The Watson 13 planet development plan that Orthea came up with can be said to be the best plan that can be done with the current military and civilian technology of North Wharton, but Li Yi didn't even read the content of this plan, and only listened to the plan budget, and he had already retreated.

Not to mention the total investment of the entire development plan, the plan is divided into six phases, only the first phase of the investment, as high as 300 star diamonds!

300 star diamonds seem to be only 100 digits, but in fact, it is 300 billion when converted into star coins!

And Li Yi currently has less than 15 billion star coins on hand, including his own belongings and the funds provided by the Watson family!

Of course, Li Yi can find a loan from the Watson family, and I don't know if the Watson family has already calculated it, and the loan amount given to him is just 300 billion star coins, and according to the interest of three thousandths per day, the interest alone will cost 300 million star coins per day!

In short, as long as Li Yi implements this plan, I am afraid that he will become a "star slave" in this life, and just repaying the loan can make him miserable for a long time!

Before, Li Yi felt that he had become a big sum, and he couldn't spend a lot of money, but now he looks at it, he is still poor, and he can't even get the first phase of the project money for the development of a planet, not to mention that he still fantasizes about being able to unify the Wharton Star and unify all mankind in the future, and now he can't even circle a resource planet, which is really shocking!

The so-called everything is difficult at the beginning, how to take this first step, whether to honestly use conventional methods to mine, or to make a desperate bet with high investment and high returns, Li Yi is now unsure of his heart.

But after thinking about it, it is impossible for a living person to be suffocated by urine, he is alone, and he does not plan to stay in Wharton for a long time, if the investment is successful, of course, everything is easy to say, if the investment fails, it is a big deal to fly directly, the universe is so big, you can go anywhere, and you are afraid of being wanted by North Wharton all over the world?

As for the moral integrity issues brought about by flying orders...... I'm sorry, the interests of the earthlings are above all else, and it really comes to the point where the mountains and rivers are exhausted, so I have to grieve the natives, not to mention that this resource planet looks like a big pit dug by the natives for him, throwing the natives' money into the pit they dug themselves, in case something goes wrong, no one can say that they have suffered a loss, let alone blame anyone for not being kind.

After having a plan in his heart, Li Yi began to ask Althea about the specific details of this plan.

At this moment, the two are sitting in an elegant restaurant preparing to eat, this time in order to receive Li Yi and leave a good impression on each other, they deliberately redressed themselves, especially in terms of clothing, borrowing from Candace's Korean style, but from the first time they saw Li Yi to now, the two are talking about work, which is completely different from the kind of date she expected.

"Can you talk about something else?" Althea was a little displeased, and the smile on her face was a little stiff.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry."

Li Yi smiled, and felt that he was a little too much, but this is something that can't be helped, it's like a blind date, it's always difficult to find a feeling for a blind date, if it's an unexpected encounter, the atmosphere won't be so embarrassing, this can only be done slowly, let it be.

In order to change the topic, Li Yi glanced at the menu, couldn't help but light up his eyes, and asked, "Is there food made from natural ingredients here?" If I'm not mistaken, are these steaks labeled with farmed breeds? ”

Althea's expression suddenly became much more natural, and she smiled implicitly: "Your Excellency has just come to our Wharton Star, so you may not know much about the situation......

Seeing that Li Yi nodded and expressed his wish to hear the details, Althea continued: "Each family has been importing a large number of various agricultural and sideline products and ingredients for cultivation and breeding all year round, but only in the territories of each family can you see these ingredients. Therefore, these materials are generally not available in vending machines, and the small amount of planting and breeding ingredients in circulation are some that are about to expire. ”

At the same time, Li Yi suddenly realized, and couldn't help but say: "Wouldn't this be unfair to ordinary people?" ”

Althea, who didn't expect Li Yi to ask this, couldn't help but be slightly stunned, and said curiously: "Why do they think it's unfair?" The contribution of our natural people and aristocrats is obvious to all, and only by eating these natural ingredients for a long time can we maintain our knowledge and quotient from declining, can we protect the country and the people, and can we maintain the foundation of human beings for generations to come. What's more, these foods are too expensive and the general population can't afford them. ”

