In mid-September, a cool autumn breeze dispelled the summer heat. Zhao Tianlin stepped down from a heavily guarded train carriage, and Wu Youping, Secretary of the Siping Municipal Committee and Mayor, along with Jilin Military District Commander Cheng Ruofan, hurriedly stepped forward to meet him.

Two relatively small boxes were lifted down and, escorted by a platoon of soldiers, left the station. The boxes were carefully placed onto a rubber-tired flatbed cart. Rubber-tired vehicles were not common in the Northeast at this time, and the soldiers' posture of facing a formidable enemy surprised the onlookers, whose gazes all fell upon the cart.

Wu Youping said to Zhao Tianlin and Cheng Ruofan, "Let's go to the instrument factory and wait for them."

The three set off in a car. Upon arriving at the instrument factory, they found Lu Daoming, Deputy Director of the Northeast Water Conservancy Department and Principal of the Siping Surveying and Mapping School, along with other technical personnel, already waiting.

Without exchanging pleasantries, Zhao Tianlin asked directly, "How are the preparations?"

Lu Daoming's skin was tanned dark, but his spirits were high. Hearing Zhao Tianlin's question, he called a young technician over before replying to Zhao, "Engineer Zhang Dunyi and the factory's skilled workers have been preparing for over two months. They've figured out about seventy or eighty percent of the production process for measuring equipment. We can't handle vernier calipers and micrometers yet, but ordinary wooden rulers, metal rulers, and tape measures can be mass-produced. Principal Zhao, we are now ready and only waiting for the east wind."

Zhao Tianlin looked at Lu Daoming's confident expression, then turned to Zhang Dunyi. Zhang Dunyi was from Zhejiang. After seeing the newspaper published by the *Northeast Daily* Shanghai branch, he had applied according to the recruitment advertisement. After passing political review, he arrived in Fengtian in mid-July and was then assigned to Siping.

The young man looked to be in his twenties, quiet and refined, yet possessing that astute shrewdness typical of Zhejiang people. Zhao said, "Engineer Zhang, thank you for your hard work."

Zhang Dunyi replied, "Director Zhao, we are just waiting for the primary and secondary standards to arrive."

"The primary standard cannot be used. Once you master the technology for making secondary standards, you can go and replicate them. Chairman He said that because our basic smelting technology isn't up to par, there are many things we can't do yet. However, the mining engineers contacted by the French merchants have arrived and are working at the Anshan Iron Mine and Hegang Coal Mine. Once the engineers and technicians they train can stand on their own—especially once the ore analysis laboratory is finished—we can try our hand at refining."

A look of disappointment flickered across Zhang Dunyi's face, but he tried to smile as he replied, "That would be wonderful."

Just as they were speaking, Lu Daoming exclaimed with joy, "Here it is! Here it is! The east wind has arrived!"

Everyone followed Lu Daoming's gaze and saw that the military escort had already entered the workshop. Immediately, the large doors were thrown open, and two flatbed carts were escorted inside by the troops.

The leading officer stepped forward and saluted Cheng Ruofan. "Report, Commander! We have escorted the equipment here!"

Under the gaze of the group of leading cadres, the box was opened. Inside the mass of soft packing material was a more exquisite packaging box. Opening the second box, the staff removed an even smaller, more delicate box from the filling. Opening the third layer, inside the packing material was a paper box.

The paper box was placed on a pre-prepared table. When opened, it revealed a soft lining. Resting in the groove of the soft lining was a long object wrapped in silk. The outermost box hadn't been large to begin with, but compared to the object inside, it seemed immense.

The silk was unwrapped, revealing white paper. Cheng Ruofan felt so nervous he wanted to sweat. As the white paper was uncovered, the metallic glint finally appeared.

The group of high-ranking military and political officials gathered around this secondary standard. They saw a metal bar with a cross-section approximating an X-shape. Cheng Ruofan had expected it to be covered in dense graduation marks, but this oddly shaped metal bar was perfectly smooth, with no visible markings.

At this moment, Lu Daoming, the principal of the Surveying and Mapping School, cried out happily, "I see them!"

