boyutpedia Chapter 84 Preparations for War
Chapter 84 Preparations for War
Jiang Haiping stuffed the last bite of dried sweet potato into his mouth, chewed it twice, patted the crumbs off his hands, and walked to the workbench to open the register.
The date for the competition has been set, with four slots available: Ahai for diesel engine disassembly and assembly, Ding Haisheng for welding, Lin Xiue for grouting, and Zhou Haisheng for old parts management.
He was confident about the first three, but he could disassemble and reassemble Ah Hai's diesel engine so thoroughly that he could find the location of every screw with his eyes closed.
Ding Haisheng has already mastered the overhead welding of the thick plate. Lao Fang looked at the single-sided welding with double-sided forming three times but couldn't find any faults.
Lin Xiu'e didn't need him to worry about her at all; Qiu Changhai squatted by the stone trough every day, watching over her, and had already worked on the sixth pine plank.
The scoring criteria for Zhou Haisheng's old document management have not yet been finalized.
Jiang Haiping turned to the page for old items in the register, where A-Guang had made a classification list yesterday.
The six main categories are gears, bearings, seals, fasteners, pumps and valves, and electrical components. Each category is further divided into subcategories, with specifications and inventory quantities noted after each subcategory.
The characters are Ah Guang's; they are straight and even, written by using a ruler as a guide.
He looked through the list from beginning to end, closed the register, stood up, and glanced at the workshop.
Ah Hai was squatting next to the diesel engine, tightening the last fuel line connector.
The newly replaced copper gasket fit snugly into the connector. He tightened it with a wrench, wiped the area around the connector with cotton yarn, waited a while, and ran his finger around it, finding no oil residue.
"It's not leaking anymore." Ah Hai stood up, wiped the diesel fuel off his hands with a cotton swab, and said with a hint of pride, "Master Fang, it's not leaking anymore."
Old Fang walked over with a cigarette in his mouth, bent down and felt around on the joint, then used a feeler gauge to probe inside the joint seam. He straightened up and took the cigarette out of his mouth. "Install the pulley and test it under no-load."
Ahai deftly put the pulley onto the crankshaft and tightened the fixing nut with a wrench.
He muttered the torque value as he tightened the nut, paused for a moment when he got to the last turn, and then added a little more than half a turn before stopping.
Old Fang watched from the side without saying a word, but the corner of his mouth twitched slightly.
The diesel engine restarted, producing a steady and powerful sputtering sound, and the pulley rotated smoothly without any wobble.
Ah Hai squatted down and stared at the pulley for a while to make sure it wasn't wobbling before standing up and dusting off his knees.
"Master Fang, the no-load test run is normal."
"Okay." Old Fang put the cigarette back in his mouth. "This afternoon, run the water pump under load for an hour."
Jiang Haiping walked back from the workshop entrance and stood under the loquat tree for a while.
Sunlight filtered through the leaves, casting dappled patterns of light on the ground.
He squatted down, picked up a twig, and drew a few lines on the muddy ground.
Ah Hai's situation is stable. He'll run it under load for an hour this afternoon. If there are no problems, the diesel engine disassembly and assembly will be almost complete.
Ding Haisheng continued practicing overhead welding of thick plates in the afternoon to solidify his skills.
Lin Xiue had spun the sixth pine board, with two still to be spun. Qiu Changhai was watching over her, and the progress was good.
Zhou Haisheng.
He threw the branch away, stood up, and walked to the door of the old parts warehouse.
Zhou Haisheng squatted in front of the last row of used item shelves, holding the used item classification list that A-Guang had given him yesterday, and identified the used items one by one on the shelf.
He stopped when he recognized an old gear, took a vernier caliper to measure the tip circle diameter, measured it twice, and looked at the data on the list for a long time.
"Haisheng." Jiang Haiping squatted down next to him.
Zhou Haisheng raised his head, revealing a gray mark on his forehead—rust dust that had just rubbed against him.
