Courtyard House: A Major Power's Heavy Industry, Hand-Crafted Nuclear Fusion

1965, summer.

The Golden and Silver Beach Grassland has ushered in its most beautiful season of the year. Gesang flowers bloom all over the hillsides, looking like a colorful carpet from a distance.

But for the researchers at Base 001, they had no time to appreciate the beautiful view outside the window.

Because a battle codenamed "1100" is being fought fiercely in the red brick building of the Theory Department.

This is the famous "Hundred Days Campaign".

……

The conference room on the second floor of the Theoretical Department building.

This place has been transformed into a giant "abacus array".

There was no air conditioning, only a few industrial fans whirring. The air was thick with the mixed smells of tobacco, mentholatum, and sweat.

More than a hundred young college students, drawn from all over the country, were hunched over their desks, frantically working on their abacuses.

They were divided into three groups.

The first group calculates, the second group verifies, and the third group reviews.

If even one piece of data doesn't match, the entire process has to be scrapped and started over.

At the very front of the conference room hung a huge blackboard, densely covered with differential equations.

Old Yu stood in front of the blackboard, holding a piece of chalk in his hand. His hair was a mess, his beard was unshaven, and his gray Zhongshan suit was covered in chalk dust.

He hadn't slept for three days and three nights.

"No! This data is incorrect!"

Old Yu suddenly shouted, and the chalk in his hand snapped in two with a "crack".

He pointed to a set of parameters related to "radiative hydrodynamics" on the blackboard, "If the opacity is this high, the energy transmission efficiency of X-rays can't be this efficient! There must be a calculation error somewhere!"

The meeting room fell silent instantly.

More than a hundred pairs of bloodshot eyes stared at him, then at the abacus in their hands.

despair.

A deep sense of despair was spreading.

They had been working tirelessly for a week to calculate this parameter. Now, starting over means all their hard work for the week has been wasted.

"that……"

A young female technician timidly raised her hand. "Team Leader Yu, we checked using the underlying data tables sent by 'Red Star One.' It shouldn't be wrong, right?"

"Machines don't make mistakes, but the people who input the information into them can!"

Old Yu was so anxious he was tearing his hair out. "This data is abnormal! It violates the law of conservation of energy! If we build it according to this, the hydrogen bomb won't even ignite!"

"But……"

Everyone looked at each other in bewilderment. In this era without supercomputer-assisted verification, no one dared to claim that their human brain was more accurate than a machine.

At the moment of stalemate.

"Click, click..."

A crisp, rhythmic sound of an abacus came from the corner.

Everyone turned around.

Ye Xinyi was sitting at a small table in the corner, intently manipulating the specially made abacus in her hand.

Her fingers were long and nimble, leaping across the abacus beads so fast that only afterimages could be seen.

In front of her was a thick stack of draft paper.

Su Zheng sat next to her, holding a glass of water, quietly watching her without disturbing her.

One minute.

Two minutes.

"alright."

Ye Xinyi suddenly stopped and let out a long breath.

She picked up a piece of scrap paper and walked to the blackboard.

"Old Yu, you're not mistaken. There is indeed a problem with the data."

Ye Xinyi's voice was clear and melodious, like a clear spring flowing into the sweltering conference room.

"The problem lies in the correction factor for 'Compton scattering'."

She wrote a formula on the blackboard.

"The previous algorithm ignored the influence of the electron degenerate state on the scattering cross section under ultra-high pressure and high temperature. Although this influence is only three ten-thousandths, the error is amplified after nine iterations."

"This is the result I just re-derived."

Ye Xinyi slapped the paper onto the blackboard.

Old Yu leaned over and stared at the result for a full five minutes.

His eyes went from confusion to shock, and finally to ecstasy.

"Yes...that's it! That's it!"

Old Yu slapped his thigh suddenly, "With this degenerate state correction, the law of conservation of energy is now closed! It's working! It's completely working!"

He turned around, looked at Ye Xinyi, and was so excited that he didn't know what to say.

"Director Ye...you're a diviner! This is simply divine calculation!"

"Your mind is even faster than that 'Red Star One' machine!"

A cheer erupted in the conference room.

The young people looked at Ye Xinyi as if she were a goddess. In this dull digital world, she was the magician who could turn lead into gold.

Su Zheng stepped forward and handed Ye Xinyi a handkerchief to wipe her sweat.

"You must be exhausted?"

"It's alright." Ye Xinyi smiled, her face a little pale, but her eyes were still bright. "As long as the path is right, it's worth it no matter how tired I am."

Su Zheng squeezed her hand tenderly, then turned around to face everyone.

Comrades.

Su Zheng's voice was steady and powerful.

"Director Ye has already paved the way for everyone."

"Next, it's time for the 100-meter sprint."

"I command: Activate 'Red Star II'!"

"Red Star II?!"

Everyone was stunned.

Everyone knows the base has a "Red Star-1," a transistor computer that the Soviets handcrafted while building the atomic bomb. But when did "Red Star-2" appear?

Su Zheng smiled mysteriously and pointed downstairs.

"It just arrived yesterday."

……

Underground computer room.

When that enormous machine, which occupied the size of a classroom, was displayed before everyone, everyone was stunned.

This is no longer that simple "black lump".

It is not a supercomputer cluster, but a true, industrial-grade supercomputer cluster.

Dozens of black server racks were neatly arranged, with countless indicator lights flashing, like a red sea of ​​stars.

"This is a parallel architecture I redesigned using the latest integrated circuits I acquired."

Su Zheng stroked the cold server rack as if introducing his own child, "Its computing speed is fifty times that of 'Red Star One'. It can perform 20 million floating-point operations per second."

