"Genius is 90% hard work plus 10% talent; success is countless failures and breakthroughs!" In order to complete the automobile project as soon as possible, Zhang Yu personally took a pen and wrote a motto for himself, "God rewards hard work", and often said words of encouragement, constantly starting from the inner world to encourage himself, and he would definitely succeed. This encouragement lasted until May 20, 1910, which will always be unforgettable to Zhang Yu.

How many years can everyone enjoy the changes of the four seasons of spring and autumn, feel the endless charm brought by the change of life, and enjoy everything given by God. In their life, there are several passionate years with ambitions and passionate journeys, only focusing on overcoming obstacles and not afraid of the sacred along the way. This is the arrogance of youth. When a person is willing to use the precious year in his life to complete something, what is impossible? Everything is possible!

Many years later, Zhang Yu orally described the road to review the Republic recorded by others. His memoirs used a large part of the story about the year he struggled in the United States. During the unforgettable years, he did not know how many failures and distress he had experienced, and how many times he spent in the house and living in a quiet place. Looking back on this time, the swaying youth is still buried in his heart.

On June 20, 1909, Yamei Clothing, which had been continuously adjusted, was officially renamed Yamei Group. Zhang Yusheng served as the group's director. The group's subsidiary Yamei Clothing Company, Yamei Machinery Company, Hongyuan Engineering Construction Company, which has only one employee.

Hongyuan Engineering Construction Company was established to meet the various conventional engineering construction tasks within the Yamei Group in the future. The company hired several outstanding construction engineers as the design team and had the ability to complete all internal engineering construction. The Yamei Machinery Factory was formed by Zhang Yusheng's dedicated to spending huge sums of money for his eternal car dream in his heart, gathering the most advanced processing machinery and equipment in the world at that time. The price was basically spending half of the 200,000 US dollars that Zhang Yusheng had mortgaged with Yamei Clothing.

The group had 3,072 employees at that time, including 1,027 Chinese, and the remaining employees were basically descendants of all ethnic groups from the United States, but there were no Yamato people. This special thing has been throughout the entire American Chinese enterprises, until the Chinese enterprises in the United States disappeared due to the subsequent Sino-US war. None of the enterprises founded by Chinese entrepreneurs had ever had citizens who had been enemies of the Sino-Japanese War.

Zhang Yu has never cared about these things. His greatest achievement during this period was to digest all the drawings. For nearly 40 days, he was either busy communicating with employees in the machinery factory to make various parts, or staying in his office and using the light brain that does not belong to this era to modify things, or examining whether the outstanding talents Zhang Yusheng has been recruiting are really capable, whether staying is conducive to the development of automobile projects, etc. Forty days were not in vain. When July 2, 1909 came, all Zhang Yu's efforts were rewarded, but at that time he didn't know that this was just the beginning of his efforts. Of course, with more and more outstanding talents joining, the research responsibilities on his shoulders also had more sharing.

"Be careful, this guy is quite heavy!"

"Hey, change my wrench!"

In the workshop, Zhang Yu's oil stains were mixed with sweat, completely changing the blue lemon work clothes, and the same was true for others. Everyone worked so hard to assemble the first car. All the parts of the car were manufactured by the machine factory themselves. Of course, this is a prototype car without an engine. Its appearance was made to meet various tests.

The prototype car was launched less than two months after the project was launched, which made Zhang Yu and the other two extremely excited. When they saw the prototype car that had only less than the engine installed, Zhang Yu, who had just met European customers, had finally revealed the most realistic and brightest smiles in the past few months.

The first prototype car was quickly used to conduct various tests. Zhang Yu personally presided over all the test projects. These projects that were unusually special in the eyes of employees at that time were questioned a lot from the beginning. They had quite a lot of reasons, such as why the bumpy and tremor test was carried out since the car was driving on the road. Since it was made of steel, it was naturally strong and abnormally strong, why did it still have to conduct elastic collision tests? Moreover, Zhang Yu performed the most crazy test for everyone to watch.

On September 7th, the engineers who were almost ashamed of Zhang Yu as the boss were finally about to end all the original experimental projects. The facilities were already simple, measurement technology and test results could be compared one by one. When the end was about to end, the last of twenty prototypes was the last one. When everyone thought it would exist as a souvenir, Zhang Yu had to conduct a high-speed collision test on the longest cement hard road inside the group.

In the test, because the prototype car has no power, in order to give the car the power to accelerate, Zhang Yu personally called four small motors in the processing plant. Using trains on the electrified railway in later generations, the car used the power provided by the cables specially set on the head through the installed connector. After a certain adjustment, the specific circuit that slowly increased the input power quickly gave the four motors an increasingly powerful power output. The prototype car loaded with four simulated passengers in the world quickly started to rush on the straight factory road. Just when it reached its maximum speed, it encountered a specially made cement wall.

After the huge collision sound, Zhang Yu quickly closed the power supply of the transmission line, and then asked everyone to rush to see the prototype car that collided at a speed of nearly 220 kilometers per hour. The crazy collision instantly caused serious deformation of the Beetle's head, and the powerful impact force quickly twisted all the steel on the front frame into a twist. The entire prototype car seemed to have been gently kissed by a 10,000-ton hydraulic press. The rear of the car was almost connected to the front of the car, and the entire scene was filled with various parts of the prototype car.