The scoring criteria for the old files management competition won't be released until the end of the month.
First, familiarize yourself with the classifications according to Ah Guang's list. You should be able to find each type of old part on which shelf, in which row, and what its specifications are, even with your eyes closed. Jiang Haiping took the gear from his hand, wiped off the rust on the gear's end face with his palm, revealing the faint cast characters underneath. "When it comes to old parts management, it's not just about looking at the registration."
Anyone can write neatly in a register, but if the judge randomly picks up an old item, you have to be able to immediately tell what it is, its model number, whether it's usable or not, and if it's not usable, what's missing.
"Then I'll have to touch every single old part." Zhou Haisheng placed the vernier caliper on his lap and counted the old gears on the shelf one by one with his fingers. "There are more than forty gears on the shelf, more than sixty bearings, as well as seals, fasteners, pumps and valves. How long will it take to touch them all?"
"You have a master craftsman on hand." Jiang Haiping glanced back at the workbench. "A-Guang has been managing the old parts warehouse for two years. He's filled six registers. He can tell you what the fifth item in the third row is even with his eyes closed."
Ah-Guang was hunched over his worktable filling out a new registration page when he heard his name called. He looked up and asked, "Did you call me?"
"Come here," Jiang Haiping beckoned.
Ah Guang closed the registration book, walked over, and squatted down next to Zhou Haisheng.
He glanced at the list in Zhou Haisheng's hand, then at the densely packed parts on the old parts shelf, reached down and took a bearing seat from the second shelf, holding it in his palm and turning it over.
Pointing to the lettering on the bottom, he said, "This is bearing housing number 206. It was taken from the ship owned by Hong Chuandong last year. The ball bearings were half worn down. It's usable, but only on the auxiliary shaft, not on the main engine. It's on page 5, line 7 of the register."
Zhou Haisheng took the bearing housing, looked down at the inscription, and then flipped through the list to check it.
Ah Guang waited nearby. After he finished comparing them, he took another coupling off the shelf. "This one was salvaged from a scrapped ship. It has cracks on the end face and can't be used, but the bolt holes on the shell are good. We'll keep it for future bolt fitting. Second to last line on the third page of the register."
"How do you remember all of this?" Zhou Haisheng turned the coupling over and looked at the cracks on the end face. The cracks were very fine and could not be seen without careful observation.
"You'll remember after touching it a lot." A-Guang rubbed his hands on his work clothes. "When I first came here, A-Hai taught me to read the register. On the first day, he made me squat in the warehouse all day, find everything on the register from the shelf, touch it, and then put it back."
The next day, he randomly picked one up and asked me what it was. I couldn't answer, so I had to squat there for another day.
Zhou Haisheng didn't say anything more.
He put the coupling back on the shelf, and then, starting from the first row, took down the gears one by one, checked the markings, measured the outer diameter, found the corresponding item on the list, and put them back.
He didn't move quickly, but he examined each item carefully.
Ah-Guang squatted down and watched for a while, then stood up and went back to the worktable to continue writing in the register. After taking two steps, he turned back and said, "This afternoon, go through the register from beginning to end. After you've read it, you'll know where each item is."
"Okay." Zhou Haisheng said without looking up.
Over at the stone trough, Lin Xiu'e began to twist the seventh pine plank.
She had spent the entire morning working on the last two training boards, the tung oil residue on her fingers drying and then wetting again, leaving several gray-black marks between her knuckles.
She flipped the seventh board over, took calipers to measure the groove depth, three points—left, center, and right—and measured each point twice, recording the data in a small notebook next to her.
Qiu Changhai stood up from the stone pier, slowly walked over, bent down and looked at the data in the notebook.
The groove depth was 0.3 millimeters deeper than the standard, and he pointed to the number "extra" with his finger.
Lin Xiu'e looked at it, said nothing, picked up the chisel and re-trimmed the groove.
