A nation's industrial development begins with junior engineers.

The middle-aged man's surname was Zhang, Zhang Tiechan, and he worked at the 112 Affiliated Power Plant.

This power plant is quite remarkable, as it actually uses a fluidized bed boiler. This was advanced technology in the 60s, and it was built with aid from the Allied forces.

However, due to the lack of a coal pulverizing system, the slag discharge port gets clogged from time to time, requiring manual unblocking.

This led to the creation of a dangerous job – the slag remover.

A long iron skewer is inserted into the slag discharge port above the head, and with a forceful poke, the hot residue, accompanied by sparks, rushes down towards the face.

This kind of work can easily lead to being burned alive, so the requirements for workers' backgrounds are relatively low. Even people with questionable identities can work as temporary workers.

Zhang Tiechan was one of them. Of course, this was the name he changed after the peace. Before that, his name was a long string, longer than some of the rhymes that Han people like to recite.

Long hours spent shoveling slag had given him slightly curly, yellowish hair. The greasy, black soot covering his face all day perfectly concealed his broad eyes and aquiline nose.

Taking advantage of the opportunity to take out his cigarette pack, Zhang Tiechan slightly unfolded the paper slip between his little fingers. After clearly seeing the words he hadn't seen in a long time, he swallowed the paper slip in one gulp, following the action of putting a cigarette into his mouth.

I walked along the main road for a while, occasionally greeting the coworkers I encountered along the way. When I arrived at the power plant's stockpile, I wandered around among the mountains of coal for a bit before disappearing from sight.

Inside the stockpile, there are several dilapidated brick houses, built before the war by overseas Chinese. After the war, everyone disliked these houses, and they have remained unattended.

Entering one of the houses and pushing open the old wooden door, he saw the middle-aged woman from before leaning against the broken wall, staring blankly at him.

"Who are you, and what do you want with me?"

Zhang Tiechan didn't turn around; instead, he hooked his foot onto the wooden door, which creaked shut, plunging the room into darkness. He slowly reached for his lower back, keeping his hand bent and refusing to come out.

The woman didn't speak, but a sinister voice came from the corner.

"~~Maiti~~~~, long time no see! Is the vow you made in~~~ still valid?"

The full name, which he hadn't heard in a long time, made Zhang Tiechan's pupils shrink to pinpoints.

He slowly took two steps forward, put one hand behind his back, and took out a kerosene lighter from his pocket with the other.

"Crack~~ Crack~~" The orange flames flickered, illuminating a figure in the corner.

The flickering flames cast intermittent light and shadow on the person's face, making it appear somewhat elusive, but a pair of cold eyes stared intently at them.

"Ah Zu~~ Long time no see."

“??? ????? ????? ????? ??????? ??????? ??????? ???????? ???????????.” (The translation is: I haven't forgotten.)

Hearing this, Azu smiled with satisfaction, took out a stack of documents from his pocket with his left hand, and kept his right hand hidden in his sheepskin coat.

"Mission: Kill!"

"Murder?" The fire in Zhang Tiechan's hand immediately disappeared. "I'm out of practice. I'm afraid I'll delay your business."

"Ha, the greatest archer of his time, the one who could shoot down a hawk with a bow and arrow, is now saying he's lost his touch?"

"Looks like, Han, they've done a great job transforming you!"

Ah Zu's smile was extremely eccentric.

Suddenly, the laughter stopped.

Azu threw two objects that gleamed with a yellow metallic light onto the ground.

"I won't let you work for nothing. After it's done, I'll be waiting for you at the border, and we'll go to the Alliance together."

Zhang Tiechan took two steps back, his back pressed against the wooden door: "I'm out of gear, I'm rusty."

Two more sounds of metal hitting the ground: thud, thud.

"General! If you succeed, you will be the general of the Eastern Tatars. She—my ancestor's sister, the future princess of the Eastern Tatars—will also be your wife!"

I've already planned the route; once we've succeeded, we'll leave no trace! The Alliance army will be there to meet us at the border!

