The train driver in the courtyard

The next morning, Li Aiguo was awakened by urgent knocking on the door.

As soon as the door opened, Section Chief Wu appeared, his face showing exhaustion from not having slept all night, yet filled with excitement.

"Patriotism, it's done! Deputy Section Chief Chen has confessed everything! He not only admitted to helping Pan Jinyue sneak into Cave No. 6, but he also implicated Deputy Team Leader Liu!"

Li Aiguo's sleepiness vanished instantly, and his eyes widened abruptly: "Deputy Team Leader Liu?"

"That's right, you'd never guess!" Section Chief Wu leaned closer, blinking and winking, his expression ambiguous and strange.

"Pan Jinyue was originally Chen's lover, but later, in order to curry favor with Liu, he actually took the initiative to act as a matchmaker between the two..."

Li Aiguo instantly understood and secretly clicked his tongue in amazement.

These three certainly went too far.

However, as the head of the production increase team, Deputy Team Leader Liu was at a much higher level than Deputy Section Chief Chen, so this matter had to be handled with extreme caution.

Section Chief Wu immediately reported the situation to the mine's leadership. At first, the leadership didn't believe it at all, waving their hands repeatedly: "Impossible! Old Liu has always been upright, how could he do such a despicable thing?"

But when he finished reading through Deputy Section Chief Chen's handwritten statement line by line, his face instantly turned bright red, and he slammed his fist on the table.

"Arrest them! Arrest them right now!"

"Yes!"

It was during working hours at Linxi Mine, and Deputy Team Leader Liu sat in his office, somewhat restless.

These past two days, he'd felt that something was off about the atmosphere in the mining area, a strange, uncontrollable feeling permeating everything.

Especially last night, the roads leading in and out of the mining area were suddenly placed under lockdown, and no one informed him of this.

"Nonsense, this is ridiculous! This is disregarding our production increase team!" the assistant said, seizing the opportunity.

"Boss, we must crack down on this unhealthy trend."

Deputy Team Leader Liu nodded calmly: "Xiao Chen, go and call Section Chief Wu of the Security Section. I want to ask him what exactly he's up to."

Just as the assistant was about to get up, the office door was suddenly pushed open from the outside.

Section Chief Wu and Li Aiguo, followed by several armed security officers, walked straight in.

Seeing that these people dared to barge in without knocking, Deputy Team Leader Liu was furious and slammed his fist on the desk.

"How dare you! Section Chief Wu, do you have any respect for rules?"

He turned and glared at Li Aiguo, his tone authoritative, "And you, comrade from Beijing, although you are in charge of handling the case, you cannot act recklessly in my Linxi Mine!"

Li Aiguo strode forward and announced in a deep voice: "Liu Ming, you are suspected of moral depravity and abuse of power. I hereby announce your arrest!"

These words struck like a thunderbolt. A flicker of panic flashed across Deputy Team Leader Liu's eyes, but he quickly regained his composure.

"Slander! This is blatant slander! Old Wu, you've been a veteran in the mine for a long time, are you just going to stand by and watch outsiders throw mud at me?"

Section Chief Wu glanced at him with disgust, his tone icy: "Deputy Team Leader Liu, stop struggling. Deputy Section Chief Chen and Pan Jinyue have already confessed, and the evidence is conclusive."

Deputy Team Leader Liu then realized something was terribly wrong and jumped up, trying to rush out: "I'm going to find the mine manager and reason with him!"

"Take him down!" Li Aiguo was too lazy to waste words with him and waved his hand.

Several security officers immediately rushed forward, but Deputy Team Leader Liu's strength was astonishing. Coupled with the officers' hesitation and reservations, he managed to break free and run wildly towards the door.

This sudden turn of events left everyone present momentarily stunned.

By the time Section Chief Wu realized what was happening, Deputy Team Leader Liu had already run to the office door.

Just then, a chair was kicked and flew over, blocking Deputy Team Leader Liu's way. Deputy Team Leader Liu tripped and fell face-first into the mud.

