Chapter 269

Old Yuan?

Qin Miao was a bit curious: "South side... do you still need my help?"

Just after being reborn, Qin Miao came up with a 155‑millimeter Truck Cannon, with mobility, range, and power, beating the monkeys into ghostly howls.

Afterwards, Qin Miao also produced a Red Flag‑2 modified surface‑to‑surface missile, whose range extended beyond the Truck Cannon, cheap, almost a waste‑to‑use; with these two weapons, the monkeys couldn't stir up any trouble and could only be beaten down.

Now Old Yuan actually came asking for help again?

"Yeah." Old Yuan sighed: "The situation on the south side... has undergone another change."

"Come on, let's go inside and talk!" Lin Lao said.

In the aircraft building, inside the meeting room.

"Under our suppression, the monkeys have become quite obedient, they haven't moved much for over half a year, and our rotation training mission is about to end, but... we just discovered that the monkeys aren't surrendering; they're using this time to fortify their positions."

This counts as their mistake, so Old Yuan is furious now.

"Fortification upgrades?" Lin Lao frowned.

"That's right, Lao Shan, Zheyin Shan—these mountains have been hollowed out by them, then reinforced inside with poured steel‑reinforced concrete; our 155 mm cannon or M7 missiles can't touch those works! According to our estimate, the effective thickness there equals about ten meters of reinforced concrete."

"Good grief!" Lin Lao also exclaimed: "Such a turtle shell can't be pierced at all! Isn't this stronger than the French Fort?"

In 1979, when we launched a self‑defensive counterattack to the south, we ran into that tough nut, the French Fort.

This isn't an ordinary bunker; it's what the French built when they colonized the monkeys' area, imitating the Maginot Line, taking three years to build, walls three meters thick, three stories inside, able to hold over a thousand people—almost as if the whole mountain had been hollowed out.

We fought for days, casualties heavy; finally we found a cook from a rear power plant who had been captured by the French and forced to work on this fortification, knowing where the secret vent was, so we sneaked up, found the vent, opened it, and poured gasoline in…

We can't do the same now, because this fortification is newly built and obviously thicker!

Qin Miao also felt wistful: "Yeah! Our technology is advancing, and those monkeys over there certainly won't just sit there and take a beating, so…"

"San Shui, we've put our heads together across the whole army and still couldn't find a solution; lately we've been preparing for an exercise, so we didn't want to bother the higher‑ups, but today the exercise finally ended, so we came over… to ask for help. Let's first hear your opinion—do you have a solution?"

"Well, there are actually a few ways."

Several!

Old Yuan's eyes widened instantly: "Speak!"

"First, the first option is to use a thermobaric bomb, i. e., a fuel‑air explosive; although we can't blast that turtle shell apart, it can consume all the air inside, suffocating those within, but…"

However, we don't have such a big weapon now, nor the technology for thermobaric bombs; even if we started research, we'd run out of time! Moreover, when we fought the Americans before, the monkeys often faced this weapon; if they just stash some oxygen bottles inside, they can take a couple of breaths when the thermobaric bomb explodes, then as air circulates they recover.

So this method might not work.

Then what about the second?

The second is to develop an earth‑penetrating bomb; you said it's ten meters thick, so we'll make a bomb that can penetrate twenty meters deep, drilling straight through the monkeys' fortifications—wouldn't that work?

"There's such a weapon?" Lin Lao and Old Yuan, etc., were stunned.

Earth‑penetrating bombs aren't new; back in WWII, the Germans turned gun barrels into earth‑penetrating bombs that could pierce four meters of reinforced concrete.

During the Cold War, both the US and USSR, to avoid being knocked out by the enemy's first strike, built ever‑deeper launch silos, and of course needed munitions to destroy such installations, but their idea was simple and brutal: use nuclear bombs to destroy nuclear missile silos!

Not until the 1991 Gulf War did the Americans realize that even a large wooden air‑raid shelter couldn't be smashed, yet mushrooms could still grow inside—what to do?

Overnight they modified a 203‑mm gun barrel into a GBU‑28 earth‑penetrating bomb, tested it on the battlefield and easily blew it open; from then on, earth‑penetrating bombs became famous worldwide.

To attack reinforced‑concrete works, it's the same principle as fighting tanks; today's most popular fin‑stabilized discarding‑sabot penetrator uses a long, slim rod to literally punch through tank armor, and our earth‑penetrating bomb is just a big version of that rod—only much larger in diameter.

How big?

Our bomber?

"Hmm." Lin Lao nodded, eyes wide, as if he'd already guessed something.

Then let's make a nine‑ton bomb; if it won't fit in the bomb bay we'll hang it externally, drop it from ten‑kilometer altitude, and when it hits the ground the monkeys will know what heaven‑shattering, earth‑destroying means!

Nine‑ton bomb!

Old Yuan was also stunned—what a terrifying weapon this would be!

In the Air Force's bomb lineup we have 250‑kg, 500‑kg, 1000‑kg models, classified by weight; that means the Air Force's biggest bomb is only about one ton, and now we want to make a nine‑ton bomb—this…

Seeing the big guy's shocked expression, Qin Miao broke into a smile, making a fuss over nothing!

In later years, the Americans' largest earth‑penetrating bomb is the GBU‑57, 6.2 meters long, 0.8 meters in diameter, weighing nearly fourteen tons, exclusive to the B‑2 bomber!

As for its penetration depth, the official claim is sixty‑one meters! This isn't ordinary rock, but the strongest reinforced‑concrete structure of later ages; if converted to plain rock, it would be over a hundred meters!

Now we can't make such a big one, and even if we could we couldn't launch it! We can only rely on bombers?

Old Yuan and the others estimate it's ten meters; even if it were twenty or thirty meters, we're not afraid—we'll still drill right through!

Wait, can we accurately drop it from ten‑kilometer altitude?

Qin Miao smiled: "Margin of error, within ten meters!"

Slap!

Lin Lao slapped his thigh: "Exactly, margin of error within ten meters! Dropping this earth‑penetrating bomb would be mightier than Pangu's axe that split heaven and earth! San Shui, you don't need to worry about cooperation with foreign clients—just hand it over to AVIC! Hurry up and lead the Ha Gong Da team to develop this earth‑penetrating bomb!"

If we had this, it would definitely be a huge killer for the Air Force! Afterwards, the monkeys wouldn't even sleep soundly!

"Hmm, Lin Lao, arrange for me to go to the grasslands tomorrow."

What? The grasslands?