Chapter 440: Everyone Wants To Win!
Any country needs Winning Studies.
The Soviet Union needs it, and China needs it just as much.
The public in Eastern Europe can only feel the glory brought by the empire’s powerful technology, but it’s actually hard to say how much sense of involvement they have.
But China can.
The chief designer of the N-1 rocket is a Chinese person.
The Soviet Union had never been able to get it done before.
As soon as Chinese people joined, they helped you get the N-1 rocket done.
At least one-third of the merit for this aerospace medal belongs to us, right?
Chinese media is also promoting the great victory of Soviet aerospace as a major happy event for the socialism camp, indirectly proving that the socialism camp has no gap with the free world in the field of technology.
At the same time, such promotion is also indirectly telling the public that our relationship with the Soviet Union is easing.
But the Chinese side will emphasize the role played by Chinese researchers and Chinese technology in it.
They will emphasize that China has been working diligently for many years, accumulating strength and achieving a breakthrough; in the past, let alone playing with rockets, we even had to rely on imports for basic rifles and cannons.
Now we can make electronic products, our electronic products are sold globally, and in the socialism camp, our produced electronic products occupy 80% of the market share, while other countries together only enjoy the remaining 20%.
We can make rockets, have atomic bombs, have satellites, in the full range of industrial system.
If it were just Chinese people serving as the chief engineer of the Soviet moon landing rocket, the public’s feeling might not be that strong.
But when China’s promotion is combined with the technological development and improvement in people’s livelihood over these twenty-one years, the public’s feelings become particularly strong.
The Soviet promotion is not ineffective, not without appeal.
How could a newspaper named after truth fail to even write good articles?
Their problem is that the public feels nothing.
No matter how powerful your aircraft and cannons are, no matter how great your aerospace technology is, the impact it brings to the public is only at that moment.
Once that moment passes, the memory quickly blurs, the feeling quickly dissipates, and no matter how much you promote it in newspapers, television, and radio, the public will only become more and more indifferent.
To the point where, in the end, they produce the thought: What does this have to do with my monthly salary of three thousand?
The good thing about China is that their progress is felt by the public.
Radios that can be seen everywhere, televisions that need to be snapped up at state-run stores, the best televisions changing from Soviet goods and East German goods to Chinese local goods.
This is somewhat similar to the underlying logic behind the effective promotion of China’s infrastructure maniac.
Although some say this is at the sacrifice of workhorses, this is the dividend brought by civil engineering workhorses, and behind it, Chinese people have also paid a huge price.
But the public recognizes it because everyone has personally experienced the benefits that the infrastructure maniac brings to people’s lives.
From the annual Spring Festival Travel Rush, where train stations are impenetrably crowded, even requiring people to spend the night at train stations in advance, and once there is extreme weather, tens of thousands of people are stuck at train stations unable to go home.
To now, such things are becoming fewer and fewer, almost extinct, even during the Spring Festival Travel Rush, train scheduling is effortless, and going home for the New Year has become routine.
The performance brought by infrastructure is felt, including village-to-village water and power grid access, and the speed of disaster relief when natural disasters strike.
Now Chinese citizens, especially those who experienced before founding, feel it even more deeply.
Liu Guodong and Xiao Fang are employees of a state-run factory in Shanghai.
When China first sold nine thousand units at the Leipzig Trade Fair before, he was already thinking of finding Old Xu at the Shanghai Radio Factory.
To see if he could ask him if there was any way to help him replace the Red Star at home with the Panda that is exported overseas and brings great pride.
But when he went to find Old Xu, the matter didn’t get done; instead, he heard that Old Xu’s entire factory was moving to the Southwest, and learned that all of China’s semiconductor-related industries were moving to the Southwest.
Liu Guodong thought at the time that moving was normal; in this era, due to work reasons, moving around, though not routine, was not uncommon.
Everyone could fully understand.
After all, anything related to high technology definitely has secrecy requirements.
However, the later development of events was a bit different from what Liu Guodong expected.
That is, he never saw Old Xu again after that.
What Liu Guodong thought was that going to the Southwest was just a transfer of work location, and he would still return to Shanghai every few days.
At least he would come back during the New Year, right?
