Chapter 296 I Want My Soldiers: I'll laugh when I'm speechless.
It turns out that people can actually smile when they're speechless.
Mr. Hu laughed. He leaned back in his chair, adopting a relaxed posture as if he were about to have a casual chat, to listen to Wang Xiao's nonsense: "So, Mr. Wang, tell me, why do you look down on the Third Factory and the First Institute?"
Don't try to justify yourself by saying you think it's good enough. If you did, would you have taken over someone else's power?
Wang Xiao said seriously, "If I don't like them, why would I use their people? Mr. Hu, are you joking?"
Mr. Hu is really struggling to breathe. Who's joking here? Do you want to hear what nonsense you're spouting?
The teacup was held in my hand, slightly hot.
Wang Xiao said slowly and deliberately, "It's not that I look down on the Third Factory and the First Institute, but we're not all in the same boat. 'Project 908' has been underway for five years and is still in the feasibility study stage. Back in 1990, they said they would build a production line at Huajing with a monthly output of 12,000 6-inch, 0.8-1.2 micrometer chips. Moore's Law states that the number of transistors that can be placed on an integrated circuit doubles approximately every 18-24 months, performance doubles, and the price halves. Five years is enough time for two or three upgrades. So, do you think I should argue with them or just fight them?"
She laughed as she said it, shaking her head and saying, "Forget it, it would have been better if we hadn't gotten involved in the first place."
President Hu was speechless.
Huajing's journey has truly been fraught with difficulties. The project was initiated in 1990, and it took two years to finally complete the administrative approval process.
It was 1992 at that time.
What happened that year? Besides his Southern Tour speeches, there was also his Northern Tour.
Who is being inspected? Shougang Group.
Next, Shougang gained the right to initiate investment projects, the right to finance, the right to conduct foreign trade independently, and the ability to establish its own bank.
Compared to it, Huajing is simply a pitiful little thing.
Therefore, it is perfectly normal for R&D to be willing to cooperate with Shougang to set up a factory.
Shougang Electric's six-inch production line is already in mass production, while Huajing is still begging and pleading for technical cooperation partners. It's unclear when it will actually go into production.
Despite his inner sigh, President Hu spoke to Wang Xiao with a political tone: "With Shougang and NEC setting an example, Huajing should be close to follow suit."
Unfortunately, Wang Xiao not only disagreed, but also shook his head directly: "I think we should just give up. We should just stop the Huajing project now."
She took a sip of her iced tea, her fingers tracing the handle of the teacup. "Back in 1990, we had this idea, which filled a gap in the domestic market. But now, four years later, Shougang's six-inch production line is already in mass production, and the market has been taken over by Shougang Electric. Is there any need to push forward with Huajing's project? Absolutely not. This is a typical case of redundant imports."
On the trees outside the window, cicadas are chirping, heralding summer. Each chirp of "zhi-liao-zhi-liao" is a testament to the heat.
President Hu also drank some herbal tea and smiled, "Whether or not to push this through, the higher-ups will take it into consideration."
Wang Xiao sighed, "If we push it forward, Huajing will definitely lose money. By the time its production line starts operating, its technology will be outdated and the market will be saturated. Where will its competitiveness lie? It can't compete, it won't make money, and it will lose money. Who will fill this hole? The central government or the Wuxi municipal government?"
The air conditioner was blowing cold air out loud, like a long-distance runner struggling to breathe.
"and--"
Wang Xiao tapped his fingers silently on the table. "The current talk of 'grasping the big and letting go of the small' is to protect the big ones. But what if the big ones can't be protected either, and they continue to suffer losses? Shouldn't they be dealt with in the same way as the small ones? In the 1980s, our country started allocating and transferring loans. If you take money from the bank, you have to repay it."
President Hu's heart was in turmoil.
The development company appears to be a business, which should be different from government agencies or administrative units.
However, at present, the development company is still essentially similar to an external branch of a government agency.
