Back in Bi Rong Star's office, Jiang Ye plunged into three days and nights of non-stop work.
The busy work, of course, was to finalize the cooperation projects promised at the banquet and establish contact with the newly befriended alien leaders.
Most of it was procedural and didn't require much thought, so Jiang Ye found the work relatively easy.
On the morning of the fourth day, just as Jiang Ye sat down behind his desk, there was a knock on the door.
"Come in!" Jiang Ye said, holding a teacup and sipping his morning tea.
The door opened, and a wave of alcohol scent filled the room.
Hua Qing entered with a flushed face. Her pure white tank top revealed her good figure, while her lower half was clad in loose-fitting gray overalls. The combination was quite peculiar, as if she had just grabbed whatever clothes were nearby after waking up.
"Happy holiday, Commander," Hua Qing said, sitting down opposite the desk. She handed him a document. "The weather weapon has been upgraded. I was wondering if we could use it in a practical combat scenario on Wheeler Star?"
"Happy holiday?" Jiang Ye was taken aback. "What holiday is it today?"
"Youth Day," Hua Qing blinked.
Jiang Ye smiled. "I'm no longer young; I'm middle-aged."
"But Commander, you look very young," Hua Qing said with a smile. "You look like a youth."
"Hua Qing, you've learned to flatter, haven't you? The atmosphere is worrying!" Jiang Ye chuckled and opened the document to read.
The document was filled with parameters, tables, and literature citations, with lengthy weapon terminology interspersed in the textual descriptions. Jiang Ye read for a long time, feeling like he understood but also didn't quite grasp it.
"The weather weapon's performance has improved. To what extent?" Jiang Ye asked. "You want to use this on Wheeler Star? Wheeler Star currently only has Gante's forces to deal with. I recall the previous generation of weather weapons mainly formed typhoons, but typhoons in the tropics are not very useful, are they? It's all rainforests; even with strong winds, they won't push very far."
"The new generation of weather weapons can do one thing," Hua Qing said mysteriously. "They can turn some tropical regions into cold polar areas in a short period."
"Cold polar areas?" Jiang Ye was slightly surprised.
"Yes, our team has already calculated Wheeler Star's parameters," Hua Qing said. "Through heavy blizzards and hailstorms, we can maintain severe cold in tropical regions for two weeks, dropping the temperature to minus twenty degrees Celsius. The range of the blizzard depends on the power of the weather weapon. I estimate that an area of 100,000 square kilometers should be manageable."
"That's the tropics!" Jiang Ye was shocked. "How can the tropics reach minus twenty degrees? Does it accelerate the southward movement of cold air from the Arctic? But wouldn't that make the temperate zones even colder?"
"No, it's achieved by disturbing the upper atmosphere, accelerating water circulation, and utilizing ocean currents as assistance," Hua Qing shook her head. "At the same time, it requires creating large areas of multi-layered clouds to reduce the warming effect of sunlight on the target region."
"Have you shown this weapon to the military personnel?" Jiang Ye asked. "What is their attitude?"
"Not yet. I'm seeking your approval first," Hua Qing said. "This weather weapon is actually not fully mature. It's a second-generation weapon developed by our own research institute, reverse-engineered from the first generation. It's our own technology, not provided by the Galactic Empire. It was tested last week in the Giant Eye Mountains of Exile Star, and the results met expectations."
"Do you have the test records? Let me see the results," Jiang Ye said.
"I'll go get them right away," Hua Qing immediately jumped off her chair and trotted out.
Jiang Ye finished his tea in the cup and then poured himself another, his eyes fixed on the cup the entire time.
Hua Qing trotted back again, holding a large file box with both hands, her face contorted as she struggled with its weight.
Jiang Ye quickly took it and looked.
The box was filled with experimental data and photographs.
The photos before the weapon test showed a scene of extreme heat.
The desert, scorched by the blazing sun, with a layer of distorted heat waves on the surface of the sand dunes, making it look as if the sand was about to melt. Some cacti and thorny plants grew there, but they were all withered and blackened by the heat.
A sign was planted in the middle of a sand dune, marked "Measurement Point 660," with a temperature display next to it showing a ground temperature of 69 degrees Celsius.
The photos after the weapon test showed a completely transformed landscape.
A vast expanse of white snow, with dark gray clouds in the sky. Ice blocks the size of fists fell onto the snow, creating numerous holes. The frozen bodies of birds and lizards lay scattered in the snowdrifts, in considerable numbers.
A strong wind was blowing, and fine snow powder danced on the snow slope, hitting the "Measurement Point 660" sign.
The sign was half-buried in snow, and the temperature display next to it showed a ground temperature of minus eighteen degrees Celsius.
"The desert has turned into a snowfield. Not only the temperature has changed, but also the precipitation," Jiang Ye murmured as he flipped through the documents.
"Yes, because one of the ways to change the temperature is to accelerate water circulation, concentrating precipitation that would have fallen in other areas near the measurement point," Hua Qing nodded. "This snow persisted for seven days, and it took twelve days for the local temperature to recover."
"So, if this weather weapon is used on Wheeler Star, it can quickly turn the tropical rainforests where Gante's army is located into a scene of snow disaster?" Jiang Ye asked.
"Yes," Hua Qing nodded.
Jiang Ye's eyes lit up.
If it could indeed cause such a cold snap, the effect might be unexpectedly significant.
Gante's army was a tropical force. Wheeler Star's tropics were perpetually hot, with only a few high-altitude areas experiencing sub-zero temperatures in winter. Most areas remained warm year-round. Therefore, many of Gante's soldiers had no winter clothing or cotton-padded uniforms; just enduring the cold would kill a portion of them.
Simultaneously, many local facilities and weapons were originally built according to warm temperature standards and might not withstand severe cold. Once a snow disaster occurred, many facilities and equipment would inevitably be paralyzed or damaged.
Furthermore, a sudden heavy snowfall would be a devastating blow to the local farmland and rainforests.
"I have three questions for you," Jiang Ye said, putting away the documents.
"Please, go ahead," Hua Qing sat up straight.
"The first question is, what is the minimum range for this weather weapon to create a snow disaster? Can it be precise to within a few kilometers?" Jiang Ye asked.
"It can be compressed to about a thousand square kilometers, with a positional error within five kilometers," Hua Qing said. "A thousand square kilometers is the area where the snow is guaranteed not to melt. Nearby areas will also experience temperature changes, but the impact will be minimal; the temperature difference will be very small beyond a few kilometers."
Jiang Ye was pleased.
A snow disaster over too large an area could easily affect the civilians in Wheeler Star's tropics.
If it could be compressed to a thousand square kilometers with such a small error margin, it could precisely target Gante's army. Therefore, this weapon could be considered.
"The second question is, besides making it colder, can it make it hotter?" Jiang Ye asked.
"It can make cold regions hotter, but it's difficult to make tropical regions hotter," Hua Qing said with a troubled expression. "This is because the weather weapon doesn't change the local temperature by its own heat. Instead, it uses leverage, borrowing the energy of the planet's atmosphere. Therefore, the effect is often the opposite: creating snow disasters in the tropics and heatwaves and heavy rain in the polar regions."