October 1996, Wenjin Street, Beijing."Old Chen, what did you say? Three hundred billion RMB? Isn't that too much?" In the office, Gu Baishun and others were dumbfounded and looked at Chen Guohua in disbelief. They really didn't know why the latter needed so much money. Wouldn't it be better to use so much money for economic development? At present, our domestic economic development is indeed moving in a positive direction, especially after the launch of negotiations to join the WTO. We have received a lot of good news from North America, where they have extended an olive branch and expressed goodwill. For this reason alone, it is good news for our domestic import and export trade. The Three Gorges Hydropower Station, West-to-East Water Transmission Project, West-to-East Power Transmission Project and other projects have also been completed or are about to be completed. The southwest region has abundant water resources that can be fully utilized. For example, the Lancang River, the Yarlung Zangbo River and other rivers can be built into hydropower stations to generate electricity, which can also help local agricultural irrigation, improve the local natural environment and so on. As the saying goes, green mountains and clear waters are the foundation of everything else, so improving the natural environment will of course be more conducive to the development of the local economy. However, even though so many achievements have been made and many economic development projects have been completed, there are still many projects waiting to be developed. For example, the economic transformation of difficult areas in the western region, the village-to-village road construction project, etc., all require money. The country needs to build more highways, high-speed railways, etc. After all, everyone understands that to get rich, you must first build roads.

How many projects can be completed with the 300 billion RMB funds proposed by Chen Guohua? The infrastructure projects in many cities are very average, such as Baiyun City, Beijing, Shanghai, Futian Fishing Village, etc. As these cities are the vanguards, should subway construction be put on the agenda? All in all, there are many projects that require financial support. "Old Gu, why are you all so stingy?" Looking at Gu Baishun and the others, Chen Guohua said speechlessly: "I have made it very clear in the plan, where the money will be used, how many talents are needed, and what kind of project will be completed within a certain period of time. It is clearly stated here." "Besides, didn't you see clearly? This is the Longyuan space transport spacecraft. This thing will be used as a transportation bus between the earth and the moon in the future. It can reach the moon from the earth within nine hours, and it does not require any training like the current astronauts." He himself had been to the moon several times on the Longyuan, and was not discovered each time. For this reason alone, Chen Guohua certainly strongly recommends it. Of course, he thought he had not been discovered, but he did not expect that John Ferrante of the North American Aerospace Industry Agency had recorded every time he returned to Earth while testing the Longyuan. Also recorded were his every return to Earth. Because when the Longyuan enters the atmosphere, it will produce violent friction with the air, and then a huge fireball will be formed. Chen Guohua has not yet solved this problem because it involves more advanced materials and design technology, which requires more money. Therefore, Chen Guohua does not want to spend too much manpower and resources on this for the time being. "We all know that, but Lao Chen, 300 billion RMB is not a small amount of money." Upon hearing this, Gu Baishun immediately refuted. Chen Guohua waved his hand and interrupted: "Okay, if you don't want to give it to me, then don't give it to me. I can just earn it myself. It's really troublesome!" His expression was full of disgust. He stood up without saying a word. When he was about to leave, Gu Baishun and the others quickly grabbed him. If Chen Guohua ran away, it would be hard to explain. “You guys, I don’t know what to say.” Pointing at Gu Baishun and the others, Chen Guohua said angrily: "Hurry up and transfer the money. 300 billion RMB, the first batch of 150 billion RMB must be received within this month. Relevant staff and materials also need to be in place. No delay is allowed."