Therefore, President Hu talks about both economics and politics. As a member of the local government officials, he has to consider the interests represented by his unit.
Yeah, who's responsible for the losses?
If Huajing is going to lose money, does that mean this lithography machine project won't lose money either?
In fact, anyone with a discerning eye can see that the probability of it losing money is still very high, almost a certainty.
Who will cover for us then?
After all, anyone can say nice things and shout slogans louder than the last. But when it comes to actually spending money, who can be generous?
Which government doesn't need money? They're all facing a mountain of problems, like trying to solve one problem only to have another pop up.
The lithography machine project in Pudong has been delayed since last year and is still progressing slowly. This cannot be explained simply by the fact that it is a government agency and therefore slow.
Mr. Hu realized he had been silent for too long, so he forcibly pulled himself out of his thoughts, took another sip of tea, and calmed himself down: "We're not talking about Huajing, we're talking about the lithography machine project. Don't get discouraged, maybe it will make a breakthrough."
“Even if it breaks through, it won’t help.” Wang Xiao said seriously, “When it first breaks through, the yield will definitely be low. It will require continuous process evolution to improve the yield. But at this point, if the other party doesn’t want you to improve, there is a very simple solution—the things that were previously restricted from import are now being sold to you.”
Her fingers tapped silently on the walnut tabletop, like she was playing a piano. "Then, coincidentally, they haven't imposed strict restrictions anymore. Their products are mature, have high yield rates, and have ample market data and feedback to prove their success. Tell me, whose products should chip manufacturers buy then? They're putting real money into it."
Saying "support domestic products" is indeed politically correct.
But as the person paying, their first consideration must be cost-effectiveness.
The market was like an empty beach, instantly swallowed by the tide.
So what will happen to the lithography machine project in Pudong? They've produced it, but there's no market for it, they can't sell it, there's no feedback data, and they don't have any money.
If you want to upgrade further, keep spending money.
So the question comes full circle: who will foot the bill then?
Mr. Hu asked, "If you're doing this yourself, are you really going to keep spending money like this? Aren't you afraid of wasting your time?"
Wang Xiao laughed: "Some businesses are not primarily about making money, otherwise Samsung's chip and LCD screen projects would have stopped long ago."
President Hu then turned his attention to Ivanov, switching to English, and said to Wang Xiao again: "You can't just make decisions on your own; you have to consider Mr. Ivanov's interests."
The person who answered his question was Ivanov.
The latter shrugged: “It’s okay, it’s a decision we made together. Some things always have to be done by someone. For example, when I invested in a farm in Russia, Wang fully supported me. It doesn’t make money, it’s troublesome, and I always have to put money into it.”
If Wang can wholeheartedly support his dream, why can't he do the opposite?
The Milan flowers on the windowsill had just bloomed, and their fragrance wafted in.
It inexplicably brings to mind Yuan Mei's poem: "Moss flowers are as small as grains of rice, yet they also learn to bloom like peonies."
Oh, what are the first two lines of that poem? They are: "Where the sun never shines, youth naturally arrives."
As Mr. Hu recalled the ancient poems, he wanted to sigh, but he still hoped that Wang Xiao would be alright.
Good partners, good development of the 3,000 acres of land, and mutual benefit are all essential for everyone's success.
So he spoke frankly: "It's unrealistic to expect the people at the Third Factory to listen to you. They are proper state cadres with official status."
What do you mean by that?
In 1994, anyone who was admitted to a vocational school or university automatically obtained cadre status.
Cadre, worker, and peasant are three completely different identities.
For example, some state-owned enterprise workers were laid off, and when private companies went to recruit them, not a single worker was willing to go, because the job offered was not a secure job.
People with stable jobs look down on you, a business owner.
These words are quite harsh; in today's context, they might even sound like a slap in the face.
But Wang Xiao didn't get angry or flustered; on the contrary, she was quite understanding.
