Dragon Soaring Andes: 1924

Excerpt: (Follow-up preview) Smoke from the test range and echoes of Washington The valley where the rockets were tested is fifty kilometers west of the town of San Carlos. It is a depression surrounded by the Andes Mountains. The bottom of the valley is filled with gravel, and only a few drought-resistant cacti poke out on the ground. As soon as the sky dawned, Otto led the workers to lift the assembled rocket to the launcher - this thing was heavier than expected, the missile body was three meters long, the tail fins were spread out like an iron bird, and the warhead was painted with red paint, which looked very powerful. Tesla squatted beside the launcher to adjust the angle, holding a protractor in his hand: "The elevation angle is forty degrees. According to the ballistic trajectory, it can land in the target area fifty kilometers away." He looked up at the sky, "The wind is blowing eastward, so it has to be corrected by two degrees, otherwise the impact point will be three hundred meters away." . . . . . . . It was already afternoon when we returned to San Carlos Town. As soon as they entered the cave, Luna came up with a telegram: "Brother Jiao, there was a telegram from the newspaper in New York, saying that they published a report about Chinese laborers building the Pacific Railway, and attached photos. Many Americans wrote to the newspaper, saying that the Chinese should not be driven away." "Roosevelt must have pushed it behind the scenes." Li Tianjiao received the telegram, which read, "There have been three hundred letters from readers, and a congressman on Capitol Hill mentioned the amendment of the Chinese Exclusion Act." He handed it to Tesla and said, "The penicillin and technical promises we gave him were not in vain." Tesla was wrapping insulating cloth on the silver-copper alloy coil. When he heard this, he looked up and said: "If the Chinese Exclusion Act can be changed, it will be easier to recruit technical talents from the United States in the future. I know a few Jewish engineers who were severely marginalized by Edison. If I can invite them..." "Don't be impatient." Li Tianjiao shook his head, "It's not time yet. Wait until the name of the Andean Autonomous State is decided before recruiting people openly." He turned to Weber and said, "Let the New York newspaper continue to publish the story about Chinese workers in the Panama Canal next week, with some photos of workers carrying explosives - make the word 'contribution' real." In the evening, Weber from the mine sent someone to report that the water in the silver mine was almost drained. The miners began to dig down, and two carts of silver ore were mined on the first day. Li Donghai came to Tesla with a sample of refined silver. The silver nugget glowed softly under the lamp. Tesla weighed it on a scale: "It's enough to make three coils." He walked to the laboratory. "Tonight, set up a small wireless transmission tower in the open space outside the cave. Let's try to power the street lights in the town first." Li Tianjiao followed him out. In the open space, workers were fixing the coils on the steel frame. Tesla commanded to adjust the height: "The tower is only 20 meters high. Let's try transmitting ten kilometers first." He turned to Li Tianjiao and smiled, "When the tower is completed, we will build an 80-meter one next year - by then there will be no need to pull wires and the lights in every household will be on in San Carlos Town." When the sky darkened, the small transmission tower was finally erected. The moment Tesla turned on the power switch, the street lights in the distant town suddenly lit up in a row, and the warm yellow light shone through the leaves and fell on the ground, like falling stars. The team members who were guarding under the street lamp ran over and shouted: "It's bright! It's really bright without connecting the wires!" Li Tianjiao stood under the transmission tower and watched the silver-copper alloy coils glow dimly in the moonlight. Tesla patted him on the shoulder: "This is just the beginning. When the rockets are mass-produced and wireless transmission towers are connected, the Conservative Party and the Hunter Consortium will have to weigh up if they want to move us again - what will they use to compete with technology?" A whistle came from the direction of the copper mine in the distance. It was a transport team returning from Peru, carrying silver ore. Li Tianjiao looked at the light of the car lights on the mountain road, and suddenly felt that the tree of the Andes Federation not only had roots and branches, but also sprouted buds - maybe it wouldn't be long before it could grow into something unshakable in this land of South America. At night, the laboratory lights were still on. Tesla was drawing a blueprint for an 80-meter transmission tower, Li Donghai was calculating the propellant ratio for rockets, and Luna was putting fluorescent labels on the newly arrived penicillin. Li Tianjiao sat at the entrance of the cave, watching the street lights in the town in the distance light up steadily, and the coils of the transmission tower swaying gently in the wind. He knows that there are still a lot of things to do tomorrow - promoting the mass production of rockets, focusing on silver mining, and waiting for news about the mining rights bill in the Colombian Congress. But looking at the light in front of me now, I felt very at ease. The road is still long, but if you step on the light every step of the way, you will not be afraid of the dark.