Chapter 72: A Rocket Launcher Comparable to an Entire Artillery Battalion?!

"This is our 'Rain'," Li Mingyuan said, gently stroking those tubes as if caressing his own child.

"It is designed after the Katyusha Multi-Barrel Rocket Launcher, but its performance comprehensively surpasses the original. A single volley can cover a four-hundred-square-meter area and destroy the effective strength of a reinforced company."

The scene fell into dead silence once again; everyone stared with wide eyes at this behemoth, as if looking at a mysterious weapon from outer space.

"Impossible..." an expert muttered to himself, his voice so soft it was almost inaudible, "The Single-tube Rocket Launcher was already so astonishing, the power of this multi-tube volley..."

"It uses the same caliber ammunition as the 107 Rocket Launcher, so logistics and supplies can be shared."

Li Mingyuan continued his introduction, his voice as calm as if he were explaining an ordinary craft.

"The launcher can be mounted on a truck to form mobile firepower, or fixed in a trench as a defensive weapon. The maximum range is 12 kilometers, and the minimum range is 800 meters."

An old expert walked forward, trembling, and reached out to touch the launch tubes cautiously, as if afraid they might suddenly spew flames.

"The Polar Bear never gave us this kind of technology..." he said with a hoarse voice, his eyes full of disbelief.

"They promised, but never delivered... and you, all by yourself..."

Yang was so agitated he couldn't finish a complete sentence; he grabbed Li Mingyuan's shoulders, his fingers almost sinking into the flesh: "This... this... we have begged for so many years... never have we..."

Li Mingyuan looked at Yang's flushed face and bloodshot eyes, feeling both proud and pained in his heart.

"The key is cost and production difficulty," Li Mingyuan said softly, "I specifically simplified the design, using common materials and adopting standardized processes. An ordinary machinery plant can produce it after simple modifications, and the cost is less than one-fifth of imported similar products."

This sentence struck everyone present like a bolt of Lightning.

Low cost, easy production, high efficiency—this was simply the ultimate pursuit in the military industry, and Li Mingyuan seemed to have achieved this seemingly impossible goal in a casual manner.

"I... I need to sit down..." a leader grabbed his own hair and plopped onto the ground, the expression on his face caught between ecstasy and collapse.

"Am I dreaming? Do we really have this kind of weapon now?"

Li Mingyuan walked to the "Rain" and personally checked the angle and locking device of every launch tube.

"If mass production is approved, it can be equipped to frontline troops within one month. According to my calculations, ten such launchers could form an overwhelming firepower advantage on a conventional battlefield."

"Can you... demonstrate the effect?" Yang's voice trembled, his eyes flickering with near-fanatical anticipation.

Li Mingyuan smiled slightly, a hint of pride flashing in his eyes:

"Of course, we specifically chose this place to conduct the live-fire test."

The Sixteen-tube Rocket Launcher was quickly adjusted in angle, aiming at a desolate hillside in the distance; Li Mingyuan personally checked the inclination of every launch tube, meticulous as a perfectionist artist.

"Everyone, please retreat to the safety zone and put on your earplugs." Li Mingyuan's expression was relaxed, as if he were not operating a weapon of mass destruction, but lighting a firework.

Fifty meters away from the launch pad, Yang led a group of military experts and Advanced generals to stand in a row, so nervous that even their breathing grew shallow.

An old general wiped his glasses with trembling hands, fearing he might miss any detail.

"Three, two, one, volley!"

Li Mingyuan pressed the red button on the console, his tone as flat as if he were ordering fried rice at a restaurant.

In an instant, sixteen tongues of fire erupted simultaneously, the orange-red light piercing the sky as if the night had been suddenly torn apart.

The deafening "whoosh" sounds merged into one, the earth trembled because of it, and the air was twisted and deformed by the heat of the flames.

Sixteen Rocket Shells dragged long smoke tails, soaring away like sixteen Fire Dragons, drawing a perfect parabola in the sky.

The blinding light even made everyone present instinctively raise their hands to shield their eyes.

"Good heavens..." Yang muttered to himself, unaware that the cigarette in his hand had burned down to his fingers.

After a few seconds of flight, the distant hillside suddenly erupted in a series of intense flashes, as if someone had detonated a string of small Mushroom Eggs there.

The sixteen explosions merged into one, forming a massive sea of fire that swallowed the entire hillside in an instant.

"Boom—" the sound of the explosion was like the horn of the Modi Shenpan, making people's eardrums ache and their chests resonate.

The shockwave even kicked up a heatwave, ruffling the hair and clothing of everyone present.

That small hillside, under the gaze of everyone, was razed to the ground alive!

Trees, rocks, everything turned to ash in the raging flames.

The scene fell into dead silence instantly, as if time had frozen.

Everyone stared with wide eyes and open mouths; a near-tangible shock enveloped everyone.

"This... this..." a general was shaking all over, his eyes bulging so much they almost left their sockets, "What kind of god-tier weapon is this..."

Yang's legs went soft, and he knelt directly on the ground, trembling like a sieve: "Good heavens... I haven't lived this life in vain after all..."

"Within one minute, it covered an area of about four hundred square meters, completely destroyed everything, with no possibility of any survivors."

A technician reported with a trembling voice after observing through binoculars, the notebook in his hand already soaked through with sweat.

"This... this is equivalent to... the firepower of an entire artillery battalion! And even more fierce!" an artillery expert stammered, tears already seeping from the corners of his eyes.

"How much time would an artillery battalion need to achieve this coverage effect? At least ten minutes! And this... only takes a few seconds..."

Several old soldiers could no longer control their emotions, and large tears rolled down.

One of the old generals, facing the ruins still burning in the distance, suddenly choked up:

"If we had this weapon earlier... the brothers in my battalion back then... would not have..." He could not continue, only wiping his tears incessantly.

The explosion area in the distance was still burning, with thick smoke rolling and flames soaring into the sky.

After measuring with professional instruments, a military expert was so shocked he couldn't speak: "The temperature... the temperature exceeds two thousand degrees... continuous burning... this... this is simply hellfire..."

"I want to calculate," another military expert said, trembling,

"If ten such rocket launcher systems were deployed on the battlefield, the coverage area..." He calculated halfway before he gasped in a cold breath himself,

"It could destroy the entire effective strength of a reinforced regiment within three minutes! This... this is too terrifying..."

The observer added another report: "Within a five-hundred-meter radius of the explosion area, no object remained intact; everything was blown away or burned by the blast wave. The ground was plowed into craters at least two meters deep, and even the rocks were melted..."

"Chief Engineer Li," Yang said, his hands shaking, "what method did you use to... create this weapon of mass destruction in the factory?"