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

Seeing the heated discussion in the live stream, Zhou Yunxiao sighed.

He really hoped there were some 'liquid oxygen purification process blueprints,' but these were just a bunch of netizens watching the show; he was just grateful they wouldn't cause trouble in the comments.

Ye Siling stood up angrily and said, "Why have you changed the standards again? First it was 98% liquid oxygen concentration, then 99%, and now you're demanding it be increased to 99.5%. Changing your mind so frequently and capriciously—is this how you Soviets talk about science?"

Political Commissar Sun also stood up and said loudly, "Comrade Xie Lieping, forgive my bluntness, but what you're doing is unreasonable. Why don't you fulfill the obligations stipulated in the East Soviet Agreement?"

Captain Mu said, "We agreed before that 98% concentration liquid oxygen would be enough for Dongfeng-1's refueling; anything higher would just be icing on the cake. Now you've changed it to 99.5%, aren't you just trying to force us to buy liquid oxygen from the Soviet Union?"

Zhou Yunxiao translated while interacting with viewers in the live stream:

"The Dongfeng-1 was a copy of the Soviet missile. The prototype was the German V2 rocket from World War II. Because of its simple fuel structure, it could be launched using alcohol, making it relatively easy to copy."

"But as we all know, alcohol needs oxygen to burn in order to be most effective. However, missiles are completely sealed when they take off and cannot come into contact with oxygen in the air, so they must carry their own oxygen. Therefore, liquid oxygen at -183 degrees Celsius is essential."

"Previously, the Dongfeng base was able to successfully produce liquid oxygen with a concentration of 98% using the air separation equipment of the fertilizer plant, which was completely self-sufficient. However, the Russians deliberately raised the standard by 1% in order to sell us liquid oxygen from Siberia."

"Even though we knew they were deliberately making things difficult, the engineers still managed to achieve 99% purity... but then they raised the standard by 0.5 percentage points. It's like they're playing us for fools!"

"I personally lack knowledge and have limited understanding of liquid oxygen... but if any of you know how to further purify liquid oxygen, could you please provide some guidance?"

Originally, Zhou Yunxiao was just trying his luck, thinking he'd give it a shot regardless of the outcome.

What if there really are some hidden masters among the viewers in the live stream?

At Zhou Yunxiao's urging, the live stream chat was flooded with comments—

[Everyone, please post in the Chemical Engineering and Aerospace forums for help! The title should be: "Urgent! How to increase the purity of liquid oxygen to 99.5% in 1960? It's urgent, waiting for an apology from the Soviets!"]

Don't panic! My grandfather was among the first batch of veteran technicians at the Hangzhou Oxygen Plant. I've already woken him up from his rattan chair; he's looking for his reading glasses!

[Here's a third-year chemistry student. Although I'm studying solid-state processing, I've already tagged our professor in the group chat!]

A single arrow pierces the clouds, and a thousand armies rush to meet it.

Looking at the enthusiastic audience, Zhou Yunxiao couldn't help but click his tongue in amazement.

Good heavens, this is going to alarm even the living fossils of the liquid oxygen field in the East!

Xie Lieping, that scoundrel, probably never imagined that he was challenging not only the base leaders in the room, but also millions of "cyber brains" from 2026 and the entire modern industrial system of the Eastern Kingdom!

Soon enough, netizens lived up to expectations and offered various solutions.

In particular, after a doctoral supervisor claiming to be from Xi'an Jiaotong University made a comment in the live chat, everyone tacitly stopped spamming and left the screen to this expert.

[A doctoral supervisor from the Chemical Engineering Department is here. Listen up, host! The reason why 99% pure liquid oxygen is difficult to produce is fundamentally because it's mixed with argon. Oxygen's boiling point is -183 degrees Celsius, and argon's boiling point is -186 degrees Celsius. Their boiling points are too close, making effective separation extremely difficult with the air separation equipment from 1960.]

Zhou Yunxiao asked, seemingly understanding but not quite, "Does that mean we need to add an argon removal distillation column?"

Given the technology available at the time, at most a crude distillation column could be constructed. However, by fine-tuning the liquid level in the main condenser and simultaneously creating an argon vent in the lower part of the crude distillation column to manually remove the argon gas accumulated there, the purity of the liquid oxygen could be forcibly increased!

[The expert above is right! By the way, I'm an engineer at the Hangzhou Oxygen Plant! I can tell the frontline operators at the base to reduce the operating pressure at the upper tower and increase the reflux ratio! Although this will sacrifice some liquid oxygen production, it can quickly bring the purity to 99.5%!]

