During this long and cold winter, the Lorraine Agricultural and Forestry Machinery Factory received orders for nearly 1,000 agricultural and forestry machines from all over the Federation, with the largest order being 200 tractors with farming tools. In the new year, their development is undoubtedly optimistic, and this is only a microcosm of the industrial development of Lorraine. Nowadays, all economic and social fields of the Lorraine people have entered the track of benign development, and the scale and quality of the economy have been improved, which is undoubtedly the greatest praise for Weiss. However, in this winter, the events in the north have always been the focus of his attention, and as those hidden insiders in the dark continue to "peel back the cocoon", the idea of being prepared for danger in times of peace has become more and more profound and urgent.

Since the beginning of winter, they have maintained stable communication with Professor Yang. The handwriting and content of the letter have been carefully identified by Professor Xiao Yang, and it can be assured that Professor Yang is at least safe. Judging from the contents of these letters, although the outdoor excavation operation was greatly hindered this winter, the research work is still proceeding in an orderly manner, and a lot of progress has been made. It is expected that by the beginning of spring, the astonishing discovery that had been buried under the solid ice of the cold sea for countless thousands of years will be rediscovered. He wasn't sure what this would bring to this era, but from a professional point of view, the confusion about the "source" of the Star Source Stone was gradually being revealed, and the study of northern geology and geography also allowed him to complete the "puzzle" of his academic theories for many years. Whatever the outcome of this event would be, he felt that his mission was basically in place, so he had submitted a return request to the federal government, and the federal government had approved his request, and now it was only up to the people of Wessex to coordinate the trip.

In previous storyscripts, this was often followed by an astonishing conspiracy, and even the death of a supporting character, but this did not happen in reality. Towards the end of winter, Professor Yang returned to the Federation from the north. Weiss and Professor Young immediately took the train to Liberty City. On the campus of Ulster University of Technology, the trio were reunited without incident. Professor Yang has been in the north for half a year, and he feels a little older and heavier, and he always seems to be thinking about something when he sits there alone. When he returned to the Federation, he didn't have to worry about the enemy's surveillance, and he could talk openly, but he still flickered, and it seemed that there was something he didn't want to take out and elaborate. In this regard, although Wei Si and Professor Xiao Yang were curious, they both felt that he would have some strange reactions after experiencing something unusual, so they were not in a hurry to ask, but got along with him calmly for a while.

With his daughter by his side day and night, Professor Yang's spirit has soothed a lot, and in the case that he is not good at using alcohol to relieve his sorrows, it seems that this is the only way to calm his spirit and let him slowly say the content of his entanglement.

"The things we've built that can move are no more than a thousand feet long or a few hundred feet wide, and the big guy who sank into the deep sea, guess how impressive it is? Not tens of thousands of feet, not hundreds of thousands of feet, but millions of feet. Equivalent to a mountain. No, it's not a mountain, it's a mountain range, and a mountain range is as big as it is, and it may be part of a man-made object, and how appreciable is its ontology after all? Landing on the ground may cover half of the province! I think that those Star Source Stone deposits that were discovered before are also such behemoths, except that they are deeply embedded in the interior of this planet. , under geological extrusion, it gradually became the original state of matter, which we regard as mineral deposits, in fact, they were originally such parts, dozens and hundreds of pieces put together, how spectacular is that? It's like putting together a few Mona Morin Mountains and traveling in space. With our current level of science and technology, how many more years of development can we reach that level? Hundreds, thousands, or tens of thousands? It's hard to imagine how small and humble we are. ”

Old Professor Yang said this in a pious and faithful tone, and then changed his words, and his eyes stared at Professor Xiao Yang directly: "If they come again, if no one can resist their coming, will this planet become their colonial territory, and will all of us become their slaves or even food?" Yes, it's a terrible hypothesis, an extreme possibility, and it doesn't necessarily come true, but it's possible...... This may not be seen in our short years, but what about the future? Perhaps one day, our children will once again face an unforeseen crisis. Perhaps hundreds of thousands of millions of years ago, our ancestors experienced this kind of catastrophe. What exactly is happening on both sides? Unilateral slaughter or a fierce war? No one can say for sure, it was a total destruction. ”

Professor Xiao Yang didn't know how to answer Professor Yang's description, while Weiss pondered it carefully. With his experience of birth and death on the battlefield, it was not difficult to deal with this kind of heartfelt fear, so he said slowly: "When the war first broke out. We are on the northern frontier against the Normans. They used their tactical advantage to almost knock us out. You know? How helpless and terrifying it feels like an enemy is coming from all sides, and you have to hold on with your surviving companions. A lot of people collapsed or were close to collapse, I felt that I was not as tenacious as I imagined, and my heart was close to collapse at that time, but when I got through that hurdle, my heart was really strong. Later, I went through the Battle of Aufort, and I went through the guerrilla war in Lorraine, and twice. It was not uncommon for things to be more difficult than then, but I finally gritted my teeth and persevered...... What I want to say is that it's one thing whether the enemy is strong or not, it's another thing whether your heart is strong or not. When you have a strong enough heart, you can resist a lot of difficulties and overcome a lot of problems. As for what I can't see yet, I don't think it's necessary to worry about it so much. As you said, life is too short to be able to accomplish anything if we look ahead. ”

