Chapter 108: Lin Ran’s Fourth Gift
The Chinese Representative didn’t take out the item from his pocket to look at it until he returned to the Geneva InterContinental Hotel.
After all, China at this time didn’t have a specific office in Geneva, and the place where they stayed was a hotel arranged by the so-called neutral third party Switzerland.
After returning to the hotel, the Chinese Representative just reached into his pocket and rubbed it, trying to judge what this thing was through touch.
The rough touch, plus the card-sized item, let the Chinese Representative immediately know it wasn’t paper; what the other party gave him wasn’t something the size of paper.
Until bedtime in the evening, the Chinese Representative deliberately draped his Zhongshan Suit over the quilt, pretending to be very cold, and also drew the curtains tightly, not letting a single ray of light in.
After turning off the lights, he took the item Lin Ran gave him from his pocket along with the flashlight under the quilt, and looked at this sci-fi feeling technological creation under the flashlight’s dim light.
Although he didn’t know what this thing was, from the wiring, precision, and high integration, the Chinese Representative was certain this thing was no small matter.
The concept of printed circuit boards existed as early as 1936, and subsequently starting in 44, America and England began using circuit boards in manufacturing explosive fuses.
Including the television technology imported by China from the Soviet Union, which required circuit boards with electronic vacuum tubes as components; at that time, due to material colors, PCB boards were mostly green or brown.
The Yanjing Mudanjiang Television Factory aided by the Soviet Union was built and put into production in 58, producing China’s first black-and-white television in March of the same year.
The Chinese Representative had discussed the development of the electronics industry in 58, mentioning the importance of television production.
He could guess roughly from the appearance of the Raspberry Pi.
(The brown board on the left is part of the 1963 ICL/Ferranti Atlas 1 machine, the smaller blue board on the right is part of the arithmetic logic unit of the late 1960s Univac 1108 computer)
The Raspberry Pi that Lin Ran provided to China was a bit ahead of its time for the current China, but absolutely within the scope of understanding.
After the Chinese Representative guessed what this thing was, he pretended as if nothing had happened, and the next day folded this Zhongshan Suit neatly and put it in the suitcase, placing sweaters both above and below it to avoid damage.
He knew that what Lin Ran gave him, and even China behind him, was definitely a great gift.
He lacked the means to open this great gift, but China’s researchers had them.
The overt and covert struggles between Hong Kong British capital and Chinese shipowners over Hong Kong Shipping were all seen and noted by Section Chief Zhang, including observations from other people in Hong Kong, and the achievements after the modernization modification of Hong Kong shipping, all combined together as a report that flew to Yanjing.
Combining these contents with the report on the era of sea power written by Lin Ran fully proved the value of the content provided by Lin Ran.
The first time was Monte Carlo Simulation, and a series of missile guidance algorithms.
The second time was the sea power report.
The third time was the optimal control theory algorithm indirectly passed through Korolev.
And this time, it was a technological creation. Although the Chinese Representative didn’t know exactly what this technological creation was, whether it was the way it was given, the recipient, or the thing itself, he had a premonition that its value could not be measured by money.
A child holding gold passing through a bustling market—China now was like that child in front of America and the Soviet Union.
Therefore, the Chinese Representative was unprecedentedly cautious.
If it weren’t for the negotiations still ongoing, he would even want to return directly to Yanjing.
After the negotiations entered the second day, the entire atmosphere took a sharp turn for the worse.
If the hotline was everyone’s consensus, then Berlin was the biggest point of disagreement in the negotiations between the two sides.
On August 13 before the negotiations began, the Soviet Union built the Berlin Wall in Berlin.
After World War II, Germany was divided into four occupation zones managed by four countries respectively: America, the Soviet Union, England, and France.
That’s right, although France surrendered the earliest and was taken down by Germany without much effort, it still meant France managing Germany, not Germany managing France.
The benefit of having a big brother is this: if you can’t fight yourself, it’s fine; there’s still a share for you in the territory your big brother conquered.
Berlin as the capital was also divided into four zones, but located within East Germany controlled by the Soviet Union.
After East and West Germany were respectively established, Berlin became the frontline of the Cold War.
In the first Berlin Crisis, the Soviet Union blockaded West Berlin, and America broke the blockade through the Berlin Airlift.
In the second Berlin Crisis, Nikita issued the “Berlin Ultimatum,” demanding the West withdraw from West Berlin, but to no avail.
