78: Bringing his wife and children to Harbin Institute of Technology

He took out a notebook and pen from his bag and began preparing his speech for tomorrow.

Accuracy reports, military contracts, and training plans were all thoroughly sorted out.

Halfway through writing, he went to the workshop and took out a few finished products that had been dried.

I picked out a few items with the best surface finish.

Talk is cheap; you have to show it with actions.

The next morning at eight o'clock, Ye Bingwen rode his bicycle to school.

Director Liu was waiting for him at the school gate.

"Did you bring your things?"

"I brought it."

"Okay, follow me."

Director Liu led him to the conference room on the third floor.

Several people were already seated in the meeting room.

A man in his fifties was sitting right in the middle.

Ye Bingwen recognized him; it was Principal Liu.

Five or six members of the school committee were sitting on either side; they were all quite old.

An elderly man with gray hair was sitting by the window.

Director Liu said something in a low voice.

"That's Professor Zhao."

Ye Bingwen nodded slightly.

Principal Liu looked up and glanced at him.

"Xiao Ye is here? Please have a seat."

Ye Bingwen sat down to the side of the conference table.

Principal Liu glanced at his watch.

"It's nine o'clock, let's begin. Today's meeting will mainly discuss one thing—the vacant lot next to the school playground."

"Regarding the matter of setting up a factory for Comrade Ye Bingwen, Director Liu, could you please provide an overview?"

Director Liu stood up and briefly explained Ye Bingwen's situation.

After Director Liu finished speaking, Principal Liu looked at Ye Bingwen.

"Xiao Ye, tell us your plan."

Ye Bingwen took out a few sheets of paper from his bag and handed them to Principal Liu.

"Principal Liu, teachers, let me first report some data."

He unfolded the first sheet of paper.

"This is the precision report for a batch of civilian products I finished last month."

"Outer diameter tolerance within one millimeter, inner hole tolerance within 0.8 millimeters, flatness within one millimeter. This precision is twice that of the national standard."

He passed the paper around to the school committee members next to him so they could read it.

Then take out the second piece of paper.

"This is a military supply contract from the Provincial Military Region's Equipment Department. The inspection standards for military supplies are stricter than those for civilian products."

"My factory has passed the on-site inspection and obtained the qualification to supply goods."

Professor Zhao chimed in from the side.

"A contract from the provincial military region? How did you get it?"

"The head of the equipment department of the provincial military district personally led a team to my factory for inspection and tested the product quality on site."

"Zhang, a veteran technician who has worked in the military industry for fifteen years, measured the work on the spot and said that my machine tool was in better condition than when it left the factory."

Professor Zhao did not say anything more.

Ye Bingwen took out the third piece of paper.

"This is my practical training plan. If the school agrees to use that land, I will cooperate with the school according to this plan."

He handed the proposal to Principal Liu.

"The core of the plan consists of three points. First, the school provides the land, and I provide the equipment and management."

"Secondly, the factory opens its doors to mechanical engineering students for practical training, allowing them to learn operation, processes, and inspection."

"Third, after the factory becomes profitable, it will allocate 20% of its net profit to the school as a dividend each year."

Principal Liu flipped through the plan and handed it to the person next to him.

Professor Zhao placed the plan on the table, took off his glasses, and wiped them.

"Xiao Ye, I have a few questions for you."

"Professor Zhao, please speak."

"If you set up this factory and students go there for practical training, won't that take up their class time?"

"It won't take up time. Practical training is scheduled during spare time and weekends, so it won't conflict with regular teaching."

"Then who will teach? Can your workers be teachers?"

"My workers are all experienced technicians with more than ten years of work experience and rich practical experience."

Master Li has been a lathe operator for fifteen years, and his skills are better than mine.

Moreover, I can also mentor students; I mentored apprentices when I was in Daxing Village.

Professor Zhao paused.

"Let me ask you another question—students have limited time, so they should spend it on practical training and less on reading."

"Do you think studying is more important, or working?"

The meeting room fell silent.

Ye Bingwen looked at Professor Zhao but did not rush to answer.

He thought for a few seconds.

"Professor Zhao, I have something to tell you."

"I took on a batch of work last month with extremely high precision requirements. The draft angle of the mold was off by three microns."

"All the finished products were scrap. It took me half a month to figure out a solution."

"During the two weeks I spent pondering this, I went through more than a dozen textbooks and reviewed the mechanics of materials and the fundamentals of mechanical manufacturing."

"Without the theories in these books, I would never be able to figure out where the problem lies, no matter how hard I try."

He paused for a moment.

"The reverse is also true. I have an apprentice in my factory named Liu Xiaojun. He graduated from high school and has studied a lot of theory."

"But when I first started using the machine tool, my hands were shaking, and I couldn't even aim the blades properly. After practicing for two months, I can now work independently."

"Professor Zhao, reading and doing are not contradictory. If you only read books but don't put them into practice, no matter how well you draw the blueprints, they won't turn into anything."

"If you only know how to do things but don't study, you'll only ever be a skilled worker, and you'll never find the root cause of any problems."

"So I organize this practical training not to prevent students from studying, but to give them a place to practice after they finish studying."

Professor Zhao remained silent for a few seconds.

"You have a point. But I'm still worried that once the factory opens, the students' focus will wander."

"When everyone's focused on making money, who'll be willing to sit on the sidelines?"

"Professor Zhao, don't worry about that. Practical training is for learning technical skills."

"Moreover, I set a rule—for waste produced by students during practical training, no money will be deducted, no criticism will be given, only the problem will be pointed out."

"The goal is to learn skills, not to make money."

Principal Liu listened the whole time.

At this moment, he spoke.

"Professor Zhao, is there anything else you want to ask?"

Professor Zhao thought for a moment.

"One last question. Xiao Ye, you said your machine tool's precision is even better than when it left the factory. How can you prove that?"

Ye Bingwen took out several workpieces and placed them on the table.

"Principal Liu, teachers, this is the work I just did yesterday."

"Outer diameter tolerance within one millimeter, surface finish ▽7 or above, meeting the national standard first-class precision."

He handed the workpiece to a member of the school committee standing next to him.

A workpiece was handed to Professor Zhao.

Professor Zhao held the workpiece up to his eyes and looked at it, then touched the surface with his fingers.

Decades of experience told him that this job was not easy.

Professor Zhao put his glasses back on.

"Xiao Ye, what machine tool did you use to do this job?"

"A new milling machine and an old lathe, which I modified myself."

"You changed it yourself?"

"Yes. The original precision was insufficient, so we replaced the spindle bearing, adjusted the guide rail clearance, and redid the dynamic balancing."

Professor Zhao turned to look at Principal Liu.

"Principal, I have reservations. But I acknowledge this young man's skill."

Principal Liu nodded.

"Okay, everyone, I'd like to say a few words."

The meeting room fell silent.

"When I was studying in the Soviet Union, I also studied mechanics."

"One thing I remember very clearly is that in Soviet engineering colleges, each student spent half of their time in the workshop."