Scholars in the courtyard.

Chapter 2947 Surely no one is truly so forgetful?
Both Elder Chen and Elder Huang saw through Yang Xiaotao's selfish motives, but there was nothing they could do about it.

Even when other departments heard about this, they would only grumble in their hearts, but dared not come to the Ninth Department to complain about the injustice.

Because they know that without Elder Xia, there would be no machinery factory as it was back then, and naturally, there would be no current Department Nine.

Looking further back, without Mr. Xia's strong support, Yang Xiaotao would not be where he is today.

At the very least, to outsiders, Old Xia was Yang Xiaotao's protector before he grew up.

They sheltered them from the wind and rain, never backing down.

Yang Xiaotao has grown up now, and judging from his style of dealing with people and things, he is the kind of person who will repay even the smallest kindness with the greatest gratitude and will never forget his roots.

Therefore, whenever Mr. Xia makes a request, Yang Xiaotao will fulfill it, and even doubly so.

No one in the Nine Departments dared to object to this, nor would anyone dare to provoke it.

Of course, some people wanted to take a roundabout approach. For example, Mr. Xu from the Fifth Ministry of Machinery Industry wanted to poach Mr. Xia, especially since Mr. Xia was retired. His purpose was self-evident.

But Xia Lao was very clear about his own position, knowing that his best option was to retire from the Ministry of Machine Building and then live his own quiet life.

Of course, if the Ninth Division still asked him to come, he would be happy to stay there.

Because life becomes very interesting here.

It's more fun than playing chess or poker on the street.

"Boss, have you been busy lately?"

Yang Xiaotao flicked the ash from his cigarette and asked casually.

Old Xia didn't understand Yang Xiaotao's meaning either, and Old Chen and Old Huang were looking at Yang Xiaotao, wondering what he was up to.

Old Xia casually replied, "Nothing much has been going on lately. What's up?"

But then Yang Xiaotao continued, "We've taken on the West-East Gas Pipeline project, and it seems like it's a huge project. I'm a bit too busy to handle it all, so I was hoping you could come and help me out."

Old Xia's eyes widened, somewhat unable to react.

Even Old Chen, who was standing to the side, covered his head and didn't know what to say.

Is this a favor I can do for you?

This is purely giving credit to Lao Xia.

Everyone knows how difficult the West-East Gas Pipeline project is, but the benefits behind it are equally clear.

Especially with the Ninth Division leading the charge in this matter, with the manpower and resources of the Ninth Division, this project is very likely to be completed.

Just like the previous aircraft carriers.

Anyone who gets on this train will reap endless benefits.

Even just being a figurehead has its advantages.

You can even leave your name here.

Now Yang Xiaotao has handed this opportunity to Elder Xia, leaving Elder Chen somewhat speechless.

Did you ask your supervisor about this?

So disrespectful.

Compared to Elder Xia's bewilderment, Elder Huang was the first to react. He kicked the still-dazed Elder Xia and then winked at him to agree.

But Old Xia understood the meaning behind it and hesitated again.

Seeing this, Yang Xiaotao continued, "For now, this project only has the northern route, which runs from the Northwest Oil and Gas Field to Beijing and Tianjin."

"The integration project is divided into three sections: the first section extends from the northwest to the Loess Plateau, the second section extends to the foot of the Taihang Mountains, and the third section is the plains area."

"We're working on all three sections at the same time. We already have someone for the western section, but we don't have suitable candidates for the remaining two sections yet, so we were thinking of asking you for help."

At this point, Yang Xiaotao added, "This involves various provinces and regions, as well as qualifications and experience, which is quite complicated."

"You know, some things are said to someone's face, but who knows what they'll do behind their back."

"Without someone of considerable influence to oversee things, I'm genuinely afraid that things won't be able to move forward."

"So after thinking about it, I still think you are more suitable."

Old Xia had originally intended to decline, but upon hearing Yang Xiaotao's words, he immediately understood the meaning behind them.

