Siheyuan: I, Shazhu, started out as an army and became a general.

Beijing, Xijiao Airport.

The north wind howled, whipping up withered grass and scattering it wildly across the concrete track.

Several Hongqi sedans lay in wait like silent behemoths beside the tarmac. Marshal Nie stood in the wind, his clothes fluttering in the breeze, his usually composed face now filled with undisguised anticipation.

He Yuzhu was half a step behind, his military lighter, polished to a shine, clicked open and closed with a leisurely rhythm, yet exuding a sense of composure.

Although his title was changed to Special Chief Advisor at the rank of Major General, this did not prevent him from acting with impunity in the inner circle.

"Here I am!" Marshal Nie took a sudden step forward.

The clouds were torn apart, and a silver-white Boeing private jet roared toward the ground.

The hatch opened, and a middle-aged man wearing a dark trench coat and round-framed glasses slowly stepped out.

Despite his travel-worn appearance, his refined demeanor was undeniable, but his eyes, fixed on the ground beneath his feet, burned with an intense, scorching light.

Qian Xuesen.

The man who made Americans grit their teeth and prefer to keep him in prison rather than let him return to China has returned to his rightful place.

"Welcome home!" Marshal Nie strode forward to greet him, their hands clasped tightly together, a gesture that spoke volumes.

After a brief exchange of pleasantries, Qian Xuesen adjusted his glasses, his gaze passing over Marshal Nie's shoulder and settling on the excessively young officer.

"Who is this?" Qian Xuesen asked, somewhat surprised.

He had read intelligence from across the ocean and knew that there was a ruthless man in China codenamed "Tiger," but the real person... looked too young, and even a bit roguish.

"He Yuzhu. The chief designer of our base is also the one who has read your book 'Engineering Cybernetics' the most thoroughly." Marshal Nie patted He Yuzhu on the shoulder with a smile. "Don't be fooled by his appearance. The core data for the atomic bomb was painstakingly calculated by him and his team using abacus beads."

"An abacus?" Qian Xuesen's eyelids twitched, and he extended his hand. "Nice to meet you."

"Mr. Qian, I've heard so much about you." He Yuzhu put away his lighter, his handshake firm and steady, his eyes sharp. "The Americans say you're worth five divisions. In my opinion, they didn't study math well. You're worth at least five hundred Dongfeng Express missiles, the kind with nuclear warheads."

Qian Xuesen was taken aback for a moment, then burst into hearty laughter: "General He's analogy is quite novel."

The convoy started and headed straight for the top-secret guesthouse.

Inside the carriage, the pleasantries faded, and the atmosphere quickly shifted to a hardcore mode.

"The basic industries in China are more troublesome than expected." Qian Xuesen looked out the window at the bleak winter scenery with a furrowed brow. "There are no aerodynamics laboratories, no large wind tunnels, and the most critical thing is computing power... We can't even find a few decent vacuum tube computers."

"General He, how did you solve the trajectory calculations for developing missiles under these conditions?"

Hit the nail on the head.

Without computing power, missiles are blind; once launched, they're just giant rockets.

He Yuzhu didn't speak, but slowly took out a neatly folded blueprint from his pocket and handed it over: "Those vacuum tubes are delicate, generate a lot of heat, and take up a lot of space. I find them troublesome and don't use them. I figured out a little gadget myself."

Qian Xuesen took the blueprints and glanced at them under the dim light of his reading lamp.

Just one glance.

This aerodynamics master, who had seen the world's top technologies, suddenly trembled, and the blueprints almost fell.

He suddenly looked up, staring intently at He Yuzhu, his voice trembling: "Transistor...this is an integrated circuit? No, this architecture...you designed this?"

The blueprints show He Yuzhu's modified "Loongson" prototype architecture, with several lines of derivation formulas for quantum computing written next to it.

In an era when even transistors still had to be soldered by hand, this blueprint was practically a mystery.

"I know a little, I know a little." He Yuzhu leaned back in his chair, his tone nonchalant. "Our family isn't well-off, we definitely can't catch up by following other people's old paths."

"To overtake on a curve, you always need some unconventional methods. I call this thing a prototype of a 'logic gate.' Although it's still a work in progress, it's barely enough to calculate a ballistic trajectory."

The carriage was so quiet that only the hum of the engine could be heard.

Qian Xuesen's fingers gripped the blueprints so tightly they turned white. Having spent so many years at MIT, the work He Yuzhu produced wasn't just ahead of its time; it was a complete technological leap!

This is not "a little knowledge" at all; this is clearly rubbing the faces of those Western professors into the ground!

"I know a little..." Qian Xuesen took off his glasses, rubbed his temples, and said with a wry smile, "General He, if von Neumann heard you say 'I know a little,' he'd probably jump out of his coffin in anger."

"It's even better if they jump out; we can use them as laborers." He Yuzhu grinned, then pointed to the bottom corner of the blueprints. "Mr. Qian, we have the atomic bomb and the missiles. Next, I need you to help me get something done."

Qian Xuesen put his glasses back on, his expression solemn: "What?"

He Yuzhu's lips curled into a wild, arrogant smile as he spoke, each word deliberate and deliberate:

"Manned spaceflight".

Qian Xuesen's breath hitched.

In an era when even ordinary people can't get enough to eat, this person actually wants to send people to heaven?

"But before that," He Yuzhu's tone shifted, his eyes instantly becoming sharp as a knife, "we need to break the sword of Damocles hanging over our heads first. I heard the Russians are promoting their 'ten-megaton-class' nuclear theory? I don't believe in that nonsense."

"You mean...?"

"A hydrogen bomb," He Yuzhu said decisively. "And it must be a hydrogen bomb with a design that belongs to us Chinese. The TU design is someone else's. If we're going to develop one, we'll develop our own design, a Chinese design."

Outside the car window, the night was as dark as ink.

But both people in the car knew that a blazing sun belonging to the East was about to be forcibly pulled up from below the horizon by their joint efforts.

[Ding! Detected that the host has completed a historic meeting with Qian Xuesen. Achievement accomplished: Dual-core drive!]

[Check-in successful! Rewards: Full-band phased array radar technology (S-level), high-energy aerospace fuel formula, and 5 jin of specially supplied Da Hong Pao tea!]

He Yuzhu was overjoyed, his smile more pronounced than an AK.

Phased array radar?

We've come at the perfect time!

They were just worried about what to do with those U-2 reconnaissance planes that were buzzing overhead all day.

Dare to come? I'll break your legs!