And this time was the third Berlin Crisis.
Kennedy’s coming to power made Nikita try to test Kennedy’s determination through the Berlin issue.
Roughly speaking, Berlin was split into East Berlin and West Berlin, while the area around Berlin was all East Germany, with only the small West Berlin enclave belonging to West Germany.
Starting from the late 1950s, due to economic backwardness, a large number of East German residents fled to West Germany via West Berlin.
From 1953 to 1961 alone, 2.6 million people went to West Germany.
This accounted for a full 15% of East Germany’s population, a severe blow to East Germany’s economy, and an even more severe blow in other aspects.
Precisely because of this, Nikita hoped to solve these problems all at once.
The most direct way was to make West Berlin belong to East Germany.
But obviously the first two times had failed, so East Germany built the Berlin Wall to prevent East German people from running to the West Berlin area.
“We need to emphasize that Berlin is located within East Germany, the presence of Western allies in West Berlin is illegal, you must withdraw from West Berlin. We allow the existence of West Berlin, but it must become a demilitarized free city, and East Germany must control the access routes to West Berlin.” Mikoyan said.
“According to the results of the post-war Potsdam Conference, our garrison and right of passage in West Berlin are legal.
The allies’ garrison rights in West Berlin, the right to free access to West Berlin, and the freedom of West Berlin residents are legitimate rights granted to the allies by the Potsdam Conference.
We will never allow the Soviet Union to unilaterally change the existing peace situation and tear up signed international conventions.
If the Soviet Union insists on doing so, you will usher in war.” Lyndon Johnson’s toughness was in no way inferior to Mikoyan’s.
After all, America regarded West Berlin as a symbol of the free world; withdrawing would mean concession, damaging allied unity and America’s global credibility.
This was far more serious than the hotline.
The hotline at most would be criticized by a minority of the American public internally.
If they withdrew from West Berlin, it would lead to distrust from the entire free world.
“The Soviet Union cannot take Walter Ulbricht’s poor performance as an opportunity to change the status quo and cover up East Germany’s failed reality.” Lyndon Johnson continued.
The entire negotiation was exceptionally heated, with both sides’ attitudes very tough.
Every day it was just exchanging harsh words.
You’re useless, that’s why East German people run to West Berlin.
West Berlin is an enclave, we can do whatever we want, what business is it of yours?
Everyone arguing back and forth was nothing more than arguing over these contents.
Additionally mixed in were the Chinese Representative’s occasional calls for calmness.
Lin Ran was a bit numb, feeling like being here was just wasting time.
The joy of handing over the item faded, and he feared what if this meeting dragged on for a year.
Every day when leaving the Palais des Nations and accepting interviews from reporters at the door, he still had to say:
“We have good progress.”
“We’re talking well with the Soviet Union.”
“Everyone has a lot of consensus.”
In reality, on the Berlin Crisis, everyone had no consensus at all.
However, facing Jenny’s adoring gaze every day also helped Lin Ran relieve the tension from staying in the smoky conference room with a bunch of middle-aged and elderly men.
The entire negotiation lasted a full two weeks before barely reaching an agreement that was equivalent to none.
Why say it’s equivalent to none? Because the status quo hadn’t changed at all.
The Soviet Union wouldn’t dismantle the wall, and the allies wouldn’t leave West Berlin.
“Alright, that’s it.” Lyndon Johnson folded the agreement into a paper airplane and flew it to Mikoyan sitting at the other end of the conference table.
For this moment, he had rehearsed in the room—not to mention that, he even specifically went to a conference room at the Palais des Nations in the evening to ensure he could accurately fly the paper airplane to the opposite side.
Although Lyndon Johnson wanted to express his toughness this way, he still didn’t want the airplane to fly to the ground.
Displaying toughness and humiliation are two different things.
Flying to the ground and making Mikoyan pick it up would be too humiliating.
Not only Mikoyan, but the other Russians also changed their expressions immediately.
They were almost about to stand up and hurl national curses.
Mikoyan didn’t pick up the paper airplane that flew right in front of him, but waved his hand, signaling his subordinates to calm down:
“Johnson, I know what you’re up to. We have only one request: Mr. Korolev hopes to have a private meeting room chat alone with Randolph for a while.
After they talk, we can sign the agreement immediately; otherwise, Nikita’s ultimatum will still take effect, and the outside world will know this war was ignited by America’s humiliation of us!” Mikoyan said.
