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

Spring 1989, Chenghai, Guangdong.

This is the toy capital of the world. The air is filled with the smell of burning plastic from injection molding machines, and tricycles carrying cardboard boxes are everywhere on the streets and alleys.

In a dilapidated workshop called "Feiteng Model Factory," the boss, Wang Dafu, was looking at the mountain of inventory with a worried expression.

"Mr. Su, look, this is the 'Skylark' model airplane we produced last year."

Wang Dafu picked up a remote-controlled airplane made of balsa wood and foam plastic, sighed, "We originally planned to export them to the United States, but they said our engine noise was too loud and the remote control distance was too short, so they returned 50,000 of them. Now I can't even pay my workers' wages."

Su Zheng took the simple model airplane.

It's very light, weighing only a few kilograms. It's powered by a two-stroke gasoline engine, which is quite noisy, like an angry mosquito.

"How much does this cost?" Su Zheng asked.

"Factory price... 100 RMB."

Wang Dafu cautiously looked at this legendary big shot, "If you want them all, fifty is fine! Consider it selling scrap!"

"Fifty……"

Su Zheng touched the pylons under the wing. They were originally used to hang colored smoke or small flags.

"How far will it fly?"

"About two kilometers. Any further and the remote control loses signal."

How fast does it fly?

"One hundred kilometers per hour, that's a high-speed machine!"

As Su Zheng looked at the simple toy, another image came to mind.

Loitering munitions rained down like locusts, and even after exhausting all the expensive anti-aircraft missiles, they couldn't stop them.

"Boss Wang."

Su Zheng suddenly laughed, "I want all 50,000 of these."

"Really?!" Wang Dafu almost knelt down.

"Not only that."

Su Zheng pulled a check out of his bag. "I'm going to invest in you too. I want you to expand this factory tenfold. From now on, you just need to focus on building the fuselage and engines; the rest... I'll take care of it."

……

Two weeks later, at Base 001, the drone laboratory.

Ye Xinyi frowned as she looked at the "Skylark" in front of her, which had been "magically modified" beyond recognition.

The original simple remote control was thrown away and replaced by a green circuit board, no bigger than a matchbox, which was stuffed into the machine's belly.

A defective "Loongson-1" chip (with a main frequency of only 5MHz) was soldered onto it, along with a cheap GPS receiver module (civilian grade).

A camera costing a few dozen yuan was installed on the front of the device.

And on the pylons under the wings, there were two... hand grenades.

"Su Zheng, are you sure this thing can fly?"

Ye Xinyi looked disgusted. "This is a flying bomb. Besides, the workmanship is too rough. Even the skin is just glued on with transparent tape."

"Roughness doesn't matter, the key is that it's cheap."

Su Zheng patted the fuselage. "This set of modification parts costs less than 500 yuan. Including the aircraft itself, the total cost is no more than 600 yuan."

"What can you do with six hundred yuan?"

"Six hundred dollars can buy a life. Or... a radar."

"Let's go to the shooting range."

Su Zheng waved his hand and said, "Today, I'm going to show you what... the violence of numbers really means."

……

Above the firing range.

The once azure sky was suddenly filled with a dense, unsettling buzzing sound.

They looked like a swarm of giant wasps.

In the ground command post, the air defense battalion commander in charge of the interception test was staring at the radar screen.

"Target spotted! Bearing 120, Altitude 500 meters, Speed ​​120... Quantity..."

The radar operator's voice suddenly changed, "The quantity...cannot be counted! The screen is full of static!"

"Interference?" the battalion commander asked.

"No! They're physical targets! There are too many! The radar can't process them all!"

At this moment, if one had a telescope, one could see a terrifying sight.

One hundred "Skylark" drones, arranged in a loose yet massive formation, were sweeping over us.

They have no unified command; each aircraft is an independent "intelligent agent."

Su Zheng's "bee colony algorithm" is very simple:

Maintain formation (follow the lead aircraft). Avoid obstacles. Target detected (via camera image recognition). Collide with it.

"Fire!"

The air defense battalion commander gave the order.

Da da da da—

The twin 37mm anti-aircraft guns roared into action. Fiery trajectories crisscrossed the air, forming a net of fire.

Several "Skylarks" were hit and exploded in mid-air, turning into fireballs.

But for the massive swarm, the loss of these few aircraft was negligible. The remaining ninety-odd aircraft continued their relentless charge.

"Missile! Launch anti-aircraft missiles!"

Shhhhhhhhh

Two HQ-61 missiles roared out.

A missile worth hundreds of thousands of dollars accurately hit a model airplane worth six hundred dollars.

The exploding fireworks were beautiful.

But the battalion commander's heart was bleeding.

"This is such a huge loss! Our missiles are a thousand times more expensive than their planes!"

Moreover, the air defense system has limited channels. It can only guide two missiles at a time. Against hundreds of targets, this is a drop in the ocean.

"Two kilometers away! Entering dive!"

