Chapter 103: Is A Puzzle Piece Missing?
Yanjing, a Slav came to the building where the Fifth Academy was located.
This Slav was also an old acquaintance of Dean Qian, the designer of the P-2 missile, Pokrovsky.
“Qian, let me tell you some good news.” Pokrovsky smiled and handed over a thick large envelope.
Dean Qian didn’t believe there was any good Russian.
The Russians had forcibly bought their guidance technology not long ago.
“Tupolev” Dean Qian took it and carefully looked at the surface of the envelope, discovering it was printed in the Russian language.
He didn’t understand the Russian language, so he opened it and looked inside, finding it was also a Russian language document. “Sorry, it needs to wait for translation. I can only reply to you after it’s translated.”
Pokrovsky waved his hand. “No need for a reply. This is a gift from Mr. Korolev that someone asked him to pass on to you.”
Dean Qian combined it with the latest internal news reports he had seen, thinking of how Korolev had specially gone to London to meet Lin Ran.
He had a guess about this document in front of him.
“Little Sun, come here quickly. There’s a document here that needs you to translate.”
Pokrovsky had just left when Dean Qian impatiently rushed out of the office to find Sun Jiadong outside.
Later known as the father of China’s satellites, he was working at the Fifth Academy at this time. Besides design work, he was also the best Russian language translator in the entire Fifth Academy.
Because he had studied for a full eight years at the Zhukovsky Air Force Engineering Academy.
“Dean Qian, what’s the matter?” Sun Jiadong quickly arrived and asked.
“There’s a document here that needs you to translate it right away!
Very urgent.” Dean Qian handed him the envelope.
After taking it, he looked at it: “This is the mark of the Tupolev Design Bureau.
Dean, where did you get this document from? The Tupolev Design Bureau is remarkable. It’s the design bureau on the Russian side that’s specifically for researching and developing bombers.
Look at this OKB-156 in the bottom right corner. This envelope must be quite old.
The predecessor of the Tupolev Design Bureau was called Experimental Design Bureau No. 156, so it’s OKB-156.” Although Sun Jiadong had studied in the Soviet Union for eight years, he was only in his early thirties, still with a young person’s temperament.
“You kid, I know you’re an expert on the Soviet Union.
Alright, hurry up and translate it. This document is extremely important. You have to translate it for me by the end of today!
Got it?”
Sun Jiadong stood at attention and said solemnly: “Guaranteed to complete the task!”
Dean Qian nodded. He then went to find Zhang Kewen. “Little Zhang, help me prepare a car. I need to go to the Academic Committee.
Also, help me arrange with Director Su of the Chinese Academy of Sciences Mathematics Research Institute to organize experts to come to the Academic Committee for a meeting tomorrow morning.”
Since Hua Luogeng had been transferred to work in Yangcheng, Su Buqing, who was originally supposed to be working at Fudan at this time, had been transferred to the Chinese Academy of Sciences Mathematics Research Institute.
Additionally, his research was precisely in the direction of differential geometry, and his mathematics was more suited to applications.
This included Zhang Guanghou, who worked on partial differential equations and mathematical physics, who had also received protection.
Academic Committee
“Leader, Pokrovsky from the Soviet Union suddenly came to see me today. He said Korolev wanted to pass a document to me. After I opened it, I found it was an academic paper.
He said it was a gift that someone asked him to pass on.
Thinking of how Korolev had met White Horse in London not long ago, I suspect it’s information that White Horse wants to pass on to us.
I’ve already arranged for someone to translate it here. After translation, I hope to draw colleagues from the Chinese Academy of Sciences Mathematics Research Institute to assist with the translation.
Considering White Horse’s current identity and status, he certainly wouldn’t pass us an academic paper for no reason.
And through Korolev’s channel at that—this paper must have value beyond the ordinary.”
Correct, Lin Ran’s code name within China was White Horse.
It was also taken from the allusion of “white horse is not horse,” and translated into English, “white horse”—no one would think it’s Fermat.
At the same time, “horse” and “house” sound similar, so “white house” is the White House, where the other party was working at the time.
This code name had a bit of the meaning of multiple meanings in one phrase.
“I understand what you mean. White Horse’s value is indeed extremely great.”
Within China, no one was mentioning bringing him back anymore.
However, they didn’t even know the most basic way to establish contact with the other party.
Chen Jingrun, who had been sent to America under the alias Chen Dehui, couldn’t even catch a glimpse of Lin Ran.
One in New York, one in Washington.