She inserted the chisel blade into the groove, flicked her wrist, and sawdust fell down in a flurry. She smoothed the bottom of the groove and measured it again with calipers.
This time, the data from all three points are exactly the same.
"Okay." Qiu Changhai put the walnuts back in his pocket and sat back down on the stone stool.
The sea breeze blew, making his gray hair messy, but he ignored it and squinted as he watched Lin Xiu'e pluck a slit in his hair.
In the new workshop, Ding Haisheng put on a welder's mask and squatted in front of a thick steel plate.
Old Fang told him to practice his skills in the afternoon. He chose the most difficult position to weld, welding overhead. The plate was 12 millimeters thick, and the weld length was 300 centimeters.
As the welding torch touched the ground, the arc of light flashed, molten iron flowed upwards, and sparks from the welding splattered onto his wrist.
He didn't dodge; he moved the welding torch from left to right at a steady pace, his wrist as steady as if nailed to a clamp, the welding rod drawing tiny circles in the molten pool.
Ding Haifeng stood at the entrance of the new workshop, holding a vernier caliper, but didn't go in.
He watched as Ding Haisheng finished welding a seam, took off his mask, and used cotton gauze to wipe the red marks on his wrist before going in and squatting down beside the weld.
The weld surface has a uniform fish-scale pattern, with no undercut or porosity, and the penetration depth through the back is neat and even.
"elder brother."
"Um."
"Apply some medicine to the burn marks on your wrists."
Ding Haisheng turned his wrist over and looked at it. There were fresh red marks next to old burn scars, in a dense row.
He dipped the cotton yarn in the diesel drum and pressed it onto his wrist. "It's alright."
Ding Haifeng didn't say anything more, and squatted down to watch him clamp the second welding rod into the welding clamp.
When the arc of light flashed again, he stepped back to the doorway, leaned against the door frame, and flipped the vernier caliper over in his palm.
The white tape on the vernier caliper handle was worn rough, the character "峰" (peak) had bled, and the ink from the ballpoint pen had faded a bit.
Old Sun arrived under the loquat tree sometime earlier.
He walked around the yard with his hands behind his back, placed the small cloth bag he carried with him at the entrance of the kitchen, and took out a small bag of dried shrimp from it and placed it on the stove.
Lin Xiu'e looked up at him from the stone trough, and he waved his hand, indicating that there was no need to greet her.
He sat down by the loquat tree roots, the broken seashells around him creaking a few times as he sat there. He shifted to a more comfortable spot and squinted at the people bustling about in the yard.
Ahai has already removed the pulley and is connecting the water pump pipes.
He aligned the flanges of the inlet and outlet pipes, tightened the screws one by one, and then patted the pipes with his palm to listen to the sound.
Jiang Haiping walked over from the old parts warehouse, squatted down to inspect the pipe connections, and said, "Run it under load for an hour without stopping in between."
"I know." Ah Hai tightened the last screw, wiped his hands with cotton yarn, walked to the diesel engine, and pulled the starter rope.
The rope was pulled twice, and the diesel engine sputtered to life, causing the water pump impeller to turn.
A gurgling sound came from the water pipe, and a few seconds later a jet of water suddenly gushed out of the outlet, splashing white foam into the drainage ditch in the yard.
Ahai squatted by the water outlet, staring intently. The water flow was steady and rapid, the water pump rotated at a uniform speed, and the smoke coming out of the diesel engine exhaust was faint, without any black smoke.
"The engine speed is normal, and the water temperature is normal." Ah Hai wrote this down in his notebook, checking the water temperature gauge and oil pressure gauge every now and then.
Jiang Haiping watched the flow of water from the outlet for a while, then turned and walked to the worktable.
Wang Cunzhi's mimeographed document lay on the table, its pages fluttering in the sea breeze. Ah Guang used the register to weigh it down so it wouldn't be blown away.
He pulled out the document and looked at it again. There were four names: Ahai, Ding Haisheng, Lin Xiue, and Zhou Haisheng. The ink from the mimeograph was a bit blurry, but each name was clearly written.
