Cumbersome Procedures

Chapter 89 Cumbersome Procedures

With He Xiying's arrangement and his personally written letter of introduction, Jiang Fan was put on the factory's only bus that very night.

It is said to be a war trophy that the Kuomintang did not have time to take with them when they retreated, and now it has become the factory's most valuable means of transportation.

He Xiying, along with her team of leaders and Zhou Chunsheng, stood at the factory gate and instructed, "Xiao Jiang, this trip carries great responsibility. When you arrive at the Northeast Bureau, someone will meet you."

"Also, the contents of the box must not be unsealed until you reach the Northeast Bureau, otherwise you'll have trouble explaining yourself later, understand?"

Jiang Fan nodded; he understood this principle.

Once Kaifeng is opened, even if you're in the right, you won't be able to explain yourself.

The atmosphere was tense when Zhou Chunsheng approached and said, "Engineer Jiang, come back soon."

"I've heard that the girls in the Soviet Union are incredibly beautiful. You have to tell me all about them when you get back!"

"Get lost! Think about the tractor first, then talk about women." Jiang Fan laughed and cursed.

Zhou Chunsheng didn't refute it; he was just trying to ease Jiang Fan's anxiety about leaving.

Seeing this, He Xiying waved her hand and urged, "Alright, stop dawdling, it'll be dawn if we get there any later."

Jiang Fan stopped smiling, said no more, and turned to climb into the car.

The car door closed, the engine started, the headlights pierced the night, and the car slowly drove away from the factory area.

Besides him and his driver, there were two guards, mainly to look after Jiang Fan.

All right...

He Xiying's reasoning was: "If something goes wrong with this box of gold, who's responsible?"

The bus bumped along the dirt road. Jiang Fan learned the reason why the approval process for this trip to the Soviet Union took so long from He Xiying, which was a real eye-opener for him.

In those days, going to the Soviet Union wasn't like it is in later years, where you could simply buy a plane ticket or take a train directly to Moscow.

The circumstances in 1949 were extremely unique.

Although the new Chinese regime liberated Nanjing in April, it was ultimately not recognized by the international community.

To get to the Soviet Union, one had to first have the Northeast Bureau intervene, through the Cheka, the predecessor of the KGB, which was founded by Dzerzhinsky.

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They submitted a visit application to Moscow to the then-Liaison Office of the NKVD in China.

This application cannot simply state "I want to buy machines." It must specify the exact factory location, the specific host, the expected length of stay, the list of personnel, and even the list of supplies to be brought.

Only after the Soviet Union approved the application could one obtain a "Cheka" stamped with a red seal.

Moreover, this temporary license comes with a host of restrictive terms:

No changes to the itinerary were permitted, as were entry into undesignated military or industrial areas without prior notification, and even taking photos outside the factory area without Soviet accompaniment was prohibited.

A "translator" accompanied them throughout the entire process, serving both as a translator and a monitor.

"A weak nation has no diplomacy"—this saying is timeless. Jiang Fan sighed silently to himself, then gave a bitter smile: "We're clearly paying real money to be treated like royalty, but it feels like we're begging for favors."

However, in a few decades, this balance of power will change.

Jiang Fan turned his head and looked out the window.

The headlights could only illuminate a short section of the road ahead, with dark fields and wasteland on both sides.

The temperature difference between summer nights and winter nights in Northeast China is extreme. The train carriage was chilly, and Jiang Fan tightened his coat, his thoughts drifting further away.

In a few decades, the world's economic center will gradually shift from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and China's total industrial output will surpass that of the United States and Europe combined, making it the only country in the world with a complete industrial system.

By then, it will have become a grown industrial behemoth.

From screws to aircraft carriers, from mobile phone chips to space stations, 99% of industrial sectors can achieve self-sustaining cycles.

Whether this trip to the Soviet Union will succeed, and to what extent it can last, is not only related to whether Ansteel can step into the threshold of modern heavy industry ahead of schedule, but also to an even bigger matter—the implementation of military foreign trade.

For decades afterward, the global arms trade was monopolized by a few established powers.

The United States takes nearly 40% of the market share each year, which translates to hundreds of billions of dollars in profits. This is supported by the entire aviation, shipbuilding, radar, missile, and electronic systems industry.

Russia, relying on the legacy of the Soviet Union, can also account for 20-30%.

France, Germany, and Britain each took the lion's share based on their own merits.

China's share has consistently hovered below 5%, essentially amounting to only a small fraction.

Of course, there are reasons for this.

Arms exports are fundamentally a continuation of the "land grab" strategy, using military force to gain political loyalty and resource ties.

When the United States sells weapons, it often includes military bases and troops stationed there.

Russia sells weapons in exchange for voting rights within the regional security framework.

China, on the other hand, took a completely different path: it never colonized a country, nor stationed a single soldier overseas, so naturally it wouldn't consider you a "protector" just because you sold a few cannons.

This cannot be said to be wrong. The Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence are written on paper, which shows the magnanimity of a great power.

This magnanimity even led to a highly dramatic incident: after spending billions of dollars on missiles, the Middle Eastern tycoons approached the Chinese representatives with bewildered expressions and asked, "You sold us missiles, so why don't you build a military base here to protect us?"

This is already a heartfelt recognition of strength.

After all, China's industrial system had matured by then, and it could produce things that others couldn't. That's why customers were willing to overcome political and geographical barriers to actively seek cooperation.

In 1949, the new China was still a weak nation, but this identity card could still bring some benefits.

"Cheap, low-cost, and free from political turmoil."

This is a good option for small and medium-sized countries that are also being held hostage by large countries.

If we can get the equipment and architecture up and running this project, and create a demonstration effect, then by leveraging the technology we have and the watch knowledge sharing capabilities, we can design one or two low-barrier, high-performing products, and perhaps that will be enough to turn our fortunes around completely.

However, after a while, Jiang Fan felt sleepy.

When I woke up again, I found that there were already scattered house outlines and streetlights outside the window.

Ahead of the vehicle, a wall appeared at the edge of the field of vision, with a sentry carrying a rifle standing on each side of the gate.

"We've arrived," the driver reminded them.

The bus then stopped at the entrance, and the sentry checked the identification before waving it through.

The car drove into the compound and stopped in front of a two-story brick building.

Jiang Fan got off the car with the suitcase, and a night breeze blew in, making him completely sober.

A middle-aged man in a cadre uniform stood at the door, looking at Jiang Fan as if he had been waiting for him for a long time.

He quickly stepped forward, checked the identification, and then extended his hand: "Comrade Jiang Fan, right?"

"I am Li Wanshu from the Northeast Bureau of Industry, and I am one of the people chosen to accompany you to the Soviet Union."

"The commander is already waiting for you in his office. Please come with me."

Jiang Fan was slightly startled. He had prepared himself for a complicated handover process, but he didn't expect to be taken directly to the leader's office as soon as he landed.

He didn't have time to think much; he could only suppress his anxiety and quickly catch up with Li Wanshu.

However, he never expected that the leader of the Northeast Bureau was really him!

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