It was Li Aiguo who made the move.

Deputy Team Leader Liu tried to struggle, but Li Aiguo walked over and stepped on his neck, tying his hands behind his back.

At this moment, Deputy Team Leader Liu was like a subdued fat pig, only able to writhe on the ground, even his groans were weak.

Li Aiguo casually emptied his pockets, finding cigarette boxes, a silver lighter, and other odds and ends scattered on the ground.

This is what professionalism is all about.

Section Chief Wu glared at the security officers who had caused the trouble: "Take note!"

The officers then seemed to wake up from their daze and rushed forward to drag Deputy Team Leader Liu up from the ground.

He tried to roar and shout, but the force on the back of his neck did not lessen, and he could only make muffled whimpering sounds.

"Take him along with him." Li Aiguo turned around and saw Liu's assistant hiding to the side, pointing at him.

"Huh?!" The assistant immediately raised his hand; he had witnessed the miserable state of Deputy Team Leader Liu just now.

The arrest was a big commotion, especially since it took place in the mining area's office building. Many mining area leaders came out of their offices and looked at the scene with fear on their faces.

"What did Lao Liu do wrong?"

"I don't know, but Lao Liu has really messed up this time."

"Sigh, he just loves to stir up trouble, and in the end, he got himself into trouble."

Deputy Team Leader Liu's position meant he wasn't alone. Sure enough, as soon as the person was brought back to the Security Department, Section Chief Wu received numerous phone calls—some inquiring about the situation, some making small talk, and others demanding that the Security Department release the person immediately.

Section Chief Wu blocked them all by using the name of the special investigation team.

After hanging up the last phone call, Section Chief Wu said to Li Aiguo with a wry smile, "Increasing production is now a rectification task. Aiguo, we owe you a lot this time. If it were any other time, even if the person was caught, I wouldn't be able to withstand the pressure and would have to release him sooner or later."

Li Aiguo, however, did not oppose increasing production.

However, everything must be within a safe and controllable range. We have suffered too many losses like this in the past few years, and we cannot afford to suffer similar losses again.

The follow-up investigation was led by Section Chief Wu. With the backing of the special investigation team, there was no fear of any evil spirits causing trouble.

Meanwhile, the special envoy dispatched by the meteorological station had arrived at Linxi Mine, and Shirakawa Kazuo, Pan Jinyue, and Chen Liushui were taken away by train overnight and sent to the capital for further interrogation.

Li Aiguo plans to take Engineer Liu back to Tunnel No. 6 to continue testing the Hongxing coal cutter.

This coal cutter originally only had the designation "Model 17261".

Li Aiguo simply named the aircraft "Red Star" after he happened to see a worker draw a five-pointed star on the side of the fuselage.

As soon as we arrived at the bottom of the cave in the cage car, a burst of enthusiastic applause greeted us.

Zhang Hongshan, the leader of the coal cutting team, and his team members were already waiting on the side, their palms clapping red and their faces full of admiration.

After their release, they soon learned about everything that had happened in the mining area in the past few days.

Suffering a few days of grievances was nothing to them; the thought that Dieter had attempted to blow up the mine and kill all the coal miners sent chills down their spines.

When Li Aiguo arrested Pan Jinyue and Shirakawa Kazuo, there were many onlookers, and the news had already spread throughout the entire mine.

The battle with Dieter, the exposure of Dieter's conspiracy with just a few shards of glass—everything about these young miners was unsettling.

Some miners even gave Li Aiguo a nickname: the Coal Mine Detective.

Section Chief Wu was somewhat envious of the nickname, but not jealous, given Li Aiguo's merits.

Especially when dealing with a ruthless character like Shirakawa Kazuo, who is meticulous and has multiple backup plans.

Section Chief Wu believed that even if he could capture Pan Jinyue, he might not be able to completely eradicate Shirakawa Kazuo.

