Chapter 113: Turning The Tables
Ye Rongshan shook his head in refusal: “The Moon’s space elevator will still be undertaken for construction by Great Xia, and the subsequent refinery will similarly be funded and undertaken for construction by the Ministry of Industry. You all don’t have it easy either.”
Then he turned toward the Military Commander over there who had never spoken up.
“Liu Shengzhan, you speak. The Ministry of Economy and Trade and the Ministry of Industry both fully support you.”
Everyone quickly quieted down, their gazes on Liu Shengzhan with that surprised expression, waiting for what came next.
Liu Shengzhan pondered slightly. Elder Ye’s meeting had gone on until now, and he knew Elder Ye was no longer satisfied with economic sanctions, industrial sanctions, and other such measures.
All the previous communication had ultimately shown that Great Xia’s domestic situation was particularly good right now, with the conditions to support his military headquarters’ actions.
It seemed today he couldn’t just thoroughly take responsibility for listening to orders.
Liu Shengzhan’s gaze turned to Fan Ren, and he said gravely: “Xinghai’s supercomputer provides a huge boost to our military headquarters’ command data link system.”
“We can provide the military headquarters with a dedicated supercomputer for free.”
Fan Ren directly took over the conversation, without the slightest hesitation.
His own company’s chips, the system designed by A’dai. The cost wasn’t high; he could afford it.
Liu Shengzhan nodded, a hint of excitement showing on his face as he said: “Actually, during this sudden incident, I had already considered an idea. Our space elevator, due to its height issue, can’t possibly defend against various spacecraft collisions disguised as falls at all times.”
Everyone nodded along upon hearing this; there was no reasoning to guard against a thief for a thousand days. If not for this United States space object being noticed due to its scrapped fall, for some other small satellite, Great Xia wouldn’t possibly track and monitor it in real time.
Looking at everyone’s reactions, he continued: “In view of this, the military headquarters has decided to establish a space force. Starting now, all spacecraft exceeding 200 kilometers must forcibly be implanted with our monitoring system. If any related force disagrees, our space force will forcibly scrap them to avoid threats to Great Xia’s space elevator safety.”
His words hadn’t ended.
“At the same time, the military headquarters plans to implement thorough military control over the eastern and southern sea areas. Starting from the plan’s implementation, any warship entering those sea areas must report to our military headquarters; otherwise, all will be regarded as illegal intrusion into our sea areas, and the military headquarters will sink them.”
Liu Shengzhan paused. These were just appetizers, and they were also interest demands that Great Xia had long overdue to claim for itself.
Ye Rongshan knew he wasn’t finished and patted the table: “What else?”
Liu Shengzhan no longer hesitated, puffed out his chest, and said: “The military headquarters will deploy two aircraft carrier groups, advancing 2000 nautical miles east into the eastern sea area to carry out routine sea area management. All warships not reported in advance to our military headquarters are prohibited from entering; otherwise, our military headquarters reserves the right to drive away all warships appearing in that sea area to protect the navigation safety of our merchant ships!”
After his words, the meeting room quieted down.
Ye Rongshan fell into thought. This action was too big; Liu Shengzhan hadn’t fully stated what he meant.
The military headquarters intended to directly drive out all United States forces within 2000 nautical miles east of Great Xia.
Of course it couldn’t be achieved all at once, but at least this was the beginning.
This action also marked that Great Xia’s foreign-facing mode would thoroughly shift from previous passivity to future proactivity.
It would absolutely touch the sensitive nerves of the White Alliance side.
But he didn’t refute it.
Indeed, at this point today, still allowing the South Island Country and Little Japan Country to the east to host United States forces, monitoring Great Xia’s every move in real time without restraint at any time.
This point had long been criticized by people.
Fan Ren noticed that the person who changed the most in the room after Liu Shengzhan spoke was that Foreign Affairs Department chief Zhao Bo who had never spoken up.
Though he wasn’t sharp-eyed, at this moment he could clearly sense that this elegant and amiable Foreign Affairs Department chief was starting to toughen up.
“Our Foreign Affairs Department will arrange the relevant foreign statements.”
He spoke solemnly, his eyes revealing fervor. Fan Ren instantly understood upon seeing this; this one had been holding it in for long enough too.
“Elder Ye, may I say something?”
Fan Ren felt that although his words carried little weight, as Xinghai’s chairman, he had to remind everyone.
Everyone’s gazes instantly turned to him.
In today’s meeting setting, bringing him along was already setting a precedent. Who would’ve thought this kid now had the guts to speak up at this moment?
Elder Ye showed no surprise, however. Although Xinghai was currently a wholly-owned private company, with project after project landing, its nature was no longer that of an ordinary private enterprise.
Otherwise, it would’ve been impossible to have Fan Ren attend this internal meeting today.
He nodded to indicate.
“It’s like this: lately I’ve been pondering an engine powered by nuclear fusion. I already have some ideas, and with the supercomputer’s help plus our financial strength, I believe we can produce results within three months. At that time, all spacecraft in outer space will be equipped with this engine.
Because it uses a nuclear fusion reactor, the energy conversion aspect isn’t perfect yet, with thrust only comparable to our traditional chemical fuel engines, but it has extremely strong endurance time.
For a simple data comparison, our Star Transport series launch vehicle, at full power, has fuel that can run continuously for 5 hours.
But after switching to the nuclear fusion engine, under the same full power state and same fuel tonnage, the continuous running time can reach 10 years.
At that time, in space navigation, we won’t need to rely on inertial acceleration anymore. We can continuously accelerate for the initial 2/3 of the journey, then switch to reverse thrust deceleration after completing that process to ensure a lower relative speed upon reaching the destination—this navigation method.
According to our supercomputer’s results, the time for round trips between Earth and the Moon can then be shortened to 10 hours.”
After Fan Ren finished speaking, the biggest reaction came from Liu Shengzhan.
Only he clearly knew that this so-called nuclear fusion engine would bring the final piece to the space force he had envisioned.
With this engine possessing super-strong endurance, space spaceships could carry out routine patrol navigation in Earth’s outer space for long periods without worrying about endurance.
Only with such a routinely patrolling space force could it truly be called a space force.
“What’s the cost?”
As the Ministry of Economy and Trade chief, Zhang Jing was particularly sensitive to money and asked the question everyone cared about.
Fan Ren couldn’t help laughing upon hearing this.
“Nuclear fusion, well, the cost mainly relies on tri-titanium alloy as the material for the outer container wall. No need to discuss that; everyone knows.
As for the remaining engine parts, they’re relatively cheaper, possibly needing a cost of 5 billion.”
Zhang Jing breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing this; that wasn’t expensive.
Really not expensive.
One had to know that a top fighter jet engine in Great Xia currently cost tens of millions to build.
But Fan Ren’s words weren’t over.
“At the same time, the quantum communication satellites we recently launched have undergone some testing, with very good feedback data. They’re fully usable on military equipment. Commander Liu, you should understand what I mean?”
Liu Shengzhan nodded repeatedly upon hearing this; he was particularly focused on this new technology with no communication delay.
