Siheyuan Great Craftsmen

Zhou Tian was confused by the whole process. It was not until he sat down that he came to his senses. Perhaps Director Yang had misunderstood his meaning. He quickly said, "Director, I just have an idea. And this time it's about agricultural machinery, not machine tools!"

"Agricultural machinery? You said you want to develop agricultural machinery?"

"Yes, Director!"

Zhou Tian nodded affirmatively.

Director Yang was stunned for a moment. After a long time, he came to his senses and couldn't help rubbing his eyebrows with his hands, looking at Zhou Tian with some headache.

"Xiaotian, tell me what you are thinking. Why did you suddenly think of researching agricultural machinery? You know, researching agricultural machinery is the job of the agricultural machinery factory!"

At this time, Director Yang no longer had the excitement he had just had, and was left with only helplessness. He did not expect that after Zhou Tian developed the horizontal lathe, he not only did not continue to conduct in-depth research and development on the machine tool, but instead thought of researching agricultural machinery.

It’s not that it’s not okay to research agricultural machinery, but in his opinion, they are a steel mill, and if they are going to research, they should study machine tools and steel rolling equipment related to steel rolling. The most outrageous thing is just the steelmaking furnace.

But what the hell is agricultural machinery? It has nothing to do with their steel mill.

"Director, you know that I grew up with my grandmother and worked in the fields with my grandparents until I was fifteen, so I know the hardships of farmers."

Listening to Zhou Tian's words, Director Yang nodded unconsciously. He had read Zhou Tian's file and naturally knew that Zhou Tian had come to the steel rolling mill to take over after his father had an accident. Before that, he had indeed been living in the countryside with his grandparents.

As for the hardships of farmers, he had to admit it. After all, he was also a child from the countryside and knew very well that farmers basically had no rest throughout the year. Even if they worked hard all year round, they still had to rely on the weather for their food in the end.

If they were lucky and the weather was good all year round, the grain produced would be enough to feed themselves, in addition to the grain they handed over to the landlord. But if there was a disaster year, selling children was basically a common occurrence.

Fortunately, the whole country is now liberated, and without the exploitation and oppression of landlords, farmers can live a better life.

Zhou Tian continued half-truthfully, "So at that time, I swore that one day I would develop a machine that could reduce the labor of farmers. Unfortunately, at that time, neither my experience nor my knowledge was enough to support my dream."

At this point, a trace of sadness appeared on Zhou Tian's face.

"Who knew that my father's incident would happen and my dream would be aborted. I was wondering if I would never realize my dream. But until I developed the horizontal lathe, I was deeply moved by your and Technician Nie's selfless support for me! So I wondered if there was a chance to pick up my dream again!"

After hearing what Zhou Tian said, Director Yang didn't know what to say for a moment. He didn't expect that Zhou Tian would even bring up his dream in order to convince him, and the reason he gave was also to reduce the workload of the farmers. What else could he say? Could he say he didn't support it?

I'm afraid not. If he really dares to say that he doesn't support it, he believes that as long as this statement spreads, his career will end.

Of course the most important thing is that he is also the son of a farmer, and he knows well how difficult it is for farmers. Since Zhou Tian has this idea, how could he object?

What's more, with Zhou Tian's talent in mechanics, if he also showed such talent in agricultural machinery, it would not be impossible for him to apply to the higher authorities to set up a branch of the agricultural machinery factory.

"That's it!"

Thinking of this, Director Yang took a deep breath.

"Xiaotian, since you've said this, I would be unworthy of my status if I don't agree. Tell me, what do you want me to do for you?"

When Zhou Tian heard that Director Yang agreed, a flash of joy appeared in his eyes, and he quickly handed the drawings in his hand to Director Yang.

"Director, this is a new rice mill that I have recently developed. I call it a separation rice mill. I would like to ask you if I can have the workers process these parts!"

"Separate rice mill?"

Upon hearing this, Director Yang was stunned. He took the blueprint from Zhou Tian's hand, looked down at it, and then looked at Zhou Tian again before asking in disbelief, "Xiaotian, you said this is the latest rice mill you developed?"

It's no wonder that Director Yang didn't dare to believe it. You have to know that the horizontal lathe project was just completed not long ago, only a week ago, and now Zhou Tian just told him that he wanted to develop agricultural machinery, but he immediately took out the design drawings of the rice mill.

In other words, it took Zhou Tian less than a week from project establishment to drawing up the blueprints of this rice mill. Even though rice mill is one of the most basic types of agricultural machinery, this is too fast.

Thinking about this, his heart suddenly began to beat rapidly. Since Zhou Tian was able to come up with the blueprint of the rice mill so quickly, didn't it mean that his talent in studying other agricultural machinery was not weaker than his talent in machine tools? When he thought of this, he seemed to see the steel mill growing rapidly again.

"Yes! Director, what's wrong?"

Zhou Tian naturally didn't know that Director Yang had thought so much in such a short moment, and asked in confusion.

"It's okay, it's okay. By the way, you want the workers to produce all the parts on this drawing, right?"

Director Yang quickly came to his senses and asked as if nothing had happened.

"Ok!"

"Okay, I agree to this. Xiaotian, you studied the rice mill, but have you ever thought about studying the tractor?"

Director Yang put down the drawings and asked suddenly, but there was an excitement in his eyes that was difficult to conceal.

"A tractor?"

Although Zhou Tian didn't know why Director Yang asked this, he still answered truthfully: "Director, it's not that I don't want to study tractors, but tractors are not like basic machines like rice mills. Some of their parts are simply not something our factory can manufacture now. If we want to manufacture tractors, at least we must be able to produce castings and high-strength steel such as engine blocks and gearbox housings by ourselves."

In fact, it is not difficult for Zhou Tian to manufacture a tractor, but the difficulty lies in the materials of the engine, gearbox and tractor frame. There are furnaces in China, and perhaps the domestic furnaces are slightly inferior to those abroad, but they can meet the needs of the engine cylinder block. The stamping equipment can naturally meet the needs of manufacturing tractors, but the only difference is the strength of the steel.

For example, the manufacture of tractor frames requires high-strength steel. If the material quality is not up to standard, the frame is prone to deformation or even breakage.

Without good quality steel, or without stamping equipment and furnaces in the factory, manufacturing tractors was simply a fantasy.

Even if he wanted to manufacture it, he wouldn't know where to start, unless he integrated some steel industries and got strong support from his superiors. Otherwise, relying solely on their steel rolling mills, unless it was a small amount of manual manufacturing, they'd better give it a try!

This is also why he could only start small instead of manufacturing tractors right away. It was not that he couldn't, but the investment in the entire project was too huge and his superiors would never agree to it.

“So how can we acquire the capability to produce engine block and transmission housing castings ourselves?”

Director Yang continued to ask with great interest.

Seeing that Director Yang would not give up until he achieved his goal, Zhou Tian could only reply: "Director, if we want to produce engine blocks and gearbox housings, we need to build furnaces, medium-sized stamping equipment, and most importantly, we must build a new type of steelmaking furnace!"