Rebirth of the 1980s: The Military Industry Empire

Director Fang looked at Zhuang Shuren with some curiosity, wondering what kind of pit Qin Yang had dug for him to jump into.

Although Qin Yang was still young, the major accomplishments he had achieved had already earned Director Fang's admiration. Within the military industry system, no one was more innovative than Qin Yang, and no one was more capable of scheming against others.

The sales director of Factory 617 lodging a complaint that day was insignificant to Qin Yang, but Qin Yang used it as an opportunity to initiate bidding. This seemed fair, but when it came to military production, who could compare to Factory 960? Factory 960 could obtain whatever it needed!

In this deal, Factory 617 benefited, but seeing Factory 960 earning even more, they became envious, as did other factories. If Qin Yang didn't find a way to address this hidden danger, Factory 960's reputation might be tarnished amidst the accusations, and it might even collapse. After all, many people enjoyed playing dirty tricks.

Now, it was necessary to let others know that Factory 960 was taking on orders that others couldn't handle. They were earning money through their own capabilities, not because Qin Yang, who held multiple positions at Fangbei Corporation, was engaging in favoritism.

Sweat streamed down Zhuang Shuren's forehead, his face grew paler, and his hands began to tremble.

"What's wrong, Engineer Zhuang? Why haven't you signed your name yet?" Qin Yang asked, "Do you have any questions about the terms inside?"

"President Qin, why is it 58 calibers? We have the technical data for the British L7 tank gun, which is clearly 52 calibers!"

In fact, the lengthening of the gun barrel was no longer a secret. Nie Yufeng had seen it when he came to help install the tank gun. However, Nie Yufeng had stayed in the capital and hadn't returned!

Zhuang Shuren had been busy manufacturing cannons, oblivious to everything else, and he didn't know about this at all. Now, he suddenly realized: the barrel had been lengthened!

"That's right, it's 58 calibers. This is the tank gun that our Factory 960 is selling to the Iranians, and it has nothing to do with the L7," Qin Yang said. "The contract we signed with the Iranians also specifies 58 calibers. Can't you manufacture a longer barrel? That shouldn't be a problem, since you are manufacturing a 120mm tank gun, aren't you going to make it 52 calibers?"

"Of course, lengthening it a bit is no problem, but after the barrel is lengthened, the trajectory of the shell will change. Do you have the trajectory characteristic data for this lengthened barrel?" Zhuang Shuren asked.

Director Fang suddenly understood: the trap was here!

Qin Yang shook his head: "No!"

"President Qin, if you have the data, we are willing to pay to purchase it! We offer 300,000, and we expect to earn another 50,000, no, if we make this lengthened barrel, we can only earn 20,000 at most. We will give you all the profits from this foreign trade order, please give us the data, can we do that?" Zhuang Shuren's sweat was dripping down, and he already regretted it.

If it was the original 52-caliber British L7 tank gun, then all the data would be in hand. They had been doing this work for the past year or two, debugging the tank gun and matching the fire control system, and the various firing data were of course very clear.

However, there was no data for this lengthened barrel!

Manufacturing the cannon was not a problem. Lengthening it a bit would make the processing more complicated, increase the scrap rate, and increase the cost, but they could do it. After all, they were professional cannon manufacturers, with a bunch of capable people under their command. However, this business was not just about production, but also about debugging the tank gun, which stumped them!

The distance the shell travels in the barrel is longer, the propellant does more work, and the speed at which the shell flies out is greater. After the speed increases, the height of the drop over the same distance decreases, which means that the trajectory is different from before!

What to do?

Of course, it was necessary to test fire, firing all kinds of shells, and experimenting with data under various distances, temperatures, humidity, and crosswind conditions to obtain specific data, and then input it into the tank's fire control system. This process would cost a lot of money!

This was also why Qin Yang felt that the army's choice to compare and experiment with two different calibers was a waste of money. It was enough to have a 125mm gun, and there was no need to develop a 120mm caliber. If it was just to build a cannon, it wouldn't cost much, but if it was necessary to determine the performance of the cannon, including the trajectory characteristics of different shells, then it would be necessary to test fire continuously, even if only one hundred rounds of various shells were test fired, it would cost several million in funding.

Now the problem had been placed in front of Factory 447. Even if they admitted defeat and invested a large amount of money, there was not enough time! The first batch of one hundred tanks was expected to be delivered in five months, and the remaining one hundred would be delivered by the end of the year. How many months did they have now? Where would they have time to do these things!

If they were to do it with all their strength, it would not only cost a lot of money, but there would also not be enough time, and the 120mm tank gun would be completely abandoned.

"Engineer Zhuang, why don't you believe people? I have already said it very clearly, we don't have this data."

"Why not, didn't you say that you demonstrated it in front of the Iranians?" Zhuang Shuren asked.

"What we demonstrated was the armor-piercing ability at a distance of ten meters, with the barrel directly facing the target," Qin Yang said. "We didn't have time to adjust the fire control at that time. We wanted 500,000 per cannon, which included test-firing a large number of shells, mastering a large amount of data, and then debugging the fire control. However, since your Factory 447 quoted a price of 300,000, then you must have a special way to solve it. Maybe you can do it through calculation? You save money for the country, I, Qin Yang, admire you, I am ashamed, I am ashamed!"

"President Qin, we have only just begun." Director Fang looked at Qin Yang, okay, you have vented your anger, hurry up and finish it, don't bully people too much.

"Director Fang, are you saying that this bidding doesn't count?" Qin Yang directly kicked the ball back.

"Well, this bidding was originally unexpected." Director Fang said, "We are just rehearsing, practicing once."

"Okay, since you said so, then forget it, but we men are men of our word, this matter will definitely be discussed by everyone, it's not good for my Qin Yang's reputation. People who don't know will think that I, Qin Yang, did something wrong."

"No, no, Engineer Qin, this matter has nothing to do with you." Zhuang Shuren said, "The main reason is that our Factory 447 has just come into contact with the production of the L7 tank gun, and we are not very proficient yet. We are afraid of delaying this foreign trade delivery and affecting the reputation of our military industry. At the bidding meeting, I will sincerely make a review to the higher-level leaders."

"Really?"

"Really, absolutely!"