The lighter in Zhang Tiechan's hand flickered with light again, and the little yellow croaker shimmered with a hazy glow, deeply imprinted in his heart.

Then look at the middle-aged woman beside him, the general, the regent?

The legendary stories he had heard as a child kept churning in his mind.

Whom do you want me to kill?

The middle-aged woman brandished her hands at Zhang Tiechan, took the documents from Azu's hands, and slowly walked towards Zhang Tiechan, stuffing the documents into his arms.

He pressed his body against hers, igniting a burning passion within Zhang Tiechan.

"Go for it, my hero!"

Zhang Tiechan grabbed a handful without any hesitation, causing the middle-aged woman to gasp in surprise.

When Ah Zu saw Zhang Tiechan's performance, he actually burst out laughing. However, he didn't dare to laugh too loudly, so he deliberately suppressed it and could only let out "Ha~~ha~~".

After the two left, Zhang Tiechan stayed behind, picked up the documents, and began to carefully identify the target's features.

"Tsk, pretty young. Too easy to spot. You little punk, I don't know how you offended him, but you're definitely worth something~~"

After recalling for a moment and confirming that he had seen this person before, Zhang Tiechan began to fiddle with the guns left behind by Azu.

The Type 97 sniper rifle in the notebook.

Very good. It seems Ah Zu didn't treat himself as a suicide soldier after all, and thoughtfully brought over a rare sniper rifle. It seems he wasn't lying after all.

Becoming a general, marrying a princess, reaching the pinnacle of life—just thinking about it is quite exciting.

Perhaps, his story will be turned into a ballad by those bards and circulated among the people.

As Zhang Tiechan burned the documents, he began to disguise the sniper rifle.

First, remove the scope, then stuff the rifle into a large broom that was picked up outside.

pretty good.

The standard equipment for a slag remover, besides that big steel skewer, is this kind of large broom.

Next, we need to figure out this silly kid's lifestyle.

Zhang Tiechan has received professional training. He knows how to carry out a sniping operation.

He picked up a large broom, crawled out of the coal pile, and went to the side entrance of Factory 112 leading to the residential area, where he began to sweep up the dust on the ground.

I swept and swept, until the moon rose in the west, but I still couldn't find the ahoge (cowlick).

Ok?

Doesn't this guy live in the family quarters?

Of course not. Factory 112 does have a guesthouse. Just like the steel rolling mill, the guesthouse is hidden at the very back of the factory. You could sweep the main road for decades and still not see it.

However, Jiangxia is currently only a kilometer away from him.

Jiangxia wants to set off some firecrackers for fun tomorrow, and Old He has agreed.

The only thing I wasn't comfortable with was letting him add the rocket engine's fuel rods and high explosives into the missile body himself.

A few people were dispatched from somewhere, dressed in full protective suits, and after a flurry of activity, they finally managed to collect the remaining two projectiles.

After everything was ready and Jiang Xia had scanned it, the group appeared in the factory's small canteen.

Little Dumb Hair's eyes lit up when he saw Xiong Da eagerly serving him a big paw.

"Hey hey, here comes the famous dish served at state banquets: Orchid Bear Paw!"

"This morning, the security department cleaned up the test site, and hey, we didn't expect to find such a good thing hidden there!" Xiong Da eagerly picked up a large piece and watched the little guy eat with gusto, his mouth dripping with oil.

"How is it? Delicious, right? During the tenth anniversary celebration, our factory's head chef went to the auditorium and cooked several dishes."

"If you stay a few more days, I'll arrange for you to have braised monkey head with grouse, clear broth grouse, steamed camel hump, steamed deer tail, and sika deer tendon, a different dish every day!"

Well, no wonder Northeastern cuisine wasn't included in the eight major cuisines of later generations.

Just listen to the name, and everyone falls silent. In today's world, even if a chef dared to make it, you probably wouldn't dare to eat it. It's no exaggeration to say that half of Northeastern China's famous dishes are on the cookbook, and the other half are on the criminal law.

But now~~

Anyway, the leader is still on the way, so if you dare to do it, I dare to eat it!