"I know all of this. Before I left for the north, I had thought about all the possible consequences, and even had my things in order, so that even if I couldn't come back from the north, you could take over. But when I arrived in the north and felt the sheer size of it, it was a very different feeling. It's as if a person who doesn't believe in God suddenly sees a god...... Perhaps they are the source of the gods we imagined. They've come, they've existed, maybe they'll come again, isn't that in many chants? Professor Yang said tremblingly.

Weiss deliberately leads psychologically positively: "If they are destined to appear, if they are destined to bring us an inevitable disaster, then should we cherish our present life even more?" Cherish the people around you? Cherish every moment of living in this free air? ”

Professor Yang nodded thoughtfully, and looked at Professor Yang with warmth. After a while, he said, "Little Candy is still in Lorraine, and I think you should go back too." Let me pack up and go with you to see my granddaughter, and walk around Lorraine to see where I worked. ”

Then he said to Weiss, "I think you're right, and we should cherish the present." When I was young, I was always out and about, measuring this beautiful land with my feet and exploring a lot of mineral deposits with my hands. Now, although I don't know how to enjoy life, I should return to my family as much as possible and spend more time with my family. Thank you for making this happen! ”

Weiss smiled but didn't say anything.

On the train back to Lorraine, during the long journey, Professor Yang did not talk to them about the north, but talked about various adventures in the past, especially the funny or strange things he encountered. Weiss didn't think it before, but after a while, he found that when Professor Yang stayed in the classroom or in his residence, he seemed extremely silent, and when he embarked on the journey, he would become very talkative, as if the journey was his life, and he could let go of himself.

After arriving in Lorraine, we returned in particular to the Château de Clumber-Haissen. During the chat and tea time after dinner, Weiss talked about the northern incident again, and Professor Yang said that the wreckage of the spaceship, which is likely to subvert all people's perceptions, lies quietly under the seabed of the cold sea in the north, about 1,600 feet above the sea surface, which is not particularly deep, but the ruins are not just on the seabed, but covered with a layer of sediment more than 500 feet thick. If combined with the changes in geology and geography, the situation of the year is roughly restored, and the behemoth should have fallen to the planet with extremely high kinetic energy, how strong it is, and it can penetrate extremely thick ice and fall all the way to the bottom of the ice. It is because it is buried in the ice, even after millions or even tens of millions of years, it remains largely intact, and then part of the glacier melts, and it falls into the sediment beneath the ice, and over the long years it has accumulated a thick cover. If it weren't for Wessex's search for the Starstone and drilling on the seabed, I don't know how many years it would have taken for it to resurface, and perhaps never that day.

Speaking of the Wessex people drilling for mineral deposits in the northern icy sea, Weiss couldn't help but ask Professor Yang for advice, in that extremely harsh environment, the difficulty and cost of mining deposits should be more difficult than normal surface mining. Professor Yang explained that the living conditions of the Wessex people were different from the normal perceptions of the Normans and the Commonwealth. For most of the year, most of their territory is covered with a thick layer of snow, so they have become accustomed to building drill rigs in the snow and ice. As for why they were exploring the Xingyuan stone deposits in the north, Professor Yang felt that they were not telling the truth, because they must have done some research, and they would only drill in such remote places after following some revelations or traces. As for what this clue is, he has not yet found a reliable clue, but through some academic rumors, it can be deduced that the Wessex people have a special technology for exploring the Star Source Stone, and after the Norman Empire occupied most of their territory, this technology was transferred to the north by them, so that it could be used in the north during wartime. At that time, the Ice Sea in the North was one of the few areas where they could explore resources and rearmament. Connecting these clues can also roughly lead to a more reasonable conclusion.

As for the information provided by Professor Yang, Weiss further sorted out his own thoughts: the northern incident was not fabricated by the Normans out of thin air, but actually existed, and it was a high-level civilization from the starry sky hundreds of millions of years ago, who not only brought the source of life to this planet, but also allowed the derived new civilization to soar into the sky and even enter space in the industrial age. In their glory days, it was likely to take the form of a federal republic or a higher democracy, or even a utopian one—following the trajectory of civilization, people discovered the shortcomings of imperial power, and eventually overthrew it into a more developmental democracy, as the Norman ruling class had already learned from the remains of their own spaceships.

If these inferences are correct, what are the Normans preparing? What's next?

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