In May, at the Yunnan Airport, over the fighter and bomber training base, a fighter plane flew back shakily over the runway. The ground crew had started their vehicles, and military doctors and paramedics had boarded, ready to go to the crash site for rescue at any time. The air crew suppressed their impulse and tried to speak to the plane in a calm tone using the newly built radio equipment, "Plane n00145, this is the tower. You are cleared to land. Please answer if you copy."

Not long after, the pilot's voice came from the speaker. Although the static was strong, it was clearly audible: "Tower, this is plane n00145. The engine is vibrating severely. I request to land immediately!"

Hearing that the pilot's condition was relatively calm, the flight squadron leader who had rushed to the tower breathed a sigh of relief. He took the microphone from the tower and said loudly, "Little Zhang, this is the squadron leader. Glide down to Runway 3 now. Don't worry; I'll order the arresting net to be pulled open immediately."

Hearing such unconventional communication, the tower staff hurriedly pulled the squadron leader's sleeve and pointed to the standard dialogue procedure posted on the board. The squadron leader looked down and immediately added, "Please answer if you copy."

"Squadron leader, I'm landing immediately."

Through the wide glass of the command tower, everyone inside saw the plane swaying and descending towards Runway 3. Their hearts tightened. However, things were not as bad as everyone thought. Although the plane bounced a bit on the runway when landing, the pilot's flying skills were excellent, and the rudder was held very steadily. The height of the plane's bounce became lower and lower, and it was already in a taxiing state before crashing into the arresting net.

But the plane weighing several tons still had huge inertia when rushing into the arresting net. The propeller deformed instantly, and the fuselage rotated in place under inertia. The left wing had already inserted into the arresting net, the rivets of the skin popped open, and a huge crack appeared at the junction of the wing and the fuselage.

Under the anxious gaze of the airport personnel, the plane stopped shaking and came to a complete stop. Ground crew and medical staff rushed up immediately. They opened the cockpit, dragged the pilot out, and transported him to a safe location. Ground maintenance quickly cut off the fuel supply system to ensure there was no danger of explosion.

Seeing that the pilot was fine, the squadron leader finally felt relieved. Planes were not cheap, but experienced pilots were more valuable. The pilot rested temporarily, and the military doctor let the pilot relax and calm down, preparing to inquire about the process of the malfunction and the pilot's handling.

For the damaged plane, no one considered repairing it. Maintenance personnel began to take photos, record, drain aviation fuel, and remove faulty equipment. They recorded the malfunction of the plane and the impact on various components in the high temperature and high humidity environment for research.

The next day, the initial report was produced. This was a problem caused by the deformation of the engine main shaft. Such deformation had occurred several times. Based on the equipment number, it was submitted to the logistics department. The logistics department immediately audited and investigated the parts manufacturer.

The Air Force received many supply parts every day. Under complete data statistics, suppliers could be found for every single one of the huge number of parts. Suppliers found the personnel producing these parts through production records.

This batch of engine main shafts was immediately ordered to stop use, and all relevant personnel were investigated. Technical experts began to analyze based on the situation, trying to find the real cause of the problem.

The train carrying Wang Donglu, a researcher at the Aircraft Research Institute, and his classmates just stopped at Hankou Station. As soon as the carriage door opened, someone got on the train. Immediately, the squad leaders on duty in each class who went to the car door to prepare to connect with the station personnel ran back quickly, stood at the carriage door, and shouted: "Everyone, sit down!"

This train carried teachers and students from the former Siping Metallurgy College. With the liberation of the whole country, schools and scientific research departments in the Siping area underwent a major move. Siping Metallurgy College was cancelled, and the school's teachers and students merged with some teachers and students from Shenyang Metallurgy College, divided into four parts, heading to four newly established metallurgy colleges in Handan, Wuhan, Sichuan, and Shanghai.