“Detective Bro, teach us! We want to catch Dieter and protect the mining area too!” Several young miners mustered their courage and stepped forward, their eyes full of admiration.

Li Aiguo smiled and waved his hand: "Teaching you is no problem, but you also have to teach me how to cut coal. We can learn from each other."

One sentence instantly ignited the atmosphere, and laughter dispelled the previous gloom.

Amid cheers from the crowd, the Hongxing coal cutter started up again, its massive cutting disc spinning rapidly and roaring.

The coal cutting went very smoothly this time. Li Aiguo improved the cutting disc, and Zong Xianfeng and Engineer Liu made thorough preparations.

On the first day alone, at a mining height of 3.3 meters, the coal cutting speed reached 11 meters per hour, with an average of 20 cuts per day and a daily output of 3 tons.

Holding the calculation report, Engineer Liu checked it twice before confirming the data with a look of astonishment: "The production capacity of this one Hongxing coal cutter is equivalent to the total of four or five previous mines!"

Zhang Hongshan and the other miners knew they had done a lot of work that day, but they hadn't expected it to be this much.

"This is more than half a month's work we used to do."

"This must have set a new daily production record, right?"

"Of course. The highest record was set three years ago by Fushun Longfeng Mine. Their coal mine is easier to mine than ours. It is said that at that time, there were five coal cutting teams working in the No. 3 tunnel, with hundreds of people working. Now we only have a few dozen people."

"This Red Star coal cutter is a great machine."

Li Aiguo, along with Zong Xianfeng, inspected and repaired the Hongxing coal cutter before continuing operations.

Whether a Hongxing coal cutter is good or not depends not only on its output, but also on its ability to work continuously.

In addition, the coordination between the coal cutter and the Hongxing coal cutter is also very important.

The Hongxing coal cutter was in trial operation for a while and no training was provided for coal cutting. Now we need to start training on that.

"The coal cutter relies entirely on the cutter operator to manually adjust the traction speed according to the thickness and hardness of the coal seam at the working face. For example, when encountering a hard coal seam with interbedded gangue, the cutter operator in front must notify the operator in advance to adjust the traction speed to the slowest level so that the cutting teeth can slowly bite through the coal."

"The coal seams in the mine are not flat and smooth; they often bulge or sink suddenly. The coal cutter must observe the direction of the coal seam 1-2 meters ahead in advance and adjust the height of the coal cutter in advance."

For example, if the coal seam appears to be concave, the cutting disc is lowered in advance; if the coal seam appears to be convex, the cutting disc is raised promptly.

"Also, the coal cut by the coal cutter needs to be transported away in time by the scraper conveyor. Because the output of the Hongxing coal cutter is very high, our coal cutting team needs to dispatch an extra team of people to be responsible for transporting the coal into the cage car."

During a break, Li Aiguo looked at the coal cutter in front of him and transformed the technology he had learned from the system into precautions that were appropriate for the current working conditions.

At first, the coal cutters were nonchalant.

They've been working with the coal cutter for a while now, and they think it's nothing new.

But as they listened further, their indifference faded, and they were all so shocked that their mouths were agape, their eyes filled with astonishment.

"Patriotism, I didn't know you knew so much about coal cutting."

"Yes, these methods are very practical. If you don't know anything about this, you really wouldn't be able to come up with them."

"I think Comrade Aiguo is a real all-rounder. He can both catch Dieter and know how to cut coal."

At this moment, Zhang Hongshan, the squad leader of the sixth team, stood up and made a statement.

"Comrade Patriot, please rest assured, we will definitely practice our teamwork diligently and strive to increase our daily output."

"Yes, we've already broken one record, and we'll definitely break many more in the future," the coal cutters shouted.

Li Aiguo also became interested at this point.

The coal cutter he developed this time was based on the later famous MG1250 ultra-high mining height intelligent coal mining machine. Although its size was reduced considerably due to technological limitations, and it lacked supporting intelligent control and professional transportation equipment, it was still a game-changer in this era.

