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

Inside a top-secret hangar located on the outskirts of Beijing, the lights were on.

The air was thick with the smell of burning rubber and the pungent odor of aviation kerosene. Huge searchlights illuminated the entire hangar as if it were daytime, and everyone's eyes were fixed on the twisted, mangled black wreckage in the center.

That was the U-2 high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft, codenamed "Black Cat," that was shot down by a SAM-2 missile.

In this era, it was the pinnacle of American aerospace industry, a Damocles' sword hanging over the heads of all socialist countries. Even before it became scrap metal lying here, no air defense weapon in the world could even come close to it.

But now, it's broken.

Dozens of experts in white coats were busy around the wreckage. Some were taking pictures, some were measuring with calipers, and many more were marveling at the intricate instrument panels and engine blades.

"It's incredibly precise..." An elderly expert wearing thick-rimmed glasses stroked a piece of wing skin that still maintained its perfect curvature, his fingers trembling. "The strength and toughness of this aluminum alloy are two levels higher than our best aerospace aluminum. And it's so light... How was it made?"

"And this camera," another optics expert carefully picked up a huge lens that had been cleaned out of the aircraft's belly, "the craftsmanship of this lens is simply a work of art. At an altitude of 20,000 meters, it can actually capture clear images of car license plates on the ground... The gap between us and them is at least twenty years."

The atmosphere was somewhat oppressive.

Although shooting down the U-2 was a huge victory, when these top scientists actually touched the other side's technology in person, the suffocating feeling brought about by the huge industrial gap still made them feel desperate.

Following the joy of victory came a deeper sense of crisis.

"You're scared already?"

A young yet composed voice rang out at the hangar entrance.

Everyone turned around and saw Su Zheng, dressed in civilian clothes, striding in accompanied by General Zhang and Ye Xinyi. He looked very relaxed, as if he were visiting a farmers' market rather than viewing the country's top-secret war trophies.

"Dean Su!"

"Chief Designer Su!"

The experts quickly made way for him. Su Zheng's reputation in the military industry and scientific research circles is now at its zenith. It was his leadership in the radical modification of the radar algorithm that led to that incredible, one-shot kill.

Su Zheng walked up to the wreckage, but instead of taking out a magnifying glass to examine it closely like the others, he reached out and placed his hand on the turbine blades of the J75-P-13 turbojet engine, which was still radiating residual heat.

It feels cold and rough to the touch.

But in Su Zheng's mind, the world instantly changed.

The Eye of Truth is opened.

[Material Analysis Mode: Activated.]

[Target: Turbine blades for the Pratt & Whitney J75-P-13 turbojet engine.]

[Composition analysis in progress... Nickel-based superalloy, containing 15% cobalt, 10% chromium, molybdenum... Microscopic lattice structure scanning... revealed traces of directional solidification process...]

A massive amount of data streamed across Su Zheng's retina like a waterfall. Those "black technologies" that were unfathomable in the eyes of veteran experts were instantly dissected into the most basic element ratios and processes under the microscopic perspective of the Eye of Truth.

There are no secrets.

Su Zheng's lips curled up slightly, revealing a playful smile.

"The Americans are really impressive," Su Zheng patted the dark engine. "It's a directionally solidified nickel-based alloy that can withstand temperatures of 1100 degrees Celsius. No wonder it dares to fly 20,000 meters."

The elderly expert beside him sighed, "Yes, Dean Su. We just did a preliminary test on the hardness, and we simply can't produce this kind of material domestically right now. Just analyzing the composition would probably take our laboratory half a year, not to mention the replication process."

"Six months?" Su Zheng raised an eyebrow. "That's too long."

He turned to Ye Xinyi: "Xinyi, get me some paper and pen."

Ye Xinyi was prepared and immediately handed over her notebook and pen.

Su Zheng took the pen, placed it on his knees, and began to write right next to the engine wreckage.

"Swish, swish, swish..."

The sound of the pen nib scratching on the paper was exceptionally clear in the quiet hangar.

One minute. Two minutes.

Su Zheng tore off a page and handed it to the dumbfounded old expert.

"This is the detailed chemical composition ratio of the leaf blade, accurate to three decimal places. Also, this line shows the temperature curve for the heat treatment: first, heat to 1280 degrees Celsius and hold for two hours, then..."

The elderly expert held the paper, his hands trembling as if playing a pipa: "Dean Su... how... how did you know? You haven't had the tests done yet!"

"I could tell," Su Zheng said, pointing to his eyes, half-jokingly and half-seriously. "I have X-ray vision; I can see how the atoms are lined up."