Hearing the order, the students who had already picked up their backpacks and prepared to get off sat back in their seats. Under everyone's puzzled gaze, some soldiers in military uniforms entered the car door. They first showed their IDs and official documents to the teacher in charge of the school. After talking for a while, the teacher said, "Students, the army needs some students to go with the army to perform a task. Those whose names are called stand up and set off with the comrades of the army first."

The students were all very excited. The metallurgical enterprises that graduates of metallurgy majors wanted to go to most were state-owned enterprises, and some were enterprises providing products for the army. Being able to cooperate with the army now, presumably they would very likely join the military research department in the future.

The comrades of the army took the roster and began to call names, "Wang Donglu, Chen Kaifeng, Xu Songhai..."

Wang Donglu was originally a preparatory student for studying abroad at Tsinghua School. Because he secretly participated in the May Fourth Movement in 1919, he lost his qualification to study abroad. He went to the Northeast that year and later worked at the Northeast Aircraft Manufacturing Bureau. Last year, 1924, Wang Donglu, who was already an assistant engineer, went to Siping Metallurgy College to participate in a one-year study, majoring in special steel processing technology. It was now late May. If it weren't for being assigned to Wuhan Metallurgy College, Wang Donglu would have completed his studies and returned to his unit.

Hearing that he was urgently conscripted by the army, Wang Donglu was both surprised and happy. The Northeast Aircraft Manufacturing Bureau was a state-owned enterprise. Because he was assigned to the fighter R&D department, Wang Donglu always felt that he was also a quasi-military man. Being able to work for the army made Wang Donglu very happy both emotionally and logically.

The dozen selected people arrived. The army comrades asked the escorting teacher to sign the official document and took this group of people away first. In the car, Wang Donglu noticed that these 'classmates' were all engineers and technicians from various departments who returned to school for study, and there were no students among them.

Everyone noticed this, but no one mentioned it. Chen Kaifeng was an engineer from the former Siping Machinery Processing Plant. He asked a major leading the team, "Comrade, what work has the organization arranged for us?"

The major replied politely, "It's not convenient to say in the car; we'll talk about it when everyone gathers."

When the three military vehicles stopped, everyone saw the Wuhan Airport which had completed the first phase of work. The airport tower, runway, and apron had all been repaired. The terminal hall was obviously a temporary small building, using a large number of prefabricated structures common on construction sites, capable of sheltering from wind and rain, and only capable of fulfilling such functions.

It was the Plum Rain season, and rain fell from the gloomy sky from time to time. A lieutenant colonel came to welcome them. He asked everyone to carry the most necessary luggage, and other luggage would be tagged and sent to the airport warehouse for storage.

Everyone looked at each other, and Wang Donglu couldn't help asking, "Excuse me, are we the only ones?"

The lieutenant colonel was slightly stunned, then replied, "The professors have already set off first."

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief. This batch of students coming to Wuhan Metallurgy College belonged to five majors: blast furnace, steelmaking, alloy smelting, metal fatigue, and metal processing. The students called up were from three majors: alloy smelting, metal fatigue, and metal processing. Everyone knew they must have been assigned a very important task, but they didn't see the professional professors. Hearing that the professors had set off first, their hearts settled. Knowing their own capabilities, with professors leading, everyone didn't need to worry about being unable to complete the task.

Not long after, a brand-new China Airlines plane took off from the wet runway, passed through the gloomy clouds, and flew into the sunny sky. Looking down at the ground from the porthole, one could see a gray expanse below, with no landmarks visible on the ground except for clouds.

From the gloom of the Plum Rain season to the bright sky, everyone was in a very good mood. At this time, the leading lieutenant colonel informed everyone of the purpose of this trip. Hearing that there was a batch problem with the main shaft of the engine, Wang Donglu and others felt great pressure. The lieutenant colonel smiled, "Gentlemen are all experts; please talk freely and treat us as non-existent."

The army comrades were so polite, and everyone was very interested in this matter. Among the peers, Xu Songhai, 32 years old, was the oldest. He said, "Let's speak one by one according to the seating and talk about our thoughts. I'll speak first; I do aerodynamic research. I wonder if the plateau climate over there caused the engine working state problem?"

