Chapter 401: The Beginning Of At Sea Confrontation
Song Nanping didn’t say it out loud, he just vented madly in his heart, feeling that this world had gone mad.
Similar venting had happened once before in the past, when Japan sold technology in bulk to China, the semiconductor sector of the entire Chinese stock market surged wildly, and Chinese netizens generally felt that the Americans had gone crazy, wondering if big T was really “one of us”.
The technology being sold this time was obviously even crazier than last time.
The most advanced, completely new technology route, 5nm lithography machine.
Not to mention that it already had a prototype machine and had entered Hynix’s official production verification process.
Even if it was just a laboratory prototype machine, just for the fact that this thing was a technology route that Japanese people had heavily invested in for a long time, Song Nanping felt it was not a loss.
Making the devils uncomfortable was not a loss.
He was in Shanghai and could already imagine the ugly scene of the devils in Tokyo being pinned down by America to sell the technology to China.
“Professor, guarantee to complete the mission!” Song Nanping said seriously.
Lin Ran waved his hand: “I fully trust the official side on this, you are the professionals in this area.”
China had suffered many losses in international trade negotiations at the beginning, whether in official procurement or state-owned enterprises’ bulk procurement, they had paid countless tuition fees in the past.
It wasn’t until the high-speed rail procurement, pulling between Germany and Japanese companies, that from that point on, China’s negotiation art gradually took shape, and subsequently there were few reports of Chinese officials or Chinese companies suffering losses in international trade cooperation.
“I just want to remind you of one thing, that is, what I expressed to Old John Morgan on the phone was that I was not so willing.
So be sure to grasp the degree well, and don’t appear too eager.” Lin Ran said.
Song Nanping said seriously: “Rest assured, we will definitely send the most elite team to handle the negotiations.”
China and America had been negotiating continuously since mid-year this year, and the negotiations had never stopped.
Musk had tried at the White House, he privately requested through the president’s secretary a five-minute private meeting with Peter Navarro.
Navarro readily agreed, you can’t offend the financial backer, and he himself might go through the revolving door to work at Musk’s company in the future.
“Peter,” Musk got straight to the point, this time even omitting the Mr. Consultant title, “we can’t do this. The NIL technology deal is a strategic mistake that will lead to catastrophic consequences.”
Navarro leaned against the huge conference table, arms crossed: “Elon, you’re still worried about that Japanese printer? I thought you were a risk-taker.”
“I dare to take calculable risks, not engage in stupid gambles.” Musk’s voice was filled with the engineer’s characteristic intolerance for logical fallacies, “You’re handing a revolutionary manufacturing technology to an opponent that is exerting national strength to seek technological breakthroughs. They might encounter difficulties at first, but once they have the physical object, a foundation for reverse engineering and iteration, they will ultimately master it. You’re personally handing a weapon to our biggest enemy for the next decade.”
After hearing this, Navarro not only didn’t get angry, but burst out laughing.
“Weapon? Elon, you’re thinking too simply of me.” He straightened up, walked up to Musk, lowered his voice, his tone carrying icy confidence.
“Do you think NIL technology is something I casually picked from a menu? No. This is a gift that I, Peter Navarro, carefully selected for China together with top experts from our Department of Defense and Department of Commerce.”
Musk frowned.
“This gift,” Navarro held up one finger, “looks shiny golden, exactly the holy grail they’ve dreamed of to bypass EUV, but actually it’s bait.”
He then held up a second finger: “As I said earlier, to make this gift truly work requires extremely harsh conditions.
Its template manufacturing requires Applied Materials’ electron beam writing equipment; its nanoscale imprint resin is DuPont’s patented chemical; whether the chips it prints have defects requires KLA’s optical inspection equipment to scan, and all of these, Elon, are under our control, these are shackles.”
Finally, he held up a third finger, his eyes sharpening. “
The most wonderful part is that defect control in NIL technology is a bottomless pit.
To improve that damn yield rate, they must invest astronomical amounts of funds, mobilize their top engineers to solve problems like template contamination, bubbles, and demolding damage.
This will be a huge black hole for talent and resources, draining their R&D budgets originally invested in other fields.
They will voluntarily abandon other routes they might have succeeded in, for the sake of this technology route we ‘bestow’ on them.
