Special forces soldier demobilization: Starting from the county government compound, a meteoric rise

The special plane landed at the airport in the western suburbs late at night.

There was no red carpet, no convoy of cars to pick them up; only two SUVs with special license plates and dark explosion-proof film on their windows, parked like ghosts at the end of the runway.

As Liu Ming stepped off the plane, the cold wind whipped across his face like a knife. Just as he got into the car, a major in the front passenger seat handed him a thick, encrypted document.

"Mr. Liu, this is a top-secret file that has just been approved by the higher-ups. Please take a look at it on your way."

The car started and silently drove into the night.

Liu Ming turned on the reading light on the roof of the car, removed the sealing wax from the document bag, and his pupils contracted sharply after just one glance at the code on the cover.

—The "South Heavenly Gate" Project, Phase Two: Guanghan Palace.

This is a grand blueprint that would make any science fiction writer tremble. If the first phase of "South Heavenly Gate" was to use space-based weapons to establish an indestructible defense network in Earth's orbit, it would completely shatter the West's aircraft carrier hegemony.

So this second phase is the real... interstellar expansion.

The document details the development roadmap for the next ten years. The Dragon Kingdom will no longer be satisfied with building a space station in near-Earth orbit, but will instead establish its first permanent human base, "Guanghan Palace," at the south pole of the moon.

But this is just the beginning. The ultimate goal of establishing the base is to utilize the enormous reserves of helium-3 on the moon to conduct large-scale commercial mining of controlled nuclear fusion and transport it back to Earth continuously via space elevators and large transport ships!

Helium-3. It's a dream material hailed as the "perfect energy source." One ton of helium-3 has enough energy to meet the Dragon Kingdom's electricity needs for a year.

Whoever controls the helium-3 on the moon will hold absolute dominance over human civilization for the next thousand years!

"I see." Liu Ming closed the document and clutched it tightly in her hand.

He finally understood why that respected academician, a pillar of the physics community, was so anxious on the phone that he was almost in tears. It was a race against time, and even more so, a life-or-death gamble with his old rivals across the ocean.

If one step is slow, everything else will follow. Once the West is the first to claim territory on the moon, all the advantages that China has accumulated will vanish in the face of unlimited energy.

……

The convoy drove into a secret underground base deep in the western mountains.

After passing through seven extremely rigorous biological and physical security checks, Liu Ming finally stepped into the core control hall, which resembled a scene from a science fiction movie.

In the center of the hall stands a massive cylindrical device, ten meters tall, the core of the "South Heavenly Gate" project—a superconducting magnetically confined plasma pulse engine. It is also the sole power source for sending large manned spacecraft to the moon.

At this moment, the engine, which should have been emitting a deep blue light, was dim and lifeless, surrounded by researchers who were in a state of great distress.

"General Manager Liu!"

Upon seeing Liu Ming appear, the elderly academician who had called him stumbled forward as if grasping at a lifeline. The old man's eyes were sunken, clearly indicating that he hadn't slept for several days.

"You've finally arrived! During the engine's pulse ignition, which occurs at a fraction of a second, uncontrollable energy collapse always happens at the edge of the magnetic field. We've calculated it countless times using classical Western fluid dynamics models, but we just can't find the problem!"

The elderly academician was so anxious that he slapped his thigh repeatedly, "If this continues, our lunar exploration program will be a full three years behind others!"

Without wasting words, Liu Ming took off his coat and strode to the control panel.

"Retrieve all the raw data, including the records of the 87 failed ignition attempts."

"But Mr. Liu, the amount of data is too large. Even using a supercomputer would take..."

"Pull it out." Liu Ming's voice wasn't loud, but it carried an undeniable authority.

He pulled up a chair, sat down, and put on his special tactical goggles. On the screen, massive amounts of data were refreshing like a waterfall.

To everyone's astonishment, Liu Ming's fingers flew across the keyboard like a blur. He didn't use any existing computing software; instead, he performed manual deductions directly within the underlying code logic.

Five minutes, ten minutes, half an hour.

The entire control hall was completely silent. The top physicists and engineers stared wide-eyed as Liu Ming typed out the seemingly incomprehensible algorithmic formulas on the screen.

It was a completely new dimension of computation they had never encountered before. It abandoned the traditional linear derivation of the West and instead perfectly integrated the Eastern theories of the I Ching, the Eight Trigrams, and the mutual generation and restraint of Yin and Yang with cutting-edge quantum mechanics!

"Found it."

Suddenly, Liu Ming pressed the Enter key, and the waterfall of data on the screen came to an abrupt halt.

He pointed to one of the seemingly insignificant parameters and turned to look at the old academician.

"The problem is not with the magnetic field, but with the critical point of the material. The superconducting alloy you used experienced a 'false death' of three-thousandths of a second in its crystal structure when subjected to pulsed high temperature."

"In that three-thousandth of a second, you try to bind it with classical mechanics, which is like trying to hold water in a fishing net. Of course it will collapse."

Liu Ming picked up a pen and quickly drew a strange double helix structure on the whiteboard next to her.

"Dynamic variable compensation must be introduced to create a reverse yin-yang vortex in the magnetic field at the moment of ignition, so as to perform self-repair."

"This...how is this possible?"

A young engineer couldn't help but exclaim, "This concept is completely contrary to..."

"Do as he says!"

The old academician abruptly interrupted the engineer. He stared intently at the double helix structure on the whiteboard, his whole body trembling violently, tears welling up in his eyes.

"A genius... an absolute prodigy!"

The elderly academician knelt down before the whiteboard with a thud, as if witnessing a miracle. "We've all been trapped in a dead end of Western theories! This is... this is true Eastern wisdom!"

……

Three hours later, the engine entered the ignition countdown again.

Everyone held their breath. Liu Ming stood in front of the control panel, his eyes coldly fixed on the huge metal cylinder inside the glass enclosure.

"ignition."

Liu Ming calmly issued the order.

"boom--!"

A deafening, muffled roar followed, and then a dazzling, ghostly blue beam of light shot skyward from inside the engine! It was a terrifying energy that was extremely pure, extremely stable, and seemed capable of burning through even the void!

"It's stable! The magnetic field is completely stable!"

"Peak energy output breaks historical records!"

"Pulse ignition successful! We did it!"

The entire hall erupted in wild cheers! The old academician was so excited that he cried and laughed like a child, while the young researchers hugged each other, and some even threw blueprints into the air.

They knew that the successful lighting of this engine meant that the last physical barrier preventing the Dragon Kingdom's heavy spaceship from taking off had been completely shattered!

Liu Ming did not join their revelry. He quietly withdrew from the crowd and walked to the huge holographic floor-to-ceiling window at the edge of the hall.

Outside the window, the vast universe stretched out, with countless stars twinkling in the darkness, as if issuing some mysterious call to him.

His battlefields were once the border jungles, the filthy officialdom, and the financial markets where no gunpowder was seen. For revenge, for self-preservation, and for the dignity of this land, he fought his way to the pinnacle of power.

But now, looking at the deep starry sky, a burning ambition, more intense and vast than ever before, suddenly ignited in Liu Ming's heart.

It was no longer worldly grudges and affections, but the ultimate desire for conquest belonging to a man, to the giant dragon of the East.

Earth's resources will eventually run out, and Earth's oceans will eventually be too small.

Looking at the gray-white moon on the holographic projection, and then at the red Mars in the distance, Liu Ming's lips curled into an extremely wild smile.

"Since I have rewritten the rules of this Earth."

"Then what?"

Liu Ming's gaze seemed to pierce through billions of light-years, fixing on the depths of the starry sea.

"The rules of this universe."

"It's time for us to decide."