Defend Namsan Park

Chapter 99 The Spear of Longinus of Dondy

The younger men carefully stepped forward and helped Tang Di up.

"director……"

"I can walk by myself." Tang Di shook off their hands, wiped his nose with his sleeve, and staggered away. "Go back, all of you go back."

This was the first time the Planning and Engineering Office had ever seen Tang Di so gloomy. Years ago, as a top student from Chengdu Science City, he volunteered to come to the front-line support base to provide assistance and served as the director of the Planning and Engineering Office. He single-handedly built the Planning and Engineering Office into the most core technical department of 151. Since then, he has been proud. He has been proud for many years. He has made great contributions and has a high opinion of himself. He has dedicated everything to the continuation of all mankind, until today when Wang Xiangbing used a riot fork to stick him against the wall.

This fork, like the Spear of Longinus, nailed Dondy to the cross.

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The operation was a great success, and Li Wenxuan, who was in charge of bookkeeping, was overjoyed. He propped up his tablet and counted the materials transported into Workshop 112. The crates were stacked neatly, all second-hand goods and dismantled parts brought in from the rear. Some came from Kui Niu, some from Hong Lian, and some from even earlier second-generation or first-generation giant machines. In the past, those giant machines that were damaged, fell, or lay dormant on the ground were dismantled by people like ants and transported back to the anthill-like base built deep in the mountains.

The recycling and reuse of supercomputers is a necessary measure under the background of material scarcity, especially for high-performance supercomputers. In the current social conditions, sophisticated semiconductor components are almost non-renewable resources. It doesn't matter if lighters can't be made, matches can be used temporarily, but if supercomputers are exhausted, then humanity will be powerless to fight back against the invasion of angels.

So how many supercomputers does humanity currently have left that are still usable? This inventory data is unknown to Shang Lu, Wang Xiangbing, Tang Di, and even Old Man Ji; it seems to have become a secret.

Such scarce equipment was something the Operations Office could not obtain under any circumstances. They could use Wei Mao's connections to collect second-hand parts from other giant machines, but the computing core of the giant machine could not possibly be included. Every usable supercomputer was the foundation for rebuilding the giant machine, and no one could be so powerful as to hoard a computing core. Therefore, the half-finished Chaofeng that Old Man Ji left to the Operations Office was just an empty shell.

Its enormous head was filled with air.

"Chaofeng" is touted as the only steam-powered technology demonstrator with a fully vacuum tube computing core in human society. Theoretically, it has a giant vacuum tube computer, but this complex computing core has not yet been installed. These days, there are probably fewer people who can operate a vacuum tube computer than the computer itself. 151 doesn't have such talent. It's all thanks to Shang Lu finding a few old friends at the Institute of Automation in Chengdu Science City. When the old friends saw that antique that was taller than a bookshelf, they were all amazed and exclaimed in amazement: "Shang Lu, are you planning to use this thing to calculate field equations? What's the difference between this and using an abacus to solve the Navier-Stokes problem?"
Currently, the vacuum tube computing core is in Chengdu. Out of respect for their old friend Shanglu, the people at the Institute of Automation are lending a helping hand and are working intensively on technical research. Experts believe that this thing can solve very few problems—but fortunately, no pilots should really want to operate it in the battlefield. "Chaofeng" is at most a wishful thinking of a small group of tech geeks. The Science City is taking a break and tinkering with this thing, treating it as a form of rest and entertainment under heavy pressure.

"So?" Wang Xiangbing stood under that enormous head, looking up at it. "What's inside that skull right now?"

"Water," Li Wenxuan replied. "It's filled with water; it makes a clanging sound when you shake your head."

The workers were suspended in mid-air, and sparks from the welding fell like raindrops.

"Water?" Wang Xiangbing asked. "You mean its brain got water in it?"

"1.8 tons of purified water, Wahaha brand, and 700 kilograms of compressed biscuits," Li Wenxuan said. "They're for quality balancing. They were brought from the warehouse next door, only 20 meters long, easy to haul over." Wang Xiangbing had crawled into the head of "Chaofeng," where a large space was reserved to house the computing core. Currently, it was an empty room, enough for a whole class to have a party. Wang Xiangbing had considered that if the computing core couldn't be installed, it could be converted into a missile launch bay—imagine him piloting this massive steam-powered behemoth onto the battlefield, his skull split open, and four Shuanghui King of Kings missiles shoved directly into the angel's face! The angel would never dream that they would shove such thick, black, and hard electric batons into his forehead!
"Using the missile compartment to store food is a way of carrying forward the fine traditions of our army," Li Wenxuan said. "An army marches on its stomach."

Once the computing core is ready, then "Chaofeng's" head will be freed up. Wang Xiangbing calls Chengdu Science City every day to urge progress. The phone rings loudly on the other end; those who know say it's programming, while those who don't think it's blacksmithing.

"We need to program this from the hardware level and refactor the entire underlying architecture," the automation expert said. "Why don't you ask the business and engineering experts if paper tape input works?"

A brilliant mind from the Institute of Automation painted this future blueprint for Wang Xiangbing: To meet the extremely complex mathematical calculations required for generalized computation, we could prepare 120,000 kilometers of paper tape! Unfolded, it could circle the Earth three times! The program would be pre-punched and encoded onto the paper tape, and ultra-high-speed motors would drive the tape to read the data! Up to six motors could be inserted simultaneously to drive six paper tapes at the same time. Imagine that magnificent scene: amidst the roar of the motors, the paper tapes would be accelerated to near the speed of sound! That would be the embodiment of data, the mechanization of computation, and the visualization of the punk spirit!

They used ultra-high capacity magnetic tapes to store the data, and designed a large red joystick in the cockpit specifically for rewinding.

As soon as the commander gives the order: Rewind!

The driver then pulled the control lever.

rewind!

The Institute of Automation could not hide their excitement and offered earnest and persuasive guidance.

Shang Lu rejected the proposal without hesitation, saying that we live in the 21st century, not the 19th century, and that we manufacture computers, not difference engines, let alone spinning machines.

"Uncle! Have 1047 and the Planning Office given you any trouble?" Zhang Chong asked, peeking over as he passed by carrying a heavy box. "Will they let this go?"

Wang Xiangbing chuckled: "That coward, does he dare to cause me trouble? Even if he complains to the Central Military Commission, I'm not afraid. If the sky falls, the director will hold it up."

“Yes, if we’re going to execute someone, we should execute the director first.” Li Wenxuan nodded. “At most, we’ll give him a life sentence.”

Later, Shang Lu told Chen Yu about this.

Chen Yu was both amused and exasperated: Even if there were only two people left in the world, those two people would still fight amongst themselves.