Chapter 147: The Blackout Zone

A cold smile then appeared on Zhang Desen's face as he said,

"May I ask if Your Excellency is mute? It seems you harbor fear toward General Feng Yucai as well, which is why you intended to silence a witness and cover up today's events, am I right?"

At that moment, Feng Ling'er suddenly raised her voice and demanded sharply, "Regardless of who he is, since he dared to attempt the assassination of this young lady, there is nothing more to discuss."

However, Prefect Tan Kaiming intervened, "Lady Feng, please remain calm."

Upon hearing this, Feng Ling'er glared fiercely at Prefect Tan Kaiming and demanded, "Are you in cahoots with them?"

Hearing Feng Ling'er say this, Zhang Desen felt her words were somewhat superfluous, but on second thought, he decided to let her be. At this point, Prefect Tan explained, "Lady Feng, it is like this. Although your father is the great General Feng, the influence of Earl Xuanwei Lord Wang at court is also immensely vast. Therefore, I advise you, my lady, that discretion is the better part of valor. With your father around, Earl Xuanwei will not dare to do anything to you. However..."

Feng Ling'er interrupted him, pointed at Zhang Desen with a smile, and said, "You muddle-headed official, you had better step aside. Let me tell you, this person right here is none other than the renowned first warrior of the Daxing Kingdom, Young Master Zhang Desen. Do you understand now?"

Startled, Tan Kaiming was struck with utter astonishment. He immediately bowed to Zhang Desen and said, "So it is His Excellency the Duke who has honored us with his presence. Please forgive this humble official for his lack of hospitality..."

The other bailiffs were also frightened into hurriedly bowing to Zhang Desen. As for Sun Fu and the estate steward Sun Jia, they were unable to bow due to their injuries. Meanwhile, Wang Jia, who had remained silent all this time, quickly bowed to Zhang Desen and said, "So you are Lord Zhang, the first warrior of our Daxing Kingdom. I have heard of you for the longest time. Earlier, seeing how formidable your household guards were, I was actually wondering who they could possibly be. I have always held Your Excellency in the highest regard, though unfortunately, I never had the chance to meet you."

Hearing everyone speak this way, Zhang Desen suddenly remembered that he had indeed been conferred the title of Duke Defending the North by the Emperor of the Daxing Kingdom—a Duke of the Third Rank, as it were.

Modestly, Zhang Desen replied, "All of that is merely an empty title. We still have many greater difficulties to face. There is much that we truly need to do right now, so it is best we dispense with the polite pleasantries."

Without waiting for a response, Zhang Desen immediately turned to Prefect Tan Kaiming and asked, "I do not have that much time to waste anymore. Do you still wish to arrest me now, Prefect Tan?"

Hearing this, Tan Kaiming broke out in a cold sweat and hurriedly replied, "How could I dare? How could I dare? Previously, this lowly person was blind and failed to recognize Mount Tai! Now that I know you are Lord Zhang, how would I ever dare to do such a thing?"

Prefect Tan then slapped himself across the face and continued, "Everything is this humble person's fault. As for this mute guard from the Sun estate, he was forced upon me by the Sun family, and this humble person does not even know his name. Everyone simply calls him 'the Mute.' To be honest, this humble person was quite helpless; after all, Hezhou City is entirely within the sphere of influence of the Sun family. Aside from the people of the Liu Clan Trading Company, virtually everyone fears their power..."

Zhang Desen thought to himself that this was true. After all, ever since the joint guard force of the Zhang and Liu estates utterly defeated the eighty-thousand-strong army of the Liaogu Kingdom last time, their formidable reputation had resounded far and wide. Waving his hand to cut off the prefect, Zhang Desen continued, "Very well, listen to me now. Since you now know my identity, please convey my message to the members of the Sun estate and that Earl Xuanwei, Wang Wangdan. Tell them to properly restrain their family members from now on, and especially warn this Sun Fu that if I ever see him commit such wicked acts again, I will beat him every single time I lay eyes on him. Take this steward away as well, and remind them to compensate this restaurant five times over for all the losses caused today. As for this mute guard, I have other uses for him. Is that clear?"

Prefect Tan Kaiming, the Prefect of Hezhou City, frantically banged his head against the floor while kowtowing and pleading for mercy, crying, "Yes, yes, yes!"

Zhang Desen ordered, "Clean this place up and get lost immediately!"

Following Zhang Desen's instructions, Prefect Tan immediately ordered all the bailiffs to carry them out one by one. Meanwhile, Zhang Desen resolved to look into the mysterious disappearances of people during the night.

A moment later, Zhang Desen felt a twinge of regret, realizing he had just forgotten to question Prefect Tan Kaiming about the various incidents concerning the mysterious nighttime disappearances of people. Yet, he figured that asking might prove entirely useless, so he decided it would be better to formulate his own deployment plan directly.

Shortly after, Zhang Desen prepared to lead Li Longfang, Zhao Chenming, and the others back to the Liu Clan Trading Company's material supply depot outside the city to study and plan their next course of action.

Just then, Lady Feng Ling'er intercepted Zhang Desen and called out, "Zhang Desen! This young lady helped you with so many things just now, do you not even have a single word of thanks?"

Turning back, Zhang Desen had no choice but to say, "Many thanks to Lady Feng for her generous assistance. However, I still have pressing matters to attend to, and I will certainly express my gratitude properly another day."

