southwest at a distance of about 100 kilometers from Chengdu..."

Snapped!
Old Lin immediately put down his chopsticks: "Damn it, they actually let someone fly over the plateau and all the way here before we found them? What are our air force doing?"

The atmosphere at the dinner table instantly turned awkward.

In the 1980s, the western plateau of our motherland was still undefended!

After all, it's difficult for ordinary people to walk on the plateau, and it's also difficult for fighter jets. Many aircraft engines simply cannot start at airports at altitudes of several thousand meters. Maintenance and upkeep also consume a lot of physical strength, making plateau deployments just empty talk.

Chengdu has the closest air force base to the plateau, but the J-6 and J-7 fighter jets equipped there have too short a range to patrol over the plateau!
Air defense in high-altitude areas relies solely on ground-based radar stations. However, these stations are built with significant gaps in their deployment, creating enough openings for MiG-25s to penetrate.

In the 1980s, this place was undefended. It wasn't until the 1990s, with the advent of the long-range Su-27, that those damned guys finally stopped their border incursions. Now…

So, since they can't provoke Barack Obama, they're coming here to act like idiots?

"Old Lin, our air force... simply can't take off!"

"Let's stop here for today's meal. Since we're already here, let's have an emergency meeting right here to discuss countermeasures. Liangzi, you'll come along!"

Looking at the table full of food, Qin Liang really wanted to ask if they could wait, but... seeing everyone's angry expressions, he knew he couldn't make that request now.

"it is good."

Factory Director Wang and the others sat around the table, watching everyone leave. When only a few of them remained, they suddenly realized, "Old Tu, Old Tu, we haven't settled the bill yet! Although our Changhong Factory has money, we've never made money from the Air Force!"

We're not here because of the Air Force, but because of Northwestern Polytechnical University, and more specifically, because of Qin Liang's wife, Yang Duo'er. Yang Duo'er has been coordinating things abroad, and we hope she can help us import a picture tube production line from Europe!
In the conference room.

"The Qinghai-Tibet Plateau is 2,800 kilometers long from east to west and about 300 to 1,500 kilometers wide from north to south," Qin Liang said. "Considering the complexity of deploying fighter jets on the plateau, if we want to use the base in Chengdu to launch fighter jets and fly around the plateau, our fighter jets would need a range of at least 5,000 kilometers. If we are only dealing with this crisis and fly to the southwest border and then back, it would still take 3,000 kilometers."

Qin Liang looked at everyone present and said, "This is the aircraft performance determined by our national conditions. We need long-range heavy fighters as the elite force, medium fighters as the backbone, and light fighters really do not meet our needs."

"Alright, alright, Comrade Qin Liang, we understand!" Leader Zhang said from the side, "From now on, we won't argue with you anymore. Whenever there's a conflict, you'll definitely be right. Now, tell us your thoughts!"

Pakistan's territory is long and narrow, and fighter jets can reach the border in about 100 kilometers from their air force bases. Therefore, unless it is a long-range bombing mission, they do not have a great need for range. The high cost of heavy fighter jets is also something they cannot afford.

Therefore, Europe has never produced a heavy fighter jet, while countries like the Soviet Union and the United States have made heavy fighter jets their main force. As for the East... don't be fooled by the fact that they currently have light fighter jets; in the future, they will also be dominated by heavy fighter jets. Once the air force uses them, it will cherish them.

We should prioritize quality over quantity.

"Currently, the longest-range aircraft we have is the twin-engine Q-6, so we need to transfer a few over as soon as possible. Ideally, we should be able to fly over the plateau every day to take a lap. As soon as we spot one, we should take it down. Once we shoot one down, those damned guys will behave themselves."

"Even a twin-engine Q6 can't complete a patrol mission of this distance!" Old Lin shook his head.

The twin-engine Q-6, equipped with the WP-15 turbojet engine, has good maneuverability, but its range is still affected.

"At this point, our aerial refueling tankers will naturally come in handy," Qin Liang said. "One Y-10 aerial refueling tanker and two twin-engine Q-6 tankers forming a formation for patrol will be sufficient."

In later generations, the Air Force's fighter jets also spent a lot of effort to be able to operate on the plateau. After the Su-27 was able to operate on the plateau, it had difficulty starting the engine, had long takeoff and landing distances, and its load decreased. It took several years to finally overcome these problems.

Later, they gradually began to conduct rotational training on the plateau, eventually achieving full coverage of the Air Force's operational radius on the plateau.

Currently, the Air Force has a limited number of modern fighter jets, and it is impossible to deploy its elite air force here. The goal is simply to cut off the greedy hands of those guys and prevent them from causing trouble in the eastern skies again.

Who still says "Long live Sixth Master"? If Sixth Master were to cover the entire plateau, how many airports would that require? How much manpower and resources would it take, and what sacrifices would be made?
Now, with twin-engine Q-6 fighters and aerial refueling tankers, that's enough!
Old Lin nodded: "I think this plan is feasible! Immediately mobilize our twin-engine Q-6 training unit and aerial refueling tankers!"

Because the order for the twin-engine Q-6 was sold to Langtuo, so far, there are only two squadrons of twin-engine Q-6, and they are still in training. Now, it is time to bring this force up, since the Air Force has not equipped the other J-82 at all!
"I wonder if our airborne early warning aircraft can be put into use. If it can, then it will be even simpler. Let the airborne early warning aircraft patrol in the sky to make up for the deficiencies of the ground radar network, find the target as soon as possible, and even... detect the enemy's aircraft as soon as they take off, and then guide our fighters into the attack route!"

The airborne early warning aircraft is almost ready for its maiden flight, but... there's a big difference between being able to fly and being able to put it into service.

“That’s right, we can ask them over there!” Old Lin looked at Qin Liang again: “The situation on the plateau is complicated, so we need to make preparations in many aspects. Relying solely on the air force is not enough. Next, we still need to seize the time and develop our surface-to-air missiles as soon as possible. Liangzi, would you like to join Project Nine at Northwestern Polytechnical University?”

"What?" Qin Liang's eyes widened.

"Our Air Force's HQ-2 missile is outdated. Over the years, we've had a few research and development projects, but none of them have been reliable," Old Lin explained. "Just recently, we conducted a feasibility study and decided that we should start a regional air defense missile project, codenamed HQ-9, or Project No. 9. In the early stages of the design, we planned to involve Northwestern Polytechnical University, but we haven't explicitly told you about it until now."

　PS: Changhong TV, the first one I had at home was also like this.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)