After all, 30 years later, before she time-traveled, there were still many voices in society who believed that a private boss with an annual income of millions was not as prestigious as a junior clerk with an annual income of less than 100,000.
Everyone has their own thoughts, and as long as they don't break the law or commit crimes, it's their freedom.
Wang Xiao had no intention of going over there to change other people's minds.
Her solution was very simple: "Then let's use labor dispatch. They don't need to become my subordinates; they will still be employees of the Third Factory and the First Institute. The Third Factory and the First Institute will send the professional and technical personnel I need to work for me."
She was afraid that Mr. Hu would not understand her meaning, so she thoughtfully explained, "It's like the construction workers who are working on my construction site now. They are not my soldiers, but service personnel sent by your development company to do the work."
It would have been better if she hadn't explained; once she did, Mr. Hu felt completely dizzy.
What does it mean to "reverse the Heavenly Gang"? This is a perfect example.
People without secure jobs have always worked as temporary workers through service companies to work for companies with guaranteed jobs.
This was the first time he had ever heard of it being possible to reverse it!
Wang Xiao didn't think she had said anything earth-shattering at all; on the contrary, she thought it was perfectly normal.
Putting everything else aside, just consider Wang Tiejun—
"To be honest, Mr. Hu, my dad is a veteran in the steel industry. Back when I was still in school, my dad worked as a Sunday engineer, solving problems for factories in counties and townships."
"In essence, Sunday engineers are just employees with secure jobs working for those without, which is a form of labor dispatch. The only difference is that the engineers themselves are the ones dispatching them."
"It was the existence and promotion of Sunday engineers that propelled the rapid development of our country's industry, filling the market gap caused by insufficient productivity in a very short period of time. It was a great thing for the country and the people."
Mr. Hu picked up his cup, gulped down two mouthfuls of cold tea, and looked up to indicate, "Alright, alright, I'll pass on your opinion."
He didn't want to listen anymore. He felt that if he continued to listen, he would be led astray, and then things would get really interesting.
Wang Xiao smiled and didn't force President Hu to make any promises to be on the same side as him.
She was quite understanding and nodded: "Okay, then I'll trouble you. My conditions are that as long as my requirements are met, the basic salary is 3,000-5,000 yuan, and if the project progresses smoothly, there will be additional bonuses. Under normal circumstances, no one's monthly income will be less than 5,000 yuan."
Mr. Hu was speechless with amazement. Goodness, this level of income is something that even someone working in Japan might not be able to bring home.
She really went all out.
President Hu saw them off, shook hands with Wang Xiao and Ivanov to say goodbye, and finally tried to persuade them with one last word: "Personally, I still think that the safest way is for you to cooperate in bringing the project to Pudong."
Wang Xiao smiled but remained silent.
She never saw herself as a troublemaker sabotaging semiconductor equipment projects.
Because before she traveled through time, the project had not been implemented, or if it had been implemented, it had not made any progress.
This aspect is almost never mentioned in any review of the history of domestically produced lithography machines.
Given the generally high-profile nature of these reviews, any progress or achievement of the project will certainly be highlighted in detail.
In that case, in Wang Xiao's view, it's just like Huajing's six-inch production line project—not necessarily wrong, just born at the wrong time, so there's no need to force it.
It would be better to use it for her purposes.
Vice Mayor Huang wears glasses, and if he doesn't introduce himself when he stands up, people who don't know him are more likely to categorize him as an intellectual.
So during this trip to the development company, he remained silent and observed from the sidelines, and Mr. Hu really didn't know who he was.
At this moment, as we exited the development company's gate and drove onto the road, surrounded by golden rapeseed and wheat fields, it felt as if we were driving on a flower-filled avenue.
Vice Mayor Huang finally spoke up: "President Wang, just give me a straight answer. Do you already have a direction?"
She is wealthy, but her money didn't come from thin air, nor did it come easily from being an official and having it handed to her. Instead, she risked her life to expand her business and earned it with great difficulty.
