"Eighteen people?"
Zhou Huaide sat on a stool, helplessly repeating the words to himself!
Their northern base had 102 researchers in total, yet after a single trip to the Capital, 84 of them had been transferred away.
And the reason for those transfers left him unable to argue.
Whenever he recalled the humiliating World Military Competition ten years ago, his heart ached terribly!
The World Military Competition had been a major reason he had agreed to take the position of chief commander of the controlled nuclear fusion project!
Through his own efforts, he had wanted to develop controlled nuclear fusion as a new energy source, allowing Dragon Country to overtake its rivals on a bend and become a world military power in one stroke!
Yet researching controlled nuclear fusion had not been as easy as he had imagined. Over a hundred researchers had worked together for ten years, and the country had spent over thirty billion, without achieving any major technological breakthrough.
Just as Zhou Huaide was recalling the past decade, a commotion suddenly erupted outside!
"Who are you? Who said you could touch our tokamak!"
"Someone, get over here! You guys, stop him!"
"This is ten years of our blood, sweat, and tears!"
"..."
Zhou Huaide's office was inside the experimental base. Hearing the commotion outside, he immediately rose and hurried out!
When he got outside, he found more than a dozen researchers in white work clothes surrounding Jiang Fan!
Zhou Huaide hurried forward and said!
"Stop! All of you, stop!"
Seeing Chief Commander Zhou arrive, everyone immediately felt they had someone to turn to and began speaking to him!
"Chief Commander Zhou, this brat appeared out of nowhere and actually started touching our tokamak!"
"Luckily, I spotted him early. If he'd broken it, ten years of our blood, sweat, and tears would have gone up in smoke!"
"He must be punished!"
After hearing them out, Zhou Huaide hurriedly explained!
"Quiet down, everyone. This is a good opportunity to introduce you. This is Jiang Fan, the controlled nuclear fusion expert I invited back from the Capital on this trip!"
Everyone exchanged glances. They had indeed heard that Chief Commander Zhou had found an expert in the Capital who had studied controlled nuclear fusion extensively!
They had assumed it would be an elderly professor returning from abroad! At the very least, it would be an expert who had worked on controlled nuclear fusion for years.
But the young man before them, still with a boyish face, could not have been more than eighteen or nineteen. No matter how they looked at him, he did not look like an expert!
"Chief Commander Zhou, you haven't been scammed, have you? He looks far too young!"
"Exactly! Without more than ten years of research into controlled nuclear fusion, it's hard to achieve anything in this field!"
"..."
Zhou Huaide was not angry at their doubts. He had also been doubtful when he first met Jiang Fan in person.
But through their conversations, he had discovered that Jiang Fan's knowledge of controlled nuclear fusion was definitely greater than all of theirs combined!
"Quiet down, everyone, and hear me out first. I understand your doubts. Let Jiang Fan first familiarize himself with our base and see how far our controlled nuclear fusion research has progressed. He'll give you all a surprise then..."
After Zhou Huaide's words, they could only step aside and let Jiang Fan continue working with the tokamak.
Seeing everyone move aside, Jiang Fan stood on no ceremony. He walked straight up and began studying the tokamak.
He only had a month now. He had promised Zhou Huaide that he would definitely keep nuclear fusion stable and controlled for over a hundred seconds!
And if he wanted to research space technology in the future, controlled nuclear fusion was an indispensable energy source.
Time was tight. He had to make every moment count.
After studying the tokamak for a while, he spoke to a researcher beside him.
"Get me a copy of the tokamak's documentation and data!"
The researcher froze for a moment, then looked at Zhou Huaide.
Zhou Huaide nodded. The researcher walked to the records room, then returned with a detailed drawing!
Jiang Fan took the detailed drawing, which had annotations for every component, and began studying the tokamak against it.
Every so often, he used a pen to draw something on the drawing!
The researchers around him watched Jiang Fan in puzzlement.
"Tell me, what could someone this young possibly know how to do?"
"Exactly! Controlled nuclear fusion isn't just ordinarily difficult."
"I think he's just putting on an act. If waving a pen around like that could sort out the tokamak, we wouldn't have needed to spend ten years researching it here. Haha..."
"I reckon Chief Commander Zhou is desperately seeking any doctor he can find. With our base about to have its work suspended, he just grabbed someone at random to give it a try..."
Everyone began discussing it in low voices!
Seeing that Jiang Fan would still need some time, Zhou Huaide spoke to Zhang Wenshan.
"Give me a list of the researchers who stayed!"
"All right!"
Zhang Wenshan then picked up a sheet of paper and began writing. Once he finished, he handed it to Zhou Huaide.
Zhou Huaide glanced at the names on it. They were all veteran researchers who had worked under him for eight or nine years, including two who had been with him since the northern base was established.
He understood that all of them had deep feelings for the northern base, which was why they had chosen not to leave when their superiors issued the transfer orders!
Zhou Huaide did not blame the researchers who had left. After all, these were orders from above, and their transfers to the fighter jet research project would also contribute to the World Military Competition!
What left him ashamed was that, after ten years researching controlled nuclear fusion, he had not succeeded before this World Military Competition!
He could not contribute to Dragon Country's efforts in this military competition!
Jiang Fan spent over three full hours studying before he thoroughly understood all the problems with the current tokamak.
His final conclusion was that this tokamak would never succeed, even with another thousand years of research.
That was because the materials it used were wrong at the most fundamental level. These materials simply could not withstand the high temperatures the plasma generated during fusion!
Holding the detailed drawing of the tokamak, Jiang Fan came over to Zhou Huaide!
"Uncle Zhou, I've more or less finished examining the level our base's controlled nuclear fusion research has reached!"
"How does it look? Can the modifications be completed successfully within a month?" Zhou Huaide asked!
"It should be possible! But I'll still need time to put together a detailed modification plan!"
"Good, but I have some bad news to tell you. Our northern base only has eighteen researchers left now. Everyone else has been transferred away!" Zhou Huaide said apologetically!
"Eighteen is a little few! But it should still be enough!"
Jiang Fan spoke after thinking for a while. Although there were many things wrong with the tokamak, its overall framework was still there!
As long as he adjusted the materials and data for the details inside the tokamak, keeping nuclear fusion stable and controlled for a hundred seconds should not be much of a problem!
"Oh, Uncle Zhou, gather all the researchers. I'll first explain the existing problems and the modification plan to everyone!"