The Grandmother in the Siheyuan

Chapter 358 Running Around
In the enormous laboratory, a rudimentary supercomputer stood side by side, next to a mountain of blueprints.

There's no other way; current personal computer hard drives are still too small. If we wanted to store so many drawings, we wouldn't know how much money we'd have to spend on hard drives. We can only use paper drawings, which will make things a little easier for the project team, which is short on funds.

Looking at such a massive project, Liu Hua naturally thought he should use the system's optimization function. But just as he was about to take action, he stopped.

He patted his head and muttered to himself, "I'm quite knowledgeable now, so why do I always rely on external things when it comes to crucial moments? Why can't I try things myself?"

Although there were many drawings and they were quite complicated, Liu Hua still spent a month reviewing them all.

As the ancients often said, "Reviewing the old helps one understand the new," and Liu Hua now has the deepest feeling about this. After reviewing the blueprints designed by Professor Li and his team, he not only gained a basic understanding of the supercomputer in front of him, but also had a collision of ideas with Professor Li's, which gave him some new inspiration.

A month later, all the designers gathered in the laboratory, and Liu Hua began to explain his ideas.

This is equivalent to taking a high-level perspective and offering further insights from Professor Li's point of view. Every optimization idea Liu Hua came up with was unexpected. Of course, this is also normal. If they had thought of it in the first place, they wouldn't have left it to Liu Hua to optimize.

Everyone's pens kept flying, and finally Professor Li said happily, "With your optimization, we can increase computing power by at least 30%. You deserve this title of deputy chief engineer."

"I'm so busy all day long, and you still drag me down to optimize your project? How can you be so shameless?"

"What are you so busy with? Is there a project that's giving you trouble, or what?"

“I have several projects on hand: LNG carriers, supercomputers, PHS phones, and engines.” Liu Hua said irritably, “Which project isn’t important? Which project isn’t complicated? Just thinking about it will give you a headache.”

"Such an important responsibility, but you can take it on. Tsinghua University should not have limited you to semiconductor, materials, or mechanical design. You could have done all of those. I bet the president regrets it now."

Liu Hua felt he was running around like crazy, so he immediately flew to Shanghai and retrieved some of the engine blueprints.

"This is the oil spray I designed," Liu Hua said to the engineer from Hans. "Our domestic machining precision is not yet up to the requirements of the drawings. I don't know if your Hans country can't achieve it. Why don't you send it to your headquarters for testing?"

Toyota says it will design a super engine that uses nano-level fuel injection to truly achieve complete fuel combustion. Liu Hua's design is no less impressive, requiring the world's most advanced processing technology. If Hans's technology cannot meet the requirements, then this design will have to be abandoned.

The engineer from Hansberg returned seven days later with news that was neither good nor bad.

“Deutz has already accepted the order,” the engineer said proudly. “They are the best engine manufacturer in our country, but their machining precision is not up to par for now. They are already organizing people to conduct technical research. In addition, we have also contacted Amag, Südner and Siemens, hoping that they can provide more advanced machining tools.”

This is the advantage of a complete industrial chain. Even if a single company's technology is insufficient, they can call upon more upstream and downstream companies to help. Moreover, there are also so-called technology service companies that can provide assistance.

This level of support made Liu Hua quite envious. When he was designing the carbon fiber production line, there were some things that domestic manufacturers couldn't produce, so Liu Hua had to help them overcome the technical difficulties. If this were in Hans, he wouldn't have to worry about this.

"The technical department has evaluated your oil injection design," the engineer said truthfully. "They all agree it's excellent value, and the board has allocated additional funding, asking me to tell you they need to refine it further." "If we refine it further, it will be nanoscale oil injection. Can Deutz still process that?" Liu Hua said with a smile, "This is the optimal solution at present. Don't nitpick anymore."

"I learned a term from your engineers: 'having gained one thing, one desires another.'"

"There's another saying: 'Greed knows no bounds,' which is like a snake trying to swallow an elephant. You should all learn from that."

After leaving the Volkswagen plant, Liu Hua went to the Jiangnan Shipyard, where all the technical aspects of the entire project team would be finalized.

Liu Hua checked the project progress. Apart from the power system, the marine materials were about 70-80% complete, and the other projects were nearly 50% complete.

"That's great. With this kind of progress, we estimate that our ship will be launched in another three years."

Mr. Yang said with a smile, "That's right. In all my years of ship research, this is the smoothest one I've ever done."

"With you, our great general, in charge, how could the research not be progressing smoothly?"

"You flatter me, old man." Mr. Yang shook his head. "With you around, you wouldn't believe how much of a stimulus that was to other project teams when you designed the power system in just one year."

This is called the catfish effect.

"Don't think I'm ignorant of management theories."

"Then I'm sawing wood in front of Lu Ban (a legendary carpenter)."

Old Yang said with a smile, "What makes me happiest is not the successful design of our ship, but that our country's shipbuilding industry has a rising star who can shoulder heavy responsibilities. This way, I can say that I have done right by my country."

“New talents emerge in every generation.” Liu Hua gave a thumbs up: “And these talents are better than the last. To be honest, this time when I was in Hong Kong, I met with the shipping magnate Bao and I mentioned our LNG carrier design to him. He was quite interested.”

"How come I heard that the shipping magnate has gone ashore to get into real estate?" Old Yang said hesitantly, "It seems to be that place called Wharf Holdings. I was both happy and regretful at the time."

Mr. Yang continued, "What makes me happy is that we took over Wharf Holdings and fired the first shot in the Chinese-owned resistance against British-owned shipping. It boosted the morale of us Chinese people, and I am very happy. However, I feel sorry that the shipping magnate was taken ashore. It is such a pity that the Chinese were able to occupy such an important share in the world shipping market and just gave it up."

“Mr. Bao is just looking for a way out,” Liu Hua explained. “Back then there was the oil crisis, and now that the oil crisis is over, they can come back and fight again.”

(End of this chapter)