Siheyuan: I eat melons while doing scientific research

Chapter 1433 The Possibility of Ridicule (4k)

In the north, at the polar bear's home.

The minister in charge of military technology exchanges with the South is looking at a document that came from the South.

The minister frowned, then suddenly slammed his hand on the table and looked at Linochka, who was waiting beside him.

"How did they find this plane?!" Even if the secrecy surrounding this test-flying aircraft was poor, it shouldn't have been discovered by others so easily. Moreover, compared to the West, their intelligence capabilities within their own territory are actually somewhat lacking.

Linochka pointed upwards: "God knows how they knew."

This statement is very interesting; it seems to be making a shirking of responsibility, yet it also seems to be explaining something.

The minister covered his forehead.

After a long silence, he lowered his hand and continued looking down.

Turning to the second page, he suddenly stood up and shouted, "Linochka, notify Lubyanka! Notify Lubyanka!"

Linochka had already seen the document. In fact, he had risen from being the minister's secretary to becoming a junior leader in charge of a department, responsible for this kind of work.

"Comrade Minister, shouldn't we be more cautious?" Having more time to think, he expressed his opinion to the minister.

“Careful? Linochka, you should know what this document represents. Someone must be betraying state secrets! They know the speed of this aircraft, the materials it is made of, the approximate internal structure of the aircraft… These things, if not leaked by someone, would never be known even by heaven.” The minister frowned.

“But they have explanations and clarifications, Comrade Minister.” As a trusted confidant personally trained by the Minister, Linochka had more opportunities to explain than the average person.

"You believe it? You believe that their researchers guessed it?"

"I have to believe it."

"why?"

“Because if they really obtained the information through methods similar to Lubyanka’s, then they wouldn’t need to expose potentially extremely valuable information because of a tactical aircraft, even if that tactical aircraft has very special capabilities,” Linochka analyzed.

His words calmed the minister down a little.

Indeed, Southerners aren't fools. If their guess is true, then this information channel is undoubtedly extremely valuable to them. There's no reason to rashly expose the possibility of this channel's existence just to test a deal that might never even happen.

After all, anyone with a brain knows that such a detailed and accurate description would immediately make their side realize that there is a mole.

Southerners are unlikely to be so short-sighted and foolish. For them, protecting this channel is far more important than acquiring the plane, especially given the current situation between the two sides, where it is highly improbable that the plane will be obtained.

"You really think they guessed it?"

“Comrade Minister, anything is possible. They even explained the reasons for their speculation so clearly that it doesn’t seem fake, at least I’m inclined to believe it. Perhaps in the eyes of the best technicians, given such preconditions, we have limited options, and in the end, they guessed our few choices.”

Linochka has developed a remarkable trait that netizens have developed decades later—when something seems absurd, it might actually be true.

“Unbelievable… However, in my opinion, this is not just a test, but also a demonstration.” The minister frowned.

"A demonstration?" Linochka felt he was falling behind the minister's pace.

"Yes, they're demonstrating their capabilities to us in seemingly insignificant ways. You know, people from the South often do things in a more subtle way, preferring to avoid being too direct to prevent awkwardness for both sides." The minister was thinking a lot; whether it was right or wrong, let's just say it was a lot.

Linochka looked enlightened, then added, "Comrade Minister, there's actually another reason why I tend to believe their claims."

"what reason?"

“There are just too many guests at the Gulag Hotel,” Linochka said.

Upon hearing this, the minister's expression shifted. "Yes, there are too many."

"You don't really need to worry about that. If necessary, they will send the entire team to the hotel so they can continue working there. This is not unprecedented," the minister said, making a rare joke.

This joke also shows that, at least for now, he is not as shocked and uneasy as he was at the beginning.

"What do you think of their demands?" the minister asked Linochka, regaining his composure.

“I have no opinion; this is not something my department should be involved in.” Linochka knew what to say and what not to say, and the division of labor was a good reason.

"Well... I mean, what are your personal thoughts? I'm not the minister now, and you don't belong to any department." As the one who personally promoted Linochka, he had the right to make such a demand of Linochka.

Of course, Linochka was also happy to answer his questions at this point.

"Actually, my previous answer was my stance: this matter should be decided by those who are in charge. This note is beyond our authority. However..."

"But what?"

“However, while concealing the details, I probed this matter through informal channels with higher-level departments, and you would never guess what the result was.” Linochka’s expression was not good.

"Could it be..." There are many ways to test someone, and the minister didn't know which one he was using, but he trusted Linochka's sense of propriety and judgment.

"Informal sources suggest that it's not impossible, provided the other party provides more civilian product quotas." Linochka's expression darkened further.

"Civilian use?" The minister's face was as ugly as his, worse than if he had eaten shit.

This answer greatly surprised the minister, making him feel as if he had eaten shit. This was pure military trade; how could civilian products be allowed to taint it...?

He didn't object to the "possibility" itself; in fact, once he knew the other party already possessed a considerable amount of secrets, a deal for such a "leaked" tactical aircraft wasn't impossible. However, that shouldn't be the reason, especially given the other party's lack of knowledge that the aircraft had already been "leaked."

But the next sentence made him feel even worse.

“In a very informal exchange, they even suggested that it would be best to have some unseen cooperation…” “Enough! Stop talking.” The minister suddenly lost his temper and stopped Linochka from speaking.

Linochka stopped talking. He knew the minister's feelings, and he even knew that the minister might be doing it for his own good.

"It's only been a short time, it's only been a short time..." the minister muttered to himself.

Linochka remained silent, and an eerie silence filled the office.

