Chapter 99 The "Grandmaster" at a Bargain Price

Northwest, Aerospace City.

The biting cold wind blew, and Zhang Zhengguo pulled up the collar of his military overcoat, yet it couldn't suppress the fire burning in his heart.

As the jeep bumped along the dirt road from headquarters to the Fifth Workshop, his brow remained tightly furrowed.

"Nonsense! Absolute nonsense!"

Zhang Zhengguo complained to the guard beside him:

"How many days has it been?"

"A week at most!"

"Even if they didn't eat or sleep, it would be impressive enough just to get people organized."

"And now they're doing some CNC modification?"

"Claiming they can make ordinary workers do the work of an Eighth-Grade Worker."

"This is just pure nonsense!"

The guard didn't dare to chime in, only driving the car as fast as possible.

An Eighth-Grade Worker's skill was nurtured over time, a sense of touch built up from dozens of tons of scrap material!

Is Lin Xi some kind of immortal who can turn people into deities with a single breath?

Screech—

The jeep braked at the entrance of the Fifth Workshop.

Zhang Zhengguo pushed the door open and stepped out, walking inside with long, rapid strides.

He had already made up his mind.

If Lin Xi dared to try and fool him with some model,

He would definitely kick the kid's ass until it was black and blue.

As soon as he entered the workshop, a wave of heat mixed with the smell of engine oil hit him.

Everyone was there.

In the very center of the workshop sat a c620 lathe that had just been painted green.

Zhang Zhengguo's footsteps faltered, the disappointment in his eyes impossible to hide.

It was still that same hunk of iron.

At most, there were a few black iron boxes hanging off the back of the lathe.

Several colorful ribbon cables were exposed on the outside,

Exuding a shabby air of "crude improvised methods."

And this is called CNC?

"Hello, Chief Zhang!"

Lin Xi greeted him with a beaming smile.

"Wipe that grin off your face."

Zhang Zhengguo kept a stern face, circled the lathe twice, and pointed at the pile of wires:

"Care to explain?"

"It doesn't look manual, and it doesn't look automatic."

"It looks like something cobbled together from a scrap yard."

Lin Xi wasn't bothered. He casually picked up a blueprint for a part from the workbench and handed it over:

"Being ugly doesn't matter as long as the work is good."

"Let's inspect the goods first."

Zhang Zhengguo took the blueprint and glanced at it, his brow furrowing slightly.

A valve core.

Tolerance requirement: 0.01 mm.

"This job..."

Zhang Zhengguo gave the blueprint a shake. "Are you going to have your master do it?"

"No need for Master to do it."

Lin Xi beckoned toward the back of the crowd. "Big Cannon, step up."

Wang Dapao walked out, rubbing his hands together.

Zhang Zhengguo's eyes widened:

"Big Cannon? He's only a Fifth-Grade Worker."

"He's barely okay at turning a screw normally; you actually dare to let him take this on?"

"Let's give it a try."

Lin Xi pressed Wang Dapao down onto a small stool in front of the machine tool.

Zhang Zhengguo stood with his hands behind his back, his brow tightly knit.

When a turner works, it's all about the coordination of the waist and legs—it's like a martial arts stance.

But this Wang Dapao was sitting there like a lord.

In front of him was even a black box with buttons.

If you didn't know better, you'd think he was sending a telegram.

"Begin," Lin Xi ordered.

Wang Dapao took a deep breath, extended his fingers, and tapped rapidly on a row of buttons beneath some red digital tubes.

Input: feed rate, rotation speed, tool compensation values.

The next second, Wang Dapao pressed the green [Start] button.

Then, he performed an action that almost made Zhang Zhengguo curse out loud—

He crossed his arms, moved his chair back a bit, and actually stopped touching the handwheels!

Whirrr—!!!

This sound wasn't the dull roar of a belt pulley.

It was a sharp, high-frequency scream.

The motors modified onto the X and Z axes instantly locked, emitting a tooth-grinding electrical hum.

Immediately after, the tool post moved.

Without the slightest hesitation, without any tentative trial cuts.

The tool tip, with an absolute constant speed and an absolute cold precision,

Plunged fiercely into the high-speed rotating alloy bar.

Screech—

Blue, curled iron shavings fell down like a fountain.

Zhang Zhengguo instinctively flinched back.

Then, his pupils suddenly contracted.

Fast!

Too fast!

An ordinary old master turning such a taper would have to carefully turn the handles.

They'd have to retract the tool and measure the dimensions, fearing they'd cut too much.

But the machine before him was like an emotionless killer.

Feeding, cutting, retracting, repositioning, threading.

It was smooth as flowing water, completed in one go!

Every movement of that tool post carried a heart-stopping precision.