Some people want to act like they're senior and use their experience to bully others.

How can this be done?

This is absolutely not okay.

At that moment, Old Xia nodded directly, "Every revolutionary comrade should respond enthusiastically to such a thing that benefits the country and the people. If anyone dares to hold us back, tell me and I will talk to them."

Upon hearing this, Yang Xiaotao laughed and said, "That's great! The leader is here too, so it's settled then."

As he spoke, Yang Xiaotao looked at Old Chen.

Old Chen and Old Huang were completely speechless.

If I didn't know that Old Xia wasn't the kind of person who could put on an act, I would have really thought that the two of them were putting on a show.

But since things had come to this point, Old Chen had no other choice.

After all, Yang Xiaotao was right. Things in this place are hard to explain, and some old guys don't even respect him.

At this point, someone has to step in.

Old Xia, that guy...
They can be reasonable, or they can be unreasonable.

When reasoning with him, it's best to be more reasonable than him, so he doesn't become unreasonable.

If you want him to be unreasonable, you'd better be even more unreasonable than him.

Otherwise, don't play.

“Okay, Lao Xia will be in charge of the section from Beijing to Tianjin.”

Old Chen directly assigned the most difficult part to Old Xia.

This was also what Yang Xiaotao was thinking.

Old Huang, standing nearby, was both happy for his old friend and a little envious.

He can do that too.

Old Chen shook his head, and then got to the important business he had come for.

"We're here to prepare the machinery for the project."

As Chen spoke, he looked at Huang and the other man, saying, "This time, the Ministry of Machinery Industry will be responsible for the production of tunnel boring machines and related tunneling machines. Any problems should be discussed in advance."

Yang Xiaotao nodded, "That's no problem. The tunnel boring machine from the Ministry of Machinery Industry only needs a slight modification to its dimensions."

“We’re laying pipelines, not digging railways. Smaller projects are faster and simpler.”

Old Huang nodded, "We've already started this project, but we still need to determine how much we need to do."

Yang Xiaotao nodded, then gave a wry smile, "We're still in the preparatory stage. We'll need to investigate how to proceed in detail."

"However, we will definitely need a lot of these machines and equipment. We can prepare in advance, and there will be special funds to subsidize them."

After Yang Xiaotao finished speaking, Old Chen rubbed his fingers together and suddenly realized that the money bag he had prepared was not enough.

“Okay, we’ll open another workshop when we get back, specializing in the production of excavation equipment.”

Yang Xiaotao nodded, "Prepare more, so that we can start multiple lines of work and finish faster."

"By the way, have you chosen the materials?"

Old Huang asked from the side, wanting to know if the Ministry of Machine Building could help in this regard.

After all, the amount of materials required is not small.

Speaking of this, both Yang Xiaotao and Old Chen shook their heads and sighed.

Upon seeing this, Elder Huang and Elder Xia exchanged a glance, realizing that this matter seemed to be somewhat difficult.

"I haven't made a choice yet."

"There are some alternative materials, but none of them are the most suitable."

“If we’re going to use something, we should use the best. We can’t just pull it out and replace it all over again after ten or eight years. That would be a waste of money and manpower, not to mention it would pose a huge safety hazard.”

"We are currently looking for suitable materials."

After Yang Xiaotao finished speaking, Old Chen added from the side, "Foreign countries use low-alloy steel, which is the type of steel used by the alliance."

"But so far, the alliance has had no fewer than five security incidents, and that's just the ones that have been reported, and their channels aren't very long."

"If we use it, there's no guarantee that there won't be any problems."

After Old Chen finished speaking, Old Huang and Old Xia didn't know what to say, since they were not as good as Yang Xiaotao in this regard.

The four sat in the office for a while. Yang Xiaotao invited the three of them to have lunch in the cafeteria, but Old Chen declined, saying that he had a meeting in the afternoon and needed to go back to prepare.

