Rebirth 1977 Great Era

Chapter 1277 Design and Military Strategy: Blueprints Presented to the Army (Bonus Chapter for Monthly Tickets)
"You couldn't sleep in the middle of the night, so you got up and stayed up until now just to draw this?" Old Hu, who had just gotten up, yawned and rubbed his eyes, looking at the drawings on Fang Yan's table and asked.

“That’s right, these are all drawings I made last night while staying up all night,” Fang Yan nodded and said.

Everyone else outside had gotten up for their morning exercise. Old Hu and Fang Yan were in the study, listening to Fang Yan introduce the product he had drawn from memory last night.

"Look at this four-fold cylindrical stretcher. It uses a hollow high-strength aluminum alloy frame and canvas design. The core of my design is to be lightweight and able to carry heavy loads in complex battlefield environments, whether it is mountainous jungle or narrow trenches. The stretcher must be able to move with the soldiers and not become a burden."

He pointed to the skeleton part on the sketch: "The skeleton is made of hollow high-strength aluminum alloy tubes. I thought about it yesterday. The Northwest Aluminum Processing Plant just produced high-strength aluminum alloy thin-walled tubes that can be used to make arrow shafts last year. It's perfect for this."

"The hollow design reduces weight, so an adult can lift it with one hand, and two people can carry it while running without much effort; the aluminum alloy is strong enough that even if you carry a 200-pound wounded person on a gravel road, you don't have to worry about it bending or deforming."

"I've calculated the dimensions. The main rod is divided into four sections, each connected by a special metal hinge. There's a spring clip inside the hinge, so it can be locked in place with a 'click' when unfolded. No extra screws are needed, and it can be assembled in a few seconds."

As he spoke, Fang Yan pointed to the fabric of the stretcher: "The fabric is waterproof canvas, the kind we use to make tents and jeep roofs. It's thick, durable, and waterproof."

“Rain and mud are common on the battlefield. Ordinary cotton cloth becomes too heavy to move once it gets muddy, and it is also easy to breed bacteria. Waterproof canvas does not have this problem. The connection between the fabric and the aluminum alloy frame is also simple. Just sew a cloth cover on the edge of the canvas and insert the aluminum tube directly. If it is damaged, it can be removed and replaced at any time without the entire stretcher being scrapped.”

He turned the drawing over, and on the back was a diagram of the folded shape: "Look at this folded state again—the four main sections are folded twice, and the auxiliary support rods on both sides can also be folded. When folded up, it looks like a flat rectangular prism about half the height of a person, with a width of about twenty centimeters."

"This way, our military vehicles and helicopters can be packed, and even larger individual backpacks can fit. Unlike the wooden stretchers that the troops use now, which are heavy and take up a lot of space, and we have to go through a lot of trouble to transport them back after the battle, if this one breaks and is inconvenient to carry, we can just dispose of it on the spot without feeling bad."

Old Hu scratched his head. He understood the design, but he didn't quite understand why Fang Yan had suddenly started researching these things. He asked:
"Wait... why did you suddenly think of making these things? These are all for use on the battlefield!"

"Does that mean we have to get involved in military supplies as well?"

Fang Yan shook his head and said:
"After attending that banquet yesterday, I had a dream last night that I was on the battlefield. The feeling was so real. I put myself in their shoes and thought about how to improve the speed and success rate of treatment on the battlefield. These things are essential to create."

"A dream?" Old Hu was a little confused, thinking he was still half asleep.

Then they heard someone in dialect continue speaking:

"Sigh, I can't say whether it's because I think about it all day and dream about it all night, but the dream was so vivid! In the dream, there was constant gunfire, our soldiers were lying on stretchers bleeding profusely, and there were old people, women, and children huddled in a pit, trembling with fear. It was exactly the same tragic scene I saw when the returned overseas Chinese got off the bus at the hospital entrance during the day!" Fang Yan paused, took a deep breath, "That chaos, that urgency, that feeling of wanting to save people but feeling constrained, wishing I had more hands... it woke me up in a cold sweat!"

He pointed sharply to the improved tourniquet design: "I was so anxious in my dream! Especially the scene of soldiers bleeding, it was so heartbreaking! The old strips of cloth used in the army to tighten and stop bleeding? It's too inefficient! On the battlefield, every second of delay means more bleeding, and a life hangs by a thread! I thought to myself, we have to have a faster and more ruthless way! This..." He tapped the winch mechanism, "This structure allows a person, a single hand, or even someone with less strength, to use all their strength and the fastest speed to stop the bleeding in the most urgent situations! It uses the lever principle to maximize the pressure! Think about it, on the battlefield, where is there so much time for someone to tremble and tighten a tourniquet? Every second of delay is fatal! How many lives could this thing save in critical moments?"

