A nation's industrial development begins with junior engineers.

Jiang Xia took out the cooling balm that the guests from Yangon had given him, and scooped out two large lumps to rub on his temples.

"Ugh, listening to the French recite numbers is torture."

Hey, right, that's right. After the border treaty officially came into effect, Jiang Xia disguised himself as a secretary and followed the big boss to meet the somewhat impatient Frenchman.

After some communication, seeing that we insisted on needing "electrolytic aluminum" and "the preparation process of polyethylene terephthalate fiber (PET)",

The Frenchman in front of them started talking about how advanced their technology was, and even began reciting a parameter from the preparation scheme related to "electrolytic aluminum".

一个1971：中文写成“一千九百七十一”，英文写成“one thousand nine hundred and sixty-one”,大致原理都是千百个十位直接相加。法语不一样，法语的1971是“mille neuf cent soixante et onze”,意思是1000+900+60+11。

Hahaha, isn't that weird? We use the decimal system, but the French are different; their number system is a mix of decimal, hexadecimal, vigesimal, and sexagesimal.

If you want to understand this, and your math isn't good, then you'll have to rack your brains.

But you think that's difficult?

That's because you didn't hear them announce the phone number; that would be absolutely hellish.

Therefore, the unique mathematical thinking of the Gallic people led to the emergence of mathematical giants such as Lagrange, d'Alembert, and Laplace.

Later, Fourier's theory of heat transfer changed the scientific landscape of the 19th century. However, this kind of mathematical thinking seems somewhat out of place in the rather monotonous binary system of computers.

However, when this kind of thinking is applied to software development, the French have made considerable achievements.

Although the French translator at the scene was a bit halting, as long as you grasped the key words, you could understand the general meaning by guessing and inferring. Just by listening, Little Dumb Hair understood what these Frenchmen were up to.

Hey, I thought they were going to do something sophisticated, but they just want to pass on their outdated techniques to us.

Don't think I don't know that the electrolytic aluminum process you provide still uses the traditional self-baking anode technology; what, are you so reluctant to give up the prebaked anode?

And what about the related highly conductive and corrosion-resistant carbon materials? Are you trying to be stingy and switch to ordinary stainless steel? And you still have the nerve to say that stainless steel is the latest technology?

Do you expect us to start work in half an hour and then spend 200 days on major repairs?

Pshaw, what do you think Jiangxia wants? It's just your materials, processes, and pre-treatment equipment for electrolytic aluminum. A mere electrolytic cell? I can show you the drawings in a minute!

In later generations, China's electrolytic aluminum production accounted for 60% of the global total, which was achieved through hard work! As someone involved in the field, Xiao Dai Mao has mastered the entire process.

As for your question, what is this pre-process?

Besides materials, of course, it's the generator set!

It must be said that the French steam turbine generators of the 60s were remarkably advanced in both technology and performance.

In particular, the multi-stage impulse steam turbine can achieve a thermal efficiency of 25%-30% for a single unit, reaching a capacity of 650 megawatts.

The technical specifications of this steam turbine, even if considered in the 90s, would be enough to outperform all other small-scale steam turbines except for gas turbines.

As for supercritical steam turbines, well, that's beyond the scope of this discussion. It's a bit too advanced, but let's take it one step at a time.

Now you all understand, right? Jiangxia's real intention in choosing this "electrolytic aluminum" project was not what it seemed.

After all, if you directly ask for a multi-stage impulse steam turbine, France would definitely refuse without a second thought. But by taking a roundabout approach, it might actually work out!

There's no need for the other party to provide blueprints. As long as there's the actual machine, Jiang Xia feels that if he loses about 20 pounds, he can finish drawing the blueprints.

Look, our little idiot has learned to use tricks!

……

Besides digging a hole in this electrolytic aluminum project, the French also displayed their capitalist nature in the production of PET. They set up the entire project in the kind of "turnkey" model that would be seen in later generations.

What does "turnkey" mean?

To put it simply, a contractor provides a full-service package from project design to handover, without the owner needing to participate in the construction process. During construction, the contractor assumes all responsibility, including design, construction, material procurement, and supervision. Once the project is completed, the owner simply receives the "keys" and can use the property immediately.

It looks pretty good, doesn't it?

If you think like that, it just shows how naive you are, as innocent as the little white rabbit in the foreign trade department.

Don't forget, the people on the other side are foreigners!

If the production equipment breaks down, they'll have to send someone to fix it!

At the same time, true to their usual practice, those big-nosed guys charged their engineers by the hour, and the billing started from the moment they left the house...

Not to mention the PTA raw material needed to produce PET, which France can provide according to its plan.

"Don't worry, we have a large PTA production capacity and can supply it at a low price, but the shipping cost is too high, especially since we're quite far apart. I can recommend a shipping company that can offer discounts!"

One of the representatives from the French conglomerate pulled out his business card with a beaming smile.

Ha, you provide the production equipment, you provide the raw materials, what? You want to use the same methods you used on Uncle Hippo on China?

This tactic caused China, after its reform and opening up, to suffer greatly. It wasn't just a "pig butchering scam" anymore; it was utterly devastating!

Fortunately, our parents inherited the great will of our grandparents. Despite the vast gap, they did not give up and built our proud industrial chain step by step with their hammers.

So don't look down on the old man in front of you; he's great too. Even though sometimes he might be even more talkative than your grandfather...

(My dad is very talkative, while my mom is very cheerful. However, they sometimes get mixed-gender scolding, and even after I had children, I couldn't escape it...)

As for this PET project, what Jiangxia values ​​is actually its pre-construction phase.

PTA (terephthalic acid)!

This is actually an important product among a series of products from petroleum refining...

Correct!

Jiangxia, being greedy, actually wants the French's complete petroleum processing technology. Think about it: to make PET, PTA preparation is essential; to make PTA, PX (paraxylene) must be separated from petroleum.

is it hard?

It's not difficult; Jiang Xia can write out their reaction formulas now.

Isn't it difficult? Even a small petrochemical plant covers a hundred or two hundred acres, and the equipment inside is categorized by function; the names alone could fill a dictionary...

Putting everything else aside, even a simple oxidation reactor is something that China can't produce right now. Heh heh, even the factory's master welder at level eight can't make the high-strength chromium-molybdenum steel inner wall overlaid with alloy 33 (a high-chromium, nickel, iron, molybdenum, and copper alloy).

Because he had never heard of high-chromium nickel iron molybdenum copper alloy, let alone welded the two materials together.

We must admit we're behind!

But you need to be discerning in your recognition!

Jiang Xia touched the cassette tape containing the SMTP basic protocol in his pocket and smiled somewhat arrogantly.

I won't give you the FTP server yet, but I'll give you an SMTP server so you can play around with email.

Although this email requires both parties to be online, and although the crucial POP protocol is missing, you guys are building a supercomputer, aren't you? Go for it, French rooster, towards the grand vision of email!

Using a supercomputer as a server is the most resource-intensive option (this word is correct). I believe that after expending some resources, you will be able to scale up this work!

Wow, a piece of code, but a whole bunch of infrastructure replaced – that's really a great deal!