Close collaboration

  Everyone had a pleasant meal. Yao He Liang promised that he would seriously consider Lin Zhenhua's request, and no matter what the final result was, at least he would form close cooperation with Hanhua Industrial Company. The old man also promised to seek opinions from the department and make Hanhua Industrial Company a practical base for the mechanical department.

  Lin Zhenhua knew that it was hopeless to try to buy off the old man with money, although he himself was not wealthy, but had a strong character that despised money. Lin Zhenhua's tactic to deal with the old man was to promise him imported industrial control chips, which completely conquered the old man.

  At that time, CNC machine tools were very popular in Western countries, and China's mechanical experts were also following the trend, actively developing China's own CNC machine tool technology. However, during the development process, control chips became a major bottleneck.

  At that time, China also had domestically produced integrated circuits, but in terms of both quality and performance, they were no match for foreign chips. Even such chips had an abnormally low output, which could not meet the needs of various production and research departments at all.

  Huaqing University, as a national key university, is already well taken care of in terms of equipment procurement. However, the number of chips that can be imported from abroad each year is also very limited. The country is extremely short of foreign exchange, and only a small amount of foreign exchange is available, which is obtained by exchanging precious resources such as oil, coal, and rare earths with foreign countries. China's best handicrafts are almost all used for export, with the purpose of earning foreign exchange. There was once a model worker who clipped a few hairs from the ears of pigs he sold, saved them up, and exported them. After several years of hard work, he managed to clip over 10 kilograms.

  Yao Helang is currently working on several designs that require the use of industrial control chips. The number of chips available from school is far from sufficient, so Yao Helang has to carefully remove the chips after each experiment and reuse them for the next one. Sometimes, in order to compare the differences between two designs, he needs to repeatedly disassemble and install the same chip on two different machines, wasting a lot of effort on such unnecessary work.

  Lin Zhenhua was well aware of the difficulties his mentor had faced in the past. Starting from six months ago, he had entrusted Ford in Hong Kong to help purchase a batch of various chips, which were intended as a gift for his teacher. Among this batch of chips, the most numerous were Intel's 8051 industrial control chips, which had just been released that year. This chip and its upgraded products played an important role in the field of industrial control over the next 30 years.

  Speaking of Ford, a few sentences need to be inserted here. Since the software error problem of MK800 was solved, Ford got reused and became the vice president of Spiesheer Company in Asia, working in Hong Kong for many years. For Lin Zhenhua, this Chinese worker who brought him good luck, Ford would not forget him, he believed that if given some time, this young man would definitely become an outstanding figure. From this perspective, Ford was also willing to maintain a good private relationship with Lin Zhenhua.

  Procuring industrial control chips is a trivial matter for Ford. These chips are not on the list of items restricted from export to China by the "Paris Coordinating Committee", and the reason why the Chinese did not make large purchases was simply due to insufficient foreign exchange, which was not a problem for Lin Zhenhua. In those days, Lin Zhenhua received $200,000 in remuneration from Spieser Company, of which $100,000 was deposited into a Swiss bank and another $100,000 was deposited into the Hong Kong HSBC Bank.

  Half of the money was kept in Hong Kong for the convenience of purchasing goods. Lin Zhenhua asked Fort to manage this fund, and all the expenses for buying books and equipment were withdrawn from it. Lin Zhenhua originally wanted to pay Fort some commission, but Fort resolutely refused, saying that the feelings between him and Lin Zhenhua could not be profaned with money.

  This time, Lin Zhenhua brought his sister to Beijing, and he indeed had the idea of meeting Yao Hezang. Of course, encountering each other in such a dramatic way was not something he had thought of beforehand. In his travel bag, there were 100 pieces of 8051 chips, as well as some other chips. Lin Zhenhua directly gave these chips to Yao Hezang at the dinner table, and the old man's excited expression was exactly the same as Wei Jingwen's.

  Lin Zhenhua agreed that in the future, he would also help Old Master Yao procure other chips through his own channels. As for the cost, it would be considered part of Hanhua Company's promised research investment to Huqing University. This kind of sponsorship was like sending charcoal in a snowstorm for Old Master Yao. The official exchange rate between foreign currency and RMB was actually meaningless. At that time in China, even if you had RMB, you couldn't exchange it for foreign currency, let alone import chips. With this box of chips, Old Master Yao's mind had already come up with dozens of mechanical prototypes. What pained him now was not knowing which one to do first.

  "Take it easy, old man." Lin Zhenhua saw what was on his mentor's mind and hastily reminded him, "Old man, I know you have a lot of brilliant ideas, but you must take care of your body and can't overwork. We still need to work hard for the country's health for 50 years, right?"

  "Hehe, Xiao Lin, I won't be able to do this for another 50 years, I have to seize the time. With these chips, many of my ideas can be verified now. At the age of 50, while I'm still capable, I should do more things."

  "Old man, or else you should return my 90 pieces first." Lin Zhenhua said with a bitter face.

  "What?"

  "You've finished it, I'll bring you some more. I'm afraid if I give you a whole one, you really won't eat or sleep all day."

  "I'd be delighted even if I didn't eat or sleep," said Yao Helang.

  Lin Zhenhua turned his head to look at Du Xiangyang and said, "Little Du, I'm assigning you a task. Supervise Teacher Yao's rest. If he really doesn't work day and night without rest, then tell Teacher Li to go."

  "Teacher Li?" Du Xiangyang was somewhat perplexed.

  "How did you know that, Xiao Lin? How did you know my wife's surname is Li?" Yao He-liang was also surprised, of course he could hear that Lin Zhenhua was talking about his wife.

  Lin Zhenhua was embarrassed: "This... Teacher Yao, didn't you say it yourself?"

  "When did I say that?"

  "Just now, you said your wife wasn't home for dinner, did you forget?"

  "Really?" Yao He Liang couldn't remember either, but this question didn't need to be investigated further, maybe he really did say it when he was drunk.

  Regarding the old man's invitation to Lin Zhenhua to pursue a master's degree, Lin Zhenhua just smiled and dismissed it. The knowledge in his mind, if heard by the people of Huqing University, would probably not be able to deceive them. Moreover, he now has a shareholding company in his hands, which is in its start-up period, how could he give up all this and come back to study? Besides, the old man was just talking big, if he really wanted to break the rules and admit a junior high school graduate for a master's degree, who knows how many procedures there would be.

  Having hooked up with his mentor from the previous life, Lin Zhenhua felt elated thinking that his small company now had Huaying University as its backing. Every year, Huaying University wasted a large number of scientific and technological achievements on paper, and just picking one out would be enough for his small company to live well for several years.

  That night, Lin Zhenhua and Yang Xin stayed at the reception house of Huqing University. Unfortunately, the reception house of Huqing University had more than one empty room, making Lin Zhenhua's dream of "only one room left" a bubble. In fact, it was very difficult to create such a dramatic scene in that era. First, the reception houses were all four-person or eight-person rooms, and there were few "standard rooms" commonly seen in later generations. Secondly, unmarried men and women could not live together in the same room. If they were caught by the public security, they would be punished and paraded through the streets.

  Forget it, let's talk about it when we get back to the factory. Xiaofang has gone to school, and now there's only one person left at home... Lin Zhenhua comforted himself like this.

  In the distance, the lotus pond was filled with the sound of frogs croaking. Lin Zhenhua fell asleep to the sound of the frogs in Huqing Garden.

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  There's a social engagement tonight, so I've updated ahead of schedule. Next week, I'll be strongly promoting and putting it on the shelves, so please save your monthly tickets for next month to help blast this book onto the new book monthly ticket chart! It's said that there will be an explosion then...