CH 124

After the military officer finished speaking, he paused for a moment, then turned his head to look at Jiang Chen with inquiring eyes.

“Is your system intelligent enough to make decisions on its own, or have you already prepared a strategy?”

Before his words were even finished uttering, the confused red and blue teams pushed the door in. They were all soldiers who had secretly trained in this training ground that seemed to be of poor conditions, but was actually a place concentrated with the highest level of technology in the country. Being able to be selected to come here, their ability was naturally extraordinary.

From enlisting to the present, they have never won/lost so inexplicably and felt at such a loss.

“Reporting in!” The captain of the blue team and the captain of the red team stood still at the same time, saluting uniformly, “The exercise is over, and all members of the blue team/red team have returned!”

“It’s been hard work, take a break.”

At this the two captains were no longer as serious as before. The captain of the red team couldn’t wait to ask the question that had troubled him since the beginning of the exercise: “Why did the commanding officer give inconsistent instructions? First telling us to lay in ambush, and then sending out scouts one by one. As a result, not only did the enemy’s position not be determined, but we were wiped out one by one by the enemy’s snipers. I am really suspicious of the commanding officer’s serious dereliction of duty!”

After losing in such a pathetic way, it would be difficult to raise his head in front of the blue team for a period of time in the future. The captain of the red team couldn’t swallow this down, and his temper was so hot that he was even more unwilling to suffer such dumb losses. If not for several high ranking leaders here, he would’ve even pointed at the nose of the commanding officer and launched into a fierce scolding.

The commanding officer was also very aggrieved. Just thinking about it with their brains, everyone would know that it was impossible for him to issue such terrible orders, but e had to swallow this bitterness down. In order to cope with the high-tech battles that may occur in the future, from the establishment of this covert foreign military simulation force, using the command and squad to cooperate in combat had always been the case, and the combination of the two sides made up the real team.

The commanding officers were not fixed. In addition to combat, the soldiers of the special forces must be knowledgeable of strategic deployment and military acumen, so every time they practiced command, they would rotate soldiers. In order to cooperate with each other in the most tacit way, in the exercise field and training, completely obeying the commands of the commanding officer became the first thing they kept in mind and engraved into their bones since the first day of training.

Obedience to orders was a soldier’s bounden duty, and for soldiers of the simulated troops, this condition also included the addition of obeying the orders of the commanding officer.

In any case, the red team did receive orders from the commanding officer. When the system was cut off or even given false instructions by the opponent, they were unable to fight back, which was indeed their dereliction of duty.

It turned out that Jiang Chen had no intention of actually using tactics to fight wars from the very beginning. Even if he had been in the army for a few years as a system researcher, it was like he would have also become an expert in tactical deployment. Otherwise, he would have gone to the army instead of staying in the research institute.

His initial order to the Changjiang was to use electronic warfare and cyber warfare.

After the red team commander issued the first few correct instructions, Changjiang cut off the opponent’s radio communication, making their command fail, and then pretended that everything was normal. The red team commander was still issuing instructions, but all his instructions would be intercepted by Changjiang halfway, and then sent fake instructions to the red team.

The red team acted according to the false order, and ran to the blue team’s sniper range one by one to die. The red team’s commander was shocked and angry after seeing it on the big screen, and gave the order again, but the other side still didn’t follow the order. No matter what, at this time he would finally realize that someone was playing tricks.

But even if he knew that Jiang Chen was playing tricks, the exercise was still going on, and he could only wait anxiously. And he really didn’t know if he should be thankful that the waiting time was not too long. After the red team members died one by one, even the armored vehicles which were connected to the command network automatically opened their doors, allowing the blue team to win without any effort.

The young and vigorous commander couldn’t suppress the anger in his heart, and said in a low voice, “Despicable.”

Hearing this, Jiang Chen followed the sound and saw the soldier’s still youthful face. He was slightly taken aback, but he didn’t feel sorry. It was just that he, an “old man” who had lived three lifetimes and wielded Changjiang in his hand, was competing with these soldiers who were no older than twenty-five years old. He really did feel guilty of bullying children.

