Tengcun Machine Tool Company is based on the original Tengcun Machine Tool Factory, and merged some other small and medium-sized machinery enterprises in Tengcun City. Linji Group owns 90% of Tengji's shares, and Tengcun Municipal Government owns the other 10%.

Unlike the dying Tengji a few years ago, today's Tengji, with annual sales of more than 2 billion yuan, is one of the pillar enterprises in Tengcun City, and its engraving and milling machines are sold all over the world, and high-end milling machine products also occupy a considerable share in the domestic market.

Tang Zifeng has to come to Tengji to inspect at least six or seven times a year, so for his arrival, Tengji's leadership did not move too much, but only summoned middle-level cadres to meet with Tang Zifeng once, listened to Tang Zifeng's "important instructions", and then everyone went back to work. General Manager Gu Zengchao invited Tang Zifeng and Xiong Kai to his office, and together with Chen Jinsong and Zheng Huan, deputy general managers of the company, held a closed-door meeting.

"The year before last, at the request of the Commission of Science and Technology and the Electromechanical Group Company, we developed a special precision milling machine for the military 82 factory, and invested more than 40 million yuan in direct research and development alone, and the indirect investment was not counted. Last month, our special precision milling machine was developed, and experts from the 82 factory and the State Science and Technology Commission also came to conduct technical appraisal, believing that it has reached the level of similar foreign equipment.

"Factory 82 originally proposed to order 200 units for the manufacture of new equipment. As a result, after the completion of the technical appraisal, they only agreed to order 20 units, and the total contract amount was less than 10 million. This milling machine is specially developed for the military industry, and there is basically no market in the civilian field. This means that we are completely losing money when we develop this type of milling machine.

"The 82 factory led the team to participate in the technical appraisal was their executive deputy director Ke Guoqiang. After he said this at the time, everyone in our company was angry. Lao Song quarreled with Ke Guoqiang in front of the leaders of the Science and Technology Commission, which made the leaders of the Science and Technology Commission quite embarrassed. Gu Zengchao reported to Tang Zifeng.

Gu Zengchao said that the old Song is the former executive deputy director of Tengcun Machine Tool Factory, called Song Dazhuo, and Tang Zifeng is quite familiar with him. After Tengji was restructured into a company, Song Dazhuo became an executive vice premier and retired a few years ago. This time, Tengcun developed a precision milling machine for the military, and the company specially invited Song Dazhuo back to be responsible, and Tang Zifeng also knew about this matter in the past.

The old man happily accepted the re-employment and came back with a key project, originally wanting to do some beautiful work, which made people praise Lian for not being old. Who would have thought that the products they led to make were no problem with performance and quality, and the sales volume that was said to be good was cut by ninety percent, from a profitable project to a serious loss-making project, who can not be anxious?

"Have you understood why Factory 82 has reduced the number of purchases?" Tang Zifeng asked.

Gu Zengchao said: "Can we not understand this? We inquired, and the reason is actually very simple. When Factory 82 first planned to purchase these precision milling machines, it was in talks with the German company PATEO, which the Germans said were related to the manufacture of high-tech weapons and equipment, and refused to sell them to China. ”

"I know that. Tang Zifeng said.

Gu Zengchao said: "Then, the 82 factory found us through the electromechanical group company, and said that it was the need for national defense, so that we can carry forward the style, overcome difficulties, and be sure to develop this milling machine as quickly as possible." ”

"I remember, for this reason, they also moved Mr. Xie to be a lobbyist for them, right?" Tang Zifeng nodded and said.

The Mr. Xie he said was Xie Tiancheng, the former director of the Second Bureau and the current chairman of the Electromechanical Group Company. Linji Group is a subsidiary of the National Electromechanical Group, so Xie Tiancheng is Tang Zifeng's top boss, and he has absolute authority in front of Gu Zengchao.

This time, the 82 factory wanted to ask Teng Ji to help develop a precision milling machine, and was worried that Teng Ji was too low in profits and was unwilling to take on this business, so through the channel of the Science and Technology Commission, Xie Tiancheng was invited to intercede, or it can also be understood that Xie Tiancheng was asked to put pressure on Teng Ji.

The purchase of this batch of precision milling machines by Factory No. 82 is used to carry out precision machining of the fuel tanks of a new type of missile, and it is indeed related to high-tech weapons and equipment. This kind of military ordering, unlike pure market-oriented products, can not ask for a sky-high price, so the profit of each machine tool is very limited.

Previously, Tengji had calculated, according to the 82 factory order 200 machine tools, after amortizing the R & D costs, Tengji's income can only be regarded as a small profit, which is still under the premise of not calculating management costs.

Tengji is an old state-owned enterprise, in the era of planned economy, it is common to take on this kind of hard-working but not much profit project, so the company did not raise any objections to the requirements of the electromechanical group, and organized a capable team to begin to tackle key problems.