This is called poison.”
Navarro looked at the stunned Musk and smugly summarized:
“So, do you get it? We’re not exchanging NIL technology for their bit of moon data.
We’re using a visible, tangible, but never satiating bait to exchange for their strategic resource misallocation and technology route dependence over the next five to ten years.
Just like President Reagan’s Star Wars Program, that was Star Wars in the aerospace field, this is in the semiconductor field.
We gave them a machine, but kept the manual, ink cartridges, and repair tools in our own hands.
Every time they want to make this machine run normally, they have to pay us, accept our terms.
This isn’t a deal, Elon, this is colonization, the highest level of technological colonization you’re familiar with!”
Musk was silent for a long time, rapidly digesting the logic behind these words.
This was an extremely insidious, interlocking trap.
But his intuition as a top engineer still made him feel great unease.
Because Navarro knew the China on paper, the China under Zhang’s pen, while he had personally built Tesla’s Gigafactory in China and knew the real China.
“You’re underestimating them.” Musk finally spoke slowly, “You’re treating them like an ordinary business company, a country like the Soviet Union with serious flaws.
But they’re not, they’re a civilization with nearly infinite resources. They can put nuclear reactors and electromagnetic launch devices on the moon. Do you think they can’t ultimately solve a small resin material formula?”
“The premise of the trap you designed is that they will forever play by your rules.” Musk stared straight at Navarro, “But what they’re best at is mastering the rules, then breaking the rules, and finally making their own rules. You’ve given them a visible finish line they can charge toward with all their might, and that in itself is the biggest risk.”
The smile disappeared from Navarro’s face, replaced by the hawks’ stubbornness: “This is a risk we must take.”
“No,” Musk shook his head and walked toward the door, “you’re opening Pandora’s box, yet naively thinking you still hold the key to the box.”
This conversation failed to convince Navarro. Sometimes the most frightening thing is stupid people pretending to be smart. In Musk’s view, Navarro was exactly that—ignorant of technology’s logic yet pretending to have found some clever scheme.
Wasn’t this another Zhang? Just with white skin color.
Even more fatal was that the other side had a group of experts backing his strategy, and Musk was certain these experts surely knew the risks involved. They were completely flattering this rising star in the White House, arguing the feasibility of his scheme from their professional angles.
Musk despaired.
From Navarro’s perspective, even if he thought Musk was right and he was wrong, he couldn’t admit it. Musk’s meaning was for him to go to the president to admit a mistake, make the president abandon this idea—did he still want to stay in the White House?
Just like not allowing compute cards to be sold to China—Nvidia, Microsoft, Google, and other Silicon Valley experts and scholars all believed this was an extremely wrong move, that it wouldn’t lock them out but would hand the market to Huawei. But the White House bureaucrats were extremely confident, insisting it must be done.
At first it was the White House not allowing Nvidia compute cards to be sold to China, later China stopped buying Nvidia compute cards. In just two years, the offensive and defensive positions around high-end compute cards had reversed.
Musk failed to convince Navarro and returned to the Lyndon Johnson Space Center in Texas with a frustrated mood.
The huge Starship prototype in the Texas bay sunset.
Elon Musk stood outside his minimalist mobile home, holding a can of iced cola in one hand, the other hand irritably gesturing in the air.
In front of him sat two people: SpaceX President and COO Gwynne Shotwell, and billionaire and Polaris program commander Jared Isaacman.
“.Then he just slammed the table, making the moon great again!” Musk imitated the other’s exaggerated tone and gestures, but his face showed no smile: “‘Big T Space Base’! He really said that, he even asked if I could spell his name in golden letters on the base dome. My god, does he think that’s building a hotel in Manhattan?”
Musk felt unprecedented despair.
He now felt that maybe the Donkey Party wasn’t so bad. The Donkey Party just made some tactical mistakes, overemphasizing LGBT on some issues, but they wouldn’t make strategic mistakes.
The current Elephant Party seemed to have slightly better execution than the Donkey Party, but only slightly. What he couldn’t accept most was that they would charge headlong in the direction of strategic errors. As long as you convinced the president, you were omnipotent.
And Mr. President was particularly easy to sway.
