A professor's rebirth: I entered Tsinghua University in 1977.

Tan Dexi was notoriously difficult to deal with, a fact well-known throughout the farm.

The old man has a rather eccentric personality. He doesn't like chatting with people and prefers to immerse himself in his own world.

When I first arrived at the farm, my luggage was quite simple, just a few changes of clothes, but I brought a large box of various books and draft paper, as well as an abacus.

Yes, you read that right. The chief engineer of a military-industrial enterprise used an auxiliary calculation tool, not the calculator we are familiar with, but a very ancient abacus.

This was actually the norm in the 1960s and 1970s.

The two bombs and one satellite research teams all used abacus extensively as an auxiliary calculation tool.

At that time, there were very few large computers in our country. Any scientific research unit with a Chinese character in its name that wanted to use computing power had to submit a report in advance and then start a long wait in line.

As for local scientific research institutions and military-industrial enterprises, it is not their turn at all.

Over the years, Tan Dexi has used an abacus and a pen to solve one difficult calculation problem after another and designed various excellent artillery pieces. Several of these artillery pieces have won awards at the National Science Conference and have been deployed throughout the army.

After arriving at the farm, Old Tan remained true to his old ways, not liking to interact with people. After work, he would return to his dormitory and sit on his abacus, writing and calculating on draft paper, enjoying himself. No one knew what he was calculating.

At the beginning, some people wanted to chat with him, but after being rejected a few times, no one was willing to approach him anymore.

Fortunately, although Tan Dexi had an eccentric temper, he was easy to manage and never caused trouble for the farm.

No matter what he was asked to do, he would do it without saying a word.

However, they rarely impose any conditions on the farm.

The only request he made was that he had run out of scratch paper and wanted the farm to send him some.

The farm is in dire financial straits; how could it possibly meet such a demand?

Finally, I gave him some old newspapers.

Mr. Tan also accepted it with pleasure.

But that was the only time it happened, and after that, it was never mentioned again. When he ran out of waste newspapers, Mr. Tan made a sandbox and placed it under his bed. When he had nothing to do, he would pull it out and do calculations on it with thin branches.

I have seen stupid people, but I have never seen such a stupid "nerd". Everyone expressed his admiration.

When Liu Chuan heard that his son wanted to take such a "weird guy" as his master, he was a little troubled. The key was that he didn't know how to convince this "weird old man" to accept him as an apprentice.

He had no doubt about Tan Dexi's level.

As the chief engineer of a military industrial enterprise, is he entitled to question someone else's academic level?

"Dad, don't worry about this. Just invite Mr. Tan over. I'll talk to him about becoming his disciple."

Liu Hongyi seems very confident.

"What can he teach you? He's not a middle school teacher..."

This is Liu Chuan’s second concern.

Isn’t it true that Liu Hongyi, a high school sophomore, is too far away from a “master” like Tan Dexi?

Would you let a top weapons design expert explain plane geometry and solid geometry to a mere high school student? Or would you let him teach you how to solve high school word problems?

Liu Hongyi smiled and said, "Dad, the higher the master's level, the higher the student's level will be. Mr. Tan doesn't even need to teach me specific knowledge, he just needs to teach me how to solve problems."

In fact, Liu Hongyi really doesn't need to make any more preparations for the college entrance examination which will be resumed next year.

After all, he is a professor.

And he was a top student when he was a student!

All he needed was the identity of "Tan Dexi's student."

In his memory, after implementing the policy and returning to his post, Mr. Tan was still strong and designed many new weapons. He eventually became an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and a national treasure-level expert.

Of course, Liu Hongyi is not so snobbish that he wants to use the identity of Mr. Tan’s student to achieve his personal goals.

He just wanted to tell the world in advance in a reasonable and non-obtrusive way some of the scientific thinking and scientific knowledge he would gain from the future, so that the country could avoid detours and speed up the development of certain areas.

In the next ten years or so, he will not be able to get rid of his young identity, and what he says will not be very convincing.

The same advice carries completely different weight when it comes from him and when it comes from Mr. Tan.

If possible, he would also learn from a few more teachers.

Speak out in different fields.

But this has to be done step by step, don't be too impatient.

Tan Dexi doesn't like to communicate with people, but it is easy to invite him to meet Liu Hongyi.

Just ask the class leader to call him over.

Very disciplined and easy to manage.

For this meeting, Liu Hongyi worked very hard and prepared a "beggar's chicken" carefully. He also went to the commune supply and marketing cooperative to buy two kilograms of peach cakes, a pen, a bottle of ink and a stack of exercise books.

Peach pastry is an oily biscuit, which is more popular than other biscuits in this era of extreme nutritional deficiency.

This is Liu Hongyi’s apprenticeship ceremony.

Liu Chuan led Mr. Tan to the treatment room inside the clinic.

"Chief Engineer Tan, I asked you to come here today because I have a favor to ask of you. This is my son Liu Hongyi, and this is Ai Gaofeng's daughter Ai Xiaoyu. They are both sophomores at Chuzhou No. 1 Middle School. The school isn't teaching very seriously, and they're not learning much. You're a great intellectual, and I'd like you to help teach them."

Liu Chuan spoke straight to the point.

Although it was his son and Ai Xiaoyu who became his disciples, he, as the elder, had to come forward.

Tan Dexi is in his fifties, with a gaunt face and a thin figure. He wears a washed-out blue military-style shirt and has deep wrinkles on his forehead. If he is not introduced specifically, no one would associate him with the most awesome weapons design master in Chuzhou.

He glanced at Liu Hongyi and Ai Xiaoyu, shook his head, and said calmly, "I can't teach them. I'm not a middle school teacher. I'm a weapons designer. They won't understand what I teach them."

Liu Chuan glanced at Liu Hongyi, as if to say: See, I told you this old man is a weirdo.

Liu Hongyi smiled and suddenly said, "Teacher Tan, I know you're a weapons expert. I'd like to ask you a question. Can mortars and howitzers be combined? Can we produce a composite support artillery piece that can fire both indirect and direct fire, with a long range?"

"What did you say?"

Tan Dexi, who was about to turn around and leave, suddenly stopped and looked at Liu Hongyi in surprise, his sparse eyebrows raised.

He never expected that Liu Hongyi would ask him such a question.