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

The next morning, after drinking the reed root and corn soup, Zhou Yunxiao felt even more full than the day before.

Perhaps it's because a few slices of red sausage were added.

Their energy and spirit were also revitalized.

"Old Jiang, why are you being so formal with me? The red sausage was yours to keep, but you mixed it back into the porridge. Aren't you being a bit pretentious?"

As he boarded the Jiefang truck heading to the First Division, he began to "criticize" Jiang Weimin from inside the truck bed.

Last night, he took out the two loaves of bread, two red sausages, and pickled vegetables that Ye Ling had specially approved, and shared them with Lao Jiang.

Unexpectedly, Jiang Weimin couldn't bear to eat the sausage, so he secretly made porridge for him instead.

Upon hearing this, Jiang Weimin chuckled and scratched his head.

"That red sausage is for you intellectuals to get some nutrition. If you eat it, you can help the country build missiles and satellites. What am I supposed to do with it? Besides wasting my energy, I can't help at all."

Zhou Yunxiao said, "You're wrong. This is the new Dongguo now. Everyone is equal. There is no high or low status. Whether you're picking up manure or sitting in an office, you're all contributing to the country's development."

Jiang Weimin was stunned, then gave a slightly embarrassed thumbs-up: "You're so insightful!"

[Wow, this anchor has the makings of a good political worker; he should be transferred to the propaganda department.]

[Brothers, this breaks our hearts! People were so pure-minded back then. They thought the brains of those who built missiles were precious, and they'd rather go hungry themselves than waste food on intellectuals!]

[Old Jiang's inner monologue: Although I don't understand it, I feel like this guy is radiating light...]

Ignoring the teasing from viewers in the live stream, Zhou Yunxiao quietly enjoyed the scenery along the way.

There's not much scenery to see here. It was originally a barren Gobi desert, and it's become even more desolate since the Dongfeng base was located here and the herders were relocated.

Often you can drive dozens of miles without seeing a single person.

Soon, the Jiefang truck arrived at the outpost of the First Division. Zhou Yunxiao and Jiang Weimin jumped out of the truck bed, patted the truck body, and the truck roared off to the next post.

This is probably a unique "shuttle bus" feature of the Dongfeng Base.

There are five test departments in the base, each of which is organized into a launch test brigade, and the brigade is further divided into three squadrons.

In addition to the first batch of soldiers who reported to the base and were given priority to be assigned to the local dormitory, the thousands of people who were transferred from the Air Force, Navy and Artillery as the organization continued to expand were assigned to the No. 10 headquarters dormitory.

Jiang Weimin was a cadre transferred from the artillery, belonging to the second batch to arrive at his post, and is currently the deputy captain of the first firing squadron.

After saying goodbye at the checkpoint, the two went to their respective posts.

Zhou Yunxiao arrived at the office where the technicians were located, a three-story Soviet-style red brick building.

The technical team, surveying team, special fuel depot, and service team of the first division all work crammed into this building.

When Director Zhang of the technical team saw Zhou Yunxiao, he was somewhat surprised and said, "Why are you here? Didn't Ye Ling put you in charge of liquid oxygen purification? Don't worry about the work here, I'll have the other comrades share the workload..."

Zhou Yunxiao smiled and said, "It's alright. The liquid oxygen purification process has already been discussed in the workshop. Next, we just need to keep testing and improving the process. I don't need to be on-site to oversee it."

Director Zhang was relieved. "Alright then, as long as you know what's going on. If there's any trouble at the liquid oxygen workshop, head over there as soon as possible. Let Xiao Su take over your current work."

"Okay, Director."

As soon as Director Zhang left, Xiao Su leaned over and said admiringly, "You can't judge a book by its cover, Comrade Yunxiao! I didn't expect you to know so much about chemical engineering!"

Zhou Yunxiao modestly replied, "It was just a flash of inspiration. Anyway, the Soviets clearly want to hold us back, so we have no choice but to try anything."

Xiao Su nodded in deep agreement, "Yes, let's not just steam buns, let's fight for our pride and show the Soviets that we can stand tall too!"

