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

With the arrival of deep winter, the Gobi Desert enters its coldest time of the year.

A bone-chilling cold permeated the air, and because the base had limited coal, the furnaces often went out at night.

Every time Zhou Yunxiao was woken up by the cold, he felt his whole body was freezing cold, as if his blood vessels were about to freeze.

The only river around the base, Ruoshui, is a seasonal river that freezes solid in winter. Soldiers have to use shovels and chisels to barely carve out a white dot.

Later, someone came up with a terrible idea: to use explosives to blast open the ice, which solved part of the water problem.

So every morning, along the Ruoshui River in the Gobi Desert, a series of booming explosions would rise and fall.

Dozens of ice crystals the size of bowls were blasted out of the river surface. The cooks quickly set up a field pot, lit a large bundle of firewood, and before the ice crystals froze, they chiseled dozens of pieces of ice into the pot to boil water.

Zhou Yunxiao was initially a little uncomfortable, but after listening to it more often, he actually began to find the voice quite beautiful.

If I don't hear the sound of gunfire every day, I can't even muster any energy.

When Zhou Yunxiao woke up that day, he spent a long time in bed convincing himself to get dressed and get out of bed.

It was chilly inside. He quickly dressed, opened the window, and exclaimed, "Wow... it's snowing heavily!"

Looking out from the expert building in Sulian, one can see large snowflakes fluttering down across the vast Gobi Desert, covering the top of the Qunyu Mountain and blanketing the earth in white. The nearby sand dunes and hills resemble a fairyland.

In this weather, there was no way to train, clear land, repair reservoirs, or hunt. Zhou Yunxiao didn't know where Jiang Weimin had gone, so he grabbed a washbasin and ran out of the dormitory to squat in the snow to wash up.

Many of his comrades around him did the same thing.

I held two snowballs in my hand and gently rubbed them together until they melted a little. Then I rubbed them on my face as a way of washing my face.

Zhou Yunxiao shivered a few times, then stuffed a handful of snowballs into his mouth to rinse it before braving the cold wind to rush back to his dormitory.

The weather was bitterly cold, and Ye Ling somehow managed to obtain a batch of clam oil, distributing one to each of the intellectuals.

This clam oil is very popular right now, even more sought after than White Rabbit candy. The outer shell is made from the discarded clam shells after eating the clam meat.

It contains a fragrant, white ointment that is even better than face cream or Vaseline when applied to the face and hands, making it very popular.

Although Zhou Yunxiao wasn't particularly fussy, he still had a basic sense of vanity. He applied some cream to the chapped areas of his face, tidied his hair, and then, satisfied, slung his military green canvas satchel over his shoulder and headed straight for work.

Xiao Su looks a little different today.

Zhou Yunxiao put down his bag, flipping through the "Dongfeng-2 Launch Site Modification Specifications" while glancing at her.

Then I noticed that Comrade Xiao Su had changed into new clothes.

She replaced her old cotton-padded coat with a brand new outfit, styled her hair in a pretty braid, wore a red towel around her neck, blue cloth trousers, and buckled shoes, making her look exceptionally beautiful.

Zhou Yunxiao hadn't even glanced at him a few times when the other person turned around, spotted him, and stood up.

He buried his head guiltily and pretended nothing was wrong as he continued to write and calculate on the draft paper.

Comrade Xiao Su walked over, tilting his head slightly. His eyes, backlit by the morning glow, appeared even darker, giving him a childlike look.

Then her eyes flickered, and she asked:

"Comrade Yunxiao, are you going home for the Chinese New Year?"

"Uh..." Zhou Yunxiao looked up from the pile of books. "Forget it, we'll talk about it another time. The on-site testing missions are too tight right now; the base can't be left unattended for a moment. I'm the leader of the overall team, after all; I have to set a good example!"

Xiao Su smiled, walked half a circle around his desk, and said very seriously:

"Including this year, this is the third year you haven't been home for Chinese New Year. Don't you miss home?"

"Of course I want to... How could I not want to..."