"As for the 300 billion RMB, believe me, I will earn it back for you in one or two years." After hearing Chen Guohua's words, Gu Baishun and the others' eyes suddenly lit up and they began to ask eagerly. At this time, Chen Guohua explained the situation to them, which was mainly based on the economic laws of capitalist countries. According to the original time and space, the Asian financial crisis in 1997 was actually the result of the capitalist harvest sickle. To put it simply, they brought it upon themselves. The reason why these financial crises broke out is because of the poor financial supervision in Hong Kong, Kowloon, the Peninsula, Siam and other places, which led to the influx of a large amount of external funds and caused asset bubbles. In addition, the regulation of exchange rates and the premature opening of capital accounts increased the fragility of the financial system. "So, according to my prediction, they will definitely bring a lot of external funds to Southeast Asia in the next one or two years, such as Siam, Garden City, etc., as well as Hong Kong, Kowloon, Peninsula, Tokyo, etc., which will not be able to escape the sickle of those capitals." As soon as these words were spoken, Gu Baishun and others immediately looked solemn, because they all knew the situation in Hong Kong and Kowloon. The fixed exchange rate and other factors were very consistent with the reasons Chen Guohua mentioned for the possible outbreak of a financial crisis. It is simply a hotbed of capital. They don't care about other places like Siam, the Peninsula, the Garden City, etc., but they cannot ignore the city of Hong Kong and Kowloon. Therefore, after Chen Guohua explained all the problems clearly, Gu Baishun and others were already stunned. They believed the data Chen Guohua said and also knew the bad nature of capital. Since this financial crisis is bound to happen, we must take preventive measures in advance. For them now, it has changed from one thing to two things. One is the lunar base plan mentioned by Chen Guohua, and the other is the financial crisis. Half a month later, the capital had already started to take action. After a meeting and discussion, Gu Baishun and others successfully passed the acceleration plan for the lunar base. The lunar base itself has a very important role to play. Not to mention the development of the moon and interstellar travel, the moon itself contains a huge amount of helium 3, which is a very unexpected discovery. As early as a few years ago, when the moon landing plan led by Chen Guohua was successful, the Overlord space transport spacecraft brought back 500 kilograms of lunar soil from the moon. In the process of studying the lunar soil, the rare gas helium 3 was discovered. As a rare gas, the moon has a reserve of up to 3 million tons of helium 3, while the earth has a reserve of only kilograms. Helium-3 is the most ideal material for nuclear fusion reactions. It has extremely high energy and is almost an unlimited source of energy. Although the research and development of controlled nuclear fusion has not been completed yet, it is a very good discovery that there is such a large storage amount of helium 3 on the moon. In addition, the lunar soil contains a large amount of water. It is precisely because of this that Gu Baishun and others support the lunar base plan proposed by Chen Guohua. As we all know, the moon has no atmosphere and is a true high-altitude environment. The temperature can reach over 100 degrees during the day and drop to below 180 degrees at night. So even if there was water on the surface of the moon, it would have evaporated long ago, but no one had ever imagined that the lunar soil itself could produce water. At that time, Chen Guohua proposed the idea that there was water in the lunar soil, but many researchers did not believe it. Water was not discovered until lunar soil was brought back from the moon and studied. After heating the lunar soil ilmenite, no helium-3 was found, but the screen was full of white bubbles. Then, through the electron energy loss spectrum, it was found that these white bubbles were actually water models, which also means that there is water in the white bubbles. The reason is that over the past billions of years, the solar wind has been washing the moon all the time, and the lunar soil stores a large amount of hydrogen. The lunar soil also contains rich iron oxide ores. As long as the lunar soil is heated to 1,500 degrees Celsius, an oxidation-reduction reaction will occur, and hydrogen and oxygen in the iron ore will combine to produce water. At that time, the scientific research team confirmed that 50 kilograms of water could be extracted from one ton of lunar soil. Water resources are very expensive on the moon. According to the transportation cost of the existing Overlord space transport spacecraft, the minimum cost per kilogram of payload is RMB 30,000.