Chen Jingrun lived in the world of mathematics, exchanging ideas daily with masters in the number theory field in New York, and was quite happy.
But he hadn’t worn white clothes for a single day.
Correct, there was a restaurant outside New York City University run by overseas Chinese where Chen Jingrun went every morning for breakfast.
If he wore white clothes, it meant he had met Lin Ran the previous day.
Then Chen Jingrun would write the content of the meeting into a report and pass it back.
And if he didn’t wear them, it meant nothing had happened.
In the half year Chen Jingrun had been in New York, he had only met Lin Ran once.
Even worse for Section Chief Zhang: besides running ships, he was unloading cargo at the dock. He finally met his “son,” but there was no intelligence, and the two sat in the restaurant looking at each other in silence, because they weren’t real father and son.
Even Section Chief Zhang, whose skin had become rough and several shades darker, looked at the fair and plump Chen Jingrun with a feeling of wanting to cry but having no tears.
So for China, Lin Ran was truly an X-factor in the full sense.
However, they didn’t need to worry too much, because with the advancement of the hotline, the opportunity would soon appear.
“But White Horse passing it to us through Korolev means Korolev will also see it.
So how do we ensure that what Korolev passes to us is truly White Horse’s intention?
And after passing through Korolev’s hands, does it really have that much value?” The leader raised his doubts.
Dean Qian said: “No matter what, we’ll know tomorrow.”
“This is a paper related to cybernetics. It abstracts space problems into a mathematical model to solve them.”
After Su Buqing briefly explained, he stood at the podium and continued:
“It’s a completely new method. I’ve never seen similar content in academic papers.
The one who could write this paper must be a master-level figure.” Su Buqing said: “Definitely much more impressive than me.”
Dean Qian, listening below, thought to himself: not just a master, but a master among masters.
After listening, he also guessed where it could be used, but he still waited for Su Buqing to speak first.
“It can transform non-convex optimization problems into convex optimization. This is the most important breakthrough.”
After Su Buqing finished, Dean Qian continued:
“Simply put, traditional non-convex optimization methods may fall into a local optimal solution when handling complex constraints, while the lossless convexification method can transform these problems into convex problems, thereby obtaining the global optimal solution.
For example, the DF-2 we’re developing—its flight trajectory and control system design.
In the past, the solutions we obtained might only be optimal in some middle segment; connected together, they might not be optimal.
But now we can transform it into a convex problem and obtain the optimal solution for the entire process combined together.
Of course, being able to transform it doesn’t mean the global solution can definitely be calculated.
But whether it’s rocket thrust allocation or flight path, this method can be used.”
After the meeting ended, during a private exchange with Dean Qian, Su Buqing said, “Dean Qian, I didn’t expect your internal team to have someone who understands applied mathematics so well.
Your Fifth Academy is full of hidden dragons and crouching tigers.
This paper not only innovates at the intersection of optimal control theory and convex optimization, but also uses numerical analysis to achieve computational feasibility, and provides theoretical support through geometric methods.
Domestic applied mathematics has such a figure, how come I never heard about it before?”
Su Buqing was also a master-level figure. Though you could say his research scope was limited to projective geometry, just traditional differential geometry, without involving topology or participating in the construction of modern mathematics, incomparable to Shiing-Shen Chern, Shing-Tung Yau, and others.
But you have to consider the conditions.
The contributions he made in the 1930s were absolutely one of the important advances in the differential geometry field of that decade.
Additionally, it didn’t hinder his sharp eyesight.
Dean Qian smiled wryly: “Alright, stop inquiring.”
Then he said in a low voice: “A paper we finally got from the Russians with great difficulty.”
Su Buqing immediately understood: “No wonder. The Russians are indeed strong in this aspect.
Satellites launching one after another, making the Americans all nervous.
We still have too few talents in the mathematics field. We need to put in more effort.”
Dean Qian sighed along: “Yeah, if only overseas Chinese mathematics masters could come back.”
This time it was Su Buqing’s turn to smile wryly: “Are you talking about Shiing-Shen Chern or Lin Ran?
Lin Ran has become a real power figure in the White House. Even if he came back, who would dare to use him?
Chinese mathematics masters are all in America. Better not to think about it; we’ll cultivate our own.”
Dean Qian shook his head: “Yeah.”
It was precisely because it was Qian that Su Buqing dared to say this.
If it were anyone else, he definitely wouldn’t mention it.
That afternoon, when reporting work back to the Academic Committee, Dean Qian said as such:
“The paper is very impressive, an extremely stunning academic achievement, and it also provides some help to us.