He also wanted to see what the daily output limit of the Hongxing coal cutter was.

"Alright, let's get to work with full force starting today!" Li Aiguo jumped off the coal cutter.

A coal cutter nearby waved a red flag, signifying the end of the break and the start of new work. Soon, a rumbling sound echoed through the mine.

at this time.

The news that the Hongxing coal cutter had broken the daily output record at Linxi Mine was quickly reported to the mine's leadership.

The mine leaders were already troubled by Dieter's case and the case of Liu, the deputy leader of the production increase team, but they immediately became excited upon hearing this news.

"Although the Hongxing coal cutter was not made by our Linxi Mine, we broke this record. This is a huge achievement. We should report it immediately."

"But this output is just too astonishing. Shouldn't we be more cautious? After all, the production increase team incident just happened."

After Deputy Team Leader Liu was arrested, the leader of the production increase team was also suspended from his post, and the entire production increase team came to a standstill. The mine sent people to investigate the production output previously reported by the production increase team and found many problems.

“We should indeed be more cautious. Here’s what we’ll do: Deputy Mine Manager Wang, you personally lead a team to investigate.”

"clear."

Deputy Mine Manager Wang selected several experts who first went to Tunnel No. 6 to check the work logs, determine the coal cutting speed, and then went to the cage car room to review the coal transport cage car trips.

These two data points are basically enough to determine the daily coal production.

However, to be on the safe side, Deputy Mine Manager Wang led a team to the coal yard and personally organized a measurement of the coal transported up yesterday.

"There are indeed 3 tons!"

Deputy Mine Manager Wang breathed a sigh of relief, feeling a weight lifted from his shoulders.

He had previously expressed some reservations when Li Aiguo removed Deputy Team Leader Liu without explanation.

While Deputy Team Leader Liu certainly had issues, the current period is a crucial time for the labor competition, and he felt that the overall situation should be prioritized and the matter should be postponed.

Unexpectedly, just a few days later, Li Aiguo gave everyone a big surprise with his solid output.

"Report! Report it immediately!"

The news that Linxi Mine's No. 6 tunnel had broken the national record for daily output of a single tunnel was quickly reported to the leaders of the coal industry.

After confirming the authenticity of the information, the Ministry of Coal Industry reported it through various levels of government, and finally the report was placed on the desk of the higher-level leaders.

"Is the data accurate?" The superior looked through the report, saw the names on it, and said with some pleasure.

The coal department leader nodded: "It's true. We've verified it at Linxi Mine, and we've also sent personnel there to verify it. The daily output is 3 tons, no more."

The superior said, "Great! Great! We used to import Hongxing coal cutters from our big brother, but we never expected that the Hongxing coal cutters made by Li Aiguo would have an even better output than our big brother's. Comrade Aiguo is a genius, a true all-rounder."

"Yes, the comrades who visited also heard the comrades from Linxi Mine say the same thing. The miners even gave Comrade Aiguo a nickname: the Coal Mine Detective."

"The Coal Mine Detective. That nickname is quite fitting." The higher-ups have already received the report and are aware of what happened at the Linxi Mine.

"Since the Hongxing coal cutter is so useful, mass production must be put on the agenda as soon as possible," the superior instructed.

"That's the same idea of ​​ours. Once this phase of mining work is completed, we plan to transfer the technology of the Hongxing coal cutter to the Jixi plant and start mass production." The leader from the Ministry of Coal Industry then reported on the follow-up plans.

Just then, the leader's assistant rushed into the office and whispered, "I just received an urgent message from Linxi Mine. The preliminary calculation of today's output is 35,000 tons. It is still under final verification, but the error should be small."

"3 tons, good for you! Comrade Li Aiguo has launched another satellite. Now I'd like to see how many satellites he can launch." The higher-level leaders also became interested.

The leaders of the Ministry of Coal Industry were immediately filled with turmoil.

