A nation's industrial development begins with junior engineers.

"Sigh," Li Changfu sighed.

It's no wonder they're resorting to petty tricks; the current situation is simply too unclear to see clearly.

After its older brother cut off the supply of engines, the Sui Yangdi Imperial Garden Factory managed to produce a batch of engines based on previous blueprints.

They managed to gather more than 10 tracked tractors and send them to the Great Northern Wilderness. In less than six months, only 4 of them were still operational.

On the other hand, due to the higher-ups' requirement to vigorously develop agricultural machinery products such as tractors in order to achieve the goal of "plowing without oxen," some factories in various regions with the capacity are launching tractor projects.

The factory in the north was competing with the First Tractor Factory for the title of "China's No. 1 Tractor" by making steam tractors from modified locomotives.

Ren Zhongyuan felt extremely distressed. Why?

What a waste of resources!

What's the most important thing about a tractor? It's the engine, isn't it? It's highly specialized; do you think you can just bury your head in your head and make it?

Some factories invited Ren Zhongyuan to conduct research and requested preferential treatment in resource allocation.

It looked quite convincing at first glance. But after some communication, it turned out that the factory's so-called technicians didn't even know what a gear ratio was.

The planetary gears were even hammered in directly with a wooden mallet.

(I'm not going to say any more, or the book will be gone. Anyway, that's the gist of it.)

So the three old men discussed it all night and decided to use Jiangxia's blueprints as the prototype. After the engine was built, they would let the other factories do their own thing.

Since the main part is already done, the remaining scraps won't be wasted much.

As for why such a farce was staged at the First Ministry of Machine Building, well, that's obvious.

No drawing can compare to the awe-inspiring reality.

Simply submitting the blueprints might not be enough; there could be unexpected changes.

Back at the steel rolling mill, Li Changfu slapped all the blueprints in front of Yang Youning.

"Do or not?"

"Do!"

"Let's redeploy some people; this thing is not like the metal lump we had before."

"Okay!"

Two flowers bloom, one branch each.

The teacher's wife took Jiang Xia to the police station for lunch, and at the end, Jiang Xia conscientiously handed over a few grain coupons and cash.

That's a very sensible thing to do.

These days, nobody is well-off; if there's one more mouth to feed, someone else will have one less to eat.

Didn't you see that when Jiang Xia left, the station chief even took the initiative to send a junior policeman to lead them around the courtyard?

They kept going forward and forward, turning so many corners that Jiangxia was completely disoriented.

There was clearly a courtyard wall in front of us, but after turning a corner, there was another road.

Although it turns left and right, its speed is extremely fast.

Before long, the mottled gate of No. 95 Nanluoguxiang appeared before Jiangxia's eyes.

A middle-aged woman was sitting on the stone steps at the entrance of the courtyard, pasting matchboxes together.

Seeing two people in white uniforms leading a young man forward, he somewhat awkwardly put down his work and stood up.

"Boss, what's going on here?"

People in this era have an unconscious fear of those in uniform. The middle-aged woman's hands were all tangled up.

The teacher's wife smiled and nodded at her: "Hello, comrade, is this the front yard?"

The middle-aged woman nodded silently.

The master's wife chuckled softly and led Jiang Xia into the courtyard. After passing through the hanging flower gate and turning right, they saw the east wing of the front yard.

The middle-aged woman followed behind for a few steps, peering out to observe the three people's movements. She wanted to follow but didn't dare.

He simply packed up the matchbox, slipped back into his own home, and peered out through the crack in the window.

Uncle Yan Fugui had no classes today and spent the morning lounging around. He was packing up his fishing gear, preparing to find a place to go fishing.

"Old woman, why are you in such a panic?"

The old woman pressed herself against the window crack: "Honey, two policemen brought a young man into the yard. Are they here to arrest someone?"

"Look, they're heading towards the east wing!"

Yan Fugui narrowed his small eyes and leaned closer to the three women to look around.

The east wing has three rooms, totaling only about forty square meters. Yan Fugui's house is right across the street.

