1981, the first day of the Lunar New Year.

In an ordinary room in Pujiang City, the curtains were tightly closed and there was no sound.

There was an open postal parcel on the desk, still looking like it had just been opened.

The sound of firecrackers coming and going did not affect the person on the bed at all.

It wasn't until a series of phone rings rang that Jiang Shan moved over wrapped in a quilt:

"Hello~"

With a hoarse greeting, the person on the other end of the phone was obviously taken aback:

"Jiangshan? Is it Jiangshan?"

"Well, I am Jiangshan."

Hearing this voice, Jiang Shan felt a little familiar, but he just couldn't remember who it was.

"Why are you so lackluster on the first day of the new year?"

Rao Bin suddenly felt something: "Listen to this voice, are you feeling uncomfortable somewhere?"

"Are you...?"

Jiang Shan heard something coming: "Chief Rao...?"

Oh my God, why would the Mechanical Department call me on the first day of the New Year?

"Did you hear it?" Rao Bin said with a smile on the phone: "Happy New Year, Comrade Jiangshan."

Since the advertisement slogan "There must be a road before the car reaches the mountain, and there must be a Dongfeng Motor if there is a road", Rao Bin has set his sights on Jiangshan.

"Happy New Year, Rao Bu,"

After determining who was on the other side, Jiang Shan immediately began to organize his words:

"I wish you good health, happy family, smooth work, and good luck..."

"Okay, okay, now that I know you can write and speak, let's not do this."

"Hey, I listen to you."

"Xiao Jiang, have you finished all the tasks you took on at the Tourism Bureau a while ago?"

"It's already finished,"

Jiang Shanxin said that I had even finished drinking the mineral water from the Ministry of Foreign Trade:

"You called me today. Could it be our Dongfeng truck... again?"

"It's not Dongfeng's fault. I have more than one Dongfeng..."

There is something unknown about the country.

Let alone the first day of the Lunar New Year, Rao Bin's team didn't even have a day off on New Year's Eve.

There was no way. As fierce as the first two years of reform and opening up were, 1981 was just as difficult.

"Ordinarily, I shouldn't call you at this time, but..."

On the other end of the phone, the voice of Rao Bin lighting up a cigarette came: "Well, you listen to me tell a story first."

"You said it, I'm listening."

Jiang Shan, who was dressed in full sapphire blue worker, peasant and soldier uniform, was wrapped in a quilt and nestled on the sofa.

Like the other person, he also lit up a cigarette.

“In 1945, during the Chongqing talks between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party, it was suddenly announced that the meeting would be suspended.

Not for anything else, just because the leaders of the Kuomintang and the Communist Party want to express condolences to the same person..."

Hearing this, Jiang Shan paused for a moment while holding the cigarette in his hand:

"Who is this? How can the leaders of both sides be concerned at the same time?"

"Want to know?"

Rao Bin smiled and said: "If you want to know, just listen to me and tell you slowly.

In 1901, an Englishman appeared in Langfang, ringing a bell and shouting.

This man said he was a missionary, but in fact he was a salesman for the British Benemonium Company.

At that time, we only saw ordinary people who were full of impurities and alkali.

After seeing the evenly crystallized and snow-like acetate in his hand, it was like seeing a treasure.

As a result, the British alkali alkali opened the market in China without much effort.

Speaking of alkali, since it can be called the mother of industry, it already illustrates its importance."

"That's right," Jiang Shan nodded: "Soap, glass, printing and dyeing, paper... countless industries are inseparable from it."

“So, the foreign Solvay alkali production method with low extraction cost,

Helping the British make a lot of gold and silver in all walks of life in our country,"

Rao Bin continued: "But even so, they are still not satisfied with raising prices whenever they want.

If you are unhappy, you can cut off the stock to whichever factory you want.

Once any factory is stopped by Bonnemen Alkali Manufacturing Company.

It won't be long before we are bound to face the crisis of bankruptcy.

In the end, we had no choice but to find a middleman to help negotiate a peace and increase prices to restore the supply of raw materials..."

What Rao Bu said sounded familiar to Jiang Shan.

"There is nothing we can do. Why don't we make soda ash ourselves?"

Rao Bin sighed and said: "During that time, soda ash became a chain hanging around our neck in the modern industrial history of our country.

If we want to go further, we must break the monopoly of foreigners and independently extract soda ash."

"It's just that in old China, where people's livelihood was depressed, there was no money, no people, and no technology... it was not easy at all."

"It's definitely not easy," Jiang Shan knew without even wanting to know: "Otherwise, it wouldn't be called the neck-stuck technique."

"Neck-stuck technique?"

Rao Bin, who heard this statement for the first time, found it quite vivid:

"Fortunately, they got stuck quickly.

In 1911, after the revolution of 1911 started, Fan Xudong, who had studied abroad for ten years, made the decision to return to his homeland.

Within two years after returning to China, he first founded China's first modern chemical enterprise: Jiuda Refined Salt Company.

After that, he made repeated announcements: Chinese compatriots should work harder and be determined to create Chinese alkali.

He knew that if the Chinese wanted to promote modern industry, they had no choice but to take the lead in overcoming the alkali production gate that Westerners were clinging to."

But he also knows very well that he cannot accomplish this by himself, and he must find like-minded people."

Jiang Shan: "So, he just shouted to the outside world?"

"Don't tell me, his trick is really effective,"

Rao Bin said: "Not long after, a comrade really came to our door.

This comrade's name was Chen Tiaofu, and he was originally a technician at a soda water factory.

Due to the unstable supply of alkali, the factory owner gave Chen Tiaofu a sum of money out of anger.

He was entrusted to develop modern alkali production technology.

But just when Chen Tiaofu's experiment was about to achieve a breakthrough, the factory's capital chain was broken.

Although the soda plant had given up on its own, Chen Tiaofu, who had mastered many essentials of making alkali, refused to give up.

Fortunately, at this time, he heard what Fan Xudong said..."

Jiang Shan said on the phone: "Chinese compatriots will work harder and are determined to create Chinese alkali."

"That's right," Rao Bin nodded and smiled:

"So, two like-minded people from the south and the north finally met.

One party has money and the other party has talent.

Soon, Fan Xudong set up a laboratory according to the order given by Chen Tiaofu.

As for the large amount of coarse salt required for making alkali, Fan Xudong, who is the owner of a salt factory, naturally has no problem.

It had only been three months since the two of them got together, and the reactor was set up in the Fan family compound.

The first time the furnace was opened, it was a success, although only 9,000 grams of soda ash was extracted.

But facing this pile of snow-white alkali powder, all the technicians present jumped up with excitement.

Fan Xudong and Chen Tiaofu even hugged each other.

They know that the alkali purification technology that has been a hindrance to the industrial development of our country for a long time,

We finally captured it ourselves..."

Jiang Shan felt happy just hearing it: "The neck-stuck technology has been broken through since then."

"Isn't that right?" Rao Bin said, "It wasn't until then that the people in the country knew that

The cost of acetic acid, which was so high at the beginning, turned out to be so low.
To be continued...