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

Base 504, special processing workshop.

This is currently the place with the highest dust control level in the entire base. Although it cannot compare with the Class 1000 or Class 100 cleanrooms of later generations, it was already a miracle in the Gobi Desert in the 1960s.

The air was filled with the smell of alcohol and ether.

Su was sitting at his worktable, with a piece of zirconia-toughened ceramic that had been removed from the Tu-123 UAV in front of him.

"Hardness 9.5".

Su Zheng took a specially made diamond file and gently scratched the ceramic surface.

"Sizzle—"

A sharp, grinding sound made your teeth ache. Not a single scratch was left on the ceramic surface, but a bit of the coating on the diamond file was chipped off.

"nice one."

Su Zheng was not angry at all; instead, he showed a satisfied smile. "This thing is as hard as a rock, perfect for making an insulator for a detonator."

Old Zhao, the workshop director standing to the side, looked worried.

"Dean Su, the ingredients are excellent. But... how do we process them?"

Old Zhao pointed to the irregular fragment, "The detonator casing you requested is only 5 millimeters in diameter, 0.5 millimeters thick, and the inner hole precision needs to be at the micrometer level. Our current machine tools can handle cutting steel heads, but cutting this thing... it's like a mouse trying to cut a turtle, there's nowhere to start."

Ceramic processing has always been a challenge in the industrial field. It is too brittle, breaking at the slightest touch; and too hard, making it impossible to cut with ordinary knives.

"How about using ultrasonic processing?" a technician suggested.

"We don't have that equipment."

"With laser?"

"That's science fiction."

Everyone chimed in with their own opinions, but in the end, they all looked at Su Zheng.

Su Zheng put down the file and stretched his wrists.

"If machine tools can't do it, people will do it."

"A person?" Old Zhao's eyes widened. "Dean Su, you must be joking. This is micron-level work; can a human hand be steadyer than a machine tool?"

Su Zheng didn't explain. He took out a strange-looking set of tools from his toolbox.

It was an extremely thin tungsten wire connected to a small ultrasonic generator (which Su Zheng had hand-made). There was also a bottle of special polishing paste, made from diamond powder.

"Old Zhao, get me a glass of water."

"water?"

"Yes, warm water. Around 40 degrees Celsius."

Although he didn't understand why, Lao Zhao did as instructed.

Su Zheng soaked the ceramic shard in warm water.

The Eye of Truth is opened.

[Microscopic Scanning Mode: Activated.]

[Target identified: Zirconia crystal structure.]

[Resonance frequency calculation in progress...]

In Su Zheng's view, the incredibly hard ceramic was no longer a single entity, but a fortress composed of countless tightly packed crystal particles. And between each crystal, there was a faint binding force.

As long as that frequency is found.

That frequency that can loosen the crystal structure.

"Buzz—"

Su Zheng activated the simple ultrasonic pen in his hand. The tungsten filament needle vibrated in the water, emitting high-frequency sound waves that were inaudible to the human ear.

Su Zheng's hands were very steady, as steady as a sculpture.

The tungsten wire needle gently touched the ceramic surface.

A miracle happened.

That hard bone that even a diamond file couldn't crack was slowly "melting" in Su Zheng's hands, like a piece of tofu.

The white ceramic powder dispersed in the water, like a cloud of mist.

"What...what kind of sorcery is this?"

Old Zhao rubbed his eyes, unable to believe what he was seeing.

"This isn't sorcery, it's physics."

Without turning his head, Su Zheng focused intently on the workpiece in his hands. "Using the ultrasonic cavitation effect, combined with the impact of diamond powder, ceramic particles are peeled off at the microscopic level. This is called 'ultrasonic micromachining'."

He spoke casually, but the technicians nearby were sweating bullets.

Everyone understands the principle, but the requirements for this technique are simply inhuman!

Even a slight tremor of the hand can cause the ultrasonic waves to deviate, shattering the entire ceramic piece. Applying even a little too much force can break the tungsten filament.

This isn't processing parts, it's dancing on the tip of a needle!

An hour has passed.

Two hours have passed.

The water was changed basin after basin.

Su Zheng's forehead was covered in sweat, but he remained in that position, motionless.

at last.

"bite."

