I ask you to build tractors, but you build rockets?

Beijing.

Lin Ju, Academician She, Wu Yi, and several other directors gathered together and glared at each other with both China National Nuclear Corporation and Luo Luo.

To be honest, the current development of the situation is beyond everyone's expectations and is very different from imagination.

On the 14th, United Mining began to go through the process. Lin Ju personally wrote a report, to the effect that it is too difficult to mine on the moon. We need about a dozen to twenty super-high-yield hydrogen bombs. We hereby apply for relevant qualifications and procedures.

After this report was filed in United Mining's company system, it was printed out and taken away to superiors for discussion by the Standing Committee that evening.

The Standing Committee approved it, the enlarged meeting approved it the next day, and the report was adopted.

The reason why it passed so quickly was not that everyone agreed so hastily, but that it was unlikely to be done. It would not matter if one qualification was approved. Anyway, China would not agree to provide hydrogen bombs for a long time in the foreseeable future. Then At most it will arouse some public reaction.

The superiors already have a general understanding of the development process of the Yushu base. There is a lot of preparation work before detonating the hydrogen bomb. It will take less than a year no matter what. Let the news out first, and then slowly look for opportunities.

The initial idea is to dump the order to Lucia. Now that Maozi's economy is so poor, they will definitely not miss such a good opportunity to regain blood, and they are not afraid of sanctions.

Therefore, after the press conference, although Hua Nuo Company's skin came forward to bid, in fact, if no other party continued to join, the final result would be nothing, and it would just be a symbolic exposure.

The initial development of the matter was as everyone originally imagined. It caused quite a shock, but no one responded. Even Lucia's response was relatively cold, except for calling the hotline and asking a few vague questions. It ended in a hurry.

After two days in a row, on the 18th, the official mailbox of United Mining suddenly received an email from Rolls-Royce. The email stated that they were capable of providing hydrogen bombs that met the requirements, but they did not have any physical objects for the time being. They had now authorized the ambassador. The embassy ambassador, military attache and specialized personnel who have taken off from London formed a negotiation team for consultations.

There was no official negotiation or note before this. It was just like an ordinary company bidding. An email was sent. If the AI ​​hadn't listed it as important information, it might have been ignored.

Since the press conference, United Mining's mailbox has been flooded with countless emails, 99.999% of which are pranks. Bored netizens from all over the world have claimed that their "company" has a hydrogen bomb, which paralyzed the backend in just half a day.

In the end, it was Lin Ju who came up with the idea to temporarily let the mailboxes of United Mining be managed by the base AI, and filter all non-enterprise mailboxes. He also set some rules to make the backend clean, but it also caused the backend to go from crowded to empty.

The employee who was responsible for guarding the mailbox at that time spent half a day to confirm that the message above was really not a prank by someone, and then hurriedly reported it to the superior.

This shocked the directors who had calmed down and started to feel disappointed. No one expected that Dai Ying would be the first to show up. This was completely unexpected.

What's even more bizarre is that on the 20th, people from Rolls-Royce came directly to the door after flying over from the mainland to rest for a night, so United Mining and China National Nuclear Corporation could only have a hurried first meeting.

The negotiating team of China National Nuclear Corporation... The ambassador Hu En Connor next to him took a closer look and was shocked when he saw an old man.

"Connor, what did you see?"

Stevenson, Luo Luo's full head of negotiations, was a little confused, and then heard Connor whisper:

"Those are their top experts from the Academy of Nuclear Science, and they were there during the press conference that day."

Stevenson: "Academy of Nuclear Science? That means they take it very seriously and really want to approve the hydrogen bomb."

Connor nodded solemnly, but he didn't know that the other party was simply unprepared, so they could only invite the Institute of Nuclear Science and Technology over. In fact, they didn't have any plan at all and just came to make up the numbers.

Seeing that the atmosphere was getting more and more embarrassing, Wu Yi had no choice but to bite the bullet and start:

"Mr. Stevenson and Yu Min, first of all, I must state that the specific bidding plan needs to be determined based on the geological environment of the mine site we collect, so you must sign a confidentiality agreement regardless of whether you win the bid. If you breach the contract and leak the secrets, you will bear high liquidated damages. and other restrictions, do you agree?"

Translator Luo Luo (Academician Yu): "We have no objection."

Academician Yu sat there and stroked the pen gently. Since last night, he has been a senior executive of China National Nuclear Corporation and the plenipotentiary negotiator. Now he is slowly writing an environmental simulation plan on paper, preparing to try it on the supercomputer. try.