Perhaps inheriting the original owner's will, Zhou Yunxiao still missed his family. He shook his head and said, "It's not just me who misses them. Which of our 100,000 troops doesn't miss home? Many of the old comrades from the 20th Army Corps were sent to the Gobi Desert before they could even go home to visit their families after coming down from Changjin Lake."

They've been settling down here for years, struggling to write a letter or send a telegram home, yet they don't complain. What can I say? Anyway, I want to go home, but it doesn't necessarily have to be during the New Year. I'll wait a bit longer.

"Comrade Yunxiao, your ideological awareness is truly high; I should learn from you! I won't go home this year either; I'll stay at the base with everyone!"

Comrade Xiao Su smiled, revealing a hint of pride. "How is it? Does my new outfit look good? I saved up my cloth ration coupons for a year and even exchanged some with someone else to make it."

Zhou Yunxiao nodded earnestly, "It looks great. You're very skilled. I can't even make insoles, let alone cotton-padded clothes, hehe..."

"Everyone has their own expertise. Your hands are for holding pens, using abacuses, and drawing blueprints. You'll be working on more advanced missiles in the future, so how could you do these trivial mending jobs?"

Comrade Su put her hands behind her back, her little braid swinging gently, and said with a smile, "If you don't mind, you can give me your cloth coupons, and I'll make you a new cotton-padded coat. I guarantee it will keep you warm!"

"Never mind, this one is still wearable, and I also have a cotton-padded coat issued by the army."

Zhou Yunxiao declined the other party's offer, saying, "Besides, I have a younger sister at home who hasn't worn new clothes in a long time. I'll save up my cloth coupons and send them to her."

"Oh, oh," Comrade Xiao Su said enviously, "Your sister must be so lucky to have such a loving brother!"

……

Their conversation, filled with casual chatter about everyday matters, gradually came to an end.

Zhou Yunxiao meticulously divided and labeled a series of assembly, testing, and launch equipment at the newly built Dongfeng-2 launch site.

The technical team is stationed here to clear all obstacles for the missile's entry into the testing area.

If the test site is not built properly, it's like a tall building without a foundation; how can a missile be launched?

Exhausted from a long day, Zhou Yunxiao was so hungry he felt dizzy. He glanced at the time before finally capping his pen.

Just as I was about to sling my bag over and leave, I suddenly remembered that I had to teach a night school class tonight, so I could only sigh.

Looks like I'll have to eat at the canteen at Base 1 again.

He preferred the food at Garrison No. 10, since it was an official canteen where the cooks were generous with the oil and fat, and occasionally they could even improve the meals by killing a wild rabbit or a sandgrouse.

Unlike Canteen No. 1, where every meal consists of wild vegetables, bitter herbs, licorice leaves, horsetail roots, and reed roots, making it difficult to defecate for several days after just one meal.

After eating two steamed buns at the canteen, Zhou Yunxiao squatted down in the snow, grabbed two handfuls of snow, rubbed it on his face, and then, perking up, walked into the night school classroom at Garrison No. 1.

Unlike the headquarters, the No. 1 base didn't have many buildings; the so-called classrooms were actually just temporary dugouts.

In front of the dugout was a makeshift blackboard made of several planks of wood, painted black. On a platform made of stacked ammunition boxes sat a box of chalk, which made an unpleasant scraping sound when writing on the blackboard.

When Zhou Yunxiao came in with his bag, the room was already packed with students.

They included both old and young soldiers, some of whom held higher ranks than me, yet they were only two cents.

Two cents was the first to stand up and shout, "Stand up!"

All the trainees stood up.

Two cents shouted again, "Courtesy!"

The students saluted their teacher.

Zhou Yunxiao quickly gestured for everyone to sit down, saying, "Everyone, please sit down. There's no need to be so formal."

Liang Mao San lowered his salute and said, "Sit!"

The trainees followed the instructions to complete the "stand, bow, sit" procedure before sitting back in their seats.

Some of them sat on small stools, some on upright bricks, some on ammunition boxes, and some even simply sat on the ground.

These people generally had puffy faces, far less rosy than teacher Zhou Yunxiao, but each of them had a light shining in their eyes, a light of thirst for knowledge!