Chapter 3: Bitterness Ends in Happiness

  Jidi Mountain, located at the southwest end of this basin, has an elevation of 2,345 meters and is less than two kilometers away from the entrance to Duanhun Gorge. Under Xiao Mao's precise calculations, after more than three years, the first phase of the base's construction was finally completed.

  This date is 207 days later than the initial expected completion date.

  This mountain with an area of nearly one square kilometer has been almost entirely hollowed out.

  The reason for the delay in the construction period is that when the project was halfway through, Tang Dynasty made a request to Xiao Mao, asking if it would be possible to build a castle on top of the base, which could serve as both a residence and a disguise for the base. The main reason being that in the future, when this vast grassland is open to the outside world, as the landlord, Tang Dynasty's residence cannot be too shabby.

  The boss's order must be carried out, so the kitten modified the design plan of a project and built a private castle with a combination of Chinese and Western styles on the city wall where horses can run for the Tang Dynasty.

  One quarter of the castle protrudes from the mountain, while the rest is built into the mountain. There are eighty-one rooms of various sizes, with a total construction area of nearly 30,000 square meters.

  The castle gate faces the winding cement road down the mountain, and the moat surrounds the mountain. In front of the gate is a 2.4-meter-wide and 5-meter-long mechanical transmission automatic control hard alloy casting drawbridge.

  The flying eaves and painted buildings of the city tower are majestic, with three huge golden cursive characters "Tang Family Fortress" in the center.

  At the foot of the mountain, connected to the cement road that can accommodate four fine horses running side by side, is a huge square with a width of 800 meters and a length of 1,000 meters from north to south. The ground is entirely paved with shallow white granite slabs that have been polished.

  It's midwinter, with snow all around, the entire mountain valley basin is covered in a thick layer of silver, except for the mountain where the base is located, which has been swept clean of all its accumulated snow.

  The first phase of the project was completed, and the castle was also built. It wasn't until then that the Tang Dynasty realized why the little cat had chosen this basin to settle down in the first place.

  The mineral resources around the base of the mountain are indeed very rich, not only with metals such as iron, copper, tin, chromium, aluminum, nickel, titanium and molybdenum, but also with gold and silver. In addition to this, the reserves of kaolin, rare earths, oil and coal are also very large. Although the reserves of some rare minerals are not large, they are sufficient for the Tang Dynasty base to be self-sufficient for 50 years.

  Eight 203mm caliber fortress guns, standing in the mountain emplacements on both sides of the castle, with azure steel barrels and black muzzles pointing obliquely into the sky, silently proclaiming the inviolability of this castle's sovereignty.

  Thirty meters below the fort's artillery platform, a cluster of sixteen 150mm caliber howitzers was concealed in an emplacement, with eight on each side guarding this steel-reinforced concrete castle. The imposing appearance alone was enough to intimidate anyone from afar; Tang had transformed his old nest into a razor-sharp steel turtle shell.

  To be honest, the first phase of the base's construction is absolutely a miracle project in this era.

  As a member of the construction and design team, Tang Dynasty personally experienced and felt every detail of the base from scratch. Now as the owner of the base, Tang Dynasty's heart is naturally filled with a sense of accomplishment.

  "Not bad, not bad, little cat. You're indeed the epitome of wisdom from an advanced alien civilization. The work is done exceptionally well and deserves praise. I hope the next phase two project will be even more outstanding. Tang Dynasty unknowingly fell into official tone, "Little cat, have you ever thought that with such a large family business we have now, shouldn't we think of ways to bring in some population?"

  To facilitate contact with the bad boss of the Tang Dynasty at any time, Xiaomiao specially made a wristwatch-like communicator for the Tang Dynasty, allowing the two to communicate instantly anywhere within a radius of 500 square kilometers.

  "How to increase population is a problem that you, boss, should consider. In this regard, I lack the necessary program support." The kitten replied truthfully.

  The castle in front of us is beautifully built with a golden wall, but it's dead and cold, without any human touch.

  Having walked less than a quarter of the city, Tang Dynasty was no longer interested in continuing the tour.

  "Heh heh, little cat, you say, doesn't this look like a giant living dead man's tomb?" Tang Chao muttered to himself with a bitter smile.

  "Sorry, boss, I can't solve this problem." The little cat replied mechanically: "Although Mr. Fei left the boss three hundred low-level intelligent chiplets, he didn't leave any high-level biological chiplets for cloning humans. Low-level intelligent chiplets can only be used for engineering robots and armed robots, all of which have been used up now, I have no way to help the boss manufacture a clone that is similar to an Earth human."

  "I know I know, it's not that I'm blaming you." Tang Chao sighed and said: "Actually, I should be content with what I have. After all this time, I've managed to get by, so there's no need to rush now."

  "Boss, the newly born Republic of China may lack everything, but it's not short of population." Xiaomao chimed in, "According to my knowledge of history, over the next thirty years, more than 100 million people in the Republic of China died from natural disasters and war. You can totally take advantage of this population, boss."

