A nation's industrial development begins with junior engineers.

I still want to pick up my grandma~ But, it would be good to see my master first.

The old man hasn't been doing well lately; you can tell from his voice when we talk on the phone. It might be a good opportunity to take him away from his hectic projects.

It seems Lao Mo's dining vouchers are still unused, so it's a good opportunity to take my master out for a treat.

Upon arriving at the factory area, they met up with the meticulous escorting soldiers.

Actually, the amount of alloy steel used in this vehicle is not very large; it's only ten tons each of 30CrMnSi steel and 27SiMn steel used for the hydraulic column.

"Huh? Where's GH2747? Didn't you give me any of this one?"

The Ansteel official who came to sign looked around to make sure everyone else was far enough away before speaking in a low voice: "That has all been requisitioned. Even the cannon pipe you made has had its production halted. Its output has been completely monopolized by the Liming Factory."

"They said it was going to be used in the turbines of turbojet engines. Commander Yalou heard from the people at Liming Factory that using this grade of alloy steel could double the lifespan of the engine, so he immediately withheld our factory's report, saying that we should wait until we had a hundred engines before submitting it!"

"He also asked me to bring you some things, hoping you will be lenient."

As he spoke, the officer pointed to the railcar behind him and handed over an oil paper package.

Jiang Xia looked around curiously and saw pairs of large deer antlers sticking out brightly inside the carriage.

"This is?"

"Hehe, our air force recently conducted intensive testing of your 'Big Cannonball No. 1,' and a few missiles, perhaps due to manufacturing issues, failed to find their target balloons and crashed to the ground. And wouldn't you know it, there were a few reindeer herds over there..."

"Oh!!"

"It's all thanks to your linkage warhead that it works. If it were replaced with a high-explosive fragmentation one, there wouldn't be much left..."

Tsk, if Jiang Xia had used that excuse on other missiles, he might have believed it.

As for the infrared seeker of "Big Firecracker No. 1," since it can't find its target, it will naturally head straight for the huge radiation source in the sky. The idea that it will crash into the ground is pure fantasy.

Okay, whatever. GH2747 alloy steel is absolutely perfect for aircraft engines. As for using it to make heavily modified RPG-7 engines, that would be overkill.

It's almost Chinese New Year, so as long as the steel mill provides meat, that's fine. As for the team's internal affairs, let them handle them themselves.

But, sir, are you from Ansteel or the Air Force? Your affiliation is a bit mixed up.

"Hehe, in order to ensure the use of alloy steel, our commander came up with a new term—'team's resident factory representative.' I'm the first one!"

Hey, they really went to great lengths to create this kind of position. It seems they're willing to sacrifice their pride to make the warplanes fly higher and faster.

That's right, this system of representatives has existed for about 50 years, but at that time most of them were assigned to code-name factories, and ordinary state-owned enterprises had not yet implemented it.

The Air Force sending people to the steel mill is unprecedented. I wonder how Hong Dage will deal with him when he finds out.

Of course, none of this has anything to do with our little one.

When Jiang Xia rushed back to his master's office, the factory's loudspeaker blared again:

"Jiang Xia, an outstanding young representative of our factory and a level eight engineer, has returned with honors..."

A sweet female voice rattled off the little brat's past deeds one by one, but some sensitive parts were glossed over by the codename factory's letter of praise.

Hey, did you notice? The upgrade rewards that the machine department gave to the little brats were secretly placed at the very top.

Of course, the ending still mentions that, to thank Comrade Jiangxia for his contribution, the factory provided a batch of venison, and each person received one tael (1 grams) at the end of the workday. However, the head chefs received a special perk: they could each receive half a piece of the male venison.

Well, the air force's elite crew didn't have time to clean these deer. They just threw whole or half of them into the truck, poured water on them to freeze them, and then transported them over.

Li Huaide was currently directing people to start gutting people, and he was very busy.

So, amidst the cheers, the fact that the little guy had leveled up was selectively forgotten. Everyone only knew two things: the meat distribution and Jiang Gong's return.

"Master! Let's go! We need to rest for a day now! If this keeps up, I'll have to ask you to make your will in advance!"

"You little brat! Got out for a stroll and you think you've grown wings?"

Jiang Xia felt heartbroken looking at Li Changfu, whose hair and beard had turned completely white.

Li Changfu was very pleased to see that Jiang Xia seemed to have grown stronger.

Although he only knew the general outline of the young man's performance in Northeast China, even that was enough to make the old man sigh that the student had surpassed his teacher.

"Hey, come take a look, how's the flow arrangement of this cold rolling system? Look, after the billet comes out from here, it goes through the rollers..."

Before the master and apprentice could exchange more than a few pleasantries, Li Changfu pulled Jiang Xia to the overview map.

Looking at this blueprint, which is as big as an entire wall, covered with countless corrections and revisions.

Jiang Xia knew that his master had truly risked his life for this cold rolling line.

“Master! You’re so old, let the younger generation do these dangerous things! You can just oversee the whole situation…”

As Jiang Xia unfolded the scanner, he muttered to his master.

As he read, he took out the oil paper package given to him by the clerk, broke a thumb-sized object inside in half, and stuffed it into Li Changfu's mouth.

Li Changfu didn't suspect anything. His precious apprentice wouldn't harm him, but this brat's nagging was still so annoying.

Annoyed by the constant nagging, Li Changfu rolled his eyes and said, "You give birth to a little brat, and I'll retire immediately to take care of the child. How about it? You dare?"

As he spoke, he chewed the half-eaten piece twice.

bitter!

The old man's face was all scrunched up in a miserable expression.

But the strange aroma made Li Changfu resist the urge to spit it out.

"You little brat, is there anyone who would chew this raw?"

"It's invigorating! Much better than those 'powerful pills' that old man at Peking Union Medical College Hospital rubbed on me. I took a lot of them when I was in Northeast China, and they were quite effective!"

As he spoke, Jiang Xia also tossed a few pieces of root into his mouth.

You know what, just a small piece of this thing can keep the scanner running at high intensity for most of the day. When we were exhaustively working on the material proportions earlier, this little gadget was key to Jiangxia's ability to keep going.

But these rare and precious herbs are always so expensive, regardless of the era. You could offer 300 yuan for a single wild ginseng that's been around for a long time, and nobody would be willing to sell it to you.

300 yuan in 61~~

Tsk, it seems the old strategist's magic pills really weren't as effective.

Unexpectedly, they were so considerate and sent over a small package; they really are very generous.

After taking a look, Jiangxia got back into the zone.

"Master, do you have the specific drawings for this pressing device? It's not very clear on the general drawing, but judging from the parameters you marked, the cross-sectional dimensions seem to be insufficient!"

Li Changfu endured the bitter taste and continued chewing, then pulled out the blueprints and handed them to Jiang Xia: "Hey, what, you've got some kind of precognitive ability?"

"Hmph, I also have an estimate. Anything exceeding this value is problematic!"

Hehehe, Teacher Deng, I'll borrow your words to show off a bit.

However, I can't beat you in high-energy physics, and you can't beat me in mechanical design!