The train driver in the courtyard

The following morning, Li Aiguo got up very early because he had a road test to do.

Carrying a washbasin and with a towel around her neck, she planned to stroll over to the sink to wash up.

There's a bathroom inside, but it's more lively here. You can wash your face and eat watermelon at the same time, so why not?

Upon arriving at the central courtyard, a large crowd had indeed gathered around the pool.

The three old men, Yan Jiecheng, Xu Damao, Yi Zhonghai, and a bunch of old women and young wives were all there, chattering away, filling the air with a joyful atmosphere.

Today's topic is the same as yesterday's: where exactly did Liu Guangqi go?

Ever since the Huang family caused trouble at the courtyard, Liu Guangqi's whereabouts have been the biggest news in the compound.

The third uncle thought that Liu Guangtian might have changed his name and was hiding in the commune in the countryside, where there was a severe shortage of teachers.

Yi Zhonghai thought the Third Uncle was talking nonsense; Liu Guangqi must have been traveling all over the country with those young people.

Xu Damao felt that Yi Zhonghai was exaggerating. Although some young people are running around now, their numbers are not large, and various places are working on it.

"I don't know where Guangqi went. Second Aunt has been crying every night for the past few days, her eyes are all swollen from crying. It's so pitiful," Third Aunt sighed.

Second Auntie injured her arm, and Guangtian and Guangfu were too young to be relied on. Liu Haizhong also had to go to work, so Third Auntie often came to the Liu family to take care of Second Auntie and was most familiar with the Liu family's situation.

"Aiguo, where do you think Guangqi went?" Zhang Gangzhu turned to look at Li Aiguo.

"I don't know." Li Aiguo stood up, rinsed his mouth, washed his face, and carried the basin back.

News came from Baoding that Liu Guangqi had no letter of introduction and didn't bring much money with him, so he should have returned.

Halfway there, he saw Liu Haizhong swaying towards him. His eyes had lost their usual sparkle. When he saw Li Aiguo, he just forced a smile and nodded as a greeting.

After returning home and having breakfast, Li Aiguo slung his canvas bag over his shoulder and rode his motorcycle to the Qianmen Locomotive Depot.

A large crowd had already gathered at the station, including Section Chief Xing, leaders from several sections, and Deputy Leader Liu from the ministry in charge of oil transportation.

Railway workers also gathered around, watching the strange train with interest.

Because the oil tank uses a beamless design, it looks like a fat guy lying on the railway track, which is particularly strange.

Deputy Leader Liu shook hands with Li Aiguo and pointed to the traction posts under the train: "Aiguo, are you sure this train is okay?"

"Don't worry, all the designs have been calculated." Li Aiguo understood his concerns.

"I've really seen something new today. I never thought a train could be designed like this." Deputy Leader Liu clicked his tongue in amazement twice, indicating that they could begin.

As usual, the dispatcher in the section issued a dispatch order, and Section Chief Xu and Engineer Chen boarded the locomotive, with Deputy Chief Engineer Zhang also accompanying them along with several technicians.

Li Aiguo was appointed as the driver, and Liu Qingquan and Lao Zheng happened to be off duty these two days, so they were sent by the section to help out.

Because the oil tanker involved the Daqing Oilfield, and the internal heating technology of the oil tanker needed to be kept secret, Zhou Ke also brought four or five comrades from the railway police station with him.

The tanker truck also had a train car attached to the back; otherwise, the driver's cabin really couldn't have accommodated so many people.

"Aiguo, haven't driven a train in a while, have you?" Once on the train, Liu Qingquan excitedly offered Li Aiguo a cigarette.

He became a grandfather last month and is in a particularly good mood, full of energy.

Li Aiguo took the cigarette, reached out and touched the black handles and valves; he did miss them.

"lets go!"

Li Aiguo sounded the whistle, and after two whistles, the train slowly started moving, belching black smoke, and gradually increased its speed as it sped out of the Qianmen Locomotive Depot.

Since it was an experimental trip, Li Aiguo did not follow the speed limit and pushed the handle all the way down after leaving Beijing.

The patriotic steam engine head was only attached to two sections, and like a running wild bull, its speed soared, eventually reaching a speed of 100 kilometers per hour.

Looking at the numbers on the speedometer, Engineer Chen was somewhat surprised: "Aiguo, the speed is too fast. If it's heavily loaded, I guess the tanker truck won't be able to handle it."

“It’s alright. The tanker truck’s special frame uses an L-shaped design, with a maximum design speed of 150 kilometers per hour, and the actual speed can reach 120 kilometers per hour,” Li Aiguo replied while smoking.

