Break out of the courtyard

The Grand Steward's Office in the capital of the United States.

"Director Theodore, what does your space agency think about rain on Mars?" Chief Engineer Little K asked, leaning back on the sofa with a glass of whiskey in hand, staring at the LCD TV on the wall in front of him.

What was being broadcast on television was footage of Mr. Qian facing the camera and answering questions from a group of reporters.

"Based on data transmitted back from our previous Mars probes, Mars has a thin atmosphere and extremely low atmospheric pressure, making it difficult for liquid water to exist stably. Therefore, ordinary rain is unlikely to occur," explained the head of NASA, frowning.

"This is also why the lakes on Mars' largest plain disappeared so quickly after they appeared."

Little K pressed on, "How do you explain the grass on Mars?"

The head of the US space agency thought for a moment, "It could be plants brought to Mars by Peace Space's landing module, or it could be plants they cultivated on the Martian surface using special containers."

"Given Mars' thin atmosphere and huge temperature differences between day and night, it's impossible for plants to grow in the Martian wilderness!"

Xiao Ke glanced at the black-haired female secretary beside him. The secretary understood and switched the image on the TV on the wall to an image covered with green leaves of different sizes.

“Director Theodore, do you mean these plants are experimental indoor plants?” Little K asked, frowning.

“Yes! Thin atmosphere, extremely low pressure,” the head of the US space agency nodded. “We suspect that Peace Space has already launched the Mars Mars Base construction plan!”

"Your Excellency! Whether the grass is growing in the Martian wilderness or in a Martian laboratory, we must immediately launch a probe to Mars to investigate!"

“This year’s budget has already exceeded the limit…” Little K turned his head, frowning as he looked at the head of the US space agency, “Besides, you haven’t even successfully launched a lunar probe!”

“Director Theodore!” The white-haired old man who had been sitting silently to the side interjected, “You can postpone the other satellite projects until next year and first investigate whether the bases on the moon and Mars are real!”

The head of the US space agency frowned and agreed, "I'll go back and submit a report requesting a project change!"

Little K nodded and said, "Director Theodore, I hope you can successfully launch the probe within a month, otherwise you should resign!"

……

Late at night on August 23, when Zhang Heping and his family checked into the Jingcheng Hotel, Yang Lao, Hua Lao, and others once again sat down at the Shenzhen Dapeng Peninsula Satellite Monitoring Center.

"I think we can choose a mountain as the shooting target!" Vice Dean Qian said slowly, looking at the large black display screen in front of him.

"Doing this will not only test the power of the pulse particle accelerator cannon, but also probe the extent of NASA's exploration of Mars."

"Even if NASA discovers that a mountain is missing on Mars and concludes that we are testing new weapons, so what?"

Sitting behind Qian, a veteran military strategy expert chimed in, "After the Americans discover that we are experimenting with new weapons, they will inevitably become wary and then invest heavily in investigating them."

Old Yang frowned and said, "There's no need to reveal the pulse particle accelerator cannon as a deterrent at the moment. We just need to create an anomaly on Mars to attract the attention of foreign powers!"

After glancing at Hua and Deng, who remained silent, Qian gave up trying to persuade them further.

Seeing that the leaders had stopped arguing, the head of the satellite monitoring center stepped forward to confirm the test launch target.

After confirming that the test targets were canyons on Mars, the head of the satellite monitoring center didn't say much and simply instructed his experts and assistants to get to work.

Because the high-energy particle beam fired by the pulse particle accelerator is invisible, the first test target was a large canyon located on the edge of the dawn-dark line.

Since there were no monitoring stations set up above or below these targets in the canyons, the test firing mission was very simple: confirm the coordinates and then issue the attack command.

As half of the large screen in front of us lit up, revealing a portion of the Martian landscape, a small red circle was marked on the terminator.

About half an hour after the first test target was attacked, the area marked with a small red circle came into daylight.

However, there was only a wisp of white mist inside the small red circle, and white mist also filled the canyon fissures outside the red circle, making it impossible to see the situation at the bottom of the valley.

The first target canyon was like this, and the 13 target canyons that were shot at afterward were also the same. They were all obscured by white or gray clouds and mist, and the destructive effects of the pulse particle acceleration cannon test firing could not be seen at all, which just confirmed Zhang Heping's previous deduction.

The next day, after Zhang Heping got up, he saw the coded text message sent by Hua Lao and learned the results of the test firing the previous night.

However, Zhang Heping did not reply to Hua Lao. Instead, as planned, he first went to visit the Jingcheng branch of Heping Materials.