Old Xia wanted to stay and talk to Yang Xiaotao, but Old Huang had other matters to attend to, so he decided not to linger and went back with him.

After seeing the four people off, Yang Xiaotao headed towards the research institute.

In the following days, Yang Xiaotao received a steady stream of visitors. Some were brought by Old Chen, some by Li Rong from the foreign trade department, and some came on their own initiative.

Most of them were people who had some ulterior motives after hearing about Old Xia's situation.

The West-to-East Gas Pipeline Project.

Just look at the investment the Ninth Division makes in shipbuilding; once they agree to something, they'll do it no matter the cost. With the Ninth Division paving the way, what do they have to fear?

Yang Xiaotao initially received them politely, but after seeing them more often, he handed the task over to Yang Youning, who was the most suitable for this kind of occasion.

Yang Xiaotao instead devoted more time to studying natural gas pipeline materials.

Since the system rewards aren't to my liking, I'll just have to keep exploiting the system's bugs.

While Yang Xiaotao was busy working on the numbers at his desk, Qian Lao, who was far away at the Dengzhou Nuclear Power Plant, also received a report.

Upon seeing this report, Qian Lao was so shocked that he stood up.

three days later.

Inside the Ninth Division, Yang Xiaotao was busy wrestling with numbers, while Liu Lixue and Lou Xiao'e looked speechless.

Every time Yang Xiaotao did this, they were very confused as to why he would write such messy numbers on the scratch paper.

Is it really possible to make it work just by writing it like this?

This is not normal!
However, after experiencing so many abnormal things, they all got used to it.

Every time I do this, it makes them feel like I'm playing a game.

They clearly understand these numbers, and they clearly know the meaning of the numbers.

But when they tried to arrange them one by one, they were at a loss.

Moreover, to this day, not only them, but everyone in the Nine Departments doesn't understand how Department Head Yang did it.

Even if someone wants to learn, they can't because they don't know how to learn, and Yang Xiaotao has no intention of teaching them.

As for this skill, which is unique to Yang Xiaotao, currently only Yang Xiaotao knows how to use it.

Moreover, only Yang Xiaotao can use it.

Of course, what they found most frustrating was that whenever Yang Xiaotao was in this situation, it was also when their workload increased dramatically.

Because Yang Xiaotao simply didn't have time to deal with these things.

Ring ring ring

The phone on the desk suddenly rang.

Lou Xiao'e quickly stepped forward to answer the phone, but asked in surprise, "Xiangxiang?"

He glanced at Yang Xiaotao and then asked in a low voice, "Dean Ji, is there something you need?"

However, she revealed the private nickname. Fortunately, Lou Xiao'e reacted quickly, and Yang Xiaotao didn't notice.

"Minister Yang? Here he is. Okay, wait a moment!"

Ji Xiang on the other end of the phone clearly had something important to do, so she didn't exchange pleasantries with Lou Xiao'e and went straight to Yang Xiaotao.

"Director Yang, it's Dean Ji Xiang on the phone!"

Yang Xiaotao put down his pen, glanced at Lou Xiao'e, then at Liu Lixue, and seeing that they both looked normal, he got up and walked to the phone. "Hello, this is Yang Xiaotao!"

"Minister Yang, I have something to report to you."

"you say!"

"We received a notification from the Second Ministry of Machine Building today. They want our help to conduct further examinations on a group of patients."

"The Second Ministry of Machine Building? What does that mean?"

Yang Xiaotao was a little confused as to why the people from the Second Ministry of Machine Building had gone to the hospital of the Ninth Ministry.
They do have hospitals.

unless…

What is the condition of their patients?

There was a moment of silence on the phone before the reply came, "Minister Yang, he didn't say that on the phone, but the people from the Second Ministry of Machine Building said they need to use our isolation room."

"The kind that protects against radiation!"

Instantly, Yang Xiaotao lost his composure.

When the hospital was being built, Yang Xiaotao arranged for the construction of intensive care isolation rooms, radiation protection isolation rooms, biochemical isolation rooms, and so on.

