Courtyard House: A Major Power's Heavy Industry, Hand-Crafted Nuclear Fusion

With the heavy iron gate slamming shut, the third workshop was completely isolated from the world.

Yi Zhonghai's shouts and the workers' chatter all disappeared.

But the workshop did not become more relaxed as a result; instead, it was filled with an even more suffocating sense of oppression.

Factory Director Yang and Deputy Factory Director Li did not leave.

After such a major accident, and with the death order of military production on their shoulders, how could they possibly sleep?

The two factory leaders stood outside the cordon like two schoolchildren who had made a mistake, hands behind their backs, not daring to breathe, for fear that a cough from them would interrupt Su Zheng's train of thought.

In the center of the workshop, next to the disassembled M1320 grinding machine, Su Zheng was holding a vernier caliper, carefully measuring a broken section of the spindle.

Zhao Ming stood to the side, holding a notebook in his hands. The beam of his flashlight followed Su Zheng's gaze, and his hands trembled slightly.

"Master," Zhao Ming swallowed hard and asked in a low voice, "Now that Factory Director Yang and the others are watching... can this machine still be repaired? The spindle looks like it's broken like this, shouldn't we have the purchasing department order a new one?"

Upon hearing "make a new one," Deputy Factory Director Li, standing some distance away, perked up his ears. He was about to say, "No problem, we'll get it done right away," when Factory Director Yang glared at him fiercely, signaling him to shut up—had he forgotten the "three rules" from earlier? No interrupting!

Su Zheng put down the calipers, took off his oil-stained gloves, and threw them on the worktable.

"Replace the parts?"

Su Zheng chuckled softly, his eyes revealing an unfathomable depth. "Zhao Ming, come here."

Zhao Ming quickly went over, behaving as obediently as a primary school student.

Su Zheng pointed to the fractured section of the main shaft, which showed a pale white crystalline pattern, and at the edge of the fracture, there was a distinct dark fatigue mark.

"What did you see?" Su Zheng asked.

"It's...it's broken."

Zhao Ming scratched his head, somewhat puzzled. "Isn't this the one that old...old bastard Yi Zhonghai pried open? I think he was so fierce back then, he could have broken even an iron bar."

That was a contributing factor, not the root cause.

Su Zheng shook his head, took out a piece of chalk from his pocket, and started drawing directly on the dark green machine tool casing.

"If the spindle's design were perfect, even a violent disassembly like Yi Zhonghai's would at most scratch the surface or strip the threads. But this is high-strength alloy steel that has been carburized and quenched, with a hardness of HRC62. How could it be easily broken by a pry bar?"

Zhao Ming was taken aback.

Yes, this is the spindle! It's the toughest part of the machine tool, how could it be so brittle?

Factory Director Yang and Deputy Factory Director Li couldn't help but move a few steps closer, craning their necks to get a better look.

"Look here again—"

Su Zheng pressed a chalk mark heavily on the broken edge.

"This is a typical case of 'brittle fracture.' This means that microcracks had already formed inside the main shaft before Yi Zhonghai took action. In other words, even if Yi Zhonghai didn't pry it up today, it would break on its own in a month at most."

"What?!"

Not only Zhao Ming, but even Factory Director Yang couldn't help but exclaim in surprise, "It broke by itself? But this is made in Germany! Isn't German craftsmanship supposed to be the most meticulous? This is a treasure that cost over ten thousand foreign exchange to buy!"

Su Zheng turned and glanced at Factory Director Yang. Factory Director Yang immediately realized he had lost his composure and quickly covered his mouth, but the shock in his eyes was undeniable.

"Rigorousness does not mean perfection, much less adaptability to all working conditions."

Su Zheng turned around and walked to the blackboard (the small blackboard in the workshop used for pre-shift meetings), and quickly drew a complex force analysis diagram.

It was a simplified model of a main shaft, marked with numerous arrows and force points.

"The M1320 was originally designed for high-precision grinding under medium to low loads. When designing this hydrostatic bearing, the German designers made the journal too thin in pursuit of the ultimate oil film stiffness, which led to an imbalance in the length-to-diameter ratio."

Su Zheng tapped the chalk on the blackboard with a loud thud.

"Look here. At full speed, a micrometer-level bending deformation occurs in the middle section of the spindle. Although this deformation is small, it happens to be at the peak of stress concentration. It's like a wire; you can bend it gently without any problems, but what happens if you bend it thousands of times per second?"

"It gets hot, then it breaks!" Zhao Ming suddenly realized, "That's 'metal fatigue'!"

"That's right."

Su Zheng threw down the chalk, his gaze sharpening as he stared directly at the two factory leaders.

"What is our factory's mission? It's military production. It's high-intensity grinding that runs 24 hours a day. This machine here is like a weak scholar being dragged into heavy physical labor. Its heart—the spindle system—simply cannot withstand this kind of long-term, high-load torture. Yi Zhonghai's violent operation only prematurely detonated this hidden danger."

The workshop was deathly silent.

Factory Director Yang and Deputy Factory Director Li looked at each other, both sweating profusely.

It turns out that their prized "factory treasure" was actually "congenitally disabled"? If Su Zheng hadn't pointed it out today, the consequences of it suddenly breaking down at a critical moment in production would have been unimaginable!

"Then...what do we do?" Deputy Factory Director Li's voice trembled. "Since it's an inherent design flaw, even if we replace it with a new one, won't it just break again? Wouldn't that render the machine useless?"

"Is it ruined?"

Su Zheng walked to the drafting table and spread out a huge blank drawing sheet with a clatter.

Under the light, his eyes shone with an alarming intensity, the fervor of a hunter seeing his prey or a craftsman seeing a rough gem.

"Who said it's useless?"