Afterwards, accompanied by the Xishuangbanna reception staff, we visited Jingcheng College.

After receiving funding from Heping College, Jingcheng College has been upgraded from a second-rate vocational college to a third-tier university.

Because of Zhang Heping, the school's name was not changed to Jingcheng University.

The person in charge of the reception team this time was Dao Yuzhu, an old acquaintance of Zhang Heping. She was a nurse, the vice principal of Jingcheng College, and now the director of Jingcheng Health Bureau.

Among those accompanying her was Dao Yuzhu's father, Dao Shan, the former director of Jingcheng.

Back then, Director Dao had considered taking Zhang Heping as her son-in-law, but unfortunately Zhang Heping had no interest in Dao Yuzhu. In addition, Zhang Heping was transferred from Jingcheng to Nanla Town, so Dao Yuzhu found someone else to marry.

Looking at Zhang Heping's large family, Daoshan and his daughter couldn't help but feel a mix of emotions.

"We won't go to the farm!" Zhang Heping glanced at his watch, turned to the group behind him, and said, "Let's go to Wild Elephant Valley!"

"Advisor Zhang!" Dao Yuzhu, director of the Jingcheng Health Bureau, stepped forward and said with a smile, "The hotel has prepared a welcome banquet, what do you think..."

"Let's get together again at the hotel tonight!" Zhang Heping said casually. "I promised the little ones I'd take them elephant riding."

"They won't stop until they fulfill their promises soon!"

Dao Yuzhu glanced at the two little boys being led by the hand in the crowd, responded softly, and then instructed her entourage to discuss lunch and dinner arrangements.

The arrival of Zhang Heping's family without prior notice caught Jingcheng completely off guard.

The welcoming banquet, which had been prepared all morning, was not considered lavish by some.

Hearing that the welcome banquet has been moved to the evening gives us much more time to work things out.

However, this made receiving guests at Wild Elephant Valley a problem.

Zhang Heping seemed to sense the difficulties faced by the reception staff. After getting on the bus, he said to Dao Yuzhu, who had followed him:

"Director Dao, there's no need to make special arrangements for Wild Elephant Valley. Let's just go there, buy some food, experience what it's like to be a tourist, and then give some feedback to the local tourism authorities." Although Dao Yuzhu agreed verbally, her phone kept receiving text messages, clearly still arranging the reception.

A moment later, Dao Yuzhu interrupted Zhang Heping's casual conversation with others and asked, "Advisor Zhang, Director He is on his way back. Do you think we should go to Jingcheng Pharmaceutical Factory tomorrow?"

Director He was referring to He Zijiang, Zhang Heping's old classmate, who was attending a meeting and training session in Yundu.

"We won't go to the pharmaceutical factory. We'll visit some nearby scenic spots in the next few days, and then go to Nanla Town," Zhang Heping said casually. "If you want any investment, just contact our General Manager Chen later."

As Zhang Heping spoke, he looked at Daoshan, who was sitting to one side, and laughed, "I brought them here purely for tourism."

Daoshan, who had already retired, responded with a smile: "I heard from Director He that you were very busy in Shenzhen, so we didn't dare to call you, lest we disturb your work."

"The next two years will be quite busy!" Zhang Heping said with a smile. "The Moon Palace base has started construction, and the Mars Yinghuo base is waiting to be built!"

"Advisor Zhang!" a young male secretary in the entourage asked curiously, "Have we really established a base on the moon?"

Zhang Heping casually replied, "Currently, part of the underground project has been completed, but the surface project has not yet started, so there are no follow-up reports on this in the news."

Another member of the entourage asked curiously, "Advisor Zhang, once the lunar base is built, will you send astronauts to it?"

“Of course!” Zhang Heping laughed. “As our outpost for exploring space, the lunar base will undertake many space research projects, and may even become humanity’s first space city in the future.”

"Advisor Zhang, do you think there's anything Xishuangbanna can do to help the lunar base?" The accompanying staff member wanted to attract some investment in related projects, but couldn't think of any specific things.

Zhang Heping turned his head to the people accompanying him and said, "The botanical garden here is cooperating with the Northwest Space Exploration Base to explore space planting and Martian planting."

"If you want to get more involved in space projects, then focus on education in Xishuangbanna and send some gifted students to the world's leading research institutes."

As the group chatted and laughed, they unknowingly arrived at Wild Elephant Valley.

Just as Zhang Heping had said, the family came to have fun that afternoon and didn't bother with work anymore.

