The train driver in the courtyard

At the entrance of Qianmen Locomotive Depot.

The security officer felt that the young man in front of him was looking for trouble.

There are hundreds of train drivers in the locomotive depot. How can I introduce them to him one by one?

He Yunshan felt very aggrieved.

The man only wrote a pseudonym on the envelope, which was the train driver.

The two of them were staring at each other.

Zhou Ke came over from a distance on his bicycle.

There was a gangster tied to the back of the bicycle with a rope.

The little rascal was dragged so hard that he staggered and nearly fell down several times, looking in a miserable state.

The security officer saw it and went over to ask, "Captain Zhou Tieshou, have you arrested someone again?"

Zhou Ke's reputation in the Qianmen Locomotive Depot Police Station has been growing in the past two years. He has arrested the most people and has been given the title of Iron Hand.

Zhou Ke was also proud of this title and particularly liked being called that. Every time someone called him that, he would smoke.

"I don't know what this kid was thinking. He actually tried to steal the railroad tracks and was discovered by a fellow villager passing by."

Zhou Tieshou handed a cigarette to the security officer, then, displaying his unique “Iron Hand” demeanor, pointed at the gangster.

The young rascal quickly explained with a sad face: "Boss, this is a misunderstanding. I saw that the track was useless, so I thought of turning it into treasure. This is also to respond to the neighborhood's call for thriftiness."

Seeing that the gangster was still being stubborn, Zhou Ke pedaled his bike a few times.

The little gangster was not paying attention for a moment and was pulled by the rope, causing him to fall on his face.

Zhou Ke stopped his bicycle and went to help the gangster.

"Oh, I'm so sorry, I didn't notice, haha, I didn't notice, you are not hurt, right?"

Now the Qianmen Police Station has a rule that these people cannot be dealt with at will.

It's just an accident, don't make a big deal about it.

The young rascal was most afraid of veterans like Zhou Ke. After he got up, he smiled awkwardly and said, "Leader, I fell down accidentally. It's none of your business."

This operation was as smooth as flowing water, and He Yunshan was watching with great interest.

Zhou Ke suddenly stopped pedaling and pointed at him: "Xiao Wang, what's going on with this guy? Is he here to cause trouble? Do you want me to take him back to the police station for questioning?"

He had been staring at He Yunshan for a while. These days, few people dared to block the door of the locomotive depot.

He Yunshan was startled and waved his hands quickly: "Leader, you misunderstood that I was here to look for someone."

The security officer also felt that He Yunshan did not seem like a bad person, so he explained his purpose.

"Comic book magazine? Train driver, I remember my wife muttering a few days ago that it seemed that Brother Aiguo drew some comic books and mailed them out." Zhou Ke raised his eyelids, pondered for a moment, and slapped his thigh.

“Patriotism is the train driver!”

He Yunshan didn't expect that after searching for so many times, he would find it without any effort. He said anxiously: "Leader, can you take me to meet Aiguo?"

"Of course. I'll escort this guy back to the police station first, and you can follow me."

Zhou Ke rode his bicycle into the locomotive depot.

He Yunshan first followed him into the police station, and then followed him to the maintenance workshop.

Zhou Ke handed a cigarette to the busy worker: "Where is Driver Li?"

"Today is the day to assemble the crawler steam engine. Driver Li took Director Zhang and the others to the open space behind the greenhouse to assemble the crawler steam engine."

“Did they really develop a tracked steam engine?”

Zhou Ke turned around and ran towards the east.

"Wait for me." He Yunshan followed behind.

"Comrade Zhang Tan, I am so grateful to you!"

At this time, Li Aiguo was tightly holding the hand of a middle-aged comrade in gray work clothes.

This middle-aged comrade has an unusual identity.

Just look at the two security guards next to them who are staring at this place.

For no other reason than that he came from the state-owned Factory 617.

The name of State-owned Factory 617 may not seem like a big deal, as there are so many state-owned factories these days.

But it has another name, called "No. 1 Machine Factory", located in Baotou, and the mailing address is always PO Box No. 2, BT City.

These are all external identities.

In fact, it was our first tank manufacturing plant.

