RPAGF Chapter 808 The Iron Tower Still Stands!
Chapter 808 The Iron Tower Still Stands!
The sun had completely sunk into the sea of sand, with only a few huge beams of searchlight converging from different directions, illuminating the silver-gray steel frame until it gleamed, the cold metallic luster particularly dazzling in the dim light.
The tower, hundreds of meters high, stands upright in the middle of the Gobi Desert like a sharp sword, while its massive concrete base, like the claws of a giant beast, is firmly embedded in the sand.
The wind whipped sand grains against the steel frame, making a continuous, fine clanging sound, but it did nothing to shake the behemoth that was secured by countless thick bolts.
"What are you daydreaming about? Keep up!" Teacher Daheng patted him on the back, and the young man finally snapped out of his daze and quickly followed, stepping on the temporary wooden planks on the sand.
There were also gravel under the wooden planks to prevent them from being buried by sandstorms. Walking on them made a creaking sound, just like walking on an old wooden bridge.
"Teacher, teacher!" The young man hurried a few steps and pointed to a row of tanks and airplanes parked on an open space not far below the iron tower.
"Wow, so many huge things parked here, are they for protecting this place? Shouldn't those planes be parked at the airport? Why are they on the sand? Can they even fly on sand? It looks like an exhibition." He couldn't imagine what connection these steel behemoths had with the towering iron tower in front of him.
Teacher Daheng didn't stop walking: "That's not an exhibition. That's a 'ruler,' and also the most 'honest' witness."
"A ruler?" The young man was even more confused.
"You'll understand in a couple of days..." Teacher Daheng waved his hand, not wanting to say more, and continued walking forward.
"Tsk tsk, why not use such good equipment? Why let it gather dust in the sand..." The young man muttered a few words, then quickly followed after his teacher when he saw him walk away.
"Teacher, teacher, where are we going? Under that iron tower? Why are the senior students going in the opposite direction?"
For the first time, Teacher Daheng wondered if he had made the wrong choice in selecting this young apprentice. He hadn't been this talkative before, even back in the institute...
It was the lean man beside them who spoke up: "They're not just gathering dust, they're all useful..."
After speaking, he fell silent again, carrying his large bag and following closely behind Teacher Daheng. He ignored the young man's questions.
The young man, having met with a rebuff, chuckled sheepishly and hurried a few steps. Looking up, he saw a brand-new three-story building standing not far away, its gray cement still visible on the exterior walls, making it stand out starkly against the desolate Gobi Desert.
"Wow!" he exclaimed in surprise, then grabbed Teacher Daheng's arm and pointed to the small building. "Teacher, look! There are newly built houses over there! The cement walls aren't completely dry yet, are they? The windows are so bright! Are they for us to stay in tonight? At least we won't have to stay in the cabin listening to that buzzing sound anymore!"
The young man's face lit up with anticipation, and he even began to imagine what it would feel like to lie under a real roof.
Teacher Daheng glanced in the direction he pointed, his weathered face revealing no expression, and simply shook his head at the man beside him.
The man grinned, revealing a simple smile weathered by the wind and sand: "It's alright, you can talk to the child about it. Anyway, once you're here, you can't leave until everything's done."
Teacher Daheng patted the man on the shoulder, his tone respectful: "Thank you for your hard work, guarding this place for so long."
The man simply parted his parched lips and revealed a wide smile.
Teacher Daheng then turned to the young man and explained:
"That's not a place for people to live."
"Huh? It's not for people to live in?" The young man was stunned, even more confused. "What's the point of building such a nice house if no one lives in it? Just to look at it? What a waste..."
Teacher Daheng did not answer immediately. His gaze swept over the small building, then over the oddly shaped low houses built with different materials and a seemingly lonely bridge pier model in the distance, and finally fell back on the empty platform at the top of the iron tower, outlined by lights.
He paused for a few seconds before slowly saying, "They... like those tanks and airplanes, are all 'witnesses.' They are here to witness some things firsthand."
