Ming Dynasty, New Rome, and Infinite Divine Machine

"Wow, are there really hot Coke for sale here?" Shangluo hadn't noticed that the vending machine at his door was so "versatile" that it even sold this kind of thing.

I packaged several bottles of drinks and delivered them one by one, and then a few more people came to sign up.

Everything went well next door, so he brought a hot Coke to the finance office. Lei Fu was sweeping the floor.

"Senior, here you go."

"Thanks. Ah, hot Coke, that's what I love."

"Can I ask why? People's appetites are really strange."

"The weather is cold where we are, so the drinks I drank since I was a child were all scalded."

"Is it that cold? Isn't it still quite hot in your place in the summer? So what do you drink in the summer?"

“I drink hot drinks in the summer, too.”

[What kind of people are these? Look at who you have recruited.]

"Um, Senior, let me tell you about our work."

It was the first time for Shangluo to discuss such work with someone other than an acquaintance.

Although he and Lei Fu were no strangers and had met several times at school before, this was the first time they communicated about work matters.

"The work we have to do here is both simple and complex. The first thing we need to purchase is mainly for our small group of people, and the quantity is very small."

"Don't worry, I've done the math at home, too. I was the one who did the math for the acres of cattle in our family, because I'm very fast at using a calculator. When I was in middle school, I stamped my own internship papers during the summer vacation."

"Ah! That's great. It turns out that our Imperial College is full of talented people. Could you please also arrange the purchase of torch fuel?"

"What are you purchasing?"

"Torch fuel. Haven't you heard of it?"

Lei Fu shook his head repeatedly: "This seems to be a secret. I don't think I can do it. Ah!"

He thought about it again. If he didn't do well in the first job he was assigned, would Shangluo look down on him? After all, he had seen the people who had come before him, and even the senior Han Xingsi had come in and knocked on the door for an interview.

He had to do the job no matter what.

"Actually, if I can't do it, I can ask someone else to come sit here. Look at the room across the street. There's a water dispenser there."

"Wait! Let me try first!"

Lei Fu picked up the phone and dialed his home number.

"Hello? Dad? It's me. I don't want money. I haven't finished eating the sunken vegetables. My girlfriend is blowing it. Oh, it's not that. Dad, I want to ask you, do you know where to buy torch?"

Suddenly, Shangluo saw Lei Fu's face become troubled.

"Hey! Dad, what's wrong with you? Why are you laughing?"

"My son has made it big! He can even take care of things like this! Who asked you to buy it?"

"I'm on my side." He glanced at Shangluo, "It's my superior."

"That's easy. Leave your phone number and I'll call you back from work."

"Oh." Lei Fu hung up the phone with a confused look on his face.

"Huh? What does your family do?" Shangluo asked in surprise.

"Liaodong military household, I told you before. My family grows crops, raises cattle, chickens, and ostriches. We raise a lot of things."

[Shangluo! There's a phone call coming in! It's from Daqing Oilfield! ]

"Huh???" Shangluo was stunned for a moment, "Does your father work in the oil field?"

"Really? Seems so?" Lei Fu looked up at the sky. "His workplace is quite far from home. He drives out every morning. I have never been to his workplace. They said it is confidential."

[That's right. The one calling is the Second Fuel Department of Daqing Oilfield. This seems to be a confidential code name. The so-called "Second Fuel" should mean spiritual energy fuel.]

Shangluo answered the phone: "Hello, what can I do for you?"

"Hello, hello. My last name is Lei, and I am the military chief of the Second Fuel Department. Thanks to your care, my son has become successful and has surpassed his father in business. May I ask what department your Excellency is in? Where is it located? How many people are there? What is the purpose of ordering our 'Second Fuel'?"

[Hey! Wait, he's using the military phone to report to the Jinyiwei! He's asking the Jinyiwei to track down your location. He thinks you're a strange person!]

"Wait! Mr. Lei? Please don't introduce yourself first. I am the Royal Guard."

"The King of Heaven and the Tiger of Earth?" the other side asked.

"A pagoda suppresses the river monster?"

"Nonsense! Do you think this is a den of bandits? The Imperial Guards don't have this kind of division at all. You've probably read too many comics. You sound young, how could you do such a big evil? I advise you to explain clearly, the Imperial Guards are already heading for you! Are you kidding? Torch fuel can be bought by just making a phone call???"

Five minutes later, Lu Huaiyang arrived. He took the phone, talked and laughed with the person on the other end for a while, and then handed the phone to Shangluo.

