Near an uninhabited island in the Central Pacific Ocean, on an oceanographic research ship from the National Science Laboratory of the Tang Empire, Zhang Meng, accompanied by a group of scientists, was looking at the uninhabited island ahead.

At this moment, scientists from the National Science Laboratory's Rocket Engineering Research Group and their assistants are installing a huge rocket on the island, which is a surface-to-surface medium-range ballistic missile, codenamed "Conquest", according to the definition given by Zhang Meng.

Since the establishment of the Tang Empire in 1929, it has only gone through a decade of history, but it has taken the lead in missile engineering and has become the first country in the world to develop surface-to-surface medium-range ballistic missiles.

Although the concept of missiles was first proposed and successfully developed by the Tang Empire, the composition of the missile is based on the rocket jishu, which has long been studied by the military of Shijie countries, especially the United States and Germany have made great progress in this regard, which is the main source of experience for the Tang Empire.

Back in 1926, the United States launched an uncontrolled liquid rocket for the first time. With the development of electronics, high-temperature materials and rocket propellant Jishu in the 30s, new vitality was injected into rocket weapons. Germany also began the research of rockets and missiles, and established a large-scale production base, and successively launched A-1 and A-2 small rockets, although the range was only 8 kilometers, but laid the foundation for the future development of missiles.

Braun, a German engineer responsible for the development of A-1 and A-2 small rockets, could not get the opportunity to try the development of larger and stronger rockets due to financial problems, and the Tang Empire threw an olive branch to him at a critical moment. Before the German Army, he and his R&D team were invited to Datang and funded its research and development rocket project.

As the performance of the turboprop aero engine of the Tang Empire continues to mature, it is used to replace the traditional rocket engine. The air compressor jishu from Quincy was also quickly integrated into the new rocket engine, so that Braun had enough to propel a ton of payload to fly hundreds of kilometers of rocket engine, coupled with the Tang Empire's sufficient aviation materials and abundant funds, in just three years, Braun has successfully test-fired A-3, A-4, A-5 several sounding rockets, with a maximum altitude of more than 80 kilometers. It has unravaged the historic chapter of mankind's rocket launch into extraterrestrial space.

However, due to the requirements of the military of the Tang Empire, the exploration of outer space is not yet timely. Priority was given to the development of missile projects, that is, the carrying of an effective warhead on a rocket with the installation of guidance devices that would allow it to accurately hit enemy targets.

Subsequently, the Datang National Laboratory selected elites from various fields to participate in the missile development project. Two years later, after many shiyans. The guidance device has been greatly improved, and the accuracy has been reduced from three kilometers to less than one kilometer.

The surface-to-surface missile that will be test-fired today is the most powerful, long-range, and accurate of the Conquest series, according to the data reported to Zhang Meng by the rocket engineering team. The missile is 25 meters long and 2 meters in diameter, filled with a mixture of liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen, uses a high-thrust turboprop engine, and has a warhead weighing one ton.

Under the gaze of Zhang Meng and the others, a violent roar suddenly sounded on the island in front of them. The missile was launched into the air, and it was extremely fast. The tail erupts with bright flames, illuminating the sky like a red sun.

A number of maritime monitoring ships accompanied the group, and the flight altitude, ballistic trajectory, and flight speed of the missiles were continuously measured through radar, and groups of data were reported through walkie-talkies, which were known to Zhang Meng and others.

"The altitude reaches 81 km, the speed reaches Mach 1.9, enters the descent trajectory and everything works fine!"

Five or six minutes later, the missile fell into the predetermined range, and a huge mushroom cloud rose into the air, which Zhang Meng and others watched from the high-powered telescope.

"390 km! The impact point error is 0.9 km! The test shot was successful! ”

There was thunderous applause on the bridge, and Zhang Meng was very happy, according to this rate of development, the Tang Empire will be able to deploy the Conqueror missile in actual combat in the next two years.

This is a big leap forward and a big deterrent.

Cai Zhenghua, the accompanying Minister of National Defense, said: "At present, the most critical thing is the guidance system, our military is developing an inertial guidance system to replace a simple gyroscope, and the radio remote control guidance distance is still too short, and it is currently relying on relay equipment to guide, and we are using TV remote control to improve the accuracy of the conqueror's strike." ”

"The cost of TV remote control is too high, and I don't recommend looking into this area. For the time being, it is enough to study the inertial guidance system on the complex gyroscope, and when our space project officially begins in the future, the accuracy will be greatly improved when we use satellites for guidance in the future, and it is enough to study a set of missiles that can ensure the accuracy of the impact point within 1 km, and we can start in terms of bomb load and range, and if we can develop missiles that can hit 10,000 kilometers, even if the error is very large, when it falls on the enemy's land, it will make them mentally broken. ”

Zhang Meng wanted strategic deterrence for the time being, Cai Zhenghua suddenly guessed it, and immediately took the order.

After the successful test launch of the Conqueror missile, the Tang Imperial Army was approved to purchase 200 missiles, which will be used for strategic strike missions. The navy also got Zhang Meng's nod, and asked the Conqueror series missiles to develop a missile weapon that can be carried by naval warships, which can attack land and ships hundreds of kilometers away, which is also a great weapon for the Datang Navy.

Although the air force also has ideas, the Conqueror missile is huge and cannot be carried by aircraft for the time being, otherwise the air force will be really invincible if it has missiles with a range of more than 300 kilometers as weapons. Still, the National Laboratory's missile engineering group has this in mind, and they can develop small-calibre, lightweight, short-range missiles for the Air Force, which will also play a key role in air combat.

On this day, Zhang Meng visited the missile Shiyan base in the morning and received another piece of good news in the afternoon. The submarine research and development project that has been neglected by the Tang Army has finally come to fruition, and a new submarine has been successfully developed, which is the first time that a new submarine has been developed in China that has been recognized by the Tang Navy since the introduction of the V-4 submarine from the United States by the Tang Empire.

Since the establishment of the Tang Imperial Navy, submarines have not played much of a role, completely overshadowed by the light of the aircraft carrier battle group. At the beginning, Zhang Meng pursued the policy of a weak country's navy and gave priority to the development of submarine wolf pack troops, but Jihua could not keep up with the rapid changes, and the Tang Army's aircraft carrier battle group was a great success, and the submarine was ignored.

After eight years, the submarine project of the Tang Empire finally came out. (To be continued......)