Courtyard House: Starting as a mediocre engineer

At the construction site, people below waved small colorful flags as the tower crane finally completed its safety inspection.

Seeing that the tower crane was working normally, the construction workers slowly returned to their respective posts, and the construction site gradually became noisy again...

In those days, construction workers were almost entirely employed by the general public; there were practically no migrant workers. They received fixed wages, so the system of collective farming was secretly implemented.

Having experienced the era of infrastructure frenzy, Zhuang Zhongchen was at a loss for words when faced with such work efficiency.

It must be said that work efficiency and the pace of life were quite slow in this era. For a certain time-traveling genius, it was sometimes a bit difficult to get used to.

After signing the test report, Zhuang Zhongchen waved goodbye as the site leaders saw him off.

However, as soon as they stepped outside the construction site, they saw a large group of men watching intently at the giant crane. Luckily, there were no excavators, otherwise these idiots could have been glued to the spot for days.

After glancing at his watch, Zhuang Zhongchen found a noodle shop nearby. He ate a large bowl of noodles with minced meat sauce, then hurried towards the editorial office…

To be honest, the editorial department's handling of the matter this time was a bit unethical. Rejecting the manuscript is fine, but shouldn't they at least return the paper? Otherwise, how can I submit it to other journals?

At that time, there were no printers or copiers, so were we supposed to just copy it all over again ourselves?

Luckily, I'm a clever little devil. When submitting my manuscript, I specifically looked for journals in Beijing. Since you guys don't want to reject it, then I'll go to them myself!

Not long after, Zhuang Zhongchen arrived at the editorial office. But as soon as he reached the entrance, he was stopped by an old man with a missing left arm: "Young man, who are you looking for?"

"I'm looking for the editorial department. I've come to retrieve my manuscript."

"Retrieve? You're not here to submit a manuscript, are you?"

"The submission has been rejected; they haven't sent the original manuscript back to me."

"Alright, alright! What organization do you work for? Show me your work ID and register! Hmm? You do look presentable. And you even know science?"

"Please excuse my ignorance. I only know a tiny bit."

"Oh, you're not being modest at all. One or two failures are nothing to worry about; shouldn't you approach it with a learning attitude?"

"Why should I be humble? They won't even accept my manuscripts; the editors here are useless."

"Holy crap!" the old man laughed. "You're a good match for me. If we were in the old unit, the old sergeant would definitely like you."

"Of course. Everyone loves this guy, right? Actually, I'm a bit helpless about how good-looking he is."

"Bullshit!" the old man laughed and scolded. "You're getting cocky, aren't you? The old sergeant likes guys like you. One has a foul mouth, and the other is a big, clumsy guy. Perfect for helping carry the machine gun during marches."

"Seriously! Don't you guys know how to care for young children?"

"Get lost! You're just being cheeky! I'll kick you to death, you little brat! Hahaha!"

The old men guarding the gate are clearly veterans of the Red Army or the Eighth Route Army. Because of their disabilities, they rely on these kinds of jobs to support themselves in their old age.

An old man and a young man smoked cigarettes and chatted idly for a while. After finishing their cigarettes, Zhuang Zhongchen smiled and entered the editorial department.

"Comrade, who are you looking for?" A middle-aged man wearing glasses sat at the door.

"Excuse me. My name is Zhuang Zhongchen. I submitted a manuscript a few days ago. However, it seems you forgot to send back the original manuscript when you rejected it."

"Oh! Submissions here are generally not returned. Sorry, we have limited funds, unless you send enough postage with your submission. Which one did you submit? I think I've already reviewed it!"

"What is your surname?"

"My surname is Zhu."

"Editor Zhu, it's the one about reactive armor."

"Oh! I remember now. None of your manuscripts passed the initial review. Your manuscript should be piled up in the storage room! I'll take you to find it."

"Thank you! I'm sorry to have troubled you."

Finding the manuscript paper went smoothly afterward; with the help of Editor Zhu, Zhuang Zhongchen quickly found the original manuscript. Fortunately, this was just a paper submission site, so the number of submissions wasn't too large. If it were a literary journal, the daily submissions would be piling up like mountains.

Having resolved a worry, Zhuang Zhongchen politely took his leave. He hadn't taken the matter to heart at all. Business may be uncertain, but integrity matters; it was just a submitted article being rejected, after all.

However, at this moment, perhaps this editor Zhu was rather fond of lecturing.

"Xiao Zhuang, do you know the biggest problem with your paper? It's obviously made a very basic mistake. It's not exactly far-fetched, but it's still very amateurish."

"Oh? May I ask you something?"

Zhuang Zhongchen chuckled inwardly. Before his transmigration, reactive armor had already advanced to the fourth generation. Both the third and fourth generations required optoelectronic technology, which was impossible with current technology.

But the first and second generations were already quite mature, and their structures were extremely simple. Couldn't even township enterprises produce those?

Okay! One is the outer armor plate, and the other is the sandwiched explosives. Both of these materials do require a certain level of technological sophistication. But with so many metallurgical and explosives experts in China, creating these things shouldn't be too difficult.

Furthermore, first and second generation reactive armor is quite mature and widely used by militaries around the world. And you're telling me this is a fundamental mistake?

Are you kidding me? Do you think you're more knowledgeable than all the military experts in the world?

"Xiao Zhuang, I understand your thinking—to imitate ancient armor and install armor plates onto tanks and armored vehicles. But have you considered this issue? Scattered armor plates are definitely not as strong as solid armor. Since reactive armor also has weight, why not put that weight directly onto the tank or armored vehicle, making the armor on the hull even thicker?"

Upon hearing this, Zhuang Zhongchen immediately understood that this was a common mistake that ordinary people often make—people cannot imagine things they have never seen before.

Zhuang Zhongchen quickly explained, "Editor Zhu, this is somewhat different from the armor on the vehicle body. It's like having two layers of armor, and..."

Editor Zhu interrupted with a smile, "We don't argue here. If you're interested, I can recommend a few books to you. But the worst thing in scientific research is taking shortcuts and finding shortcuts; we must also trust the wisdom of our predecessors. Have you ever thought about this? Tanks have been around for over half a century, so why haven't researchers from other countries thought of your kind of reactive armor? You can't say that only ancient China had armor, and that ancient foreign countries didn't. They couldn't imagine it, could they? Also, the latest research data from abroad doesn't mention reactive armor. That speaks volumes; your idea is very immature."

Zhuang Zhongchen realized something again: this was a mistake of relying on empiricism—if it didn't even exist abroad, then it proved that this path was a dead end!