Su Zheng picked up a drawing pencil and drew a heavy circle in the center of the drawing.

"Since the original design is no good, then we'll discard it! I'm going to take this inherently flawed heart out and replace it with a stronger, tougher, and more perfect 'Chinese heart'!"

"A Chinese heart?!" Factory Director Yang felt a surge of excitement rush to his head. "Xiao Su, you mean... you want to redesign it?"

"Yes!" Su Zheng's voice was firm and powerful. "I'm going to change it into a 'hybrid dynamic and static pressure spindle'! We'll use the dynamic pressure effect to increase load-bearing capacity and the static pressure effect to ensure rotational accuracy. This will not only solve the fatigue fracture problem but also improve machining accuracy by another order of magnitude!"

"Great! What a Chinese heart!" Factory Director Yang excitedly pumped his fist. "Xiao Su, just go for it! Whatever materials or support you need, Lao Li and I will be your logistics managers right here! We won't sleep tonight, we'll stay here with you!"

"Yes! Stay with them!"

Deputy Factory Director Li quickly chimed in, "I'll have someone go to the canteen and get some late-night snacks right away!"

Su Zheng looked at the two leaders who were originally high and mighty, but now stood around him like two most loyal assistants, and smiled slightly to himself.

That's the power of technology.

It is also the allure of power.

"Zhao Ming, grind the ink! Lay out the paper!"

Su Zheng rolled up his sleeves, his voice brimming with ambition, "Tonight we'll strip this German machine bare and draw up a new assembly diagram that no one has ever seen before!"

"yes!"

......

On this cold winter night, in this enclosed workshop, a technological revolution that would change the fate of the Red Star Steel Rolling Mill and even shock the entire Ministry of Industry was quietly beginning.

Time passed second by second.

The workshop was so quiet that only the scratching sound of pencils rubbing against paper could be heard.

Su Zheng was completely focused on the blueprints, his "Eye of Truth" in his brain was working at high speed, and countless data streams were converging into precise lines.

Factory Director Yang and Deputy Factory Director Li sat on a bench in the corner. Although they were so sleepy that their eyelids were drooping, neither of them dared to sleep. They would get up from time to time to change Su Zheng's cup of hot water.

Meanwhile, in a corner of the workshop.

A piece of discarded draft paper was blown by the wind and drifted to the crack in the door.

The paper contained a sketch of a complex mechanical structure, with several key data points marked next to it.

This is just a part of the force analysis diagram that Su Zheng just casually drew. To him, it's just a piece of waste paper, but in the eyes of some people, it may be a priceless treasure.

Through the crack in the door, a pair of cold eyes were staring intently at the piece of paper.

The man was wearing an inconspicuous gray work uniform, with his hat pulled low, almost covering half of his face.

He had been lying in wait outside for a long time, originally intending to check on the progress of the machine repair, but unexpectedly he overheard those shocking remarks.

"A hybrid of dynamic and static pressure... a radical modification... a Chinese heart..."

The man repeated those words in a low voice, a hint of greed and fear flashing in his eyes.

Although he didn't quite understand the specific technical details, he could sense that Su Zheng's skills were definitely not just about repairing machines.

This is a huge threat.

It is also a huge opportunity.

If we could get our hands on this blueprint...

The man looked around and saw that the security officer was patrolling on the other side. He then quietly reached out and hooked the piece of waste paper with a thin wire, slowly dragging it away.

"Sizzle—"

The sound of paper scraping against the ground was particularly jarring in the quiet night.

Su Zheng, who was busy at his drawing table, suddenly twitched his ears.

His "Eye of Truth" can not only see through machines, but also keenly perceive subtle changes in the surrounding environment.

"Who?!"

Su Zheng turned around abruptly, his gaze shooting towards the gate like lightning.

But all he saw was an empty crack in the door and a scrap of paper with only a corner left.

The man ran away.

Su Zheng squinted, quickly walked to the door, and picked up the remaining corner of scrap paper.

The paper still smelled of the oil from the man's fingers, and a faint... gunpowder smell?

Su Zheng's pupils suddenly contracted.

This is no ordinary worker!

Ordinary workers only smell of machine oil and sweat; they would never have this special odor that only comes from prolonged contact with firearms or explosives.

Enemy agents.

The word flashed through Su Zheng's mind instantly.

It seems that the waters at the Red Star Steel Rolling Mill are deeper than he imagined.

It wasn't just the kind of "internal strife" like Yi Zhonghai's, which caused sabotage for personal gain; there were also real "external enemies" lurking in the shadows.

"Master, what's wrong?"

Seeing that Su Zheng's expression was off, Zhao Ming quickly ran over and asked.

Factory Director Yang and Deputy Factory Director Li, who were still half asleep, were also startled awake and quickly came over:

"What's wrong, Xiao Su?"

"fine."

Su Zheng calmly stuffed the scrap of paper into his pocket. "There was a mouse just now."

"A mouse? Should I go find a trap?" Zhao Ming asked innocently.

"Need not."

Su Zheng turned around, glanced at the huge spread-out blueprint, and a cold smile curled at the corner of his mouth.

"The best clip is the diagram we're drawing right now."

"Since they want to see those things, let them see as much as they want. However, whether they can understand them, and whether they can bring them out alive, depends on their abilities."

"Zhao Ming, keep working! Double the size of that 'oil chamber throttle valve'!"

"Huh? Double the size? Won't that cause a blockage?"

"Do as I say! This is called 'Maze Sealing,' it's specially designed to keep out villains!"

The lights in the workshop were brighter.

Su Zheng's pen flew across the paper, not only designing a machine, but also a huge, intricate trap that could devour any greedy gaze.

This night is destined to be sleepless.