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

Winter 1987, Beijing, a secret meeting room of Norinco.

The heating was on full blast, but the Middle Eastern guests sitting on the sofa, dressed in white robes and headscarves, had faces as cold as the snow and ice outside.

Leading the group was a bearded general from Iraq. His country was embroiled in a bloody seven-year war of attrition with its neighbor Iran (the Iran-Iraq War).

"This is the 'new weapon' you recommended?"

The general pointed to the picture album on the table, his tone filled with disappointment, "J-7? Type 69 tank? Forgive my bluntness, but these things are not fundamentally different from the Soviet Union's T-72 and MiG-23. Our battlefields are already piled high with this steel junk."

"General, our prices are cheap..." the accompanying foreign trade official explained, wiping his sweat.

"We don't want cheap prices!"

The general jumped to his feet, waving his arms. "What we want is victory! Something that can win the war! Even if it's more expensive than gold, as long as it lets me drive those Persian madmen back to their homeland, I'll buy it!"

He turned to leave, "It seems China doesn't have what I want. I'll go to France and take a look at the Mirage fighter jet."

Please wait.

Just then, a voice came from behind the screen in the reception room.

Su Zheng walked out. He was still wearing that inconspicuous jacket, but his aura made even the seasoned general pause for a moment.

"Who are you?"

"I am Su Zheng from Red Star Electronics. And also... the one who can bring you victory."

Su Zheng walked to the table, closed the picture book, and casually threw it into the trash can.

"The general is right, those really are rubbish."

"Minister Su!" The foreign trade official was anxious; that was a deal they had worked so hard to secure!

Su Zheng waved his hand, signaling him to shut up.

He looked the general into the eyes: "In this day and age, warfare based on piling up steel and explosives is outdated. What you need is not thicker armor, nor larger caliber weapons."

"What is that?"

"It's the eyes. It's the ears. It's... the brain."

Su Zheng snapped his fingers.

Ye Xinyi stepped forward and turned on the projector.

On the screen, a complex battlefield situation map appeared. But unlike before, this map was dynamic, with each red dot (enemy force) and blue dot (our force) moving in real time, and precise coordinates and damage indices marked next to them.

"This was custom-made for your country..."

Su Zheng paused, then uttered a term that would drive military enthusiasts in later generations wild:

"Digital Synthesis Camp" package.

……

Three days later, at Northwest Base 001.

On the frigid Gobi Desert, a row of steel monsters painted with desert camouflage stood.

Their appearance still resembles the Type 9, but square reactive armor has been added to the turret, a tall communication antenna stands on top, and an electro-optical probe that looks like "WALL-E's" eye is added above the muzzle.

This is the ultimate modified version of Red Star Electronics – 59-D (Digital).

"General, please get in the car."

Su Zheng invited the general to sit in a specially made command vehicle (converted from an armored personnel carrier).

The command vehicle had no periscope, only rows of flashing LCD screens.

"What is this?" the general asked, staring at the video game-like screen.

"This is God's perspective."

Su Zheng pointed at the screen, "Look, this is your vanguard company. This is the enemy's defensive position."

On the screen, several red dots are hiding behind the hills.

"In conventional tactics, your tank must charge up the hillside and visually spot the enemy before firing. In that process, you'll be ambushed at least three times."

Su Zheng pressed a button, "But now..."

hum-

A faint buzzing sound came from above.

A small drone with a wingspan of two meters (the Red Star "Wing Loong" prototype) flew over the position.

"Drone has detected the target. Coordinates locked."

"Data chain deployment".

Almost at the same instant.

A few kilometers away, the previously stationary Type 59D tanks suddenly raised their gun barrels.

They didn't see the enemy at all.

They simply received the "data packet" sent by the command vehicle. The fire control computer automatically calculated the trajectory, and the gun barrel automatically aimed at the blind spot behind the hill.

"Fire!"

Su Zheng gave the order.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

A muffled cannon shot could be heard in the distance.

A few seconds later.

On the command vehicle's screen, the red dots representing the enemy disappeared instantly.

The real-time footage transmitted back by the drone showed that the target vehicle behind the hill had been blown off its head by precise indirect fire (or intelligent artillery-launched missiles).

"this……"

The general's mouth gaped open, his beard trembling. "How is this possible? They didn't see the enemy at all!"

"This is 'beyond visual range strike'."

Su Zheng said calmly, "General, on the battlefields of the future, whoever sees the enemy first and fires first will be the winner. What I'm selling you isn't just tanks, but a complete... killing system."

"This system includes: a small drone reconnaissance platoon, a digital command center, and thirty Type 59D tanks equipped with Red Star fire control and data links."

"In this system, no tank is alone. They share vision and data. Even if only one tank spots the enemy, the entire battalion's firepower can instantly cover it."