The result of the entire collision was extremely successful. In Zhang Yu's words, the structure of such a car body was not broken into pieces at such a high speed, and it also showed a certain whole. Even later, the car body was sawed and found that a "passenger" in the back seat was not seriously injured. Perhaps it was internally injured, but it could allow a person who experienced such a "tragic car accident" to save a whole body. Zhang Yu had reason to accept such a wonderful result, because cars in this era could not have such a high speed. Even if two cars collided head-on at high speed, it was impossible, but who would like to collide with others at high speed at noon. So the Beetle was already very excellent at this moment, but the engine needed by the car was still a problem.

Regarding this whole process, from the manufacturing of the prototype parts to the completion of the last experiment, Mueller from Germany had the most say and his oral statements were included in Zhang Yu's autobiography.

"At that time, the technical director Mr. Zhang gave me a lot of drawings! Yes, a drawing with various technical requirements marked very detailed. I even suspected the purpose of the group hiring me, because after looking at such drawings, I found that they might not need mechanics but just some processing technical talents. Maybe that's what I thought at that time, and it was true! But I signed a contract and I was paid by someone, so I should obey the order."

"The car in the drawings has a length, width and height ratio of 4081/1724/1498. This ratio is very, very bold. Its body is shorter than any car at that time. With its overall style, I didn't understand why this was for many years. The wheelbase of it reached an amazing 2508mm, which made me feel the perfection of the designer. But some of the technical requirements later completely surprised me."

"This is a car that is extremely difficult to process, and it was indeed the case at that time. There were processing requirements everywhere on the drawings. The fatal thing is that the processing errors basically reach the zero point one millimeter level, hundreds of screws, nuts and fasteners of various models, and various parts. Zhang Yu said at the time, "Hey, guys, we have to do this, we must unify the standards to achieve standardized production and manufacturing, and be conducive to the large-scale manufacturing in the future." I was really broken at that time, and those guys who need to process stamped doors, forged and strengthened bodies, high-strength transmission bearings and other big things have not had a good time. Indeed, our technical director is very, very rigid. I really doubt whether he can stubborn us. Everyone called him a 'big, petty oriental' at that time."

"A car is like a person. It needs to provide the core of life movement. What we humans need is a heart with flesh, and what it needs is an engine made of steel, aluminum or other materials." Regarding the major project of making engines at that time, some of the memories of two fuel-power engineers from Germany or Nochev, who were called enthusiasts, were also included in Zhang Yusheng's memoirs.

"One morning, Director Zhang was excited to find us. When we thought he had made something by himself or found something, we were about to congratulate the Orient again. But he said, 'Comrades, guys. Our car has finally completed the overall design verification and can be completely shaped and produced. But before that we have to install the engine with a heart, and its heart will be born under our hands. For this grand goal, we have to work hard for three months.' To be honest, I wanted to beat him hard at that time, but I didn't have the courage, because I saw him fighting with a strong Slav, and let the damn Russian lie on the ground in three seconds."

When Nochev recalled that time, he shrugged his shoulders and put on a look of surprise as he was at that time. The person in charge of the record could tell at once how fast and surprising Zhang Yu's movements were.

"Generally, micro cars must reach a speed of more than 100 kilometers per hour, with a specific power of at least 30 and a torque of at least 50. The director asked us to make the Beetle reach a speed of 100 yards per hour. We can see from its parameter design that perhaps this is to adapt to the faster and faster pace of life, and rich people like to drive fast cars."

"In addition, the director emphasized that if we want to win a comprehensive victory in the competition with Ford, we have to make great efforts in climbing capabilities. Ford can only drive uphill backwards, but our Beetles must be able to overcome at least 15% of the slope. With some other requirements, I really doubt whether the director is not planning to build a car. If such a monster is made, it is estimated that it will not fall behind for twenty years. In fact, our cars have been proven to be bad for more than twenty years."

Thornton spoke very richly during the interview. Even though he was interviewed in 1950, he was already 80 years old and was still energetic in a high-end villa. His memory was clearer than Nochev on the side, so much of the following content was Thornton's memories.

Thornton quickly recalled that it was September 10, 1909, and had proposed to equip the Beetle that had been produced as soon as possible for the production of the beetle belonging to the Yamei Group's own engine. Otherwise, cars would have been hoarded in the warehouse, but there was no suitable engine installed for it. Such a thing would never happen to Yamei.

"As early as 1862, French engineer Rorschach proposed that the power mode of internal combustion engines should adopt a four-stroke method, that is, to complete a working cycle of intake, compression, combustion expansion and exhaust within four strokes. Mr. Otto of Germany also briefly and clearly summarized his thoughts, namely air compression, so that it can burn in this air that increases the pressure, so that the temperature in the cylinder increases, and then the expanded air gradually reduces the pressure to the atmospheric pressure in the initial state, and promotes the movement of the air valve. The energy generated by the movement of the air valve promotes the movement of the locomotive, and finally the cylinder discharges all the gas, which is the Alto cycle."

