Too Backward to Display

"What? Ten thousand miles?"

Hearing this, everyone present was dumbfounded, their faces full of utter shock.

The fact that walkie-talkies could allow conversations within a hundred-mile radius had already left them deeply astonished.

That so-called mobile phone had an astonishing range of ten thousand miles!

How could this be possible?

Li Shanchang licked his lips. "Sir, then this mobile phone..."

"Don't even think about it," Xia Fei shook his head and said. "The communication principles of a mobile phone are different from a walkie-talkie. It requires base stations for support. However, you don't need to worry. Later on, we will naturally arrange for people to help you build base stations here. But it's a massive project, so it won't be as fast as you might imagine."

"Haha, good! It's fine if it's a bit slow. If it can truly allow conversations with people ten thousand miles away, our Great Ming can afford to wait ten or even twenty years!" Zhu Yuanzhang said excitedly.

At this moment, Xu Da sighed. "It's a pity that the walkie-talkie's range is only a hundred miles. If it could go a bit further, the speed of transmitting urgent border reports in the future would increase by an unimaginable amount."

"That's a minor issue. Don't we still have radio stations?"

Xia Fei smiled, then pointed to a radio set on the ground and detailed its functions and principles to them.

Upon learning that the radio could also transmit messages across ten thousand miles, the crowd became excited once again.

Although it was nowhere near as convenient as a mobile phone, requiring telegrams to be sent, received, and decoded, the whole process would only take about fifteen minutes from start to finish.

Compared to their current methods of communication, it was countless times more convenient!

"Young Master Qin, Young Master Xia, the weather here is simply too hot. It looks like it hasn't rained in a very long time; the ground is all cracked."

At this time, a prospector walked over.

Hearing this, Zhu Yuanzhang sighed and said, "This gentleman speaks the truth. Our Yingtian Prefecture hasn't seen rain for several months."

Xia Fei looked up at the sky and smiled. "Don't worry. As long as there are clouds in the sky, it can be resolved."

With that, he turned to the prospector beside him. "Go back to the base and have someone bring over an anti-aircraft gun, and bring a few extra rain-enhancement and anti-hail shells."

"Understood, Young Master Xia."

The prospector acknowledged the order and then turned around, walking into the portal.

Before long, several figures emerged from the portal, bringing an anti-aircraft gun with them.

Artillery was something that already existed during the Hongwu reign, and it had long since been deployed on the battlefield.

When they saw the anti-aircraft gun, Zhu Yuanzhang, Xu Da, and the others naturally recognized what it was at a glance.

However, its appearance and other aspects were quite different.

Lan Yu asked, "Sir, is this the artillery of your future generations? It certainly looks quite different from our Great Ming's. I wonder how powerful it is?"

"Power?"

Xia Fei thought for a moment and continued, "It's just average. This thing is mainly used by the Meteorological Bureau nowadays. In our time, it is considered an obsolete or retired military product."

Just average power?

And it was an obsolete, retired item.

Hearing this, Zhu Yuanzhang and the others immediately felt somewhat disappointed.

In that case, this thing shouldn't be much different from the cannons of their Hongwu era.

"What is the Meteorological Bureau?" Li Shanchang asked curiously.

"Oh, it's what you call the Imperial Astronomical Bureau."

"The Imperial Astronomical Bureau?"

Hearing this, the crowd was surprised. Xu Da spoke up, "Sir, in your time, even the Imperial Astronomical Bureau uses cannons? But that's not right, is it? Aren't cannons used on the battlefield? Could it be that in your time, the Imperial Astronomical Bureau also has to go to war?"

"No."

Xia Fei shook his head. "Didn't I just tell you? This thing is already a retired and obsolete military product. It would be a waste to throw it away, so it was simply modified for the people at the Meteorological Bureau to use. To put it plainly, it fires high into the sky, not at the ground."

"Fires into the sky? For what purpose?" the crowd was puzzled.

Li Shanchang spoke again, "Besides, cannons don't seem to be able to fire very high, do they?"

"The cannons of your Hongwu era certainly lack the range. I remember they can only fire about three to five hundred meters, right? That's about five hundred paces, roughly one li."

Xu Da nodded. "That's right. The range of our Great Ming's cannons is basically around five hundred paces, though some can reach six or seven hundred."

"Sir, isn't this cannon an obsolete product? Can it also fire very far?" Lan Yu asked.

Xia Fei smiled. "The specific range depends on the caliber, model, and ammunition type. The maximum range of a small-caliber anti-aircraft gun is usually around eight thousand meters, while a large-caliber one can reach over twenty thousand meters. Converted into units you can understand, hmm... that's about forty li."

"What?"

"Forty li!"

Everyone, including Zhu Yuanzhang, gasped sharply, their faces filled with extreme astonishment.

Was he joking?

How could this be possible?

The cannons of the future generations had actually reached such a terrifying range?

That was forty li!

If this were used in the military, wouldn't they be able to carpet-bomb the area before the two armies even met face-to-face?

Wait!

And this was a retired product?

At this thought, monstrous waves of shock surged in everyone's hearts.

"If our Great Ming's cannons could also be improved to achieve such a range..." Xu Da gulped, his eyes burning with fervor.

Xia Fei waved his hand and laughed, "Hey, think bigger. What does this little bit of range amount to? Besides, this thing is just used for artificial rainfall."

"Artificial rainfall? What is that?" The crowd couldn't help but exchange glances.

"It means exactly what it sounds like. You just need to load the shells, fire a few shots into the sky, and it will rain after a while."

"What? Humans can actually control the rain?!"

Everyone was overwhelmingly shocked beyond measure by the technology and knowledge of the future generations.

"This involves knowledge from multiple fields. Even if I say too much, you wouldn't understand. But rest assured, when the time comes, there will naturally be teachers coming over to teach you these things," Xia Fei smiled.

"Sir, I would like to ask, if the retired cannons in your time have such terrifying range, wouldn't the ones that haven't been retired be even more astonishing?" Xu Da asked with a passionate expression.

"You could say that, but those are no longer called cannons. We call them the Truth, which refers to strategic intercontinental missiles."

Xia Fei showed no impatience toward their questions. Instead, he explained very patiently, "Take the Dongfeng-5C liquid-fueled intercontinental strategic nuclear missile we recently showcased, for example. Its strike range covers the entire globe. Oh, you might not quite understand it put that way. Converted, it means it can strike at least fifty thousand li away."

This simple sentence exploded in everyone's minds like a clap of thunder. "F-Fifty thousand li?!"

"And it's not just about the range. This thing can carry ten warheads at once, and each warhead can destroy a city roughly the size of Yingtian Prefecture."

"Furthermore, I must point out that based on our usual conventions, the Dongfeng-5C liquid-fueled intercontinental strategic nuclear missile is considered outdated enough to be put on public display. This implies that we are likely hiding even more terrifying monsters in our arsenal."

"Hiss!"

The crowd drew another sharp breath, shocked beyond measure.