A nation's industrial development begins with junior engineers.

At this moment, Liu Huaqing was sitting in the computer room of the Darian Seventh Research Institute, his eyes fixed on the screen. His light pen was scrolling across the screen while he was also quickly jotting something down in his notebook with a fountain pen.

Yes, if I said the navy is pitiful, then it is pitiful.

Apart from a printer in the communications room, the entire Darian training base was completely devoid of printers, making it impossible for Liu Huaqing to even entertain the idea of ​​printing something luxurious.

When Jiang Xia pulled him into this classified forum, he thought it was just a discussion about optimizing the blueprints for the 021 missile boat. He was surprised to be bombarded with concepts like "general digital platform" and "cross-domain collaboration" as soon as he entered. He also never expected that a casually mentioned expectation would be taken as a key anchor point.

When he was discussing the improvement direction of the Type 021 missile boat with Jiang Xia, he couldn't help but sigh: "...If only our boat could consistently reach 40 knots, no, even just a little closer, reaching the upper limit of the design specifications... to form an absolute speed advantage, to hit and run, and even if the enemy's large ships spotted us, they could only follow behind and eat our wake, how wonderful that would be..."

In his own view, these words were nothing more than a bittersweet, beautiful wish.

He knew all too well how difficult the path to domestically producing the 6621 Wasp-class missile boat was.

The blueprints were unfinished products left behind after the alliance experts left, and construction was a process of repeated iterations of "designing and building simultaneously." The domestically produced diesel engine failed to meet standards, the shadow of the main engine connecting rod bearing failure during sea trials had not yet faded, and now the main engine lubrication pipe had cracked...

While the Hailiuzi-2 is indeed powerful, during its first missile salvo test, the high-speed exhaust plume of the missiles was not properly guided outwards due to an unreasonable flow design. Instead, it caused partial damage to the missile launch tube cover on the starboard bow and the nearby storm shelter structure.

These successive technical challenges made the entire project extremely difficult in its early 60s. Simply achieving a stable maximum speed of 39 knots for the prototype vessel had already exhausted most of the engineering potential available at the time.

At that time, the speed of the main naval vessels was mostly around 20 knots. Each increase in speed represented a gap that required the entire nation to overcome in terms of materials, power, and fluid dynamics design.

The navy has limited resources and a thin foundation, so it inevitably feels stretched thin when faced with many large projects.

But Jiang Xia's eyes lit up immediately. He patted him on the shoulder and said, "You have to dare to dream! Now that we have the 'Dahuang' platform, we can work together with experts from the wind tunnel institute and the aeronautical institute to tackle this problem. Maybe we can really succeed!"

Liu Huaqing didn't say anything at the time, but sighed inwardly: How could the poor little Navy, who is neither loved by his grandmother nor his uncle, have such an expert to help him? Do they really think others are just bored?

However, this young man in front of him was the one who genuinely helped him get the "second-generation huang" he had been dreaming of, solving his immediate problem.

Faced with such profound affection and tangible help, he couldn't possibly discourage the other party's enthusiasm.

So he could only suppress his disapproval, maintaining an encouraging expression on his face while silently dismissing it as a youthful, unrealistic "bold statement."

He told himself to just listen and not take it seriously.

!

But now, on the screen of this encrypted forum, those resounding names—"Yunnan-Guizhou," "Xi De," "Big Boss Qian," "Big Boss Guo"...

These names, which usually only appear in the highest-level internal technical briefings or in the author columns of top international academic journals, are now appearing in the same chat list in real-time!

Live!

Moreover, they weren't discussing vague concepts, but rather concrete technical details: standard parameters for wind tunnel test data interfaces, mathematical models for optimizing the hull shape of high-speed planing boats, stress analysis formulas for new high-strength corrosion-resistant materials under alternating loads...

They not only came, but also brought with them the unique excitement of tackling technical challenges, pushing the plan forward with one discussion after another. Their own expectations, once considered "unrealistic," were broken down here into concrete, quantifiable, achievable, and collaboratively tangible tasks!

Liu Huaqing felt a dizzying excitement, and his hand holding the light pen trembled slightly.

The long-held anxiety stemming from the naval resource shortage melted away instantly in the face of the pragmatic and powerful technological aura emanating from these top minds, like thin ice under the sun.

Instead, there was an unprecedented, down-to-earth hope, so intense it almost overflowed from their chests.

“With them… no, with us,” Liu Huaqing subconsciously straightened his back.

"Let's all work together, starting with every formula, every set of data, every piece of material... Maybe... no, we definitely can!"

Of course it can succeed! Jiang Xia was absolutely convinced of this.

Decades later, our Navy's Type 022 stealth missile boat emerged, adopting a high-speed wave-piercing catamaran design. With its advanced hull structure and power system, it steadily locked its maximum speed in the range of 40 to 50 knots, easily surpassing the target set back then.

This "sea lightning," which combines stealth, high speed, and powerful firepower, inherits the idea of ​​cross-disciplinary collaborative research, deeply integrating technologies from multiple fields such as ship design, fluid mechanics, and materials science, ultimately turning a past dream into reality.

Time slipped away quietly amidst the dim light of the screen and the rustling of pen and paper.

The lights in the computer room often stayed on until late at night, and the calculation papers were piled up like small mountains, with coffee stains and cigarette ash scattered on the edges of the drawings.

Behind those shining names in the forum are figures hunched over their desks, heated debates, and repeated data verifications.

They worked tirelessly, almost day and night, to build the "universal digital platform" that Jiang Xia had described.

Invisible digital bridges are rapidly extending between bitstreams and mathematical formulas, attempting to connect the shock waves of a wind tunnel with the trajectory of a ship, and to bridge the microscopic structure of materials with the macroscopic properties of fluids, converging scattered sparks of wisdom from all corners of the world into a flame that can start a prairie fire.

Is everyone like this?

of course not!

Meanwhile, Jiang Xia, the "instigator" of this invisible battle...

But it seemed too leisurely.

He was walking down the streets of Darian, with Old Wang beside him.

The June wind carries the briny scent of the sea, and also the faint, sweet fragrance of the remaining petals from the locust trees along the roadside.

Jiang Xia held a bowl of seaweed jelly in her hand. The translucent and crystal-clear jelly trembled in the bowl, mixed with minced garlic and sesame paste. It was smooth and refreshing when you took a bite, which was just right to relieve the slight dryness of the afternoon.

Instead of heading towards the bustling area, the two turned a corner and entered a quiet street in the Shahekou District. The sycamore branches provided shade, and sunlight filtered through the gaps onto the old-fashioned red brick walls, as if time itself had slowed down.

Looking at his leisurely demeanor, Old Wang couldn't help but tease, "Hey Comrade Jiang Xia, everyone else is burning the midnight oil, practically turning their brains up. And you, on the other hand, are out here strolling around, snacking? That's not like you at all. Before, you were always throwing yourself into every project headfirst, more energetic than anyone else."

Jiang Xia calmly swallowed the last mouthful of slippery jelly before leisurely speaking:

"Comrade Wang Kui, you don't understand. Everyone calls me a 'digging hole maniac,' doesn't they?"

Jiang Xia, with a subtle curve at the corners of his mouth, looked so malicious:

"This time, I'm really going to dig a huge pit, the kind that leads to the heavens, and invite them in to have some fun."