novelsite Chapter 26 Temporary Workers
Chapter 26 Temporary Workers
At four o'clock in the afternoon, Chen Yishang took Li Zhenhua to the Berlin Central Labor Market to recruit more workers. Wang Zhengyang stayed alone at the marshalling yard to prepare for the night's processing operations.
He cleared out a 300-square-meter dedicated processing area next to the "Longyuan" ship and moved several key pieces of equipment he had purchased in advance out of the shipping containers: an old 3-meter gantry milling machine (made in 1988, Waldrich Coburg, Germany), a 630-ton hydraulic bending machine (Prima Power, Italy), a CNC plasma cutting machine (Hypertherm, USA), as well as various welding machines, angle grinders, bench drills, and grinding wheels. Most of these machines were second-hand items that he had salvaged from closed factories or bankruptcy auctions, and after basic repairs, they were restored to their basic functions.
However, for the complex structural components that need to be processed next, the precision and efficiency of these devices are far from sufficient—at least not in the conventional sense.
At nine o'clock at night, Chen Yishang returned to the marshalling yard with thirty newly recruited temporary workers. These workers ranged in age from twenty-two to thirty-five, most of them looking tired but their eyes revealing a desire for work. The economic situation in Berlin continued to deteriorate, the wave of factory closures intensified, and Chinese people here faced more discrimination. A daily cash job was crucial for their survival.
Wang Zhengyang briefly inspected the workers to confirm that no suspicious individuals had infiltrated, and then instructed Chen Yishang to arrange for them to sleep on the floor in the seventh and eighth carriages. Each person was given two sets of work clothes, a full set of safety equipment, and a basic tool kit.
"Of these thirty workers, you and your four apprentices each take five, and leave ten for Li Ruijun. The train's tracked chassis is the most crucial part of the modification," Wang Zhengyang instructed Chen Yishang. "You all work according to the drawings, and if you encounter any problems, let me know immediately."
"We'll start work at 8 a.m. sharp tomorrow morning. Get a good rest tonight," Wang Zhengyang told the workers. His voice carried clearly in the night breeze. "The workload will be heavy, and we'll often need to work overtime, but our pay will be settled daily and never delayed. We'll provide three meals a day, with meat and vegetables. There's only one requirement: don't inquire about the specific purpose of the renovation, don't discuss the technical details you see, and strictly follow the blueprints and process documents during construction."
The workers nodded in agreement, some even showing expressions of gratitude. In chaotic times, having work, money, and food was a blessing; curiosity was an unaffordable luxury.
At 11 p.m., the entire marshalling yard gradually quieted down. The temporary workers, having worked hard all day, were fast asleep, and Chen Yishang and his apprentices had also returned to their bunks to rest. Only two sentry posts remained on duty at key points, rotating every four hours.
Wang Zhengyang entered the processing area and turned on all the lights. Tonight's goal was to process all the steel plate components needed to reinforce the first section of the locomotive. According to the design, forty-eight steel plates of different shapes and sizes were required. Each plate had to undergo precise cutting, drilling, bending, and surface treatment, as well as the processing of matching connectors and installation fixtures.
He started the gantry milling machine and preheated the spindle. He hoisted the first 12mm thick Q345B low-alloy steel plate onto the worktable and secured it with a hydraulic clamp. But instead of entering the machining program or manually operating it as usual, he gently placed his hands on the surface of the steel plate and closed his eyes.
0.41% of the Caldova gene engine began operating at full power.
Deep within his consciousness, a switch was flipped. It wasn't sight or touch, but a kind of "understanding" and "intervention" that directly acted on the microscopic structure of matter. He could perceive the position of every iron and carbon atom inside the steel plate, the geometry of every lattice defect, every path of residual stress propagation, and every potential fatigue initiation point.
More importantly, his hands began to emit a faint, almost invisible pale blue glow. It was not light in the traditional sense, but a highly concentrated quantum field effect—the ability granted to him by the Kaldova gene engine to directly "communicate" with metals and guide the reorganization of their microstructure.
Wang Zhengyang opened his eyes, a faint light, like a stream of data, flashing deep within his pupils, like an indicator light in a supercomputing center. He didn't need to look at the blueprints; all the dimensions, tolerances, and process requirements were already etched into his mind. He manipulated the milling machine's control handle, and the cutter head began to rotate, but the speed reached 180% of the equipment's design limit, and the feed rate was three times the normal value.
The sharp carbide end mill cuts into the steel plate, and the chips don't fall off in pieces, but rather, as if precisely guided by an invisible force, they neatly curl, separate, and fall into the collection tank. The sound of metal cutting isn't a piercing scream, but a deep, even hum, like the smooth operation of some large machine.
Cutting a complex 2.4-meter-long curve with three circular transitions would normally require changing three different tools and taking 35 minutes. Wang Zhengyang, however, completed the cut in just 8 minutes and 14 seconds in one go, achieving a surface finish of Ra1.6, which is suitable for direct use as a welding bevel.
Drilling. Thirty-six through holes, each 28 mm in diameter, needed to be drilled, with a positional accuracy requirement of ±0.1 mm and a perpendicularity requirement of 0.05/100. Instead of using a drill bit, he placed his right index finger on the center of the first marked hole. A faint blue light flashed in his palm, and the local temperature of the steel plate instantly rose to 800°C before rapidly cooling. The metal underwent a phase transformation and recombination—a perfect round hole was formed within four seconds, with clean, burr-free edges, a diameter of 28.00 mm, zero error, and the hole wall hardness increased by 15%.
Surface treatment. He gently ran his hands across the surface of the steel plate, and wherever he touched, the metal surface underwent microscopic reconstruction—the roughness decreased from Ra12.5 to Ra0.8, forming a microscopic anchoring morphology most suitable for structural adhesive bonding. At the same time, a dense oxide film was formed on the surface, increasing corrosion resistance by three times.
The complete processing of a standard reinforced steel plate normally takes two hours and fifteen minutes. Wang Zhengyang did it in thirty-three minutes.
He glanced at his watch; it was 11:47 PM. He still had forty-seven dollars left.
At 3:20 a.m., all 48 steel plate components were processed and neatly stacked on the east side of the work area, arranged in the installation order. Each component was marked with its number and installation direction using a chemical etching pen. The matching 280 high-strength bolts, 560 washers, and 140 locating pins were also all processed, with tolerances controlled within 0.02 millimeters.
Next comes the bending operation. Six steel plates need to be bent into U-shaped channel steel to reinforce the roof structure. Wang Zhengyang placed the first 10-millimeter-thick steel plate into the bending machine mold, and then held both ends of the steel plate down with both hands.
The blue light flashed for two minutes. When he removed his hand, the steel plate had completed a precise 90° bend with a bending radius of 5 millimeters and an angle error of 0.1°. Most importantly, the metal fibers at the bend were not damaged. On the contrary, due to the microscopic reorganization guided by his supernatural ability, the strength was increased by 8% compared to the raw material.