Chapter 188 The Loan Allocation Reform Has Arrived

Subsequently, Lin Xi arrived at the deepest area of the workshop.

Three machine tools were parked here.

Zhao Qiang was squatting under a machine tool, calibrating the lead screw.

Seeing Lin Xi approach, he excitedly crawled out:

"Manager Lin, it's a success!"

"Following the concepts you provided, along with a few key technologies."

"Our machine tool product matrix consists of three models in total!"

"The maximum machining precision is limited to 0.01 mm."

He pointed to the first machine, which had the bulkiest frame:

"This is the basic version, 'Tianshu'."

"It has a high proportion of pure mechanical transmission."

"It is equipped with the simplest monochrome CNC screen."

"Its biggest feature is that it can not only cope with unstable voltage conditions."

"We have also reserved a diesel engine drive interface for it."

"As long as the diesel engine is running, this machine tool can start working on the grasslands of Africa!"

"The cost is 15,000 RMB."

Lin Xi nodded; this "Industrial AK47" was meant to solve the pain points of unstable electricity and poor maintenance.

"The second model, 'machine model'."

"It focuses on mass production and high-efficiency parts machining."

"The cost is 28,000 RMB."

"The third, top-tier model, 'Yuheng'."

"It uses our self-developed simplified version of the hydrostatic spindle and a scraped base."

"The cost is 48,000 RMB."

Lin Xi walked around the machine tools once, then suddenly frowned:

"Engineer Zhao, this industrial gray paint is too ordinary."

"Give them a change of clothes."

"Paint them bright red then?" Zhao Qiang couldn't quite keep up with the pace.

"No."

A sharp glint flashed in Lin Xi's eyes.

"Change all the exterior paint to a dark gold bronze color."

"I want that matte, antique-textured paint."

"For the cooling slots on the machine tools, don't use standard horizontal grilles."

"Use the CNC machine tools to hollow out and engrave this kind of pattern for me."

Lin Xi then took a piece of paper and drew a few patterns.

"Huh?"

Zhao Qiang was shocked.

"Manager Lin, this doesn't increase precision, and it's labor-intensive, time-consuming, and increases costs."

"It's purely for show!"

Lin Xi shook his head and said earnestly:

"Engineer Zhao, you don't understand."

"Western machine tools are cold, unfeeling machines."

"We want to imbue Red Star Technology with a sense of an 'industrial totem'."

"We need others to be able to recognize our machine tools at a glance amidst the monotonous paint jobs of machines in the workshop."

"When this bronze behemoth, which looks like it traveled back from three thousand years ago,"

"is cutting steel at the Hanover Exhibition,"

"those foreigners will experience a tremor at the civilizational level."

"What we are selling is not just tools, but the industrial will from the mysterious East."

Zhao Qiang listened, dumbfounded.

Manager Lin is doing things we can't understand again!

Lin Xi turned to look at Liu Xiaodong.

"Xiaodong, that 'backdoor' I entrusted you with, is it ready?"

Liu Xiaodong lowered his voice and said:

"It has already been written into the read-only memory area of all export machine tools."

"As long as they use our CNC system,"

"every instruction stream, every spindle load fluctuation, and every tool path trajectory of the machine,"

"will be recorded as raw data."

"As long as Red Star's after-sales personnel go on-site for repairs,"

"through our physical interface,"

"we can retrieve the processing parameters from previous operations."

The live stream chat went crazy again:

【Skilled workers all over the world are helping the Streamer accumulate data; they are machining materials, and the Streamer is collecting their life's experience.】

【This isn't selling machine tools; this is casting an industrial espionage net!】

【The most ruthless part is that in this day and age, nobody understands data ownership; the foreigners will be sold out and still have to praise Red Star for their good after-sales service.】

Lin Xi patted Liu Xiaodong's shoulder, his eyes full of appreciation.

"Brother Lin, the interface encryption encapsulation you asked me to do is also almost done..."

Liu Xiaodong hesitated for a moment,

"but we don't need encryption encapsulation internally."