"The maximum speed limit is 120 kilometers per hour. Hiss." Engineer Chen couldn't help but gasp.

In the past, the old-fashioned oil tankers they used could only go up to 80 kilometers per hour and often broke down.

The speed has now doubled.

Using dedicated lines can double the number of trains per day, thus doubling the daily transport volume.

"This is a good thing!"

After recording the numbers, Engineer Chen didn't rest. He led several technicians to climb onto the tanker truck behind and conducted various inspections on the speeding tanker.

Li Aiguo was also somewhat surprised to see this scene; these days, technicians really can't do without some skills.

Baoding Coal Machinery Factory was a factory that moved from Northeast China. In addition to producing coal mining and oil extraction equipment, it was also responsible for the production of hydraulic components. Its internal code name was Factory 798.

When Li Aiguo was developing the tunnel boring machine, the coal machinery factory was responsible for the production of the hydraulic structure. Li Aiguo only knew that it was located in the suburbs of Baoding and was a large factory.

When the train arrived and we saw the coal machinery factory, we realized that its scale far exceeded our expectations. There was even a small freight train station inside the factory.

Besides railway workers, there were also several people on duty on the platform wearing white uniforms and peaked caps, who were probably not from Factory 798.

The leaders of the coal machinery plant had received a call from the Qianmen Locomotive Depot, instructing the dispatcher to guide the tanker truck to the nearby tanker.

This oil tank is similar to the oil tanks in chemical plants in later generations; it is a large cylindrical building with many valves on it.

"Is this Comrade Aiguo?" Seeing the train come to a stop, Deputy Director Zhang of the coal machinery factory came over with several leaders.

"I'm the factory manager in charge of logistics. You can just call me Lao Zhang."

Li Aiguo jumped off the train and showed his identification and relevant documents.

"Director Zhang, hello. These are the colleagues from the section." Li Aiguo pointed to the technicians and introduced them. As for Section Chief Xu and Engineer Chen, their positions were more special, so they were not introduced.

"Welcome, welcome. We've worked with your Qianmen Locomotive Depot before. We're all brothers in arms. Take a rest, I'll arrange the crude oil loading."

Factory Director Zhang asked someone to take the technicians to rest, but Li Aiguo stopped him, saying that they still needed to conduct tests throughout the process.

"I'll have someone bring over some tea. It's almost noon, so I'll have the canteen bring over some food too," Deputy Factory Director Zhang called out to a leader and assigned the task.

Seeing Li Aiguo staring curiously at the comrades in white uniforms, Deputy Factory Director Zhang explained, "These were sent by the General Armaments Department."

Deputy Factory Director Zhang's explanation was rather vague.

Li Aiguo then remembered a classified document he had seen at the weather station.

The hydraulic equipment from the coal machinery plant is among the best in China and is now used in the launch sites of the Black Fish and rockets. Two years ago, it was awarded the title of "Excellent and Qualified Supplier" by the General Armament Department.

It can be said that the current coal machinery factory is a semi-military, semi-civilian factory.

These kinds of factories were very common in those days.

Similar practices exist abroad, with many large foreign companies having started out in the military industry.

Li Aiguo had Zhou Ke unload several boxes of instant noodles that had been prepared earlier from the carriage.

"I can't accept this." Deputy Factory Director Zhang looked at the instant noodles and secretly admired the young man's competence.

Instant noodles are a hot commodity now, and a few boxes of instant noodles aren't expensive. Accepting them isn't a mistake; it can even strengthen relationships.

That's how it is these days; every factory will keep a batch of "defective products" to give away.

"Brother Li, leave this to us. You can just watch from the sidelines." Deputy Factory Director Zhang had the instant noodles moved away, and his attitude became even more enthusiastic.

While they were chatting, the workers from the coal machinery factory pulled the oil pipeline up and Li Aiguo helped them secure the pipeline tightly to the oil tank with clamps, and then inserted the loading arm into the oil tank.

The metallic clanging sound was crisp and clear. After confirming that the clips were fully engaged, he reached out and tugged at the pipe. Seeing that it didn't budge, he straightened up and stepped aside.

The worker pulling the pipe then adjusted the pipe angle, connected the other end to the outlet of the ground oil pump, secured it with the same clips, and turned to wave to the operator in front of the control panel.

Next to it is a steam heating device, which is a huge boiler room, that heats the stored crude oil with steam.

Heating takes a lot of time; the cafeteria staff only sent a message saying the heating was complete after they delivered the food.

The operator then carried out the installation work. Chen and his team had to keep a close eye on the whole process, not missing any details. Li Aiguo also stood on top of the tanker truck, keeping a close eye on the observation port.