Unfortunately, Zhang Bei, the eldest son, didn't come, which meant Tang Xin missed the opportunity to meet the beautiful Dai girl, leaving her somewhat disappointed.

Many people attended the welcome banquet that evening, including local leaders and managers from companies and factories under the Heping Group.

In addition, Director Zhao, Li Niu (the tea factory manager), Bai Yun, Yi Shu, and other people who were acquainted with Zhang Heping were also called over to accompany him.

……

While Zhang Heping's family was leisurely enjoying their time in Xishuangbanna, countries like Japan, Europe, and the United States were making a fuss over the newly appeared canyons and clouds on Mars.

While those foreigners were letting foreign media fabricate stories to confuse the public, they were also having their foreign affairs departments seek cooperation with the China National Space Administration and Peace Space Corporation, while secretly planning lunar and Mars exploration missions.

Over the course of a week, Japan, Europe, and the United States each successfully launched a rocket, sending three lunar probes into space.

Because of this, Zhang Heping ended his trip to Xishuangbanna and returned to Shenzhen to discuss the defense of the Moon Palace base.

While ostensibly about defense, the discussion was actually about the size of the ground area to be enclosed for the fourth phase of the Guanghan Palace base's ground construction.

The first phase of the underground project at the Guanghan Palace site has been under construction for six months, and the underground works have been continuously expanding and reinforcing.

In particular, when the second phase of the energy project was started and the first helium-3 controlled nuclear fusion power device had been running continuously for more than 2 days, the unmanned brick and stone production plant also had a surplus of output and began to transport the excess bricks and stones to the base ground.

"I think the newly built pulse particle accelerator cannon can be hidden in the underground tunnels and then raised to the surface when needed!"

"Hiding underground is not as good as building a fortress on the surface to hide it, so as not to damage the structural stability of the underground structure!"

"Now that we've determined the location for the pulse particle accelerator cannon, we can build an outer perimeter wall around the base. I wonder how large an area they're planning to enclose!"

"How about building the pulse particle accelerator cannon on the outer perimeter wall? It would be convenient to run cables and set up maintenance access routes inside the wall!"

"Unless we're going to build an unmanned factory on the surface of the base, there's no point in building a wall. We might as well dig deeper and build deeper underground fortifications!"

When Zhang Heping arrived at the construction command center of the Moon Palace base, the experts, assistants, and engineering robot operators there were having a heated discussion.

"The dean is here!"

As soon as a young male voice rang out, the cave immediately fell silent.

"What models are the three lunar probe satellites?" Zhang Heping asked calmly as he approached the large display screen on the middle side wall. "How do you plan to respond?"

"Dean!" The head of the lunar Guanghan Palace base construction command center glanced at Elder Hua, Elder Li, and the others who had come with him. "Bound by the Outer Space Treaty, we cannot do anything to those lunar probes!"

"Hmph!" Zhang Heping snorted lightly, "Knowing full well that they are spy satellites trying to probe our secrets, you dare not take any action."

"Contact the satellite monitoring center!" Zhang Heping's tone turned cold.

Hua and Li exchanged a glance, wanting to say something more, but considering that Zhang Heping was now in charge of the Space Force and responsible for all space affairs, they decided not to interfere too much.

Another reason they don't intervene is that the space force cannot provoke trouble, so they are not worried that Zhang Heping will use space-based weapons to destroy those lunar probes.

The video call at the satellite monitoring center was quickly connected. Then, Zhang Heping looked at the old man on the large screen and said solemnly, "I'll give you one hour. No matter what means you use, accelerate those three lunar probes from Japan, Europe, and the United States by 60%!"

The head of the satellite monitoring center looked troubled but did not object. After agreeing to the task, he ended the call and then arranged for his subordinates to carry it out.

"Dean, did you accelerate those three lunar probes by 60% so that they would fly past the moon at excessive speed?" An elderly expert nearby asked, voicing the doubts of Professor Hua, Professor Li, and others.

"Hmm!" Zhang Heping turned around and casually found a seat to sit down.

The head of the lunar Guanghan Palace base construction command center stood silently for a while, then approached Zhang Heping with embarrassment and said sincerely, "Dean, I'm sorry! I didn't expect it could be done this way!"

"I hope I won't have to teach you next time!" Zhang Heping pointed to the empty chair next to him and said slowly.

"If foreigners send some robots to the Moon Palace base and try to infiltrate our underground base, are we supposed to abide by that bullshit treaty?"

"Don't forget, the gold, silver, and antiques that foreign robbers looted from our country have still not been returned!"

...(End of this chapter)