Courtyard House: The Road to an Industrial Power

In the autumn of 1955, the wind in Harbin was cool as Lin Weidong, carrying a canvas bag, stepped into the gates of Harbin Institute of Technology.

On campus, red slogans such as "Marching Towards Science" and "Saving the Nation Through Industry" can be seen everywhere.

Following the directions, Lin Weidong found the male dormitory of the Mechanical Engineering Department, an old three-story building.

Pushing open the door to room 302, you'll find four bunk beds, four wooden tables and four long benches against the wall, and a portrait of Chairman Mao on the wall—a typical college dormitory from the 1950s.

A burly, dark-skinned boy stood up first and spoke as Lin Weidong entered.

"Hello, my name is Zhang Qiang. I come from a working-class family. I worked with machine tools in a factory for two years. I'm good at manual skills, but my theoretical knowledge is lacking!"

Another boy wearing glasses looked up at Lin Weidong and said, "Li Ming, my father is an engineer at a research institute. He likes to study theories, but he lacks practical experience."

He spoke with a hint of arrogance, his gaze falling on Lin Weidong's luggage, a subtle scrutiny in his eyes.

Lin Weidong smiled and nodded: "Hello everyone, my name is Lin Weidong, I come from Beijing. I used to work with my dad at a steel rolling mill and have some experience with machine tools. Please give me your guidance in the future."

He put down his luggage, tidied up his bed, and the system quietly activated, scanning the dormitory environment. At the same time, a prompt popped up: [Campus scene detected. 'Academic Assistance Mode' activated to scan for potential mechanical equipment hazards in advance].

After a few brief pleasantries, Zhang Qiang warmly poured Lin Weidong a cup of hot water.

Li Ming continued to flip through the "Principles of Machinery" in his hands, and the atmosphere was fairly harmonious.

Not long after, the class monitor came to inform us that the first practical class in the afternoon would be held at the school-run factory, so that the freshmen could experience the atmosphere of mechanical processing firsthand.

The group arrived at the school-run factory, where a dozen old machine tools provided by the Soviet Union were lined up in the workshop. The professor stood next to one of the machine tools, looking at the test report in his hand with a furrowed brow, surrounded by freshmen and accompanying graduate students.

The professor's voice was tinged with helplessness: "Students, this is currently the main machine tool model in our country, and it is also the main processing equipment for military parts."

"But the reality is that its machining tolerance control precision is too low, resulting in a pass rate of only 60% for military parts. The remaining 40% are all scrap. We have tried countless solutions, but none of them have been able to break through this bottleneck. This is the real problem we robots face!"

After he finished speaking, the workshop fell silent.

The freshmen looked at the bulky machine tool with blank expressions, and even the accompanying graduate students lowered their heads, clearly at a loss for what to do.

Just then, Lin Weidong's clear voice rang out: "Professor, I have a way."

Everyone looked in the direction of the sound and saw Lin Weidong walk out of the crowd. When he arrived at the factory, the system had already scanned the machine tool in advance, not only identifying three hidden gear wear points, but also simulating the optimal optimization solution.

One graduate student couldn't help but mock, "What solutions can a freshman like you possibly have? We've been researching for months and have no clue what to do. Don't try to impress everyone here!"

Lin Weidong ignored the sarcasm and said directly, "Professor, this Soviet machine tool has three design flaws. First, the toolpath is too simple, which leads to the concentration of cutting stress."

"Secondly, the cooling system layout is unreasonable, and excessively high local temperatures affect accuracy."

"Third, there is a 0.03mm deviation in gear meshing, which has amplified the error over long-term operation."

Pointing to the blueprints in the professor's hand, he said, "I used to work with my father repairing machines in a steel rolling mill. I think the dual optimization solution of 'toolpath + cooling system' can specifically solve these three problems. Conservatively speaking, it can improve machining accuracy by 30% and achieve a pass rate of at least 90%."

The workshop erupted in chaos, filled with skepticism: "There's a limit to boasting! A gear deviation of 0.03mm is invisible to the naked eye, how did you determine that?"

"Optimization solutions sound easy, but are they actually effective in practice?"

The professor also frowned. Although he thought Lin Weidong's analysis made sense, it was hard to believe that a freshman could come up with such a mature solution.

At this moment, Zhang Qiang and Li Ming, who shared the same dormitory, also stepped forward.

The two had long been curious about Lin Weidong's "low profile," and now that they saw him "showing off" in public, they naturally wanted to test his abilities.

Zhang Qiang bluntly stated, "The parameters you mentioned are all theoretical values; they simply won't work in actual debugging! If you're so capable, provide specific parameters, and we'll verify them on the spot!"

Li Ming added, "If the parameters are unreliable, don't embarrass our 302 dormitory."

"No problem." Lin Weidong's lips curled up.

Relying on the data simulated in advance by the system, he picked up the chalk and quickly calculated on the blackboard next to him. In just 3 minutes, he wrote out a long string of precise debugging parameters.

"This is impossible!" Li Ming stared at the parameters on the blackboard.

Zhang Qiang was still unconvinced and immediately adjusted the machine tool according to Lin Weidong's parameters.

As the machine tool restarted, the humming sound became much softer than before, and the vibration during cutting was significantly reduced.

When the first part was finished and delivered to the testing station, everyone crowded around it.

"Precision improved by 25%! Pass rate 95%!" The inspector shouted excitedly as he looked at the data.

The workshop fell silent for a moment, then erupted in thunderous applause.

The professor was so excited that he slammed his fist on the table and grabbed Lin Weidong's hand: "Genius! A true genius! Lin Weidong, right? You not only solved the problem that had been troubling us for months, but you've also given me hope for the future of Chinese machinery!"

He announced on the spot: "From today onwards, Lin Weidong will serve as the group leader of the 'Old Machine Tool Renovation Project,' replacing the original graduate student group leader. He is the youngest project leader in the history of Harbin Institute of Technology, and will be commended by the entire department!"

As soon as he finished speaking, a system notification sounded in Lin Weidong's mind: [Host has solved the machine tool accuracy problem and received the following rewards: "50s Machine Tool Troubleshooting Manual" and "Mechanical Drawing Accuracy +3"]

In the subsequent experiments, Lin Weidong demonstrated even more astonishing abilities.

The technicians had spent three days trying to find the cause of the machine tool's unstable operation, but Lin Weidong, with the system manual and the previously identified suspicious wear points, accurately located the position of the hidden gear wear in just one minute.

"It's right here. There's slight wear on the gear meshing surface. Although it's not visible to the naked eye, it has already affected the transmission accuracy," Lin Weidong said, pointing to the inside of the machine tool with certainty.

The technicians disassembled and inspected it, and it was indeed as he had said.

The professor stood to one side and said to those around him, "Lin Weidong is simply a true genius. With him around, there's a real chance we'll develop cutting-edge technology in the future!"

That afternoon, the news that Lin Weidong had become the youngest research group leader at Harbin Institute of Technology spread throughout the entire campus.

When they returned to room 302 that evening, Zhang Qiang and Li Ming surrounded Lin Weidong, offering him water and asking him questions, their attitude becoming much more respectful.

Only two months later, Lin Weidong received a letter from his father, Lin Jianjun.

The letter stated that the steel rolling mill had undertaken a project to process new tank track plates, and was also facing the problem of insufficient precision in machine tools. The factory's technical backbone was almost driven to despair, hoping that he would take a vacation to go home and save the day.