Chapter 360 Reasonable "Support"

Meanwhile, on the other side.

Inside the Li Family Toy Factory.

Sunlight filtered through the gaps in the blinds, casting dappled shadows on the floor of the factory director's office.

Li Jiajun was sitting in his large executive chair.

Spread out on the desk in front of him were several complex engineering blueprints, the ink long since dried.

He hadn't been idle since he'd had a series of epiphanies about these hardcore pieces of firefighting equipment in his livestream room.

He had begun making intensive arrangements with the Master Craftsmen in the workshop to prepare prototypes for these firefighting tools.

After all, no matter how beautiful the blueprints were, they had to be turned into physical objects for Liu Jianguo to inspect.

The office door was pushed open.

Wang Dachui, with his sturdy frame weighing nearly two hundred pounds, strode in while wiping the sweat from his forehead with a towel.

"Director, I've finished overseeing the progress on the parts for those two small devices."

Wang Dachui walked to the desk, picked up a tea mug, and gulped down a large mouthful of water.

He pointed to the blueprint for the [Bionic Arthropod-Powered Firefighting Exoskeleton] next to him.

"As for the hydraulic transmission rods needed for the exoskeleton, the Master Craftsmen are forcibly modifying the molds on that old injection molding machine in the factory; they can just barely manage to turn them out."

Then, he looked at the blueprint for the [long-range fire extinguisher] marked with a ten-kilometer range.

"And for that big-tube rocket fire extinguisher, we happen to have a batch of seamless steel pipe scraps in the warehouse."

"According to the caliber on your blueprint, we can just cut a section and weld it together; that should do the trick."

...

Hearing this, Li Jiajun nodded with satisfaction.

Although the factory's equipment was relatively old and could only produce some low-to-mid-end plastic toys and simple mechanical parts,

however,

by relying on the factory's existing equipment and the combined efforts of Wang Dachui and those experienced Master Craftsmen,

these exoskeletons and individual rocket fire extinguishers, which weren't too large and had relatively simple structures, could ultimately be cobbled together with a bit of extra effort.

"Good job, Big Hammer."

Li Jiajun was not stingy with his praise, and then his fingers tapped on the desk.

He pulled out the largest, most densely lined blueprint from the bottom and spread it out on top.

"So, what about this big guy?"

"How's the material preparation going?"

Drawn on this blueprint was exactly that [Full-Armor Firefighting Vehicle] with a clearing shovel, a tracked chassis, and a 125mm large-caliber spray tube.

...

Hearing the boss ask about this,

the slightly smug expression Wang Dachui just had instantly collapsed.

He stared blankly at the steel monster on the blueprint, which radiated a cold sense of oppression.

The corners of Wang Dachui's mouth twitched violently and uncontrollably.

He sighed helplessly in his heart.

"Director, you're really making things difficult for me with this one."

Wang Dachui pointed to the lines of insane parameters at the bottom of the blueprint, his voice filled with a deep sense of frustration.

"Look at the requirements on here."

"The blueprint for this thing is just too big, and the structure is way too complex!"

"We're just a small toy factory."

"Even if I dismantled all the machines in the workshop and sold everything for scrap metal,"

"it would be impossible for us to build such a steel behemoth from scratch in a short period of time!"

Let alone a small workshop of their level,

even those regular domestic automobile factories covering hundreds of acres,

without specialized heavy industry assembly lines and large forging presses, trying to fabricate such a tracked vehicle out of thin air would be a pipe dream.

"Because this is a freaking tank, boss."

...

Listening to Wang Dachui's outpouring of grievances,

Li Jiajun sat in his chair and didn't say a word of blame.

In fact, he knew very well that this was indeed a difficult problem.

He lowered his head and quietly looked at the heavy tracks and the massive body on the blueprint.

In this moment, for the first time, he deeply felt the insignificance of individual power.

Li Jiajun waved his hand, telling the troubled Wang Dachui to go to the workshop first to oversee the production of those two small pieces of equipment.

He needed to be alone to quietly think about a way to break through the situation.

...

He was left alone in the office.

Li Jiajun leaned back in his chair, his fingers gently rubbing his temples.

'If we can't build it from scratch,'

'is there an existing vehicle we can take and modify?' This thought surfaced in his mind.

He felt this was the only viable way forward for now.

But where could he get such a heavy-duty tracked chassis?

The load-bearing capacity and off-road speed of excavators or bulldozers on the market simply couldn't meet the insane requirements on his blueprints.

Just as he was racking his brains without any clues,

a flash of inspiration hit him.

His gaze fell on the mobile phone on the desk.

He thought of Liu Jianguo.

...

Li Jiajun was indeed carefree about many things and liked to let nature take its course.

But he was certainly not stupid.

He closed his eyes and briefly went over the details of his previous phone conversation with Liu Jianguo in his mind.

The scenes became clear in his memory.

Li Jiajun opened his eyes, a wise smile appearing at the corners of his mouth.

His sharp-tongued complaining trait flared up again, and he directly muttered his deductions to himself like a voiceover, without any concealment:

"I knew it! Why would Uncle Liu suddenly be so kind as to proactively point out some 'absolutely safe' direction for firefighting equipment?"

"He was backed into a corner and came to me looking for outside help."

"There's definitely more to this than meets the eye; nine times out of ten, it's a mandatory R&D task pressed upon him by the higher-ups."

Sitting in his chair, the more Li Jiajun analyzed it, the more he felt the logic was a perfect closed loop.

Uncle Liu was clearly using him as free labor.

However,

Li Jiajun didn't feel angry because of this.

On the contrary, he felt it was an excellent bargaining chip.

"Since I'm doing work for the authorities and helping Uncle Liu solve a big problem,"

he said while reaching out to grab the phone on the desk.

"then it's only reasonable for me to ask the authorities for some initial basic 'support', right?"

Li Jiajun felt this reason was simply impeccable.

He provides the blueprints and technology, and the authorities provide a chassis; that's what you call a powerful alliance.

Having figured this out, the gloom in his heart was swept away.

He skillfully unlocked his phone screen and searched through his contacts.

Soon,

he found the number labeled "Old Red Egg Uncle Liu."

Without any hesitation, Li Jiajun pressed the dial button with his thumb.

A monotonous "beeping" sound of waiting for the call to be answered came from the phone's receiver.

...

At the same time.

Inside Liu Jianguo's office in a certain Ministry of Military Industry building in the Imperial Capital.

Liu Jianguo was singing "We common folk are so happy," since he was now free of burdens. He had already passed the task the Old General gave him to that kid Li Jiajun, and now he didn't have to worry about a thing.

And just then,

suddenly, the phone on the desk began to vibrate.

He glanced at the caller ID on the screen.

"Why is this kid calling me?"