Rain-Raining Rockets

Chapter 95 Rain-Raining Rockets

That afternoon, Jiang Fan boarded a Dodge truck dispatched from the Northeast Bureau and rushed to Ansteel without stopping.

When the driver heard that he was Jiang Fan, he drove the car very fast and steadily. In less than four hours, the car came to a smooth stop in front of the gate of Ansteel plant area.

As soon as the car was turned off, before Jiang Fan could even get out of the car, he saw a group of people already standing at the door.

He Xiying stood at the very front, along with several veteran cadres and Zhou Chunsheng.

Clearly, they already knew about Jiang Fan's return.

"Factory Manager!"

Jiang Fan jumped out of the car and quickly walked towards He Xiying.

He Xiying grabbed his hand, looked him up and down several times, and seeing that he looked well, she grinned.

"Hey kid, did the Soviet potatoes fatten you up?"

Jiang Fan smiled and shook hands in return: "Factory manager, please don't make fun of me. The food over there is all black bread and borscht. It's making my guts ache."

"Are those Soviet girls over there pretty?"

Zhou Chunsheng was still thinking about it, but this time Jiang Fan did give him a response.

"It looks great! How could it not look great?"

"Hip wider than waist, buttocks bigger than head, don't you think it looks good?"

Everyone around was amused.

He Xiying smiled and released her hand, then quickly composed herself and said, "The commander has already spoken about your matter on the phone. Let's go inside and talk about it slowly."

The group quickly sat down in the conference room on the second floor of the small white building. The room was filled with smoke, and the atmosphere was lively.

Jiang Fan recounted his trip to the Soviet Union from beginning to end, which astonished the cadres, especially when he mentioned the ten thousand pounds.

He Xiying listened with a smile on her face, but there was a hint of melancholy in her eyes.

He remained silent for a long while, cigarette between his fingers, before finally speaking.

"Comrade Xiao Jiang, this trip of yours not only brought back core equipment for the factory, but also earned the country some foreign exchange and found a way for the factory to make money. To be honest, I feel that you are wasting your talents at Ansteel."

Jiang Fan knew that He Xiying was paving the way for him, so he tacitly accepted the offer: "Factory Director, the only thing I wanted to tell you when I came back was that the Northeast Bureau has officially transferred me to the Shenyang Arsenal."

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There was a moment of silence in the conference room.

In fact, He Xiying already knew, and this was also a performance for the factory cadres to give them a chance to accept it.

"Of course, it's a good thing that you can go to the engineering factory. You'll make a greater contribution to the country. Don't worry about Ansteel. Just call us if you need any raw materials."

Although that's what he said, the atmosphere in the office became cold and quiet. Zhou Chunsheng frowned, not knowing what to say.

Jiang Fan glanced around and said, "Alright, alright, it's only about 100 kilometers. We can come back anytime."

"By the way, Engineer Zhou, could you show me the data for that tractor and the time field?"

With Jiang Fan changing the subject, Zhou Chunsheng also took out a notebook from his pocket, flipped to the middle, handed it over, and reported.

"The tractor is fine, it's just that the weather isn't cooperating, the data from the experimental field isn't good."

Jiang Fan ignored his mutterings, opened the notebook and looked at it, but his brows immediately furrowed.

Records show that in the past ten days or so, there was only one light rain; the weather was dry, hot, and dusty.

Although the buckwheat sprouted with difficulty, it grew thin and yellow, and its root system was obviously not deep.

Although the survival rate in the adjacent greenhouse was better, the leaves generally had scorched edges, which was obviously caused by excessively high temperature and insufficient water supply inside the greenhouse.

"It's windy and sandy, and it doesn't rain."

He Xiying is an old farmer and knows more about crops than Zhou Chunsheng.

"Not to mention our experimental fields, many farmers in the surrounding villages have wilted their spring corn, and the tips of the leaves are starting to turn yellow and curl. If the drought continues like this, the autumn harvest will probably be reduced by 20%."

Jiang Fan stared at the data in the notebook, and at the same time, Yuan Lao's knowledge came in handy.

Logically speaking, the climate in Northeast China should be characterized by simultaneous rain and heat in summer.

However, the Siberian High is unusually stable this year, preventing warm air currents from moving northward. In addition, the dry and cold air from the Mongolian Plateau continues to move southward, forming an extremely stubborn dry front on the Songnen Plain.

This type of front often brings only strong winds but hardly any rain; in meteorological terms, it's called a blocking high-pressure weather pattern.

But in 1949, it was just a dreaded weather forecast in the minds of the farmers.

However, Jiang Fan has ways to do things that the Dragon King won't do.

He closed the notebook, his face calm, already having made up his mind.

Seeing his appearance, He Xiying, Zhou Chunsheng, and the other cadres felt inexplicably uneasy and tentatively asked, "Comrade Xiao Jiang, do you have a solution?"

