Start with a blacksmith shop.

Chapter 158 New Challenges

Just as Minister Wang was still pondering, he heard the argument between Cui Tianzhi and the naval representative.

After listening for a while, I understood that this was another dispute between the two units over the ownership of equipment.

For example, the Navy managed to steal the Suzaku III last time, but they had absolutely no chance against the Suzaku VIII.

This time, the two of them started arguing again about where the plane was going.

"Stop arguing, you two. This plane still has defects. Look at you, you're almost a hundred years old combined."

Arguing in front of so many people, aren't you ashamed?

After Minister Wang finished speaking, he turned his head to Li Zhenhua.

"Xiao Li, don't feel pressured. Let's focus on resolving the issues that have surfaced this time."

We'll discuss the follow-up issues once it's truly finalized.

I believe you must have a lot to discuss regarding the production process.

You can't even handle the issue of large quantities of materials on your own.

Let's focus on what's in front of us first!

Minister Wang possesses a strong sense of the big picture; he considers the overall situation and takes a comprehensive view.

He didn't address matters between the two sides or the two militaries, but instead focused on the immediate issues, giving him instructions.

Listening to Minister Wang's words, Li Zhenhua nodded in agreement.

"I understand, Minister Wang. So, I guess this test flight was a success?"

Minister Wang smiled and said nothing, only patting him on the shoulder to show encouragement.

She deliberately lagged behind and moved closer to him.

"Xiao Li, you know I'm from the Army, right? I've truly witnessed your research and development capabilities this time."

Your other military status is still with our army, so strictly speaking, you're also considered one of our army members.

Don't forget to get us some new gadgets too, Old Lu. He's the one who suffers the most in the army.

They keep changing their planes or ships, what can we, the Lu, change?

It's just a matter of getting new uniforms; you should take that to heart!

The man whispered something to him, and then followed the group ahead.

With the departure of numerous leaders, the day came to a successful conclusion.

That very evening, he began improving the existing Suzaku 9 in the virtual laboratory.

A small bomb bay has been added at the rear of the fuselage, which is where the red-hot decoy grenades are stored.

They also addressed each of the minor issues encountered during the filming process.

The only standard for improvement is to complete all modification projects as much as possible without altering the aircraft's external shape.

The very next day, in Honduran, he began his journey to improve the aircraft.

For the next month or so, he stayed in Hongdu, and the parts that needed to be modified were not complicated, so they were all resolved in Hongdu.

After a month of improvements to the aircraft, he solved all the problems encountered in the previous exercise.

The current Vermilion Bird can be considered to be in its complete form, and there is no need to improve its appearance at all.

He then spoke with Minister Wang again on the phone, informing him of the plane's condition.

The other party didn't make any promises to him, only said "I understand," and finally told him to keep an eye on his bank card recently, saying it was for the money to buy three airplanes.

At this point, he understood what Minister Wang meant. The current situation was that the three planes no longer belonged to him; the ownership had been bought by the military.

Half a month had passed since he received Minister Wang's call, and he had long since returned home in Hongdu.

I've been researching airplanes lately, studying the formulas and manufacturing processes for various materials.

That day, while he was writing about the crystallization process of single-crystal metals, he received another call from Minister Wang.

"Hey, Xiao Li, I'm calling this time for just one thing. Get ready to start the preliminary work on manufacturing the Suzaku 9 fighter jet."

"We'll be getting orders from other companies soon. Do you have any further questions about this?"

Everything that Minister Wang said on the phone was exactly what he had expected. He had already predicted today's outcome based on his last conversation with Minister Wang.

Is there a problem? Yes, there is, and it's not a small one.

This relates to all the special metals used in aircraft; previously, he had prepared these metals using small equipment.

However, as the usage increases, we certainly can't let him continue using small equipment for smelting.

These materials will inevitably have to be outsourced to other manufacturers, and this raises a problem.

How should we hand over this formula? Should we let him apply for a patent with it? Unless he's crazy, wouldn't that be the same as making the formula public?

He created all of these formulas himself and owns all the intellectual property rights to them.

However, handing it over like that wouldn't be in his best interest, and besides, who could guarantee that the formula wouldn't be leaked after it was handed over?

So this is a problem that needs to be solved by higher-ups, and he did indeed pass this problem on to Minister Wang.