He never expected that his superiors, who were extremely busy with their daily affairs, would still specifically send people to keep an eye on the movements of Linxi Mine.

But on second thought, this might not be a bad thing.

The success of Linxi Mine is essentially a credit to the coal sector.

In recent years, ministries and commissions such as petroleum, exploration, railway, and aviation have repeatedly achieved outstanding results. The coal sector also needs such a breakthrough to catch up.

"I'll go back and arrange the follow-up work right away!" The leader of the Ministry of Coal Industry understood immediately and got up to take his leave.

Upon returning to the ministry, the leaders of the Ministry of Coal Industry immediately convened a meeting and issued instructions.

"First, we dispatched a special expert team to Linxi Mine to verify production data daily to ensure accuracy."

Second, notify mainstream newspapers such as the *Coal Industry News* to promptly dispatch reporters to Linxi Mine to conduct in-depth interviews and reports from the front lines.

The leaders of the Ministry of Coal Industry realized that this was a huge project. Whether the project could be launched depended not only on the quality of the satellite, but also on the availability of sufficient fuel.

What the Ministry of Coal needs to do now is to provide sufficient fuel.

Li Aiguo originally only wanted to improve the efficiency of the Hongxing coal cutter through continuous optimization in practice, and had no other ideas.

When the experts arrived, Li Aiguo still felt something was strange.

When they saw several reporters wearing safety helmets enter the mine, they understood what was going on.

The coal miners also realized that all the coal mines in the country were now eyeing Linxi, which made them even more motivated.

For a time, a surge of production activity swept through Mine No. 6.

Engineer Liu, Zong Xianfeng, and the experts from the Jixi factory also got excited.

As evening fell, the Hongxing coal cutter was shut down for maintenance. The newly appointed production manager of Linxi Mine ran out and announced to the reporters, "Today's output is 4 tons."

"Hiss, it's increased again."

"This is the fifth consecutive day of increased production!"

"Write this down quickly! Send it back to the newspaper tonight!"

The reporters returned to the guesthouse and contacted the newspaper by phone.

The capital city was bustling in the early morning. Countless bicycles flowed like rivers, clanging and rattling through the streets and alleys, carrying sleepy-eyed workers to factories in every corner of the city.

Yi Zhonghai and Liu Haizhong from the steel rolling mill were also caught up in this torrent.

Unlike before, when we entered the workshop and started working immediately, now there's an extra step: everyone gathers together, waiting for the workshop director to bring the latest newspaper.

"Good news! Yesterday, the No. 6 tunnel of the Linxi Mine produced 40,000 tons, breaking the record set by the Little America Illinois Mine."

Upon hearing the news, the workers cheered.

"Comrades, if the coal miners in the No. 6 tunnel of Linxi Mine can achieve such results, our steel rolling mill cannot lag behind!" the workshop director shouted.

"Learn from Linxi Mine!"

"Salute to Comrade Li Aiguo!"

Amidst the deafening slogans, Yi Zhonghai shouted a couple of times, but when he suddenly heard the words "Li Aiguo," his voice stopped abruptly, and he froze on the spot.

"What...what does this have to do with Li Aiguo?" He tugged at the sleeve of an old craftsman next to him and asked in a low voice.

The experienced worker replied, "You don't know yet, do you? The coal cutter used in Tunnel No. 6 this time was developed by Consultant Li. What, don't you feel proud?"

Upon hearing this, Yi Zhonghai quickly forced a smile: "It's an honor, I'm very honored."

I felt so frustrated.

This story begins with his matchmaking for Jia Zhangshi.

Originally, Yi Zhonghai thought that as long as he married off Jia Zhangshi, this plague goddess, he could live in peace.

Unexpectedly, the old woman had very discerning eyes; she didn't even like any of the old bachelors he introduced.

"Li Aiguo must have known about this all along. He was just pretending not to know, waiting to see me make a fool of myself!" Yi Zhonghai became more and more obsessed with the matter, almost to the point of madness.

