Chapter 641: 627 East Research Institute: *Hiss* This steel is so awesome! This person

East time, November 2nd, 9:00 AM.

Shenyang.

East Academy of Sciences Metal Research Institute.

It was established in 1953 and was one of the first research institutes newly created in the country.

The founder was the physical metallurgist Mr. Li, in August and November 1950, he resolutely resigned from the University of Sheffield, and then was obstructed by the Victoria authorities, returning only after half a year.

At this time, the four-story building, as night fell, the lights were constantly turned on, and laboratories and offices were all lit up.

Materials science is the main pillar of the entire industrial system of the East, so everyone in the country is exploring various materials, paying countless sweat of metallurgists, only then gradually consolidating the industrial foundation of the East.

At this time,

A group of leaders stood outside the gate of the Academy of Sciences, looking far into the distance at the end of the road.

"Hong Kong side, said there is a big surprise, what kind of surprise is it?"

"Could it be a new breakthrough in researching Soviet steel?"

"It's only been a few days, not so fast, right?"

"The day before yesterday, the rare earth from Peking University was sent over, and results came out so fast?"

Why Peking University?

Because in the 1970s, the father of rare earth, Mr. Xu, was at Peking University.

His return journey was also bumpy.

Since the founding of the country, many people with lofty ideals resolutely resigned from their comfortable lives abroad and returned to the East, consolidating the foundation, chasing crazily, only then having the confidence to stand up to tariffs later.

"Didn't say clearly on the phone."

"Didn't say clearly represents what? Represents the results are very amazing, need to be kept secret, cannot be talked about on the phone."

"Makes me even more curious."

"Everyone don't guess, it must be a major breakthrough, that's why Chief Engineer Liu rushed back."

At the gate,

Everyone was discussing, curious, necks stretched long, eyes looking far away.

9:15, on the Shenyang Taoxian Airport Expressway, a black Santana 2000 flew towards the research institute in the morning mist with a *hong hong hong*~~~ sound.

Chief Engineer Liu in the back row untied his tie, his fingers unconsciously rubbing the steel ingot slice in his suit inner pocket, and a file bag of data—proportion parameters.

In Hong Kong, after testing the first piece of steel, he re-did it seven or eight times according to the data.

Although various results were a

This made everyone heave a sigh of relief.

They were terrified that after producing one batch, they wouldn't be able to replicate it due to misremembering the data; that would truly be cause to cry and wail for a lifetime.

When the assistant in the passenger seat, Xiao Wang, turned his head, he caught a glimpse of a black stain on Chief Engineer Liu's cuff—it was rare earth oxide he had brushed against while cleaning the high-temperature furnace at the Hong Kong laboratory last night.

Xiao Wang glanced at his watch: "Sir, we'll be at the institute in ten minutes."

"Good!"

To be honest, Chief Engineer Liu was extremely exhausted at this moment; after smelting the steel yesterday, he had been in a state of high excitement all night, constantly replicating the process, thrilled time and time again.

After boarding the plane, he remained too excited to sleep, and by now, he hadn't closed his eyes for 17 hours.

At 56 years old, his body was struggling to hold up.

At the entrance of the research institute,

Director Chen was pacing back and forth, stepping on cigarette butts scattered all over the ground.

Chief Engineer Zhang, standing nearby, suddenly pointed toward the end of the road:

"They're here!"

Everyone looked over, and sure enough, a black dot in the distance on the road was constantly expanding, finally turning into a Santana.

Soon,

Screech—

The Santana arrived in front of the gate, the tires emitting a harsh sound as they rubbed against the ground.

Chief Engineer Liu pushed open the car door.

"Old Liu!"

"You're finally back."

"You've worked hard, you've worked hard."

Everyone saw Chief Engineer Liu's exhausted face at a glance and knew this trip had been a grueling ordeal.

"Why don't you take a rest?"

"No rest, let me report our latest progress first."

"Haha~~~ It seems there really is great news."

"Let's go, to the laboratory..."

Soon, Director Chen pulled Chief Engineer Liu along, with the other chief engineers following, and they walked into the research institute.

They arrived at the laboratory.

According to confidentiality principles, the majority of staff and engineers under 35 years old all left the laboratory, leaving behind a group of senior leaders.

Chief Engineer Liu took out several steel ingots wrapped in wax paper, as well as a file folder.

"This is..."

