827: Chapter 822 Industrial Machine Tool

Five minutes later, the shovel suddenly hit something with a crisp sound.

Clang!

It wasn't the dull thud of stone hitting stone, but the sharp sound of metal striking metal.

Hassan stopped digging.

The cigarette in Chen Guangke's hand fell to the ground.

As the loose soil was cleared away, a circular steel hatch, fully two meters in diameter, was revealed.

The hatch was covered in rust, but one could still make out the long-faded eagle emblem and a string of German serial numbers.

"Holy crap..."

Chen Guangke sprang up from the ground, rushed forward in two steps, and reached out to touch the cold iron lump.

"There's something down here?"

Shen Yan's lips curled up slightly; the feeling that everything was under control made him look exceptionally mysterious.

"Guang Ke, this five million, we didn't just buy land."

"We bought a historical oversight."

The locking mechanism of the hatch had long since rusted solid due to seventy years of wind and sand erosion.

But in the face of modern hydraulic demolition tools, this small obstruction was nothing.

Accompanied by a grating, twisting sound, the heavy hatch was forcibly pried open.

A rush of turbid air, carrying the scent of machine oil and aged dust, surged out.

There was no stench of corpses, as imagined; the dry environment here served as a natural preservative.

Shen Yan was the first to switch on his tactical flashlight and started climbing down the bottomless iron ladder.

"Brother Yan! Wait for me! Don't trigger any traps!"

Although Chen Guangke was scared, he was even more afraid of losing his boss, so he forced himself to follow.

After descending the height of about four stories, their feet finally landed on solid ground.

As several beams of strong flashlight illuminated the area, the underground space, which had been dormant for over half a century, finally revealed its true form.

It was a massive concrete bunker with an impressively high dome and astonishingly thick support pillars.

And in that wide space, dozens of behemoths lay quietly, covered by dust sheets.

Even through the fabric, one could feel the oppressive aura unique to heavy industry.

Shen Yan walked up to the nearest massive machine and reached out to grab the dust sheet, which had become somewhat brittle.

With a hard pull.

It ripped apart with a crashing sound.

Dust flew everywhere.

When the dust settled, under the strong light, a precision machine tool, entirely gray-blue, appeared before everyone's eyes.

It lacked the flashy, streamlined casing of modern CNC machine tools; every component exuded a sense of cold hardness, precision, and obsession.

The heavy cast-iron base, the guideways as precise as a work of art, and the transmission gears that still gleamed with a cold light.

This was the crystallization of industry from that fanatical era.

"This... is this a lathe?"

Chen Guangke was an engineering major; although his focus wasn't mechanics, he still possessed basic knowledge.

He leaned in close and touched the screw rod.

Smooth, incredibly smooth.

Even after so many years, the lubricant on it still kept the metal astonishingly slick.

Shen Yan looked at the data popping up on his retina, a trace of fervor flashing in his eyes.

[Model: SIP-4 G High-Precision Jig Borer (Modified Version).]

[Origin: Custom-made for Country D by the Geneva Institute of Physical Instruments.]

[Machining Precision: .5 micrometers.]

[Application: Processing core components for V2 rocket gyroscopes; processing bases for optical sights.]

"This isn't an ordinary lathe."

Shen Yan's voice echoed in the empty underground bunker, carrying a convincing magic.

"This is an Industrial Mother Machine."

"It's a machine that makes machines."

He pointed at the screw rod and turned to look at the bewildered Chen Guangke.

"Guang Ke, do you know what is currently causing our country the most severe bottleneck?"

"Chips are one aspect, but more fundamentally, it's this level of top-tier processing precision."

"The precision of this machine, even today, is a ceiling that many domestic machine tools cannot reach."

"The guys from Country D in that era were making machine tools with the craftsmanship used for making watches."

Chen Guangke half-understood, but he grasped the meaning of the word 'ceiling'.

He looked around; there were at least thirty of these massive things here.

"Brother Yan, you mean... this pile of junk is worth more than our five million US dollars?"

Shen Yan walked up to an even more complex-looking piece of equipment; it was a gear hobbing machine once used to process the transmission gears for Tiger tanks.

"If that Smith knew what was buried down here, he would be willing to trade half the assets of the entire prometheus Mining to get it."

"The mechanical structure design, the material ratios, and even those guideways scraped smooth by hand on these things are priceless treasures."

"With these, combined with Old Wei's and Lin Zhendong's material technology, I can replicate a top-tier production line belonging entirely to us."

"By then, all the Western embargoes and technological blockades will be scrap paper in the face of absolute physical precision."

Chen Guangke swallowed hard.

He looked at Shen Yan's back and suddenly felt that the brother he grew up with had become incomparably tall.

It turned out Brother Yan wasn't looking at this piece of land, nor the supposed copper ore.

He was looking at the backbone of the entire nation's industry.

"Then... how do we get them back? These are too big, too conspicuous a target."

Chen Guangke started worrying about the practical issues.

Shen Yan patted the cold body of the machine tool, as if patting his most loyal warhorse.

"That will depend on the capabilities of An Ran and Ning Ke."

"We'll disguise this place as an ordinary mine equipment repair workshop, dismantle them, and transport them back to the country in batches."

"To the outside world, we'll say that I, Shen Yan, am rich and foolish, buying a bunch of WWII junk to collect and build a museum."

Shen Yan turned around, the flashlight beam hitting his face, outlining a profile half in light and half in shadow.

There was no ecstasy in his eyes, only the composure of a hunter closing his net.

"Once this batch arrives in Jinghai, our 'Rock' will finally have true hardness."

Just then, Hassan, who had been silent, suddenly raised his gun and shouted sharply toward a corner.

"Who's there!"

Everyone's nerves instantly tightened, and all flashlights shone uniformly toward that dark corner.

Behind the mountain of spare parts boxes, there was no one.

Only a startled jerboa squeaked and scurried into a long-dried skull.

The skull was wearing a half-rotted M35 helmet.

Chen Guangke shuddered, nearly falling to the ground.

Shen Yan, however, walked over, squatted down, and looked at the German soldier whose bones had long since been bleached white.

On the soldier's sternum, he found a small iron box wrapped tightly in oilcloth.

The system gave another prompt.

[Key Item Found: Complete Geological Survey Maps for K-9 Zone and Manuscript of Rare Metal Smelting Formulas.]

Shen Yan picked up the small iron box and blew the dust off it.

"It seems our luck is even better than we imagined."

"This five million spent was practically robbery."