"That's it!"

A volume scale was installed at the top. Seeing that the crude oil was close to the maximum mark, Li Aiguo called a halt to the operation.

The weather is getting hot.

After climbing up and down the tanker truck, Li Aiguo and the others were covered in sweat. They had someone bring them some water, washed up quickly, and then picked up their lunchboxes.

The food at the coal machinery factory was good; each person received a large bowl of offal soup and two donkey meat sandwiches.

The baked buns were huge and very filling. Li Aiguo was full after eating just one, and he could take the other one back with him.

After the logistics staff at the coal machinery plant calculated the capacity of the tanker trucks, they signed the paperwork, and the train was ready to depart.

At this time, Engineer Chen and the technicians also completed the testing. There were no problems with the oil tank being filled with 70 tons of crude oil, so the test was considered to be half successful.

"That's fine." Engineer Chen nodded to Li Aiguo.

"Let's go!" Li Aiguo checked the time, jumped up to the driver's cab, sounded the whistle twice, pushed the handle, and the train slowly left the coal machinery plant.

The driving mission went very smoothly, and we even made a profit. As long as we get back and unload the oil, the mission will be complete.

The railway tracks had been repaired after liberation, so driving a train was not difficult at all. Li Aiguo, unusually, smoked a cigarette and chatted idly with Liu Qingquan and Lao Zheng.

The number of full-time employees in the department has doubled, and there are quite a few young women. Just last month, ten young couples got married and dozens of children were born.

"Now our Qianmen Locomotive Depot has the best welfare benefits in the whole of Beijing, even better than the No. 1 Cotton Mill in Beijing." Old Zheng was also very happy.

His son can take over the business in the future, and he will also earn such a high salary, making it easy for him to find a wife.

“Yes.” Liu Qingquan frowned and exclaimed in surprise as soon as he finished speaking.

"What's wrong?" Li Aiguo thought something had happened and subconsciously pushed the small valve to slow down the car.

"It's nothing, just a vagrant walking along the tracks ahead. Driver, sound the horn twice." Liu Qingquan pulled his head back.

Life is a bit better now, but there are still quite a few migrant workers, and it's not uncommon to see train drivers now.

Li Aiguo sounded the horn as required, alerting the migrant worker ahead.

Li Aiguo stood up and peeked out, ready to brake at any moment.

"Um?!"

The train moved slowly forward, and the figure of the vagrant flashed by. Li Aiguo couldn't help but frown.

"Comrade Driver, what's wrong?" Liu Qingquan asked.

"It seems so," Li Aiguo thought the vagrant looked familiar, and now he remembered.

He slapped his thigh suddenly.

He looks so much like Liu Guangqi. But I was driving, and according to regulations, I couldn't park.

Li Aiguo turned to look at Engineer Chen, who was recording data.

"??" Engineer Chen.

Li Aiguo said, "Old Chen, I think we should add a test involving stopping midway."

"That's good. Sudden deceleration might create a water hammer effect inside the oil tank, which would be a better test for the tank."

While Chen was still analyzing, he learned that Li Aiguo had increased the vehicle's speed and then suddenly dropped off the bus.

With a screeching sound of wheels rubbing against the rails, the train slowly came to a stop.

Engineer Chen and his technicians got out of the car to inspect the tanker truck.

Li Aiguo then strode towards the back.

The train then traveled a distance further, now more than a kilometer away from the vagrant.

As they got closer, Li Aiguo felt that this person looked more and more like Liu Guangqi.

However, he didn't dare to be careless. He drew his pistol from his waist and loaded it.

Many of these migrant workers have committed crimes and pose a high level of danger.

The vagrant's work clothes were so worn that the color was no longer discernible, his hair was a mess, his face was covered in mud, his shoes were worn out with his toes sticking out, and he smelled strange.

They look no different from ordinary vagrants.

As they approached, Li Aiguo called out, "Liu Guangqi?"

The migrant worker looked up, his gaze falling on Li Aiguo, and his parched throat forced out a distorted voice: "Brother Aiguo."

That's right, it's Liu Guangqi.

Li Aiguo tucked his pistol back into his waistband, stepped forward, and asked, "Guangqi, what are you doing here?"

"Patriotic brother, I..." Liu Guangqi's lips twitched twice, he opened his mouth but couldn't say a word. He suddenly squatted down and started wailing loudly.

This was the first time Li Aiguo had ever seen a man so heartbroken, and for a moment he didn't know how to comfort him.

"Aiguo, do you know this person?" Old Zheng rushed over when he saw that Li Aiguo hadn't returned.