"This...this is exactly what I wanted!"

The general jumped up from his chair with excitement, grabbing Su Zheng's hand tightly. "This is simply divine intervention! With this, those Iranians' 'human wave tactics' are just suicide! I want to buy it! How much?"

Su Zheng held up five fingers.

"Fifty million US dollars?" The general breathed a sigh of relief. "That's fair."

"No."

Su Zheng shook his head, smiled, and corrected him, "It's five hundred million."

"How many?!"

The foreign trade official standing next to him nearly lost his footing. Five hundred million? A whole battalion? That's several times more expensive than an American M1A1! This is outrageous!

The general was stunned: "Mr. Su, are you joking? Five hundred million US dollars? I could buy a thousand T-72s!"

"You can buy a thousand T-72s."

Su Zheng maintained his confident smile, "and then watched them being picked off one by one by missiles flying from who-knows-where on the battlefield, turning into a thousand iron coffins."

"or……"

Su Zheng pointed to the perfect kill ratio (0:10) on the screen.

"Spend this money to buy an undead ghost army."

"Moreover, this $500 million also includes our Red Star Electronics' '24/7 support service.' Our technical experts will be on-site to ensure that your system is always a generation ahead of the enemy."

"even……"

Su Zheng lowered his voice and threw out the final bait:

"If you encounter any tough problems that you can't handle, we can provide... satellite intelligence support."

(Note: Although the Beidou-1 system was not yet fully operational at this time, data from the Chang Kong-1 early warning aircraft could be relayed via data link.)

silence.

Dead silence.

The general is weighing his options.

Five hundred million dollars is indeed an astronomical figure. But if it's for the thrill of "one-way transparent" slaughter, if it's to establish absolute military superiority in the Middle East...

"good!"

The general gritted his teeth, took off his ruby ​​ring, and slammed it on the table (though it was just a symbolic gesture). "Five hundred million! Deal! But I have one condition!"

"Speaking."

"I need it in stock! I want this unit on the Basra front within three months!"

"no problem."

Su Zheng pulled out a contract from his pocket. "As long as the money is in place, there's nothing we can't build, only things you can't imagine. In three months, you will see an army that will make the entire Middle East tremble."

……

The moment the contract was signed, the officials from the Ministry of Foreign Trade were trembling with fear.

"Minister Su... Minister Su..." he stammered, "Five hundred million... That's half a year's increase in our country's foreign exchange reserves! You really... sold that pile of modified '59' cigarettes at the price of gold?"

"gold?"

Su Zheng looked at the contract and sneered, "No, this is the premium for knowledge."

"We're not selling steel, we're selling 'generational differences'."

"When our tanks are equipped with chips, with brains, they are no longer Type 59 tanks. They are... Gundams."

As we left the base, snow was falling heavily.

Su Zheng handed the priceless contract to Ye Xinyi.

"Keep this safe. This is the first pot of gold we've saved for the 'South Heaven Gate Project'."

"South Heavenly Gate?"

Ye Xinyi was taken aback. "What is that?"

"That's... a much more distant future."

Su Zheng looked up at the starry sky. "With this money, our 'Chang Kong' early warning aircraft can be mass-produced. Our 'Dongfeng' missiles can be upgraded. We can even start considering building that thing."

"Which one?"

"Large aircraft."

Su Zheng uttered three words, "Although the Y-10 project has been cancelled, that dream cannot be shattered. I want to use these petrodollars earned from the desert to put China's large aircraft back into the sky..."

……

Early 1988, the Iran-Iraq battlefield.

Battle of the Austro-French Peninsula.

The Iranian army has amassed several divisions in an attempt to launch a final human wave assault.

However, what awaited them was not the familiar machine gun emplacement, but a group of silent, seemingly futuristic steel monsters.

Drones hovered overhead.

Data streams travel through the air.

Before the Iranians could even catch a glimpse of the Iraqi tanks, death had already struck.

The precise artillery fire seemed to have eyes, exploding in the densest areas of the crowd. The T-72's prized armor was as fragile as paper in the face of top-attack missiles.

That battle was known as the "Desert Thunder".

That battle thoroughly awakened the world.

For the first time, people realized that war... had changed.

Meanwhile, in the far east, Su Zheng looked at the battle report, but didn't feel much excitement.

Because he knew that this was just a small test of the "monkey version" (simplified export version).

The truly complete "digitalized force" is undergoing its final trials on Chinese soil in preparation for facing an even more terrifying adversary (the Gulf War).

The next chapter will explore how data links truly connect everything, and how artillery, tanks, and aircraft become a unified whole.

That power will no longer be a simple addition.

Instead, it's... multiplication.

……