Binjiang Police Affairs

Chapter 1445 - 235: Be Mentally Prepared!

When it comes to fixing machinery, Han Yu is a professional.But he’d never done a repair like today’s before.

The inspection showed the fault wasn’t too serious: the weld between the high‑pressure control valve’s steam pressure sampling tube and its seat had cracked, causing steam leakage, and it had to be sealed off quickly.

Sealing it was simple enough, just weld it, but the steam’s temperature is tied to the pressure.

At normal pressure, steam is at most 100 degrees Celsius, but what was leaking now was high‑pressure steam, over 200 degrees, and continuously at high temperature.

Han Yu couldn’t believe the Superior hadn’t equipped the officers and soldiers with thermal protective suits, let alone those balaclava‑style thermal hoods that make you look like a robber; all they had were Firefighting suits with poor thermal insulation, and they had to rush repairs in an engine room full of steam.

One person could only work for a few minutes at a time; any longer and you’d get scalded, and even if you didn’t, you’d "overheat" and pass out.

The piping in the engine room crisscrossed in all directions, making it impossible for the emergency personnel to fully move their arms and legs.

And this was the engine room!

There were steam lines, oil lines, and even electrical lines.

Welding meant open‑flame work, so Firefighting safety had to be considered. If the leaking steam line wasn’t sealed off and instead triggered an engine room fire, the trouble would be huge; they might even have to abandon ship.

Once he’d figured out the situation, Han Yu immediately called a halt to the emergency work, pulled the ship captain and the chief engineer aside, and drafted a sealing plan based on the conditions on site. On the premise of not causing a secondary accident, he divided the emergency personnel into groups to rotate in and out for operations.

The chief engineer took charge of the first group.

Han Yu led the second group.

After more than an hour of intensive emergency repairs, they finally welded the break back together.

Han Yu had no idea how much he’d sweated; as soon as he came out, he had the officers and soldiers help him out of the Firefighting suit, grabbed a bottle of water and gulped down several big mouthfuls. Panting, he said, "Captain, we still can’t power up yet. I recommend we inspect all the welds."

"All the welds?"

"You never know what’ll happen." Han Yu put down his teacup and said gravely, "I’ve been to the engine room a few times before, but it was all just a cursory look. I saw the engine room was very clean, almost no oil or grime in sight, so I assumed the main engine was well maintained."

The implication was that the maintenance wasn’t good.

The ship captain, already ill at ease because of the accident, grew even more uneasy and instinctively looked at the chief engineer.

Han Yu had no idea what the captain was thinking, and he couldn’t be bothered with it. He turned to look at the massive main engine and the maze of pipes, and said with a wry face, "At first I thought Dalian Shipyard’s steam turbine technology was very mature and their manufacturing workmanship should be good. It wasn’t until I joined the emergency repair just now that I realized not only is the workmanship so‑so, even the raw materials and spare parts may not be up to standard!"

Poor quality isn’t our fault...

The captain finally let out a breath of relief and hurriedly said, "Han, you should go up and rest for a bit. I’ll organize people to do the inspection right away."

"Even our little Law Enforcement Rescue Boat has daily and monthly inspection records. You should have them too. I’d like to take a look later, if that’s convenient."

"It... it’s convenient."

"Alright, you get busy, I’ll head up first."

This Observer was different from the leaders and experts who’d come to "guide work" before; he actually understood the stuff.

The captain calmed himself, then quickly had his men escort the Observer away.

Han Yu had just climbed up to the bridge when a Major came up to meet him. "Han, the overall commander and the Political Commissioner would like you to come over for a moment."

"Where to?"

"To the command post."

"I’d rather not go to the command post. How about I go to the small conference room? It’s right next to the command post."

The Major couldn’t believe that this machine‑fixing Observer actually dared not give face to the two Commanders. For a moment he didn’t know what to say, and could only go back and report to them.

That past hour had really exhausted Han Yu.

He walked into the small conference room and had barely sat down when the overall commander and the Political Commissioner pushed the door open and came in.

"Xiao Han, is the fault cleared?"

"Reporting, Commander: it’s been cleared for the moment, but based on what I saw during the emergency repair, the equipment has quite a few hidden hazards and needs a thorough, detailed inspection."

They’d sailed less than a thousand nautical miles, and they were already having this kind of failure.

And this was with two steam turbines; if there were only one, the entire warship would’ve lost control.

Chief of Staff Zheng still felt a lingering fear. He sat down and asked, "What hidden hazards are there?"

Even now, Han Yu still found it hard to believe the problems he’d discovered during the emergency work. He reported them one by one, without leaving anything out.

Once he understood the situation, Chief of Staff Zheng relaxed slightly and turned to look at Captain Shen.

Something like this has already happened, and we don’t even know what else might happen next!

Captain Shen was just as frustrated. He said helplessly, "When the Shenzhen Ship was being built, it happened to be during the period when our military budget was at a historical low. At that time, the number of military equipment orders was small, many research and production units in the defense industry hadn’t had any military production tasks for many years, and some were just barely maintaining basic production."

If you only looked at the engine room, the quality of this warship was far worse than the bulk carriers built in recent years by Cosco Kawasaki and Shenglong Shipbuilding.

But then again, all the new ships they build are orders from foreign shipowners, and both operation and acceptance are carried out in accordance with foreign standards. As for the main engines, auxiliary engines and other key equipment, almost all of them are imported. To put it bluntly, the shipyard is just building a hull.

The construction workmanship and quality of merchant ships actually turned out better than that of warships!

Han Yu was too drained to even complain, and Captain Shen went on, "Because there were no orders, it directly led to severe brain drain, a break in technology, and a decline in quality, which in turn caused quality problems to crop up endlessly during the construction of the Shenzhen Ship. Salted Fish, you might not believe this if I told you.

