pdf-ebookys Chapter 326 Era: XCMG's Simple-minded Wife 30
Chapter 326 Era: XCMG's Simple-minded Wife 30
September 1978, Düsseldorf, Country D.
Before the morning mist had even dissipated, the chimneys of the largest steel plant in the area were already belching out thick white smoke.
Xu Weidong stood in front of the glass window of the visitor corridor, looking down at the roaring continuous casting production line, his fingers unconsciously clenching his notebook.
Molten steel surged through the giant mold like a fiery red dragon, eventually cooling into neat steel billets.
The robotic arms on the production line precisely grab, flip, and stack, each movement seemingly calculated without a single unnecessary pause.
"Our secret is not machines, but standardization."
The accompanying engineer from Country D, Hans, adjusted his gold-rimmed glasses, his tone filled with undisguised pride: "From steelmaking to rolling, the temperature, time, and composition of each step must be accurate to two decimal places."
Xu Weidong's pen nib paused on the paper, and the ink smudged slightly.
He recalled the Red Star Steel Plant, where workers wielded sledgehammers and, based on experience, judged when the "temperature was about right" before starting to cast steel.
The thermometers often malfunctioned, so the technicians would test the temperature with the back of their hands.
Steelmaking records were hastily written on the workshop's blackboard, and a rain shower could wash the data away and make it illegible.
The gap is stark and blatant.
"Mr. Xu, are you interested in our continuous casting technology?" the translator asked with a smile.
Xu Weidong snapped out of his daze and pointed to the inkjet printer at the end of the production line: "What does the number on each steel billet mean?"
Hans smiled smugly: "This is our traceability system. The smelting parameters, operators, and quality inspection records for each steel billet are all archived. Even if a problem occurs ten years later, we can still trace the root cause."
Xu Weidong's breathing tightened slightly.
He suddenly remembered the "database" mentioned in Ji Xiaosong's letter. That concept, which had once seemed so vague to him, had now become a tangible reality in the factory of the D country.
At the same time, in the physics laboratory of Kyoto University.
Fine beads of sweat appeared on Ji Xiaosong's forehead as he carefully adjusted the incident angle of the spectrometer with his fingers.
The old equipment, manufactured by Big Brother, hummed under the strain, and the curves on the recorder jumped like spasms.
"It still doesn't work." She bit her lip. "The data is fluctuating too much."
Shen Hongying squatted down beside her, using the miniature wrench specially made by the steel mill to tighten the loose screws: "If only we had equipment from Country D..."
Zhou Yawen suddenly looked up from the microscope: "Try to reverse-engineer the Bragg equation."
She took off her glasses and rubbed the bridge of her nose. "If the incident angle deviates by 0.1 degrees, the diffraction data will be distorted."
As the three girls were doing calculations together, the laboratory door was pushed open.
Professor Chen walked in with a middle-aged man in a dark blue Zhongshan suit, their leather shoes tapping rapidly on the floor.
"Students, this is Chief Engineer Zhang from the Ministry of Metallurgical Industry."
Professor Chen's voice was unusually excited, "He is very interested in your research on rare earth-strengthened grain boundaries."
Chief Engineer Zhang picked up Ji Xiaosong's experimental records, his fingers trembling slightly: "The D country people used a similar method to increase the strength of special steel to 1200 MPa..."
He looked up, his eyes behind his glasses bloodshot. "And our 'Great Wall IV' is still stuck at 900."
Ji Xiaosong's fountain pen fell to the ground with a thud.
She recalled Xu Weidong's mention of "standardization" in his letter, and a bold idea suddenly exploded in her mind:
"Chief Engineer Zhang," she heard her own voice tremble slightly, "could we... establish our own steel database?"
Chief Engineer Zhang's eyes suddenly lit up.
He grabbed the edge of the lab bench, his knuckles turning white from the force: "Tell me in more detail!"
Ji Xiaosong took a deep breath and pointed to her densely filled notes: "We can compile a file of the rare earth ratios and temperature curves for each experiment. Just like..."
She paused for a moment, then added, "Like index cards in a library, you can always retrieve historical data for comparison."
"Good! Great!"
Chief Engineer Zhang slammed his hand on the table excitedly, causing the solution in the beaker to shake violently. "I'll submit a report right away to apply for special funding!"
