Chapter 795 - 751: Harvest

At four in the afternoon, Zhong Cheng arrived in Beijing with Lin Ju once again.

As they landed, Lin Ju glanced outside unintentionally and was startled when he caught sight of something colorful and green.

"Is that... an air defense missile?"

"Protecting the airport, yeah. HQ9. Seven or eight of them arrived last night, and now they’re all being withdrawn."

The retreat of the launch vehicles in an orderly fashion was eye-catching; passengers in the waiting hall and on the planes could all see them, drawing many curious gazes.

However, unlike before, the faces one could see were mostly beaming with joyous smiles, and occasionally one could spot people covering their faces and sobbing.

After all, it had been only twenty years since the last attempt, and the memory was still fresh for many. When countless people woke up to a series of headline notifications on their phones, they wondered if they were dreaming.

But the photos of queues for documentation and helicopters crashing couldn’t be faked, and although partial information control had already begun, quite a lot of material had leaked out, each piece delivering a great shock.

Last night, over a hundred flights at a dozen airports were forcefully delayed. At first, there were non-stop protests from passengers, but these quickly disappeared without a trace.

Now was the time to enjoy the victory.

For Lin Ju, who missed the exciting process, Zhong Cheng picked out the valuable information and narrated in a calm manner,

"This operation was very sudden and without any plan, mostly due to an accident," he said.

"An accident?"

"Yes, an accident. At first, we thought a great war was about to start, and the massive air force deployment led to the other side’s misjudgment. Do you know what happened? A captain from a Mirage 2000 squadron shot down a friendly plane and defected on the spot, and our pilots thought it was arranged by our side, mistaking it for... they just went along with it and opened fire..."

Within Zhong Cheng’s words, there were many points that were open to scrutiny, such as whether our pilots misjudged the situation deliberately or not; it was all very debatable.

But these actions were facts, and once they began and were reported up the chain, they inspired ideas and we decided to bite the bullet and go for it.

The misfire incident in the East Sea was a good distraction for the Far East’s attention. Due to the escalating tension, they had to focus their main forces there.

What happened that night between the two sides was covered up as top secret, but the outcome spoke volumes.

It must be said that America’s response was slower than expected, which created a once-in-a-millennium opportunity, allowing us to resolve the issue in less than 12 hours.

As the two conversed, the dense sound of engines roared from afar to near.

Lin Ju looked up; it was a formation of over 20 H6 bombers, with nothing visible under their wings, flying overhead in tight formation and low speed, almost like a thick grey cloud.

One of the planes seemed to have an irregular posture; upon closer inspection, one could see a chunk missing from the right wing, and even discern the bullet holes.

Zhong Cheng said, "Because the operation was so sudden, the damage on that side was very minimal, even better than expected. Currently, the main task is taking over the public safety system.

But the biggest gain is still TSMC. Taiji Electric’s factories and personnel are mostly intact, with only one production line suffering minor malfunctions due to lack of supervision. However, it’s easily repairable.

No matter what, having it in our hands will greatly speed up our chip development, and both technology and production capacity will definitely rise."

As for Taiji Electric, there was no intent to confiscate or control it from above, nor was it of much significance. The equipment and production lines were already immovable, and even without new equipment coming in, they could still be used for many years to come.

Don’t forget, it accounts for 60% of the world’s chip share and commands 90% of the high-end capacity!

Not just targeting it, but if it shut down for one month, the world would face a major chip shortage."

Realizing this, Lin Ju unlocked his phone and discovered that TSMC’s market value had plummeted by over 60%, while Intel’s had doubled.

Indeed, it had doubled in just a few hours, and continued to climb with each refresh.

As a company specializing in integrated IC design and chip production, Intel’s production capacity became a lifeline once the market realized that Taiji Electric might halt operations.

Apple, Nvidia, Qualcomm, and AMD’s chips were almost all outsourced to Taiji Electric, and if the latter was temporarily unable to take orders, it would be a dire disaster.

Intel had to first meet its own chip needs, and the remaining capacity was far from filling the huge void. There was no way to seize the market opportunity even if they wanted to.

At fastest, a chip manufacturing plant takes at least half a year to become operational, and normally it would take more than a year to build a new one. The gap in between was terrifyingly long!

What would happen to the market if the four major manufacturers couldn’t launch new products for a year?

Lin Ju instantly realized this was a tremendous opportunity and looked at Zhong Cheng with shining eyes:

"We must hold onto Taiji Electric well. We need to take advantage of this opportunity, especially now that we have the production capacity. We should expand the promotion of ternary chips domestically as much as possible!"

Zhong Cheng nodded, "Definitely, but we’ll have to see how the Science and Engineering Committee goes about it. I guess all these major corporations are scrambling to move into our country now, right?

If Yellow River Semiconductor acts quickly, they might even get a chance to invest in Taiji Electric amidst this situation."

"Just one Taiji Electric is worth all the costs already, not losing out economically at all," Lin Ju said with a sigh. Although many technical problems had been solved with the System’s note-issuing capability, the time it took for chip production lines, these precise pieces of equipment, to go from technology to product implementation was too long. The sudden increase in production capacity was extremely important.

"What about other aspects? What’s the situation like?"

"There’s no need to talk about East Asia. As for our European allies, they did well, very steady. They kept a low profile throughout the whole process."

"Ours? Allies?"

"Who else but the Huayin Organization? Italy suggested another full-member summit at dawn, and we’ve agreed. It begins the day after tomorrow."

Lin Ju calculated the time. So, on the 17th?

If the Huayin Organization’s summit was scheduled for the 17th, the main personnel of the Aerospace Development Committee would need to attend for at least two or three days. But what about when the NACA team arrives on the 18th? Wouldn’t there need to be at least an equal-level reception?

Could it be that they need to be together?

The very thought brought a nuanced expression to Lin Ju’s face. With Robert personally leading the team, it meant that nearly all the mainstream aerospace nations worldwide would gather. The spectacle would be extraordinary, greatly enhancing the host’s prestige.

No wonder Zhong Cheng always had an unwaning smile on his face while speaking; he probably foresaw this.

"Aside from us, there haven’t been any major incidents elsewhere in the world, due to slow reaction and insufficient information. They are probably just now grasping the situation and shaking in hindsight," Zhong Cheng continued.

"However, Russia has had a strong reaction, urging us not to believe in the false appearance of America’s compromise. They firmly oppose any secret agreements and hope that we can continue to strengthen our cooperation, especially in the Huayin Organization’s planetary defense system."

In fact, this clause didn’t have much practical visibility. Since the Huayin Organization’s inception, there were too many disputes just about the ground observation stations, and only now it was being brought up again.

However, what they didn’t know was that domestically we were indeed planning to construct a planetary defense system, just with different partners.