I already had the keys; they were given to me by Director Wang. There were three keys in total.

Jiang Xia walked to the door, took the key and searched for the lock for a long time, but it wasn't locked.

The young policeman behind him stepped forward and pushed the door open, which creaked and slid to both sides.

"There are three elderly men in charge of this courtyard. They said this is a civilized courtyard and that the residents should not put locks on their doors!"

The young police officer, surnamed Gao, was explaining things very meticulously.

The teacher's wife frowned: "Not allowing padlocks shows civilization? Nonsense!"

Jiang Xia peeked inside and saw that the room was covered in a layer of dust. Apart from a kang (a heated brick bed) sitting against the wall, there was nothing else.

Looking at the middle room, there was a table with a missing leg inside, and the floor in the corner was covered with black granular stuff.

"Hehe, Wulingzhi? I wonder if pharmacies will accept it." The master's wife looked up at the roof and found it somewhat amusing.

The third room wasn't much to look at either; it still had a traditional earthen bed. The only downside was the strong smell. The bed was piled with various odds and ends: cardboard boxes, glass bottles, toothpaste tubes, and so on.

Is this being used as a junkyard?

The master's wife looked rather unpleasant.

Yan Fugui, who lived across the hall, saw the three of them open their door and slapped his thigh: "Oh no! All the things we've been looking for are piled up in there."

He rolled off the kang (a heated brick bed) in one swift motion, not even bothering to put on his shoes, and rushed straight toward the three of them.

"Sir! Sir! What brings you here?"

Jiang Xia looked at the person in front of her with curiosity.

He wore a long gown, and a pair of tortoiseshell glasses hung on his thin face. His hair looked like it hadn't been styled in a long time, with beads of sweat sticking to his scalp.

Police officer Xiao Gao stepped forward and introduced, "Ma'am, this is Jiang Xia. This is Uncle Yan Fugui from the courtyard. He is a primary school teacher."

The master's wife nodded and pointed to a pile of miscellaneous items on the earthen bed: "Comrade Yan Fugui, since you are the person in charge, let me ask you. What's the deal with the lock on this house?"

"And what happened to that pile of stuff in the public housing?"

"You should know that, except for a few households, all the houses in this compound belong to the steel mill. Damaging the locks and piling up clutter in these houses is an infringement on public property!"

"Besides, how are the comrades who come later supposed to live if we pile up all this junk!"

Yan Fugui secretly glanced at the red dental floss on his teacher's wife's pants and compared it with that of Officer Gao.

"Wow, that's huge! Big boss!"

Yan Fugui was quite knowledgeable and knew how to distinguish the subtle differences in uniforms.

This big leader is a bit unethical; he came up and immediately threw a huge accusation at him, making him see stars.

"Boss, boss. We'll fix it right away. You see, everyone saw that the house had been unoccupied for a long time, so they put some things that weren't used often in there."

"When I shout, everyone takes these things away."

Jiang Xia looked at the pile of junk speechlessly. "Uncle, you really know how to take the people's line. I wouldn't believe this pile of junk isn't yours."

The teacher's wife nodded noncommittally and walked to the side of the house to look it over. Officer Xiao Gao also hurried a few steps and followed.

Seeing that his domineering teacher's wife had no intention of pursuing the matter further, Yan Fugui decided not to pursue the matter further.

He wiped his sweat and looked at Jiangxia.

"Young comrade, you're the one who's going to move in, right?" Yan Fugui stared at Jiang Xia for a moment.

"This house is quite dirty. You probably can't clean it all by yourself. How about Uncle San helps you?"

"Just this price! I'll clean your house spotlessly bright!"

Yan Fugui held up one finger and gestured towards Jiangxia.

Jiang Xia didn't reply. This old man was really cunning. He used the opportunity of tidying up to get rid of this pile of junk and thus avoid being held accountable.

Using cleaning as an excuse, they then try to find some extra money for cleaning.

Yan Fugui, you've really outsmarted everyone.