The 32 T-54A medium tanks (also known as Type 59 tanks) displayed at last year's National Day celebrations were produced by the First Machine Factory.

Zhang Tan came here this time to deliver a pair of special tracks.

This story starts with the production of tracked steam engines.

Thanks to everyone's efforts, the production of the tracked steam engine progressed rapidly, but the comrades in the Engineering Bureau responsible for the tracks encountered problems.

After calculations, they found that the large tractor tracks provided by the Jiefang Factory and the Luoyang Factory could not meet the needs of the tracked steam engines in terms of load-bearing capacity or strength.

So two tracks need to be specially ordered.

At this time, Li Aiguo thought of the First Machine Factory, a domestic military factory that could independently produce medium tanks.

Facts have also proved that Li Aiguo's choice was very wise.

After receiving an urgent order from the higher-level ministry, Zhang Tan personally led the technicians to overcome the difficulties and manufactured special tracks according to the drawings in just over ten days.

"You're welcome. We are all contributing to the country." Zhang Tan looked curiously at the parts needed to assemble the tracked steam engine. This thing looked a bit strange.

However, he was aware of the principle of confidentiality and did not ask any questions. After handing the track to Li Aiguo, he took his leave.

Li Aiguo originally planned to exchange ideas with Zhang Tan on developing tanks.

After all, there are quite a few tank technologies in the system. If we can come up with one or two of them, the domestic tank level will be raised to a higher level.

However, when Li Aiguo saw that the security officer was watching him, he temporarily gave up the idea.

"Mr. Zhang, I think we will meet again soon." Li Aiguo shook hands with Zhang Tan.

"Goodbye." Zhang Tan didn't know what Li Aiguo meant, nor did he care.

This time, the railway department paid 10,000 kilograms of rice as compensation for the labor produced for this piece of track.

With this rice, all the workers at Factory 617 will be able to live a comfortable life.

Afterwards, Li Aiguo found a rail crane train and began to lift the tracked steam engine.

"Pay attention to the furnace and the engine. This part of the installation requires precision." Li Aiguo turned his head and looked at Chen Xingyi: "Comrade Chen Xingyi, go in and help those veteran workers install it."

At this time, there was a crane hanging parts above and welders doing welding below. In order to install the furnace and the engine, one had to climb to a height of five or six meters, which was very dangerous.

Chen Xingyi did not hesitate. He rolled up his sleeves and rushed over, climbing up in a few steps.

With the help of Chen Xingyi, an old master who is familiar with mechanics and electricity, it took nearly two hours to install the furnace and engine.

Li Aiguo was just about to go up and check it again.

At this time, Zhou Ke came over with He Yunshan.

As soon as the two men reached the periphery, they were stopped by the armed forces officers arranged in advance by Li Aiguo.

"It's Zhou Ke. Why are you here today?" The officer from the armed forces recognized Zhou Ke and his attitude was quite friendly.

"This is the editor of the comic book magazine. This time he is here to look for patriots." Zhou Ke introduced the purpose of He Yunshan's visit.

The officer turned his head to look at the installation site in the distance, frowned and said, "Captain Zhou, you know the rules. The installation has already started, and only those on the list can enter."

Zhou Keben thought he could arrive before the installation, but he didn't expect the installation to be advanced. He looked at He Yunshan with some embarrassment.

"Editor He, you see how serious this matter has become. If you have any questions, I can tell Aiguo. Aiguo and I are childhood friends."

He Yunshan was a little confused: "What are we installing? Does it still need to be kept secret?"

"This is not something you should ask." Zhou Ke frowned.

"Thank you, Comrade Zhou, but I still have something to discuss with Comrade Aiguo. So, when can he finish the work? I will come back after he finishes it."

He Yunshan also understood at this time and didn't say any more.

"Maybe, maybe two or three days, maybe seven or eight days."

"."

Zhou Ke was not fooling He Yunshan.

After all, Li Aiguo was developing this tracked steam engine by feeling his way forward, and many technical problems needed to be solved on the spot, and the time was uncertain.

The reason He Yunshan came to see the train driver this time was to give him his royalties.

