I built an armada.

Inside the Black House of the Eagles, in the Chief's office.

The top-secret intelligence document bearing the words "[Reverse Scale-1 Strategic Weapon Deployment Confirmation and Capability Assessment]" was crumpled into a ball of waste paper by a hand with bulging veins and slammed against the corner! Immediately following was the ear-piercing sound of precious porcelain shattering!
"Damn it! It's Long Xia again!! And that damned Su Dingping again!!!"

The Great Chieftain roared furiously like a wounded lion, veins bulging on his forehead and eyes bloodshot.

"The fleet! We've been captured and humiliated by them!"

"Joseph! A five-star general has become a prisoner!"

"Lithography machines! They've severed our last technological chain! Now... missiles!"
Are they even going to break our last sword?!
"Do they think they can't live a day without opposing my Eagle Tribe?! Every single one of their sharp, provocative thorns is aimed straight at my heart!!"

He hysterically swung his fists, slamming the massive oak desk with a loud thud! The staff and advisors stood with their heads bowed, not daring to breathe.

A veteran advisor with graying hair, watching the chieftain who was about to completely lose control, suppressed his fear and spoke cautiously.

"Your Excellency! We must remain calm! Although our provocation is a deterrent, our absolute trump card advantage—the NMD combined with a vast network of forward-deployed radars and the THAAD terminal system—still leads in maturity and global deployment!"
We possess the world's largest nuclear arsenal, the global projection power of eleven aircraft carrier battle groups! We also have an unbreakable alliance of free values ​​with our Nordic allies! And we still control the global financial lifeline—the petrodollar hegemony!
Which of those small tribes dares to break away from our system?!

These words, like a powerful incantation with a placebo effect, barely roused the Great Chieftain from his near-collapse.

He was breathing heavily, wiping the cold sweat from his forehead, his eyes, bloodshot with rage, fixed on the old advisor.

"So...we can still win? Our technology...can still crush them?"

"You can definitely do it, Your Excellency!"

The staff member was resolute.

"We possess the most advanced research environment on Earth! The most Nobel Prize-winning minds! The most state-of-the-art laboratory facilities! As long as... the resources are in place!"

"resource?!"

The chieftain suddenly raised his head, his eyes flashing with a mad light, almost like a gambler betting his entire fortune!
"Resources are plentiful! From this moment forward! I, the Great Chieftain, hereby authorize the announcement—"

He waved his hand sharply, his voice hoarse yet penetrating.

"Immediately launch the Dragon Hunter Extra-Limited Technology Advancement Program! Increase the Department of Defense's basic frontier research funding by $20 billion! No, $30 billion! Directly allocate it! Under my direct control!"

"Establish the Dragon Hunter Medal! Any scientific research project, whether civilian or military, that can surpass the current publicly available level of Dragonxia in terms of technology will be rewarded with cash prizes of no less than one hundred million US dollars for the project leader and core team! Core contributors will be granted a lifetime special allowance from the President, leadership of the most advanced laboratory, and permanent residency in the Mountain City!"

"The Flame of Freedom is issuing a global recruitment call! All scientists and engineers, regardless of nationality or origin, are welcome to join the Eagle Federation Research Program and pass the review!"

All will be granted the highest level of federal permanent residency! The entire family will be included in the highest level of personal security protection! Top-tier program benefits are equivalent to those of federal academicians!!

The order, like the most greedy tsunami vortex, instantly swept across global networks, top academic journals, and clandestine channels! Money! Status! Honor! Green cards!

Eagle Tribe has opened its most dazzling and blatant golden casino doors to all the restless geniuses in the world! In a short period of time, several foreign scientists with high reputations in the fields of controlled nuclear fusion theory, new materials science, and quantum computing have publicly stated that they will move their entire families to Eagle Tribe!

Longxia coastal area, Qingsha Bay nuclear fusion energy comprehensive demonstration zone.

The massive superconducting coil hummed deeply, and the air was filled with the stable yet unsettling energy fluctuations characteristic of ozone and controlled nuclear reactions.

The enormous stellarator device resembled a colossal metal behemoth lurking on the seashore, constantly absorbing and releasing the power of the controlled sun.

This area has replaced the former massive coal-fired power plant area and become the core of endless power supply for the entire coastal industrial belt—the Qingshawan No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3 large stellarator integrated reactors operate day and night!

A surge of clean electricity, with near-zero cost, is being continuously transmitted along a newly completed, shimmering silver-blue cable tunnel to the adjacent, equally massive but more complex production plant, filled with huge metal tanks and electrolysis unit arrays—the Qinglang Hydrogen Energy Industrial Base No. 1.