The result was that he never returned.
He visited Old Xu’s parents and learned that in eight years, they had only made three phone calls, sending one letter back each year.
Liu Guodong asked colleagues at the nearby machinery factory, and the employees they knew from the radio factory were all treated similarly.
Only a few transferred to work in Yanjing could return occasionally.
But anyone who went to the Southwest was like a clay ox entering the sea, with no news.
This couldn’t help but make Liu Guodong wonder inwardly that this level of secrecy was even higher than what he had heard about distant relatives working on nuclear weapons research.
Later, combining with the rapid progress of China’s semiconductor-related industries, Liu Guodong gained more understanding and admiration.
In his view, it was the sacrifices of people like Old Xu that led to the rapid development of China’s industries today.
Whether it was the products they used or the extra foreign exchange reserves the country had.
He considered that compared to the radio industry, the contribution made by their machinery industry was much less.
“Our aerospace scientist Wang Xiji made outstanding contributions to the research and development of the Soviet N-1 rocket.”
The television was playing a documentary about Wang Xiji, while Liu Guodong and his wife were eating smoked fish and edamame, watching TV, and drinking some Shaoxing yellow wine.
The child was already asleep.
It’s the New Year, after all; they had to be a bit generous.
Moreover, they were a genuine dual-income family, absolutely abundant in materials.
“Bang bang bang.”
There was a knock at the door.
Liu Guodong got up and found a figure he hadn’t seen for a long time outside.
“Old Xu?” Liu Guodong exclaimed in surprise.
The other man was much whiter than when he left years ago.
Old Xu walked in with a bitter smile and said, “It’s me. This time it’s really been a long time.”
Liu Guodong’s wife Xiao Fang quickly got up: “Come, come in and sit down quickly. Have you eaten? If not, I’ll make you some hot dishes.”
After Old Xu came in, he said, “I’ve eaten. I barely managed to come back this time, and I’ll have to go back to work after staying five days.
I figured I’d make a trip, and who knows when the next time I can come back.”
In these eight years, Liu Guodong had a child, the family added a television, changed to a radio, and now was saving money to buy a bigger house; he got promoted to team leader at the factory and was recently thinking about further education.
Old Xu kept nodding as he listened.
“What about you? I know about secrecy; tell us something we can know.”
Old Xu was suddenly filled with mixed feelings:
“How to put it? Actually, my life is very monotonous.
Work, study, exams.
Roughly like that.
Speaking of this, our teacher once said something interesting: Is there anyone in this world who can’t learn calculus?
Right, I studied calculus, learned integrated circuits, circuit principles, optics; in short, there, it was really dull, and everyone had to accept political study to some extent, as well as learning some professional knowledge.
I feel like I went to university.”
He didn’t mention work at all; Old Xu could only pick things he could mention.
Xiao Fang didn’t quite understand what calculus was; she worked at a textile factory and couldn’t really follow.
After all, artificial intelligence hadn’t invaded the textile factory yet, turning their factory into a dark factory and taking her job.
But Liu Guodong had always been seeking further education, and he was stunned listening.
“Wait, are you still recruiting there?” Liu Guodong looked dazed. There’s someone in this world who can’t learn calculus—what kind of talk is that?
Even the university students he knew from Fudan and Jiaotong University weren’t this intense.
Old Xu picked up an edamame with his fingers, squeezed it into his mouth, chewed and swallowed it, then said: “This is like a besieged city—those inside want to get out, those outside want to get in.
Can you really endure leaving Shanghai for a lifetime? Not to mention a lifetime, at least until retirement, missing your hometown for most of your life?”
After thinking for a moment, Liu Guodong said: “You’re right, leaving Shanghai to go to some rural place would indeed be unbearable.
But from what you’re saying, it sounds a bit like the implementation of the July 21st Directive.
The reason I want to go back to school is also because recently the neighboring machine tool factory started a July 21st Worker’s University, so our factory seems to plan to start one too.
I feel like what you have there is like a pilot version of the July 21st Worker’s University. After all, the electronics industry is one of the best-developed industries in our country.
Your model developed well there, so it expanded to the enterprises below us.”
