A nation's industrial development begins with junior engineers.

Minister Xia fiddled with the revolver that Old Wang had pulled out, repeatedly opening and closing the magazine. The pistol's smooth operation made this old man, who had lived through the war years, quite fond of it.

"The barrel is a bit too long; a shorter barrel would be easier to conceal..."

"Hey, right? I told you so. My gun barrel was supposed to be a few centimeters shorter, but these brutes kept saying it wasn't powerful enough..."

True friends are hard to find! In the eyes of a bunch of firepower worshippers, the .38 caliber gun that Jiang Xia drew in front of them was scorned by the relevant people in the factory.

Enraged, the brat, based on the later Colt Anaconda, begged the designer of the Type 63 rifle, who was still busy tinkering with gun barrels at the steel mill, to create an all-stainless steel version.

They even managed to produce a bunch of .357 Magnum ammunition.

However, Jiang Xia regretted it as soon as he got it working; it wouldn't open, not even a little bit. Even using both hands didn't work. Jiang Xia tried firing it while it was still hot, and almost broke his own wrist in the process.

In the end, the gun was happily accepted by Boss Wang and became his new treasure after the RPG7 was confiscated...

"Hey, tell me, your steel rolling mill is making weapons and self-propelled machinery, can it still be called a steel rolling mill?" Minister Xia picked up a revolver, held up a finger and shook it, giving off a bit of an underground boss vibe.

Before anyone could answer, Minister Xia immediately continued:

"Change your name!"

"From now on, it will be called a machinery and equipment factory, and the workshops below will all be converted into branch factories... those that need to be expanded will be expanded, and those that need to be hired will be hired. The relevant documents will be issued after the New Year."

Minister Xia unceremoniously put the revolver into his pocket.

"By the way, the first expansion will be the construction machinery branch. Your factory office should draft a list first, and the corresponding candidates on the list should be determined based on the most recent grade assessment!"

"Tell all your colleagues in the factory to step up their efforts. After this evaluation, who knows how long it will take before this work can begin? The country is facing such a difficult time right now..."

"Huh? Isn't our factory a major foreign exchange earner? Why don't we use this money to buy more grain?"

Minister Xia sighed and patted Jiang Xia on the shoulder: "It's just a drop in the ocean. The comrades who went to 'Beaver Country' to buy a batch of wheat are still stuck at the port... As for Big Brother, his attitude towards air fryers is becoming ambiguous. The grain that was promised to be allocated is also stuck at the port."

"You have to be strong yourself to succeed. Relying on others will lead to their downfall. Only you can truly rely on yourself!" Yang Youning gritted his teeth and spat out these words.

"Minister! Please allocate more production materials. I, Yang Youning, will live in the production workshop!"

With that, Yang Youning rushed out with his head down, but turned back halfway.

"Hehe, Minister, we have no problem working overtime, but could you approve the corresponding bonus...?"

A blank list of awards was slapped onto Yang Youning's face. "You can handle it yourselves. Broadcast what needs to be broadcast, publish what needs to be published in the newspaper. I'll have the newspaper staff cooperate with you!"

"Hey, it's a new year, we should really boost our spirits!"

As he spoke, Minister Xia straightened his clothes, glanced at the revolver completely hidden under his shirt hem, and nodded with satisfaction: "I'm leaving now. Get the construction machinery issue done! There's a group of comrades who were supporting the city, but they're currently stuck in Beijing because of the shortage of train tickets. There are quite a few good ones among them; you'll have to figure out how to recruit them..."

"Oh! Minister, so we're going to handle the recruitment ourselves?" Yang Youning was overjoyed to hear Minister Xia's words. He knew that steel rolling mills were usually very selective, and the Ministry of Machinery's sudden delegation of authority was something Yang Youning was still getting used to.

"You're responsible for yourself. As long as you complete the task, nobody will care if you turn beans into soldiers. The higher-ups call this a pilot program..."

Minister Xia spoke with great confidence, perhaps because an unexpected additional budget from above gave him that confidence.

Leaving aside the ecstatic Yang Youning, Jiang Xia gasped: "Did I fan the 'pilot program' out ahead of time? This will force the steel mill to hire its own staff, so will we have to bear the profits and losses ourselves next?"

"Damn, in that case, we really need to keep an eye on Yang Erlengzi, lest this guy, whose head is full of holes, builds a factory with 100,000 employees and becomes too big to handle..."

"Let's leave this to Li Huaide. I'm sure Uncle Li will be very interested in it..."

Dejected, Lao Wang helped Jiang Xia see Minister Xia off. After Minister Xia's taillights disappeared from sight, Lao Wang took out another Anaconda from his pocket and looked at it smugly.

"Backup is such a good tradition! Hmm, before those gun experts leave, let's make another backup of the backup... This gun is just too awesome."

……

The next day, Jiang Xia, who was still sleeping in the office, started snoring away while holding the breakfast that his secretary, Xiao Liu, brought him.

After being lectured by his "strategist," he temporarily abandoned the intermittent sleep method. After copying the documents he was going to hand over to the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications, he obediently slept soundly in his office until dawn.

After copying the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications' switchboard, Jiang Xia planned to copy the TCP/IP protocol suite first. Regardless of other protocol suites, he would first copy TELNET and FTP, and then connect to the network with a modem.

Even the people to copy the texts were prepared.

Yes, it's those three girls at home. They get three candies for copying and translating each piece—a generous and practical deal. Perfect as their winter break homework. Jiang Dong, that scatterbrain, is one thing, but Jiang Qiu and "Teacher Qin" are the main copyers; we even need those two to translate the English!

Most of the researchers nowadays speak Slavic languages. Apart from those who studied in the United States, Jiang Xia really couldn't find anyone to do these things.

Most importantly, due to Jiangxia's own circumstances, these three young guys have been registered with the relevant departments, which can save them a lot of trouble beyond technical issues. As for your claim that the three young guys aren't skilled enough?

Don't forget, behind them is the legendary "Teacher Pei".

Besides, there weren't many supplementary teaching materials available for them in this era. After completing their daily diary entries, they mostly spent their time on outdoor activities. The original task of digging tree pits was also quickly completed with the excavator operators working in three shifts.

Now free from her mission, Jiang Dong, along with Jiang Qiu and "Teacher Qin," has recently become the leading lady of a certain residential compound.

Every day, Jiang Dong would take some young girls and beat up those self-proclaimed "veterans" and their little brats. After suppressing the family compound with his force, Jiang Dong, who was so audacious, even led his henchmen on a "western expedition" to beat up those little brats who had bullied "Teacher Qin" again.

Although the old folks were happy to see it happen, even the man who played with the kitchen knife praised Jiang Dong for having the demeanor of a great general and gave him his Browning pistol.

But Jiang Xia still felt that they should be kept in check, so the idea of ​​having them copy books came about.

Alright, let's put all that aside for now, it's time to put the machines to the test again!

Connecting the gears one by one and watching the patterns on the assembly diagram take shape in your hands, the sense of accomplishment is even more intoxicating than the first joy in life.

Regardless of what you think, that's what Little Hair thinks.

Just as they were getting into the swing of things, Old Wang quietly walked in.

"Are you done yet? My dad's getting impatient..."

"Hmm? The French are shaking again?"

"Correct!"

"Oh, I'll be here for a while. Why don't you take them to look at the blueprints first? The relevant documents are all ready; they're at the usual place..."