This might be a problem for him, but for Minister Wang, who is in charge of the nation's equipment development, it's not a problem at all.

"You can just hand over those formulas to me; it's like handing them over to the state, letting the state manage them for you."

As for the manufacturer, I'll find them for you when I get back. For every gram of metal you produce that the manufacturer sells, they'll pay you a usage fee.

The reference is the Patent Law, but of course these things won't be patented.

Don't worry, the manufacturer I found is absolutely reliable; there won't be any leaks!

Minister Wang had anticipated this matter, and he is now handling it with great ease.

In no time at all, he solved what he considered a difficult problem.

He then chatted with Minister Wang for a few more minutes before hanging up the phone.

Now he's just waiting for the relevant departments to place orders with him. Of course, before receiving these orders, they need to solve the problems of production sites and workers.

Fortunately, they had already taken in some industrial workers who had transferred from who-knows-where.

Moreover, there is no shortage of production sites, and the buildings there are constructed by construction teams with a distinctly military style.

The factory there is of a much higher standard than the factory they are currently using; it's on a completely different level.

Don't assume their previous factory buildings were bad; they were still very good, much better than those of small factories.

But this thing is afraid of comparison; once compared, the difference becomes apparent.

In the following days, he also derived the formulas for all the metals used in the fighter jets, waiting for Minister Wang's men to come and collect them.

That morning, a group of soldiers came to his company, but they didn't go here; instead, they went to the newly built, separate factory area next door.

Later, in the safe area of ​​the factory, Li Zhenhua handed over a 5TB portable hard drive to the other party. Then these people left, and no one knew where they went.

All he knew was that he would have enough materials to use later, make money, and not be afraid of leaks.

They took away a batch of new materials. If these materials could be made public, Li Zhenhua's title could immediately be changed to a well-known materials scientist and a world-famous blacksmith.

The materials issue was now resolved, but he still had a lot to worry about.

The first point is the production issue at the new factory; they definitely won't let Liu Xiaodong and Guo Shugui get too involved there.

At most, the two of them could only look at the financial reports of the factory over there, or know how much money they would ultimately receive as dividends.

Even if he wanted to, the higher-ups wouldn't agree, so it's necessary to select managers from among these industrial workers.

Moreover, it's not just a personnel issue, but also a production equipment issue. This time it might be mass production, so his previous makeshift equipment will no longer be able to meet the demand.

This means he needs to buy new equipment, but these devices are not easy to acquire.

Some machine tools are subject to export restrictions to Kyushu, so you can't buy them even if you have the money.

However, the machine tool factories in Kyushu weren't very competitive, and the substitutes they produced were significantly inferior.

This is where he, the human industrial machine, comes in to upgrade the domestic alternatives, which is what he will be doing next.

Anyway, he has a lot to do, and he also has an airshow to attend in a few months.

Anyway, he'll be busy day and night from now on.

It might leave him with no energy to even play poker or talk about driving skills with Li Yun.

More than ten days passed, and on this day, many large trucks arrived at the factory.

The truck was carrying nothing but old machine tool bases.

These items were all obtained by Liu Xiaodong from various places, and some of the machine tool bases were even bought from abandoned factories at scrap metal prices.

Don't underestimate the bases of these machine tools; they are the foundation for his modification of high-precision machine tools.

To others, these might just be some rusty lumps of iron, utterly useless.

But in his eyes, these were treasures; even a brand-new machine tool wasn't as valuable as them.

The reason is actually quite simple: these machine tool stands have stood the test of time.

All their internal energy is released, and the new machine tools modified on these bases will have a minimal impact on precision.

This is similar to how large machine tool factories always have a place to store raw materials, and any piece of material stored there could have been there eight or ten years ago.

Li Zhenhua obviously didn't have the time to wait that long, and buying from a machine tool factory was out of the question.

Machine tool factories value these rusted raw materials more than anything else. Nowadays, machine tool factories prioritize skilled fitters, and secondly, these materials.

Therefore, Li Zhenhua had no choice but to find another way and start working on the machine tool bases of old machine tools.

Large forklifts and cranes were brought in to unload the metal lumps from the trucks and pile them on an open space in the factory area.

What awaits these machine tool bases next is for them to be remanufactured into new high-precision machine tools.

(End of this chapter)