In fact, it was originally arranged by someone else, but Academician Yu, who was already very old, found the plan very interesting and stepped forward. This was the one thing he felt he could see implemented before he died, so he decided to make it the last one. Something to accomplish.

Then representatives of the two parties signed confidentiality agreements, and then received the preliminary blasting concept plan and relevant geological data of United Mining.

The aerospace expert from the Royal Academy of Sciences next to Stevenson was very interested in the precious deep lunar surface data. He himself began to browse the blasting plan of United Mining. After a few minutes, he put it down and shook his head slightly.

"how?"

Connor tilted his head and asked. He couldn't understand the information above at all.

Stevenson: "There are some problems. Although I don't know the actual situation of the hydrogen bomb exploding on the moon, there is something wrong with the explosion model they cited. They definitely don't have expert guidance from atomic bombs and hydrogen bombs."

Academician Yu on the other side analyzed the results similarly. United Mining’s plan mainly came from the base, but after all, the base still lacked practical operations, and the ideal model was quite different from the actual situation.

About half an hour later, Stevenson was the first to express his opinion:

"Mr. Wu, I would like to know whether your company's simulation plan is based on your actual blasting data on the moon?"

Wu Yi: "Of course, you can compare it with the materials we gave you."

Stevenson: "Then I would like to say that the actual effect of the hydrogen bomb is completely different from that of conventional explosives, and your data reference is of little significance;

The estimate of 15 to 20 gigaton hydrogen bombs is not very accurate. I think my colleagues opposite me should have reached the same conclusion. "

All eyes turned to Yu Min, and he nodded slightly:

"Yes, there are some discrepancies, but I personally don't think there are too big deviations. With the information you provided, we can use supercomputer to re-simulate, and the results will be much more accurate."

Stevenson: "My opinion is the same, it doesn't need to be long, a day or two is enough."

Several people on the United Mining side looked at each other, and after some exchanges, they all agreed.

Wu Yi: "Then we authorize you to use these data for model verification. This also needs to comply with the confidentiality agreement. United Mining hopes to get a reply within 72 hours. Is this okay?"

"certainly."

This time it was Connor who answered, but then he asked:

"Then let's talk about the price issue. Rolls-Royce's quotation is US$10 per ton equivalent. I hope we won't make too big a difference."

The topic suddenly turned to the quotation, and the atmosphere of negotiation was finally created. The other two parties were still a little sluggish.

Academician Yu wondered if he should quote a price, but after thinking about it he remained silent.

United Mining is discussing the feasibility of this price.

According to Rolls-Royce's quotation, a 15-million-ton hydrogen bomb costs US$150 million, about 1.1 billion yuan;

Objectively speaking, the price is not expensive. If a hydrogen bomb can be traded, it is marketable and priceless. If it is placed in other countries, they will have to beg to buy it.

But my family knows the actual situation. Not to mention that domestic production costs only 10 to 20 million yuan, and Rolls-Royce's charging-by-equivalent model is very rogue.

The yield of a hydrogen bomb has little to do with the cost within a certain range. It is just a matter of adding more lithium 6 deuteride. In 1976, the domestic nuclear test planned to explode a hydrogen bomb with a yield of 5 million tons, but the actual power exceeded 10 million tons. , indicating that its power mainly depends on the layout and understanding of hydrogen bombs.

Furthermore, 1.1 billion is too expensive. At this price, it would cost 20 billion. Whether it was Lin Ju or others, they were shaking their heads crazily.

In the end, Wu Yi had no choice but to reply:

"We have objections to your company's quotation method, which is far beyond the cost range we hope to control. United Mining hopes that the price of a single 15-million-ton hydrogen bomb will be within 100 million yuan."

Now it was the turn of Luo Luo's negotiating team to shake their heads, and the quotation was cut in half to 1/7. How could anyone do this kind of business?

Connor immediately looked at the others with an expression that said "the talks have broken down", and then several members of the negotiating team communicated with each other for a while, and finally he said:

"15 million tons equivalent, 80 million US dollars per piece, buy at least five pieces, this is the lowest price."

Wu Yi didn't even need to communicate with other people. He just calculated the numbers and expressed his unacceptable attitude.

The gap between the two sides is really too big. United Mining hopes to limit the final total expenditure to less than 2 billion yuan, and the maximum amount given for the purchase of nuclear bombs is 1.5 billion. The quotations of both parties seem to have no room for negotiation at all.

