Scholars in the courtyard.

Chapter 2946 Zirconium Alloy? This isn't what I wanted!
"System, you really need to give me some support!"

"Natural gas pipeline materials, natural gas pipeline materials, natural gas pipeline materials."

Yang Xiaotao silently prayed three times, then hugged his wife from behind, his hands clasped in a devout prayer, 'Wife, please bless me.'

As he spoke, he tightened his hands and tensed his body, and then the panel in his mind changed rapidly.

"Ding! Does the host wish to consume 10000 credits to upgrade the sub-skill Steel Refining Mastery to level four?"

"Yes!"

Without hesitation, Yang Xiaotao made his decision, and 10,000 credits instantly disappeared from the system panel.

Then the long-lost scene reappeared, and my mind was like streams flowing into the sea, gradually filling my brain capacity.

A wealth of knowledge and experience about steelmaking began to fill his mind, as if he had always known these things but had simply forgotten them.

Now that I've rediscovered what I'd forgotten, I have a better understanding and more familiarity with steelmaking.

As his memories deepened, Yang Xiaotao felt his head grow heavy, and then he fell into a deep sleep.

Meanwhile, a series of notifications sounded in his mind.

As dawn broke, Ran Qiuye slowly woke up.

She turned her head, and after seeing Yang Xiaotao through his drooping hair, she smiled faintly.

She knew all too well how capable her man was, and her heart was filled with sweetness.

It was so sweet that she couldn't handle it.

Thinking of this, I couldn't help but feel shy. I closed my eyes, my eyelashes trembling, but I felt extremely comfortable.

In comparison, Yang Xiaotao was extremely tired.

In his dream, Yang Xiaotao came to a steel mill.

Then, right in front of the boiler, Yang Xiaotao felt as if he were constantly refining steel.

In the end, none of the steel bars he forged were up to standard, so he had to forge them all over again.

Finally, after several failures, he finally developed a suitable steel rod and was able to relax and go to sleep.

But that steel rod seems a bit hot.

When Yang Xiaotao woke up, he saw long, black hair and pinkish-white skin peeking out from his neck.

After a moment of reflection, Yang Xiaotao slowly lay down and pulled his wife into his arms.

Ran Qiuye continued to pretend to be asleep, curled up in his arms like a kitten.

At this moment, Yang Xiaotao was checking the gains after the system upgrade.

I opened the system information and looked at the panel first.

Yang Xiaotao

Age: 32
Credits: 680
skill:
Main skill: Engineer, Level 6
Sub-skill 1: Fitter, Level 8.

Sub-skill 2: Fishing, Level 5.

Sub-skill 3: Cooking, Level 8.

Sub-skill 4: Carpentry, Level 5.

Sub-skill five: Mechanical mastery, level seven.

Sub-skill six: Driving proficiency, level four.

Sub-skill seven: Steelmaking mastery, level four.

Sub-skill 8: Chemistry proficiency, Level 2.

Sub-skill nine: Computer proficiency, level one.

Redemption section: 5
Pets: Wood Elf, Chinese Rural Dog.

Items available for redemption: Peanut butter (2/bottle), chopped chili sauce (2/bottle), soybean paste (2/bottle), mushroom sauce (2/bottle), garlic chili sauce (5/bottle)
The biggest change on the panel is that the credits have changed from five digits to three digits, and the Level 3 Steelmaking Proficiency has been changed to Level 4.

Yang Xiaotao then checked the system information.

"Ding, congratulations host, your steelmaking proficiency level has increased to level four."

"Ding, congratulations host, you have received the reward 'Zirconium Alloy Production Technology'."

"Zirconium alloy: Used in nuclear reactor fuel cladding and structural materials. The zirconium and hafnium are separated by molten salt distillation. The hafnium content is strictly controlled to be below 100 μg/g, which can ensure radiation resistance and corrosion resistance."

The next moment, two tears welled up in Yang Xiaotao's eyes.

Zirconium alloy.

Nuclear reactor materials.

Is it important?
Very important.

But this isn't what I wanted.

Moreover, we now have the materials for nuclear reactions, and nuclear reactors have been built, but the pipeline for the West-East Gas Pipeline is still not in place.

"what happened?"

Ran Qiuye looked at Yang Xiaotao's tears and reached out to wipe them away.

Yang Xiaotao grabbed the other person's small hand and said with a smile, "It's nothing, I just had a nightmare."

"Dreams are all fake, don't worry."

Yang Xiaotao nodded, but now he really hoped that everything in front of him was an illusion.

After breakfast, Yang Xiaotao arrived at the Ninth Department to begin his workday again.