"Oh my! It's Shang Tianjun. I'm so sorry. Thanks to your care, my son has even managed to get more business than his father! It's really an honor for our whole family! Oh my, I'm so sorry just now. It was really a flood that washed away the Dragon King Temple."

[It’s understandable. If I knew that my son suddenly started doing confidential work, the source was still unclear, and he was recruiting in the capital, I would definitely report it to Jin. It would be strange if I didn’t report it to Jin.]

Shangluo didn't care. First of all, this military officer named Lei was very well-mannered. He didn't even scold him at this time. And he responded quickly and correctly, and had a high sense of confidentiality. This was exactly the person the department wanted to cooperate with.

Shangluo briefly introduced the affairs here and conveyed the news that he wanted to obtain torch fuel.

"Sorry, we don't have any extra here. But if you need it in Beijing, we can refill it on the spot."

"Eh? So it's so convenient?"

Shangluo heard the first half of the sentence and thought it would be troublesome to get this batch of fuel. After all, when they were racing before, they asked the "friendly team" to help them with the special fuel.

Shangluo thought that it would be very troublesome to make the torch fuel. Unexpectedly, it only required "adding" a part, just like opening a water pipe.

"That's right. Torch fuel is like vermicelli, which is originally starch. It is just a different form when it is made into Torch. In addition, it can be kept for a long time when not in use, but it must be eaten as soon as it is made, otherwise it will easily go bad. If Torch fuel goes bad, it will be very troublesome to destroy it, which is why we have set up a confidential "Second Fuel Department" here. Our Second Fuel Department is affiliated with the Seventh Branch of Shuntian Industry Department, and the entire department is confidential."

"So Mr. Lei, you are a member of the Royal Guards, right?"

"No, I was in the Imperial Guards Aviation Corps and returned home after retiring. But I know the captain Lu just now."

Chapter 1305 Fuel

"No wonder." Shangluo saw that he and Lu Qianhu seemed so familiar with each other, so they were indeed not strangers.

Come to think of it, those who can study in the Imperial College by virtue of the imperial title are actually all the same.

"By the way, Shangluo, how much are you going to pay for it?" the other side asked, "Although this is our internal matter, we still have to settle the bill."

"Ah? Does it cost money?"

"Yes. And it's very troublesome."

"I almost forgot. It's very troublesome." Captain Lu reminded him, "If you purchase directly from Daqing Oilfield, you have to use Liaodong military notes."

"what is that?"

"That's it. How should I put it?" Lu Qianhu thought for a while, "It's Liaodong currency, the local currency used in Liaodong. Liaodong uses another set of currency issued by the Ministry of Industry, mainly to prevent people from going to Liaodong to buy up land and annex land, destroy military settlements, etc. In order to protect the economic development of Liaodong, the Ministry of Industry and the Ministry of War set a threshold through Liaodong military notes."

"Ah, is there any exchange limit? Do I need to exchange it separately?"

"It's okay. You don't have to pay. Just keep the account. Liaodong military notes are not for civilian use. They are mainly used for accounting and are only transferred between departments. I will handle this. You can just use them. Damn it, how did you find the Daqing Oilfield?"

Shangluo pointed at Lei Fu who was standing next to him.

"Ah! You must be Lao Lei's son! You look exactly like him, except that you are much thinner than him."

[I roughly know what the person on the other end of the line looks like. I guess your chair won’t fit.]

"If you can't find the oil field, I actually plan to help you allocate some from the research institute. Let me tell you, it's actually quite difficult to talk to the oil field people."

"I think I heard it." Shangluo realized that this so-called "second fuel" seemed to be something that was quite dangerous to manage. "It would be very troublesome to control, right?"

Lu Huaiyang nodded: "The use of Torch Fuel needs to be supervised throughout the entire process, this is a basic rule. Because any Qigong practitioner who gets Torch Fuel can turn it into a bomb. This is considered a firearms control for Qigong practitioners. Without Torch Fuel, the damage that Qigong practitioners in the Qigong period can cause is limited. But if Torch Fuel is added, that is not necessarily the case.

"So the Second Fuel Department generally does not accept additional orders from outside. Although you are sure to give it, don't you have to keep it confidential?"

"Yeah, yeah." Shangluo nodded.

"It's easy to not keep it secret. We can just send a letter from Jinyiwei and ask them to coordinate. But if you want to keep it secret, then we have to..." Lu Huaiyang covered his forehead, "We have to smuggle it ourselves."

"Ah, this. Is this appropriate?"

"It's what you want, boss. I still don't know where exactly you are going to recruit soldiers?"