Li Yi didn't dare to agree: "I think it's the same, I can't afford it and I don't have the qualifications to buy it, the result is the same, but the nature is different, these are two different things, and ordinary people can't be deprived of their basic rights." ”

Althea smiled noncommittally, "Adults may have confused the concepts of country and family. North Wharton, as a family federation state, is actually two sets of political systems. The family is the cornerstone of the country, but it is only responsible to the children of the family. The state is responsible for the people, and the welfare of the people comes from the state's taxes. Do you think it's important to use those limited state tax revenues to buy those luxury ingredients, or is it important to use them to boost the country's strength against South Walton? ”

Speaking of this, Althea paused, and then said with a natural look: "Military spending alone accounts for most of the country's tax revenue, if it is not supported by a large taxpayer family, and even a special fund will be taken out every year to subsidize the country, it will be difficult for the entire North Wharton to operate normally!" ”

Li Yi was speechless, this kind of political system is really very special, think about it, what Althea said is not reasonable, the family gathered together to form a country out of their own interests, and helped the country maintain normal operation, but it is true that there is no obligation to take care of the ordinary people below, that is something that the country should worry about.

After thinking about it, I only heard Orthea say again: "In fact, we do not restrict ordinary people from buying luxury ingredients, as long as they go to space, they will naturally have the opportunity to buy these materials from various space stations and space cities, and each family does not monopolize the import and supply channels of ingredients, nor can they monopolize it." It's just that most people rarely go to space for safety reasons, and they don't want to waste too much money on ingredients. ”

Li Yi smiled bitterly, to put it bluntly, the root cause of all this is still in the knowledge of business, this is really a world where it is difficult to move an inch without knowledge!

At this point in the conversation, Althea suddenly realized that she was brought to a topic without the slightest romantic atmosphere by the other party, and couldn't help but turn her head around, and looked at Li Yi who was sitting opposite with some expectation: "My lord, do you think I am dressed appropriately today?" ”

Li Yi took a good look at the other party at this time, only to see that his hair had also changed to wavy curls today, and the stockings on his legs were still set, but they belonged to the more normal kind of black stockings, and he was wearing a royal blue mid-length knit sweater on his upper body, although he only covered the buttocks, but at least it was not as explicit as the miniskirt, and the overall look was simple and generous without losing his charm, which was still quite eye-catching.

After taking a look, Li Yi commented: "Not bad. ”

Althea pursed her lips, obviously very dissatisfied with Li Yi's two-word evaluation, and felt that this one was purely to cope with the errand.

But then, I saw Li Yi tilt his head and think about it, and after staring at her for a long time, he suddenly said: "I really don't know much about women's clothing...... By the way, can you help me find out the coordinates of my location when I first came to Wharton? I've buried something around there, and there's a lot of information about it, and I'll give you a staff officer to make sure you're glamorous! ”

In fact, this time and space, at least here in North Wharton, people's requirements and tastes for clothing and apparel are very low, and they generally just wear a set of chemical fiber tights of different colors, because this thing is convenient, and it can be worn at any time to enter the battlefield with a tactical five-piece suit, a working environment with radiation or space, if you wear ordinary clothes to change around, it will be much more troublesome, only those service personnel will change into some dazzling clothing, but it is also strange and eye-catching, not very in line with Li Yi's aesthetics.

So Althea's cognition in terms of dress is actually not as good as Li Yi, she usually wears a work uniform, but the layout is a little more feminine, if you want to say that it is fashionable and beautiful, it basically can't match it, of course, everyone doesn't care much about this, even if Orthea is ugly, as long as she has a high level of knowledge, she is still a beautiful nobleman in the eyes of others.