Inside the core control hall, Su Dingping stood in front of the huge main control screen of the seawater electrolysis system, where data streams were scrolling and refreshing like a waterfall.

"President Su!"
The primary electrolysis unit has passed all trial runs! Current stability exceeded expectations! The seawater purification system has been successfully connected! Hydrogen and oxygen separation purity reached 99.9998%! The first batch of high-purity hydrogen has entered the liquefaction and pipeline transportation stages!

The technical director's voice trembled with excitement.

"it is good!"

Su Dingping's gaze was intense.

"The supply chain for cheap electricity and cheap green hydrogen as basic raw materials has been established! The next step is to solve the technological implementation issues of large-scale substitution in transportation and application! The gears of the hydrogen energy era..."

He clenched his fist.

"We've made our first bearing!"

At the same time, in the highest-level command issuance hall of the Longxia Power National Dispatch Center.

The lights were dazzling, and the security was tight. The huge screen no longer displayed a traditional power grid topology diagram, but a dynamic holographic energy network that crisscrossed like a science fiction star map, covering the entire eastern part of Longxia! Every stream of light representing the surging energy was controlled with perfect precision!
The chief engineer stood in front of the huge central control sphere, his excited voice echoing throughout the command hall and reaching all corners of the world via live broadcast.

"...Now, on behalf of the Longxia National Energy Center, Loongson Laboratory, and State Grid Research Institute consortium, I hereby officially announce that—the [Qingyu-1 Fully Superconducting Smart Backbone Grid - East China Sea Demonstration Section] has passed the evaluation and acceptance by the highest expert group...and has been fully completed, officially connected to the grid, and put into operation!"

As the command was given, hundreds of blue dots representing the core nodes of the main power grid on the large screen suddenly lit up! It was as if a giant blue dragon, flowing endlessly from east to west, had been ignited across the land of China! Countless tiny energy loss warning indicators instantly disappeared completely from the monitoring list!
"...the key core."

Loongson Labs specially developed ultra-low loss, high current zero-boundary series full-temperature-range composite supercrystalline superconducting cables and intelligent control cores! "...Core technical indicators."

The overall power transmission loss on the main line is only 0.0007%! This is close to absolute zero loss!

"……significance.

Unblock the nation's main power arteries! Establish the foundation for seamless power transmission from east to west and the south-to-north transfer of clean energy from the Three Gorges Dam! Provide an inexhaustible, millisecond-level energy lifeline for the Longxia future industrial cluster, the Tianlian Project, and major scientific research projects!

This silent, surging blue dragon symbolizes not only unparalleled energy efficiency, but also the cornerstone for completely liberating Dragonxia's productivity and unleashing the explosion of all technologies!

Longxia's chip industry, like a giant tree thoroughly watered by a divine spring, is bursting forth with terrifying growth potential! It relies on the mature mass production experience brought by TSMC and UMC, and even more so on Longxia's own breakthroughs in core manufacturing equipment to unleash its explosive production capacity!
Large-scale fabs like Loongson Investment and SMIC are springing up like mushrooms after rain! Mature 55nm to 28nm node chips are rolling off the production line at an astonishing speed, and the prices are so low that it's unbelievable—only 59% of the performance of products from Donghuang Tribe's Connie Company!

Eastern Wilderness, Prime Minister's Residence.

Taro Noda slumped in his enormous office chair, a symbol of power, his face deathly pale. Thick stacks of reports lay scattered on the floor, and on the screen were alarming market order analysis charts that his secretary had just compiled.

Connie's global chip foundry orders declined by 38% year-on-year.
Connie/Nengjia's core stock price has hit the daily limit down for 7 consecutive days.

"It's over..."

Noda Taro looked as if his spine had been removed, making a hoarse sound from his throat.

“Longxia…Longxia’s chips…are too cheap…the performance…is just as good…orders…are all slipping away…”

He suddenly grabbed the red secure telephone line on the table, as if grasping at a last straw, and dialed the number that represented absolute reliance, his voice hoarse and desperate.

"Your Majesty the Great Chief! We request assistance! The torrent of chips from Longxia... we... we really can't hold on! If Connie and Nengjia collapse... our Eastern Wilderness... is finished!"

After a few seconds of silence on the other end of the phone, the Eagle Chieftain's voice, though strained, betrayed a hint of anxiety.