After a stalemate, they all looked at Academician Yu, who could only answer bravely:

"Nuclear science... China National Nuclear Corporation believes that the nuclear devices used on the moon may be different from those in the atmosphere, and it needs to be judged based on the actual environment before a specific quotation can be given, so we will not give a quotation for the time being."

Academician Yu's original intention was that he was afraid of causing trouble to United Mining by making arbitrary bids, so he thought of an excuse to put it off.

Wu Yi naturally understood the meaning. The outside world must also know about United Mining's domestic relationship. The price of the quotation actually has no meaning. He was already regretting that after finally getting the Chinese guy to come to the door, the cooperation was aborted.

However, who knew that after Academician Yu finished speaking, Hopkins, the aerospace expert from Ronaldo, suddenly echoed:

"Yes, that's right. We quoted based on the structure of the nuclear device in the atmosphere. The cost of using it on the moon is definitely different. The price we just estimated may be wrong."

Hopkins' sudden speech caught everyone off guard, but what was even more strange was that the two people next to him were also nodding.

Stevenson: "It does seem so. Academician Yu is truly a great scientist in China. He thinks more thoughtfully than we do."

Connor: "We just made a mistake, which is really regrettable. I'm sorry for the unpleasantness just now."

The inconsistent performance of the Luo Luo delegation caught the United Mining side by surprise. Even the boss, who had always been at ease, couldn't help but mutter, wondering what kind of medicine was being sold in the gourd of the Guoguo.

Several people looked at each other and were not sure why. In the end, they chose to wait and see what happens. If something goes wrong, there will be a monster.

Sure enough, after Wu Yi followed the flow and said a few words, Connor said casually:

"Dear gentlemen, you see, we have no understanding of the effects of nuclear bomb explosions on the moon, and we cannot give a specific and reasonable quotation. How should such a tender proceed?"

Hopkins: "Sincerity is the first rule of business transactions. We cannot do business with an attitude of uncertainty, but we all know nothing about the moon, and current estimates are inaccurate."

Academician Yu, who was sitting across from him with his head down and doing calculations on paper, suddenly had a flash of inspiration. He looked up at the still confused United Mining people and Luo Luo, who was obviously for the purpose of blessing. After thinking for a while, he said:

"It would be great if we could explode a hydrogen bomb on the moon. That would make planning and costing much easier and more accurate."

This sentence seemed to flip some switch, and everyone present thought of something in a certain direction. Wu Yi quickly understood the cause and effect, and looked at Luo Luo's negotiation team as if to verify whether it was correct.

Sure enough, after listening to the translated narrative, Ambassador Connor's eyebrows suddenly stretched out, and he opened his eyes wide as if he just realized it:

"This is really a wonderful idea. It is completely necessary and correct to conduct a test explosion. For the sake of human space exploration, we can provide a hydrogen bomb for free for testing, regardless of whether we win the bid or not."

Lin Ju and others were completely sure that things had developed to this point. No wonder these Yuguo guys didn't leave even after the price inquiry collapsed. It turned out they were waiting here.

He quickly pulled Wu Yi to say something. The latter nodded repeatedly, and then said tentatively:

"United Mining agrees with this proposal. The hydrogen bomb test explosion can be completed in two lunar landing missions, but this may require you to send relevant geological experts and nuclear experts to complete the test explosion and explosion in person together with the lunar expedition team of United Mining." Only later analysis tasks will do.”

While Wu Yi was talking, Connor kept nodding in his mind. It took him so long to finally get to this point.

The London authorities are not interested in the money for selling nuclear bombs, at least not that interested; but they are very interested in dropping hydrogen bombs on the moon, and even letting the Koreans be "invited" and "begged" to take the initiative to land on the moon.

It was this benefit that made London agree to the bid as quickly as possible, because the Artemis project, which had the potential to land its own astronauts on the moon, suffered a heavy blow and would also cancel the SLS rocket. The follow-up plans are unknown. The horse will go away in the next year.

Looking at the ambitious lunar plan of China and America, everyone in charge is anxious!

But this cannot be said clearly, and the outside world cannot be allowed to think that "London has degenerated into using hydrogen bombs to land on the moon." Therefore, we can only find ways to bring the topic bit by bit.

What Connor heard from Wu Yi's words was that there were two quotas. In fact, the bottom line in London was that one person would be enough, which was much better than he had imagined.

After cursing in his mind that the Chinese people are really capable, Kang Naqiang made a dissatisfied expression and said awkwardly:

"The placement of a nuclear bomb is a complex project that requires at least two nuclear experts, two geological experts and one aerospace expert. Some information must be understood by our experts before it is safe."