You were told to build a tractor, but you're building a rocket? Chapter 4 Facing the Gap1

It wasn’t just New Yuan Town, even the higher-level New Yuan City soon heard about the news of the Arica engineering team.

The idea that the town tractor factory had actually connected with an Arica machinery company left every city leader feeling sowhat dazed.

They knew about the New Yuan Town tractor factory; it was once considered an economic leader, but now it had beco a burden.

But now, not only were Arican engineers providing guidance, but Arican workers were also renovating the factory, which was simply astounding to people.

What stunned them even more was the speed of the Arican workers’ construction, which was not slow at all: various construction machines operating simultaneously, working shifts day and night, and the entire factory visibly transforming.

Each day for the past three days, leaders had co to inspect, then took photos with the white contractor Kate, and at last, delivered a few canned statents about supporting township enterprises’ advancent into high-tech.

The city’s dia, on the other hand, were focused on the patriotic overseas Chinese Guo Shen, especially after inadvertently learning that he previously worked at the Arican Aerospace Bureau, they hastily wrote articles overnight: "From the Aerospace Bureau to the tractor factory, patriotic overseas Chinese builds his hotown."

This wasn’t just talk; according to the system’s data, Guo Shen’s grandfather was from New Yuan, who went to Arica when he was young, and New Yuan Town was the ancestral ho Guo Shen had never seen.

After the continuous construction day and night by the system’s engineering team, by the third night, the entire factory’s upgrade and renovation tasks had been completed, and the scaffolding was already being dismantled.

Lin Ju simply pulled the leaders still present to hastily hold a completion ceremony and cut the red ribbon.

Then the entire crew from the Connecticut Oak Engineering Company packed up their belongings, and dozens of vehicles vanished into the night, heading back to Arica overnight.

Vice-President Wan, accompanying the town leaders on the tour, stared in amazent and said to Lin Ju with so emotion,

"They say that Aricans are lazy, that developed countries have low efficiency, but that’s completely a one-sided impression!

They haven’t stopped working for one minute in 72 hours; the construction is fast and orderly, and as soon as inspection is finished, they leave without any dawdling.

We must acknowledge the gap and not be blindly arrogant!"

The town leader with thinning hair nodded as he listened and instructed the office director beside him,

"Comrade Wan has a point, when I was young, I always learned from Arica, and it seems we still need to learn.

Compile all the photos and notes taken these three days and later submit them to the city. Send a learning docunt to our construction companies, learn from the professionalism of Arican workers!"

Lin Ju watched the group seriously summarize their experience, trying to suppress the smile on his face, coughed twice,

"Leaders, it’s so late now, and the upgrade is over, how about we end today’s tour here?"

Who knew the town leader would sweep his hand and say,

"No, I want to see your new factory building. Lin has ntioned the high-end equipnt brought in from Arica with great difficulty; it’s capable of producing a production line for rain-inducing machines worth five million each—I must take a good look!"

Lin Ju was helpless; he originally wanted to slowly compare the differences in the upgraded base on his own, but now he had to study it with everyone.

Guo Shen also accompanied them on the tour; he had participated in the transformation here and knew the factory like the back of his hand.

When he led everyone into the factory, the entire group, including Lin Ju, were stunned.

The factory, originally composed of steel fras and tal sheets with a gloomy color sche, was now covered with a nad insulating and fla-retardant material, bright white and clean, and even the lighting system had been replaced, brightly illuminating the entire facility.

The floor was covered with insulating rubber and further demarcated into work areas by lines of different colors; various pieces of equipnt were organized into sections by operation, everything orderly and systematic.

This was a far cry from the previous dusty, oily cent floor and the dirty mix of machines and parts scattered about.

As for the old equipnt, almost all of it had been replaced by new machines.

Nurous highly integrated CNC machining centers, resembling small rooms, had replaced old, exposed lathes, and to the visiting leaders, cleanliness and LCD screens signified high-tech!

By the ti they reached the final assembly workshop and saw seven or eight orange robotic arms, the group was even more excited, touching and inspecting everything up close.

