A nation's industrial development begins with junior engineers.

After witnessing Old Wang's miserable state, Jiang Xia decided to distract him from the situation.

That's how brothers do it!

"Uncle Wang, which expert did Brother Kui mention? Did he offer any suggestions for improvement?"

"mentioned!"

"Oh? What did he say?"

"He wants us to buy their crossover switch!"

"Huh? That expert is a foreigner?"

"Yes! From the French side!"

Oh, no wonder. France is quite impressive in this area. After all, they developed the first digital switch in the early 70s. They're a long-established telecommunications powerhouse.

But where did this foreigner come from? It's not time to loosen restrictions yet.

Minister Wang, dragging Old Wang along, led Jiang Xia back to a lounge outside the room. After another round of explanations, Jiang Xia finally understood what had happened.

Remember all those entry stamps the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was stamping? Well, France actually assembled a ping-pong team to compete. But that team is still adrift at sea.

Mr. Fu, who had visited in a private capacity several years prior, arrived in Beijing two days earlier by plane. Li Huaide's car was requisitioned to pick up this visiting team.

After some discussion, Mr. Faure proposed establishing a dialogue channel between the two sides' top leaders, and mentioned that a certain famous general was eager to speak with the old man.

Speaking of which, that would require transoceanic dedicated lines. But these days there aren't that many satellites flying overhead, and current satellites don't even have communication capabilities, so making an overseas call would be incredibly difficult.

In the 60s, international long-distance calls relied on submarine cables and shortwave radio. We had virtually no direct lines with Europe; calls had to be relayed through multiple countries (such as Hong Kong or the US), resulting in poor quality and high latency. Using such lines to communicate important matters was clearly unacceptable. (Now you understand why we only began to reclaim Hong Kong as a port more than 30 years later—using it to view the world was an incredibly clever move.)

What, you mean sending a telegram?

Stop joking, didn't you see that they were talking about a phone call? Besides, even international telegrams nowadays require the International Telegraph Office to act as a relay, especially through Big Brother.

Ha, in that case, wouldn't Lubyanka have discovered all my secrets?

Secret telegram?

Don't even mention it, Lubyanka got two sets of "cetyh" specifically for deciphering coded messages.

Yes, it's that famous ternary vacuum tube computer. Its instruction set conforms to ternary logic, and its arithmetic instructions allow for longer operand lengths, with the result length also extended to 6 bytes.

To be fair, in ternary logic, this can also be represented by the symbol 1 to represent true, the symbol -1 to represent false, and the symbol 0 to represent unknown. This way of expressing logic is closer to the way the human brain thinks.

Therefore, this type of computer has a unique advantage in deciphering coded messages.

This top-secret message was only communicated to the country by a remarkable woman, and after that, the relevant personnel were unable to contact her again.

The headquarters immediately mobilized a significant number of personnel, and those at IDCPC who had sent the coded messages were urgently recalled. All coded messages were destroyed—better late than never!

As for Li Lao's old lair setting his sights on the newly evolved "Big Yellow" and wanting to use it to encrypt related information, that's another story.

Getting back to the topic, from the current perspective, building a dedicated line is quite difficult. Not to mention the blockade imposed on us by both worlds, the mainstream transoceanic telephones currently only use submarine cables of international communication networks or wireless communication links. However, the French have really shown their sincerity this time, proposing to transit through neutral Switzerland.

After all, we officially established ministerial-level diplomatic relations with Switzerland in 50. At that time, the Swiss legation was set up in a courtyard in a hutong in Beijing with a classical Chinese style. In 57, it was upgraded to an embassy.

We've been thinking about it, and it seems like it could actually work.

The plan goes through!

The relevant personnel rushed to the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications to discuss the matter: This matter is of great importance and must be handled well!

Yes, this is a matter that has torn a hole in the Western camp, so how could it not be significant!

The Gallic chicken demonstrated their sincerity, so we couldn't be stingy! So the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications compiled a summary of the situation, a thick volume, and handed it over to their experts.

The French expert initially took a responsible look, but after spending the whole night observing, he was astonished by the sheer number of foreign-made machines in China. Can you believe that machines from the previous dynasty are still in use?

Forget it, forget it, I don't understand it. Can we go and see the actual site? The experts over there came here for an on-site inspection after receiving special permission.

The French expert calmly completed his visit, then went back and reported on the matter, saying that the country completely lacked the basic conditions for online communication.

To achieve a bilateral call would be no less difficult than the alliance's boast about sending people into space.

Unless you purchase our crossover switches...

We don't need much. We know you're poor. Just give us a copy of the design blueprint for that "Sea Drop" missile, or how about one live ammunition for one switch? We can provide a large quantity.

Pooh!

Putting aside the extent of the damage caused by the previous CETYH incident, just for our own safety, we can't use communications equipment made by outsiders! As for the Sea Rider, the Navy rejected it without even considering it.

After all, there aren't many "sea snubs" among them...

Forget it, if we don't have it, we'll just do it ourselves!

We've already figured out the big stuff, what's a little converter to worry about!

Let's do it! I'll try to do it myself first. If it doesn't work, then we'll use the little ahoge!

Yes, this is the awareness of the elderly in this era.

Unlike later generations, when a whole bunch of switches were haphazardly imported—from the Japanese, from the American—and because they were all different standards, there was practically no compatibility between them…

In the past, making inter-provincial calls was even harder than making calls to Hong Kong...

……

As Minister Wang slowly explained the situation, Jiang Xia picked up the report prepared by the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications.

Okay, so that's all the switches there are? Aside from Beijing and Shanghai, each province has fewer than ten switches...

Most of the telephones we use are magnetic.

Yeah, it's the kind with a crank handle, the kind you have to crank a few times before making a call. Even rotary dial phones are rare; the one in the little factory is completely bare, but at least it's a common-power type. Common-power phones have power supplied centrally by the telephone exchange, so users can just pick up the phone and make a call—it's more convenient than a crank handle.

So what kind of switch do we need?

Forget about programmable ones. Not only do we not have such machines now, but even if Jiangxia understood the principle, the higher-ups wouldn't use "Dahuang" in this area.

After all, the primary objective now is to break the nuclear deterrent of those two worlds.

However, the French still had ulterior motives. Even though they had already developed an air division converter, they only provided us with a crossbar switch.

Although we continued using the slewing machine until the 1980s...

"Xiao Jiang, here's the situation. I invited you here today to see if you can optimize the working process of the Type 47 prototype. The connector inside needs to perform lifting and rotating movements; could you replace it with a structure like that of an excavator?"

Jiang Xia was taken aback. "Uncle Wang, do you just want me to optimize the structure?"

"Yes!" Minister Wang rubbed his hands sheepishly. "However, we also want to use this optimization on the later lathes, so we won't use yours for nothing! How about I run a cable to your house?"

"Whether we run cables or not doesn't matter, but Uncle Wang, can we be a little bolder? Should we get an air separation switch installed?"