What's more important is to discuss the follow-up manuscripts, which can only be discussed in person.

"Comrade Zhou, I really need to talk to the train driver in person. Please give me a call when the train driver is done."

He Yunshan took out paper and pen from his canvas bag, wrote down the office phone number, and left it to Zhou Ke.

He rode his bicycle back to the Comic Book magazine office.

The editor-in-chief was still waiting for news, and as soon as he saw him come back, he invited him to his office.

"Xiao He, how is the situation? When can the follow-up manuscript of the train driver be mailed to you?"

"Teacher, I didn't see anyone at all."

He Yunshan recounted his experience.

"Teacher, the train driver seems to be participating in the installation of an important equipment."

"Then let's wait a little longer."

"I just didn't expect that he was actually a worker." He Yunshan was a little embarrassed.

In his opinion, Kung Fu Panda is no less than those comic book masters in terms of drawing techniques, scene division and storytelling ability.

The editor-in-chief knocked on the table and reminded him: "Xiao He, what's wrong with workers? Many of our outstanding creators are workers, and we literary and artistic workers also serve the workers."

"Teacher, I'm sorry. I was negligent."

He Yunshan did not mean to look down on workers, after all, both his parents were workers.

"Okay, you should pay more attention to your thoughts and studies in the future. Wait for the call from the other side, and hurry up."

"Yes!"

He Yunshan waited for five days.

During these five days, Li Aiguo stayed in the installation site of the locomotive depot.

In order to prevent leaks, the armed department of the locomotive section built dozens of tents on the site and food was delivered by special personnel.

He led his technicians and workers to work day and night.

This is an era where hard work always pays off.

Five days later at nine o'clock in the morning, as the last steam pipe valve was installed, cheers broke out at the scene.

"Success!" At this time, a strange and huge machine appeared in front of everyone.

"Oh my goodness, what kind of monster have we created!"

The workers had been working according to the drawings, but this was the first time they had taken a close look at the appearance of the tracked steam engine.

They wanted to use something to describe the tracked steam engine, but they couldn't think of anything.

Industrial Cthulhu. Li Aiguo said silently in his heart.

Due to the lack of a front-end cutter disc, the current crawler steam engine is actually just a power supply system and soil discharge system.

The tracked steam engine, rear shield and middle shield together look like a giant flattened oil tank wearing two iron shoes, and the dark metal shell is covered with rivets and dirt.

The central shield joint is surrounded by hundreds of hydraulic rods, and the oil-covered metal folds rise and fall with the propulsion like a living thing breathing.

This thing looks like an indescribable steel monster, which can be called industrial Cthulhu.

Li Aiguo is also full of expectations for the role of this industrial Cthulhu.

But the knife disc is still needed now, so Li Aiguo can only suppress his excitement temporarily.

“According to the plan, the cutterhead requires high precision and needs to be coordinated with the tunnel.

So we need to move the crawler steam engine to the tunnel excavation site first, and then transport the cutterhead directly to the site for on-site installation after the cutterhead is manufactured.”

Of course, using shield machines in the future will not be so troublesome.

However, the technological level was relatively low in those days, and Li Aiguo could only adopt a "make-do" approach.

It is more than ten miles from Qianmen Locomotive Depot to Xiaoxishan Tunnel Excavation Base.

Passing through a busy area, this big monster would inevitably attract other people's attention.

Captain Zhang, who was in charge of keeping the secret, found Li Aiguo with the planned route and said, "Because the tracked steam engine is too big, we can only take the main road. Let me see, should we clear out the residents nearby in advance?"

Seeing Captain Zhang's plan, Li Aiguo was stunned for a moment: "Eliminate the surrounding residents?"

"Yeah, if someone sees this, the news might leak out." Captain Zhang looked around and said in a low voice, "Do you know Zhang Tan who came here a while ago? They just caught a guy called Dieter in their factory a few days ago. Do you know who he is?"

"what?"

"That man was a vegetable deliveryman who had lived in Baotou for more than 20 years. He had a good family background, but I didn't expect that he would be dragged into the water by the enemy!"