He blinked and wanted to say something, but the sharp eyes of the military officer standing beside him had already swept over, looked directly at the soldier who had just spoken, and said, “Do you think that the other party is despicable just because you lose?”

The soldier didn’t expect the head of the regiment to ask a question directly, but he straightened his back, stood up and said with a stiff neck, “He cut off our system and passed on false orders. Is this not despicable?”

The military officer snorted coldly: “Go to the battlefield and ask the people in our military industry research department whether the new stealth aircraft is despicable. Whether the nuclear weapons developed by the research institute are despicable. As a soldier, if you can’t even accept the newly developed weapons, why are you still a soldier?”

These words were not insignificant, and in front of so many people, the young soldier’s red face gradually turned pale. His hands beside him were clenched into fists, shame and embarrassment alternated on his face, and he slowly lowered his head.

Jiang Chen swallowed what he wanted to say. Forget it, if they want to understand Changjiang’s method of cutting off the enemy’s communication as a weapon, it couldn’t be considered completely inaccurate.

“And you!” Jiang Chen didn’t speak, but the military officer’s lecturing did not end. His eyes swept over every soldier present, his aura serious and solemn: “Our country is developing every day, and technology and weapons are changing with each passing day. What is the purpose of this? It is to protect the peace of the motherland, and to give you more protection in battle!”

“Every minor detail on the battlefield can become the direct factors that determine success or failure. In the past, it was a bullet and a knife, but now it is the gap in military strength between the enemy and us. How can these gaps be closed? Technology and weapons! Let me ask, if one day, the system that just commanded the blue team appeared on the battlefield, and we can repel the enemy without losing a single soldier, as well as be able to defend our borders and our allies. Could it be that you will think it’s still despicable then?”

Most of the people who were caught by the military officer’s gaze lowered their heads in shame. They were only annoyed by the exercise that ended like a joke, but they didn’t think about how powerful this would be as a secret weapon if it was placed on the international war stage.

If they have the system shown in today’s exercise, they would be able to reverse control as long as the enemy used weapons connected to the computer system in the future, and most of the weapons connected to the computer system were the most powerful secret weapons of various countries.

The scene of the enemy country firing laser cannons and suddenly finding that they couldn’t activate the turret came to mind. Just thinking about it made their blood boil excitedly, and they looked at Jiang Chen——or rather the computer beside him with scorching eyes.

Jiang Chen felt the soldiers’ “enthusiastic” gazes. Not only did he not feel uncomfortable, but a little nostalgia floated in his heart. In the interstellar era, whenever a new type of weapon or mech appeared, the soldiers were also so enthusiastic and excited.

Sure enough, no matter how the times change, some enthusiasm would never change.

“Jiang——” The military officer faced Jiang Chen, but recalling that he had no official position, he changed his address to the respectful manner of address: “Mr. Jiang.”

Jiang Chen was used to this kind of address, and he didn’t feel that there was anything strange at all, and he responded readily, “Please speak your mind.”

“Let’s move to the conference room to talk, how about it?” The military officer was obviously not used to speaking like this, but facing the handsome young man in front of him, he couldn’t utter those straightforward and rough words he would use with his subordinates, and for a while, he utilized the tone that he used to speak to his old father at home.

Hearing his tone, Jiang Chen felt a little strange in his heart, but he couldn’t figure out what was so strange, so he nodded and followed behind him. 

In the meeting room, apart from the old gentleman and Professor Xiang who didn’t make a sound from the beginning to the end of the simulated battle exercise, there were also two unfamiliar old men and two middle-aged men wearing epaulets. They all seemed to be of a certain age. Even the military officers who walked side by side with Jiang Chen were definitely juniors among these people, let alone Jiang Chen.

The military officer saw clearly the people present and his pupils dilated, immediately giving a loud report.

Jiang Chen glanced politely at the few people he didn’t know but obviously had a deep background. After slightly nodding his head, he greeted the two he knew: “Grandpa Zou, Grandpa Xiang.”

