Chapter 86: Brothers Reunite
At the main entrance of Xinghai Aerospace Base, a convoy of military vehicles slowly drove in.
“Li Jian, how about it? This is all the work of your old classmate, impressive, right.”
“Yeah, impressive. I didn’t expect Second Brother to quietly build such a big career.”
“More than that. Do you know why the training content for you and the team members suddenly changed so much during this time?”
Li Jian was dressed in military uniform, his angular face looking straight ahead. Although he didn’t know the answer, he wasn’t curious.
Liu Shengzhan liked this about the kid. Although he was definitely curious, he wouldn’t ask more. As he said, he’d know when it was time to know.
Moreover, he was extremely disciplined and had a robust physique.
He was simply a natural good soldier seed in his eyes.
Liu Shengzhan smiled reassuringly and didn’t keep teasing him. The convoy ahead had already stopped.
In front of the base building, Fan Ren and Liu Jun had been waiting for these precious darlings for a long time.
“You’re General Manager Fan, right? Hello, I’ve heard of you for a long time. I’m Liu Shengzhan from military headquarters.”
Fan Ren had already spotted his old boss Li Jian from university days, who had taken good care of him back then, but for now he couldn’t go over to catch up.
“Commander Liu, hello. Thank you for your and military headquarters’ support.”
Liu Shengzhan was nearly 50, but his face showed no signs of aging. He immediately said, “Before coming, Elder Ye told me about the situation here and the cooperation with Xinghai. Impressive, General Manager Fan. Such a grand undertaking could only be achieved by you.”
Fan Ren was used to it and didn’t feel embarrassed. After exchanging pleasantries, he led the group from military headquarters to the dormitory area.
Liu Jun beside him was very happily winking at Li Jian, who was leading at the front of the team all the way, but what he got in return was cold indifference.
This hurt him deeply.
It wasn’t until they passed that huge completed workshop and saw the massive rocket body being assembled that Liu Jun noticed the slight upward curve at the corner of Li Jian’s mouth, and only then did he grin.
“General Manager Fan, although I’ve seen the data performance of the rocket, I didn’t expect it to be so huge even before final assembly is complete. It’s truly shocking.”
Liu Shengzhan stopped in his tracks, standing at the workshop entrance, his gaze fixed straight on the interior where assembly work was underway.
Inside, the rocket head, middle fuel section, and tail engine section were already connected together.
The massive rocket body was hundreds of meters long, giving an extremely strong visual impact.
“Commander Liu, our new rocket incorporates multiple new technologies. The internal wire harness is greatly reduced, saving 20% of the weight just from this aspect, and the optimal structural form designed by the supercomputer Star Calculation No. 1, so it can achieve this level.”
Fan Ren’s gaze also fell inside the workshop, and he unconsciously began to introduce it.
“I know, but this wouldn’t be possible without your great boldness. A one-time investment of hundreds of billions—no private enterprise has ever achieved this.”
Li Jian listened to their conversation, and a proud expression gradually appeared on his angular face, replacing the stern look.
If he weren’t wearing this military uniform right now, he would definitely say to Commander Liu:
“We’re like family, Commander Liu, no need to be polite.”
Liu Jun said it very naturally. Perhaps because of Li Jian, he felt a strong sense of familiarity with these soldiers.
“Haha, this must be Liu Jun, right? Li Jian mentions you often.”
Liu Shengzhan put away his emotion, smiled and nodded at him, making him grin from ear to ear.
The 20 soldiers arriving today were all carefully trained astronauts from military headquarters. This was also why Liu Jun had always suspected if Fan Ren was some high-level official’s illegitimate son.
He knew that these astronauts were military headquarters’ precious darlings. Although the number of military headquarters astronauts was gradually increasing now, the cultivation fee per person was still as high as hundreds of millions.
Moreover, behind this were countless silent contributions from related professional scientists.
Now Xinghai’s rocket was still in assembly, and it hadn’t even done the first test flight, yet Great Xia boldly approved 20 military headquarters astronauts directly to Xinghai.
Of course, these astronauts still belonged to military headquarters.
But this was enough to shock anyone.
The group arrived at the dormitory area, which was adjacent to the training area and occupied a very large area.
Liu Shengzhan observed carefully and nodded repeatedly.
The infrastructure construction here was in no way inferior to military headquarters. All equipment and supply standards were extremely high.
After settling the military headquarters astronauts, Fan Ren, Liu Shengzhan, Liu Jun, and Li Jian went to the base reception room.
“Commander Liu, very sorry, but next week we’re starting the test launch plan. If all goes smoothly, in about a month we’ll carry out the formal passenger-carrying launch mission.”
As soon as everyone sat down, Fan Ren got straight to the point.
Hearing this, Liu Shengzhan immediately entered work mode, sitting upright.
“General Manager Fan, rest assured. The training manual your side previously handed to military headquarters—these team members have already mastered it. Now entering the base is just to familiarize with spaceship equipment usage. Please trust their professionalism; there won’t be any time issues.”
Fan Ren could clearly see the immense confidence on his boss’s face as Liu Shengzhan said this.
He immediately felt relieved and said, “Commander Liu, has Elder Ye discussed our detailed plan with you?”
Hearing this, Liu Shengzhan showed admiration on his face and said, “Currently, only I in military headquarters know the specific plan. To be honest, if Elder Ye hadn’t told me personally about Xinghai’s upcoming series of plan projects, I would have thought it was some company trying to scam money again.”
Fan Ren didn’t mind these things. Xinghai was a private company, wholly owned by him, so there was no such thing as scamming money.
“It’s like this: in Xinghai’s plan, if everything goes smoothly, there will be a huge shortage of astronauts in the future.”
Liu Shengzhan nodded. According to Xinghai’s plan, Immortal Palace Space Station, as a temporary space command headquarters, needed about ten maintenance personnel.
The even larger shortage would be in the future lunar base project.
That would be a command headquarters responsible for the entire moon ordinary crystal stone ore mining work, as well as receiving personnel equipment, launching, and return spaceship missions.
This would require a large number of astronauts to handle spaceship transportation assurance tasks.
“I understand, so military headquarters is currently planning to expand astronaut recruitment in the next phase. Please rest assured, General Manager Fan. Military headquarters has a very mature training standard, and the selected members are currently trainees from related majors in various aviation academies. They already have solid aerospace foundations.”
Fan Ren nodded upon hearing this. He had previously been worried about not having enough personnel.
“That’s good. Thank you very much for military headquarters’ efforts. If there are any funding difficulties, please don’t hesitate, Commander Liu. You know Xinghai has ample funds.”
He said this sincerely, but to others, it always carried a hint of showing off.
Liu Shengzhan chuckled helplessly: “Rest assured, kid. Great Xia is no longer the poor and blank era of the past. Elder Ye has long considered this aspect, so no need for you to worry. Xinghai should focus its main energy on subsequent plan projects; military headquarters won’t hold back on the backup support!”
His words rang out resoundingly.