After a long silence, the minister waved his hand and said, "Do it your way. Write a report, forward it to the relevant departments, and get me to sign it when it's done."

Linochka nodded and stood up to finish his work.

Just as he was about to leave, the minister's somewhat weak voice came from behind him: "Remember, in the analysis section of the report, you must try your best to express that we believe the relevant intelligence is a guess or deduction made by the other side through theory and technology."

The minister didn't know how effective his arrangements would be, but he had to at least give it a try.

Linochka nodded; he knew this was one of the few things the minister could do, otherwise it would have been a near-fatal disaster for the plane. The worst-case scenario was that the minister's actions would have no effect whatsoever.

The most absurd scenario is that the original design of the aircraft lost its secrecy value due to leaks and was granted a sales license, while the aircraft's creators were imprisoned, making the aircraft unsustainable. In reality, it was the people from the South who obtained the original design and further tested and improved it.

Linochka shuddered at the thought of such an extremely ironic ending.

He turned and nodded solemnly to the minister, then left with somewhat heavy steps.
-
In the Applied Chemistry Department, a meeting is being held.

"As a basic supporting facility for a key project, we were among the first to start. Even before the main project was officially decided to proceed, our work had already been underway for almost half a year. But comrades, the progress is not optimistic at the moment."

The meeting was not large in scale, but that does not mean it was not high in level.

Small matters are addressed in large meetings, and big matters in small meetings; this has been the way of things since ancient times. A meeting that gathers hundreds of generals is usually about something that isn't a big deal.

However, those events that can only be attended by highly relevant personnel are different.

The person speaking is the chief engineer.

"Comrades, this matter cannot be delayed. Without this foundation, even if other comrades get into work mode, they can only conduct some theoretical research, but many experiments cannot be carried out. Theory can only remain on paper and can never be implemented."

Everyone knows this situation.

"Chief Engineer, we're trying our best to find a solution, but to be honest, this isn't really a good fit for our Applied Chemistry Department. The preparation method is still mainly sintering. If we had to say, this is more like something from the 17th Ministry of Machinery Industry. We're still in the process of getting familiar with it," said a senior engineer.

"That's not how it works. Chemistry is the science of change. Whether it's sintering or other chemical methods, they are all means to achieve change. We should mainly look for problems within ourselves." The chief engineer frowned.

"However, ferrite phase shifters involve not only chemistry, but also knowledge of condensed matter physics, electromagnetics, radio frequency, etc. It is still quite difficult for us, who are only majoring in chemistry, to work on them."

What they are working on is the ferrite phase shifter. In the original timeline, the ferrite phase shifter project basically started in the 70s, after all, the big project using the ferrite phase shifter was only urgently accelerated and officially launched in 69.

However, the situation is slightly different on this line because the conditions are also different.

The comrades in the Applied Chemistry Department were tasked with taking the lead. Regardless of whether or when the guy who uses ferrite phase shifters actually gets around to it, getting that ferrite phase shifter out of the way first would undoubtedly be of great benefit.

Considering that the art of material transformation is a good fit for the Department of Applied Transformation, this task was naturally assigned to the Department of Applied Transformation.

However, it seems that the situation is not very ideal now.

Seeing the chief engineer's displeasure, another colleague spoke up: "Chief Engineer, we're not shirking responsibility, but this is indeed a multidisciplinary matter. We're still figuring out which ferrite is suitable for this phase shifter, let alone what a ferrite phase shifter actually looks like, what its structure is, and how to maximize its functionality. Even if we had a definite type of ferrite, we still wouldn't know how to manufacture the phase shifter. What we said earlier wasn't to shirk responsibility, but mainly to prevent delays in this crucial project."

The comrades didn't know the current status of the project, or even whether it would be launched, but at least they knew that delaying was never a good thing.

The chief engineer nodded: "I know your thoughts are all based on a scientific and prudent attitude, and you also want to get things done as soon as possible, but it is also true that the progress of this matter is slow."

No matter how you explain it, slow is slow.

At this moment, one of the comrades raised his hand.

"Chief Engineer, you know what, a comrade just mentioned that this is a matter of the 17th Ministry of Machine Building. I actually remembered something. Maybe if we ask the 17th Ministry of Machine Building for help, it will have a good effect."

The chief engineer was furious. You really know how to seize an opportunity, saying that sintering is more like the 17th Ministry of Machinery Industry, and you actually went after them?
"Ask them for help with sintering?" To be honest, the 17th Ministry of Machinery Industry is indeed a professional when it comes to sintering.

"No."

"No?" The chief engineer became somewhat serious. Could there really be something there?

"Tell me more, be more specific."

The speaker shook his head: "I can't be specific, but we can still get a general idea."

There wasn't much information about this matter to begin with; all that was known was that it involved the 17th Ministry of Machine Building.

"The ministry should remember that not long ago, the 17th Ministry of Machine Building requested our cooperation on two separate occasions, and we provided a series of materials and equipment."

Such incidents are not uncommon, and the comrades don't remember much: "What's so special about these two times? What are the materials and equipment they're going to do? Are they related to ferrite phase shifters?"

"Whether it was related or not, the 17th Ministry of Machine Building did not explicitly say so at the time. There were regulations in place, and we did not ask. However, my apprentice and I handled this matter. Since I have been working on ferrite phase shifters recently, I can see some things that may be useful to us."

The chief engineer's interest grew even stronger: "Are they also working on ferrites?"

"Yes, and I can roughly tell that they are working on two different types of ferrites, and the progress is incredibly fast!"

(End of this chapter)