He folded the document and put it into the ledger, then pulled out the half-sheet of old newspaper from under the worktable and added a line below the "Reconciliation of General Accounts Before the New Year" line: "Collecting credit on credit the day after the Grand Competition."
After he finished writing, he folded the old newspaper and closed the ledger.
The seawater that clung to the cover of the ledger had long since dried, leaving behind a few shallow rings of salt stains, which felt slightly rough to the touch.
In the kitchen, Lin Xiu'e cleaned the ribbonfish that Wang Cunzhi had brought.
She used a kitchen knife to scrape the fish scales, pushing the blade against the scales, and tiny silver scales bounced onto the stove, sticking to her fingers and impossible to shake off.
After scaling the fish, she used scissors to cut open its belly, took out its internal organs, threw them into a winnowing basket, turned the fish over, rinsed it twice under the tap, cut it into inch-long pieces, and arranged them in an enamel basin.
The fish pieces were shimmering silver, the silvery film on their skin shining brightly after being washed by the water.
She pinched a small pinch of coarse salt from the salt shaker, rubbed it between her fingers, and sprinkled it evenly on the fish pieces. The salt grains made a rustling sound as they fell onto the fish skin.
It's been pickled.
She wiped her hands on her apron twice and walked out of the kitchen.
The shadow of the loquat tree in the yard shrank into a small ball, and the midday sun shone down directly, making the broken seashells around it feel hot.
The diesel engine was still churning, and Ahai squatted by the water outlet, taking notes. His bottom was on the stone slab on the ground, which was warm from the sun.
Ding Haisheng came out of the new workshop, took off his mask, his face was covered in sweat, wiped it with his sleeve, walked to the well, pressed a ladle of cold water and gulped it down.
Lin Xiu'e brought out a stack of coarse porcelain bowls from the kitchen and placed them one by one on the stone slab under the loquat tree, filling the bowls with cooled boiled water.
Ah Guang was the first to run over, grab a bowl, and squat down by the tree roots to drink it.
Zhou Haisheng came out of the old parts warehouse, still clutching the vernier calipers in his hand. When he took the bowl, he said "Thank you, sister" in a low voice.
Ding Haifeng was the last to walk over. He picked up a bowl and stood under the loquat tree without drinking it. He watched his brother squatting at the entrance of the new workshop, wiping the welding slag off his mask with cotton yarn.
Old Sun took a few mint leaves out of his cloth bag and placed them on the stone slab.
Jiang Haiping took a piece, put it in his mouth and chewed it. It was cool and refreshing. The sea breeze blew over and dispersed some of the exhaust smell from the diesel engine.
He handed the remaining mint leaves to Ah-Guang, who took them, popped them into his mouth, and then leaned back onto the worktable to continue writing in the register.
Old Fang walked out of the workshop, stood at the door, took the cigarette out of his mouth, flicked off the ash, and looked around at the people in the yard.
Ahai's diesel engine load test is still an hour away, Ding Haisheng has to practice three backflips in the afternoon, and Lin Xiue hasn't even moved the eighth pine board yet.
Zhou Haisheng squatted under the loquat tree, finished drinking the water in his bowl, put the bowl on the stone slab, stood up, and walked towards the old parts warehouse.
He walked to the warehouse door, then turned back, took a rusty old pump casing from the shelf, turned it over to look at the lettering on the bottom, muttered the model number to himself, put it back, and picked up the next one.
No one spoke in the courtyard.
The sea breeze blew in from the north, making the loquat leaves rustle.
The sputtering of the diesel engine and the gurgling of the water pump mingled together, while the rustling sound of Ding Haisheng grinding welding slag came from the entrance of the new workshop.
The sunlight climbed directly overhead, shrinking everyone's shadow to their feet, short and thin, on the bluestone slabs.
The grand competition is on the ninth day of next month, less than twenty days away.