Everyone around laughed, thinking Su Zheng was joking to ease the tension. Only Ye Xinyi knew that every word Su Zheng said was true.

"Don't just stand there," Su Zheng said, his smile fading and his tone turning serious. "This is just an appetizer. I've given you the ingredient list. If you can't produce a sample within a month, you'll have to give your positions to the younger generation."

The veteran expert's expression instantly changed. His initial apprehension was replaced by immense shock and excitement. With the formula and process parameters, this was an open-book exam! If he couldn't even do this, he might as well go home and take care of his kids!

"Mission accomplished!" The old expert gave a somewhat imperfect military salute, clutched the sheet of paper, and ran toward the laboratory as if it were a priceless treasure.

Su continued his journey through this enormous "treasure trove".

The U-2 reconnaissance aircraft was truly the culmination of cutting-edge technology for its time. From its airframe structure and anti-jamming radar to its sophisticated high-altitude photographic system, it represented the pinnacle of human industrial advancement.

But in Su Zheng's eyes, it was a huge "technology gift package".

"This anti-interference circuit is pretty good," Su Zheng said, pointing to a burnt circuit board. "It uses an early integrated operational amplifier approach. Although it's very rudimentary, if we copy this filter circuit, modify it slightly, and use it on our 'Red Flag-2' seeker, the anti-interference capability can be improved by at least three times."

The experts from the Institute of Electronics next to him quickly pulled out their notebooks and frantically took notes.

"And this," Su Zheng walked to the broken part of the wing and pointed to the honeycomb structure inside, "aluminum honeycomb sandwich structure, this is a good thing. Lightweight and strong. If we master this structure, we can use it when we develop our own large aircraft, or... the fairing of that big guy."

Su Zheng commented as he walked.

He's like a meticulous master craftsman checking his apprentice's work, occasionally pointing out design flaws.

"This American design is too rigid."

Su Zheng stood in front of the huge B-type aerial camera and shook his head. "In pursuit of clarity, they used such a bulky optical lens group. Actually, if they just put some effort into the photosensitive coating of the film and combined it with a special image enhancement algorithm, the weight could be reduced by at least half, and the clarity could be doubled."

"Image enhancement algorithm?" A professor in charge of optics next to him paused, "That's...what?"

In an era when even computers are still a rarity, image processing algorithms are absolutely incomprehensible.

Su Zheng smiled and said, "I'll write an algorithm model for you later. We won't follow their old path. They rely on piling on hardware, we rely on a combination of hardware and software. That's called... a dimensional reduction attack."

Just then, a commotion arose in a corner of the hangar.

"What's going on?" General Zhang frowned.

A staff officer ran over to report: "Sir, our dismantling team found a black box under the cockpit. We can't open it, and... it seems to be making a ticking sound!"

"What?!" General Zhang's expression changed drastically. "Evacuate! Evacuate immediately! It might be a self-destruct device!"

The crowd instantly erupted into chaos.

"What's the panic?"

Su Zheng's voice wasn't loud, but it carried a calm and unwavering quality. He pushed aside the guards blocking his way and walked straight past.

"Dean Su! Danger!" General Zhang rushed to pull him away.

"Don't worry, it's not a bomb." Su Zheng waved his hand. "If it were a bomb, the pilot would have detonated it before parachuting. How could it still be alive now?"

He walked up to the so-called "black box".

It's a sealed metal box, and you can definitely hear the ticking of a mechanical clock.

Su Zheng crouched down, and the Eye of Truth was activated again.

The view penetrated the metal casing, revealing the gears, circuits, and film reels inside.

"As expected, it is this thing." Su Zheng sneered.

This wasn't a bomb, but a "fully automatic flight recorder and listener" designed to prevent pilots from defecting or being captured and leaking secrets. More importantly, it recorded the preset flight path that the U-2 entered before takeoff, as well as all the radar frequency data it detected along the way.

This is the real core secret!

If Americans knew that this thing had fallen into Chinese hands, they would probably be more heartbroken than if they had lost an airplane.

"Give me a screwdriver and a pair of needle-nose pliers." Su Zheng held out his hand.

"Dean Su, should we call in a bomb disposal expert...?"

"No need. It'll only take two minutes."

Su Zheng took the tools, his movements so fast they were dazzling.

He didn't need to test the waters, he didn't need to hesitate. In his field of vision, the position of every buckle and the direction of every wire were clearly marked with color.

Cut the red thread. Keep the blue thread. Rotate three times clockwise, then turn it back one full turn...