Instead of answering directly, Jiang Fan started scribbling in Zhou Chunsheng's notebook.

First, I drew a slender cylinder with four stabilizing fins at the tail.

Then, a detonation device was drawn in the middle of the cylinder, and an open container shape was drawn at the head.

Finally, a few words were written next to it: Silver iodide.

He Xiying and Zhou Chunsheng leaned closer, squinted at each other for two seconds, and their expressions slowly froze.

"—Is that a rocket launcher?"

"Why did you draw a rocket launcher? To attack the Dragon King if it doesn't rain?"

The other cadres also gathered around, staring at the picture again and again, but couldn't figure it out.

Old Li from the logistics department couldn't hold back any longer and asked first, "Comrade Xiao Jiang, here you go again! Last time you drew a gas cylinder, saying it was for civilian use, but it ended up being sent to the front lines and used to bomb a bunker."

"You can't exactly say this is another farm tool, can you?"

After Jiang Fan finished drawing, he looked up and nodded seriously, meeting the puzzled gazes of the crowd.

"Factory manager, leaders, this really is a farm tool." He pointed to the head of the cylinder with the tip of his pen.

"This thing is called a rain-inducing rocket. It doesn't bomb bunkers or shoot down planes. Its only mission is to sprinkle silver iodide into the clouds, turning the clouds that should have drifted away into rain. In short, it's artificial rainmaking."

There was a two-second silence in the conference room.

Zhou Chunsheng looked thoughtful; he seemed to have heard of this before.

However, He Xiying's lips twitched, and he asked, "Comrade Xiao Jiang, wait a minute, you mean if you shoot this thing into the sky, it will rain?"

Jiang Fan nodded: "Yes, Factory Director. There are a lot of supercooled water droplets in the clouds. Because they lack condensation nuclei, they keep floating and don't fall."

"Silver iodide is a highly efficient condensation nucleus. As long as it is sprinkled into cold clouds, the water droplets will quickly attach to the silver iodide particles, grow larger and heavier, and then fall down."

"Of course, I'm putting it simply."

"It requires precise calculation of cloud height, temperature, and humidity, as well as control of the rocket's seeding angle and ignition time."

"But the direction is correct, and it is technically feasible."

"However, its production requires the seamless steel pipes mentioned earlier."

"Without seamless steel pipes, the internal trajectory of this thing cannot be controlled. It will veer off course and scatter halfway through the flight. Sprinkling silver iodide into the clouds would be a complete waste of time."

"So once our perforation machine arrives, we'll roll out the first batch of seamless steel pipes."

"This rain-inducing rocket is one of the first prototype products."

"Of course, this kind of rain-inducing rocket can also be developed in both civilian and military directions."

"For civilian use, it's for rain enhancement and hail prevention, and forest fire fighting."

"For military use, it can also be transformed into a low-cost rocket launcher. After all, the device itself is inanimate, but its application is flexible."

"One bullet, multiple uses, extremely high cost performance."

Upon hearing this, He Xiying fell completely silent.

Sure enough, the things Jiang Fan made had more than one use.

But he was already used to it, and gave a wry smile.

"Comrade Xiao Jiang, you always manage to drop a bomb on me."

"However, if this can be done, it will be a lifesaver for our crops in Northeast China."

Jiang Fan nodded; that was the truth.

However, Jiang Fan actually wanted to wrap up what he had done before at this meeting.

After all, he was about to be transferred to the Shenyang Arsenal, and his time at Ansteel was not long.

"Yes, factory manager. Then this matter will be handled by Engineer Zhou."

As Jiang Fan spoke, he handed the sketch with the slender cylindrical base back to Zhou Chunsheng, then looked at him and said, "Engineer Zhou, the plan for the rain-inducing rocket is now in your hands."

"When Ansteel completes the trial production of seamless steel pipes, the first batch of materials will be sent immediately, so that the arsenal can start production as soon as it begins."

Direct connection saves time and effort from both ends.

Jiang Fan put his notebook away and nodded solemnly.

Then, Jiang Fan pulled out a stack of papers from his bag.

He copied it from his phone while the other three were sleeping on the train back.

"Factory manager, this is the core information I compiled on the train."

"I've written down the construction plans for the perforating machine and seamless steel pipe plant in several parts. You can just follow along when you get back to work."

He Xiying took the stack of papers, flipped through them, and her brows gradually relaxed.

Jiang Fan wrote down the plan for the seamless steel pipe plant in great detail.

He did not directly copy the cumbersome procedures of the Soviet Project 156.

After all, without Soviet support, the factory currently lacks the funds and manpower to build a completely new factory area.

He directly proposed a grafting-style transformation:

If Ansteel were to free up a workshop, all that would be needed is to renovate the old-style heating furnace with refractory bricks, and then repair and reuse the existing cooling tanks, straightening machines, and other general-purpose supporting equipment. The freed-up machine tools could then be used in other factories.