When the Shenzhen Ship was delivered, our acceptance team identified more than five thousand issues! Precisely because of that, we refused to take delivery, set a deadline for rectification, and even initiated accountability procedures."

The hull looked beautiful, but there were so many problems inside.

As the "user" of the warship, Chief of Staff Zheng was even more depressed. With a dark expression he said, "Xiao Han, let me tell you something else you might not believe: before they started building the Shenzhen Ship, the main engine manufacturer hadn’t produced a high‑power main engine of this class for ten years!"

This, Han Yu could believe.

Because by then the reform and opening up had been going on for many years, and shipbuilding was one of the most open industries. Shipbuilding companies were fully aligned with international practices; to survive, they racked their brains to improve their construction level, competed with international peers, and went overseas to grab orders.

In those years they hardly built any large‑displacement naval vessels; the main output was merchant ships. They just welded hulls, while the main engines, auxiliaries and other equipment were all imported. Even if you wanted to install your own supposedly mature main engines, in terms of quality and economy they couldn’t compare with those two famous foreign engine manufacturers. Even if you gave them away for free, shipowners wouldn’t take them.

Linghai was indeed developing the marine machinery components industry and had brought in quite a few related companies, but they didn’t have much technical content—things like hatch covers and accommodation ladders.

Han Yu was just thinking that although domestic shipbuilding looked like it was doing quite well, in reality there was still a big gap with international peers. Captain Shen gave a wry smile and said, "This situation isn’t just something that happened on the Shenzhen Ship; the same issues exist on the Type 037 fast boats built for the Hong Kong Garrison.

We can’t just keep blaming the shipyards either, because for the contract shipyard this is also a very painful matter. As the general contractor and party B in the contract, they have to negotiate with the equipment and system manufacturers, while a single warship has thousands upon thousands of equipment suppliers. You could say that in recent years the decline in the quality of military products has been across the board, not just the shipyards."

To build a strategic weapon like this, shouldn’t we be mobilizing the strength of the whole country?

Yet after all this effort, we somehow managed to produce something like this.

Han Yu fell silent for a moment, then said in a low voice, "Comrades Commander, I’ll write all the issues I’ve found into the observation report. Besides that, you both need to be mentally prepared."

"Prepared for what?"

"Prepared to repair the ship at any time, because along the way all sorts of failures could happen at any moment!"

"Salted Fish, you’re the professional in this field and have a lot of experience, could you..."

"Commander, I know what you’re trying to say, but some problems can’t be solved by the chief engineer and the warriors of the electromechanical section, and they’re just as much beyond what a marine engineer like me can solve."

Looking at the two commanders, who seemed about to speak yet held back, worry written all over their faces, Han Yu thought for a moment, then deliberately tried to sound relaxed: "The good thing is there are two main engines; it’s not very likely they’ll fail at the same time. As long as we strengthen maintenance during navigation, and if something does go wrong we throw everything into emergency repairs, we should still be able to complete the visit mission without major issues."

"That’s good then. In any case, you’re the expert; you need to stay on top of this."

"Commander, don’t worry. From now on, I won’t leave the Shenzhen Ship." Han Yu suddenly remembered something and quickly said, "Commander, I almost forgot—how come there aren’t even any heat‑insulating protective suits or heat‑insulating hoods on board? Could we contact the Fleet Headquarters and ask them to send a few sets by plane to Malaysia as soon as possible?"

"Send a few more sets? I know the kind of heat‑insulating protective suit you’re talking about. We don’t have a single set."

"Not even one set!"

Han Yu couldn’t believe it was true; his face was full of shock.

Chief of Staff Zheng said helplessly, "When something like that steam leak just now happens, the engine room will stay at high temperatures. If we really go to war, to say something inauspicious, once we’re hit by enemy shells or missiles there will be instant high temperatures. If a fire breaks out, we’d also have to command and organize firefighting in a high‑temperature environment.

We’re more aware than anyone of how important heat‑insulating protective suits, hoods, and even gloves are. But the heat‑insulating protective gear that actually works is made of new‑type materials. As far as I know, we don’t have that technology domestically yet, and foreign countries are imposing a technology blockade on us. It’s not just that we can’t purchase them; even if we could, they wouldn’t be cheap."

Heat‑insulating protective gear is too important. How can they not have any!

Han Yu was silent for a moment, then looked up and said, "Commander, I have three sets. It’s not much, but something is better than nothing."

"You have some?"

"Strictly speaking, they’re not mine; they belong to our sub‑bureau."

"How did you manage to procure them?" Chief of Staff Zheng looked incredulous.

"Back then, in the Binjiang Waters, only our Old Yanjiang Police Station had a dedicated Law Enforcement Rescue Boat, responsible for firefighting on the entire Yangtze River waterfront section. At the time, we happened to have a bit of funding, so we asked Director Feng to help exchange it into US Dollars and commissioned a company to purchase them from abroad."

Han Yu paused, then added, "But what we bought are heat‑insulating, flame‑retardant protective suits mainly used for firefighting. They’re quite bulky to wear, not those specialized military heat‑insulating protective suits."

Chief of Staff Zheng asked curiously, "When did you buy those three heat‑insulating protective suits?"

"’87 or ’88, I forget the exact year, but we’ve maintained them well. They’re still usable now."

"That explains it. That was during the honeymoon period; the blockade against us wasn’t as strict as it is now." Chief of Staff Zheng took a deep breath and asked, "Xiao Han, just like you said, we really need heat‑insulating protective gear right now. Could we borrow those three suits from your unit for the time being?"

"No problem, as long as we can get in touch with my unit."

"We’ll get through. I’ll arrange for someone to go to your unit and pick them up."