As she spoke, she secretly glanced at Zhou Yunxiao, who was laying out the drawing board, and asked curiously, "Comrade Yunxiao, what are you doing now?"

"Draw blueprints."

"What kind of product are these blueprints for? Is this a missile? I've never seen this design before."

"This is a weather rocket, much worse than a missile, just a small gadget."

As Zhou Yunxiao explained, he also organized the tools at hand.

The researchers at the Dongfeng base don't even have mechanical computers, let alone slide rules; the abacus is still their main calculation tool.

He grabbed the abacus and skillfully started turning the keys, while continuously refining the drawing with a T-square.

Xiao Su rested her chin on her hand, and thoughtfully uttered an "Oh."

"I remember now, there seem to be rockets like that abroad that can artificially interfere with the weather. They can make it rain wherever they want, just like the God of Thunder and the Goddess of Lightning!"

Zhou Yunxiao smiled and said, "What you said is mostly right. But it's not that far off. It only means there's a certain probability that it will affect the weather, and the rest mainly depends on luck."

"So, what kind of weather is this drawing you're making interfering with?"

"Lightning."

"Lightning?"

Upon hearing this, Xiao Su opened her big, watery eyes wide and exclaimed, "Comrade Yunxiao, you're really amazing! You even know this!"

"It's just a preliminary idea right now, completely just wild speculation."

"That's still amazing, definitely much better than me."

Xiao Su muttered to herself from the side.

Zhou Yunxiao shrugged, stopped chatting with the girl, and focused on drawing his own blueprints.

Viewers in the live stream are also virtually supervising the construction from his perspective.

[Is the anchor planning to build a mine-detonating rocket? That's certainly a forward-thinking idea. Dongguk only successfully detonated a mine for the first time in history, in 1977. Is this happening 17 years earlier?]

Is this thing that hard to make? It's just a rocket with a metal wire attached to it going up into the sky, right? 200 meters is enough, and then lightning will strike down along the wire. Franklin could do that with a kite...

The person upstairs is talking nonsense; Franklin's success was just a fluke, a stroke of luck. The real process of attracting lightning is far more complex than that...

[That's right, the rocket's performance, the wire's toughness, and the timing of the lightning strike are all indispensable. The anchor's idea is quite challenging!]

At this moment, a die-hard fan who regularly watches the live stream sent a comment:

[Now I know why the anchor was making a lightning-inducing rocket video! Did anyone watch last night's live stream? He was chatting with Jiang Weimin and mentioned that the launch rehearsal at Base 1 was forced to be canceled due to thunderstorms...]

Upon hearing this, many viewers showed expressions of sudden realization.

Zhou Yunxiao also finished his stroke at this moment, paused to interact, and said,

"That's right, I was indeed inspired by Lao Jiang and felt it was necessary to do this project. Anyway, it's just a small thing and won't take up too many resources."

"As you all know, Dongfeng Base later became the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, where the climate is extremely unpredictable. Especially in summer, one second the sun may be blazing and the next a strong wind may be blowing and thunder may be rumbling."

"Lightning is the most dangerous weather for missile and rocket launches, especially for early liquid-fueled missiles like the Dongfeng-1. The electron tubes are extremely vulnerable to pulse damage, and the missiles use a propellant of liquid oxygen and alcohol, making them prone to catastrophic detonation when exposed to lightning..."

"In order to ensure that missiles, such vital national weapons, are unaffected by weather and can be ready for long-term combat and launched at any time, it is necessary to artificially trigger lightning and actively release cloud charges to create a reliable window for missile launch!"

After these words were spoken, netizens exclaimed that Comrade Xiao Zhou was truly thoughtful and far-sighted.

Of course, some people were not optimistic about this idea, thinking that given the industrial level of Dongguo at that time, they might not be able to develop a lightning-inducing rocket.

In response, Zhou Yunxiao said:

"No matter how difficult things are, someone has to do them. Besides, I'm not alone. There are millions of you from the future standing behind me."

"We hope everyone will continue to offer their opinions, so that we can work together to gather the wisdom of future generations of Chinese people and forge the backbone of our great nation today!"