A nation's industrial development begins with junior engineers.

Jiang Xia waited in his office for the phone to ring, but the phone seemed to be disconnected, remaining unusually silent.

However, a series of soft footsteps came from the corridor.

Uh, have we gotten ourselves into trouble? Should we wait for further notice?

Jiang Xia was at a loss for what to do. "Oh well," he thought, "I'll just sketch out the tank engine design I just came up with." Judging from his master's tone, the centrifuge and such were already done.

Overstepping one's bounds is not a good thing.

I roughly copied down a few parameters from the composition of a certain type of steel recorded in my notebook and put it aside.

Unfolding a blank drawing sheet, Jiang Xia tried to sketch the engine mechanism he had been thinking about in the small jeep.

The more I draw, the more I feel that two-stroke engines seem to have more potential than four-stroke engines.

Ignoring the disadvantages of incomplete combustion or oil burning together with fuel, its simple structure and large capacity completely outperform four-stroke engines.

Applying Jiangxia's unit analysis method, it turns out that for the same displacement, the power of a two-stroke engine is more than 40% greater than that of a four-stroke engine, and its volume can be reduced by at least 30%!

Is it that strong? Did I miscalculate?

For the first time, Jiang Xia doubted the data he had obtained. No, let's give it to Da Huang to run. With the current parameters, there's no need to worry about fuel consumption and environmental protection.

The space saved could be used to increase the fuel tank size if passenger comfort wasn't a concern! If the tank's range could be maintained with the added fuel reserves, the cost could be reduced by at least 10 percent!

However, recalling her experience on the five pairs of wheels, the ahoge that had been standing up drooped down again.

Ugh, the current level of bumpiness is bad enough. If it were our own design, it wouldn't just be the external armor that would fall off the five pairs of wheels; the gun barrel might even shake off!

When the Russians designed this tank, they always treated it and its crew as consumables. As long as the parameters met the standards, that was enough. Comfort and such could be dealt with later when you came back alive!

Then, how about we modify the suspension again?

Two-way hydraulic shock absorbers, plus independent linkage suspension? If that doesn't work, how about adding coaxial friction shock absorbers? And then a few limit switches?

Jiang Xia excitedly drew a bunch of sketches, but the more he drew, the more something seemed off.

It's getting more and more complicated. To eliminate vibrations, they've added so many supporting devices. This tank is getting harder and harder to build!

Putting everything else aside, even the balance shaft is difficult to manufacture. Without using special steel with extremely high strength that does not undergo elastic deformation, it will cause a "suspension breakdown" in no time!

Tsk, let's discuss it again!

Once all the mines have adopted industrial machinery, the production of special steel can be increased. Production ramp-up can't be rushed...

Jiang Xia pushed the blueprints aside, not even considering using the scanner, and instead turned his attention back to the engine.

It seems there was a method in later generations to increase engine stability by changing the cylinder configuration, but I can't recall it right now.

No rush, there's plenty of time. Think it over carefully.

After thinking it over, Jiang Xia entered a rational state, not even noticing that the office door was gently pushed open several times.

A travel-worn man in work clothes stood at the door, looking somewhat anxious. He whispered to Old Wang, "Comrade, this matter is really urgent!"

Old Wang pushed the door open a crack, letting the visitor see the blueprints on the office floor.

Then he immediately and gently closed the door.

“I don’t know what he’s drawing, but my job is to make sure no one disturbs him while he’s drawing.”

"You should know how firecrackers and the like came about!"

The man in the work clothes turned around once, and finally sat down helplessly on the stairs.

"Hey, this young master is really something!"

Old Wang chuckled and handed him a cigarette. As for why this comrade had come to see Little Dumb Hair, he didn't ask too many questions.

It's nothing more than related to that confidential phone call. These kinds of things won't be resolved anytime soon.

When it comes time to carry out a mission, there will naturally be relevant comrades to provide explanations.

