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

Chapter 265 Zhenhua Electronics Company and Huaxi Microelectronics Equipment Company
Third-tier bases have no future!
The remote location makes everything inconvenient, and it's hard to retain college graduates. The transportation of materials and products is much more expensive than in big cities, which significantly increases costs. With the further development of the market economy, the third-line bases will either have to be relocated or completely abandoned!
The current 4433 factory is only thriving because it can produce the 8086 chip, which is a hot commodity in China. Both civilian computers and various military electronic systems need this chip. Northwestern Polytechnical University also leaves them enough profit, which is why they are doing so well.

However, under the powerful magic of Moore's Law, Factory 4433's good days will not last more than five years, after which it will rapidly decline. If they want to develop, they will have to relocate the factory to a big city! And incidentally, they will upgrade their production technology and expand their production scale!

The Eastern chip industry is not only technologically backward, but more critically, it is all produced on a small workshop scale. The combined annual production capacity of all chip factories in the country is less than one-tenth of the monthly production capacity of a single Western company.

We must follow the path of a modern, large corporation!

Li Guofu and others had complex expressions.

Moving out is no easy task!

Relocating just one factory is already a headache enough, not to mention the employees' families, affiliated schools, hospitals, and so on. The total relocation of these facilities would require astronomical sums.

Back then, establishing the Third Front bases was a national-level project. Now the government no longer manages the Third Front factories; they have to find their own way out, and relocation is such a major undertaking…

"Director Li, if Factory 4433 doesn't relocate, it will decline within five years, and after five years... the factory will most likely go out of business. Do you believe me when I say this?"

Li Guofu nodded: "I believe you!"

Without Qin Liang, there would be no Factory 4433 today. In their eyes, Qin Liang was already a guiding light, a beacon of hope. Now that Qin Liang says the factory will fail, it really will!

only……

"Comrade Qin Liang, this factory relocation is no small matter. It will cost a lot of money. Although our Factory 4433 has made money in recent years, it simply cannot afford the cost of such a relocation."

"We'll take out a loan from the bank," Qin Liang said. "We don't need much, a loan of 100 million will be enough."

Click!

A series of thunderclaps exploded above everyone's heads. One hundred million, you say it so easily, do you know what that means?

"Believe me, after we relocate, we will definitely pay off the loan within three years, and the factory will rapidly grow and become the largest factory in the country, or even one of the top factories in the entire Asian region," Qin Liang said.

The other party still didn't believe it.

"To put it this way, a 6,000-square-meter production workshop would produce at least 100 million chips a year. If the profit is one yuan per chip, that's 100 million!"

One hundred million!

Li Guofu's eyes widened: "Comrade Qin Liang, so many chips... can the country use them all?"

If a country has a population of one billion and produces one hundred million units of currency annually, how is it possible for ten people to share one unit of currency?

Qin Liang smiled and said, "It's not like we only produce processors. We also produce other chips, such as those for televisions and tape recorders, as well as various military and civilian chips. We can produce them all. We not only use the chips ourselves, but we can even export them in the future. Take the computers assembled with the 8086 chip, for example. Aren't we exporting them?"

The chip industry is absolutely incredibly profitable!
Li Guofu swallowed hard.

"Comrade Qin Liang, we at Factory 4433 will definitely follow your suggestions, but... we want... we want..."

"Say!"

"We want to jointly build a factory with Northwestern Polytechnical University! You're planning to jointly establish a lithography machine company with Tsinghua University, right? Well, let's also jointly build this new chip factory. We don't need your investment, just the loan..."

After all that talking, this guy was still worried! He was afraid of losing money!
One hundred million! How could we possibly pay back that much money? That's why we have to involve Northwestern Polytechnical University!
"Well, that's a good idea. Let's join forces and establish a chip manufacturing company. Your 4433 factory will hold 49% of the shares, and we'll hold 51%. All investments, loans, and profits will be calculated based on these shareholdings. How does that sound?"