Then, he pointed to the stretcher design: "And this! Traditional stretchers are terribly bulky; moving a wounded soldier is like lifting a cabinet, and they take up so much space. Even in my dreams, I feel like they're always in the way no matter how I move them. Our soldiers, the stretcher bearers, have to be soldiers too; their physical strength is precious! This hollow aluminum alloy frame is light! You just hang it on the side of your backpack or the back of the vehicle and you're good to go. When you get there, it's ready to use in a few seconds. The canvas is waterproof and durable; if it gets dirty or damaged, replacing it is cheap. On the battlefield, time is life, and space is resources. This thing can save soldiers some energy, free up space for equipment, and who knows, it might help evacuate one more wounded soldier!"

Seeing how seriously Fang Yan was speaking, Lao Hu's expression also turned serious.

Previously, Fangyan had been making some arrangements with the military. Initially, he believed that Fangyan should link traditional Chinese medicine with the military to facilitate the company's future development, and this is indeed showing.

But it seems like today...

"Do you think war is inevitable?" Lao Hu asked.

Fang Yan looked into Lao Hu's eyes, his voice low but unusually firm: "Lao Hu, after hearing so many tragic stories about our compatriots yesterday, and having that dream again... I'm a doctor! I can't bear that scene! It's not that I have a premonition of war or anything, but I'm thinking that if one day, whether it's encountering danger while patrolling the border, or a real large-scale conflict, or even just natural disaster relief, when our soldiers and our compatriots are injured and bleeding in the most dangerous and medically scarce places, the life-saving equipment we can use can't be the same as before, just bandages and old wooden frames, right?"

"Our emergency medical equipment needs to keep improving! Once this thing is designed and manufactured, and kept in reserve, it can be incredibly useful if needed! Even if we never need it, it's still better than not having it when we need it!"

"That's why I stayed up all night like I was possessed! I want to give our people, whether they're soldiers fighting in battle or in extreme situations, a better chance of survival if they're seriously injured! I don't want to only be able to say 'I did my best' in the future; I want to be able to say with more confidence that I saved them!"

Old Hu stroked his chin, then nodded and said:

"Yes, I understand what you mean."

After he finished speaking, he pointed to the drawings in the dialect and asked:

"Then...we'll build our own factory and manufacture it?"

Fang Yan shook his head and said:
"It's too late... We can't wait that long, we have to make it as soon as possible."

"I plan to call the General Logistics Department of the military at eight o'clock later and have someone send the design drawings over."

Old Hu exclaimed in surprise:
"Free?" "Yes! Free!" Fang Yan nodded.

Old Hu thought about it and figured that even if he gave away the dialect for free, the military would still remember him.

Then he thought of another question and said:

"Even if it's given away for free, it'll still take time to get this into production, right? Meetings alone take up a lot of time..."

He said in dialect:

"If it were earlier, it would have taken a lot of time, but it's different now. Just like our previous two books, they will be rolled out very quickly."

When Lao Hu heard the dialect say this, he immediately understood.

"You mean the military is already prepared?"

“That’s right.” Fang Yan nodded.

……

Next, the rest of the family found out that Fang Yan was getting up in the middle of the night to draw design drafts in the study.

Everyone was wondering what they could draw in the middle of the night, but Fang Yan produced three things, and all the designs looked quite reasonable.

Old Hu's mind was much sharper at this point, and he saw the enormous commercial value in it.

However, since the design of the dialect is something that needs to be sent out, the company should be able to reap considerable benefits if it could produce it.

My father and father-in-law are designers and know a lot about mechanical structures. They reviewed Fang Yan's design drawings and the necessary materials repeatedly and confirmed that it was an object that could be manufactured and mass-produced.

This brain of his is not only good for traditional Chinese medicine, but also for other things. The old man thought of the geniuses who flocked to the China Academy of Engineering Physics.

It seems my son is in a similar situation.

So my father and father-in-law approved of the dialect design.

After breakfast, Fang Yan went to check on the patients.

After finishing the ward rounds, it was already eight o'clock, and Fang Yan immediately made a call to the General Logistics Department of the military.

Minister Qin Kaiyuan was still a bit confused after receiving Fang Yan's call.

When Fang Yan said that this was for battlefield first aid, he assumed it was designed by Fang Yan's father or father-in-law, since both of them were professors in the defense industry.

Moreover, the General Logistics Department had also received information that a battle was likely to take place, so they needed these items as well. Although they hadn't seen the actual design drawings, even if it only increased the survival rate by five percent, it was still worth making them.

So Fang Yan asked An Dong to drive over and deliver the design drawings. Now that Fang Yan has An Dong as his assistant, he doesn't have to do many things himself anymore.

The design drawings are written in a very clear and professional dialect, and all kinds of data and dimensions are written in dialect. They are the kind of drawings that can be put into production right away.

Fang Yan believed that Qin Kaiyuan would immediately understand the three blueprints and realize their value once he saw them.

With the matter settled here, the convoy of vehicles carrying Vietnamese businessmen undergoing medical checkups arrived at the entrance of Peking Union Medical College Hospital.

We will begin their treatment immediately.

PS: I've gained another 100 monthly votes, so I still owe you 38000 words after finishing this chapter.

(End of this chapter)