Captain Zhang sighed and said, "The confidentiality regulations of the 617 factory are very strict. Lao Mao once went to inspect it, but he didn't find this loophole. The enemy's activities have become more and more frequent recently. We must be careful."

"You misunderstood me."

Li Aiguo finally understood Captain Zhang's concerns. He walked out of the tent, pointed at the tracked steam engine and said, "If we use a few large pieces of tarpaulin to wrap the tracked steam engine as a whole, the enemy will not be able to see it, right?"

Captain Zhang was stunned when he heard this.

A few pieces of linoleum cost far less than clearing out the residents along the way.

More importantly, the effect is the same.

"Hey, patriotism, this is a good idea, how did you come up with it?"

Li Aiguo smiled and said, "It was just a sudden thought."

He couldn't tell Captain Zhang that there was a type of vehicle called a test vehicle in later generations.

In order to prevent the test car from being exposed prematurely, the manufacturer will apply zebra patterns on the outside of the car body, which has a similar effect to linoleum cloth.

Because the tracked steam engine was particularly large, Captain Zhang mobilized more than 30 sheets of tarpaulin and had the workers sew them together. In this way, the entire shield machine was covered, leaving only two chimneys outside.

Li Aiguo walked around the tracked steam engine and nodded with satisfaction: "Well, now it looks more like an industrial Cthulhu."

Boom boom boom!
The tracked steam engine started up and drove out of the installation site with a huge roar and black smoke.

The workers outside all knew that Li Aiguo had built a big guy and were mentally prepared.

But when I saw the huge monster emitting black smoke, I couldn't help but gasp.

"Oh my goodness, the building has become a spirit and can actually walk."

"What nonsense! You know that animals are not allowed to become spirits after the founding of the country."

“This is a building, not an animal.”

"You're a stickler, aren't you?"

As the crowd watched, Li Aiguo stood in the cargo box of a GAZ truck, directing the steam engine of the tracked vehicle to continue moving forward.

At this time, a voice came from the side.

"Comrade train driver, look this way!"

Li Aiguo turned his head and saw a young man in a gray Zhongshan suit being stopped outside.

The young man was waving at him and shouting something.

But Li Aiguo couldn't hear it at all amid the hum of the steam engine.

Besides, those pretty girls next to him were also waving at Li Aiguo. Aren’t they more attractive than this guy?

Li Aiguo turned his head and gestured to the tracked steam engine.

Cao Wenzhi, who was in charge of driving the steam engine, twisted the joystick, and the steam engine rumbled forward, causing bursts of cheers.

When He Yunshan saw Li Aiguo was about to leave, he wanted to rush over, but when he saw the pistol on the waist of the security officer next to him, he wisely backed off.

"Hey, are you here to see Brother Aiguo?"

Yan Jiecheng was also in the crowd at this time and heard what He Yunshan had just said.

Although he didn't know what the relationship was between the comic book editor and Li Aiguo, he knew that there were many comic books in the comic book editing company.

"Who are you?" He Yunshan asked when he saw Yan Jiecheng wearing a railway uniform.

"My name is Yan Jiecheng, and I live in the same compound with Brother Aiguo." Yan Jiecheng blinked his eyes and said, "Your editorial office has a lot of magazines that can't be sold, right?"

"Can't sell it" He Yunshan didn't understand what this person was trying to do.

Yan Jiecheng realized that he had said the wrong thing and changed his words: "I heard that there are many journals with printing errors in the magazine. They take up too much space. It is better to sell them."

"My father is the most famous junk collector in the area. How about we split the money from the sales in half?"

He Yunshan: “.”

He was silent for a moment, then said, "Comrade, I appreciate your kindness, but printing magazines is the job of the printing house. We are only responsible for editing and distributing them."

"That would be too boring." Yan Jiecheng was suddenly disappointed.

Yesterday, the third uncle wanted to match him and Ran Qiuye.

Yan Jiecheng didn’t think Ran Qiuye was not pretty.

But he, a junior high school student, and a college student had no topics to talk about at all.

Also, Ran Qiuye is too arrogant, not as cute as Yu Li!