The swarm of bees suddenly dispersed.

They no longer maintained their formation, but instead, like a group of sharks that had smelled blood, rushed towards the radar vehicles from all directions.

"It's unstoppable..."

The battalion commander put down his binoculars in despair.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

A series of explosions rang out on the position.

Although it was only the power of a hand grenade, the simultaneous impact of dozens of aircraft still reduced the expensive radar vehicle to scrap metal. Even the command vehicle was overturned.

The exercise has ended.

The air defense battalion commander crawled out of the bunker, covered in dust and dirt, looking at the wreckage of the model airplanes scattered all over the ground, and the pile of "corpses" that were still smoking.

"Minister Su, you're cheating!"

The battalion commander, enraged, threw his hat to the ground. "What kind of warfare is this? This is nothing short of... a suicide charge!"

"This is the war of the future."

Su Zheng walked over and offered him a cigarette. "Battalion Commander, how much do you think your radar vehicle costs?"

Five million.

"All 100 of my planes cost less than 60,000 yuan in total."

Su Zheng lit the fire for him. "Is it a worthwhile deal to exchange 60,000 yuan for 5 million?"

The battalion commander was stunned.

He took a drag of his cigarette and remained silent for a long time.

"Worth it. It's fucking worth it."

"But... this thing isn't very technologically advanced," the battalion commander still protested. "What if we have electronic jamming..."

"It's really not high."

Su Zheng nodded. "But it has one advantage that no high-tech weapon has."

"What?"

Large portions, enough to fill you up.

Su Zheng pointed to the truck behind him. The truck bed opened, revealing it densely packed with those rudimentary model airplanes.

"My factory in Guangdong can produce a thousand units a day, as long as you need them."

"Shoot down a hundred? No problem, I'll just fire a thousand more."

"When the quantity reaches a certain level, it becomes a kind of...quality in itself."

……

That evening, in the conference room of Base 001.

Su Zheng presented a new blueprint to several senior generals.

That wasn't an airplane, but a huge container truck.

The launch boxes on the back of the truck are densely packed like a honeycomb, containing 48 folding-wing "loitering munitions" (an improvement on the Lark).

Code name: Hive.

"This is a 'poor man's version of cruise missile' prepared for our army."

Su Zheng explained, "There's no need for complex fire control or expensive guidance radar. Frontline infantry only need to shine a laser designator on the target or mark a coordinate on a map."

"Then, press the button."

"Leave the rest to the bee colony."

"if……"

An admiral looked at the blueprints thoughtfully. "What if we sold this to those... countries that lack air power?"

"For example... Iran?" another general chimed in.

"No."

Su Zheng shook his head. "This thing is too terrifying. If it spreads, it could easily get out of control. Currently, it's only listed as a secret weapon of our army."

"but……"

Su Zheng changed the subject, a sly smile appearing on his lips, "We can sell 'defense systems'."

"Defense system?"

"Yes. Now that we've created the spear, we naturally need to create the shield as well."

Su Zheng took out another drawing.

It was a vehicle equipped with a high-power microwave transmitter (a modified microwave oven) and a multi-barreled rapid-fire machine gun (similar to a Phalanx CIWS).

Code name: Mosquito Killer.

"Specifically designed to deal with these slow, small targets."

Su Zheng laughed, "We can hide the 'beehive' for ourselves and sell the 'mosquito repellent' to the whole world. Tell them that the future sky is dangerous, and if they don't want to be bitten to death by mosquitoes, they have to buy our mosquito coils."

The generals burst into laughter.

"You little rascal, you're a real shrewd businessman."

"That's right."

Su Zheng put away the blueprints. "How will we sustain our South Heavenly Gate Project if we don't make money?"

……

Late at night.

Su Zheng came to the roof of the laboratory alone.

Ye Xinyi was sitting there looking at the stars.

"Why aren't you asleep?" Su Zheng walked over.

"Thinking of your bee colony."

Ye Xinyi pointed to the starry sky, "What if one day, these drones are no longer just a few hundred, but tens of thousands, hundreds of millions... what if they develop their own consciousness..."

"That's the 'Omnic Crisis'."

Su Zheng sat down next to her. "Don't worry, that's just a plot in science fiction movies. At least in our lifetime, humans will still be in control of the switch."

"but……"

Su Zheng looked north and said, "Some things are indeed getting out of control."

"You mean... Russia?"

"Um."

Su Zheng nodded, his expression turning grave. "That red giant is terminally ill. Its blood is drying up, and its limbs are dying."

"We don't have much time left."

Su Zheng grasped Ye Xinyi's hand. "Xinyi, get ready. We're going to Moscow."

"Where are you going?"

"Go become... a junk collector."

A trace of sorrow flashed in Su Zheng's eyes, but more so a resolute determination. "Before that giant falls, we must bring back its legacy... whether it's the blueprints, the equipment, or those forgotten geniuses... everything."

"This is a final tribute to that great era."