The workers at the other steel rolling mills were overjoyed. Li Aiguo was an advisor to the steel rolling mill, and now that Li Aiguo was honored, that was their honor too.

Deputy Factory Director Li also made a point of having the announcer broadcast the output of the No. 6 tunnel in Linxi every day.

"Great news! Linxi No. 6 Mine has set a new production record, producing 45,000 tons per day, surpassing the production of the Krakow Mine in the Big Bozi family!"

"Great news! Linxi Mine No. 6 has broken through the 50,000-ton mark in daily production, leaving John Bull's Newcastle Mine No. 8 far behind!"

"Great news! Daily production at Linxi Mine No. 6 has surged to 52,000 tons, far exceeding that of Pittsburgh Mellon Mine No. 2!"

As production figures rose day by day, the name of Linxi Coal Mine No. 6 also spread to the ears of the other brothers in the family.

It's important to know that both Krakow in the United States and Mellon 2 in the United States are world-renowned high-yield mines.

At this point, everyone could no longer sit still.

"Are the coal seams in Linxi Mine really that easy to mine?"

"It's hard to say. But even if the coal seam conditions are good, this output is still quite alarming!"

"I heard they replaced their coal cutter with a new one, otherwise how could they have such capabilities?"

“Our family’s coal mine is also short of this kind of equipment… How about we connect with my second brother in the east and buy this coal mining machine?”

It was Jeko who said this.

His family's coal mine is similar in nature to Linxi Coal Mine, mainly producing hard coal and lignite.

The coal cutters currently used in the North Bohemian lignite fields are ГД-5s purchased at a high price from Russia. They have a power output of only 35KW and are not suitable for hard coal.

Upon hearing this, Xiao Luo's eyes lit up. His family's coal mine was buried deep, requiring more sophisticated coal mining equipment, and he was worried about not having suitable equipment.

These two companies have suffered a lot of mistreatment from the older brother over the years, and have long harbored a lot of grievances, secretly harboring thoughts of splitting apart.

Moreover, most of their railway equipment over the years has been sourced from the east, where it is affordable and durable.

What's most commendable is that the brothers on the east side genuinely help, focusing solely on business and never putting on airs or imposing any additional conditions.

Seeing that Jieke and Xiao Luo had taken the lead, the older brother and Abao's family quickly joined in to echo them.

When the four parties met, they decided to form a joint procurement team to negotiate the coal mining machinery deal with the second brother in the east.

The Russians had recently reaped a lot of benefits from India, and the Corn Emperor was busy dealing with a bunch of messes at home. When they first saw the news that the Red Star coal cutter had broken records, they just thought it was the East bragging and didn't take it to heart at all.

But when he heard that his four younger brothers were actually going to band together to buy coal mining machinery in the east, he couldn't sit still any longer.

It's worth noting that in the past, all of these four companies' coal mining machinery orders went to the Russians.

The "Corn Emperor" was so angry that he summoned all the leaders of the coal sector to his office, pointed his finger at them, and yelled: "The coal cutters on the east side are producing 56,000 tons a day! Are you all just sitting around doing nothing?"
"How come your coal mining machinery technology has stagnated all these years, without making any progress whatsoever?"

"Boss, they're bragging. The people in the east are definitely bragging. Our coal mining machinery experts used to work there, and they don't have the technology to manufacture high-yield coal cutters at all."

The words have not yet fallen.

The Corn Emperor's assistant walked in and handed him a newspaper.

"The daily output of No. 6 tunnel in the Linxi Mine is 56,000 tons, exceeding that of the No. 5 Pioneer Mine in the Donbas mining area!"

The Fifth Pioneer Mine was the highest-producing mine in Russia and a benchmark for the Russian coal industry. Now, that benchmark has been severed.

The Corn Emperor's face darkened visibly.

"Boss, please rest assured, they must be bragging. I'll send people over there to investigate immediately and win back those orders," the Russian coal leader said immediately.

(End of this chapter)