Wang Donglu was in aircraft manufacturing. Just hearing Xu Songhai say he was an aerodynamics major, he thought Xu might not be able to say anything particularly relevant to the deformation of the aircraft main shaft. After listening to Xu Songhai's speech, Wang Donglu immediately felt that he was shallow, immediately put away his arrogance about his major, and listened seriously to Xu Songhai continue to speak.

After Xu Songhai finished speaking, the lieutenant colonel couldn't help asking, "Comrade Xu, what you said seems very reasonable."

Xu Songhai hurriedly waved his hand. "Don't say that. There are many reasons for problems. It may be a single reason, or it may be the result of multiple factors working together. Now we are just talking about our views without seeing the parts; please don't take it as the real reason."

A trace of disappointment flashed in the lieutenant colonel's expression. But he just nodded and didn't say much.

Then it was Chen Kaifeng's turn to speak. Chen Kaifeng went straight to the point, "If it were other room-temperature components, they might be affected by the plateau and high humidity environment. The engine working environment is thousands of degrees, the speed is so high, and it is an oily environment, not exposed to the air for a long time. I think the impact of the external environment will not be particularly large."

Among the technical staff, except for a few who temporarily lost the ability to discuss due to airsickness, the others also nodded slightly. The lieutenant colonel had taken out a notebook to record, but the vibration inside the plane still affected the recording. The lieutenant colonel's pen jumped on the notebook; he finally wrote down a few words in scribbled handwriting and turned to listen attentively to everyone's discussion.

When it was Wang Donglu's turn, Wang Donglu found that there were not many fields he could touch upon, and carefully stated his view, "I do aircraft design. Hearing what everyone said, I think those possibilities have basically been covered. I think every part has undergone very careful inspection, and products with unqualified precision are unlikely to leave the factory. After all, the inspection is divided into several steps, and the possibility of parts with unqualified precision not being discovered is very low. I think there are roughly two directions: one is that there is a problem with the material itself. This can be handed over to the quality inspection and analysis department for testing. The other is that the aircraft design was limited by the geographical environment of the Northeast, suitable for use in the Northeast and Korea, and the parameters were also local parameters. In different combat environments, it is possible that these aspects have changed. We will analyze based on the aircraft operation process."

After speaking, Wang Donglu looked at other invited technical personnel, and saw everyone nodding. Xu Songhai replied, "Then we have to ask the Air Force comrades to provide complete data."

Hearing this, the lieutenant colonel wanted to answer, but didn't say anything because of military discipline. However, the lieutenant colonel knew very well that there would be a flight record after every flight, which included how the pilot flew the plane and operations in various flight stages. Although pilots often forgot some content, they would record what they could remember. However, there were many records, and the lieutenant colonel doubted whether this group of technical personnel could finish reading them.

The plane took off from Wuhan and headed straight for Yunnan, resting at an intermediate airport in the evening. Early the next morning, everyone continued their journey.

Around 8:00 AM, the plane arrived over the Burma Road. The technical personnel looked down and saw the winding road spiraling in the mountains on the peaks and ridges. Wang Donglu originally thought it was just a section of the road, but he didn't expect that after flying for nearly an hour, the mountain road stretched endlessly, as if it would never end.

Tiny cars could be seen driving on the road, and bridges being erected could also be seen in the mountains. Those bridges looked as thin as straw or small twigs from the air. But Wang Donglu had flown many times himself and had a lot of experience. Several large reservoirs in the Northeast looked like bathtubs from the air, but when he arrived at the reservoir personally, he saw a huge lake-like reservoir. The buildings below were the same; walking personally to the 'slender bridge body,' one would see a magnificent bridge.

When the plane landed at Kunming Airport, Wang Donglu couldn't help feeling emotional. His father had been an official in Yunnan and Guizhou during the Manchu Qing era. In a sense, this was also Wang Donglu's hometown. Wang Donglu's impression of Yunnan and Guizhou was very vague; after all, he was just a toddler learning to speak when he was here, and then he returned to the capital with his parents.