Director Chen put on white gloves and picked them up.

Chief Engineer Liu: "Yesterday, we tested the latest version of the steel; the data in all aspects is far stronger than our domestic steel, and it has comprehensively surpassed the No. 4 Soviet steel on the supply ship."

Director Chen and all the chief engineers were excited: "What are the figures?"

Chief Engineer Liu: "Brinell hardness (HB) 302, tensile strength (MPa) 1032.4, impact toughness (J/cm²) 104.24..."

"Hiss~~~~"

The entire room gasped.

Director Chen: "And the grain size?"

Chief Engineer Liu: "Grade 12!"

"Hiss~~~~"

Once again, everyone gasped in unison.

Then, everyone was ecstatic.

Chief Engineer Liu: "However, the equipment over there is too limited, so we could only measure this much. We need our instruments here to measure more data."

"Good, then let's test it."

"Hurry, start!"

"Awoo awoo awoo~~~~"

Soon,

Inside the laboratory, they used various instruments to test them one by one.

The various data points emerged, stunning everyone!

But everyone still felt it was a bit magical.

"Go!"

"Go to the steelmaking workshop, prepare the vacuum furnace immediately, we're going to smelt it again..."

"Right, the ingredient list? And the process?"

"Here, it's all here..."

At 1:05 PM, the molten steel in the vacuum furnace reached 1250°C. Chief Engineer Liu stared at the golden vortex inside the furnace.

"Pour it!" The moment the steel ingot was immersed in the cooling tank, steam billowed.

After a series of processes,

A new steel ingot emerged.

In the testing room, the indenter of the Brinell hardness tester slowly pressed into the steel ingot; when the needle swept past 302 HB,

The whole room cheered!

"It really exists!"

"Too amazing!"

"Continue testing!"

Then came the other tests...

One by one, they were verified and passed; the parameters were very similar to the steel brought back from Hong Kong.

"How did you manage it?" Chief Engineer Zhang tugged at Chief Engineer Liu's sleeve, pleasantly surprised, "Tell us about the process?"

Chief Engineer Liu sighed, took out a cigarette, lit it, and began to speak slowly.

Then...

"What?"

"A ratio figured out by a materials novice?"

"Are you f***ing kidding me?"

Everyone was dumbfounded.

However, they also knew that sometimes, when it comes to materials, it relies heavily on luck.

For example, the Victorian bacteriologist Alexander Fleming was studying staphylococci, and after one experiment, he casually left an unwashed petri dish on the windowsill, which led to the discovery of the famous "penicillin."

For example, in the early 19th century, natural rubber was easily softened by heat and hardened by cold, making it poorly practical. American inventor Charles Goodyear spent years researching improvement methods to no avail. By chance in 1839, he accidentally dripped a mixture of rubber and sulfur onto a hot stove during an experiment and unexpectedly discovered that the material became tough and heat-resistant.

Sometimes, luck is just that absurd.

"Wait..."

"Why didn't you bring him back..."

As soon as the Director's words were out, the eyes of everyone in the room turned to Chief Engineer Liu.

Chief Engineer Liu: "............"

Soon, the news was reported to the state.

With this newly produced special steel, the domestic shipbuilding plan could greatly accelerate its progress!

Finally, this type of steel was named—"Jiacheng Steel"!

US time is more than ten hours behind Eastern time.

When the East entered the night,

Here in San Francisco, the daylight of November 2, 1993, arrived.

Today,

Is a very important day for San Francisco.

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors election!

San Francisco City Hall, along with six other locations, became temporary polling stations.

(Image: City Hall)

Large numbers of citizens headed to nearby polling stations to cast their votes.

From morning until afternoon, continuing until 20:00 in the evening, the voting finally ended.

Next, it was time to count the votes overnight at City Hall.

Umbrella Corporation, top floor.

Xiao Fu, Ah Bu, Li Situ Jie, Ji Shaoqun, Qi Qi, and others stood before the floor-to-ceiling windows of the office, looking down at Tang Renjie below.

Although it was already 22:00, other districts were already pitch black at this hour.

But in Tang Renjie, the lights still filled the entire district.

People were coming and going; it was prosperous and bustling.

There were white people, black people, Asians, Latinos...

"Seeing the prosperity here, do you have a feeling of returning to Hong Kong?"

"I do."