[Host, quickly write this down! Extract argon-rich gas from the bottom of the tower, depressurize, increase the opening of the liquid air throttle valve… just these three steps. As long as the air separation equipment in those fertilizer plants isn't broken, I guarantee I can extract 99.5% concentrated liquid oxygen!]

Zhou Yunxiao silently wrote it down, and then said:

"I'm so grateful to everyone! I thought you'd just be spamming '666' and watching for fun in the live stream, but I never imagined there were so many industry tycoons among you!"

"I assure you all, I will pass on these technologies to our predecessors word for word. Today, we will not only fight for this victory, but we will fight for it spectacularly! Let the Russians see what true dimensional reduction strikes are all about!"

Even after looking away from the live stream, Xie Lieping was still muttering and making excuses under his breath:

"If I say 99.5%, then it's 99.5%. If you're not happy, go ahead and sue me in Moscow!"

Ye Ling and Political Commissar Sun were furious with this brat, but there was nothing they could do.

They were well aware that the East Soviet cooperation agreement clearly stipulated that the launch of the Dongfeng missile required the approval of Soviet experts.

In other words, the final decision on the launch of Dongfeng-1 rests with the other party, and it's not advisable to break off relations yet.

Just as the two were getting increasingly agitated, Zhou Yunxiao suddenly left his translator's position and leaned over to whisper:

"My lords, I have a way to purify the liquid oxygen to 99.5%, no problem!"

Worried about being overheard by the Soviet translator, he spoke very softly and even used the Ejin Banner dialect.

Ye Ling understood immediately and replied in dialect, "Xiao Zhou, you can purify liquid oxygen concentration? Didn't you study rocket and missile engineering in Moscow?"

"Um... fuel is also part of a missile, so I have some knowledge of it. I suddenly remembered reading a paper on 'purifying liquid oxygen' when I was studying abroad. It had very detailed operating procedures and experimental conclusions. I think we could give it a try!"

Political Commissar Sun paused for a moment, then cautiously asked, "How confident are you of your success?"

Zhou Yunxiao said confidently, "I wouldn't dare to boast that I'm 100% sure, but I'm 90% sure."

Ye Ling said solemnly, "This is no joke!"

"If you two leaders are not at ease, I can sign a pledge!"

"Well done!"

Ye Ling and Political Commissar Sun exchanged a glance and nodded. "Since you have the courage, we will fully support you."

The Soviet translator across from them was still racking his brains to eavesdrop on the three people's conversation, but unfortunately he couldn't understand the Hexi dialect at all.

Fortunately, Zhou Yunxiao had already returned to his original position and spoke to Shelepin in fluent Russian:

"Comrade Xie Lieping, since you have raised the standard for liquid oxygen to 99.5%, our director and political commissar have just discussed it and agreed to this request, and promised to deliver liquid oxygen that meets the standard for testing."

Xie Lieping was stunned for a moment after hearing this.

You agreed so readily?

He stared at Zhou Yunxiao as if he were a fool, then sneered:

"Young man, bragging comes with its own price! How could your beat-up air separation tower, which you brought from a fertilizer plant, possibly produce 99.5% liquid oxygen?"

After receiving Ye Ling's approval, Zhou Yunxiao said, "Since you look down on the equipment at the Dongfeng Base so much, how about we make a bet?"

He couldn't give Xie Lieping any more excuses to back out, otherwise what if he produced liquid oxygen with a concentration of 99.5% and then the other party changed his mind and demanded 99.8%?

The Dongfeng Base cannot be allowed to continue to be played by him, and Project 596 cannot afford to wait.

Upon hearing this, Xie Lieping shrugged dismissively. "What tricks are you trying to pull now?"

"I didn't use any tricks; it's just that words don't prove anything."

Zhou Yunxiao picked up two blank sheets of paper from the table. "Comrade Xie Lieping, since this is a negotiation, it should be put in writing. If we don't have the ability to produce 99.5% pure liquid oxygen, then we will have no complaints about paying a high price to buy your Soviet Union's Siberian liquid oxygen."

But if we do manage to do so, please sign this guarantee that the expert group will not use any technical specifications as an excuse to obstruct or delay the subsequent launch preparations for the Dongfeng-1 missile!

Xie Lieping didn't hesitate, immediately signing his name and affixing the expert group's seal, then sneered:

"No problem, what's there to be afraid of signing? Young man, I'll be watching closely to see how you'll be begging me to buy Soviet liquid oxygen next!"

After saying that, he grabbed his briefcase and, with a smug look on his face, slammed the door and left with the Soviet expert team.

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Soviet Union → Sultanate; Ye Siling → Ye Ling.