Professor Chen looked at his student with satisfaction, and suddenly noticed that this rural woman, who was said to have once struggled even with trigonometric functions, had a startling spark of wisdom in her eyes.
Outside the window, the autumn sun shone brightly, illuminating the mottled walls of the laboratory and the determined faces of these young people.
*
In October, Düsseldorf already had the chill of early winter.
Xu Weidong wrapped his thin cotton coat tighter around himself and wrote a letter under the hotel lamp.
His D-country dictionary was worn out from repeated readings, and on the table lay several pieces of steel shavings wrapped in tissue paper—samples he had secretly collected from the scrap heaps of a D-country factory when no one was looking.
Xiao Song:
Today I visited their quality inspection center, where every steel billet has an "ID card." Our workers are still using hammers to tap and listen to the sound to determine the quality; they're using ultrasonic flaw detectors…
The pen nib left deep marks on the paper.
As he wrote this, Xu Weidong touched the "trophy" hidden under his pillow: a temperature probe discarded by people from Country D.
To get this, he pretended to be at the back of the line while tying his shoelaces and specifically asked a staff member for it.
Suddenly, the sound of police sirens came from outside the window.
Xu Weidong froze, then quickly hid the letter and sample in a hidden pocket close to his body.
Three days ago, an engineer from another Chinese inspection team was deported on the spot for secretly photographing the control panel.
He walked to the window and gazed at the lights of the steel factory that never went out in the distance.
The lights were so bright that they made his eyes sting.
At that moment, Xu Weidong realized with absolute clarity that his country was lagging behind by more than a few decades.
What pained him even more was that the technology that the people of Germany had long taken for granted was an unattainable dream for China.
*
It's late at night at the Kyoto University Library.
Ji Xiaosong had three notebooks spread out in front of him: his own experimental data, Xu Weidong's letter, and a translation of a D country journal that Shen Hongying had obtained from the Department of Mechanical Engineering.
"If we could combine the standardization practices of Country D with our rare earth modification techniques..."
She muttered to herself, her pen drawing a sharp line on the paper.
Suddenly, a thick DH dictionary was placed in front of her.
Su Xiaomei sat down with a smile, her eyes showing obvious dark circles: "My cousin works in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and he looked up the technical terms for you."
There was a slip of paper tucked inside the dictionary, covered with precise translations of metallurgical terms.
Ji Xiaosong's eyes welled up with tears.
This is clearly the result of staying up all night to organize it.
"Don't be touched," Su Xiaomei yawned. "Zhou Yawen is still helping you analyze the steel sample in the biology department. She said the secret formula of the D country might be hidden in the trace elements."
When the closing bell rang, Ji Xiaosong finally finished replying to Xu Weidong.
She drew a graph of the function at the end and wrote next to it:
"I've created a mathematical model that shows the optimal grain boundary strength when rare earth elements are added at 0.03%. I've attached the calculation process; perhaps it can break through 1000 MPa? I'm waiting for the spark you bring back."
*
In the cold November wind, Xu Weidong boarded a plane to return to China.
His suitcase had been specially modified:
Three exercise books filled with D-level Chinese notes were hidden inside a hollowed-out Little Red Book;
Twenty steel samples from different batches were disguised as commemorative coins and strung together to form a "keychain";
The hidden temperature probe was wrapped around the toothbrush handle;
The photo shows a group of people with engineers from Country D, with the control panel parameters intentionally captured in the background.
As the plane flew over Siberia, Xu Weidong took out his wife's last letter.
On the back of the letter, Ji Xiaosong sketched a small portrait in pencil: three children squatting under a jujube tree, drawing and writing on the ground with a twig.
Outside the window, the rising sun is piercing through the clouds.
Xu Weidong recalled what the factory director had said to him on the shoulder the night before he left:
"Remember, your generation has to do more than just catch up..."
The old factory director's hands were trembling. "It's about making China's steel industry the world's standard one day."
At that moment, high in the sky, amidst the roar of engines, Xu Weidong's eyes suddenly reddened.
He took out his pen and wrote forcefully next to Ji Xiaosong's drawing:
"When I return, we will produce steel even better than that of Country D!"