When it paused, it was as if nailed into the air, motionless;

When it moved, it was like a thunderbolt, fast as lightning.

"This... this..."

Zhang Zhengguo's mouth hung open.

Pointing at the automatically moving tool post, he couldn't say a full sentence for a long time.

Three minutes.

Only three minutes.

"Whir—click."

With the final crisp sound of a relay engaging, the main spindle braked.

The world went quiet.

Wang Dapao stood up, picked up an air gun, and blew off the part.

Then he respectfully handed it to Zhang Zhengguo with both hands: "Chief Zhang, please inspect it."

The part was still warm, its surface as bright as a mirror.

Zhang Zhengguo didn't take it, but instead pulled a micrometer from his pocket.

This was a habit developed from a lifetime in the military industry: trust the ruler, not the person.

The calipers closed.

He read the numbers.

Zhang Zhengguo's breath hitched for a moment.

Refusing to believe it, he turned it to another angle and measured again.

Still the same number.

He measured the pitch diameter of the thread.

Error: 0.01 mm.

God-tier precision!

And it was completed within three minutes!

Even if Old Li, that Eighth-Grade Worker, came, he would have to meticulously craft this for half a day!

He suddenly turned his head.

Looking at that unremarkable c620 with its "guts" hanging out, his gaze completely changed.

That wasn't scrap iron; that was a damn magical treasure!

"This is called CNC."

Lin Xi walked over, his finger lightly tapping the control box full of ribbon cables:

"Turning decades of an old master's experience into code and storing it in a chip."

"As long as the switch is pressed, whether it's a first-grade worker, a fifth-grade worker, or even an apprentice who just joined the factory,"

"The work they produce will be at the level of an Eighth-Grade Worker."

Zhang Zhengguo felt his scalp tingle, goosebumps rising all over his body.

He knew all too well what this meant.

In the past, these kinds of high-precision parts

Required an Eighth-Grade Worker to make, resulting in low output and low yield rates.

Furthermore, the training cycle for an Eighth-Grade Worker was twenty years.

But this thing...

"Lin Xi!"

Zhang Zhengguo grabbed Lin Xi's arm with enough force to crush his bones.

"This thing... can this thing be mass-produced?"

"Is it stable? Is it complex? Is it delicate?"

"As long as I'm alive, it can be mass-produced."

Lin Xi pointed to Liu Xiaodong and Zhao Qiang:

"The CNC system is finished, the servo motors are ready, and Engineer Zhao has already figured out the hardware structure."

"What's the cost?"

Zhang Zhengguo asked the most critical question with bloodshot eyes.

He was rapidly calculating in his mind.

Foreign CNC machine tools, even the worst ones, cost tens of thousands of US dollars each, and you can't even buy them.

If the cost of this set of equipment is lower than 50,000 RMB, it would be of immense significance to the country!

"Are you asking about the cost or the selling price?" Lin Xi still felt like joking.

"Nonsense! We're family, why talk about selling price!"

"I'm asking you, how much would it cost to build another set like this?"

Lin Xi held up two fingers.

"Twenty thousand?" Zhang Zhengguo asked tentatively, thinking that twenty thousand would be truly cheap.

Lin Xi shook his head.

"Two hundred thousand?"

Zhang Zhengguo's face turned a bit pale; two hundred thousand was a bit expensive, but he could accept it if he gritted his teeth.

Lin Xi smiled, a smile like a cunning fox.

"Two thousand five hundred."

Cough, cough, cough!

Zhang Zhengguo began to cough violently.

His eyes bulged:

"How much?! Say that again?"

"Two thousand five hundred RMB."

"Because we're using civilian-grade standards."

"C7 grade ball screws."

"Z80 motherboard chips."

"Self-developed CNC system, self-produced servo motors, the cost is controllable."

Lin Xi calmly added one more blow:

"If it's large-scale industrial production, the cost can be pushed down to under two thousand three hundred."

Silence.

A deathly silence.

It was as if even the sound of the wind had stopped.

The comments in the livestream room erupted.

【Hahaha! Look at Chief Zhang's face! It's like he's seen a ghost!】

【Using future algorithmic architectures to squeeze every bit of performance out of cheap civilian chips, paired with the simplest mechanical transmission structures—my brain cells are almost dead just thinking about it!】

【This isn't just a technical victory; it's a massacre of the existing industrial system.】

"Two thousand three hundred... two thousand three hundred..."

Zhang Zhengguo muttered to himself, his body suddenly trembling violently.

Abruptly, he turned and ran outside, even knocking over a chair.

"Commander-in-Chief! Where are you going?" The guard was startled and quickly chased after him.

"To the office! I need to call Zhang Big Head!"