1950s: After transmigrating into a capitalist, I relied on military industry to achieve a comeback.

He read it out word by word, his expression even more bewildered than when he first heard the term "converter oxygen blowing steelmaking method".

"Dragon Core? What's that? The heart of a dragon?" He scratched the back of his head, looking completely bewildered. "Jiaoyue, what... what's going on here? Weren't we talking about missiles and satellites? How did this get to dragons?"

"Director Zhang, in your opinion, whether it's a missile with a range of 10,000 kilometers or a spy satellite that can see license plates on the ground, what is their most core and crucial component?"

Lin Jiaoyue didn't explain, but instead asked a question.

"This..." Director Zhang was stumped. He thought for a moment, then tentatively answered, "Is it the engine? Or the fuel?"

"Those are all important, but none of them are fundamental." Lin Jiaoyue shook her head and pointed to the four characters "Loongson-1" that she had written with the tip of her pen. "It's this."

She looked up at the bewildered Director Zhang and said, word by word:

"It's a 'brain.' A 'brain' that's smart enough, fast enough, and small enough."

"What did we rely on for the guidance of our 'Dongfeng-1'? It was tens of thousands of data points that Song Siming and I painstakingly typed out using abacuses and hand-cranked calculators, and then executed using an extremely complex mechanical device. This device, just the ground-based calculation part alone, filled an entire room and weighed several tons."

"How did we shoot down the enemy's reconnaissance plane? It was by forcefully calculating a non-linear variable based on the pilots' habits—it was gambling, it was luck!"

"How far can we go with this model that relies on manual labor, luck, and the hands of experienced craftsmen to make up for the lack of precision?"

Lin Jiaoyue's voice wasn't loud, but every word was like a heavy hammer blow, striking Director Zhang's heart hard.

The confusion on his face gradually faded, replaced by deep contemplation and solemnity.

"I understand what you're saying," he said in a hoarse voice. "You mean our current weapons are too 'clumsy'?"

"They're not stupid, they're dumb," Lin Jiaoyue corrected bluntly. "They don't have their own 'brains'; they can only passively execute the programs we've set up. Once the external environment undergoes any unexpected changes, they're just a pile of scrap metal."

"And what about the enemy?" she asked, pointing to the intelligence report on the "Polaris" missile.

"Look here, the 'Starlight Inertial Guidance System.' This thing allows missiles to correct their course automatically based on the stars in the sky during flight! It has its own 'eyes' and 'brain'!"

"And this," she said, pointing to a photo of a spy satellite.

"A digital image processing system. It can compress and encrypt the photos taken in the air before transmitting them back to the ground. We're still using film rolls now, and after we're done, we have to throw the entire recovery capsule back to Earth and send planes to retrieve it from the sky! Have you ever thought about how big the difference is?"

Director Zhang remained silent.

He wasn't a technical expert, but he understood what Lin Jiaoyue meant.

This is no longer a simple gap in weapon performance; it's a difference in mindset and technological system—a generational gap!

"So, your 'Loongson' is the thing that allows our weapons to grow 'brains'?"

He finally understood, and his breathing became rapid.

"That's right." Lin Jiaoyue nodded.

"Loongson is the name I gave to our country's first-generation integrated circuit, or chip. I hope it can be like the heart of a dragon, providing a continuous and powerful computing force for all our cutting-edge equipment."

"With it, our missiles can truly achieve 'shoot and forget' capability, finding their targets on their own."

"With it, our satellites can become information processing centers in space, instead of just being point-and-shoot cameras that can only take pictures."

"With it, we can have our own supercomputer to simulate nuclear explosions and calculate more complex trajectories, instead of relying on manpower and abacuses."

"It is the cornerstone of all our future 'major national weapons.' Without it, no matter how many missiles we build or how large our warships are, they are merely piles of steel and will never possess a true 'soul'!"

As she said this, Lin Jiaoyue placed her hands on the edge of the table and leaned forward slightly. Her almond-shaped eyes, which usually exuded a hint of languor, were now flashing with extreme madness and certainty.

She stared into Director Zhang's eyes, then suddenly changed the subject:

"Furthermore, Director Zhang, I know you were eyeing those three projects earlier. But why don't you do the math—what would happen if we patiently developed this 'Loongson' chip first, and then installed it into those heavy equipment you've been longing for?"

Director Zhang, who was still struggling to digest the esoteric concept of "integrated circuits," swallowed hard upon hearing this.

"...What will be the consequences?"

Lin Jiaoyue stretched out a finger and forcefully tapped the blank report papers on the table.

"The consequence is that, with it installed on your 'Dongfeng-2,' not only will the range continue to increase, but even more terrifyingly, the accuracy will be improved! The error will no longer be measured in kilometers; it can be like it has eyes, directly hitting the chimney of the enemy's command post across the ocean!"

"With the 'Sky Shield' air defense network installed, the radar can grow a 'brain,' simultaneously locking onto dozens or even hundreds of targets in the sky. No matter how the enemy planes maneuver, we'll take them down one by one as soon as they fly in!"

"And then there's the 'Dragon King' that you've been eyeing the most! A deep-sea blackfish equipped with it can calculate coordinates thousands of kilometers away without surfacing, even from hundreds of meters below the surface, and secretly 'call out' the bosses on the other side!"

Director Zhang's eyes widened instantly, and his breathing became noticeably heavier.

Lin Jiaoyue didn't give him a chance to catch his breath and continued:

"Not only will it be incredibly powerful, but more importantly, with it, our speed in developing new things will be frighteningly fast!"

She looked at Director Zhang:

"Don't forget the supercomputer I mentioned earlier. With this 'heart,' the calculation speed will be ten thousand times faster than current hand-cranked calculators and abacuses! In the past, Song Siming led dozens of experts, almost breaking the abacus beads, and spent half a month figuring out a set of ballistic data. In the future, once the machine is powered on, it will give you the accurate answer in a matter of seconds with a 'click'!"

"This means that in the future, whether we're developing new fighter jets or building large warships, we no longer need a large group of people working day and night, risking their lives to calculate! Faster calculations mean the development cycle can be shortened exponentially! We can develop heavy weapons that take foreigners ten years to create, and then launch and take off in just a few years! What I'm giving you is true reduction in capabilities, superior technology, and superior strike capability!"