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

April 1988, Faw Peninsula, Iraq.

This was the most brutal meat grinder of the Iran-Iraq War. The terrain, a mix of swamps, salt flats, and desert, claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands of soldiers on both sides.

Today, an offensive codenamed "Ramadan" aimed at ending this war is about to begin.

Three o'clock in the morning.

A deathly silence filled the air.

On the Iranian army's positions, soldiers huddled in trenches, vigilantly watching the darkness ahead. They knew the Iraqis had amassed a large force, but they were not afraid. Here, the swampy terrain limited the movement of heavy tanks, while they possessed countless Basij militiamen who were willing to die for their cause, and TOW anti-tank missiles acquired from the black market.

"If they dare to come, we'll turn them into scrap metal."

Iranian Commander Colonel Mohammad confidently patted the anti-tank missile launcher beside him.

However, what he didn't know was...

In the darkness, five kilometers away from them.

An unprecedented steel legion lies dormant like a ghost.

Thirty Type 59-D "modified" tanks, with their engines idling and making very low noise.

There were no headlights, no searchlights.

All the tanks relied on low-light night vision devices and infrared thermal imagers to observe the world. On their screens, the Iranian positions five kilometers away were as clear as day.

Every heat source, every firing point, and even every sentry peeking out was locked by a red box and marked with precise three-dimensional coordinates.

"Digitalization Battalion, obey my orders."

Inside the command vehicle, Lieutenant General Hashim, the Iraqi general who once spent five hundred million US dollars in Beijing, was staring intently at the LCD screen in front of him.

His hands trembled slightly. Not from fear, but from excitement.

On the screen was a battlefield he had never seen before.

There was no chaos, no blind faith.

The location, fuel level, ammunition count, and even the commander's blood pressure of each tank are clearly displayed in the data link network.

Meanwhile, on the enemy's positions, the real-time footage transmitted by drones is gradually peeling back the layers of the enemy's deployment, revealing it to be transparent...naked.

"Targets have been assigned."

"First Company, lock onto the anti-tank position in Area A."

"Second Company, lock onto Command Post in Sector B."

"Artillery company, prepare to cover the reserve force in area C."

"All battalion...open fire!"

boom--!

At a command.

Thirty 100mm rifled cannons roared simultaneously.

The orange-red storm of cannon fire instantly tore through the night sky.

But from the Iranian perspective, this was a disaster that came without warning.

They heard no roar of tanks and saw no dust from the charge.

All they saw was countless shooting stars suddenly flying through the dark night sky.

Whoosh—Boom!

The first shell accurately penetrated the bunker next to Colonel Muhammad.

Those are laser-guided cannon-launched missiles.

The colonel didn't even have time to scream before he was thrown into the air by the massive blast wave.

Then came the second shot, the third shot...

Each shell seemed to be guided by the Grim Reaper, landing precisely on the most valuable target.

Anti-tank missile position? Bomb it!

Heavy machine gun emplacements? Bomb them!

Ammunition depot? Bomb it!

In just three minutes.

The Iranians' proud defensive line was turned into an inferno.

"Enemy attack! Enemy attack!"

The surviving Iranian soldiers shouted in terror, "Where are the tanks? Where are the enemies?"

They raised their binoculars, trying to find their target.

But there was nothing but darkness.

This is a true "beyond visual range strike".

The Type 59D tank's fire control system, combined with laser illumination from drones, gives these older tanks the ability to accurately snipe targets from five kilometers away. In contrast, Iranian anti-tank weapons have a range of only two kilometers.

This was a one-sided massacre.

"Proceed."

General Hashim coldly gave the order.

The steel torrent has begun.

The tracks rolled over the swamp, and the wide track design unique to the Type 59D tank made it feel like it was on flat ground.

When the tanks stormed into the Iranian positions, there was no longer any organized resistance.

Occasionally, a few fanatical militiamen would rush out and try to fire rocket launchers, but before they could pull the trigger, the remote weapon station on top of the tank would automatically rotate, and the large-caliber machine gun would instantly tear them apart.

This system, also a masterpiece of Hongxing Electronics, uses image recognition to automatically lock onto threats; the vehicle commander only needs to press a button.

Its daybreak.

The battle is over.

The Iranian garrison on the Faw Peninsula collapsed completely.

General Hashim stood beside the wreckage of a bombed T-72 (Iranian military equipment), looking at the mess on the ground, and then at the thirty Type 59D tanks behind him that were completely undamaged, with not even much paint missing.