"Eh? Captain Lu, you still don't know, right?"

"Of course I don't know. I only heard something like 'shoot the moon rabbit, shoot the moon rabbit'. I guess it's a code. Who knows what you are going to shoot? You haven't informed me of your real purpose. You can't really be going to shoot the moon rabbit."

"Well, actually we are going to hunt the Moon Rabbit. And you know about Lu Qianhu, so let's go together."

"Goodbye." Lu Huaiyang turned around and left, and threw back a sentence, "I will help you with the fuel issue. Let this kid do some smuggling with his father."

After saying that, Lu Huaiyang ran away.

"I knew that as soon as I said that, the older people would run away. If it weren't for the credits, who would want to go to a place like this?"

[Fortunately, the fuel is now available.]

Shangluo knew that this time he might have to use a lot of fuel, mainly because the lunar surface combat would probably rely mainly on machinery, especially automatic machinery.

At this time, if you want to maintain energy supply on the lunar surface, you can only use torch fuel.

First of all, solar energy is not an option, as solar energy technology is just getting started, and it is impossible to use electricity for all lunar operations. Ordinary fuel is also not an option, because the lunar surface environment is expected to be quite harsh, and it is unlikely that liquids will remain in liquid form for long enough.

At this time, the torch element is very important. No matter what the surrounding conditions are, the torch element fuel can maintain the most stable form under the control of the Qigong practitioner.

And just as Lu Huaiyang said, the destructive power that ordinary Qigong practitioners can cause is quite limited. But once there is phlogiston, substantial energy can be stimulated from it, and there are many uses. Just making a detonation gun is already a very powerful weapon.

[Shangluo, I'm thinking about one thing - are we still missing something? ]

"what?"

[It seems difficult for a space suit practitioner to remain active in outer space. 】

"Oh!" Shangluo slapped his head, "How could I forget it?"

[How could you forget even this? ]

"Because I don't need it. I just need to maintain the small circulation, which can last for a long time. I think most of the time should be spent in the cabin, and I can just go out physically for extravehicular activities - but I forgot that I can't go out during the Qi training period."

[If you don't mind, we can ask Rome to provide some. ]

“Are there a lot of them over there?”

[It's the stealth suit you wore before. That suit can even be used as a deep-sea diving suit. As long as it has enough phlogiston, it can adapt to any environment. Even in outer space, it can maintain its normal internal state and will not even affect activities.]

"So that's the calculation. Very good, we're all ready. Once all the people who have signed up are here and the rocket is well maintained, we can go to space right away."

This was an unprecedentedly fast space activity. Shangluo even only planned to give each selected Qigong practitioner three days to train. Now with Zhu Ling, the scale of the training might have to be expanded, and then she would be eliminated.

For Qigong practitioners, three days of adaptation should be enough for them to adapt to the cosmic environment. On the first day of the experiment, Shangluo prepared to give everyone an overload of 10 times gravity. Those who could bear it would stay, and those who couldn't would leave.

This is where Qigong practitioners come in handy. They can easily reach the limits of their bodies through spiritual energy, which is an ability that all Qigong practitioners have. Therefore, they don't need to be trained for too long, because Qigong practitioners can adapt to everything. As their cultivation level improves, Qigong practitioners' adaptability to the environment will become stronger and stronger, until they establish a small circulation in the Jindan stage, and then they can completely ignore the external environment.

"Since it's going so well, let's start overload training tomorrow. By the way, do we have any training equipment?"

[Definitely not. Neither does Rome.]

"That's easy. I'll fly the plane myself and take them for a flight. Wait, Apollonia, please inform those who plan to participate in the selection that they should not eat from tonight. Do not eat."

It's Tuesday, new book is waiting for you to read

It's time for the weekly reading. Please read the new book, thank you.

Chapter 1306 Five Animals Play

"For safety reasons, Princess, I think we can conduct the assessment in advance. Let me tell you first, if you can't even pass my assessment, then I'm afraid something will really go wrong when you get on the rocket."

"What are you doing?" Zhu Xianxun looked at his sister in front of him with a confused look on his face. Shangluo was sitting next to him and Zhu Ling was standing in front of them.

"I just want to sign up." Zhu Ling lowered her head and played with the buttons, buttoning them in and out.

"Look at me!" Zhu Xianxi slammed his palm on the table. "You want to go to heaven without saying anything, right? Have you discussed this with mom? Have you discussed this with me?"

"I have discussed this with my sister-in-law."

"What did your sister-in-law say?"