Gwynne Shotwell, this woman known for her calmness and execution, frowned: “Elon, let’s not mention names. Do we really have to adjust the entire Starship program’s priorities for this big T base? All our Mars mission schedules will have to be scrapped and redone.”
“We have no choice, Gwynne.” Musk sat down dejectedly, “I’m the NASA director now, remember? This is the president’s highest administrative order.
Either we go to the moon, or we wait to deal with Congress’s endless hearings. SpaceX won’t be able to operate normally, with a series of investigations on environmental protection, communication security, supplier management, etc., waiting for us. Mr. President won’t sign the launch order either.”
Behind him in the room, a huge wall-mounted screen was silently playing the Bloomberg finance channel.
The scrolling news ticker below was like an icy voice-over, annotating their conversation:
“America-Japan high-level economic dialogue concludes in Washington. America Commerce Secretary Raimondo says both sides reached important consensus on strengthening key technology supply chain resilience.”
Musk noticed that news and thought, this negotiation wouldn’t have discussed NIL, right?
Musk felt a chill in his heart.
Because the White House’s progress was too fast.
“This is the part I can’t stand most!” He suddenly stood up and paced the room: “For a damn moon base, so he can boast that I conquered the moon, he actually agreed to Navarro’s crazy plan! Exchanging NIL technology for Chinese people’s moon data!”
Jared Isaacman, as a pilot and Patriot, tried to understand from another angle: “But Elon, China’s threat is real. An American moon base is in itself a sufficiently great goal, isn’t it? We can’t let them monopolize the moon.”
“Of course I know we can’t let them monopolize the moon!” Musk retorted excitedly, “But you can’t hand the house’s foundation blueprint to your arch-rival just to move in first! This is the stupidest deal I’ve heard in my life!”
His speech rate grew faster, like explaining an obvious mathematical theorem.
“Do we lack data? Yes! But data can be obtained through time and exploration missions! We have Starship, we have the ability to map it ourselves! This will set us back at most one or two years! But what is NIL technology? It’s an enabling technology! Giving them this is like personally building a complete, top-tier chip ecosystem that bypasses ASML for your competitor! You’ve given them the universal key to manufacturing all future chips!”
Neither of Musk’s close aides dared to say that Starship had never succeeded, was always in testing, and no one could give a definite answer on when it would succeed.
Navarro’s plan was unreliable, and similarly, Musk’s plan wasn’t much more reliable.
The news on the screen scrolled again, switching to a new message.
“Taiwan Stock Weighted Index falls another 2.8% this week, TSMC stock price hits new low for the year, aggressive investor ‘Aethelred Capital’ once again calls on the board of directors to carry out fundamental reforms to cope with supply chain risks.”
“Prepare to launch our plan.” Musk said after downing the rest of his sugar-free carbonated drink in one go.
The afternoon was the recovery of BY-2 from the Lunar Steel Dragon’s launch back to Earth.
China’s afternoon special program live broadcasted the whole process, official programs, and platforms like Bilibili, Douyin, Weibo, Apollo Technology had opened copyrights, all having their own special programs to report on this process.
Among them, Bilibili’s name fit the platform’s style very well, called “Echo of the Dragon from the Moon”, inviting physicists and internet-famous scholars as guests.
The physicist explained to the camera: “The core of this experiment is to verify two revolutionary cost breakthroughs. First, the application of lunar surface nuclear energy and superconducting electromagnetic launch.
This proves our engineering control over superconducting materials in extreme low-temperature environments, which is not only progress in aerospace, but also a technological cornerstone for future superconducting chips and controlled nuclear fusion and other fields.
Second, and more importantly, the economic model of ultra-low-cost lunar transportation. Electromagnetic rail launch success means that the future cost of transporting He-3, rare earths and other strategic resources from the moon will only leave the initial infrastructure investment.
Third, the moon is turning from a scientific outpost into a commercial blue ocean of infinite value, so we can see rare earth companies’ stock prices falling on the A-share market.”
Professor Shen from Fudan didn’t hide his strategic intentions at all: “This blue ocean is also a future strategic high ground.
If we can send back a 100 kg package today, tomorrow we can send back ton-level, more complex functional packages.
Whoever masters this cheap Earth-moon route will master the national security initiative for the next 50 years.”
