Qiandi Northern Capital Time

August 8, 2044, fifteen hours after the West Coast Raid on North America.

In a messaging hall, Luan's projection appears in the hall. In the hall, Xie Xiao sat in a chair and talked to Lu An, who was in a projection state, about the current world situation.

In fact, this kind of conversation, Xie Xiao can talk to any of Lu An's consciousnesses, and he can achieve his goal, and now he has specially found a screening room to talk to Lu An's main consciousness. It's because of Xie Xiao's own sensibility.

After learning that if a sub-consciousness dies, all the things that are born between that sub-consciousness and other people, such as friendship and love, will disappear. Only retaining memories such as rational memories made Xie Xiao feel very uncomfortable. This made Xie Xiao understand what it means to be "forgotten" So after communicating with Lu Yuan, Xie Xiao sometimes preferred to be a little troublesome and directly try to communicate with Lu An's main consciousness.

In the hall, seeing Lu An appearing, Xie Xiao said: "North America is fighting,"

Then Xie Xiao clicked on the war pictures that flowed out of North America. The war screen is like a sci-fi game from ten years ago.

War scene in the video: Steel-clad chariots fire and groups of soldiers in mechanized armor jump through the smoke and dust of the ruins. Because the protection of such soldiers was so strong, the warring sides eliminated traditional assault rifles. Instead, they fired at a 12.7 mm large-caliber firearm. Because the body armor made of non-Newtonian fiber ceramic inserts on these mechanical warriors is too resistant to attack.

As the heavy firearm fires, if it hits the wall, the wall will explode a meter of smoke and powder. If it hits an armored vehicle, you can see bright sparks shining, and if it hits a soldier, the mechanical armor will also be broken. Of course, although this mechanical armor cannot withstand the direct fire of a rifle, it is under the blows of various infantry artillery. Gave the soldiers a fairly high survival rate. Weapons such as grenades# have been retired because shrapnel is not enough to cause useful damage.

Directly below the video, the site of the war is marked - Detroit.

The Republic of the Americas (renamed the Republic of California) and the Union (the union of the Atlantic coastal parts) have been in a see-saw in what was once an automobile city.

When the video was played to the intermittent ceasefire, there was no aerial close-up of the battlefield scene with #man-machine: the wreckage of power armor and the human corpses wrapped in machinery, like cockroaches poisoned by pesticides, were distributed in the ruins.

Seeing it, Lu An, who was in a projection state, showed a trace of unbearability on his face. However, Luan quickly hid this expression. He said to Xie Xiao: "I am more concerned about the unfinished projects in Guangnan Province and Yunnan Province." It seems to be trying to divert from this topic.

Xie Xiao shook his head and said, "Originally, I planned to let that Spiritual Divine Favor (Pan Yang) help us investigate. So that we can get evidence that the local family is blackmailing us. It's a pity that he didn't join the Miracle Society. ”

Lu An looked at Xiaofeng, the eyes of the two sides met, and Lu An understood Xiaofeng's thoughts. Regarding the engineering problems in the two provinces, Xiaofeng has other solutions. And none of these solutions are peaceful.

In the 21st century, although it is a so-called peaceful society, all industrial countries need to intervene to do business outside their sphere of influence. Such intervening forces can be the situation of the peacekeeping infantry, or it can be something else. Only by holding a gun in one hand can we put an end to the possibility of the landlord's dishonesty in business. - When a certain place, after the completion of the war, the outside world is better to invest. But this investment means control over all the lifeblood of the region.

Regarding Xiaofeng's plan, Lu An didn't have any words to stop him, but turned his head to look at the war in the Detroit area played on the light screen, and asked, "Is this what the wars of your evolutionary officers are like in this era?" ”

Xiaofeng looked at the screen, shook his head and said: "Most of the hot war situations are like this, but the individual armor in this world is more burly, and the total weight of our individual armor and people will not exceed two hundred kilograms." And this world. ”

Xiao Feng pointed out the diorama of the entire mechanical armor. Said: "Fully loaded with mechanical armor weighing one ton. What can I say? He spread his hands and said: "With this design, it is obvious that the energy system of these devices is assisted by special phenomena. ”

Lu An said: "I understand, is there anything that needs to be explained to me now? ”

Xiaofeng said: "Now there is a new law in the northern capital. All mineral raw materials must be subject to the government's uniform pricing. Bulk consumption of minerals must give priority to the procurement of important enterprises. The people of Beidu specially emphasized to me that the law has been enacted and hopes that we will enforce it in accordance with the law. ”

"It looks like they're ready to start a general battle as well," Luan said. ”

Xiaofeng: "Your focus is biased, they are aimed at us. Our non-ferrous metal mining production now accounts for 80 percent of the country's total output. (Originally, the major cities in the east used imported mines.) ）”

Lu An said: "This is cheap, let them take advantage of it." ”

Xie Xiao was stunned, and then said with a smile: "Your heart is really big." Isn't there any grievance about being taken advantage of? ”