Just like when the little brat came back, he asked him in the car why delivering that element was such an important matter, and why comrades would explain to him what exactly was inside and what kind of dangers it might pose. In the end, he even sought their opinion and asked them whether they were going or not.

He asked in return, equally curious, why not explain it clearly? He added that carrying out a mission with doubts was something that had never happened in the team before.

Take the northern battlefield for example. When organizing comrades to fight for positions at night, it was always explained in detail that this was a mission with a slim chance of survival, and whether or not to go was entirely voluntary.

Besides, when you were in Northeast China, you yourself said that you wanted to find out the reason for the matter so that everyone could analyze it together, right?

The little boy remained silent for a long time before telling himself a story about "blowing a trumpet".

I laughed it off at the time, saying that such a thing was completely impossible, at least not in our team. The story was quite interesting, but it started wrong...

It's unclear what the little brat's final expression of relief was referring to, but after hearing all this, his mood clearly improved considerably...

Thinking of this, Old Wang inexplicably broke into a maternal smile, causing Secretary Liu, who had brought him the meal, to quietly move away from him...

He stretched out his arm and pointed to his watch: "Jiang Gong hasn't eaten since he was at the armored training ground. Let him rest for a while! If he faints again, do you think someone might put you in solitary confinement for two years?"

As she spoke, Secretary Liu gestured to the lunchbox in her hand: "There are still some fish that our comrade caught yesterday inside..."

Old Wang shivered and knocked on the door.

"time to eat!"

"okay!"

Jiang Xia tugged at his hair in frustration. How exactly was the cylinder assembled? It seemed so simple, but he couldn't remember when he needed to use it.

Jiang Xia, her eyes vacant, stared blankly at Secretary Liu setting out lunchboxes on a small table to the side.

Huh?

This lunchbox is a bit different; it's cylindrical with stacked round saucers on top, making it somewhat resemble a modern insulated container.

Ok?

Circular overlap?

That’s right!

Use a horizontal hedging structure!

The engine pistons are evenly distributed on both sides of the crankshaft, and the cylinders are arranged laterally, forming a 180-degree angle. This allows the pistons to move left and right in the horizontal direction, rather than moving vertically like the pistons in traditional inline or V-type engines.

In this way, the reciprocating inertial forces and torques generated by the pistons on both sides can cancel each other out, eliminating the need for a special balancing mechanism. This results in low vibration and noise levels during operation and can even increase engine speed!

Jiang Xia shouted with joy, and his hands kept moving. In no time, a sketch of an engine that looked like a flattened loaf of bread appeared in front of them.

"That's right! That's it. Although it's flat, its center of gravity is low! The empty space on top is just enough to fit the gearbox, which forms the power pack!"

"There won't be any maintenance needed then; if there's a problem, we can just hoist the whole thing up. Hmm, we could also increase the cylinder bore a bit, so the low-speed torque will be..."

Hearing the little tuft of hair muttering to himself, Secretary Liu let out a mournful cry: "Boss, no need to explain. You know the benefits yourself. With this whole charade, I'll have to write a whole bunch of guarantees again..."

"Oh? It's alright, I'll give you credit for this! That way we won't have to sign a confidentiality agreement."

"Eh? Is that okay?"

Jiang Xia's eyes regained their sparkle, and she picked up the fish soup and drank it with relish: "Mmm, I got the inspiration from looking at your lunchbox! How about I eat all three lion's head meatballs as a thank you?"

Secretary Liu was initially pleased with Jiang Xia's explanation, but upon hearing about the lion's head meatballs, she shuddered.

She said timidly, "I dare not agree, that one already belongs to someone!"

"Tsk, stingy!"

Secretary Liu suddenly sniffed: "It's not that I'm stingy, it's just that I can't beat them. I've been beaten since I was a kid, it's traumatizing me..."

"This lunchbox was a gift she sent back from abroad..."