"Click".

A soft sound.

The black box that had put everyone on high alert had its lid opened.

Inside lay a cassette tape and several rolls of film, lying quietly.

"Take it and wash it out." Su Zheng stood up, patted the dust off his hands, "This contains the coordinates of secret radar stations the Americans have deployed throughout Asia, as well as their probing data on our air defense network."

"With this, we essentially have our opponent's trump card."

"If they want to come again in the future, they'll have to think twice before showing us their underwear."

The hangar was deathly silent, then erupted in thunderous applause.

General Zhang excitedly grasped Su Zheng's hand and shook it vigorously: "Su Zheng, Su Zheng, you are truly a genius! This is simply... simply emptied out the American intelligence agency!"

Su Zheng smiled faintly, without much pride.

His gaze passed over the crowd and landed on the deep night sky outside the hangar.

"This is a pleasant surprise," Su Zheng said softly. "However, these are all other people's ideas. No matter how clearly they are dismantled or how well they are modified, they are still just parroting others' ideas."

He turned around, looked at the experts who were still immersed in excitement, and raised his voice a few decibels.

"Comrades!"

The hangar fell silent.

"Today, we are dismantling the U-2 not to prove how strong the Americans are, but to see clearly that the so-called myth of 'invincibility' is nothing more than a pile of screws and sheet metal when disassembled!"

"We got their formula, we got their blueprints, but that's not enough!"

"What we need to do is jump on their shoulders!"

Su Zheng walked to a blackboard, picked up a piece of chalk, and drew a sketch on it.

It was an aerodynamic layout of an aircraft that no one had ever seen before. It wasn't the long, slender glider wings of the U-2, but rather a lifting body structure with a certain science fiction feel.

"This is my proposed next-generation high-altitude, high-speed unmanned reconnaissance aircraft, codenamed 'WuZhen-8' (Note: this is a plan for early deployment)."

"Replace aluminum alloy with titanium alloy, and turbojet engine with ramjet engine. The speed must reach Mach 3, and the altitude must reach 3 meters!"

"Since they like to fly high, then we'll fly even higher! So fast they won't even get a whiff of our exhaust!"

The audience was silent.

Everyone was stunned by the blueprint Su Zheng had drawn up. Mach 3? 3 meters? That's a speed that even missiles can't catch up to!

"Dean Su... this... will this work?" An elderly professor swallowed hard.

"Why not?" Su Zheng retorted. "The wreckage of the U-2 is right here. We have the material formula, and we understand the engine principle. Add our own innovations, and we're standing on the shoulders of giants."

"and……"

Su Zheng's eyes gleamed with confidence.

"We also have the 'Spark Program' and breakthroughs in semiconductor technology. Once our chips are in the air, these drones will not need pilots; they will become true 'eyes in the sky,' hovering over any corner of this planet 24 hours a day."

"At that time, the balance of power in offense and defense will be different."

That day, the lights in the hangar at Base 504 stayed on all night.

Right next to the wreckage of that U-2, Su Zheng gave a lecture to the country's top aviation experts. A lecture about reverse engineering, materials science, and future air combat systems.

This once invincible "Black Cat" has now become a teaching tool in Su Zheng's hands. Every last drop of value it has been squeezed clean, becoming nourishment for the nascent Chinese aviation industry.

In the early hours of the morning, Su Zheng finally walked out of the hangar.

The cold wind in the Gobi Desert outside was like a knife, but his heart was burning with passion.

Ye Xinyi followed behind him, carrying a thick stack of notebooks filled with Su Zheng's inspirations and instructions for the evening.

"Are you tired?" Ye Xinyi asked softly.

"Not tired." Su Zheng stretched and looked at the dawn breaking in the east. "This feeling of opening blind boxes is actually quite enjoyable."

Ye Xinyi couldn't help but laugh: "You're the only one in the whole world who would dare to treat unpacking a U-2 like unpacking a blind box."

"I like her." Su Zheng suddenly stopped and turned to look at her.

"Um?"

"The U-2 issue is now closed. We should now refocus our efforts on our main task."

Su Zheng looked towards the distant launch tower, which was the core restricted area of ​​the base.

"The detonation device for that 'big firecracker' also requires a special lens structure. When I was disassembling the U-2 just now, its camera aperture structure gave me a bit of inspiration."

"Moreover, the high-purity special metals extracted from the wreckage can be used to make centrifuge rotors."

Su Zheng took a deep breath, his eyes becoming incredibly profound.

Everything is ready, except for the east wind.

"It's time for our mushroom cloud to rise."