Hearing Jiang Chen’s address, some people present looked slightly surprised, and turned to look at the old gentleman at the main seat.

The old gentleman didn’t seem to notice other people’s gazes, and nodded to Jiang Chen with a smile, saying with a kind tone: “Come and have seat, we’re going to have a meeting.”

Jiang Chen and the military officer sat at the same time——the conference room was not big, and there were only two seats left, and the two of them didn’t need to look much to know where to sit.

However, what surprised Jiang Chen was that his seat was actually in the second seat on the left side of the main seat, which was just below Professor Xiang.

The seats in the conference room were very particular, and even in the interstellar era, some hidden rules still exist. From Jiang Chen’s point of view, no matter how powerful his Changjiang was, it was not suitable for him to sit in such a position before he had really produced results, not to mention that he had no official position at all at this time.

But the people present seemed to think that he should sit there, and they didn’t even show a look of surprise at his sitting down. They looked at him with kindness and calmness.

“Xiao Jiang.” The old gentleman at the main seat opened his mouth and said kindly: “Talk to your grandpas about the functions of your Changjiang. The extent to which it can go and after successful research and development, how much percent of its capabilities can it maintain within the maximum radiation range.”

Jiang Chen raised his eyes. Out of the corner of his eye Professor Xiang who sat calmly beside him. He guessed that during the period just now, Professor Xiang explained alot about Changjiang to the old gentleman.

“If the bearer server is successfully developed, Changjiang can radiate to all places where signal receiving towers are built. In terms of security protection, different security levels can be set, such as civilian level and military level, as well as the level of ordinary databases and special databases. Depending on the level, the server level required for the coverage area is also different.”

After digesting the content of Jiang Chen’s words, the old gentleman asked, “Do you have a direction for server development?”

“Yes.” Jiang Chen nodded: “But I’m not a hardware engineer, so I can only provide some theories. It may take a long time from development to achievement.”

An old gentleman in a military uniform asked, “How long?”

“I can’t be sure.” Jiang Chen told the truth, he was a software engineer, no matter how good he was, he couldn’t know the hardware well. When he was in the federation, there were no less than 200 people in the Changjiang R&D Center, and the specializations were extremely clear. As the person in charge of the system, even if there were necessary debugging and discussions, he only focused on the running speed of the system, and he knew nothing about the server.

Today’s Changjiang could run on his laptop, all thanks to his excellent memory. At that time, he had seen the portable server made by the researchers of the server team for easier and clearer research. Although the process was complicated, the materials were relatively simple, so Jiang Chen remembered most of it after seeing it a lot.

But even so, this simplified version of the server was made by Jiang Chen after countless failed experiments, and once the attack and defense system was turned on, the usage time varied according to the level. For the highest level of defense and attack it could support up to 30 minutes. Fortunately, the information warfare and the exercise just now only need to be turned on to the lowest level, so Jiang Chen could use this laptop which had a shorter time support than if it was connected to a PC to go through the two information battles.

However, Jiang Chen’s answer made another old gentleman in military uniform dissatisfied.

“Isn’t this what you’re researching? You don’t even know how long it will take to develop it successfully?”

There was no need for Jiang Chen to speak, Professor Xiang replied coldly: “He only makes software, and you ask him how long it would take to make the hardware, why don’t you ask yourself, can you also dance if you know boxing? How about ballet?”

Directly asking an old man who was over sixty years old if he could dance, whether it was ballet or not, it was really a retort full of gunpowder.

However, no one in the room took offense. It was no secret that Professor Xiang and the general in front of him were at odds, but the two had quarreled from young to old, and it was just verbal smack talk.

Sure enough, the old man in military uniform just snorted coldly, as if he was too lazy to argue with him.

Seeing this, Jiang Chen continued with a slight smile, and said, “Although I can’t predict the length of the server’s research and development, it doesn’t mean that Changjiang can’t run. The simple server I’ve made can carry Changjiang for a period of time. With this simple server, I believe the scientists in the engineering department should be able to get inspiration more easily.”

