Traveling Back to the 1960s: The Entire Internet Teaches Me How to Build Missiles

Chapter 73 Escort - Qiu Xiaomei

With the support of Ye Ling and Staff Officer Xu, Zhou Yunxiao joined the top-secret 501 escort team.

The team consisted of Chief of Staff Xu Qianxue, Mu Chunsheng, Li Difeng, and three other trusted members.

After the meeting, Ye Ling kept all seven people behind, and Chief of Staff Xu came down from the stage and shook hands with each of them.

Xu Qianxue then joined the group and stood in a row with everyone.

Only Ye Ling and the special task force remained in the huge auditorium.

"Comrades, do you want to know what this mysterious cargo we're escorting is?"

Ye Ling asked everyone in a relaxed tone.

Apart from Chief of Staff Xu, the other six shook their heads dumbly. Even though Zhou Yunxiao vaguely guessed something, he didn't dare to say anything at this moment.

Ye Ling said succinctly, "What you are about to escort is our first atomic weapon, which we independently developed, produced, and assembled—the atomic bomb!"

Upon hearing this, all six people were startled and stared at each other in disbelief.

Li Difeng, the technical backbone recommended by the third division, was a bit older and even unconsciously had to help Zhou Yunxiao to steady himself.

Unsurprisingly, everyone was stunned.

Escorting—the atomic bomb!

No wonder the higher-level organization and the base branch attach so much importance to this matter, even emphasizing the need to pay the price of lives to protect it.

This thing is definitely worth it.

Ye Ling looked at everyone's performance with satisfaction, thinking to himself that his performance wasn't too bad when he first learned the news from Director Chen over the phone.

After a brief moment of shock and calm, everyone was overjoyed.

Li Difeng looked at Ye Ling as if seeking confirmation: "Our first atomic bomb has been successfully developed? When will it be tested?" Ye Ling nodded with his hands behind his back and replied: "Our Project 596 has indeed made rapid progress. Westerners predicted that we would not succeed until 1964, and Sultan predicted 1963—unfortunately, they were all wrong."

"From this moment on, the earth-shattering countdown to Project 596 begins. I cannot disclose the exact timing. All you need to know is the responsibility you bear: to bring this atomic bomb back unscathed!"

This statement was so airtight that not a single detail was revealed.

But Zhou Yunxiao still vaguely heard the unspoken meaning: if nothing unexpected happened, this loud noise should be broadcast to the world this year.

Wow, that's progressing so fast!

He didn't know if this was related to the batch of translation materials he had submitted, but perhaps it had helped in some way, such as saving Dean Lu Guangda more than half a year's worth of calculation time.

But even with a lot of data, it's still just supplementary; the real credit goes to the efforts of Dean Lu and his generation of scientists.

Just like calculus textbooks are easy to buy, how many people can actually learn it on their own?

The comrades in the task force were filled with excitement and trepidation at the thought of the glorious and great mission they were about to undertake, wishing they could sprout wings and rush off to escort the goods.

But then someone asked, "Sir, why are we bringing the atomic bomb to our base? Are we going to detonate it on our Gobi Desert?"

Ye Ling waved his hand. "Let me correct something first. Regarding the atomic bomb that Top Secret 501 is transporting, only I, the political commissar, the chief of staff, and a few of you in the entire base know the details. The comrades who just attended the meeting only know that it is a valuable shipment, but they know nothing about what it is."

I'm not hiding it from you all because you'll be personally escorting the goods from now on. To prevent the news from spreading and being stolen by those with ulterior motives, from this moment on, all communication in public will be done using code words. As for the atomic bomb—let's not call her that publicly, just call her Little Sister Qiu!

"Little Sister Qiu, Little Sister Qiu, that's a nice name."

"It sounds kind of familiar; who would have guessed that the name would be the atomic bomb!"

"But why the surname Qiu? Couldn't it be Li or Wang?"

Ye Ling retorted irritably, "The atomic bomb is just a ball, isn't it only natural that it should bear the surname Qiu?"

"Then why not call her Sister Qiu?"

Zhou Yunxiao looked at this idiot technical backbone of the Second Division with a sympathetic expression. "Are you a Blue Rabbit Naughty Three Thousand Questions?"