"Great!" Li Guofu was finally relieved: "Then how about choosing Chang'an as the location for the factory?"

The entire province is a remote and mountainous region, far from the capital. Even if we moved to the provincial capital, the transportation of supplies would still be inconvenient. It would be better to move closer to Northwestern Polytechnical University!
Qin Liang shook his head: "I'd recommend your province; it has abundant water resources."

Chang'an is surrounded by eight rivers, which might seem like it has no shortage of water resources. However, from the 1960s to the 1990s, Chang'an suffered from severe water shortages and ranked first among the forty cities in China with serious water shortages!

This continued until 98, when the Heihe Reservoir was completed, finally freeing Chang'an from its water shortage problem. The water source, which had previously relied mainly on groundwater, was now being replaced by surface river water from the Qinling Mountains.

Major events like reservoir construction are not decisions that Northwestern Polytechnical University can make. If the chip factory has to shut down due to water shortages once it starts operating, it will be a huge loss.

In contrast, your province has abundant water resources, so much so that floods are frequent. In terms of topographical features, it is very similar to Taiwan.

In the future, TSMC will use 150,000 tons of fresh water per day, which is equivalent to 6,000 swimming pools, and that's just for one day!
This chip factory is designed to accommodate the future scale of TSMC, so we have to take all sorts of factors into account.

Actually, Shanghai is better. It's located by the Huangpu River, has plenty of fresh water, and is an international metropolis that can retain talent. However… Shanghai also has many chip factories. If Factory 4433, an outsider, moved directly to Shanghai, it would definitely be marginalized. Your province is better; it's a way of driving the development of less developed provinces.

“Okay, I’ll do as you say!” Li Guofu nodded. “Once we sign the cooperation agreement, we’ll go back and discuss building the factory with the local government and try to get it built as soon as possible!”

Leaving aside loans and such, as long as Northwestern Polytechnical University joins in, not to mention 100 million, even 1 billion can be loaned out!

"By the way, what's a good name for our new company?"

Qin Liang paused for a moment, then, remembering the conglomerate from his future life, said, "How about we call it Zhenhua Electronics?"

Factory 4433 was a subsidiary factory of the 083 base. As the country gradually abandoned the third-line bases, they began a vigorous reform and established Zhenhua Electronics, which later developed into Zhenhua Group, a well-known electronics group.

This name has a nice meaning, let's just use it.

"Great!" Li Guofu was very pleased: "From now on, our Factory 4433 will be called Zhenhua Electronics!"

Shanghai, Component Factory No. 5.

A group of people waited anxiously in the packaging and testing workshop, their eyes fixed on the screen, full of anticipation.

"Factory manager, he's out, he's out!" Finally, a person in a white coat came out holding a small cube: "Our 8086 chip has finally passed all the tests. It has the same performance as the chip from Factory 4433!"

Factory director Xu Long immediately stepped forward, took the small chip, and exclaimed with excitement, "Hmm, not bad! Our Component Factory No. 5 can finally produce 8086 chips! Northwestern Polytechnical University's monopoly is about to be broken by us!"

"That's right, this 8086 computer is a hot commodity on the market right now, and it's always in short supply. Northwestern Polytechnical University has made a fortune in the past few years, and now it's finally our turn!"

"Their computers just use four-layer boards, it's not some advanced technology. Many electronics factories in Shanghai can make them, and Shanghai will soon develop into a production base for electronic computers!"

Everyone was excited.

The 8086 computer was an instant hit across the country as soon as it was launched. Other factories tried to imitate it but suffered a huge loss due to the circuit boards. After that, Factory 4433 became even more closely associated with Northwestern Polytechnical University and supplied all the processors it produced to Northwestern Polytechnical University. As a result, even if other electronics factories wanted to make computers, they had no processors to use!