"A witness?" The young man was even more confused.
Just then, a hearty laugh interrupted the young man's thoughts. A middle-aged man with a parted hairstyle and a slightly plump figure greeted him with a smile, extending his hand from afar: "Ha! Daheng! We've been waiting for you!"
"Hahaha, Fatty... Hey, why did you come all this way in person? Where's 'Baldy'?" Teacher Daheng smiled and quickly stepped forward to shake the person's hand tightly.
"Why can't I come? I've been thinking about this place, I won't feel at ease if I don't come and see! Baldy's still in Beijing, I bet he's having a great time right now!"
"What's there to be happy about? He was just pulling his hair out in distress..."
The newcomer laughed heartily again: "Because I'm no longer competing with him for Big Yellow's clone..."
"Ha ha ha ha……"
The two of them burst into laughter.
Teacher Daheng first shook hands with the visitor, then gave the visitor a hard slap on the shoulder in displeasure:
"You've broken the rules again! It's clearly stated above that to avoid the risk of simultaneous exposure of both 'theory-experiment' personnel, the theory leader must remain in the rear! How did you end up on the front lines again!"
"Don't worry, I'll be leaving soon, taking the same plane that brought you here back." The man pointed to the An-2 parked not far away, his expression becoming serious. "From now on, the whole high-speed photography and optical measurement project will be yours. 'Baldy' and I will be in Beijing, waiting for your firsthand data!"
"Don't worry! I guarantee Baldy will receive the data immediately so he can calculate the explosive yield!"
"Okay! I'll leave it to you then! I'm off!"
The man shook Teacher Daheng's hand firmly again, then turned to the young man and shook his hand in a friendly manner. He then walked quickly toward the plane, escorted by two soldiers.
The young man watched the person leave, bewildered. Before he could even think about the person's identity, his attention was drawn to the more concrete and bustling scene around the Eiffel Tower.
……
The closer you get to the tower, the more real that tense but orderly "busyness" becomes. It's not noisy, but a focused, meticulous concentration.
Personnel in blue overalls, carrying cable reels, crouched low as they crawled into the control room at the base of the tower. The cables left shallow tracks in the sand. Every few steps, someone would stop to check the numbers against the blueprints in their hands: "Connect the cable in Zone C to connector number 3! Don't connect it wrong!"
Inside the makeshift tent next door, several oscilloscopes were buzzing, their screens displaying green waveforms that looked like living vines.
A technician wearing thick glasses squatted on the ground, holding the test leads in his hand, touching them to the instrument interface, and muttering: "Voltage stable, waveform without noise... Measure the grounding resistance again!"
The person next to them handed over a multimeter. The pointer on the dial wobbled gently and finally stopped at the "0.5w" position. Both of them breathed a sigh of relief and ticked the mark on the table.
"Don't just look, lend a hand and steady the instrument case." Professor Daheng's voice pulled the young man back to reality from his observation.
The young man quickly followed, but his eyes were glued to the tower. Apart from the tower itself, which was about a hundred meters tall, he noticed that the concrete base was covered with cables, like a dark belt around the tower.
The closer they got, the clearer the details on the tower became. The young man, craning his neck, almost bumped into the soldier carrying cables ahead of him.
Looking up, the top of the tower is a cross-shaped metal frame with steel bars so thick that it takes two people to hug it. At each of the four corners of the frame is a palm-sized object, its outer shell shiny, indicating that it was just installed and hasn't accumulated much sand yet.
A steel cable, about the thickness of a thumb, hangs from the center of the frame, with a smooth hook at the end. It sways idly, making a "ding-a-ling" sound when the wind blows.
"Come on, let's get to work. Our task this time is to install thermocouples and piezoelectric crystal sensors at the predetermined height on the tower. After installation, we'll do a thorough check of the Kerr box high-speed camera and optical goniometer. Time is tight, so we need to be quick."