At 2:50 pm, in the Tokyo underground bunker, the atmosphere was oppressively tense.
The huge screen wall was split into a dozen real-time images, all focused on that patch of international waters.
“Akitsushima report: arrived at 15 nautical miles from the edge of the designated recovery area, currently using optical equipment for observation.” A liaison officer reported.
“China’s response?”
“Yes, they dispatched Nantong from the escort formation approaching Akitsushima, distance 8 nautical miles, issuing warning on international channel requiring our vessel to maintain safe distance and not interfere with normal scientific activities in international waters.”
“This is standard interception and surveillance procedure.”
On the huge screen wall, the central image was a trajectory simulation provided by the J/FPS-5 long-range early warning radar deployed on that country island.
A tiny light spot was plunging from deep space toward Earth at astonishing speed.
“Target trajectory stable, completely within our model calculated two days ago.” A Unified General Staff intelligence officer reported, his voice carrying a hint of puzzlement, “Strangely, it has hardly made any orbit corrections, seemingly relying entirely on the precision of the initial launch.”
At the scene, besides bureaucrats, there were some experts urgently brought in from JAXA, one white-haired orbital dynamics expert already sweating profusely.
“Gentlemen,” the expert’s face was full of bewilderment, “this is impossible.
Launching an object from the moon back to Earth requires considering the gravitational interactions of Earth, moon, and sun, the so-called three-body problem.
Plus solar wind, gravity gradients, and a series of parameters all dynamically changing.
The initial launch window and angle calculations must be precise to more than a dozen decimal places.
We all know that China’s new Hall thruster on BY-2 gives it ample mid-course correction capability.
In the past 48 hours, it did indeed perform four orbit corrections,” the expert pointed to the data on the screen, “but note, the last correction was completed 12 hours ago in deep space over 150,000 km from Earth.
Since then, it has entered unpowered glide phase.”
A superior nearby asked: “So, this last 150,000 km determines its final precision?”
“Exactly right.” The expert was very serious, “In this final leg of the journey, it will completely rely on its own navigation system to compute the reentry point.
Any tiny error, whether from its own gyroscope drift or imperfections in the gravity field model in calculations, will be dramatically amplified upon reentry into the atmosphere.
According to our best model, even with Hall thruster’s prior corrections, its final landing point error range should be within a circle 50 km in diameter.
But China’s error seems far less than 50 km.”
He pointed to the recovery box designated by China’s Maritime Safety Administration in the center of the screen, 90 km long and 50 km wide.
“The recovery area they announced is itself a technical show-off. And now it’s heading straight for the center of this box.
This means its navigation system, its autonomous positioning and orbit computation capability, has reached a precision we previously thought only theoretically possible.
We’d better force the Chinese fleet to retreat and retrieve BY-2, it has great research value! We need to figure out how China did it.
I strongly suspect they’ve achieved another breakthrough in some technology.”
“What technology?”
JAXA’s expert said: “Quantum gyroscope.”
He continued to explain: “A gyroscope is a device used to measure or maintain direction and angular velocity.
Simply put, it tells an object whether it’s rotating, in which direction, and how fast.
It is the core of all inertial navigation systems.
The advantage of inertial navigation is no need for external signals (like GPS), thus immune to interference. But it has a fatal flaw: drift.
Traditional gyroscopes, whether mechanical or optical, have tiny, unavoidable manufacturing imperfections and environmental interference.
These tiny measurement errors accumulate over time.
Everyone can imagine walking in thick fog where you can’t see your hand in front of you, relying only on your own sense to go straight.
Every step may have a tiny angle deviation, not obvious at first, but after a kilometer, the accumulated error might deviate you hundreds of meters from the target.
That’s drift.
For submarines, intercontinental missiles, or deep space probes, long-term drift accumulation leads to huge, even fatal deviations in their position judgment.
So they all rely on satellites to calibrate their positions.
Quantum gyroscope, more accurately called cold atom interferometry gyroscope, emerged to fundamentally solve the drift problem.
It no longer relies on macroscopic mechanical rotation or light paths, but utilizes the two most wondrous principles in quantum mechanics: wave-particle duality and quantum interference.