It can play a certain role in improving missile precision and reliability, and also in carrier rocket research and development.
But it doesn’t match my expectations.
Do you understand?
I just feel like White Horse went to such great lengths.
Korolev meeting him was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, just this one time.
Next time, America will definitely raise security to the highest level. The Soviet Union won’t have another chance to approach him.
So for such a rare opportunity, White Horse only sent back this paper.
It’s already very precious, but still not enough. I always feel it’s a bit short.
Maybe just like with Chen Jingrun that time: Chen Jingrun obtained a lot, but the last piece of the puzzle was that White Horse told him all these were related to missile trajectory optimization.
I always feel this time is definitely the same as last time, or even more important.
But because there’s no way to contact White Horse directly, there’s no way to get the crucial puzzle piece from White Horse.
So there’s always this feeling that it’s a bit short.”
Dean Qian paced anxiously in the secret office.
Trying to figure out the remaining puzzle piece by himself.
“Alright, don’t be anxious. If it’s really important, we’ll think of it sooner or later,” the other party advised.
Dean Qian patted his head: “No, this kind of thing is better sooner than later.
I need to think carefully.”
“Have you considered another possibility: that he did give the puzzle piece.
He gave it to Korolev, but Korolev didn’t pass the puzzle piece to us?”
Dean Qian said: “Of course I’ve thought of that. It’s very possible.
After all, relations between us are very tense. It’s normal for them to play tricks.
But I’m certain that since White Horse dared to pass the message to us through Korolev, he must be confident we can accurately grasp his meaning.”
Dean Qian’s guess was correct, but it required a long wait.
Until the successful reusable rocket from America and the Soviet Union, he combined it with Lin Ran’s interview with the New York Times to finally find that last puzzle piece.
“Old Xu, sorry, the Americans are only willing to give us one committee seat in the International Shipping Standards Committee, and one board of directors seat in the upcoming International Shipping Standards Company.
And they can only give it to me. I failed to fulfill my promise to you.
But it doesn’t affect anything. With my position at NASA, I don’t have time to attend these occasions anyway. At that time, I’ll appoint you or other Hong Kong shipowners to represent me.
Responsible for safeguarding Hong Kong shipping interests in these two places.”
After arranging the time via telegraph, Lin Ran called Xu Aizhou on an overseas telephone and said.
Lin Ran calling foreign countries would be recorded by a certain BI.
This point had been notified to Lin Ran.
Although FISA didn’t exist yet, there was already the Communications Act and wartime residual policies, so such recordings were permitted.
Because international long-distance calls needed to go through submarine cables, they were handled by specialists for interception.
Von Braun had similar treatment back then.
But calling people within America wouldn’t be.
At least America openly told Lin Ran it wouldn’t.
“Good, rest assured. I’ll handle it perfectly.
My personal suggestion is that you give these two positions to Dong Haoyun and Pao Yue-kong respectively.
You’ve met Dong Haoyun, and you understand the Dong family. He can definitely do this job well.
The latter, Pao Yue-kong, is the only small shipowner who held out under pressure from Jardine Matheson this time, in the face of threats and inducements from Hang Seng Bank founder Ho Sing Kee.
He declared, ‘I want to be an upright Chinese person, not a Chinese person who acts as a dog for white people!’
He is trustworthy, younger, more energetic, and better at fighting for Chinese people interests.” Xu Aizhou said slowly.
Whether him or Dong Haoyun, after this event, they both greatly admired Pao Yue-kong. Additionally, the story of Ho Sing Kee being rebuffed spread widely.
After all, at Pao Yue-kong’s home at the time, besides the two of them, there were Pao Yue-kong’s family and servants.
Such things quickly became known throughout the Hong Kong business community.
An old fox like Ho Sing Kee being called a dog by a young one.
Many Chinese businessmen who took it personally didn’t give Pao Yue-kong good looks.
Of course, where there is opposition, there is support.
As the only small shipowner who held firm, Xu Aizhou and Dong Haoyun went all out to support Pao Yue-kong.
Even the representative for Lin Ran’s committee seat recommended Pao Yue-kong.
“Doesn’t the Xu Family need to send someone?” Lin Ran asked.
Xu Aizhou said: “These two positions require consideration of Chinese people interests.
I’m old, don’t have the energy, can’t react quickly enough. As for my son, besides relying on his dad, he knows nothing.”
Another day of daily ten thousand, begging for a monthly ticket!