"Is there any point in doing this?"

Lin Xi smiled mysteriously,

"You will know soon."

Jiang Jun walked over quickly at this moment to report:

"General Manager Lin, the optical scales have also been finalized."

"As you instructed, we are only mass-producing the 5-micron precision ones."

"Guaranteed not to trigger COCOM's sensitive nerves."

"That's right."

Lin Xi looked towards the workshop door.

"Good things must be kept for home. As for the outside world..."

"Giving them what's sufficient is enough."

Behind him, that row of "Industrial AK47s"

stood like silent ancient gods in the shadows,

waiting to let out a roar in a foreign land that would shatter the old order.

"By the way, Engineer Zhao." Lin Xi handed over a folder,

"please help prepare the things inside; I will need them when I return."

"If you need coordination from brother units, just go to Manager Zhang; I have already spoken to him."

...

April 1st, Imperial Capital, side hall of the Great Hall of the People.

Today is April Fool's Day.

But for the eighteen factory directors sitting in the Jilin Hall of the Great Hall of the People at this moment,

every word they were about to hear was definitely not a joke.

Heavy red velvet curtains obscured the bright spring sunshine outside the window.

The huge crystal chandelier cast a solemn, cold white light.

The conference table was arranged in a "times" shape.

Bigwigs from the First Ministry of Machine Building Industry, the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation, the Ministry of Finance, the State Planning Commission, and other ministries sat in the inner circle.

Directors and Chief Engineers from eighteen machine tool factories sat in the outer circle.

This was the "Inaugural Meeting of the China Machine Tool Industry Alliance," spearheaded by the First Ministry of Machine Building Industry and jointly organized with the State Planning Commission, the Ministry of Finance, and the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation.

The red carpet absorbed the sound of footsteps,

making the atmosphere appear exceptionally oppressive.

In the live stream chat, the messages were flooding in like crazy:

【Impressive! This is the true scale of the national team!】

【Every lift and drop of a teacup here could determine the direction of China's industry for the next decade.】

【I think that bigwig sitting in the middle is from the State Planning Commission, right? With this lineup, they are about to do something big.】

【A meeting on April 1st? They chose a humorous date, but looking at this atmosphere, it's definitely not a joke.】

The meeting began without long-winded pleasantries.

Vice Minister Liu of the First Ministry of Machine Building Industry tapped the microphone and got straight to the point:

"Comrades, today's meeting has only one agenda: to survive, and to live well."

He turned to the representative of the State Planning Commission and said: "Let's lay the cards on the table first."

The leader from the State Planning Commission adjusted his glasses and dropped a bombshell:

"Upon approval."

"Starting this year, state investment in infrastructure and technical renovation for state-owned enterprises"

"will be changed from free government fiscal allocation to bank loans."

"In other words, allocation-to-loan."

"There will be no more free lunches from now on."

"You can get money, but you have to borrow from the bank, pay interest, and repay the principal."

As soon as these words fell, the factory directors, who had been holding their composure, instantly erupted.

Director Wang of the Xicheng Machine Tool Factory turned pale, his pen trembling in his hand:

"Interest?"

"Leader, isn't this killing us?"

"Those old Soviet-style gantry planers in our factory,"

"have been patched up and used for thirty years."

"The profit margin was already as thin as paper."

"If we have to shoulder loan interest on top of that,"

"the three thousand people in the whole factory will be left with nothing to eat?"

"Exactly!"

Another director was also anxious.

He didn't even care about etiquette and stood up directly,

"We have to shoulder national tasks."

"Now that the capital chain is broken, what technical renovation can we still do?"

"Isn't this forcing us to pack up our bedding and go home to farm?"

Panic spread like a virus in the outer circle of the round table.

At the tail end of this planned economy,

the heads of state-owned enterprises, who had long been accustomed to paternalistic funding,

felt the chill of the market for the first time in its raw form.

Lin Xi watched coldly from the sidelines.

He knew very well that this was the most painful cut in the reform of state-owned enterprises.

But it was precisely this cut that would force out true industrial mettle.