In fact, the old man just now only asked habitually. He usually spoke this way to his subordinates and his children and grandchildren. So he really didn’t realize his problem when he spoke. It was only after Professor Xiang spoke up that he realized he shouldn’t be taking his big temper out on the young man in front of him.

Seeing that he obviously didn’t care about his unprofessional question just now, but explained from another perspective gently and patiently, which not only took care of his face, but also gave him a step down and shifted everyone’s focus, the old man’s good feelings towards Jiang Chen couldn’t help but increase greatly.

“Do you have any requirements for the researchers of the scientific research team?” A middle-aged man with a square face who had not said anything before looked at Jiang Chen, and his tone unconsciously revealed a bit of majesty when he spoke: “I heard that you plan to start a company to cooperate with the research institute. Where do you plan to find people for the scientific research team?”

Jiang Chen replied to the questions one by one: “I hope to personally select each collaborator. The current plan is to set up a team of twelve people a day, six of whom will specialize in servers, and the other five will work with me to further develop Changjiang. I will try my best to select researchers from the establishment of the National Research Institute and the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Other researchers who contract with the company will also be hired after the national verification.”

Jiang Chen’s considerations were practically comprehensive, and he methodically explained every detail and possible concerns of the people present and calmed any concerns that they may have. Even the elderly gentleman sitting at the main seat felt that this plan was the most feasible and acceptable plan for the Institute to cooperate with a private and state-owned company.

“I heard that you are still in the third year of high school.” Wearing gold-rimmed glasses, the thin, middle-aged man had a more refined aura compared to the square faced middle aged man, and he said: “If the R&D team and project is established, can you ensure that your school studies and research can be carried out at the same time?”

Jiang Chen was asked this question more than once when he entered the Seventeenth Research Institute, and when he heard it again at this time, he still gave the same answer.

“I can handle everything well.”

The thin middle-aged man nodded and it was unclear whether he believed it or not. Instead of continuing the question, he asked, “Are you planning to go to Yan University or Hua University?” The tone was positive, without the slightest hesitation that Jiang Chen might choose other schools or fail to get into these two top 2 prestigious schools.

“Yan University, Department of Computer Science.”

A smile floated on the thin man’s face: “That’s my alma mater, your choice is good.”

There was a soft snort in his ear at this. Every time Professor Xiang thought of Jiang Chen not choosing Hua Uni’s Department of Mathematics, he was still angry, even if Jiang Chen didn’t bring it up.

Jiang Chen was a little helpless, but he had nothing to say.

The thin man continued: “If you are at Yan Uni, you can conduct research and studies at the same time. Yan Uni has always had examples of undergraduate students entering the research institute in advance to participate in research. After applying, you only need to take important exams every semester and complete the credits.”

Jiang Chen had heard of this before, but a big reason he chose Yan Uni was its basic computer courses, and he didn’t intend to just pass the exams to get a diploma. But the elder in front of him told him this clearly out of good intentions, and even if he didn’t intend to take the advice, he still thanked him.

“Yan University is not the only one that can do this. The national military school is also the same.” The old man in military uniform glanced at the thin man, and had no intention of continuing this topic. He said to Jiang Chen, “The research and development of Changjiang will become a national first-class secret. In the future, your daily necessities will be closely monitored, including your parents who will also have a dedicated security detail. Besides the researchers, you can also choose those who will protect you. I tell you this in the hope that you will be prepared, and your life may be turned upside down in the future.”

Jiang Chen had already adapted to the life of being protected at all times. Although he occasionally felt that he was not free when he was in the federation, it was this strict protection that allowed him to survive many assassinations and explicit attacks, so naturally he would not reject it.

Hearing the old man’s seeming warning but actually a kind reminder in advance, Jiang Chen nodded: “Thank you, I will be ready.”

The old man frowned. What did he say that deserved thanks?

This kid was smart, but his personality was too soft. When he chooses his security detail, he would have to let his old subordinates insert the good youngsters under his command. He must choose people from his most elite subordinates to protect him so that everyone could be at ease.