A crisp sound.

Su Zheng turned off the ultrasonic pen and used tweezers to pick up a small white cylinder from the water.

That's the ceramic insulator of a detonator.

Pure white and crystal clear, it radiates a captivating luster under the light.

Old Zhao quickly grabbed a micrometer and measured.

"Outer diameter... 5.000 millimeters."

"Inner diameter... 2.000 mm."

"Error...zero?!"

Old Zhao's hand trembled, and he almost dropped the micrometer. He stared at Su Zheng as if he were a ghost. "Dean Su... your hand... is it from a machine tool?"

Su Zheng smiled and shook his aching wrist.

"Don't rush to praise it. It's just a shell."

He pointed to another box next to him.

The box contained high-purity gold wire that had been removed from a U-2 reconnaissance aircraft.

"Now, the real highlight begins."

……

If machining ceramic shells is hard work, then welding detonator bridge wires is the most delicate of all embroidery jobs.

The atomic bomb is detonated by the "bridge wire" being energized and heated, which ignites the detonating explosive.

To ensure that all 32 detonators detonate simultaneously, the resistance values ​​of these 32 bridge wires must be exactly the same. The error cannot exceed one-thousandth of an ohm.

Even if a single bridge wire is slightly thicker or a solder joint is slightly larger, the resistance will be different. This will result in a microsecond-level deviation in the detonation time.

In a nuclear explosion, a deviation at the microsecond level can mean the difference between success and failure.

Su was sitting in front of the microscope.

He held in his hand a gold thread that was ten times thinner than a human hair.

"I like a multimeter."

"Adjust the voltage to 0.5 volts and monitor the resistance change."

Ye Xinyi stared nervously at the dial, barely daring to breathe.

Su Zheng took a deep breath.

[Eye of Truth, Magnification: 100x.]

In my sight, the golden thread transformed into a giant golden cudgel.

What Su was to do was to solder the gold wire to two extremely small electrodes. Moreover, the solder joint had to be perfectly hemispherical to ensure uniform current distribution.

"First, welding."

The tip of a soldering iron is finer than the tip of a needle.

"Zzz."

A perfect solder joint is formed.

"Secondly, the stringiness."

Su Zheng's hand trembled slightly, and the gold thread drew a graceful arc in the air, crossing a distance of 2 millimeters, and landed on the second electrode.

"Length control... fine-tuning by 0.01 millimeters."

With the aid of the Eye of Truth, Su Zheng was able to clearly see the lattice stretching of the gold wire. He adjusted the resistance of the gold wire through extremely minute stretching movements.

"Zzz."

The second solder joint is complete.

"Resistance value?" Su Zheng asked.

"0.0500 ohms!" Ye Xinyi's voice trembled. "Accurate to four decimal places! Perfect!"

Su Zheng breathed a sigh of relief.

But this is only the first one.

There are 31 more.

For the next three days, Su Zheng practically lived at his worktable.

Ye Xinyi fed him, and Lao Zhao brought him water. When he got sleepy, he would doze off at the table, and then continue working when he woke up.

Everyone in the workshop stayed with him through it all.

No one spoke, no one complained. Everyone knew that the fate of the nation rested in the hands of this young man.

at last.

In the early morning of the fourth day.

Su Zheng put down the tweezers in his hand.

On the tray in front of him were 32 golden detonators arranged neatly.

They look exactly the same. Like they were made from the same mold.

"It's done."

Su Zheng's voice was hoarse, as if it had been rubbed on sandpaper.

He stood up, but felt a sudden dizziness and almost fell.

"Dean Su!"

Several people rushed over to help him up.

"I'm fine." Su Zheng waved his hand, pushed the crowd aside, and his eyes flashed with fanaticism. "Let's go to the testing ground."

"I won't feel at ease unless I test it."

……

Base 504, detonation test site.

This is a huge blast-proof pit. The bottom of the pit is lined with thick steel plates.

Thirty-two detonators were arranged in a spherical shape and mounted on a simulated support. They were connected to the newly developed "Red Star No. 32" computer-controlled detonator.

This is a "synchronization test".

This is also the final verdict on Su Zheng's hard work over the past few days.