As the Shanghai No. 5 Component Factory, which had once copied the 8008, resolutely took on this heavy responsibility. Who doesn't know how to plan the wafers?
Now, they have become the second chip factory in the country to manufacture 8086 processors, and they will catch up with the fast track of electronic computers...

"Factory manager, we are now able to produce, but the yield rate can only be maintained at about five percent..." said Jiang Sihai, an engineer wearing a white coat.

Xu Long nodded: "That's no problem. As long as we can build the 8086, we can submit a report to our superiors and get approval for our foreign exchange permit to purchase advanced lithography machines from abroad. At that time, our yield rate will definitely be higher than that of Factory 4433. They sell a processor for 300 yuan, while we sell ours for 100 yuan. We're not as greedy as them; we're doing this to better develop the country's computer capabilities..."

"Factory Director, Factory Director!" Just then, Secretary Xiao Cao rushed over: "I just found out some news from Factory 4433!"

"What's going on over there?"

"They partnered with Northwestern Polytechnical University to establish Zhenhua Electronics Company, planning to build a new chip factory in the provincial capital of Guizhou. The cleanroom alone will cover more than 6,000 square meters..."

Everyone's eyes widened.

"It's even bigger than Factory 109, what are they planning to do?" "I don't know."

"Hmph, even if they have such a large factory, it's useless. Without advanced production equipment, they can't produce top-notch chips! GCA's sales representative said that they will absolutely not sell chip production equipment to companies related to Northwestern Polytechnical University."

"They have already ordered two lithography machines from Tsinghua University."

"Huaqing University? The lithography machine they developed is nothing more than a child's toy compared to the West. These high-tech products are still more advanced in the West. We witnessed the advanced technology of the West when we visited GCA last time; they are at least twenty years ahead of us..."

The crowd was buzzing with discussion, while Xu Long... fell into deep thought.

If it were just Factory 4433, he wouldn't be afraid of anything. This factory was just forced into a corner and was trying to save itself by producing. But getting involved with Northwestern Polytechnical University is a different story. Northwestern Polytechnical University has never made a mistake in its path!
Since they are optimistic about Tsinghua University's lithography machine, it might actually be usable!

"Xiao Cao, book me a plane ticket to the capital!"

"Oh? I see, Factory Director. You're going to the capital to report on the 8086 project, right? Should we bring a few more people with us...?"

"No, I want to go and take a look at Tsinghua University."

"What are you looking at?"

"Of course, it's their lithography machine."

"Factory manager, we've already found a good company with GCA..."

"Compare prices from different vendors."

Tsinghua University, the capital city.

Xu Long walked heavily into the Precision Instruments Department building of Tsinghua University. He remembered clearly that there was a special precision optical instrument processing plant on the first floor of this building, known as Base 9003.

But... when he came in, he found the door locked.

It shouldn’t be!

Tsinghua University has also received an order for two lithography machines. Shouldn't they be in production as soon as possible?
"Hey, classmate!"

Seeing a student hurrying past with books in his arms, Xu Long asked, "Do you know where the people from Experiment Base 9003 went?"

"Oh, the Third Ring Road."

"Where exactly?"

"It used to be an air force logistics warehouse, but now it has become the factory area of ​​Huaxi Microelectronics Equipment Company. The company's founding meeting is being held there today."

Many teachers went there, so much so that they could only study on their own! Otherwise, she wouldn't have known about it.

Xu Long's eyes widened. They've even started a company!

The Third Ring Road was started in 1951 and was finally fully opened to traffic this year!
The Princess Tomb roundabout has finally been completed. Many military vehicles can now drive around the roundabout and head straight for Chang'an Avenue.

The Air Force compound and the Navy compound are across the street from each other. Near the Air Force compound is an Air Force logistics warehouse. The fact that the Air Force was willing to give up this land shows how sincere they are. After all, they got four percent of the shares for free. These shares will bring in a lot of profits in the future.