But there is a saying that women are the ones who please themselves, since they want to be a duchess, Althea is now very concerned about this aspect, and the time and energy spent on this aspect have far exceeded the daily work recently, and she has not hesitated to absorb the humanities information chip about the Yanu Republic that she got out of nowhere, and the content even contains some action movies.

Hearing Li Yi say this at this moment, Althea's face suddenly turned happy: "Really? So let's go now? The coordinates of that jump point are not a secret, I'll find out if someone looks them up. ”

"It's okay to waste food." Li Yi pointed to the food on the table and said with a smile: "I'll go after eating." ”

Perhaps because she was in a good mood, Althea took the initiative to explain the gas mine collection plan for Watson 13 during the meal.

To put it simply, it is necessary to build a super-large multi-purpose mining barge near the planet, or it should be said to build a huge production platform, and then let this production platform accelerate to the first cosmic speed of the planet, always fly around the planet in low earth orbit, and at the same time mine sulfuric acid ore on the spot, and then send a transport ship to load it away after the mine is released.

On the surface, of course, it is impossible to see anything special about this scheme, but once it is actually implemented, the process and method are very interesting.

In addition to the basic energy shields, engines, cargo bays, and other devices, the production platform also carries a large array of hollowed-out elemental separators, and when the production platform flies around the planet, the air flow through the elemental separators will break down the carbon dioxide in the air into pure carbon and oxygen and store it.

Carbon itself is a mineral, is an important raw material or material for important industrial, aerospace, and electronic components, and has a wide range of applications, such as all wired circuits and components in this space-time, and the electrode materials used are allotropic stone grinding wires of carbon, rather than the copper wires of the old space-time, because its conductivity is better than that of metals, and diamond, which everyone on this earth knows what this thing is for, and for example, ......

According to Althea, the main structure of this mining platform is all made of stone grinding!

That is, this is a mining barge made entirely of stone mills!

Why is this solution expensive? It's high here!

A special titanium alloy hydrogen ore mining ship is not much different from the average medium-sized mining ship, but the mining barge in this scheme is not as big as a medium-sized mining ship, but requires that 100-200 medium-sized transport ships can be docked at the same time on its platform!

A mining barge that can dock so many medium-sized transport ships at the same time is by no means only 200 times larger than a medium-sized transport ship, but may be more than 300 times larger!

How big is a medium-sized transport ship?

By analogy, it's almost the size of a medium-sized mining ship!

That is, this mining platform is 5000-6000 times larger than a medium-sized mining ship!

It's already comparable to a small space city!

How much stone grinding material does this cost? Absolutely astronomical, right?

And that's not all!

All medium-sized transports traveling on the platform must also be made of stone-ground materials!

Although it is possible to land 100-200 medium-sized transport ships at the same time, counting those on the way back and forth and loading and unloading, the actual number of medium-sized ship-sized transports required must reach at least 1,000!

Therefore, in addition to the countless stone grinding materials required for the production platform, the stone grinding materials required by these transport ships alone are also astronomical!

The so-called 300 billion star dollar budget, why is it said to be the first phase of the project budget, and the reason is here!

Because it is impossible for more than 1,000 stone mill transport ships to be manufactured in a short period of time, including the production platform, which is also gradually assembled, it is impossible to get a platform as big as a space city at one time, not only is there not so much money to build at all, but the entire North Wharton will not be able to take out so many stone grinding raw materials to do this at once!

The reason why the starship has to be made of stone grinding materials is for no other reason - the production platform and the transport ship must be in the atmosphere for a long time, at least at high speed in the periphery, and the friction and high-temperature heat generated is also called a thermal barrier, even if it is a titanium alloy material with the best high temperature resistance, it cannot bear it!

As for the Energy Shield...... It is also unbearable, the speed at which the energy shield is neutralized by high-temperature thermal energy is much higher than the speed of the energy shield recharger, such a large production platform, the friction surface is very large, and the energy shield produced will be lost in a minute or two at most, which is not a long-term solution at all.