  "Alas, let's take it slow, immigration is no easy task." Tang Dynasty sighed and smiled bitterly: "This kind of immigration project is absolutely labor-intensive and requires great effort. If handled slightly improperly, there may even be an immigrant riot, and when that happens, outsiders will come and occupy our nest, and we'll end up losing big time."

  "Boss, I think you have an attitude problem." The little cat reminded him: "You're not an ordinary human being now, and the base's defense capabilities are completely reassuring."

  "You don't understand, little cat. Human hearts and human nature are the most difficult things to grasp in this world." Tang Dynasty said solemnly: "Especially now that we're living in a chaotic era where heroes emerge one after another, when considering problems, we must first prepare for the worst-case scenario."

  As they chatted and walked, Tang Dynasty arrived at the luxurious master bedroom deep in the castle. Inside a wardrobe on the east wall was a hidden switch that required fingerprint verification. After pressing it, the wardrobe slid open to both sides, revealing a secret passage leading down to the bottom of the ground.

  A two-meter-wide and three-meter-high passageway, with sunlight lamps inlaid on the top of the wall, illuminates the long passageway brightly.

  Treading on the stone steps paved with flower-patterned stones, Tang slowly and leisurely walked down along the passage.

  This is the only passage connecting the base and the castle, thirty meters long, with a hard alloy automatic door at the end that can be opened by multi-level identification of fingerprints, voice, and iris.

  Behind the door is a safe elevator leading directly to the underground base 300 meters below.

  Under the precise calculation and command of a small cat, four high-intelligence engineering machines controlled three hundred and twelve low-intelligence engineering robots, taking a total of one thousand one hundred and eighty-three days to finally build this military fortress that symbolizes the highest technology and development direction of human beings on Earth.

  The entire fortress is divided into three layers, in a pyramid structure, with each layer having a larger area than the one above it.

  This fortress, located deep beneath the earth's surface, has a multi-functional smelting center, a multi-functional chemical processing center, a multi-functional precision mechanical processing center, a multi-functional electronic information control center, and a multi-functional biological research and development center.

  Currently, the kitten is on the second floor of the base, and has built a small steel smelting factory, military manufacturing plant, power machinery factory, petrochemical processing plant, textile printing and dyeing factory, food processing factory, leather processing factory, biological pharmaceutical factory, and daily chemical products factory for the Tang Dynasty, making it self-sufficient in this era, living a fulfilling life.

  However, limited by the location of the base and the scarcity of resources, this base cannot continuously provide various military supplies and living materials to the Tang Dynasty. Its maximum production capacity is only enough to support a private army of no more than 15,000 people for the Tang Dynasty.

  In this regard, the Tang Dynasty is still very satisfied. Because the Tang Dynasty knows that the greatest significance of the existence of this base is not to provide him with military and living supplies, but as a fully functional high-tech incubation center to provide strong support for the technological development and civilization process of human beings on Earth.

  It can be foreseen that if this base is exposed, it will bring a devastating disaster to the Tang Dynasty! The major powers such as the United States, Britain, Germany, France, Japan and Russia will spare no effort to seize it.

  It is precisely because of this mortal risk that the Tang Dynasty has always had a psychology of gains and losses.

  This mentality resulted in the Tang Dynasty being highly vigilant and wary of contact with the outside world.

  The Tang Dynasty today is like a three-year-old child holding onto a mountain of gold, and at any time and place, it may be robbed of its wealth.

  Travelers are not gods, travelers absolutely live more tired than the indigenous people of this world.

  He galloped through the entire base, and Tang Dynasty returned to the inner city bedroom with a complicated mood. After restoring the hanging closet, he lay down on that large red wooden carved flower bed.

  "Everything is ready, it's time to go out and take a look." Tang Dynasty muttered to himself, staring at the crystal chandelier on the ceiling.

  "Boss, today is a good day for the completion of the first phase of the base project. According to your Chinese customs, shouldn't we hold a grand celebration ceremony?" The mechanical voice of Xiaomiao came from Tang Chao's left wristwatch.

  The Tang Dynasty sprang up, patted his forehead with a smile and said: "You reminded me correctly, little cat. It's indeed time to celebrate properly. For me, today is truly a very memorable day. By the way, little cat, according to the Earth calendar, what year, month and day is it today?

  "December 12th, 1915." The kitten replied truthfully.

  "December 12th, Double Twelve, is a good day. It seems like our base doesn't have firecrackers or fireworks, Little Cat, I command you: all cannons to fire twenty-one rounds of celebratory shots! Blast the damn thing!"

  "As you wish, boss."

  As the kitten's voice fell, before long, all seventy-two 150mm howitzers and eight 203mm fortress guns belonging to the entire base simultaneously emitted a deafening rumble.

  After the three cannon shots, Tang suddenly felt something was off. December 12th, 1915... damn it! Isn't this the same day that Yuan Shikai declared himself emperor?!

  Coming out of the inner city, Tang Dynasty climbed to the highest point of the city wall with a gloomy face, looking up at the northeastern sky, those bright and godly star eyes became exceptionally deep and distant, and it was unknown what he was thinking in his heart at this moment.