Now Kunming looked bustling, and various uniforms could be seen on the streets. Wang Donglu's parents hoped that Wang Donglu's few months in the Security Bureau were just a dream, preferably never happened. After all, Wang Donglu would serve in the industrial field in the future. In the eyes of Wang Donglu's parents, the experience of being a 'fanzi' [agent] in the Security Bureau was very harmful to Wang Donglu.

Wang Donglu himself didn't care. He felt that the short work experience in the Security Bureau allowed him to learn a lot of confidential knowledge. For example, Wang Donglu looked around casually and could roughly judge the departments represented by various uniforms, as well as the powers and 'privileges' of those departments.

Field gray uniforms or gray uniforms represented soldiers, needless to say; this was a common military uniform. Dark blue Public Security uniforms, black Security Bureau uniforms; people with some understanding could also roughly distinguish them. However, many people didn't know the disciplinary inspection department within the civil service system represented by that dark blue jacket. Collar badges, shoulder badges, or no marks on different clothes all represented various subdivisions.

Precisely because he had work experience in the Security Bureau, Wang Donglu knew very well how clear the division of labor and responsibilities of the current Republic government were. Serving such a country, Wang Donglu was full of confidence.

At this time, Kunming was truly a gathering of people from all walks of life. Coupled with the long road seen on the plane, Wang Donglu knew very well that this was a solid rear for operations against Burma. The country spent great efforts to build such a rear center; this battle must be won!

Vehicles coming to meet them picked everyone up and went straight to the airbase outside the city. The professors had already arrived. Seeing Wang Donglu and others coming to join, the professors immediately assigned tasks. Just as Wang Donglu expected, he was assigned to aircraft piloting records. That was half a room of records, piles of record data piled high, with airport security personnel sitting next to them.

Wang Donglu didn't stand on ceremony either. He put tea leaves in his thermos cup, then put in the goji berries his mother gave him, brewed with boiling water, and let it sit. Even if Wang Donglu himself didn't particularly like the taste of goji berries, his mother's concern made Wang Donglu decide to finish drinking the goji berries early so he could concentrate on drinking the tea he liked.

After making these preparations, Wang Donglu took the record book given by the Air Force and opened the first flight record.

The lieutenant colonel who picked up the plane was surnamed Zhao. Lieutenant Colonel Zhao had 'traveled thousands of miles' these days and was exhausted. But he still had to force himself to accompany the leaders of the flight base, who were talking with the professors. The leaders were assured of the professors' capabilities. But the leaders were worried about whether there was a problem of intentional sabotage.

Lieutenant Colonel Zhao was also worried about this matter. If someone engaged in sabotage, the nature of this matter would be serious. It wouldn't be just someone's head rolling; it would be a matter implicating many people. As the responsible department, the Air Force must account for this. Especially in ensuring that there was no human sabotage this time, once the Air Force spoke, it had to bear the responsibility. So the professors had to be asked to clarify this matter specifically.

The professors were initially a bit confused; obviously, these professors hadn't considered this from the beginning. However, after the conversation, the professors also understood the reason why the troops fighting on the front line must be vigilant at all times, and also made some explanations. In the end, both sides reached a consensus that there must be an explanation on this matter and it could not be glossed over.

After the talk, it was late. The leaders of the airbase treated the professors to a meal, and everyone rested separately.

At 6:00 AM the next morning, the alarm clock woke Lieutenant Colonel Zhao from his sleep. Lieutenant Colonel Zhao got up, ate, and went to prepare for today's daytime work. The corridor was not quiet. As the rear center of operations in Burma, the Air Force had a heavy task. Two roads from Kunming to Myitkyina and Lashio had started construction. The road to Myitkyina had been completed as a single-lane road and was being expanded.

The troops entering Burma to fight had captured Mandalay not long ago, and the vanguard had gone south along the Burmese Central Railway and captured Toungoo. 260 kilometers further south along the railway was Yangon, the former capital of Burma.