"When we first arrived, they didn't even turn on the lights at night here; it was too chaotic. Now, a year and a half later, it's already this prosperous."

"Yeah, when we came, it was too chaotic, but now that law and order has improved, it attracts more and more people to come here."

"Last time, I even heard a white person who came from another place to eat say: 'It's too late now, there's nowhere to find food, only Tang Renjie here still has shops open at night, I can only come to Tang Renjie for dinner.'"

"Hahaha~~~"

Everyone laughed.

A sense of accomplishment welled up spontaneously.

Soon, Xiao Fu's expression turned serious: "The voting results will be out tonight; do you think the two candidates we pushed can win?"

"Definitely win!"

"They'll definitely win!"

Everyone was full of confidence.

Xiao Fu: "I also have great confidence... After the election ends, it will be time for the two of them to fulfill their promises."

"I spoke with Brother Zu yesterday, and we decided to change the plan again."

"Our goal has been changed to cooperating with other ethnic minorities to divert the attention of the US authorities..."

Currently, the population distribution of San Francisco is:

—White, 53.6%

—Asian, 28.7% (of which Chinese 18.1%; Filipino 5.7%; Japanese 1.6%; Korean...)

—Latino, 13.3%

—Black, 10.9%

"We want to push for an 'Immigrant Rights Committee,' advocating for equal rights..."

"For example, fighting for immigrants: labor rights, education rights, housing rights, etc..."

"Providing legal support..."

"Supervising the city's policies and projects to see if there is any discrimination..."

Originally, Director Guan Zu wanted to set up a "Stop Hate Against Chinese/Asians Committee," but later he thought about it and felt it wasn't enough; it was too provocative, so it would be better to expand the scope and become a "Stop Hate Against Minorities Committee."

Turning the internal conflicts of minorities into external conflicts between minorities and white people.

As for the internal conflicts of minorities?

Fight!

Solve it internally, so that it can be constrained to a small scope, reducing turmoil, and thereby reducing the attention from the authorities.

After hearing this, everyone nodded one after another.

Xiao Fu said seriously: "California has always been the stronghold of the Republican Party, and in recent years, the California Democratic Party has gradually exerted its strength; I estimate that soon there will be Democrats trying to win us over..."

Republican Party (Conservative): Voters are basically concentrated among the elderly, white people, the wealthier, and those with better education.

Democratic Party (Radical): Voters are concentrated among young voters, the poor, black people, Latinos, Asians, and those with less education.

Xiao Fu: "In addition, there is another plan that needs to be changed: the subsequent political path will be taken over by Ah Situ Jie, who will enter California politics."

This was decided only after Director Guan Zu and Xiao Fu talked on the phone.

Xiao Fu's mainland identity is a bit inappropriate.

On the contrary, Li Situ Jie, coming from 【redacted】, is actually more suitable than Xiao Fu.

And Li Situ Jie has a sense of awe-inspiring righteousness, which is suitable for fooling people.

"Next, our goal is to push Li Situ Jie to join the Democratic Party, and then use the power of the Democratic Party..."

As for the Democratic Party having many monsters and demons?

Sorry, I am the most monstrous and demonic one!

November 3, 2:00 AM.

The vote counting for the election officially ended, the results were quickly sent to the Election Commission, and then the Election Commission sent the results to the Mayor's office.

9:00 AM,

The Mayor went to work, and the news department held a press conference to announce the election results.

"The election results..."

"Tang Mu Ammiano won with 30% of the vote..."

"Deneice Smith won with 26% of the vote..."

"......"

Noon,

News television stations in the San Francisco Bay Area and California reported this news one after another.

"The one who received the highest number of votes is Tang Mu Ammiano, who supports homosexuality, supports curbing rent, and supports equal rights for minorities..."

"It is worth mentioning that this is the first time a Chinese-American councilor has stepped onto the California political stage... This marks that Chinese-Americans..."

"Currently, the Chinese-American population accounts for 18.1% of San Francisco, which is a force that cannot be ignored."

The report from the Democratic-leaning television station is as follows:

"And this time, African-Americans, Latinos, and Singaporean-Americans each also had a candidate successfully elected as a councilor for the Board of Supervisors."

"In other words, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors already has 4 councilor seats occupied by ethnic minorities..."

"This shows that the Democratic Party is step by step gaining the recognition of more citizens; this is the grassroots mass line that the Democratic Party has always insisted on..."

(End of chapter)