Yan Jiecheng knew that the third uncle would not give up, so he wanted to save some money and move out of the house as soon as possible.

When He Yunshan saw Yan Jiecheng was about to leave, he suddenly grabbed his arm and said, "We have a lot of waste manuscripts in our editorial office."

"Hey, you should have said that earlier." Yan Jiecheng pointed at Li Aiguo who had already gone far away and said, "Aiguo has to go home at night. Why don't you go to his house and wait for him?"

"That's a good idea. You are really smart."

"Of course, I am Yan Jiecheng, the son of Yan Bugui!" Yan Jiecheng was very proud.

"Take me to the courtyard, and I'll sell you the scraps as waste paper."

"make a deal!"

Yan Jiecheng felt that he had taken the first step towards independence.

Decades later, residents of Qianmen Street still look incredulous when they talk about that afternoon in 1960.

"I've seen everything in my life, but this is the first time I've seen a car that big."

"Is that a car? It's obviously a building!" The old man who was playing chess felt that his chess partner was confused.

I won’t play with him next time.

All in all, it took nearly three hours for the tracked steam engine to be safely transferred to the tunnel construction site in Xiaoxishan.

At this time, the meteorological station has arranged several teams to be responsible for security work.

The Xiaoxishan construction site was surrounded by three layers of walls inside and outside.

After checking the tracked steam engine, Li Aiguo hurried back to the maintenance workshop of Qianmen Locomotive Depot.

Now everything is ready, except for the most critical blade.

Not long after Li Aiguo left, a car came speeding from a distance.

Seeing the car coming, the meteorologists became alert and Captain Zhang led his men over.

The car stopped, the door opened, the driver got out of the cab and respectfully opened the back door.

A middle-aged man in a woolen Zhongshan suit walked down.

When he saw the men in gray Zhongshan suits, he frowned slightly, but a smile soon appeared on his face: "Comrade, I am the chief engineer of the Construction Bureau. This is my work permit. Please take a look."

Captain Zhang took the work permit and checked it. Seeing nothing unusual, he returned it.

"Comrade Zhou, this is a confidential area and is temporarily inaccessible. You should go back."

Hearing this, Zhou Xinke's face turned ugly: "Comrade, I'm from the Construction Bureau. I want to check the construction safety work here to avoid the last incident!"

"I'm sorry, but the order we received is that no one except those on the list can enter."

Captain Zhang didn't know what kind of unit the Construction Bureau was, nor did he think about finding out, so he simply refused.

The driver next to him was a little angry, and walked up to him and said, "Our Construction Bureau is the superior department of the tunnel construction team. We are now inspecting the construction site. How dare you stop us?"

"crash"

The only response the driver got was the sound of the bolt being pulled.

"Xiao Liu, what are you doing? The comrades from the security department are carrying out their duties, and we should understand and cooperate with them." Zhou Xinke was also shocked when he saw this, and hurriedly stepped forward to stop the driver.

He nodded apologetically to Captain Zhang: "Sorry to bother you."

Afterwards, Zhou Xinke hurried back to the car, and the car sped away.

Looking at the receding scenery outside the window, Zhou Xinke frowned tightly: "What new equipment did the Engineering Bureau come up with that makes the guarding so strict?"

He often went in and out of confidential areas and recognized at a glance that those people were from the Beijing Meteorological Bureau.

"Chief Engineer, what should we do now?" The driver turned his head and asked while driving, "Should we go to the Friendship Hotel?"

Zhou Xinke narrowed his eyes. "I haven't figured out what the Engineering Bureau is up to yet. If the teacher asks, I won't be able to explain. Let's wait a little longer. Let's go back to the bureau first."

After saying that, he leaned back in the back seat and rubbed his temples.

"Director Chen is really something. For his own selfish interests, he came up with something good and hid it. If the teacher wasn't well-informed, I would have been kept in the dark by him. But he really misunderstood the teacher. Maybe we should have a good talk."

Thinking of this, Zhou Xinke opened his eyes: "Let's not go back. Let's go to the Engineering Bureau now."

"Yes."

The car turned around and sped away.

(End of this chapter)