Upon hearing this, Feng Ling'er smiled happily and said, "Wonderful! Then take me with you! I love upholding justice and helping the oppressed—take me along!"

Never expecting Feng Ling'er's attitude to shift so abruptly, Zhang Desen could only tell her, "I must say, Lady Feng, this is not a matter you can assist with. There are simply too many things you know nothing about."

Looking thoroughly unconvinced, Feng Ling'er retorted, "This young lady understands a great deal! Do not assume you can look down on others just because you have seen more. If you don't believe me, name anything at all and see if I can answer it."

Growing somewhat anxious, Zhang Desen felt that too much time had already been wasted. Furthermore, the recent intelligence regarding the fear-inducing Orme Empire suggested that an even greater crisis might be imminent, and he was urgently rushing back to analyze these matters. Compounded by the mystery of the missing people, Zhang Desen wished to waste no more time and blurted out a question: "Then do you understand what a communication blackout zone is?"

The so-called communication blackout zone refers to a specific altitude region where radio communication with the ground is interrupted when a spacecraft, space shuttle, or other aerospace vehicle re-enters the Earth's atmosphere at extremely high speeds. This zone typically occurs within the atmosphere at altitudes between 35 and 80 kilometers above the Earth.

The sections of rockets and spacecraft that re-enter the atmosphere—such as warheads and re-entry capsules—are known as re-entry bodies. The extent of the blackout zone depends on the shape, material, and re-entry speed of the re-entry body, as well as the frequency and power of the transmitted signals. The blackout phenomenon creates difficulties for real-time communication and re-entry telemetry during the return of manned spacecraft.

How is a communication blackout formed? As we know, when any spacecraft re-enters the atmosphere, its flight speed is exceptionally high, reaching anywhere from a dozen to several hundred times the speed of sound. This generates a very strong shock wave at the front of the vehicle. Due to the compression of the shock wave around the vehicle's nose and the viscosity of the atmosphere, a vast amount of the kinetic energy from high-speed flight is converted into thermal energy. When the vehicle's surface reaches extremely high temperatures, both the gas and the ablated thermal protection materials become ionized.

Consequently, a layer of high-temperature ionized matter forms around the spacecraft. The interaction between this plasma sheath and electromagnetic waves causes the attenuation or reflection of the electromagnetic waves used for communication, thereby severing radio communications between the ground and the vehicle.

As the spacecraft descends in altitude and its speed drops to a certain point, the temperature is no longer high enough to ionize gas molecules. The plasma sheath dissipates, and the blackout vanishes.

Ever since the 1950s, scientists have been studying the blackout phenomenon and methods to eliminate it.

On one hand, researchers attempt to eliminate or weaken the plasma sheath by designing more ideal re-entry body shapes and spraying materials designed to neutralize plasma.

On the other hand, they strive to improve communication and telemetry methods and equipment to mitigate the impact of the blackout zone—for instance, by increasing signal frequency and power, or by mounting antennas in the thinnest parts of the plasma sheath. However, these methods can only shorten the duration of signal interruption and have yet to completely resolve the re-entry blackout problem.

Another proposed concept involves using millimeter waves or lasers to penetrate the plasma sheath and thus solve the problem of re-entry communication interruption.

After a spacecraft's return capsule re-enters the atmosphere, aerodynamic heating causes the gases immediately adjacent to the capsule's surface and the molecules on the surface of its materials to decompose and ionize, forming a plasma layer.

Because plasma has the ability to absorb and reflect electromagnetic waves, the plasma layer enveloping the return capsule effectively acts as an electromagnetic wave shielding layer.

Therefore, when the return capsule is enveloped in plasma, radio signals from outside cannot penetrate into the interior, and electrical signals from inside cannot transmit outward. For a time, communication between the inside and outside of the capsule is lost—this is the blackout phenomenon. The scope of the blackout depends on the re-entry body's shape, materials, and re-entry speed, as well as the frequency and power of the transmitted signals.

The blackout zone poses challenges for real-time communication and telemetry during the re-entry and return of manned spacecraft, and no satisfactory solution has yet been found. Fortunately, the shielding duration is very short, and when the return capsule experiences a blackout, it is in a stable descending orbit where the absence of radio tracking has little impact. After merely about four minutes, once the return capsule descends into the dense atmosphere and deploys its parachutes to decelerate, the blackout dissipates.

To completely resolve the blackout issue, we must look forward to future advancements in aerospace technology.

Within the blackout zone, because the return capsule temporarily loses communication with ground control, and the friction with the atmosphere generates temperatures of thousands of degrees Celsius, this period is the most perilous for astronauts. Without thermal protection measures, astronauts would be unable to endure the conditions, and the structure of the return capsule would suffer damage or destruction.

Earlier astronauts lacked protection, running the risk of perishing if their spacecraft burned up in this region. Modern astronauts must wear specialized spacesuits to survive the passage through this blackout zone.

Naturally, Feng Ling'er had no inkling of what a communication blackout zone was. Staring wide-eyed in sudden frustration, she shouted defiantly, "Did you just make this up? Or else, prove what that actually..."

Her sentence dissolved into a jumble of disorganized words, and unable to articulate any sort of retort, she burst into tears.

This left Zhang Desen and the others utterly taken aback and at a loss for what to do.