Cheng Ruofan looked closely. There seemed to be some marks at the two ends. Leaning in to scrutinize it, he finally saw a single, extremely fine engraved line on each end. Cheng Ruofan guessed that the distance between these two lines was the standard one meter. But he couldn't figure out how one meter could be divided into 1,000 millimeters, or even finer increments.

Since he didn't understand, Cheng Ruofan simply asked. Lu Daoming laughed, "The simplest method is the transversal method, dividing it into decimeters, centimeters, and millimeters. If it's more complex, then it's pure engineering technology. We first make molds, then produce rulers of various lengths, which are then graduated by technicians. It's all precision work."

Cheng Ruofan still didn't understand the technical process involved, but he asked, "Director Lu, does this mean that when we do reverse engineering in the future, it will be much more accurate?"

"Of course." Lu Daoming was elated as he spoke. As a water conservancy expert who had studied in the United States, Lu Daoming naturally knew the importance of measurement; a miss is as good as a mile. But Lu Daoming hadn't expected He Rui to obtain the prototype from the General Conference on Weights and Measures so quickly.

Having seen the meter secondary standard, Lu Daoming hurriedly asked for the other box containing a secondary standard to be opened. The disparity between the standard and the box was even greater this time. The kilogram prototype in the box wasn't large; inside a transparent vessel, the prototype shone with a metallic luster.

This time, Cheng Ruofan didn't want to ask more about the technical work. While the other technical personnel looked on obsessively and discussed it, Cheng Ruofan called Wu Youping outside. "Youping, since we have these, when will our weapons production begin?"

Wu Youping looked around to ensure no one was there and whispered, "It's a process. We've just got the arsenal provided by the French up and running. I think after the measuring equipment is finished and that side is debugged, it will take another half month. To try producing our standard weapons, it will be at least a month from now."

"A month... In the next year, can we produce enough equipment to outfit 12 divisions?"

"That many? One of our divisions is ten thousand men!" Wu Youping was shocked by the number.

"Without 120,000 men, what are we going to fight the Russians with? Machine guns, rifles, artillery—I am truly worried."

"Does the Chairman think we need so many troops?"

"It's not that the Chairman thinks so. The General Staff has done a lot of intelligence gathering regarding the recovery of the Chinese Eastern Railway. The Russians have quite a few garrisons inside our territory and along the border. We must eliminate them with lightning speed. Once a siege begins, we will need a large amount of large-caliber artillery. Adding in the recovery of Outer Mongolia, and having to guard against the Japanese, a force of 12 divisions would be relatively sufficient."

Wu Youping had originally been in a very good mood. Up to this point, the progress of industrial and agricultural work had been excellent. Now that the prototype issue was solved, and with previous experience, re-measuring those devices would be even smoother. Machinery needed time to relieve stress, but it wasn't impossible to adopt temporary methods.

But the annual output of the existing equipment was only around 100,000 rifles. Even if doubled, it would only be 200,000. And the French merchants had said they intended to sell weapons to Russia. Now the French technicians in the arsenal acted like lords all day long, scolding the arsenal for lack of precision and unskilled technique, yet offering no solutions. It was complete nonsense.

Thinking of the comrades' complaints, Wu Youping's good mood reverted to its previous state. But he didn't lose his temper. He replied, "Let's ask the Chairman to arrange it."

Cheng Ruofan knew Wu Youping must be under tremendous pressure, but military training couldn't use fake guns. Now, after the troop expansion, two men were already sharing one gun. If the troop scale were expanded further, four men would have to share one gun, and even marksmanship training couldn't be guaranteed.

Since Wu Youping asked for He Rui to arrange it, Cheng Ruofan also agreed. "Shall we send a joint telegram to the Chairman reporting the start of measurement work?"

In the end, Wu Youping and Cheng Ruofan each wrote a letter to He Rui. In their letters, both frankly raised the problems they were currently encountering, expecting He Rui to provide instructions.

He Rui took the letters from the office staff, glanced at the envelopes, and tucked them into his notebook. Then he looked up at the man sitting opposite him, who had curly, center-parted hair.