"Noda! Hold on! Stay calm! The Nordic Union is drafting a brand new, extremely stringent sanctions bill targeting the entire Longxia industry chain! It will restrict their access to the most advanced photoresist and high-end IP cores!"
If the bill passes, Longxia's chip development will be immediately halted! Hold on a little longer! Victory will surely belong to the free and civilized world!

Noda Taro listened to this all-too-familiar comforting "chicken soup for the soul," a bitter smile more painful than tears spreading across his face. Hang in there? Hang in there with your life on the line? The price storm at Longxia won't stop!
As for the so-called "severe sanctions"... who knows when that will happen? By the time those sanctions are finally implemented, Connie and Nengjia will probably be three feet old!

He helplessly put down the phone, staring at Connie's still-falling after-hours chart on the screen. A chilling despair mixed with intense angina gripped his heart!
He suddenly clutched his chest, his body trembling violently!
Noda Taro clutched his throbbing chest, his face ashen, large beads of sweat rolling down his forehead.

On the screen, Connie and Nengjia's green curves, symbols of shame and decline, continued to fall stubbornly and persistently, each slight twitch like a heavy hammer blow to his heart.

The staff rushed over in a panic, frantically handing over first-aid pills and warm water. The bitter nitroglycerin dissolved under the tongue, bringing a brief, weak relief, but it couldn't dispel the chilling despair that had seeped into the very marrow of the body.

"Price reduction...we're reducing prices!"

He practically roared the command, his voice broken and distorted.

This was the only "damage control" strategy the staff could come up with under immense pressure.

Soon, the Donghuang Tribe official and the two major chip giants simultaneously issued product price reduction announcements with unprecedented efficiency. The reductions were not large, but for the still-shaken international market, they were undoubtedly a small shot in the arm, temporarily stabilizing some of the panic selling sentiment.

If things had ended there, perhaps Connie and Nenga, with their deep market foundation and technological accumulation, could have managed to survive this sudden winter and await the looming sanctions imposed by their ally, the Eagle.

After all, in the minds of Noda Taro and many die-hard officials, the Longxia tribe had only achieved a temporary lead through some "unorthodox methods," and its foundation was ultimately inferior to that of the Eastern Wilderness Semiconductor Empire, which had accumulated over decades.

However, at this moment of respite, Noda Taro, who was overwhelmed by Longxia's counterattack and his own predicament and whose mentality had become unbalanced, had his deep-rooted arrogance and subconscious distrust and contempt for the Longxia tribe erupt like a leech.

At the press conference following the price reduction announcement, facing global cameras, Noda's defenses completely crumbled when reporters sharply questioned him about "how he views the competition from Longxia chips" and "whether the price reduction means that Donghuang's technological advantage is gone."

His bloodshot eyes stared at the reporter who asked the question, as if he could see the mocking smile of the Longxia tribe.

"Hmph! Competition?"

Noda's voice suddenly rose, carrying a hysterical sharpness.

"Behind the low price often lies a sacrifice in quality! Our chips from Donghuang are guaranteed to be of high quality, having undergone rigorous testing! On the other hand, some so-called high-end chips that suddenly appear don't even know the source of the most crucial photolithography technology, and some even..."

He paused deliberately, looked around the room, and a look of pain and malice mixed with self-satisfaction as if he had revealed the truth appeared on his face.

"We have reason to doubt the authenticity of its photolithography technology! Are there any undisclosed flaws, or even... forgery? As for the long-term reliability and yield rate of the chip itself, let's wait and see! Time will tell!"

These words caused an uproar! Not only the reporters present, but even the officials from Donghuang responsible for the press conference were stunned! Was the Prime Minister publicly questioning the core technology and product quality of a competitor? This was utterly baseless slander! A diplomatic blunder, completely devoid of business ethics!
The news spread around the world at the speed of light.

When the headline “Donghuang Prime Minister publicly questions Longxia’s lithography machine for being fake and its chips for being of poor quality” swept across the headlines of major financial and technology sections, the entire Longxia tribe, from the top management to the engineers on the front line of scientific research, was enraged by this overwhelming slander!

In his office, nestled deep within the heart of Longxia's scientific research and the soul hub of the entire semiconductor counterattack strategy, Su Dingping is deep in thought, staring at the walls covered with pulsating data streams and a global market distribution map.

Secretary Guo Xueyun practically burst through the door, her usually composed face flushed red, her eyes burning with fury.

"Chief Engineer Su! Look at this! Noda Taro... he went completely mad at the press conference!" (End of Chapter)