The crackling sound of firecrackers rang out at the gate, and the air was filled with the smell of sulfur.

"Ladies and gentlemen, now please welcome Leader Liu to speak!"

Liu Gensheng walked onto the makeshift platform with a broad smile on his face.

"Today, I am delighted to witness the further development of our Eastern semiconductor industry and the tremendous vitality brought about by our market economy! The joint efforts of Tsinghua University and Northwestern Polytechnical University, utilizing the Air Force's facilities, to establish a modern lithography machine manufacturing company will bring glory to our country's semiconductor industry!"

"The future of the semiconductor industry in the East rests on Huaxi Microelectronics Equipment Company! I hope you can forge a bright future..."

Outside the crowd, a person slowly walked in.

Leader Liu, a top figure in the electronics industry—I never expected him to be here for the company's founding ceremony! It seems the country values ​​this company highly…

"You didn't ask for a single penny from the government; you developed entirely on your own. This sets an example for all enterprises in the entire electronics industry system!"

It's free!

Xu Long continued walking forward, feeling his heart pounding. He keenly realized that this must be a major change in policy...

"I hope you will continue your efforts..."

After Leader Liu finished speaking, the second person went on stage, which startled Xu Long even more.

Mr. Lin?
"I don't understand electronics technology. All I know is that the thing that Northwestern Polytechnical University and Tsinghua University are working on together can produce advanced equipment for our army. If you want to do something well, you must first have the right tools. We can't let foreigners monopolize the equipment for producing chips! One lesson we've learned over the years is that you can't rely on anyone else. In the end, you have to rely on yourself!"

Old Lin's words were brief but clear: the Air Force would give its full support, as this company was crucial to the Air Force's development!

Next up was the president of Tsinghua University. This company was also the one that Tsinghua University valued most. He went up with a prepared speech, starting from the early 1970s and talking about future development, giving a summary full of expectations.

Then there's the president of Northwestern Polytechnical University...

And then……

"Liangzi, come up here and say a few words!"

Qin Liang waved his hand: "No, this isn't the place for a third-year student like me..."

"No, you must go up and say that without you, there would be no cooperation between our two universities, and no bright future for our lithography machine!"

"Ok."

Qin Liang walked up and looked at the crowd below the stage.

"Ladies and gentlemen, with the opening of our country's doors, many people have been blinded by the allure of the foreign world and lost themselves. Under such circumstances, they feel that everything abroad, even a foreigner's excrement, smells good!"

The two principals suddenly felt that letting Qin Liang go up and speak seemed a bit ill-considered; this kid…

"Some people may envy the glitz and glamour of foreign countries and wish they could become foreigners to enjoy that superior lifestyle and find great satisfaction in it. But I want to say that these Western-worshipping dogs and banana people should get lost. Only when they leave will we, the remaining people, not be brainwashed by them!"

"I admit that many things from abroad are advanced, but so what? It's just because they industrialized earlier. Although we started later, we can make up for it with our own hard work! We Easterners are the smartest, most hardworking, and bravest. What foreigners can do, we can do too. What foreigners cannot do, we can also do! We can definitely catch up first and then surpass them!"

"Our Huaxi Microelectronics Equipment Company is determined to become number one in the world! Our joint research and development with Northwestern Polytechnical University and Tsinghua University is absolutely no worse than that of foreign companies! Now, the only thing we lack is orders from domestic companies! Even if we don't get any, we will continue to develop by producing and selling our own products! Let those who fawn over foreign things regret it!"

"Our Shanghai Components Factory No. 5 is willing to order two units!" a voice rang out from below.

Xu Long didn't know if these words were meant for him, but he knew that if he purchased foreign lithography machines, he would be labeled as a foreign worshipper and would be blacklisted by Huaxi Microelectronics Equipment Company. In the future... he wouldn't be able to have a good life!

I have to express my opinion! And it will also make a good impression on my superiors!

(End of this chapter)