The town leader stroked a robotic arm, reminiscing about his youth:

"I know this; the Japanese had this thirty years ago—it’s much more convenient than humans, isn’t it? Handling parts weighing over a ton as if they are tossing them around, right?"

At the end of the tour, Lin Ju and the leaders all felt the factory had indeed undergone a radical transformation; it was not much different, and perhaps even a bit more advanced, than the rocket assembly workshops they had seen on television.

When the town leaders left, they were completely satisfied and very friendly toward Lin Ju.

"Lin, the tractor factory has truly turned from a turkey into a phoenix! I’ve been around, seen so many factories—they don’t hold a candle to this one in terms of advancent and cleanliness, despite there being many that are larger.

Rest assured, I’ll imdiately draft a report to list New Yuan Town Tractor Factory as a high-tech enterprise!

By the way, it can’t be called the tractor factory anymore, right? Prepare a new na and report back to us. And Wan, let’s hold off on that loan—the high-tech enterprise is at the stage where spending money is essential, and we can’t drag them down."

"Don’t worry, leader. Now that the tractor factory has been transford, we’ll repay the loan after selling a few machines. There’s no rush."

Although the town’s credit cooperative didn’t have much money, the leaders still decided to hold off on the loan, which Lin Ju greatly appreciated.

It must be said that half the credit goes to the "Arican Engineering Team"; without them, this success wouldn’t have been possible.

After sending all the outsiders away, Lin Ju took another tour around the workshop and the more he saw, the more satisfied he beca. He pulled Guo Shen aside and asked:

"Now that the base has been upgraded, can we start producing rockets?"

Guo Shen had already received the DX-1 rocket data and had the answer ready:

"One first-stage 120-ton engine, two second-stage 30-ton engines, and one third-stage 30-ton engine. All of them use liquid oxygen and kerosene fuel, full-flow staged combustion cycle, which is the most ti-consuming part.

To account for testing, we need to build five engines in total. Along with so parts, using intermittent shift work, we expect to complete it in about 28 days. The rest can be outsourced to regular factories, significantly reducing our ti.

While we have most of the materials in stock, including fuel and other processing costs, we still need 4 million yuan."

But boss, what’s our payload? This rocket’s near-Earth orbit maximum carrying capacity is 430 kilograms, which is already considered a dium-sized satellite."

Lin Ju was not worried about the money; if worse ca to worst, he could mortgage the land. In his previous life, he had sold it for over 4 million yuan, so getting a loan shouldn’t be too difficult.

As for the payload?

It was then that Lin Ju rembered the system’s requirent to send a scientific payload into orbit. But what kind of object would qualify as a scientific payload?

Satellites definitely qualify, but it seed unlikely that the tractor factory had the technical ability to build one. He asked Guo Shen, and indeed, the answer confird his thoughts.

Protecting from radiation, vibration, and functioning normally at hundreds of kiloters above the Earth, not to ntion carrying scientific detection equipnt—it obviously wasn’t a small project.

Suddenly Lin Ju had an idea and asked Guo Shen:

"I heard that the backup satellite for Dongfang Hong I is still on the ground; can we buy it? It weighs only 300 kilograms, right?"

The look Guo Shen gave him was as if he were looking at an idiot.

"Boss, that’s a museum piece now. Besides, it doesn’t even have any scientific detection capabilities."

"Then contact the Arican Aerospace Bureau again, see if they have any defective satellites they don’t want?"

"..."

Lin Ju, deep in thought and unable to co up with a solution, squatted on the ground and complained after a long while:

"Others like Ma Yilong are making money by launching rockets, how co I have to... hmm? I’ve got it!"

Lin Ju had an epiphany and suddenly jumped up from the ground.

He might not have a satellite, but others did!

Using his rocket to launch satellites for others would bring in money; why would he need to spend any of his own?

As Lin Ju’s perspective broadened, various ideas popped into his head and he quickly ford a plan.

Directly advertising satellite launch services would certainly go unnoticed, but he could start with soone he knew.

Suddenly, he rembered that during his common undergraduate studies in China, he had collaborated with a 985 university on a satellite project. Sadly, another more prestigious school took over the rocket slot and the project fell through.

But they had built a satellite, which might still be around and usable with so refurbishnt!