The Grandmother in the Siheyuan

Chapter 476 Striving for Excellence
Most of the infrastructure engineering corps were indeed disbanded, but some were retained, though now they are all operated by mechanization, no longer requiring the massive manpower required for construction.

Those who survived are definitely the elite of the elite. They are usually responsible for national defense construction, such as the underground Great Wall.

With the addition of these infrastructure experts, the construction speed has obviously accelerated a lot.

He Jianguo stared in disbelief and said, "Uncle, which construction company do these people belong to? We should have hired them to build this sooner! They're working incredibly fast. I saw them running around like crazy; there wasn't a single sign of them slacking off."

"It's the August 1st team," Liu Hua said with a smile. "I can't afford to hire a construction team like that. Since they're working so hard, you must provide them with good logistical support."

“They have their own logistics team,” He Jianguo said with a smile. “They do everything themselves, from grocery shopping and cooking. They submit an application form to us once a week to apply for funding, and we don’t have to worry about anything else.”

"Have our logistics staff buy more meat and fruit and send them directly to them. They won't waste it."

"I understand." He Jianguo nodded. "So they're soldiers."

"You're only just realizing it? Didn't I already say it's from the August 1st Company?"

"I thought it was the 'Bayi' from the 'Bayi Master' story."

With the Jiangnan Shipyard using new steel to build warships, the navy was extremely satisfied with the situation. A small boat that had just been launched, weighing less than a thousand tons, yielded very satisfactory results after sea trials.

So our northern shipyard, Darian, also came to purchase new steel, which attracted attention.

Phoenix TV has a program called Military Situation Room, where the host talks like a machine gun.

In a recent episode, he briefly mentioned: "According to an unnamed source in Taiwan, the raw materials for shipbuilding steel plates in mainland China have undergone a comprehensive upgrade, with the strength increased by at least 10%."

As the saying goes, what is said without intention may be taken seriously by the listener. This statement caught the attention of the relevant departments, and the other side of the strait learned that we had updated the steel plates used for shipbuilding.

However, we've only updated this less than two months ago, and not everyone within our organization knows about it. Even the people across the strait know about it. This matter must be thoroughly investigated.

At the same time, the Navy also increased the number of personnel stationed at the factory. These military materials must be inspected by the factory staff before they can be sent out. This has been the established practice for many years, and Liu Hua had experienced it before and was used to it.

A week later, people from the relevant departments told Liu Hua that they had found two undercover agents in his factory and construction team, and that he should be more careful when hiring people in the future.

"Why be so careful? Do you think I can investigate someone's family history for three generations?" Liu Hua said speechlessly, "Especially the construction team, I have even less control over them. I can only manage the people in my workshop."

Left with no other option, the relevant departments had to increase the intensity of their audits, and with the cooperation of the naval forces stationed at the factory, they were able to ensure that everything went smoothly.

However, what Liu Hua didn't know was that he had already been blacklisted by some authorities. Although the bigwigs on the other side had allowed us to join the WTO, their initial intention was to get us to provide cheap goods, not to develop high technology.

As for Academician Liu Hua, he was already on their research list. Since the opening up, Liu Hua has basically not gone abroad, only visiting Hong Kong twice. They couldn't use any means to coerce or entice him.

Their relevant departments have already blacklisted Liu Hua and are prepared to take disciplinary action if necessary, given that Liu Hua is still a business owner.

These capitalist lackeys naively believed that they could subdue Liu Hua by using economic means. Unfortunately, their research was not thorough enough, and they failed to discover that none of the truly high-tech products in Liu Hua's research institute were actually exported. Moreover, the lifeblood of Liu Hua's companies did not lie in exports, so sanctions would not frighten Liu Hua for the time being.

Things were starting to look up at the steel mill, so Liu Hua had to rush back to Beijing immediately to work with the design team at Taiyi Heavy Industry on a new diesel engine.

It was specifically designed for domestically produced trucks. Liu Hua had provided some guidance beforehand, but he did not exchange any materials, since he had experience with diesel engines, specifically those installed on tanks.

The design team has now finalized the design and wants Liu Hua to review it. Liu Hua readily agreed, as this should be the first time their company team has completed a design independently. Regardless of whether the result is good or bad, it deserves praise.

Liu Hua spent a week reviewing all the drawings and design concepts, and the designers' research and development approach was commendable.

Their initial goal was to design a fuel-efficient, high-horsepower, and easy-to-repair diesel engine. They didn't aim too high, and the specifications didn't even mention low failure rate, because at that time, most diesel engines in China had a relatively high failure rate.

They knew their own limitations and didn't dare to speak too confidently.

After reviewing the drawings, Liu Hua personally wrote more than a hundred comments, totaling more than thirty pages. All of these comments were based on his own knowledge and had not undergone systematic optimization.

He plans to optimize the system again after the students have finished making the revisions, mainly to cultivate the researchers' ability to conduct independent research.

The head of the diesel engine project team said aggrievedly, "Professor Liu, is our engine design really that bad? We have over a hundred complaints."

The team leader is 35 years old this year, in the prime of his life. He came to Taiyi Heavy Industry after graduating with a doctorate. Because of his solid foundation, he is highly valued by Liu Hua.

Liu Hua shook his head: "What are you thinking? You did a great job, and the design is completely feasible. It's only a little over a hundred comments. You have thousands of drawings. Is a little over a hundred comments a lot? If the design really isn't good, I'll just send it back and make you start over."

The team leader thought about it again and realized that Liu Hua's words made sense. They had already built several prototypes of this diesel engine. During the testing process, there were indeed various minor problems, but none of them were major issues. They were either tolerable or easy to repair.

Now that I think about it carefully, I realize that my standards were too low and I didn't strive for excellence.

Liu Hua patted him on the shoulder: "It's not like the 1950s or 60s anymore. In the 1950s and 60s, we didn't have diesel engines, so we designed and produced a new diesel engine as soon as it worked. It didn't matter if there were some minor problems. Now it's a market economy. If your product has many problems, it will be eliminated. You must strive for perfection."

(End of this chapter)