"Mr. Tesla, let us continue our previous topic. You are the world's most excellent engineer..."

Hearing He Rui say this, Tesla leaned back more relaxedly on the sofa. The corners of his mouth turned up slightly, and his two small mustache tips turned up with them, making his mocking smile even more full of mockery.

Seeing the famous engineer with such an expression, based on his interactions with Tesla over the past few days, He Rui knew Tesla was about to speak, so he simply stopped his own narration.

Tesla waited for a moment, and seeing He Rui was no longer speaking, he rested his chin in his hand and laughed, "Please continue. I know Your Excellency the General does not believe I am the most excellent scientist."

He Rui then continued, "An engineer is inherently a part of being a scientist. What you lack now is a scientific laboratory, a laboratory capable of realizing microwave energy transmission. Of course, I don't know if the United States has such a laboratory, but at least we don't have one here."

"But Your Excellency said you prepare to establish a National Laboratory," Tesla said what He Rui was supposed to say.

He Rui smiled slightly. "A foundation for establishing such a laboratory is a power plant, which we do not have. This is also the reason I initially invited you here."

After speaking, He Rui fell silent again. Old Mr. Tesla was very interesting; he was somewhat similar to the image of the "mad scientist" in later generations. That is to say, neurotic.

However, He Rui didn't mind anymore. At least the reason Tesla came to Fengtian this time was really to come to China to relax, and incidentally to see what kind of person the Chinese local official who invited him was. In He Rui's worst-case scenario, Tesla would be peddling his whimsical ideas.

Since Tesla had already begun to enter the "weird uncle scientist" phase, what He Rui said didn't matter much anymore; everything depended on Tesla's own mood.

Sure enough, Tesla didn't speak. He continued to size up He Rui. It had to be said, this uncle's eyes looked a bit sinister. Combined with the big nose, the thick little mustache, and the curly center-parted hair, he radiated a very unfriendly feeling.

Tesla sized up He Rui for a good while before finally speaking. "Your Excellency, your explanation of the photoelectric effect and your understanding of microwave energy transmission make it hard for me to believe you are a soldier."

"I am the genuine article," He Rui laughed.

A look of arrogance couldn't help but appear on Tesla's face. "I do not believe the Japanese military academy would teach you such knowledge. They don't have talent in this area in their own country!"

Seeing Tesla speak like this, He Rui thought for a moment and then said, "Since Mr. Tesla understands Japan so well, I will tell you the reason why. I am a time traveler, coming from another space-time..."

Tesla initially looked surprised, but his expression quickly turned to mockery, and finally, he simply laughed out loud. He Rui ignored Tesla's reaction and continued to tell Tesla about his status as a time traveler.

By the time He Rui finished, Tesla was laughing so hard he was rocking back and forth. With great difficulty, he suppressed his laughter, touched his curly center-parted hair, and let out a long breath. "Your Excellency, I admire your humor."

"It is my greatest merit," He Rui replied with a smile.

Tesla thought for another moment and made up his mind. "Since Mr. Morrison is your Director of the Merchants Bureau, I want to be the Director of the Technology Bureau."

"Permitted," He Rui agreed readily.

"The technology I provide is not free."

"Deal." He Rui extended his hand to Tesla.

Tesla hesitated for a moment, but finally reached out and shook hands with He Rui.

Having reached a cooperation agreement, Tesla let out a long sigh of relief. "I still have some debts in the United States..."

"Once you start working, we will settle them for you," He Rui gave the answer directly.

Only then did Tesla truly feel somewhat at ease. He laughed, "Your Excellency, I also have a secret."

"Oh?"

"Actually, I am also a time traveler," Tesla said with a straight face.

He Rui wasn't surprised at all. He simply said in an exaggerated tone, "If that is the case, Mr. Tesla, in another world, we must be brothers of different fathers and different mothers."

Tesla was stunned. He thought carefully for a while before understanding the meaning behind these words. Perhaps the joke was too dry; Tesla only gave a bitter smile. "Your Excellency, your sense of humor has room for improvement."