"The cycle he described is indeed the Otto cycle. The internal combustion engine using this cycle principle uses steam liquid or gas as fuel, and consists of two reversible adiabatic processes between two equal-volume processes. The load regulation of this internal combustion engine, that is, the amount of energy generated, is usually accomplished by controlling the amount of combustible gases entering the cylinder, and the ignition method is also relatively special, that is, the ignition is achieved by using external flames or electric sparks, so the ignition time can be controlled. These constitute the most basic characteristics of the four-stroke cycle. Since the utilization rate of fuel is increased to the maximum, people call it the 'ideal cycle'."

Since Otto's design of the four-stroke cycle principle of the internal combustion engine is detailed and practical, he spent only a little time after completing the preliminary design of this principle to design and manufacture the world's first four-stroke cycle internal combustion engine prototype. This internal combustion engine has reliable performance, high thermal efficiency, low operating noise, and is much better than the Lenor-style internal combustion engine in many aspects such as fuel consumption.

Therefore, although this initial model of internal combustion engine still has some defects in appearance, it immediately won high praise from people once it was released. The thermal efficiency of Otto's internal combustion engine is twice as high as that of the previous four-stroke cycle engine, and its thermal efficiency is 4 times that of the Lenolds-style engine. It can be said that Otto's engine has very practical value. Zhang Yu personally analyzed all this for Thornton and others on an Alto internal combustion engine purchased from Germany.

When Thornton recalled this historical process, he still felt that it was really unbelievable at that time. Everyone thought that Orientals were all people with long braids and thoughts of corruption. However, Zhang Yu's understanding of machinery, especially engines was far above himself. So Thornton at that time completely did not believe that the Orientals in front of him understood Western industry so much, which made him still remember them many years later.

"Later, the director began to talk about the work we were going to do. What I needed to make was a new four-stroke inline four-cylinder engine that adopted the Otto cycle concept. The displacement of 2.5 liters can allow the engine to provide enough power to the car. The key is the technology required in processing. The precision and reliability of the parts are the problems that need to be solved. The inner wall of the cylinder must not only be smooth and round, but also have a certain degree of strength and plasticity. The error coordination required between pistons, rings, etc. is not calculated in centimeters but at the level of 0.1 mm, or even higher. In short, from that point on, we fell into the director's "trap" because we were fascinated by creating such a machine, a machine that can create the history of human fuel power use!"

The old Thornton still missed a lot of points. In fact, Zhang Yu not only explained a kind of engine, including the Knox engine that appeared in 1905, a horizontal opposite piston engine, which uses air cooling, and corrugated bolts around the cylinders allow each square inch of cylinder surface to obtain a heat dissipation surface of 32 square inches (about 0.000645 square meters per square inch). All the advantages have been clearly described, but their shortcomings are naturally not missed.

The output torque is very unstable because there is no vibration damper added; the service life is insufficient. In addition to the processing accuracy and material related, there are problems with the lubricant itself and lubrication method that need to be improved. Therefore, Zhang Yu quickly transitioned to the engine presented in the drawings in the hands of the researchers. He adopts a four-cylinder design and adds four crankshaft pins to charge the vibration damper in two planes, changing local lubrication to full lubrication, etc. will improve all the shortcomings of the Knox engine.

In the unforgettable years, it was filled with a lot of sweat and bitterness, and a considerable part of this happened on the long road of engine research. The body bodies that had already started production were just waiting to be equipped with the matching engines to be launched to relieve the increasing financial pressure. Therefore, Zhang Yu had to work hard on the engine project faster and more crazier. Finally, on April 10, 1910, the first 2.5l gasoline engine that was officially mass-produced was taken offline from the Yamei Automobile Engine Manufacturing Factory. The stone that Zhang Yu hung in his heart finally landed on the ground.

On April 20, ten Beetles, which had already installed all spare parts, including the engine, completed road driving tests. Good operating performance was the first sentence of the test drivers after getting off the car, and the terrifying number of the maximum speed of over 127 kilometers per hour also made Zhang Yu extremely satisfied. The major events that had been prepared for a long time were finally going to succeed, and the joy in his heart was naturally difficult to express.

On May 1, Yamei Group took a day off to celebrate the official completion of all test projects of the group's Beetle. The Beetle, which has reached the design indicators, is about to embark on the road of mass production. Therefore, in order to welcome 20 consecutive days of high-intensity assembly line automobile manufacturing, Yamei Group took a day off for all employees of Yamei Automobile's three major factories, and employees of other directly affiliated companies also took a day off. From that day on May 1 has become a unique festival for Yamei Group employees. After returning to China, it has evolved into a festival for the entire workers.

The continuous production of the past ten days has allowed Asia and the United States to reserve enough goods. With the hype these days, many people are looking forward to the official launch on the 20th. Everyone's efforts will begin to harvest the fruits of victory watered by countless blood and sweat from that day.

ps: New book and new people, I hope to get support and encouragement.
Chapter completed!