A nation's industrial development begins with junior engineers.

After drinking their fill of spring water, the men carried the well-drilling equipment back to Jiangjia Village, under Old Man Wei's reluctant gaze.

"Uncle Wei, the summer harvest is almost here. Don't forget to bring your own food to help out!"

Grandpa Wei gritted his teeth, "That Jiang brat is a scoundrel!"

Wang Kui had been peering out from the village entrance, and only breathed a sigh of relief when he saw the group. He silently stuffed the several soda-bottle-like objects back into the small jeep.

"Jiang Xia! Come quick! What did I catch?"

Li Tiejun burst out from behind Wang Kui with a loud shout, clutching a small animal tightly in his hand, which was as big as a clay pot.

Jiang Xia looked closely and saw long ears, grayish-white fur, and a constantly wriggling three-lobed mouth.

Tsk, Little Grey, how could you be so careless as to get caught by this steel poet?

"Hahaha! This little thing runs fast! Unfortunately, it made a mistake and was still knocked unconscious by this general's slap!"

"Oh, Your Majesty, could you please check if there's a red string at the base of this rabbit's tail?"

Li Tiejun endured the rabbit's powerful hind leg kicks and forcefully pulled out its tail.

"Hey, there really is one. How strange?"

"Yes, that's a red ribbon. My fifth sister tied it for me, and it's called Little Gray."

"What?" Li Tiejun shuddered, and the rabbit kicked its leg and broke free from his grasp.

Before it even hit the ground, Jiang Xia kicked it back into Tie Jun's arms with a soccer ball kick.

"We've already caught them, let's not waste them."

"What about your sister?"

"Hehe, since you caught him, you can go and coax him!"

…………

At night, bonfires were lit in Jiangjia Village.

The adorable little gray creature and its relatives and friends were happily playing with the flames.

The red ribbon was back on Fifth Sister Jiang Dong's head. At this moment, the little girl looked at Xiao Hui, tears streaming down her face.

"Little Grey, you smell so good!"

With green herbs smeared on his chest and wearing Jiang Xia's old clothes, Wang Kui finally got his wish and drank three cups with Grandma Jiang.

The commune secretary and village heads from various villages also gathered in Jiangjia Village to discuss how to apply for and use a well drilling machine.

After all, agriculture and industry are two separate sectors, and by the time reports are submitted layer by layer as usual, it's too late.

In the end, it was Jiang Xia who made the final decision: the drilling rig would remain in Hongqi Commune under the guise of an experiment to continue drilling operations. However, each village had to find its own water veins, with three attempts per vein; if they couldn't find one, they would move on to another village.

Meanwhile, in the small workshop of the steel rolling mill.

The four engines are arranged side by side, two large and two small.

"Put-put-put-put~~", the sound of the engine is not pleasant, and it can even be a bit annoying after listening to it for a while.

But some people find it delightful.

Ren Zhongyuan had been here for a whole day since receiving Li Changfu's notification. He watched as Li Changfu led Ma Weihong and the others to assemble three more engines.

After the engine was assembled and fueled, it sputtered from day to night.

"Old Ren! How's it going? Have you gotten the specific data yet?" Li Changfu shouted loudly into Ren Zhongyuan's ear.

Ren Zhongyuan patted Wang Chaogui on the shoulder, and Wang Chaogui nodded to everyone, leading them out of the small workshop before slowly speaking:

"Based on my calculations, the two twin-cylinder, twin-stroke engines are expected to reach 28 horsepower! The single-cylinder, twin-stroke engine is expected to reach 14 horsepower!"

"Moreover, the engine ran continuously for more than 10 hours without any issues such as cylinder detonation, gear scoring, or slippage, indicating that the engine is reliable and successful!"

After saying this, Wang Chaogui puffed out his chest and waited for the cheers of the crowd.

Unexpectedly, all I got was a sigh.

"Oh, only 28 horsepower!" Yang Youning pouted in disappointment.

"Mr. Li, you mentioned earlier that the engine at the Yuhuayuan factory, the older brother's, was 54 horsepower, right?"

"This is less than half the size of what others have reached, what can it possibly do!"

Master Qin chimed in, "Yeah, those Jiefang trucks have 90 horsepower, ours really is nothing special."

Looking at the listless crowd, Wang Chaogui was a little confused: "Why are you all so dispirited? This data is quite impressive!"

Yang Youning waved his hand: "Engineer Wang, don't bother comforting us. The smaller one only has 14 horsepower, which is probably only enough for Xiao Jiang to drill a well!"

Wang Chaogui: "Huh? That's not how you calculate an engine! It's not just about horsepower, but also torque, reliability, durability..."

What followed was a barrage of technical jargon that left everyone dizzy, but the crowd remained uninterested.

Ren Zhongyuan noticed his old friend's impatience and patted him on the shoulder: "Why are you talking to them so professionally? Where is this? It's a steel rolling mill!"

"This group of people are playing with steel plates and parts."

"Look at me!"

Ren Zhongyuan clapped his hands vigorously to attract everyone's attention, then took a step and stood on the steps.

"Comrades! Fellow workers!"

"I hereby declare in my capacity as Minister of Agricultural Machinery!"

No wonder Ren Zhongyuan is a minister; even though he's a "former," he stunned the master chefs with just one sentence.

"I hereby declare that the first two-cylinder, two-stroke diesel engine and the first single-cylinder, two-stroke diesel engine in China have been born from your hands!"

"These two engines, from blueprints to parts, and from parts to assembly, were all designed and built entirely by Chinese people!"

Boom~~~~

Before he could finish speaking, the crowd erupted in uproar.

The master chefs cheered when they heard Ren Zhongyuan mention the two firsts.

The rest doesn't matter, as long as I'm number one!

"Number one, number one! We are number one!"

These days, the factory practically controls the lives of its workers. Aside from livelihood, reputation is what they value most.

An ordinary workshop with advanced technology is already highly sought after, let alone one that is "number one in China".

Family genealogies can be split into a single page, stating that so-and-so participated in the research and development and manufacturing of China's first domestically produced engine.

You can burn the first incense stick!

After comforting everyone, Yang Youning led Ren Zhongyuan and the other man back to the office.

"Minister Ren, that sounds nice. But what's the point of building this engine? With the title of 'number one,' it's probably only good for digging a small well, and even for installing a large one on a truck!"

Ren Zhongyuan and Li Changfu exchanged a smile.

"Director Yang, how about we go big?"

"A big one? Get a large-sized well drilling rig? That's not a bad idea. It can be used together with a hand pump well, which would be great."

"I wonder how Jiang Xia's experiment is going."

Listening to Yang Youning's grumbling, Ren Zhongyuan handed him a master plan.

Yang Youning was completely dumbfounded when he saw the blueprints that Ren Zhongyuan had taken out.

"What is this thing? It looks so weird."

The lines on the drawing are simple, outlining the shape of a machine.

It has four tires, smaller in the front and larger in the back. Above the smaller tires is a large rectangular head, with two long armrests extending from the back of the head, and behind the armrests is something like a seat.

Nothing else.

Upon closer inspection of the drawing's title, "Feasibility Study of a Self-Propelled Power Machinery Based on a Self-Developed Power Unit,"...

Yang Youning recognizes every single character, but reading them together is so difficult.

"Is this Jiang Xia's doing again?"