bookbashuk #210 - Kill three birds with one stone
#210 - Kill three birds with one stone
"Are you saying you have a weapon that can strike most of Germany from Eagle Island? One capable of carrying a one-ton warhead? Oh, no, it's simply unbelievable. It's so absurd, it's hard to believe it's coming from your mouth."
General Shi was completely incredulous upon hearing the news of the Dongfeng I express delivery.
However, he was quickly captivated by a stack of photographs.
Photos of the launch, the impact, the flight through the air—all delivered urgently to the temporary capital.
The desert launch site, the grassland impact zone, everything undeniably confirmed the truth of his words.
"General Shi, we never joke about serious matters," he said solemnly to General Shi. "We emphasize pragmatism and delivering on our promises. General Shi, we never deceive our allies. We have fulfilled every promise we've made in the past two years, no matter how incredible."
"The same goes for this matter. General Shi can send people to the site to verify it. We don't just have one. Our second test launch will take place very soon."
The slight modifications were merely adjustments to local components. In this era where most things were handcrafted, Ren Zhong had popularized mechanized processing at the Dawn Research Institute, overcoming the difficulty of implementing standardization in manual labor. Therefore, when producing the first Dongfeng express delivery, Ren Zhong had people conduct trial production of ten units at once. He could afford this waste.
So, it wasn't just the second; even the third and fourth wouldn't be difficult.
Having already anticipated the results, Ren Zhong wasn't afraid of failure. Even if the first one failed, he had the ability to have Professor Qian and the others analyze it and immediately start the second test.
Compared to the historical timeline, this model was clearly much faster.
This was the advantage of being rich and powerful.
Currently monopolizing the penicillin business, Ren Zhong not only earned money domestically but also traded over a ton of penicillin with General Shi and his people!
Enough to exchange for 1 ton of gold (US dollars)!
Because General Shi had witnessed the miraculous anti-inflammatory drug in both Kuncheng and the temporary capital.
He specifically commissioned the Eighth Route Army office to order a ton!
For the rogue Eagle engaged in bloody battles in the South Pacific and the Pacific Ocean, this ton of penicillin saved many lives.
"In that case, I think it's very necessary for me to personally visit the border region," General Shi thought for a moment, finally unable to resist the temptation, preparing to see this miracle for himself.
As the C-47 landed at the temporary airport in the border region, General Shi suddenly noticed a fact: the airport in the border region had unknowingly expanded more than twice the size since his last visit!
A sense of foreboding suddenly arose in his heart.
He shook his head, stepped off the plane, and quickly walked to the staff officer who came to greet him.
"General Shi, welcome to the border region again for inspection and observation," he said with a smile. "I hope Your Excellency will have a pleasant trip to the border region."
"Thank you, Mr. Ye. I don't think we need to waste time. Let's go directly to the test site," General Shi said impatiently.
"No problem, General Shi, please!" He was already accustomed to the other party's work style and didn't stand on ceremony, directly inviting General Shi into the border region's own Hongxing F1 pickup truck.
This was the most presentable car the border region currently had.
General Shi glanced at the familiar model, a hint of doubt on his face, but he didn't say anything.
This border region was good at creating miracles. It seemed that the technology and factory equipment taken from his hands were now fully operational. He couldn't see this efficiency in the temporary capital at all.
Therefore, General Shi obviously had a better impression of the border region than the temporary capital.
After all, these people were truly dedicated to their work.
Now, even cars could be produced. The industrial progress couldn't be called significant; it could only be described as a miracle!
The speed of the Hongxing F1 wasn't fast either, probably maintaining just over 50 kilometers per hour. On the dirt road, this was already considered very fast.
Thanks to the fact that Ren Zhong and his people had been using this kilometer-long stretch for a long time, and it was also one of the main northbound passages, this road was one of the best-built main roads.
In less than 3 hours, General Shi was taken to his destination.
This was another test site.
More than 20 kilometers away from the Houyi base.
After all, the current Houyi base was a top-secret location.
Naturally, General Shi couldn't be allowed to know. Anyway, this was a vast desert with plenty of space. As long as the road was built, it would be fine to find a place to test it.
After all, these weapon test launches didn't have too many location requirements. Just connect the road, transport it to the site, and assemble the rocket on the frame.
Ren Zhong had received the news more than ten days ago, so there was plenty of time to get everything done.
