A nation's industrial development begins with junior engineers.

The grand promises made in Chapter 1018 are also a source of our motivation.

That night, the hustle and bustle of the day finally subsided temporarily.

The building was brightly lit, but only Jiang Xia and Chief Engineer Wang Li, who had been there all along, remained in the small room.

The air was filled with the smells of old paper, ink, and strong tea.

Chief Engineer Wang Li's original purpose for this trip was very clear: to thoroughly study and verify the smelting and rolling data that Mulan had sent back from Geneva concerning the ARBED steel group in Luxembourg.

At this point, the data has been printed out on the printer paper.

However, Chief Engineer Wang Li was called out by Secretary Liu for a training session midway through the session, and Secretary Liu had just let him go.

However, as soon as he sat down at the table piled with documents, his eyes were drawn to another stack of clearly different documents next to Jiang Xia.

The densely packed Japanese kana, kanji, and charts, along with some familiar yet somewhat unfamiliar industrial symbols, made his heart skip a beat.

"This is……?"

"Comrade Xiao Liu brought this; it's the 'interest' from the 'Huang Shiren Plan.'" Jiang Xia rubbed his sore eyes and pushed over the summary of technical data from Kobe Steel. "It's some of the production guidelines and data from Kobe Steel that the relevant comrades brought back."

Chief Engineer Wang Li gasped.

For a moment, the old man was at a loss, with Luxembourg's Alberde technical report on the left and Kobe Steel's process documents on the right.

"This...this...Alberd is already top-tier in Europe, and Kobe Steel is the same in Asia!" He gave a thumbs up. "Top-tier stuff from both sides, you've got them all? Engineer Jiang, your...your information channels are just too..."

He couldn't find the right words for a moment, and finally exclaimed, "This is way too much! It's overflowing! This old man doesn't even know which side to look at first!"

Jiang Xia smiled, but there was a hint of helplessness in his smile: "Having a lot of information is a good thing, but we still need to be able to digest it. Mr. Wang, you're an expert, perfect, could you help me take a look?"

I'm only a dabbler; I can understand these smelting parameters and phase transformation curves, but when it comes to how to implement them in our furnaces and rolling mills, I'm completely clueless.

Right now, I'm mainly looking at the final performance indicators of the steel listed in these documents, figuring out which machines and components I have on hand can be upgraded using steel with those properties.

Yes, Jiang Xia was happy to see these materials, but his professional field was more inclined towards overall design and mechanical manufacturing. He was not very knowledgeable about the specific technical details of the steelmaking and smelting process, especially those "tricks" that relied heavily on practical experience.

But it doesn't matter. There are professionals here, and everyone doing their job is a good thing.

So, the old man and the young man, under the lamplight, began to nibble on these two "sweet burdens" separately.

Jiangxia pays more attention to the final performance parameters of materials, such as tensile strength, yield strength, elongation, impact energy, fatigue limit, and corresponding potential application scenarios.

The kid had already started sketching out which machine tool spindles, hydraulic press plungers, and ship drive shafts could be replaced with different materials.

Chief Engineer Wang Li, on the other hand, immersed himself in the specific process flow diagrams and smelting parameter records, such as the electric furnace tapping temperature, continuous casting speed, and secondary cooling water ratio, as well as other key physical and chemical testing data.

Time passed by, and the only sounds in the room were the rustling of turning pages, the occasional whisper, and the swishing of pens across paper.

Suddenly, Chief Engineer Wang Li exclaimed "Huh?" and his brows furrowed deeply. He repeatedly compared the two sets of data, picked up a slide rule, and began calculating rapidly, muttering to himself, "Something's not right... this doesn't make sense..."

"What's wrong, Mr. Wang? Did you find a problem?" Jiang Xia snapped out of her thoughts and leaned over.

Chief Engineer Wang Li pointed to two documents comparing data on a type of medium-carbon nickel-chromium-molybdenum special alloy steel.

Yes, this steel is the kind of steel we use now, such as 4340 or SNCM439, which is used for critical shafts and gears.