She wouldn't treat money like paper, scattering it around without any calculation.
If she were truly that kind of person, her business could never have grown so large, nor could it have remained stable until today.
Wang Xiao laughed: "What direction can I have? I studied chemistry, I'm a complete novice when it comes to lithography machines."
Vice Mayor Huang shook his head and waved his hand: "No, no, no, you're not a technician. It doesn't matter if you don't know how to do it, as long as you have a direction."
Wang Xiao admired these officials; each one was more astute and capable than the last.
She believed she hadn't given anything away, but others were able to extract the most crucial points from a sea of information.
Vice Mayor Huang was right; she did indeed have a direction.
What direction? The development direction of lithography machines.
The car arrived at the hotel, and the assistant quickly came out of the room, holding a fax sheet, and handed it to the boss: "Here's the information you requested."
Wang Xiao grabbed the book and flipped through it quickly. Vice Mayor Huang leaned over and glanced at it, feeling a little dizzy.
He had studied English, but he was far inferior to Mr. Hu. At the very least, his English level was insufficient to read academic papers, especially those from industries he was unfamiliar with.
Wang Xiao also struggled with it; a major problem with English is the abundance of technical terms. And the way these technical terms are constructed is... well, it's all about making them incomprehensible to emphasize their profoundness.
Fortunately, she had a general idea of the paper's content, so she was able to focus on the key points.
She pointed to the document with her finger: "Over here, in the 1980s, IBM proposed immersion lithography and explored the application of liquids in lithography."
She turned to the next page of information, her voice slightly hurried, "This Dr. Lin is a lithography expert. This paper was published by him when he attended a seminar in 1987. It talks about the blueprint of lithography, what bottlenecks it will encounter in the future, and what methods can be used to overcome these bottlenecks."
When Vice Mayor Huang first heard about the application of liquids in photolithography, he didn't react much.
His interest was piqued after hearing Dr. Lin's paper. What he needed was a solution.
While reading the paper, Wang Xiao helped translate and explain, "When the resolution of lithography increases, the depth of field will decrease accordingly; moreover, the rate of decrease will be faster than the rate of increase in resolution, and sooner or later it will encounter a bottleneck in depth of field."
But her explanation was worse than no explanation at all; Vice Mayor Huang was even more confused. What depth of field? What resolution? This is terrible!
Wang Xiao didn't have time to explain in detail, and simply concluded: "If further optimization cannot be achieved by shortening the wavelength or increasing the NA, we can consider changing the refractive index of the medium. This is the specific technical framework."
Vice Mayor Huang was even more confused and asked directly, "What do you mean? What is the medium?"
"This means we won't make dry lithography machines, but immersion lithography machines. We will break through the '1×1' refractive index bottleneck by introducing a high refractive index medium (n>1) to replace air."
This is why Wang Xiao chose to go all in.
During her trip to Wuhan, when she realized that the rumors about the lithography machine at Factory 3 were just a hoax, she made up her mind.
We're not going to chase after them anymore. There's no point in trying to catch up with Japan's lithography machines.
Given the current environment, if she chases after it, it will be like Kuafu chasing the sun – she'll only exhaust herself to death.
What she wants to do is to overtake on a curve, a true overtaking on a curve.
Currently, in the field of lithography machines, the big players are still focused on roll-to-roll dry lithography machines, which have not yet reached their peak.
But history has proven that this road is not far from its end.
After the turn of the millennium, ASML was able to defeat industry leaders such as Toshiba, a Japanese lithography giant, because it was the first to achieve a breakthrough in immersion lithography machines.
Then the Japanese giants started to desperately try to catch up, but ultimately they never really caught up.
It can be said that the decline of Japan's semiconductor industry in the field of lithography machines is one of the important reasons for the gradual decline of its entire industry.
Now, Wang Xiao wants to establish his own ASML to produce immersion lithography machines.