Battle casualty ratio: 0 to 400 (people).

Tank losses: 0.

"God above all..."

The general removed his military cap and bowed deeply towards the east. "That Chinese man...did not lie to me. This is not just a weapon, this is...a miracle."

……

This battle, known as "Desert Thunder," was small in scale, but its impact shook the world like a thunderclap.

Western military observers have gone mad.

"What kind of tank is that? How could it fire so accurately at night?"

How do Iraqis have such strong teamwork skills?

"That's a Chinese tank? Don't be ridiculous! Chinese tanks are still using iron sights!"

However, the battlefield footage (Red Star Electronics thoughtfully provided a "kill replay" function) was leaked through secret channels.

The global arms market is in an uproar.

The video's futuristic "select-lock-destroy" interface and its chillingly brutal "targeted" shooting sent shivers down everyone's spines.

This is not the war they are familiar with.

This is Star Wars.

Two weeks later, in Beijing, at the Norinco Corporation.

The once quiet reception room is now bustling with people, their doorsteps worn down.

A Saudi prince, the Kuwaiti defense minister, an Egyptian purchasing delegation…

Middle Eastern tycoons waved their checkbooks and lined up to see "Mr. Su".

"We want to buy that 'Digital Camp'! The price is negotiable!"

"We want the Type 59-D! Nothing else, just the one with auto-aiming!"

"I heard they also have drones? We'll take them all!"

Su was sitting in his office, looking at the thick stack of potential orders.

Total amount: US$3 billion.

And it's in cash.

"Minister Su, we...we don't have enough production capacity!"

Looking at the orders, Old Chen felt both happy and pained. "Even if Base 001 worked three shifts and tightened the screws until they smoked, we still couldn't produce this many modified parts in a year!"

"Insufficient production capacity?"

Su Zheng smiled and put down his teacup.

"Then... we'll sell the blueprints to them."

"What?!" Old Chen was stunned. "Selling blueprints? That's core technology!"

"Core technology?"

Su Zheng shook his head. "Old Chen, you need to understand one thing. When something can be sold on a large scale, it's no longer the core technology."

"The true core is in the heavens."

He pointed to the ceiling.

"Without our satellite data support and without our source code updates, these tanks are just a pile of iron. They'll buy them and then beg us to maintain them and upgrade them."

"This is called... 'service fee'."

"and……"

Su Zheng stood up and walked to the row of precision machine tool models.

"With this three billion, we can do something really big."

"What's the big deal?"

"The lithography machine needs to be replaced."

A glint of fervor flashed in Su Zheng's eyes, "And...our 'big plane'."

"McDonnell Douglas of the US is in talks with Shanghai to assemble MD-82 aircraft. Hmph, trying to cripple our Y-10 transport aircraft through assembly?"

"dream."

"I want to use this money to support the chief designer of the Y-10 and all the old guys who built the aircraft."

"I want to build our own Boeing factory in Shanghai."

……

The summer of 1988 was a fruitful season for China's military industry.

Petrodollars from the desert flowed like blood into that massive body that had once faced financial exhaustion due to the need for "the military to endure."

Countless military factories on the verge of bankruptcy have been brought back to life.

Countless laid-off and unemployed veteran technicians have returned to their machine tools.

And behind all of this.

A specter called "digitalization" is quietly changing the rules of war.

Across the ocean, at the Pentagon.

A top-secret report was placed on the Minister of Defense's desk.

Title: Red Storm: The Leapfrog Development of China's Military Technology

The report states:

"...We underestimated that Eastern country. Their progress in microelectronics, night vision technology, and data links has exceeded our expectations. The battle on the French Peninsula shows that they have mastered the essence of 'Air-Land Battle'..."

Recommendation: Strengthen the technological blockade against China, especially... high-performance chips and precision machine tools.

However, what they didn't know was...

At the same time this report was signed.

A cargo ship fully loaded with top-of-the-line European machine tools has quietly entered Tianjin Port.

Meanwhile, the dedicated data line connecting Silicon Valley and Base 001 was transmitting a file titled **"J-10 (Jian-10) Modified Fire Control Radar Source Code"** at a speed of 10KB per second.

Su Zheng stood on the top floor of the Red Star Building, overlooking the city that was awakening.

"Let's lock it down."

He raised his glass, looking towards the western sky.

"The tighter you blockade us, the faster we... can escape."