Old Xu of course knew what the July 21st Directive was; the general idea was that universities should recruit workers and peasants with more than two years of work experience, who would study for a few years at school and then go back to continue production work.
It had a bit of the flavor of bringing problems to find answers.
However, in this timeline, because Area 51 tried it out in advance, the feasibility of this approach was even higher.
Workers going to Area 51 were released in batches.
Old Xu was just released in this batch.
“Probably, so you have to seize this opportunity. In our country, science and technology will only become more and more important.” Old Xu pointed at the TV image: “Look, ten years ago, who would dare think we could guide Soviet people’s rocket launches.
Twenty years ago, who would dare think that our products would be in short supply in Eastern Europe.
We just took the lead by one step, but your machinery factory or other industries will have this day sooner or later. What you need to do is push for that day to come, so I approve of your idea—striving for better education is very necessary!”
Every country has an ambassador in China; everything happening here will be reported back home.
Especially the American ambassador was exceptionally thorough in intelligence gathering.
When the news reached America, Kissinger decisively pointed out at an emergency meeting in the White House: “The Soviet Union won face this time, but they lost the substance.
They were forced to show the world that their core technology needed to be saved by a country they are at odds with.
Our goal is not to deny that there are Soviet people on the moon, but to make the whole world realize that the key to aerospace, that is, the rocket itself, relies on Chinese engineers and technology!”
The Soviet Union has a huge propaganda machine, and America has one too.
America’s control over media is even more subtle and silent.
Both are manipulating media, but during the Cold War and beyond, the free world’s manipulation techniques were more sophisticated.
In American media reports, the Soviet “great victory” was cleverly downplayed, while China’s technological strength was pushed into the spotlight.
The New York Times’ front page did not hype a grand victory like the Soviets, but published an in-depth analysis report titled: Yanjing’s Silent Victory: How Chinese Technology Saved the Teetering Soviet Moon Landing.
The report cited reliable sources pointing out:
“This moon landing, rather than being a victory of Soviet technology, is more like an unexpected display of the China-Soviet technology cooperation model.
It is believed that the Soviet N-1 giant rocket, after multiple failures, finally succeeded thanks to the digital distributed control system led by Chinese scientist Wang Xiji in research and development.
This system utilized China’s advanced technology in solid-state semiconductors and integrated circuits, which was precisely the Soviet Union’s long-standing shortcoming.
Within the Soviet Union, Wang Xiji is also seen as a new professor they discovered from China.”
The report further analyzed the differences in their media reports, precisely to sow discord between the two, a tactic they were masterful at; in the 2020 spacetime sixty years later, American media was similarly trying every means to sow discord between Russia and China.
“In Moscow, the officialdom strives to attribute the victory to the superiority of Vladimir thought, avoiding any mention of the role of Chinese researchers.
But in Yanjing, the media spares no effort to emphasize the key role China played.
This subtle difference in public opinion sends a clear signal to the world: cracks in the alliance still exist, and in the technological high ground, China is no longer merely a Soviet follower.”
At the official level, Nixon congratulated the Soviet Union in a television address, emphasizing that America’s exploration in space is for peace and science, not for geopolitical competition.
Whether the outside world believes it is another matter; after all, your GPS satellites are already in combat use—is that also peace?
Privately, the huge public opinion machine was working hard to downplay the Soviet achievements in the aerospace field.
Globally, media in the free world unified their narrative, interpreting this victory as a satire of the Soviet Union.
Western European media generally characterized the Soviet victory as an expensive political propaganda show supported by external technology.
The general content was that the Soviet Union was forced to seek China’s most critical electronic technology from China, exposing serious defects in its economic system in the fields of high-precision, high-efficiency technology.
As for why China, with the same economic system, could do it, they remained silent.
The White House cleverly used this report to send a message to the Yanjing side: We see your contributions, we understand the role you played, we respect your strength.
This strategy aims to sow discord between the two and create a favorable public opinion atmosphere for subsequent secret contacts and easing of Sino-American relations.
In the public opinion arena, the debate continued to burn.
Continuing until the next round of negotiations.
In the Lion City, Kissinger handed the letter in his hand to the middle-aged man sitting opposite.
The other man opened it, looked at the signature on the letter, and seemed thoughtful.
