Magic? My Iron Torrent will sweep it all away!

Chapter 104 Emergency Research and Development

Old Wu adjusted his glasses and leaned closer to see what was on them.

His expression shifted from confusion to shock, and finally to utter absurdity.

"Boss, you're not kidding me, are you?"

Old Wu pointed at the words "cubic nitrogen" on the screen, his voice trembling.

"This stuff is as stable as an inert explosive!"

"Don't even mention hitting it with a firing pin; you could hit it with an eight-pound hammer and it wouldn't even make a sound!"

"Trying to fit it into a 14.5mm bullet and detonate it?! That's impossible!"

"I don't care!" Ma Dongsheng slammed his fist on the table, making the teacup vibrate loudly.

"This is a death order! A military pledge!"

"I need to see a sample of this thing within three days!"

"That's impossible!" Old Wu's stubbornness flared up as well.

"It's impossible for cubic nitrogen to generate enough energy to detonate inside such a small warhead!"

"What about the shells?" Ma Dongsheng asked, suppressing his anger.

"The shells are simple!" Old Wu replied immediately.

"The warhead of the shell has a large space, so using the explosion of high-energy explosives to detonate cubic nitrogen is no problem; we just need to modify the production line."

"But bullets... sir, with all due respect, that's a pipe dream!"

Ma Dongsheng stood up, walked to the floor-to-ceiling window, and looked down at the brightly lit and bustling factory area.

He remained silent for a long time before slowly speaking.

"Old Wu, how many years have we known each other?"

"It's been almost thirty years."

"Have I ever cheated you?"

"No, not at all..."

"This order comes from the highest level," Ma Dongsheng said in a low voice.

"I can't tell you the specifics, but I can tell you that if we can't build it, the soldiers on the front lines will have to pay with their lives."

"Those of us in the rear are not in mortal danger, but we must have an even stronger fighting spirit!"

Old Wu was taken aback. The anger and stubbornness on his face slowly faded, replaced by helplessness. He sighed and said:

"...I need the highest level of access to all the group's laboratories, and all the experts, no matter what they are doing, I need to be able to mobilize them at any time."

"Here you go!" Ma Dongsheng said without hesitation.

"I need the support of the Academy of Sciences, especially the brains of those old guys in materials science and high-energy physics!"

"I'll apply right away!"

"And... prepare three boxes of nitroglycerin pills and twenty cartons of special-supply cigarettes for me." Old Wu gritted his teeth.

"Damn it, for the past three days, my team and I have been sleeping in the lab!"

"I'll go with you!"

The entire Polaris Military Industry Group, this massive industrial behemoth, went completely mad at this moment.

Countless phone calls were made and countless orders were issued.

An engineer on vacation was picked up directly from his home by a military helicopter.

Top technical personnel from each branch factory flew to headquarters overnight on a private jet.

On the group's internal BBS, a pinned red post caught everyone's attention.

[Emergency Task Force Needed!]

"Regardless of seniority or position, as long as you have a solution to the problem! Outstanding contributions will be recognized with medals of merit and special merit awards, and applications will be submitted directly to the central government!"

The entire company was instantly in an uproar.

This is not just simple overtime work; it's a war.

Research and Development Center, A-1 Special Materials Laboratory.

This place has been transformed into the 'battlefield' command post.

Dozens of the nation's top weapons experts and engineers gathered around a huge tactical whiteboard covered with various formulas and chemical structure diagrams, the atmosphere heavy and solemn.

Old Wu stood in the center of the whiteboard, holding a marker that he had almost broken in his hand.

"Conventional impact fuze solutions are completely rejected! They won't work!"

"What about a chemical fuse? A two-component liquid that mixes and detonates when the warhead breaks apart?" one expert suggested.

"No way!" the other person immediately retorted.

"A 14.5mm warhead is too small to hold both liquids while maintaining its power."

"Furthermore, under G-force overload, there is a risk that the two agents will mix prematurely, which could lead to a barrel explosion!"

"What about piezoelectric ceramic fuses? They utilize the weak current generated at the moment of impact."

"The current is too weak, not enough energy! It can't even detonate a detonator, let alone cubic nitrogen!"

One proposal after another was put forward, and then one by one it was rejected.

Time ticked by, and the cigarette butts in the ashtray piled higher and higher, leaving everyone feeling utterly powerless.

The laws of physics were like a mountain, standing in their way.

Just when everyone was about to despair, a young man wearing thick glasses, who looked no more than twenty-five or twenty-six years old, weakly raised his hand from a corner.

"Chief Engineer Wu... I... I have an idea, it might... be a little crazy."

Old Wu looked over irritably.

"Spit it out!"

The young man shrank back at the shout, but still mustered the courage to speak.

"Could we...could we...avoid the 'triggering' approach?"

His words silenced the entire laboratory instantly.

"What do you mean?" Old Wu frowned.

"Although the N/N single bond structure of cubic nitrogen is stable, it also stores a huge amount of energy." The young man spoke faster and faster, his eyes growing brighter and brighter.

"What if...we could use a specific frequency of resonance to break its molecular bond structure at the moment of impact, causing it to collapse from its stable state and release energy instantly?"

"It wasn't an explosion, it was... it was a 'phase transition collapse'!"

The entire laboratory fell silent.

All the experts looked at the young man as if he were crazy.

Using resonance to detonate top-level high explosives?

This sounds even more fantastical than a fairy tale.

Old Wu was stunned. He stared intently at the young man, but a spark slowly ignited in his cloudy eyes.

All the regular roads are blocked.

Then, we can only take the uncharted paths that no one has ever taken before!

"What's your name?"

"Reporting to the Chief Engineer, my name is Sun Zhi, an intern who has been with the company for a year..."

"Sun Zhi..." Old Wu repeated the name, then suddenly slapped his thigh.

"Listen up, everyone!"

"The simulation team, immediately establish a mathematical model based on Sun Zhi's theory and conduct computer simulations!"

"I need to see preliminary results within half an hour!"

"Materials team, go find it for me! What material can generate the high-frequency oscillations we need upon impact?"

"Everyone else, the shell modification production line can't stop! We need to operate on two fronts!"

Old Wu's eyes were bloodshot, but his voice was more excited than ever before.

"Damn it, it's just physics, right? I'm going to change it today!"

In the laboratory, everyone was infected by his crazy energy, and the silent atmosphere was swept away, becoming noisy and full of vitality again.

Ma Dongsheng stood in front of the observation window outside the laboratory, watching the busy figures inside, and silently lit a cigarette.

He didn't know if the young man named Sun Zhi's crazy idea would succeed.

But he knew that hope lay in the hands of this group of people.

It was during these sleepless nights, when we were cursing and working at the same time, that we worked.