Traveling Back to the 1960s: The Entire Internet Teaches Me How to Build Missiles

Ye Ling chuckled after hearing this.

"What, are you scared now? Weren't you so arrogant in the cafeteria yesterday, saying things like 'I hate apologizing afterwards'? Now you're all wilted?"

Political Commissar Sun, Director Chen, Dean Qian, and others burst into laughter upon hearing this.

Zhou Yunxiao scratched his head sheepishly, "I was just being sarcastic. Besides, how could I dare to show off in front of you? I wasn't even born when you were climbing snow-capped mountains!"

"Oh, so you dare to show off your skills in front of Brother Suriname? You have no regard for the Treaty of Friendship and Mutual Assistance?"

Upon hearing this, Ye Ling glared at him, sat back in his chair, and began to criticize him sternly:

"I know the whole story. Xie Lieping... to be honest, sometimes I hate him to the core, but it's not your place to show off. You should report it to headquarters and let Political Commissar Sun and I handle it."

Zhou Yunxiao obediently endured the scolding for a while, and couldn't help but mutter to himself:

"Shelepin dumped the potatoes and beef we painstakingly saved into the swill bucket. I don't think he took the alliance treaty seriously at all. He was the one who broke the rules first..."

"Hey, you dare talk back, huh?"

Ye Ling slammed his hand on the table.

Zhou Yunxiao shut up obediently.

Dean Qian, standing to the side, chuckled and smoothed things over, saying, "Ye Ling, that's enough. Young comrades are in the prime of their lives, after all. Besides, if you were young and faced with the task of dumping food into the slop bucket, could you have remained indifferent?"

Deputy Director Ping said, "Dean Qian is still as protective of his own as ever, haha."

Director Chen said calmly, "Heh, it's hard to say about others, but I know Ye Ling's temper all too well. Back when we were climbing the snow mountain, he was a company commander under me. We encountered a group of bandits who attacked our stragglers."

Without a word, Ye Ling led a platoon and wiped out the entire village, burning down all the houses. He almost got killed by my father afterwards.

Deputy Director Ping looked surprised. "I didn't expect Ye Ling to have such a heroic history!"

Ye Ling blushed upon hearing this and waved his hands repeatedly, saying, "The old chief is making fun of me again..."

Everyone burst into laughter.

Even Zhou Yunxiao's shoulders were trembling.

Ye Ling glared at him. "What are you laughing at? This isn't a huge deal, but it's not a small one either. You forced the Surian expert to scoop out garbage cans. How embarrassing would that be if word got out? Go back and write a 3,000-word self-criticism!"

Zhou Yunxiao looked up: "Huh?"

"What?! Add another two thousand words, making it five thousand words of self-criticism. You must deeply reflect on your mistakes and reform yourself!"

After saying that, Ye Ling took a sip of tea in a huff, and her attitude finally softened.

"From the perspective of the base leadership, I have to criticize you. However, privately speaking, from my personal standpoint, I think what you did yesterday... was really damn satisfying!"

Zhou Yunxiao exclaimed "Ah!" again.

Ye Ling said without changing his expression, "In short, let's put this matter behind us. In the future, you should stay away from Xie Lieping so as not to annoy him."

"Okay, thank you, Ye Ling."

Zhou Yunxiao was secretly delighted, not expecting that this matter would be handled so lightly and simply let go.

I was prepared to be confined for a month.

"Also, there's another matter I wanted to discuss with you today."

Ye Ling changed the subject and got down to business.

Zhou Yunxiao immediately sat up straight and listened attentively.

"As you know, Xu, the translator, had a high fever a while ago. Coupled with long-term malnutrition, the base hospital diagnosed him with pneumonia, and he has been sent back to Jingzhou for treatment."

"This time, Director Chen and his team brought three translators who are fluent in Russian and missile terminology. However, they are new to the area, so we'll have to trouble you to help them out."

"There are some confidential Russian documents and drawings that you and the new translator might need to work overtime to translate... It has to be fast and accurate!"

Ye Ling slowly explained the new mission arrangements.

Zhou Yunxiao asked, "Is there a lot of content?"

Commissar Sun picked up the conversation, his expression grave, "The workload is enormous, probably several million words."

"So many?"

Zhou Yunxiao clicked his tongue in amazement.

Ye Ling said, "Moreover, translation can only be done at night, and the documents given to you that night must be returned before dawn the next day."

"How can this be..." Zhou Yunxiao looked at the assembled leaders, "Why are we acting like thieves..."