This price is quite expensive. You know, once a lunar base is built on the moon, not to mention water use in other areas, just the water use of scientific researchers will be at least one kilogram of water per person per day. Therefore, even if we do nothing and only send one researcher to the moon to conduct scientific research activities, 30 kilograms of water will be consumed in one month alone, which is 900,000 yuan. But how is it possible to send only one person to the moon base? After confirming that lunar soil can produce water, there is no need to deliver water to the lunar base. This will solve many problems and save a lot of expenses. All we need to do is develop a device that can make water on the moon and send it to the lunar base, and then use the free and strong sunlight on the moon to make water. It would be perfect. Therefore, the discovery that 50 kilograms of water can be produced from one ton of lunar soil is one of the most important factors for the lunar base plan to be passed. Now, Chen Guohua mentioned the request to accelerate the construction plan of the lunar base because he developed the Longyuan space transport spacecraft. Such a transport spacecraft has a very fast flying speed, taking only twenty hours for a round trip, and its safety is guaranteed. It does not need to stop at low-Earth orbit space stations or lunar orbit space stations. Chen Guohua brought out many points to convince Gu Baishun and others, and only then was the acceleration plan approved. In the capital, at the Zhenhua Research Institute, Xue Jinquan, Dong Jianchang, Qian Yuanxing, Lu Zijing, Zhang Jichuan and others gathered together, looking at the plans in their hands with expressions of disbelief. The reason why they gathered together was naturally because of the research and development project on quantum entanglement signal transmission technology proposed by Chen Guohua. The technological breakthrough this time was 500,000 kilometers, which can be said to be a huge leap. The technology they previously had was 50,000 kilometers, and this technology still has great limitations, but it is already a very powerful technology. After all, whether it was the previous Moscow Alliance or the current Washington, they didn't even have quantum entanglement transmission technology, let alone breaking through to ultra-long-distance transmission of 50,000 kilometers. However, in recent times, old guys like Xue Jinquan have all heard that Chen Guohua is going to launch a leap-forward plan to accelerate the construction of the lunar base. Then they saw many scientific research projects about the acceleration plan. Among the many complex projects, they immediately took a liking to the project about quantum entanglement transmission technology. Zhao Jusheng is very interested in all technologies related to the quantum level. In order to join the quantum chip project, he pestered Chen Guohua a lot and tried his best to start this project. It seems that he looks down on other projects except the quantum chip project. Chen Guohua's classmates at Peking University, especially Xue Jinquan, Zhang Jichuan, and Zhao Jusheng, a group of super-academic students, all like to challenge difficult techniques, even though they are now in their fifties, they still do so. "Is Lao Chen not here yet? Can we really complete the research and development of quantum entanglement signal transmission technology over ultra-long distances of 500,000 kilometers?" In the conference room, after a long silence, Zhao Jusheng suddenly spoke, attracting everyone's attention. Xue Jinquan, who already had a head full of silver hair, put down the information in his hand, smiled confidently and said: "We have completed so many scientific research tasks and overcome so many difficulties in the past. Even if there are more difficult tasks now, can't we overcome them?" "Although we are old, the young people today are not pushovers. Compared to us, they are also able to endure hardships." "Besides, when have you ever seen Lao Chen fight an unprepared battle?" Zhang Jichuan and the others smiled, but Shi Zhiqing frowned and said: "We all know that Lao Chen is very capable, but this time is different. There are too many difficulties to overcome. Not to mention the 500,000-kilometer quantum entanglement transmission technology we have at hand, which of the other major plans in this lunar base acceleration plan is simple?" Everyone was silent for a while after hearing this. They are old, but that doesn't mean they can't fight. But the more they understand this, the more powerless they feel.

Xue Jinquan and his men are so confident, not only because they trust Chen Guohua, but more because they refuse to admit defeat and they don't want to admit that they are old. But Shi Zhiqing and a few others are self-aware. As they get older, they have to accept their age. They have no choice but to accept it! Some things are unavoidable; birth, aging, sickness and death are the norm in life. Although this group of people have been classmates, colleagues and neighbors for most of their lives since they entered Peking University, two or three of them have passed away over the years. There were 30 students in the graduation photo of the first class of the computational mathematics major, but only 27 are still alive. (End of this chapter)