Lu An shook his head and said: "It doesn't matter if the material is cheap for them, all the material resources are eventually mined from the ground, they need materials, we need prosperity, the population of Qiandi is too small." If you want to carry out large-scale industrial production, you need an influx of people, and if we don't pull out a dime from the outside world, we can't wait for the population to flow at all. Plus, with you, I'm not worried about losing. ”

Xie Xiao pretended to look at Lu An proudly and said, "Of course, if you are in charge, I'm afraid we will all have to work for others." ”

Xie Xiao clicked on his achievements with Beidu this time, Xie Xiao and Beidu signed a large number of mineral processing, material smelting technology transfer agreements, and some high-tech technology transfer, such as aerospace technology. Data on super-heavy rockets, etc.

Xie Xiao pointed to aviation technology. "They don't have the power to feed the development of the space program now," he said. ”

Luan: "And the personnel? (Luan is obsessed with the space program)

Xie Xiao said: "Don't think about it, people can't dig it up, and the Northern Metropolis should transfer personnel and equipment to the military." At the same time, several technicians will be sent to us to obtain our space technology progress under the guise of cooperation. ”

Lu An nodded and said, "Let them be dispatched, most of the technology now requires huge infrastructure and basic funds to advance." It's not like sending one or two people to work together to keep up with the progress of technology. But you should still be able to dig up a group of people. ”

Xie Xiao asked, "What do you like?" ”

"The Hadron Collider should be useless for war," Luan said. Dig it up. ”

Xie Xiao patted his head and said, "Look at me, I forgot about this matter, um, but the investment in this technology is somewhat long-term." ”

Lu An said: "Long-term? ”

Xie Xiao nodded and said, "In the era of science and technology at the level of a lieutenant general, there is no obvious return. ”

Lu An smiled and said, "We are both very long-term people. ”

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The southeast of Shudi, Xichang area

The new rocket launch base has been built, and it is also a launch base in other timelines, but in this plane there is the world's largest navy to defend the entire Pacific Ocean, and the South China Sea is an absolute defense circle. The launch base was set at a lower latitude in the province of Qiong. (Low-latitude launches are more fuel-efficient, but the space sector is a national priority.) Must be in the rear of security. ）

In the base, Zhao Mingyi was carefully checking the situation of the rocket with an instrument. Any fuel leakage throughout the rocket, or a mechanical failure of the rudder, will cause the rocket to lose control and fall to the ground. All the problems are minor. However, the huge system of rockets is extremely prone to mistakes. Leads to a fall short.

Zhao Mingyi is on a manned rocket for the third time. Every time before taking a manned rocket, Zhao Mingyi will test whether the various systems of the rocket are smooth according to the usual practice. Now the rehearsal is thirteen minutes, which is enough for Zhao Mingyi to find some problems in advance. (Now Lu An is rehearsing all the time, but each sub-consciousness is not, and will only be rehearsed at critical times)

The first few launches were very smooth, and the entire space group was full of optimism, but Zhao Mingyi was now inspecting in a cold sweat, because in the rehearsal, Zhao Mingyi saw that the rocket engine was malfunctioning. The entire firing base caught fire. Finally, the liquid hydrogen leak exploded, and the scene was terrible.

With six minutes left, Zhao Mingyi must quickly find the problem and stop the launch for a reasonable reason. He was now quickly checking the subsystem, and finally in the sixty-seven rehearsals, Zhao Mingyi breathed a sigh of relief.

A few minutes later, the reality timeline

When the launch rack entered the last three minutes, Zhao Mingyi, who was already sitting on the rocket, stopped the entire rocket launch, and in the rocket control room, dozens of people were already in place to observe the various subsystems and prepare to start. However, it was stopped.

Zhao Mingyi's reason is to check that the fluctuation of hydrogen concentration in one of the subsystems of the engine in the emission electronic system exceeds the threshold. Zhao Mingyi relied on his "rich experience" to determine that there might be a problem with a certain system of the rocket engine. It needs to be rechecked.

In the opinion of most researchers, such potentially problematic events are a regular occurrence. And just because there may be a problem doesn't mean there will be an accident. In the minds of operators, they often ignore these small problems because they will not cause major accidents.

But according to the rules and regulations, once the problem is pointed out by someone else, then it must be reviewed according to the process.

So in a state of disappointment throughout the launch base, the launch mission stopped.

The review was over, however, fourteen hours later, the top head of the rocket base was identified as a meter fluctuation error. (This is a minor problem that does not cause an accident). Of course, the optimal launch time has been missed, and the launch mission has been cancelled.

Zhao Mingyi, who got this result in the space hall, almost couldn't help blurting out, "How is this possible", but after a few seconds, Zhao Mingyi understood something, Zhao Mingyi barely squeezed out a smile, and looked at the eyes around him with an apologetic look: "Am I too sensitive?" However, Zhao Mingyi couldn't help but sigh in his heart: "It seems that here, my end should be sooner or later." ”