Director Chen chuckled. "Comrade Zhou is right. What we're doing, to put it nicely, is 'knowledge sharing,' but to put it bluntly, it's petty theft. But what's that saying again?"

Political Commissar Sun said, "How can something done by a scholar be called stealing?"

"Haha, yes, yes, the political commissar is really cultured."

Seeing that Zhou Yunxiao was getting more and more confused, Ye Ling explained:

"Since we've asked you to do something so important, I might as well give you a heads-up: the Suriname could turn against us at any moment. As Sun Tzu said in *The Art of War*, 'Those who plan before they act prosper, those who act before they plan perish.' We need to prepare for the worst and plan ahead!"

Now Zhou Yunxiao understood.

If you think about it, it seems like it really is time to turn against each other.

Ye Ling added, "Furthermore, the Surinamese expert team brought a whole bunch of materials and blueprints, which they will definitely take back to China. We can't expect them to break them down and teach us in detail, but we can copy them down and learn on our own."

Comrade Su Weiluo, who had previously been confined by Xie Lieping, was a staunch supporter of the "steel faction" within the expert group. He steadfastly supported the development of our Dongfeng base and was willing to assist in stealing the documents so that we could translate them overnight and return them before the next workday.

The base generally divides the expert group into two factions: the friendly and enthusiastic ones are called the "Steel Faction," while the domineering and mean ones are called the "Guangxi Faction."

In the past two years, there has been an increasing number of experts in Guangzhou who hold a sectarian stance.

Zhou Yunxiao suddenly realized.

It seems that Comrade Su Weiluo's contributions to the Dongfeng Base were far greater than imagined.

At this point, Ye Ling concluded definitively: "In short, you are responsible for translating the documents designated by Suvero overnight, and before the Surinamese experts leave, do everything you can to extract as much information as possible from them."

Political Commissar Sun added, "Xiao Zhou, don't put too much pressure on yourself. At the latest, Director Chen will have delivered the 1,000 rolls of 35mm camera film that he urgently transferred from another province within a month. Then you won't need to stay up all night translating anymore; you can just take pictures directly with your camera."

Director Chen nodded, "That's right, but right now... it's still difficult to get a thousand rolls of film. After all, the whole country is a unified whole. When the Surinamese experts leave, there will be many bases like ours that are 'learning from others'. Let's just work hard for a while."

Zhou Yunxiao saw a group of enthusiastic "netizens" in the live stream chat, their teeth gleaming white and sharp when they smiled.

"Please rest assured, sir, we guarantee to copy back the Sultan's technical data 'word for word'!"

……

The visiting group, led by Director Chen, Deputy Chief of Staff Ping, and Dean Qian, quickly returned home.

Before their departure, Dean Qian had a long talk with the technical teams of each branch, and then succinctly informed them of their new tasks:

"Make thorough preparations for the launch test of the Dongfeng-2 missile!"

In addition, anyone transferred from the Fifth Research Institute to the Dongfeng Base for more than half a year can submit a report to return to Jingzhou for a rotation.

Zhou Yunxiao naturally chose to stay, and somewhat surprisingly, Xiao Su, who often complained about missing home, also volunteered to stay, saying she wanted to continue contributing to the Gobi Desert.

Dean Qian praised the fighting spirit of the technical team of the first division.

After the meeting, Zhou Yunxiao seized an opportunity to show Dean Qian his drawings and express his idea of ​​developing a "lightning-guided rocket".

Upon hearing this, Dean Qian stopped and examined the blueprints with great interest.

Zhou Yunxiao, standing nearby, introduced:

"The rocket body is initially designed to weigh two kilograms. It will drag a high-strength tensile steel wire at the tail and fly at a specific speed to a height of about five or six hundred meters to form a conductive channel."

"The rocket's speed still needs to be tested and will depend on the actual strength of the steel wire. If the speed is too high, the wire will break; but if the speed is too slow, it may not be able to keep up with the lightning's drifting speed..."

Dean Qian pondered silently for a moment, then quickly and incisively answered:

"First of all, high-strength tensile steel wire is hard to find, but piano wire might be worth a try."

"Second, how do you wind the steel wire? In your drawings, the rocket is to fly several hundred meters, which means you need to prepare several hundred meters of steel wire. How do you wind it up in a way that is both reliable and won't get stuck?"

"Third, the timing of the launch. The best time to launch a rocket is when the charge density is at its highest. How can you guarantee that the launch time is optimal? Just by visually observing the clouds?"