At this time, the troops were deployed along a long transportation line, with vast space on the flanks. The last time the Chinese army entered Burma was in the Qianlong reign, when Fuheng led 13,000 Eight Banners soldiers and 9,000 Guizhou soldiers into Burma to fight in 1769. Since then, Burma had not known the bravery of the Chinese army for more than 150 years.

The Manchu Qing recognized Britain's annexation of Burma in 1886, which was also 40 years ago.

The Republic government considered itself a friendly country with Burma since ancient times, but Burma no longer existed now. After Britain annexed Burma, it incorporated Burma into British India, rather than an independently existing colony. How the Republic government publicized it was one thing, and how the Burmese people in reality viewed it was another matter.

At least, judging from now, ordinary Burmese people indeed knew the existence of China. But what kind of country China was, what kind of people the Chinese people were, and what kind of army the Chinese army was, ordinary Burmese people knew nothing. Such reality made the Republic National Defense Force have to possess its own intelligence system, and air reconnaissance was undoubtedly a very important part of this intelligence system.

The various worries of the Air Force were not because the Air Force had delusions of persecution, but because the Air Force absolutely could not allow any internal saboteurs to exist. This concerned the war situation in Burma and could not be sloppy in the slightest.

The combat building was on duty 24 hours a day. Personnel came in and out. Those familiar with Lieutenant Colonel Zhao nodded to him, and those unfamiliar just walked past. Lieutenant Colonel Zhao walked to the door of the reference room and saw the door open. The security personnel inside were yawning. Seeing Lieutenant Colonel Zhao come in, they hurriedly stood up and saluted.

Lieutenant Colonel Zhao saw the security personnel so tired, while Wang Donglu was flipping through records rustlingly and recording quickly. At least twenty or thirty pages had been used in a new notebook. He asked in surprise, "Comrade Wang, you didn't work all night, did you?"

Wang Donglu was indeed very tired, but his spirits were high. He put down his pen and stood up. "Lieutenant Colonel Zhao, it's okay, I can hold on."

Lieutenant Colonel Zhao was afraid that Wang Donglu would doze off at the meeting at 8:15 AM and advised, "Why don't you go to the lounge next door to rest for a while? There is a meeting this morning."

"Don't worry, I'm fine. I definitely won't doze off at the meeting." Wang Donglu was full of confidence. Speaking of this, he felt the call of nature and said, "Excuse me, I'll go relieve myself."

After Wang Donglu left, Lieutenant Colonel Zhao asked the security personnel next to him. The security personnel recounted last night's events. Wang Donglu initially read the report very slowly, frowning tightly. Seeing past 10 PM, he thought Wang Donglu could go to rest, but unexpectedly Wang Donglu seemed to have seen something and excitedly wanted to read a bit longer. As a result, he worked all the way until now.

Hearing the introduction, Lieutenant Colonel Zhao picked up the notebook issued to Wang Donglu by the airbase and looked at it. He saw that the beginning was part of the content of the aircraft operation record, and later the content changed to about 17 or 18 items. Afterwards, there were various 'Zheng' characters [tally marks], obviously Wang Donglu began to count content.

Instructing the security personnel to ask the next shift to satisfy Wang Donglu's requests more when changing shifts, Lieutenant Colonel Zhao quickly left the reference room. After all, everyone was unfamiliar, and Lieutenant Colonel Zhao sitting here would make Wang Donglu feel uncomfortable.

The purpose of inviting experts was to solve problems. Under the condition that this premise could be guaranteed, of course, the more comfortable the experts were, the better.

Leaving the reference room and going to prepare for the morning meeting, Lieutenant Colonel Zhao recalled the information of the experts invited this time. In the information, Wang Donglu was the deputy engineer of the Aircraft Manufacturing Bureau, an expert. He must have discovered something by doing this. Although Lieutenant Colonel Zhao understood aircraft flight, he didn't understand aircraft manufacturing. Since Wang Donglu reacted like this, Lieutenant Colonel Zhao also had confidence.