Seeing this, Ye Ling chuckled, "This comrade has hit the nail on the head. Why is our atomic sphere named Qiu Xiaomei, and why was it transported to the Gobi Desert? Because there are two of them!"

"Two? Two balls?"

"My goodness, I heard that when the Americans were dealing with the Japanese, they only needed two pills to scare them into surrendering. Doesn't that mean we can finally hold our heads high too?"

"Two pills aren't enough! I think at least twenty are needed for a peaceful night's sleep!"

叶令打断众人的猜议，「这两颗球儿，分别是596—1号和596—2号，其中1号是试验弹、2号是备份弹。备份弹是什幺意思呢？万一1号失败了、就让2号立即替补上来。同时若1号成功了，2号也能成为咱们的潜在威慑力量————」

Upon hearing this, Zhou Yunxiao understood.

It seems that Sister Qiu's name has been reserved for the No. 1 bomb, so the No. 2 backup bomb can only be called Sister Qiu.

These twin sisters are bound to have one of them cry out New Oriental's first cry to the world!

Ye Ling continued, "I can't say much about the No. 1 missile. But the backup missile was originally supposed to be transported to Urumqi in the northwest, ready to be deployed at any time. However, after discussion, Director Chen, Deputy Director Ping, and others believed that having both missiles in the northwest posed a strategic risk."

At this point, he subtly raised his index finger and pointed north, "The Lop Nur test range where we conduct our experiments was chosen and built with their help. They know everything about us. If they wanted to do something underhanded, they could easily succeed."

Upon hearing this, Mu Chunsheng angrily retorted, "I knew my elder brother had wolfish ambitions!"

Zhou Yunxiao couldn't help but ask, "But isn't it unsafe here? The Badain Desert is too close to the north, only a few dozen kilometers away, even closer to the border than the Great Northern Wilderness. If something were to happen, a tank formation could reach the base in two hours, right?"

Upon hearing this, everyone nodded in agreement, feeling that the Dongfeng base was not entirely secure.

But Ye Ling waved his hand and said, "These are not for you to consider. Currently, Project 596 has three bases. The Jinyintan base is a research and development base, and only the Lop Nur base and our Dongfeng base are test sites. Therefore, No. 1 and No. 2 can only be kept by the two bases respectively."

As for the issue of strategic depth—don't worry, we've prepared contingency plans. I wouldn't dare boast about anything else, but if something unexpected happens, I, Ye Guoquan, can easily hold off a two-hour defensive battle!

Having said all that, there was nothing more to say. All that remained was to carry out the escort mission diligently.

After briefly explaining some precautions, Ye Ling dismissed everyone and told them to go back and pack their luggage for departure the next day.

He called Zhou Yunxiao to his office alone, hesitated for a long time, and then took out a bottle of his treasured Moutai from the cabinet.

"You little rascal, you got incredibly lucky! You actually bet right! I won't renege on my bet; it's a loss, this bottle of Moutai is yours!"

Zhou Yunxiao's eyes lit up when he saw the bottle of Moutai. He picked it up and examined it from all angles.

Ye Ling said irritably, "Alright, stop checking. Where am I supposed to get you fake Moutai? I bought this with my own money, not public funds, so you can keep it without worry."

Zhou Yunxiao clicked his tongue in amazement: "Our 'Yingji' really won the election? I'm just guessing!"

Ye Ling and Zhou Yunxiao previously bet on who would win the election, and now they have accepted their loss, giving Moutai to each other.

He pushed a copy of the Reference News newspaper that had been delivered last week over to him.

Zhou Yunxiao picked up the newspaper and quickly glanced at it. He hadn't expected that the election battle between Nixon and Kenneth would be so full of twists and turns, even triggering the Twelfth Amendment, and it wasn't until March that the matter was finally settled.

This is considered one of the biggest scandals in American history.

Zhou Yunxiao tucked the newspaper into his pocket, then shook the bottle of Moutai. "You're really willing to give it away? I heard it costs eight yuan a bottle now. Otherwise, you can use canned pork instead. I don't want to take what others like, hehe."

"Don't I look like a can of pork?"

Ye Ling glared at him. "Go away, go away! If you lose a bet, just admit it. I'm not that shameless. Besides, you can't buy Moutai for eight yuan anymore. I bought it for sixteen yuan, and even that was after pulling some strings!"

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