I won’t go into too much detail on the specific design here. Bosch is the most active promoter in this area. Once it appears, it will be a game rules changer.
Compared to traditional optical gyroscopes, it has three revolutionary advantages: unparalleled sensitivity, near-zero drift, and complete autonomy with absolute anti-interference.
Precisely because of its extremely low drift, it forms the perfect inertial navigation system.
If China has this technology, their spacecraft or weapons can perform long-duration, long-distance precise guidance without relying on Beidou satellite navigation at all.
Any interference, blinding, or even destruction targeting satellites is completely ineffective against this autonomous navigation.
If a country first achieves miniaturized, practical quantum gyroscopes, it’s equivalent to possessing an uninterferable, absolutely precise cosmic ruler that can measure the globe.
Its missiles can precisely hit any target in any electromagnetic environment.
Its submarines can truly become untrackable deep-sea ghosts.
Its deep space probes can autonomously plan routes to Mars or even farther star systems.
This is not just technological progress, but a fundamental shift in navigation technology from relying on external beacons to relying on physical laws.
This will fundamentally rewrite the rules of space exploration, or others.
And in the past, according to public statements from Bosch executives, they would need at least five to ten years at fastest, and it might be like controlled nuclear fusion’s eternal five to ten years.
I strongly suspect China has achieved the quantum gyroscope, which is why their moon landing and return precision is so high.”
Chinese captain Colonel Li Zheng gazed through the bridge’s huge porthole at the white ship shadow 15 nautical miles away. In the higher and farther sky, he knew at least one P-3C and one P-8A were watching every move here with their electronic eyes.
But he didn’t care.
Today, in this deep blue sea area, they were not sneaky intruders, but rightful owners in broad daylight.
“Report! BY- has entered main parachute deployment phase, altitude 3000 meters, descent speed stable!” The voice from Wenchang control center came through.
“Order all units to enter level one recovery preparation.” Li Zheng’s voice was calm, “Order Sea Eagle One and Sea Eagle Two to take off per the predetermined plan.”
On the deck, two general helicopters were already poised.
With the order given, rotors whipped up huge airflow, and the two helicopters lifted off, heading toward the theoretical landing point of the command module.
At 3:52 pm, the command module, pulled by three huge orange-white main parachutes, splashed steadily onto the sea surface like a triumphant interstellar explorer.
On the huge LCD display screen, the final landing point data from the flight control center made the entire bridge erupt in a suppressed, pride-filled murmur of admiration.
“Final landing point deviation 485 meters.”
A slight smile finally appeared at the corner of Li Zheng’s mouth.
He knew the power contained in this number.
This was a proof of strength written for the whole world to see.
Under the live broadcast lens, audiences worldwide witnessed a textbook-level far-sea recovery operation.
Helicopters arrived over the command module, hovering in a “pin” formation on alert.
The hatch of one helicopter opened, four agile navy frogmen shot out like arrows from strings, sliding down fast ropes into the sea, swiftly swimming toward the command module.
At 3:58 pm, the frogmen skillfully installed a sea positioning beacon and large inflatable buoy on the command module, ensuring its absolute stability in the wind and waves.
Then, they attached a high-strength towing cable. The entire process took less than four minutes, movements precise, coordination tacit, clearly after countless drills.
Around 4 pm, the ocean salvage ship Changgengxing’s huge hull slowly approached.
It didn’t approach the target like traditional salvage ships, but stopped 100 meters away.
At the stern, a huge A-frame crane slowly lifted, carrying a semi-submersible unmanned intelligent recovery net.
At 4:12, under the frogmen’s guidance, the command module was steadily towed into the recovery net and secured.
Then, the crew of Changgengxing activated the recovery procedure. The entire recovery net along with the command module was steadily and slowly lifted out of the water, drained of seawater, and placed on a special cushioned bracket in the center of the deck.
At 4:20, aerospace technical personnel already waiting on the deck, wearing white dust-free work clothes, swarmed up to perform status checks, data recording, and secure fixation on the command module.
The entire recovery process lasted less than thirty minutes.
No accidents occurred throughout.
No panic, no mistakes.
It didn’t resemble an uncertain sea rescue, but more like a standardized operation on one’s own factory assembly line for an industrial product.