If all 32 detonators explode simultaneously, their shockwaves will converge at a perfect point in the center.

If there is a sequence, the shockwave will be chaotic, and that point will disperse.

"High-speed camera ready!"

"Oscilloscope ready!"

"Detonation countdown!"

General Zhang, the old professor, and all the technical backbone of the base arrived. Everyone stood behind the bunker, staring intently at the blast pit in the distance.

Su Zheng was standing at the very front.

His hand was on the detonation button.

"God help me..." Old Zhao made the sign of the cross on his chest (although he was a party member, he couldn't care less at this moment).

"No need to pray to God."

Su Zheng said calmly, "Believe in physics, believe in mathematics."

"Detonate!"

Press down with your finger.

"boom--!!!"

A loud bang.

It's not 32 sounds, but one sound.

The sound was crisp and clean, without any hesitation. It was like a heavy hammer slamming into a steel plate.

A cloud of smoke rose from the explosion-proof pit.

"Quick! Look at the oscilloscope!"

The old professor was the first to rush to the instrument table.

There is a green line on the oscilloscope screen.

It was an almost vertical straight line.

This means that all 32 signals reached their peak at the same instant.

"Synchronization error..."

The old professor stared at the data, his lips trembling, unable to utter a word for a long time.

"How much? How much?" General Zhang was so anxious he wanted to punch someone.

0.01 microseconds.

The old professor looked up, his face streaked with tears. "The error is only 0.01 microseconds! Ten times higher than the American standard!"

"What?!"

General Zhang was stunned.

The technicians around were also stunned.

ten times?

That's just a concept?

That means that the detonators we make by hand are even better than those made by Americans using precision machine tools!

"This is the spirit of craftsmanship!"

The old professor exclaimed, "Su Zheng, your hands are simply a national treasure!"

Su Zheng smiled.

Looking at the data, he finally felt relieved.

"It's not my hand cow."

Su Zheng said softly, "It was forced upon me."

"They have high-precision machine tools and CNC centers, so they can manufacture comfortably. We have nothing, so we can only risk our lives to achieve precision."

He turned around and looked at his comrades behind him, who were so excited that they hugged each other and cried.

"However, this is for the best."

"At least let them know that the hands of the Chinese people can not only farm and wield guns, but also embroider on atomic nuclei."

……

That night.

Su Zheng returned to his dormitory and fell asleep immediately.

He slept soundly for a long time.

In his dream, he seemed to have returned to the courtyard house. He saw Banggeng stealing chickens, Jia Zhangshi throwing a tantrum, and Yi Zhonghai engaging in moral blackmail.

But he just smiled.

Now, he stands under the starry sky of the Gobi Desert, holding in his hand the power to destroy the world. Those petty schemes are as insignificant as dust in his eyes.

"Su Zheng".

A gentle voice woke him up.

He opened his eyes and saw Ye Xinyi sitting on the edge of the bed, holding a bowl of steaming noodles in her hand.

"Are you hungry? The cafeteria just made braised noodles."

Su Zheng sat up, took the noodles, and wolfed down a large mouthful.

Really fragrant.

"I like it."

"Um?"

"The detonators are done. Next up is that lump of 'meat'."

Su Zheng put down the bowl and wiped his mouth.

"Meat?" Ye Xinyi was taken aback.

"It's explosives."

Su Zheng's expression turned serious. "The core of the implosion method, besides detonator synchronization, is the shape precision of the explosive lens."

"Those high-energy explosives need to be precision machined on a lathe to be processed into specific curved surfaces."

"This is daring to offend the very gods!"

Ye Xinyi's expression changed.

She knew what that meant.

The explosives are placed on a lathe and rotated at high speed, then cut with a knife. The resulting high temperature and friction could detonate at any time.

If an explosion occurs, not even a single body of the operator can be found.

"This... is too dangerous." Ye Xinyi grabbed Su Zheng's hand. "Could we use a mold for casting?"

"no."

Su Zheng shook his head. "If the density of the poured concrete is uneven, the shock wave will disperse. It has to be machined."

"Moreover, someone must go to the car in person."

Su Zheng looked at his hands.

Those hands were as steady as a rock, but at that moment, their palms were covered in sweat.

"The next hurdle is the real gate to hell."