"Look, here in Luxembourg, Alberde gave the following target properties after final heat treatment: tensile strength ≥ 980 MPa, yield strength ≥ 835 MPa, elongation ≥ 12%, reduction of area ≥ 45%, room temperature V-notch impact energy ≥ 47 J." Chief Engineer Wang Li read out the data, then moved his finger to Kobe Steel's documents.

"With the same basic composition range and similar heat treatment process, Kobe Steel's final performance indicators are significantly higher: tensile strength ≥ 1050 MPa, yield strength ≥ 900 MPa, elongation ≥ 14%, reduction of area ≥ 50%, and impact energy ≥ 55 J."

Chief Engineer Wang Li looked up, his eyes behind his glasses flashing with confusion: "The composition design is largely the same, and the core steps of the smelting process—electric furnace primary refining → furnace reduction refining → steel tapping—are basically the same. Even the key 'continuous cooling transformation curve' diagrams are highly similar, and the influence of cooling rate on microstructure transformation is almost identical."

Logically, the final performance should fluctuate within a similar range, and it's impossible for it to differ so much, especially considering that strength and toughness are often mutually restrictive indicators. How can Kobe's data show "both high"?

"The quenching temperature is all 850±10°C, all oil quenching is used, and the tempering temperature is set in the range of 550-600°C according to the hardness requirements... There's no reason for that. Unless..."

"Unless the notebook is fake! This Junichiro is incredibly audacious!" After finishing his chores, Old Wang rushed back to Jiangxia's side, feeling completely relieved.

Upon hearing this, they immediately concluded that the data in the notebook was unreliable.

For this, Jiang Xia gave Lao Wang a thumbs up.

It's worth noting that in another time and space, "notebook manufacturing," especially "notebook steel," was once synonymous with high quality. However, the series of data falsifications, substandard products, and even a systemic fraud scandal that lasted for decades that was later exposed completely shattered this myth.

Kobe Steel is one of the "best performers" in this field.

"No, no, no..." Chief Engineer Wang Li immediately shook his head; the meticulousness of a technician made it impossible for him to accept such a simple explanation.

"I think they obtained a more advanced micro-alloying formula and a more optimized heat treatment window from the Bald Eagle through some channels!"

"Xiao Jiang, where did this information come from? Could you ask this channel to get more information..."

(⊙o⊙)...

What's the use of getting more data if it's unattainable? Do you know how many of our long-serving experts have spent their entire lives trying to catch up with these "drawn-up" data indicators, only to find out the truth and then, clutching their materials that barely met the pie-in-the-sky figures, they were cursing them horribly!

Hey, wait...

Does a pie in the sky have no value?

Those people outside are just making empty promises every day with all sorts of "advanced parameters" and "performance myths," making us envious, feeling the gap, and anxious.

On the other hand, this kind of "stimulation," this spirit of being held back by high targets and refusing to admit defeat, is to some extent one of the driving forces that compels us to work hard to catch up and even surpass them.

If you knew from the beginning that the finish line was nothing special, you might not have been so motivated.

This is a misunderstanding...

Perhaps it can be kept for the time being.

“Data is static, but technology is dynamic. Whether it can be achieved ultimately depends on our furnaces, our rolling mills, and our people. Mr. Wang, as you just mentioned, the heads of several factories under our Fifth Ministry of Machinery Industry are currently ‘learning from’ Ansteel and Benxi Steel. They have the clearest understanding of the actual boundaries of front-line production.”

"My opinion is……"

"Shall we have a smaller meeting?" Xiao Jiang flashed his signature eight teeth at Chief Engineer Wang Li.

"You mean, do it yourself?"

"Yeah, right!"

"Makes sense!"

The old man and the young boy got busy again.

Old Wang watched as the two started making phone calls to call for more people, then smiled and stepped aside.

"That's why I like following Jiang Xia. That kid is always on the move forward!"

"So our job is to get him moving!"

Secretary Liu happily helped the naive boy prepare something to replenish his energy—Master Nan Yi's specially made instant noodles!

It contained a lot of greasy, fatty meat, and as soon as it was released, the people at the machinery factory praised it to the skies.

Even Secretary Liu had to queue for a long time to buy two packs.