73: Chapter 73: An Army of 20,000, and an Epic Bombardment of System Gold Coins

Twelve hours later. Jiangcheng High-Speed Railway Station exit.

Da Biao, leading three hundred Chenguang Electronics security team members wearing black tactical vests, set up a two-hundred-meter-long cordon around the entire station exit plaza.

A dense sound of ticket scanning came from the exit turnstiles.

Crowds of people surged out of the passageway. This group had distinct characteristics: most of them wore faded windbreakers or plaid shirts, carried heavy backpacks, had messy hair, but their eyes revealed a heart-palpitating fanaticism.

"Everyone from Chenguang Electronics Factory, gather here!" Da Biao roared, standing on top of a bus while holding a megaphone.

The crowd immediately became restless and ran toward the buses.

Twenty luxury buses bearing the Jinlan Hotel logo were lined up along the roadside. Security team members quickly stepped forward to verify names and guide them onto the buses.

There were no formalities, no speeches from leaders; as soon as a bus was full, it departed.

At the Jiangcheng International Airport terminal, an identical fleet of buses was transporting people at full speed.

There was only one destination: the temporary office building of Jinlan Hotel.

The large banquet hall on the first floor of Jinlan Hotel had been completely cleared out, with one hundred long tables set up.

Old Zhou stood on the high platform at the very front, his tie loosened, holding a thick stack of number plates. His voice was completely hoarse.

Over five thousand top experts and technical backbone staff from all over the country packed the entire banquet hall until it was impassable.

"Line up, everyone! Have your ID cards and the contracts provided by the headhunters in your hands!" Old Zhou shouted into the microphone. "After signing the formal employment contract, go to the left to collect your room key and cafeteria meal tickets! Fill your stomachs first this afternoon!"

Senior Engineer Liu Qiang squeezed through the crowd. Looking at the people around him, he gasped.

Standing in front of him was Master Li, who had spent thirty years working on ultra-precision machine tool spindles, and behind him was Zhao Yang, a chip packaging fanatic who had been driven to a failed suicide attempt two years ago.

This wasn't just a recruitment scene for an electronics factory; this was, damn it, a collection of the entire abandoned foundation of China's semiconductor industry.

"Next!" the young HR girl shouted loudly.

Senior Engineer Liu Qiang stepped forward and handed over the contract.

"Senior Engineer Liu Qiang, Senior Engineer of Etching Fine-Tuning. Base salary of 120,000, and a voucher for a three-bedroom apartment in the Jiangcheng High-Tech Zone."

The young girl quickly stamped it and handed back a formal employment contract. "Sign here, take the room key, and go to Building 12 to check out your apartment. There's a seafood buffet in the cafeteria tonight."

Senior Engineer Liu Qiang gripped the pen and scribbled his name.

In front of the floor-to-ceiling glass window on the second floor.

Lu Chen stood with his hands in his pockets, calmly watching the dense crowd below.

Every time a contract was signed, a crisp electronic sound echoed in his mind.

[Ding! New employee Senior Engineer Liu Qiang (core technical backbone) has signed the formal employment contract.]

[Detected that this employee's emotions are extremely excited. Initial loyalty bound at 100%.]

[Ding! New employee Sun Lixing (top physics professor) has signed the formal employment contract. Initial loyalty bound at 100%.]

The system's notification sounds were so dense they merged into a buzzing sound.

[The number of the host's registered employees has exceeded 17,000.]

[Loyalty of all new employees ≥ 90.]

[Today's estimated income increased to: 170 million.]

[Estimated daily output of tech points increased to: 17,000 points. Including previous inventory, the host's current total tech points have exceeded 180,000.]

This was the absolute trust bought with money. While foreign capital treated these people like beasts of burden and scrap metal, Lu Chen gave them full dignity, housing, and endless funding. From this moment on, their lives belonged to Chenguang Electronics.

The door to Lu Chen's office was pushed open, and Wu Dong walked in with Wei Jianguo, Wang Shouyi, and Chen Jianming.

These three titans of China's semiconductor field had bloodshot eyes, and they were so excited they didn't know where to put their hands.

Wei Jianguo walked up to Lu Chen and bowed deeply.

"Factory Director Lu, I, Wei Jianguo, will remember your life-saving kindness for the rest of my life." Wei Jianguo's eyes were red.

Lu Chen pointed to the leather sofa nearby. "Sit down and talk. I've handed the blueprints for the Lithography Machine to Chen Hao, and the personnel are basically all here now. I want a timeline."

Wei Jianguo sat down and took the teacup handed to him by Wu Dong. Wang Shouyi and Chen Jianming exchanged a look, and their expressions became solemn.

"General Manager Lu, the three of us just looked over the blueprints in the conference room."

Chen Jianming pushed up his glasses. "That '28nm Extreme Ultraviolet Lithography Machine: Magic Modified Version' blueprint is simply a miracle. Its structural logic completely overturns the existing ASML system."

"But that is also where the problem lies."

Wei Jianguo placed the teacup on the table, his brows furrowed. "To turn these blueprints into a physical object, we need to perform nano-level assembly and testing in reality."

Wei Jianguo stood up, walked to the floor-to-ceiling window, and pointed to the crowd below.

"These people have no issues with their skills, but the assembly of the Lithography Machine has zero tolerance for error. Even if a tiny particle of dust lands on the lens array, the entire machine will burn out the moment it's turned on."

Wei Jianguo turned his head and looked at Lu Chen. "We need a super clean environment with an area of at least 30,000 square meters and a cleanliness level of Class 10 or higher. In other words, a super-clean workshop."

Wu Dong interjected from the side, "General Manager Lu, Zhao Tiezhu has already taken people to lay the foundation at the 20,000 mu of land in the Chengbei High-Tech Zone last night, but the problem now is the purification equipment."

Wu Dong took out his tablet and pulled up a list. "The breeze filtration array system manufacturers in the United States and Germany both issued statements this morning refusing to sell us any filter ducts. Domestic foundries don't even dare to manufacture a single screw for us."

Wang Shouyi sighed. "The foreigners have figured out our situation clearly. They know we can't conjure a super-clean workshop out of thin air. Without the workshop, the blueprints are just waste paper."

The atmosphere in the office instantly dropped to freezing point. They had the people, they had the blueprints, yet they were being choked by a single speck of dust in the air.

Lu Chen looked at Wei Jianguo's desperate eyes without any change in expression.

He took the silver lighter out of his pocket, lit a cigarette, and took a puff.

"You are responsible for organizing the people into groups and assigning the processing tasks for the lens module and the light source module." Lu Chen flicked the ash into the ashtray, his tone indifferent.

He stood up, picked up the black jacket draped over the back of the chair, and put it on.

"As for the purification workshop, I'll go to the construction site and solve it." Lu Chen walked toward the door.

Wu Dong and Wei Jianguo exchanged a look, their faces full of disbelief.

A dust-free purification system is an extremely complex, cutting-edge fluid dynamics project. How could he solve that by going to the construction site?

"Old Wu, come with me to Chengbei." Lu Chen stopped at the door.

Wu Dong immediately picked up the car keys and followed. Wei Jianguo gritted his teeth and followed behind as well. "General Manager Lu, take me with you. I want to see what exactly is missing."