"It's a neighbor in the compound, please help take it back."

No matter what happened, Liu Guangqi couldn't just be left to walk along the railway by himself.

But now Liu Guangqi can no longer walk.

Li Aiguo called out to Lao Zheng and helped Liu Guangqi get on the train.

When Engineer Chen and the other technicians saw that Li Aiguo had brought a vagrant onto the bus, they were all quite surprised.

When they learned that it was an acquaintance of Li Aiguo, they didn't say anything.

Waaaaah! I'm eating like crazy, eating like crazy, eating like crazy!
The train started moving again, and Liu Guangqi was still squatting on the ground crying. Li Aiguo asked Liu Qingquan to help drive the train and pull Liu Guangqi into the water car.

"Guangqi, Guangqi."

"woooooo"

"Guangqi".

"Woo."

"Clap!"

Li Aiguo raised his hand and slapped Liu Guangqi across the face. The second sound was an echo from inside the sealed coal water truck.

Liu Guangqi was heartbroken and desperately needed comfort, but now he had been slapped, and quite hard at that.

He forgot to cry for a moment, and looked up at Li Aiguo: "You hit me?"

"What are you going to do about hitting me? Look at you, acting like a coward, all effeminate. Do you even look like a man?" Li Aiguo pulled over a stool, sat down, lit a cigarette, and took a puff.

"Do you know what injustice I suffered?" Liu Guangqi was stunned by Li Aiguo, but he was also somewhat unwilling.

Li Aiguo grunted and blew a smoke ring in his face: "So what if you become a father unexpectedly? Is it shameful? It is indeed shameful, but the shameful one is not you, but Huang Chunlan. You think others will pity you for torturing yourself like this? You're delusional."

Li Aiguo has always believed in one saying: Never punish yourself for other people's mistakes.

Many victims couldn't understand what was happening, which ultimately led to even greater tragedies.

Liu Guangqi wanted to refute, but after thinking about it carefully, he realized that Li Aiguo's words made sense.

Huang Chunlan was the one who cheated on her husband, Huang Chunlan was the one who had an affair, so why is he the one who suffers?

His biggest mistake was believing Huang Chunlan's lies.

"Here, have a cigarette." Li Aiguo took out a cigarette, lit it by taking two puffs, and handed it to Liu Guangqi.

After taking the cigarette, Liu Guangqi took a few quick puffs and finished it off, then started coughing violently.

"Alright, rest here for a while. When we get back to Beijing, I'll take you back." Seeing that Liu Guangqi's complexion had improved, Li Aiguo didn't say anything more.

He's not Liu Guangqi's father, so this is all he can do.

If Liu Guangqi still can't figure it out, then it's like trying to reason with a damned ghost.

As Liu Guangqi listened to the gradually receding sound, he plopped down on the ground and looked up at the departing figure.

Tears finally welled up in his eyes, and he reached out to touch them.

These tears are hot tears.

Back in the driver's quarters, Li Aiguo didn't explain Liu Guangqi's matter, and neither did Liu Qingquan or Lao Zheng ask about it.

The oil tanker train arrived at the Qianmen Locomotive Depot at 3 p.m. Since further inspections were needed, Li Aiguo asked Zhou Ke to take Liu Guangqi to the police station first and pick him up after the work was finished.

Zhou Ke grabbed Liu Guangqi's arms with both hands, intending to drag him away.

Li Aiguo's voice came from beside him: "Get him some steamed buns, and remember to take a statement."

Liu Guangqi was from Baoding, and in principle, he was not under the jurisdiction of the Qianmen Locomotive Depot. However, he was picked up from beside the railway tracks, so the railway police station had the right to interrogate him.

“Okay.” Zhou Ke was slightly taken aback, then nodded to Li Aiguo.

Liu Guangqi was led off the oil tanker train. Yan Jiecheng was chatting with a group of train drivers, his backside sticking out, when he saw the person getting off and exclaimed in surprise, "Liu, Liu Guangqi??"

Yan Jiecheng ran over, looked Liu Guangqi up and down, and clicked his tongue twice: "Guangqi, what happened to you?"

Liu Guangqi blushed deeply and could only lower his head.

Yan Jiecheng was about to ask another question when Zhou Ke glanced at him sideways and said, "Yan Jiecheng, what are you doing?"

"Ah!" Yan Jiecheng realized something was wrong and quickly took a few steps back, but he was also excited: "Liu Guangqi has become a vagrant and has been picked up by Brother Aiguo. This is big news!"

After Liu Guangqi got off the car, the oil tanker train drove into the maintenance workshop.

Deputy Leader Liu from the ministry and Section Chief Xing were waiting in the workshop.