The research has been successful, and it can be said that the order of 200 units is good, but after the technical appraisal is completed, it has become 20 units, and the total contract amount is less than 10 million. Teng Ji directly invested 40 million in the research and development of this type of machine tool, even if the income of this contract is all profits, Teng Ji has to lose more than 30 million.

"We have learned that before coming to Tengcun to participate in the technical appraisal meeting, Factory 82 transferred the technical information of the milling machine we sent to them to PATEO through their channels. After reading these technical materials, PATEO determined that China had mastered the manufacturing technology of this precision milling machine, so it said that there was no need to restrict this product to China. Gu Zengchao said with a sneer.

Therefore, Factory 82 decided to purchase this batch of milling machines from PATEO. Tang Zifeng understood.

"Isn't that it? Chen Jinsong said indignantly, "I talked to the production director of the 82 factory in private, and he said that they promised to purchase 20 milling machines from us, or to see the face of the Science and Technology Commission, I am afraid that the Science and Technology Commission will not be able to explain to the mechanical and electrical company." If it weren't for this reason, they wouldn't even want these 20 milling machines. ”

"If we hadn't come up with a domestically made precision milling machine, why would the Germans have lifted the restrictions? At the beginning, they came to us in a low voice and begged us to help, but now that the foreigners opened their mouths to them, they kicked us, isn't this a group of white-eyed wolves!" Zheng Huan said scoldingly.

"This kind of thing is not new. Tang Zifeng said.

Western countries' restrictions on technology exports to the Eastern Bloc began as early as the Cold War. After the end of the Cold War, the West dissolved the notorious Paris Coordinating Committee, but soon established the Wassenaar Arrangement. Old wine in new bottles is still an attempt to use technology to limit the necks of Eastern countries.

There is a principle that Western countries restrict the export of technology, that is, they are limited to technologies that are not yet mastered by Eastern countries. If a technology is already in the hands of the East, the West will remove it from the list of restrictions.

The intentions of this principle are extremely sinister. In order for the Eastern countries to break through these limited technologies, they need to have a high level of investment. After the breakthrough of technology, the Eastern countries must recoup their investment from the sales of these technologies in order to have money for subsequent research and development, forming a virtuous circle.

After Western countries break through a technology in the Eastern countries, they immediately lift the restrictions on the technology, which makes the new breakthrough technology of the Eastern countries useless, and it is difficult to compensate for the investment in the early stage, and the research and development in the later stage will also be affected.

Some people may say that since the Eastern countries have already broken through this technology, why not use their own technology, but use the technology unlocked by the West?

There are two reasons for this:

First, the technology of the West is more mature, and the Eastern countries have just broken through a certain technology, and there must still be many deficiencies in many technical details. For users, who would want to use crude technology if there is a more mature technology?

Second, Western countries hold a banner of "free trade" in their hands and can demand that all countries in the world refrain from adopting the principle of discrimination when purchasing equipment.

If the eastern countries want to participate in economic globalization, they must not violate this principle of free trade and cannot force domestic enterprises to purchase only domestically produced equipment.

To put it on, the incident itself is extremely ridiculous. On the one hand, Western countries have restricted the export of high-tech products to the eastern bloc on the grounds of national security, and on the other hand, they have flaunted themselves as the standard-bearers of free trade, demanding that everyone must trade fairly and not favor their own products.

To put it in layman's terms, that is, what I don't want to sell you, you can't buy it anyway, and what I want to sell you, you have to buy it, otherwise it's a violation of the principle of trade.

Such a contradictory approach comes from the same country, and it can also say both things in a high-sounding manner, which is the scoundrel of Hongguoguo.

As for the group of scholars in the Eastern camp who claim that both of these practices are correct and represent universal values, then they can only be described by the word "cheap".

In the final analysis, even if human society has entered the 21st century, it still has not broken free from the logic of the jungle brought from the animal kingdom. The so-called civilized society is just that when the weak are eaten, the appearance of eating is more elegant.

Teng Ji encountered such a thing. As a result of Tengji's development of the precision milling machine required by Factory 82, the Germans lifted the export restrictions on this milling machine. PATEO is the world's top manufacturer of precision milling machines, and the quality of the precision milling machines it produces is naturally better than that of Tengji.

Factory 82 undertakes military tasks and has high requirements for product quality. To be able to buy PATEO's machine tools, Factory 82 certainly has no incentive to purchase machine tools for Tengji. The reason why it was finally agreed to purchase 20 Tengji machine tools is a face problem. After all, they asked Teng Ji to help at the beginning, and now if they don't buy a single machine tool, it will be too unreasonable.

However, is the purchase of 20 units reasonable?

When this matter first came out, Tengji's leadership felt that he could handle it and there was no need to trouble the group headquarters, so he relied on his own strength to sue everywhere and ask for an explanation. After tossing for more than a month, Teng Ji searched all the departments he could find, but in the end he didn't solve the problem, so he had to report the matter to Tang Zifeng.

Tang Zifeng's main purpose in coming to Tengcun this time was to understand the beginning and end of the matter, and then decide how to solve this problem.