Currently, China does not have a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier.
Rumors on the street suggest that the fourth carrier under construction is very likely to adopt nuclear power.
“Holy crap! Holy crap!” Old Chen and the principal let out a string of shocked curses.
It wasn’t just blueprints—Lin Xiaohe had also provided a whole series of technologies that had only ever been imagined on paper.
Electromagnetic railguns, laser defense systems, and other new-concept weapons that could be equipped on nuclear-powered aircraft carriers!
The principal stared at the weapon specifications, drooling as if he were dreaming. “This has to be fake, right? The Beautiful Country’s nuclear-powered carriers only carry electromagnetic catapults, and this blueprint actually includes directed-energy weapons!”
High-energy laser weapons, particle beam weapons, high-energy microwave weapons—combined with nuclear power, these have low firing costs and nearly unlimited ammunition reserves, and can be used to intercept missiles and counter drone swarms.
But worldwide, this technology is not mature.
High-power lasers lose energy extremely fast in the atmosphere, particle beam weapons are extremely difficult to develop, and the Beautiful Country’s Ford-class carrier has been reported to be planning to equip laser weapons, but those reports remain just that—reports.
From the blueprints Lin Xiaohe provided, none of the three nuclear-powered carriers the Beautiful Country is building have laser weapons.
Old Chen pulled open his collar, gasping for breath in big gulps. The technologies Lin Xiaohe provided were extremely mature! Once verified as real, with China’s complete industrial system, a production line could be set up in less than six months.
“Did we just hit the jackpot?!”
The principal gulped down a large bottle of mineral water, beads of sweat the size of soybeans forming on his forehead and the tip of his nose.
After quite a while, he barely managed to suppress his excitement and recover a shred of rationality: “The Beautiful Country doesn’t have this technology!”
Given how much the Beautiful Country loves drawing up PowerPoints, if they had directed-energy weapons, they would have bragged to high heaven and earth, dying to show off to the whole world.
Old Chen agreed with this assessment.
The two exchanged a glance, and their expressions gradually turned grave.
The Beautiful Country couldn’t have it, and China really doesn’t have it either—so where did these technologies come from?
This was a matter of great importance.
The two quickly dialed the internal line and reported the matter upward, then, escorted by a group of people, delivered the hard drive to the base.
Ye Qingxuan and Wen Mingchu, as people in the know, had the honor of going to the base together.
This research base was located deep in the mountains and old forests, almost hollowing out an entire mountain range and extending hundreds of meters downward.
Concrete walls over ten meters thick could effectively block any probing.
When the heavy base doors slowly opened, Old Chen and his group had their identities verified and were led into a conference room on the first level of the mountain.
The conference room was already full of many white-haired elders, as well as young and middle-aged researchers.
They were all behind-the-scenes workers who had chosen to remain anonymous for the sake of the country.
“Professor Chen, the leadership took your message very seriously. The leadership’s instruction is that we hold a first round of meetings, and if needed, we’ll summon more experts to participate.”
Old Chen expressed his understanding.
Every single day, tens of thousands of research projects are being pushed forward. All of them burn money!
Pull one hair and the whole body moves. Stopping research for a single day could very likely have a chain effect on many projects.
That so many experts and scholars could appear in the conference room today was already far beyond Old Chen’s expectations.
“Chen Aiguo, hurry up and send those materials over. My time is very tight!” an elder urged.
The technology he was responsible for researching was exactly the fourth-generation molten salt nuclear reactor technology. This type of reactor has potential advantages in safety and fuel utilization, and there is relevant accumulated technical expertise.
He had always wanted to apply this technology to China’s fourth aircraft carrier, but had run into a bottleneck and was feeling very frustrated.
“Yes, Elder Yuan.” Old Chen quickly called over the conference room assistant to export the contents of the hard drive.
No one knew where Lin Xiaohe had found this hard drive—its capacity was super large.
Old Chen looked at it for a long time and found it was an unbranded, no-label, no-manufacturer product.
Every expert had their own field of expertise. The higher-ups had invited them here hoping they would check things in their own domains.
So they only picked out the content they were familiar with from the materials, not being too greedy for more.
For a time, the entire conference room held only the swish-swish of pen tips on white paper, the clatter of keyboards, and occasionally a few whispers.
Time ticked by, second by second. Everyone was immersed in the materials—heads not raised, meals not eaten, water not drunk—as if under some kind of spell.
Old Chen roughly flipped through all the materials. Although he wasn’t a specialist, he could still tell good from bad.
Beside him, the principal took off his jacket and couldn’t help bouncing his leg.
He hadn’t been this nervous in a long time.
If Lin Xiaohe’s materials were real, China’s first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier was just around the corner!
Breaking the Beautiful Country’s maritime hegemony, rebuilding the maritime order, wiping away past humiliation—just thinking about it made him feel immensely proud!
“Old Chen, do you think it’s real or fake?”
The principal asked in a breathy whisper.
Old Chen lowered his voice: “If I thought it was fake, why would I have reported it?”
“Haha, you’re right, I was being foolish.” The principal wiped sweat from his forehead with his sleeve, his heart almost leaping out of his throat.
Just as the atmosphere grew more and more tense and the principal couldn’t take it anymore and was about to go out for some air, Elder Yuan shot to his feet, face glowing, eyes as bright as stars.
“It’s real! The fourth-generation molten salt nuclear reactor technology is highly operable and very mature!”
A technology researched and developed in the lab is one breakthrough.
Being able to apply it in actual combat, or even mass-produce it—that’s another breakthrough entirely!
The technology in the materials belonged to the kind that could be mass-produced, so mature you couldn’t find a single flaw. It was as if it had already been verified through many real-world applications, with tiny errors corrected through actual use, so perfect that no one could pick out a single fault.
It was truly unbelievable.
With Elder Yuan leading the way, the other researchers voiced their opinions one after another.
“Currently, both our country and the Beautiful Country have equipped electromagnetic catapults. As for the more advanced electromagnetic railgun, it faces technical difficulties like barrel materials and electrode ablation. But these materials contain solutions to all these problems. I think we should give it a try!”
Even when the probability of success was only 20%, they had led experiments. Now that the probability of success was as high as 80%, why wouldn’t they try?
“This electromagnetic railgun design is very interesting—it also has missile defense capability and can perform air defense, missile defense, and precision strikes against land targets. From the blueprints, the integration is excellent—can’t find a single flaw.”
The feedback from each expert was compiled, and the final conclusion turned out to be that the authenticity of these materials exceeded 90%, with extremely significant guiding and reference value!
When the leadership learned of this, they immediately decided to convene a second round of meetings for a more comprehensive evaluation.
The experts in the conference room didn’t choose to leave. Instead, they surrounded Old Chen, curious about the person who had provided these materials.
“Lin Xiaohe? Which research institute is she from? This institute is impressive—walking at the forefront of the whole world!”
Old Chen’s mouth twitched: “She’s not from a research institute. She’s currently doing logistics in the cafeteria of the National Defense Military Academy.”
“Huh?!” Everyone turned to look at the National Defense Academy principal. “Aren’t you going too far? How could you let scientific research talent do logistics?”
That’s just absurd—there’s no inside story here, is there?
The principal, bearing the brunt of the criticism, was about to cry: “But she graduated from an agricultural university! Her major was agronomy!”
…
I suspect you’re messing with us, but I have no proof.