Only stone grinding, which can resist high temperatures of about 4000 degrees of material, can maintain normal and stable operation under the friction high temperature of the atmosphere, in fact, all the transport ships used to land on planets with atmosphere, the outer wall materials are made of stone grinding, because it is not only resistant to high temperatures but also very lightweight, and the production platform can only use such lightweight materials to save energy and maintain the speed of flying around the planet.

Therefore, the pure carbon raw materials separated by the element separator on the production platform are very useful, and they can be produced for their own use for a long time in the future, and it is impossible to sell them!

As for the oxygen that comes out...... Needless to say? Who doesn't know the uses of oxygen?

However, the oxygen separated from the production platform is also used as an industrial raw material, and even has to be used at any time for production!

The atmosphere of Watson 13 has many layers, and the atmosphere that the production platform can only approach can only be a relatively peripheral location, otherwise it will be too close and require higher orbital speed, which is difficult to achieve.

Therefore, the sulfuric acid layer that the production platform can come into contact with is actually only a gas layer mixed with sulfur dioxide and carbon dioxide, which has a small amount of water and dilute sulfuric acid clouds, and the role of oxygen is to directly react with sulfur dioxide to form sulfur trioxide!

Sulfur trioxide is a solid, an anhydride of sulfuric acid, and reacts into concentrated sulfuric acid when exposed to water!

So in fact, the whole mining process and principle is: the production platform does not directly collect sulfuric acid, but first separates the carbon dioxide from oxygen and carbon, the carbon is stored, and the oxygen is taken out and directly reacts with the sulfur dioxide in the gas stream to form sulfur trioxide and store, so that the solid material reserves are larger and more convenient to store.

There is also an attached mineral - nitrate!

In addition to containing a large concentration of carbon dioxide, the atmosphere of Watson 13 also contains nitrogen, which ionizes with oxygen to form nitric oxide, which then reacts with oxygen to form nitrogen dioxide, which reacts with water to form nitric acid, and nitric acid is used for ...... Needless to say?

Whether it is sulfuric acid or nitric acid, it is no problem to use titanium alloy ore storage in general environment, but in the extreme atmospheric friction and high temperature environment, although the safety of the mine can be maintained through various cooling and cooling technologies, the mine without stone grinding materials is still more corrosion-resistant, and there is no need to add additional cooling equipment.

So all in all, the most important and difficult point of this mining scheme is the cost of stone grinding materials, and if this problem is solved, it is equivalent to solving all the problems, and other technical aspects are ready-made.

But the problem is that this cost is too high, and if you don't have strong economic strength, you can't play at all!

Even if you have that much money, you won't be able to buy that much carbon raw material here in North Wharton for a while!

It is easy to obtain carbon raw materials by separating carbon dioxide, but molecular gases are separated into atomic solids, and the speed of accumulating raw materials in mid-air is not as fast as imagined, and a large carbon dioxide separation base can be established on Wharton, but this is illegal, even if carbon dioxide in the air is extracted on Wharton, it is absolutely forbidden!

Unless...... Unless Li Yi goes to the planet BPM37093 described in the "World Encyclopedia", which is a pure diamond planet, just digging up a shovel of diamonds and coming back is definitely enough to build a production platform, of course, there is a premise that he has to master the super engine technology of flying away from the white dwarf, because the pure diamond planet is a white dwarf, and the strong gravitational pull is enough for him to land directly after passing and become a part of the diamond planet.

Putting aside these unrealistic fantasies, after introducing the plan, Althea saw Li Yi's frowning and gave a suggestion: "My lord, in fact, you can make use of the power of the people. While collecting materials to build a production platform, you can publish mining tasks in the real system, and let private miners come and collect carbon dioxide ore in the usual way, and then you can buy it on the spot. ”

Li Yi thoughtfully: "Walking on two legs? Gas mining is not something that ordinary miners have the strength to complete, right? And in this way, the requirements for the safety of the planet are even higher, and now there is no money to build a platform, how can there be money to build a starship? ”

Althea smiled slightly, and said meaningfully, "So, you need to communicate more with Candace and Ji'er......