Yes, that idea is indeed very crazy.
Because she is not a professional, even though she has read countless popular science articles, she can only remember very little information.
Even with the depth of field (DOF) formula, if you take a pen and a blank sheet of paper and ask her to write it down, she won't be able to.
Even the groundbreaking event of immersion lithography, which involved using water to achieve 193 nanometers, is something she can remember because when she was reading a popular science article, her bed partner happened to be a 193-centimeter-tall physical education student.
Haha, what a dissolute person he was! Can we even talk about these things now? Not a single word can be mentioned.
Even so, she still insisted on starting the project.
Given her limited life experience, this was the only opportunity for her to catch up and surpass others.
Even with the current weak foundation of lithography machines in China, and with only a one in ten thousand chance of seizing this opportunity, she cannot give up.
Because if she missed this opportunity, she wouldn't know what to do.
The air conditioning wasn't on in the room, but the windows were open for ventilation. The only cooling measure was a Bat brand electric fan, which whirred loudly, but the breeze blowing on people was hardly refreshing.
Vice Mayor Huang, his eyes fixed on the paper, suddenly asked, "Which institution does Dr. Lin work for? Should we poach him?"
Wang Xiao chuckled and shook his head: "In America, he's a Vietnamese-Chinese, and now he's the general manager of Leading Innovation Company."
Vice Mayor Huang fell silent.
It is important for people to have self-awareness. In business, one should focus on business. Trying to force people into your hands with talk of national sentiment is simply unrealistic.
Dr. Lin is clearly living a good life now, and his career in the United States is thriving.
He's not from mainland China, so why would he come back to be a pioneer? The money he earns in a year is equivalent to what he could earn working back home for a lifetime.
Wang Xiao never considered recruiting Dr. Lin.
The reason was the same as Vice Mayor Huang's: she hadn't yet found a truly convincing reason for people to switch sides. She also couldn't guarantee that people would have successful work and a happy life after coming to the mainland.
Secondly, Wang Xiao is quite realistic.
Times change, and many things happen as a result of favorable circumstances. If Dr. Lin were to research immersion lithography now, he might not achieve a major breakthrough. His time might simply not have come yet.
If that's the case, why is Wang Xiao so determined to recruit people into his ranks?
She already knows the basic principles; what she needs now is continuous research and practice.
The actual operator, the actual operating team, can be anyone else, anyone else who can follow her instructions and work in the direction she specifies.
What if the Third Factory and the First Factory refuse to accept her proposal and are unwilling to work as a temporary worker for her?
Even a skilled cook can't cook without rice, so let's just get the rice ourselves.
During the planned economy era, China's development of the semiconductor industry also followed the path of relying on and mobilizing the masses, resulting in widespread development.
It's not like there's no one else besides the three factories and one institute that makes lithography machines.
For example, Mr. Zheng from Wuhan could totally come over and work.
If the university refuses to release them, they can apply for unpaid leave. This is the general direction of reform now, and any unit that disagrees is resisting the policy.
As for the so-called management fee that her former employer requires her to pay, she can pay that herself.
Compared to lithography machines that cost tens of millions of US dollars and are impossible to buy, this is just a small amount of money and not worth mentioning.
Vice Mayor Huang was secretly delighted upon hearing this and immediately stated on behalf of the Xiaozhou Municipal Government: "Whatever you need our cooperation with, we will give you the green light and absolutely cooperate with you."
The microelectronics expert who had been brought from Xiaozhou to Wuhan and then to Shanghai by Wang Xiao gasped inwardly.
Well, the leader is certainly full of confidence.
He no longer cared about not being able to get his hands on the three factories and one institute; now he was focused on Boss Wang, hoping she would make a world-class lithography machine.
As a veteran in the semiconductor industry, should he praise their fearlessness or simply dismiss it as ignorance and delusion?
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[Let me see] Good morning!
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