Therefore, when General Shi arrived at the destination, a huge cylinder, considered enormous at the time, stood before him, almost identical to the photos he had seen!
"Oh, my God!" General Shi's first words after getting out of the car revealed his true feelings at this moment.
Such a large cylinder was obviously not to be trifled with.
Among weapons, "big" was still the truth. So, upon seeing such a thick one, General Shi basically believed it by three points.
"Welcome, General Shi! I am Jiang Chunwang, the person in charge of the test base. General Shi can raise any needs, and we will definitely answer everything we can solve," the person welcoming General Shi was Jiang Chunwang, the head of the test base, an important researcher in Project 101. Famous figures like Professor Qian and Ren Zhong would not appear in front of outsiders now.
"Hello, Mr. Jiang. If there are no problems, let's prepare to start the test," General Shi didn't want to waste time. After all, he was now the chief of staff of a war zone, and even though his power had been hollowed out a lot, he still had many affairs to attend to.
If it weren't for the importance of this matter, he wouldn't have come here in person to witness it.
"Wait, since your current test load is a non-explosive counterweight, then I'll write a few sets of numbers and put them in. Then, when it lands, please have the monitoring personnel at the impact site find them and immediately send me the numbers."
Before the rocket launch, General Shi quickly stepped forward to request a change in the verification method.
Based on his visual estimate of the rocket's speed after takeoff, plus the landing time, a rough range could be confirmed.
"General Shi, what I need to explain in advance is that our test target point is 450 kilometers away from us because the test point is only that far. In fact, our theoretical range is 650 kilometers, so the received return information will probably be about 4 minutes or 5 minutes.", Jiang Chunwang understood General Shi's intentions, but he wasn't afraid of testing.
More than 20 days had passed since the last launch, and the adjustments that needed to be made had been made. The only thing was that the landing point of this range was not easy to expand too far.
"It doesn't matter. For me, 450 kilometers and 650 kilometers are the same. I need to see the real performance," General Shi waved his hand and said.
"Can we start?"
"No problem, General Shi, we can start at any time!" Jiang Chunwang said.
"Order the operator, prepare to ignite!"
"Launch countdown!"
"10"
"9"
"8"
"Ignite!"
As the countdown ended, the operator immediately pressed a button, and a flame suddenly burst out from the bottom of the rocket. Immediately afterward, the huge rocket left the support and began to fly towards the blue sky, quickly rising into the sky with a long flame, constantly accelerating and flying away towards the distance.
Flying straight north.
General Shi saw the momentum of this takeoff. It was indeed the first time in his life. It flew straight into the sky, and the speed was getting faster and faster. It was not like a cannon, where the speed of the fired shell would decrease.
He took out his binoculars and observed the launched rocket for a long time, until he could no longer see any trace of it in his field of vision before General Shi put down the binoculars.
Waiting for the target location to send back the results for verification.
Time passed quickly. In the blink of an eye, more than 4 minutes had passed. The target location immediately got their hands on the "gift" that General Shi had sent over. After they got the numbers, they immediately telegraphed the received numbers.
Sure enough, it was exactly the same as the numbers on the list that General Shi had written down separately and given to Staff Officer Ye for backup.
"Oh, unbelievable, you really did it!" General Shi exclaimed, taking the telegram code written on the warhead load, which he had personally written on it.
"Tell me, we need at least 100 of these rockets. If possible, tell us the production method. US dollars, gold, or tell us what else you need that we can use to exchange," General Shi was already familiar with the border region's routine and spoke directly.
He just hoped that the border region wouldn't ask for too much, making it difficult for him.
"General Shi, we are allies. In principle, it would be no problem to give you this thing, but we do have great difficulties. How about this? We use this rocket, 5 rockets for 1 P51D Mustang fighter, 100 rockets for 20 Mustang fighters. It would be very beneficial to protect the sky over our border region and also help us better hold back the Japanese devils in North China," Staff Officer Ye listed the price that had been discussed long ago.
"If you want the production process design, it's not impossible. Give us the C-47 transport aircraft production process design plus 5 transport aircraft, and we will never make things difficult for our friends!"
Staff Officer Ye said casually.
"Our weapon doesn't need a pilot at all and can send a ton of explosives to the heads of the Germans. The cost is much lower than a warplane; moreover, it's fast and won't encounter their air defense weapons, and you won't have any personnel losses. It's truly a win-win-win!"
Second update! Asking for recommendations, asking for monthly tickets!