Nowadays, there are no more than five hospitals in Beijing with this kind of facilities.

However, the Second Ministry of Machine Building did not have this.

"Just follow the procedure first, I'll ask around later."

"it is good!"

After hanging up the phone, Yang Xiaotao waited a moment before saying to Liu Lixue, "Xiaoxue, go and get the satellite phone."

Liu Lixue didn't dare to delay and immediately went outside.

Yang Xiaotao sat in the room for a while, thinking about the situation of the Second Ministry of Machine Building, and realized that the use of radiation protection equipment might be related to nuclear power plants.

We've maintained contact with Denpasar, and I haven't heard anything about what happened.

Besides, the nuclear reactor hasn't even been installed yet, so what could possibly happen?

Just as Yang Xiaotao was deep in thought, the phone on the table rang again.

This time, Yang Xiaotao picked up the phone himself without Lou Xiao'e having to go to him.

To Yang Xiaotao's surprise, it was Zhang Wu who made the call.

"Xiao Tao, something's happened!"

Before Yang Xiaotao could speak, Zhang Wu spoke up, his tone very anxious.

"Uncle, what happened?"

Yang Xiaotao sensed something was wrong with the voice and immediately asked.

"Xiao Tao, I've heard news that there's been a leak inside the Jiaolong submersible!"

Zhang Wu's words gave Yang Xiaotao goosebumps.

At the same time, they also understood what was going on with the patients in the Second Ministry of Machine Building.

"Explain in detail."

Yang Xiaotao asked eagerly, and Zhang Wu immediately replied, "This time, after the Jiaolong submersible returned from its voyage, the crew members underwent routine physical examinations."

"However, the test results showed that thirteen people's physical condition was significantly lower than usual. Further tests revealed..."

"We discovered that they were all located near the engine compartment!"

Zhang Wu didn't say it explicitly, but he made everything clear.

"I'm worried that this incident will affect you, especially the nuclear power plant..."

Zhang Wu reiterated his purpose, which made Yang Xiaotao's heart sink.

If there really is a safety hazard, then the matter could be very serious.

There are lessons from the distant Kosaka Castle incident, and more recent real-world examples like the Jiaolong submersible.

If this problem really exists, will the nuclear power plant still be built?
Wasn't all that work done by those nine departments just a waste of time?

But as soon as the thought popped into his head, Yang Xiaotao immediately put it aside.

There shouldn't be any problems with the nuclear power plant. If there are, it just means that something wasn't done properly.

It's not that there's a problem with the nuclear power plant.

Therefore, all we need to do is identify the problem and solve it.

Thinking about this, Yang Xiaotao understood why Zhang Wu was making the call.

To prevent certain things from happening.

After all, the current nine productions are somewhat "outstanding" and attract attention.

"Uncle, I know about this. It's okay, I can handle it."

Yang Xiaotao reassured Zhang Wu.

"Okay, feel free to call if you need anything."

"Don't worry, we support you here."

Zhang Wu didn't specify which part "we" referred to, and Yang Xiaotao didn't seem to care.

A strong wind reveals the strength of the grass, and turbulent times reveal the loyalty of a minister.

Yang Xiaotao has weathered many storms over the years and won't jump to conclusions easily.

After hanging up the phone, Yang Xiaotao walked back to his chair and sat down.

Then I quickly reviewed the events in my mind.

Yang Xiaotao only came to his senses after Liu Lixue retrieved the satellite phone.

However, looking at the satellite phone on the table, Yang Xiaotao did not make a call. Instead, he put the phone aside, tapped his fingers on the table, and a meaningful smile appeared on his face.

Surely no one is truly someone who never learns from their mistakes.

Thinking to herself, Xiao Wei would occasionally pop out from under the table to check her owner's mood, and then shrink back under the table.

I've been counting stars a lot lately, so I need to get a good nap during the day.