The door of the courtyard house has been welded dead

In the winter of 1978, in a quiet and mysterious mountainous area in the south.

The cold wind, carrying damp mist, roamed freely through the mountains, making this already sparsely populated area even more desolate and lonely.

From the air, the entire mountainous area appears to be shrouded in an invisible barrier.

Layer upon layer of barbed wire stretched along the mountainside, gleaming with a cold metallic luster under the frigid sunlight, tightly enclosing the core area.

Every so often, you can see upright soldiers on duty, wearing thick military overcoats and cotton hats, holding guns and scanning their surroundings with vigilant eyes.

Even as the biting wind turned their cheeks red, they remained standing at their posts.

As we walked up the mountain road, the plainclothes security personnel, like hunters lurking in the shadows, were scattered at key intersections and hidden corners.

They stood there seemingly casually, either pretending to chat or observing their surroundings, but their sharp eyes never relaxed their close monitoring of the road below the mountain.

At the outermost perimeter, police officers were on high alert, setting up checkpoints at the foot of the mountain and conducting meticulous checks on every person and vehicle entering and leaving the area to ensure that no suspicious individuals could breach this outermost line of defense.

After passing through layers of checkpoints and venturing deep into the mountains, a huge and mysterious testing site gradually came into view. It looked like a typical third-tier factory in the mountains, but its level of secrecy was undoubtedly much higher.

Within the factory area.

With a rumbling mechanical sound, a huge square tarpaulin in the center of the square gradually opened, driven by cables, revealing the true face of the square below.

Beneath the original shelter, a concrete pool about thirty meters wide had been built, which, when the awning was pulled back, resembled an open abyss.

Nestled quietly in the mountain valley, the water's dark blue color is awe-inspiring, suggesting considerable depth.

The pool water rippled in the cold wind, as if endless secrets were hidden beneath its surface.

In the workshop not far from the pool, two missile sections stood quietly beside the hoisting platform. The conical warhead and the more than one-meter-wide missile body were undergoing precise assembly. Together, they were about the height of a three-story building.

The technicians, dressed in white coats, were focused and carefully operated various tools. Every action had been practiced and calculated many times, leaving no room for error.

Take the tools they use, for example. After use, they must be placed in a tool cabinet with specific numbers. The number of screws and washers used must be counted and checked by a designated person after the work is completed.

These measures may seem redundant, but they are necessary because there is a concern that if parts malfunction during operation and are left inside the missile body, they could cause unpredictable risks.

Several finger-thick cables were attached to the bullet, connecting to the back of a thick concrete wall.

That is the core area of ​​the entire underwater launch test, the control and command center.

Next to the control center, in a special room, naval frogmen in diving suits were preparing to go underwater.

The heavy oxygen tube was carefully strapped to his back, and he repeatedly checked every detail of the equipment.

The wetsuit gleamed with a dark sheen under the lights, resembling sharkskin, and clung tightly to the skin.

After adjusting their diving masks and taking a few breaths with the snorkel in their mouths, they turned off the oxygen valves one by one and began stretching exercises.

These divers are about to dive into the underwater launch test range outside the workshop to conduct crucial inspections, where even the slightest oversight could lead to the failure of the entire test.

Behind the thick concrete walls lies the core area of ​​the entire launch test: the control and command center.

Along the wall, various indicator lights flashed different colors on the numerous devices, and the pointers on the instrument panels jumped constantly. The technicians stared intently at the instruments and equipment in front of them, their expressions serious and tense. The underwater launch technology team from a domestic missile factory and the rocket (missile) vertical launch team dispatched by Factory 787 were working together to make final preparations for this submarine-launched missile underwater launch test.

"The underwater launch tubes must be kept vertical, and each fixed base must be inspected. If there is a problem, the launch can be postponed, but we cannot allow it to operate with problems. The cost of a missile is not cheap."

After more than a decade of hard work, Section Chief Lü finally became Chief Engineer Lü. However, when he led the team here, he became Team Leader Lü from Factory 787. He knocked on the door of the room where the frogmen were resting and explained the final work process to the people inside.

"This isn't the first time, don't worry!"

"There's enough time, please be careful!"

Although located in the south, the outside temperature was not conducive to diving at all. None of these soldiers from the frogman unit frowned, and they were all ready to step up when needed.

The gantry crane was pulled out of the warehouse and parked at the edge of the pool. The stainless steel crew cabin on the boom was placed on the ground. Three prepared divers entered the cabin in an orderly manner. After checking each other's equipment again, they signaled that they could proceed with the dive.

The crew cabin slowly rose, and after the boom rotated, it faced the dark green pool below. As the equipment started, the crew cabin and three divers gradually submerged into the water.

The on-site safety officer immediately tensed up, his eyes fixed on the bell on the crane boom. In case of an emergency, this was the most convenient way to alert the crew; once it rang, the passenger cabin would have to be hoisted up.

Fine bubbles began to rise to the surface of the water, and the lights in the pool illuminated the inside. Three divers, in the crew cabin, looked at the launch tube standing quietly underwater.

The launch tube, nearly 1.5 meters thick, occupies the middle position underwater, about the height of a three-story building. It looks like the Ruyi Jingu Bang (a magical staff) stuck in the eye of the water in the East Sea Dragon Palace.

With oxygen tubes in their mouths, unable to communicate verbally underwater, the three divers swam out of the crew cabin using standard hand gestures and began to divide the work.

"I suggest you check the air compressor again...!"

After watching the underwater divers go into the water to work, Team Leader Lü arrived at the control and command center and communicated with the head of the underwater launch technology team.

Everyone looked busy and very serious. After the three-story-high missile was assembled, the atmosphere in the factory became even more tense.

As the hoisting equipment was lifted again, the three divers who had completed their inspection were pulled out of the water, and the square began to be cleared.

The combined submarine-launched missile is lowered into the ground via an elevator, and then, through an underground track and hydraulic conveyor, it is filled into a sealed launch tube in a water tank.

"Barometric pressure check!"

"Wind direction detection!"

"Compressor running!"

"The air pressure inside the launch tube has reached the critical point."

With a series of commands issued from the command and control room, the submarine-launched missile completed its final preparations before launch.

All eyes in the command and control room were drawn, seemingly casually, to the control panel in the center. Red warning lights began to flash throughout the factory area.

"Launching countdown begins, 10, 9...!"

As soon as the button was pressed, countless bubbles rose instantly from the surface of the pool, making the clear water in the entire pool seem as if it had been boiled by underground magma.

A bullet pierced the water's surface... (End of Chapter)