Measuring instruments were also set up inside the workshop.

Li Aiguo walked to the oil tank, turned off the heating valve, and nodded to Director Zhang after seeing the pointer jump to zero.

Director Zhang and his team connected the pipes to the clips on top, started the motor, and with a humming sound, the black, viscous oil was pumped out of the oil tank.

"The residue rate is less than one percent, which fully meets the standard!" Engineer Chen personally conducted the inspection and gave the results.

Everyone in the maintenance workshop cheered.

Deputy Leader Liu spoke first, setting the tone: "Section Chief Xing! Good! You've done a great job this time. I think this stuff can be used not only in the State Farms, but also in military and civilian transportation. Section Chief Xu, Engineer Chen, you can rest assured now, right? Hahaha."

Tears welled up in Engineer Chen's eyes; they really did. He was squatting on the oil pipeline, and his eyes were swollen from the scalding hot oil.

"I'm so excited! Please excuse my excitement. You have no idea how long our State Farm has been waiting for this."

Everyone understood his feelings and didn't interrupt him. He sorted out his thoughts and started to vent his emotions by picking out things that weren't confidential and that he could talk about.

"Ever since our state farm was established, oil transportation has been a major problem."

"However, due to the viscosity of oil, no matter how much we optimize the tanks and increase the transportation speed, viscous oil will still cause tank freezing accidents. Every time it is transported to the chemical plant, it takes a lot of effort to unload the truck."

"The biggest challenge is cleaning the tanks. Often, more than half of the oil can't be unloaded, which is a real problem. We know that as long as we raise the temperature, we can keep the oil liquid and prevent it from solidifying."

"But we can't do it. In an effort to increase the temperature, there have been several oil tank explosions that have caused huge losses."

"There's nothing we can do but pay high prices to buy oil tanks and technology from the Russians, but even then, they won't sell them to us."

"This double-walled oil tank you have is much better than the oil tanks from the Russians."

"We're all in the railway transportation business, and I assure you all, with this oil tanker, I'm confident I can increase the oil transshipment rate by 500%, and the transshipment volume will at least double. It will absolutely not let you down."

Towards the end, Chen, unusually, lost his composure and, as a researcher, actually swore.

The leader clapped his hands, and enthusiastic applause filled the workshop.

After the applause subsided, Deputy Leader Liu raised another issue: "Section Chief Xing, we must ensure the secrecy surrounding this specially made oil tanker is maintained. As Engineer Chen just mentioned, this oil tanker is much better than the ones from Russia. We must take this seriously."

When the topic of secrecy came up, Section Chief Xing immediately perked up: "Please rest assured, leaders. Our Qianmen Locomotive Depot places the utmost importance on secrecy. In fact, within the workshop, only Comrade Aiguo has mastered the complete set of manufacturing techniques."

Deputy Leader Liu nodded in satisfaction: "Hmm, not bad. The production organization for this is also entrusted to you. You need to produce a batch of tank trucks as quickly as possible to meet the needs of the State Farms."

When Section Chief Xing heard this, he became anxious. There were so many products waiting to be produced at the Qianmen Locomotive Depot, and now they had to take on even more work. Where would they find the manpower?

Section Chief Xing didn't care about anything else and immediately said loudly, "Hey, hey, leader, you know the situation in our section. Basically, one person is doing the work of two. How can we continue other production? Why don't you consider other factories?"

Deputy Leader Liu waved his hand: "The ministry trusts you now. Other oil tanks can be manufactured by other factories, but these specially made ones can only be made by you."

Section Chief Xing gave Li Aiguo a wink, signaling him to quickly decline.

Section Chief Xing never imagined he would complain about having too many tasks, but he had no choice. If he couldn't produce it, being criticized would be a minor issue; what would be more serious was delaying the crude oil transportation work.

Just as Li Aiguo was about to step forward, Deputy Factory Director Liu waved his hand again: "I know you are anxious, but don't rush. The ministry has decided that you will work with Changxindian Locomotive Factory to manufacture oil tanker trains."

Upon hearing this, Section Chief Xing laughed and scratched his head: "I really thought you were forcing me into this."

"Even if you wanted to take on such an important mission, the ministry wouldn't dare to approve it."

Vice Minister Liu smiled and continued, "You don't need to worry about production. The Changxindian Locomotive Factory will help. Let's all work together to complete the crude oil transportation first."

Everyone applauded again, with Section Chief Chen and Engineer Chen from the state farm being particularly enthusiastic.

As the sun sets, sunlight streams through the glass, casting a fiery red glow on everyone's faces.

(End of this chapter)