Since system upgrades are useless, I can only rely on my own hands and pen to continue exploiting system bugs. I also hope that the system won't patch this important function.

Otherwise, it would be impossible to play.

In the following days, things calmed down in terms of materials research, but the compressor project received approval in the project team's evaluation.

Of course, the current compressors are still too small. If they are to be used for natural gas pipeline transportation, more powerful compressors will be needed.

Yang Xiaotao simply handed it over to Sun Guo and his team. Since they were the ones who manufactured the compressor, the improvement work would naturally fall to them.

Sun Guo had no objection to this; on the contrary, he was happy to have been granted the task.

What's even more gratifying is that Sun Guo has not yet left the core leadership of the Nine Departments.

Apart from some difficulties in advancing the West-East Gas Pipeline project, other work is proceeding in an orderly manner.

The production of CNC machine tools has been put on the right track. Now that the workers' technical experience is becoming more and more mature, the machine tool factory can operate four production lines at the same time and produce at least four machine tools a month.

As for research on better CNC machine tools, this has not yet been included in the nine-part project plan.

However, Yang Xiaotao also instructed Chang Mingjie to pay attention to any problems that arose with the machine tools during his work, and to address those problems in order to improve the machine tools in the future.

The completion of the CNC machine tool is like finding a key to unlock a new path.

Pushing open this door brings entirely new changes.

The biggest change was a significant boost to the production capacity of the Ninth Division.

The acceleration of the ninth department also spurred acceleration in other departments.

Especially in aircraft production, it completely solved the problem of slow production, which led to a sharp increase in the work efficiency of the Third Ministry of Machinery Industry and the Logistics Department.

This has led to a significant increase in domestic production capacity, resulting in a greater variety of products being manufactured.

The number of planes that can be sold to the desert is naturally increasing.

When asked about the situation in the desert, Yang Xiaotao shook his head.

He now doesn't know whether the original war timeline was brought forward or the butterfly effect was too fast, resulting in an extra war out of nowhere.

However, Yang Xiaotao was certain that this battle was not the one he remembered, because judging from the course of that battle, it should have ended long ago.

But they've been fighting for almost a month now, and neither side has gained a decisive advantage to subdue the other. Instead, the fight has become increasingly intense, with both sides fighting like their lives depend on it.

What's even more critical is the impact of this battle on the oil market. Currently, international oil prices change daily. Yang Xiaotao, based on information from his previous life, initially thought that thirteen US dollars would be the limit, but here, the price is breaking that limit every day.

The crude oil that was originally bought for $1.50 or $1.60 has now risen to $18.

Even Yang Xiaotao was terrified by the high profits.

Similarly, there are the soaring oil stocks. Now, the oil companies that were bought back then have all become targets of capital pursuit, with large amounts of capital being injected every day just to buy their stocks.

In this situation, the stocks that Yang Xiaotao had Li Shengli invest in had already recovered their investment within about a month. After getting their principal back, everything else was profit.

Of course, Yang Xiaotao also knew that this war would not last forever, especially since the United States and the island nation would definitely stop the war from continuing and restore oil stability as soon as possible.

Knowing this, Yang Xiaotao instructed Li Shengli to gradually sell the oil to avoid the predicament of buying high and not selling low.

Of course, losing money is impossible; the question is how much we can earn.

"Minister Yang! Old Chen is here again!"

Research Institute, Computer Research Institute.

Yang Xiaotao was checking on the computer research progress when Liu Lixue ran in from outside, her eyes full of smiles.

Lu Tao, Xiao Pang, and the others were originally discussing with Yang Xiaotao the direction of computer improvement, especially the design of computer languages, but when they heard Liu Lixue's voice, they immediately shut up and did not dare to disturb her.

Yang Xiaotao put down his notebook, then stood up with a helpless expression.

"Himself?"

"No, there are also Elder Huang and Elder Xia from the First Ministry of Machine Building."

Yang Xiaotao got up and walked out. Only after leaving the research institute did Lu Tao and the others continue to speak.

However, when we talked about it again, it wasn't about computers anymore.

"If I remember correctly, the leaders came yesterday too!!"

A young man gossiped, and the person next to him immediately said, "It's different. Yesterday, it was the leader and the leaders from the Seventh Ministry of Machinery Industry who came."

"Nonsense! The day before yesterday it was the Seventh Ministry of Machine Building, and yesterday it was the Sixth Ministry of Machine Building!"

"You can mistake this leader? Don't go around saying you're from the Ninth Department next time!"

One person made a joke, and everyone around immediately burst into laughter.

The young man who had spoken earlier immediately scratched his head and said, "How should I know!"

"So many people come every day, and they're all pretty much the same!"

"What do you mean 'almost'? It's way worse! You just weren't paying attention!"