Lyndon Johnson’s expression changed immediately; if the outside world knew, it would indeed reflect his toughness, but it would also mean the matter wasn’t accomplished.
The effect he wanted was to both reflect his toughness and accomplish the matter.
Wanting both ends.
Now Mikoyan had the demeanor of a general.
Mikoyan continued: “Mr. Korolev very much appreciates Professor Lin’s attainments in mathematics and hopes to have an in-depth discussion with him on mathematical truths.”
Lyndon Johnson knew the other side was giving him a way out and first asked Lin Ran’s opinion: “Randolph, what do you think?”
Lin Ran said: “Mr. Vice President, for world peace, I am willing to meet Korolev. I know what can be said and what cannot.”
Lyndon Johnson nodded: “Good.”
It wasn’t until reaching the side hall on the second floor of the Palais des Nations and seeing Korolev that Lin Ran realized Korolev was also there.
Korolev personally stood up and pulled out a chair for him: “Randolph, long time no see.”
Then he continued: “There are Soviet guards outside; we can talk freely.”
Lin Ran didn’t dare talk too much with him, after all, this was the other’s turf; Lin Ran just nodded.
Korolev knew Lin Ran’s concerns and pointed to the blackboard: “I went back and thought carefully; reusable rockets are indeed achievable.
Converting non-convex problems into convex problems is a feasible path.
But there are too many things in what you lectured that are a bit too advanced.
After I went back, I discussed your method in detail with mathematicians like Lev Pontryagin, Andrei Kolmogorov, Mikhail Lavrentyev.
Alright, you probably haven’t heard their names, but they are all our top mathematicians; maybe not as good as you, but they are already our best batch of mathematicians.”
Among these names, Lin Ran had actually heard of the first two; Lev Pontryagin was the founder of optimal control theory, and even the core idea in the paper he wrote was based on Lev Pontryagin’s PMP theory.
The second, Andrei Kolmogorov, was one of the greatest mathematicians of the 20th century, with research fields spanning probability theory, dynamical systems, and differential equations.
“We discussed it; your theory is built on a convex optimization framework. Everyone’s current research is still focused on calculus of variations or direct numerical methods. The interior-point method and conic programming you told me about—can you explain them in more detail?”
There were many points inside; although the Soviet Union’s mathematics masters could grind them out bit by bit, Korolev felt that rather than waiting for them to grind it out, it was better to directly take this opportunity to consult Lin Ran.
After all, the cost savings related to reusable rockets might not be so important to the wealthy America, but it held great significance for the Russians.
“Additionally, you mentioned the concept of regular systems, proving through analysis of the Hamiltonian function and geometric insight that the optimal solution lies on the boundary of the control set. This analysis relies on the non-singularity assumption of the adjoint variables and the geometric properties of the control set, but does this concept lack some necessary conditions?”
Lin Ran thought to himself: the Soviet Union’s masters were indeed masters, immediately pinpointing the missing parts in his content.
“Including what you mentioned: the relaxed convex problem can be efficiently solved via second-order cone programming. It’s certainly true that SOCP is a special form of convex optimization, but only the simplex method—for general non-linear problems, and for convex cones, how to design the algorithm?”
Korolev had a ton of questions.
This was caused by the era gap.
In summary, this paper from 2013 was still a bit too advanced for 1961.
Lin Ran didn’t speak but stood in front of the blackboard that Korolev had prepared for him in advance, directly deriving on it after each question.
After Lin Ran finished writing, he looked at Korolev, who nodded, indicating he could continue.
This session of questions and answers lasted a full two hours, with Korolev asking and Lin Ran explaining on the blackboard.
At the end, Lin Ran finally said his first words upon entering this conference room: “Does this comrade have such good memory?”
Lin Ran knew it wasn’t Korolev who remembered, because Korolev didn’t even break a sweat on his forehead; this time’s information density was several times that of last time, and without any lecturing.
Only in the shadows of the room was there a person standing, holding a notebook, listening while recording something on the notebook.
Korolev nodded, and at this time that man stood up and shook hands with Lin Ran: “Andrei Kolmogorov. Mr. Korolev mentioned me earlier, Professor Lin. I hope you can have the opportunity to give a lecture at Moscow State University.”
Ten thousand words update delivered! Asking for a monthly ticket isn’t too much, right!
