A nation's industrial development begins with junior engineers.

Chapter 882 Great! The little ahoge is over there...

Staff Officer Xie, clutching a telegram in his hand, hurried towards Jiang Xia on the command platform and called out.

"Old Xie!" Old Wang, who had been standing guard with his arms crossed and his eyes constantly on Jiangxia, stepped forward and blocked his way. He gestured for silence and said in a low voice, "No! This is the most critical moment! We can't disturb him!"

"It's all been disassembled! How did it become a critical juncture?" Staff Officer Xie was taken aback by the interruption, and pointed anxiously at the already disassembled core casing, lowering his voice to retort.

"Nonsense!" Old Wang glared at him, then explained in an even lower voice, implying, "If you're an outsider, don't make things worse."

"You went through all that trouble to take it apart completely, just to see what's inside? Look at that kid's attitude!"

As he spoke, he gestured with his chin towards Jiang Xia, who was completely immersed in the internal structure of the core casing.

Jiang Xia was practically lying on the cold metal structure, his eyes wide open, clutching an oversized flashlight in his hand.

The beam of light moved slowly among the complex blades, pipes, and tenons, while the little guy muttered to himself unconsciously, his face displaying an expression that was a mixture of extreme excitement, shock, and fascination.

No, it's not just Jiang Xia, even Professor Zhonghua is the same.

An old man and a young boy sat head to head, muttering technical terms that no one else could understand, sometimes saying things like "directional solidification patterns of single-crystal blades" and sometimes "fitting gaps of tenons."

The two even had a quiet argument. The stubborn kid tried to touch the parts, but Professor Zhonghua slapped him away fiercely...

"See that?" Old Wang's voice was even softer: "This kid's 'in a trance' again! Every time he gives me that look of delight when he sees something precious, he's sure to have discovered something amazing in these lumps of iron!"

If you go and call him now, do you believe he'll dare to get angry with you? Who knows what good things he might come up with while staring at this broken metal shell!

At this moment, his mind was working faster than anything else! Once inspiration strikes, it's hard to pick it up again! Even the most important matters had to wait until he had caught his breath before considering anything else!

Staff Officer Xie followed Old Wang's gaze and noticed Jiang Xia's focused state, realizing that what Old Wang said was true.

But the news he had was just too explosive; it felt like a firecracker was going off inside him. So he leaned close to Old Wang's ear again and said with unbelievable excitement:

"Old Wang! Something really big has happened! It's the 418 submarine! They've collided directly with an unidentified submarine at sea! It looks like... one of the new ones from Japan!"

"What?!" Old Wang's usually composed face instantly changed color. "418? That old M-boat that Zhao Gang, that bastard, is captaining?!"

As a veteran who has served in the navy for many years, Lao Wang knows the details of the fleet's main backbone vessels like the back of his hand.

"Where are they?! How are Zhao Gang and the others?! Were there any casualties?!" He grabbed Staff Officer Xie's arm and pulled him to a corner of the workshop to start pressing him for answers.

"The telegram said the bow was badly damaged, but the watertight compartments held up. Everyone...everyone seems to be alright. There were a few injured, but no...no one was killed!" Staff Officer Xie quickly added.

"It's good that everyone's alright...it's good that everyone's alright!" Old Wang visibly breathed a sigh of relief.

Then he started cursing again: "That kid Zhao Gang! Back in the landing reserve team, he was the most reckless one, he could even row himself overboard in a sampan! And now that he's a captain, he still has the same dog temper! So impulsive!"

"Wait a minute! How could two submarines collide?"

Old Wang grabbed Staff Officer Xie and lowered his voice: "A submarine colliding with another submarine? Is that even possible?! You must have misheard, or maybe our 418 boat hit a reef and it's been misreported?"

Ah!

Old Wang has become quite considerate now, even using soft terms like "misinformation" to address his doubts...

I have heard of submarines colliding with surface ships when they surface because they weren't careful.

Although Lao Wang thought it was stupid, he could at least make sense of it. But how could two submarines, both submerged and equipped with their own underwater "eyes and ears," collide head-on?

This is unprecedented in the history of the world's navies!

Actually, neither Lao Wang nor Dai Mao Zai knew that in a certain time and space, this poor little 418 really did collide with its own escort vessel while surfacing.

That was a major accident, one that impacted an entire generation of submariners, because no one survived...

It can be said that the biggest benefit of the submarines that the "dumb kid" created, besides the fact that the navy leaders conducted a series of experiments that affected the normal training of submarines, is that they are still alive and kicking.

Moreover, although a collision still occurred, it was done with justification and was a great achievement!

This could be considered a lucky accident!

"It wasn't just a collision! The telegram says that after they crippled the other party, Zhao Gang led his men to board the ship and... took control of that little notebook listening device! They captured both the men and the boat, and apparently even arrested a pretty high-ranking official!"

"They've got it under control?! And they've even captured prisoners?!" Old Wang was genuinely astonished this time, his expression incredibly complex.

"Good heavens! That bastard Zhao Gang... he's really struck gold! He's really made a huge contribution!"

"So the commander wants to have a talk with Comrade Jiang Xia!"

"Why talk to him about something like this..." Old Wang wondered.

However, once he calmed down, he immediately thought of the crucial question: "Which base is the rescue force targeting? Qingdao or...?"

Staff Officer Xie gave a thumbs-up and didn't continue speaking.

Actually, Old Wang would understand this if he just used his brain. The higher-ups would definitely transfer that prisoner-of-war ship to Daryan's base.

The Qingdao base is relatively close to the area where the incident occurred and is a routine area of ​​operation, making it easy to attract attention from various parties. The Darian base, located in the north, has excellent port conditions and is more concealed, which can minimize external attention to this highly sensitive incident and facilitate closed-door technical analysis and interrogation.

Not to mention that the Daryan base has more complete large-scale ship repair facilities, which can not only conduct a more comprehensive dissection and study of enemy submarines, but also effectively assess and repair the damage to the 418 ship.

The most important thing is...

The little ahoge is over here!