"Twenty million times..."

Old Yu gasped.

This means that data that used to take a year to process can now be processed in just... a few minutes?

"With this, do we still need an abacus?" someone asked.

"Of course we need it."

Su said seriously, "Machines are inanimate, but people are alive. Machines can only process data, but only people can see the truth in the data."

"This machine is for you to use as your legs."

"You are the brain, and it is the hands and feet."

Go!

Su Zheng waved his hand dismissively, "Feed it all those damned systems of equations!"

"I want to see the final drawings of the TU configuration within a month!"

……

For the next month, Base 001 went into a frenzy of operation.

The "Red Star II" roared day and night.

And that group of young scientists also unleashed astonishing fighting power.

With the support of computing power, much of the data that could only be "guessed" before can now be accurately verified.

The TU configuration, considered a top secret "holy grail of physics" by the people across the ocean and the Big Brother to the north, is being deconstructed and reconstructed little by little by the wisdom of the Chinese people.

Not only that.

Under Su Zheng's guidance, Lao Yu put forward an even bolder idea - "balloon model".

Unlike the cylindrical design of Western hydrogen bombs, China's hydrogen bombs can be made like a dumbbell, or even a sphere. This structure is more compact, has a higher energy efficiency, and... is more suitable for airdrop.

This is the "Yu Min configuration" that shocked the world in later generations.

It is also one of only two feasible hydrogen bomb designs in the world (the other is the US TU design, and other countries copied the US design).

……

A month later.

Theoretical design frozen.

A top-secret blueprint was locked in Su Zheng's safe.

Looking at the blueprint, Su Zheng knew that the "soul" of the hydrogen bomb was already there.

Next, we need to create a "physical body" for it.

But just then, a discordant voice came from the outside.

……

Dean's Office.

General Zhang slammed a copy of the Reference News, which was only a few days old, onto Su Zheng's desk.

"Look at that! Those foreign devils are talking nonsense again!"

Su Zheng picked it up and took a look.

The front-page headline is a commentary article from a leading US military media outlet.

The title is jarring: "The Red Giant with Bullets but No Guns".

The article is full of sarcasm:

"Although the Chinese detonated the atomic bomb, it does not mean they possess nuclear deterrence. That bulky device was placed on an iron tower and detonated; at best, it was just a 'nuclear landmine'."

"They don't have long-range bombers, they don't have intercontinental ballistic missiles."

"If war breaks out, their atomic bombs will only kill themselves."

"It's like a child holding a grenade, who simply can't throw it."

……

After reading the article, Su Zheng was not angry at all; instead, he smiled.

"Well written."

Su Zheng commented, "The writing is sharp, and the logic... is also very smooth."

"You can still laugh?" General Zhang's mustache bristled with anger. "These bastards are making fun of our short legs!"

"It is indeed short."

Su Zheng put down the newspaper, walked to the window, and looked at the hydrogen bomb assembly plant under construction outside.

"Our current Dongfeng-1 missile has a range of only 600 kilometers. It can't even get beyond the island chain."

"The replica of the Dongfeng-2 has a range of only 1000 kilometers."

"People say we have bullets but no guns, which is harsh, but it's the truth."

"What should we do then?" General Zhang asked anxiously. "We can't really build a catapult and drop a hydrogen bomb on them, can we?"

Su Zheng turned around, a cold glint flashing in his eyes.

"Old Zhang, do you still remember the pledge I made in Beijing?"

"I remember. Two years and eight months to build the hydrogen bomb."

"It's not just the hydrogen bomb."

Su Zheng walked to the map on the wall and drew a long arc on the desert in the northwest with his finger.

"And we also need... the Heaven-Slaying Sword."

"Hasn't the improved version of the Dongfeng-2 (Dongfeng-2A) been undergoing testing recently?"

"Yes," General Zhang nodded, "but that missile... isn't very stable. It even fell down during the last test launch."

"Then let it stabilize."

Su Zheng's voice was resolute.

"We must build hydrogen bombs, and we must also develop missiles."

"Since they say we have bullets but no guns, then let's do a 'two-bomb combination'."

"A combination of two bombs?!"

General Zhang was startled. "You mean... mounting a nuclear warhead on a missile and launching it?"

This is an extremely dangerous experiment!

If the missile were to fall off mid-flight, or even explode on the launch pad... the consequences would be unimaginable!

Even Americans and Russians didn't dare to easily conduct such full-yield live-fire tests in the early days.

"Only in this way can we shut them up."

Su Zheng's tone left no room for argument.

"Moreover, our hydrogen bomb is designed to be lightweight, which is perfect for the payload of the Dongfeng-2A."

"This is fate."

Su Zheng picked up the phone and dialed the missile research institute where Lao Qian worked.

"Hello, is this Lao Qian? This is Su Zheng."

"I'll borrow your 'tailwind'."

"Yes, I want it to... deliver a package."

……

half a month later.

Base 001 welcomed a group of special guests.

It was a team dressed in gray work clothes, led by a gentle and refined middle-aged man (Old Qian).

They brought the latest improvement plan for the Dongfeng-2A missile.

"Dean Su, this is our new engine after solving the 'tremor' problem."

Old Qian pointed to the liquid rocket engine on the blueprint, "The thrust has increased by 15%, and the range can reach 1200 kilometers. Theoretically... it can reach Lop Nur."

"Theoretically?" Su Zheng raised an eyebrow.

"Actually... we still need a full-process test," Old Qian said honestly. "After all, we're sending the real thing into space, and nobody's sure about that."

"Then let's test it."

Su Zheng made the decision, "We'll test right here. I'll test with you all."

……