"No! It's just because there are too many people!"

The group chatted and laughed, making the room quite lively.

"Alright, stop talking nonsense and get back to work!"

Seeing that the conversation was getting more and more off-topic, Lu Tao quickly interrupted them, then picked up the documents on the table and left.

Since Director Yang won't be back for a while, he might as well go and check on the Computer Research Institute.

Come to the office.

Yang Xiaotao saw that Old Chen, Old Huang, and the other two were sitting together, looking relaxed.

"lead!"

Yang Xiaotao sat down to the side. Although Old Chen came often, even once a day recently, Yang Xiaotao did not think that Old Chen had nothing to do.

On the contrary, every time they come, they come with a mission.

For example, the day before yesterday, Mr. Wang from the Seventh Ministry of Machinery Industry brought people over, and under the witness of Mr. Chen, the Ninth Ministry handed over the funds for the satellite launch center to the Seventh Ministry of Machinery Industry.

This means that the construction of the Xizhou Satellite Launch Center has reached its final stage.

Moreover, since the successful launch of the satellite for camels last time, we have gained more experience through this period of operation.

The satellite research institute further optimized the communication satellites, striving to send the best satellites into space.

Moreover, in order to comply with the original space-based weapon plan, Yang Xiaotao also asked Wang Can to prepare a two-meter-long tungsten rod to be installed on the satellite.

So far, the previously proposed space war plan has been successfully launched. As for whether the alliance will believe it, that depends on their own attitude.

With the satellite launch countdown underway, Yang Xiaotao readily paid the money in order to better utilize the launch center in the future.

Of course, the so-called payment was merely a transfer of money from Old Chen's left hand to his right.

As for whether Old Wang can get the money from Old Chen, Yang Xiaotao couldn't guarantee it.

Because Mr. Zhou, who came with Mr. Chen yesterday, left empty-handed.

"Xiao Yang, sit down, sit down and talk!"

Old Chen pointed to the chair next to Yang Xiaotao without any hesitation, looking more like the master of the room.

"Have a cup of tea. You went to the research institute again?"

Old Chen was concerned, and his face was full of smiles.

Old Huang and Old Xia exchanged glances, sensing something different about Old Chen's smile.

Yang Xiaotao was used to Chen Lao's attitude and didn't mind. He smiled and said, "I just came from over there. There has been a breakthrough in computer research recently, so I went to check on things."

After saying that, he took out cigarettes from his pocket and offered them to Old Huang and Old Xia, while Old Chen did not smoke.

Of course, a portion of the quota allocated to Old Chen also ended up in Yang Xiaotao's pocket.

Old Chen nodded, "Computers, huh? These things are great!"

He then looked at Mr. Huang and said, “We used to think that computers should be big and powerful, but now it seems that big doesn’t necessarily mean good.”

Old Huang nodded in agreement, “That’s right, there are many advantages to having a large size, but it’s not very useful for us.”

"On the contrary, these smaller ones are absolutely fantastic for machine tools!"

Old Xia, standing to the side, smiled happily, "Now that we've got these CNC machine tools for our tunnel boring machines, they're much faster than before."

Upon hearing this, Yang Xiaotao immediately smiled and said, "Boss, have you completed your mission?"

Old Xia immediately shook his head, "No way, we just finished the one for France last time, and now we're working on the order for Goguryeo. There are two more in the queue!"

Then he looked at Yang Xiaotao and asked, "Do you still have any of those Galaxy machine tools?"

Yang Xiaotao nodded, "Yes!"

"There are four more machine tools in this workshop, and it should be finished by the end of the month."

"We'll give you one when the time comes; it'll help speed up the construction!"

Old Xia grinned and said, "That's great! This way we can get more orders."

"You don't understand, seeing orders come in but not daring to accept them is like watching your money slip through your fingers!"

"By the way, can you make four units a month now?"

Yang Xiaotao nodded with a smile, "At least four units, and if you want more, we can make six."

Old Xia's eyes lit up when he heard this, and then he crossed his legs and said, "Then reserve two more for us."

Yang Xiaotao immediately replied, "No problem, I'll send you two more before October 1st."

“Haha, great!”

Old Xia smiled smugly and winked at Old Huang beside him.

Old Huang, standing to the side, picked up his teacup and took a sip, his cheek twitching slightly.

Old Chen, standing to the side, shook his head and remained silent.

The day before yesterday, Lao Wang, and yesterday, Lao Zhou both inquired about the production status of CNC machine tools. Yang Xiaotao also said that four machine tools were in operation, but he said that they were already assigned to someone else and didn't mention them to them.

It seems the relationship wasn't quite there yet.