A nation's industrial development begins with junior engineers.

The following days were uneventful, except that the festive atmosphere of the New Year grew stronger and stronger, and Li Changfu recently became a hands-off manager.

Every day, all I do is sit with a cup of tea and sign off on the blueprints that Jiangxia has approved.

With everyone busy, Project 301 is nearing completion in terms of blueprint design. Under Jiang Xia's "core line" theory, Yang Youning has even sent people to start working on the supporting equipment for the verification production line.

The verification version is identical to the official version, except that its production capacity is reduced by one level. Yang Youning, with absolute trust in his son, plans to "open for business" on the first day of the Lunar New Year.

After a "friendly" exchange of marksmanship between Professor Zhu from the Artillery Engineering Academy and Engineer Liu from Factory 723, the product chosen for the first business was selected – the barrel of a mortar.

After exchanging technical information with Jiang Xia, Zhao Bin from Unit 331 boldly signed his name on the Navy's "ship-to-ship missile" project proposal, and confidently declared that there would be results within three months.

However, Jiang Xia must be the chief engineer of the project, and he also has to pay the money!

Hey, money, money, money! That's what makes a man stand tall. The Navy comrades were a bit stingy at first, and somehow managed to squeeze out some money for the people at Unit 331, which reassured them and allowed them to start the initial research and development work.

However, after Jiang Xia gave us some pointers, our naval comrades have been standing a little straighter lately.

Once you've done it once, you'll do it again.

Air fryers and rice cookers are selling like hotcakes!

At first, Jiang Xia also found it strange.

This air fryer was sold out in tens of thousands by that little notebook. Judging from their current frantic copying of the Bald Eagle's products, there should be at least some similar products on the market, if not widespread. So why haven't I seen a single one in Hong Kong?

Well, there is a reason, of course, but given that Jiang Xia will still have to deal with this notebook in the future, we can talk about it another time.

Of course, it doesn't matter what the little notebook thinks.

Anyway, through that old gentleman, the household appliances from Hongxing Steel Rolling Mill not only made a name for themselves in the Hong Kong market, but also exported them to the alliance.

The old man didn't pay much attention at first; he just put these things out in his department store to help a friend out—it was a small thing.

Unexpectedly, it received a strong response as soon as it was launched. And it reached its peak after "Lianhexing," which is China Resources, published an article on "Lifestyles in the New Era" in a newspaper.

Hmm~ It wasn't the air fryer that was selling like hotcakes, but rather the scaled-down version of the electric pressure cooker. That is, what Hong Kong people call a rice cooker.

This thing is so convenient.

If you put two handfuls of rice in the porridge before going to bed at night, you'll have hot rice porridge to drink the next morning. After you finish drinking it, put two more handfuls of rice in the porridge, and when you come back at noon, you'll have hot rice to eat.

For Hong Kongers who value their time, this is an extremely comfortable experience.

There are also electric frying pans. Once you plug them in, you can stir-fry vegetables quickly without needing to poke the stove or burn firewood.

Aside from not being able to flip the wok, it's almost too perfect. The mere 5 Hong Kong cents for electricity seems insignificant compared to their monthly salary of 300 Hong Kong dollars.

It's great that it's trending, it's amazing, I'm so happy I can laugh out loud.

Meanwhile, due to Hong Kong's simple tax system, the old gentleman simply eliminated profits tax and the like.

So the sales revenue from these home appliances turned into research funding for Unit 331, and into transistors needed by the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Everyone was all smiles.

Well, except for the Navy comrades who were approached by the Ministry of Commerce.

Because the Ministry of Commerce, based on that report, said something like "If we become rich and powerful, let's not forget each other," and ruthlessly squeezed him dry.

Even so, our commander was still in a good mood.

I was so happy that when we had a logistics meeting with Hong Da Ge, I unusually didn't argue with the colleague who gets airsick.

After quietly claiming his share of the funds, he sent a New Year's gift to the young man who was busy and overwhelmed at the steel rolling mill.

"what is this?"

Jiang Xia looked at the square machine and felt a strange sense of familiarity. Why did it look a bit like an electric griddle from later generations? There was a large black disc in the middle, a row of buttons below it, and an opening in the middle, as if something could be put inside.

The leader mysteriously plugged in the power cord, then took out something that looked a bit like a modern SSD hard drive and inserted it into the opening.

Huh? This method looks a bit like the old-fashioned video recorders you see when watching videos.

As he operated it, the sound of a symphony began to play from the black disc.

Oh, this is a recorder/playback all-in-one machine!

"How about it! The 'cassette recorder' that's all the rage in Hong Kong lately!"

"Don't you researchers use your brains a lot? I met Professor Guo at the meeting, and he said he likes to listen to symphonies and piano music, saying it relaxes his mind!"

That's true, but Jiang Xia had no interest in music; instead, he was very interested in taking the machine apart.

Pick up the remaining cassette tape and take a look; it's quite different from the kind that's popular in later generations.

If later cassette tapes were rectangular with the tape placed along the long side, this cassette tape has the tape placed along the narrow side, which is interesting...

Are all-in-one recorders and players available now?

Whether it uses vacuum tubes or transistors, I really, really want to unscrew your screws...

The little boy looked at the dark machine, and tears of excitement almost streamed down his face.

Seeing the little boy's excited expression, the leader was greatly pleased.

Even if a child can propose a comprehensive guidance technology and guide the people of 331 to initially realize this technology, his nature of liking new things will not change. This gift was well-chosen!

A confidential staff member picked up the newly installed dedicated telephone line to test its functionality, then turned to the leader and stood at attention.

"Report, the dedicated line has been installed!"

"Great! Now you can communicate smoothly with the people on 331 without worrying about being disconnected."

"I'm leaving. There's still a lot of work to do in the office. That bald bastard, he was hanging around Bohai again the other day. You need to urge 331 to speed up the progress!"

The little brat stared at the tape recorder and nodded vigorously.

"Don't worry, they're moving quite fast over there. The internal components are almost finished, except for the warhead cover for the guidance head. I have a solution for that too, and it should be in place in three more days..."

The boss angrily rubbed the dog's head: "I knew you were reliable, I'm leaving!"

After seeing the commander off, the little brat, holding a screwdriver, grinned wickedly at the square-shaped tape recorder.

"Come on, let me gently loosen your screws..."

"Oh my, it's still Federico Parker! This one uses vacuum tubes, and this one uses transistors. Hmm, can these two types of tubes be used interchangeably?"

"Oh, so vacuum tubes are used as audio signal indicators for power amplifiers, replacing meters. Tsk tsk, now there are 'aesthetics-obsessed' people?"

Take another look at the tape, scan it with the scanner.

Oh, it's an 8-track cartridge. No wonder it looked weird.

Let's look at the capacity again. What?

In this era where gigabytes reign supreme, how could this tape possibly reach a staggering 2MB?

My God, are you trying to get me to expand your memory?

Thinking about how he used his notebooks and floppy disks until the 21st century without replacing them, Jiang Xia's ahoge (cowlicks) almost stood up like antennas.

"Evolve, my rhubarb!"