I started with a ship full of max-level veterans, and I'm just a complete noob.

Director Wang pushed the door open himself.

The damp, cold wind blew in first, followed by him and the crew-cut clerk. Both of them had water droplets hanging from the shoulders of their military overcoats, as if they had been standing in the rain for quite some time.

After entering, Director Wang did not exchange pleasantries, but first glanced at the copper billet covered with cotton gauze next to the lathe.

"Jiang Ming, stop what you're doing for a moment."

Old Sun glanced at Jiang Ming, didn't ask any more questions, pulled Da Liu back two steps into the inner room, and steadied the half-installed dial.

The crew member with the flat head was carrying a brown paper package with an oilcloth underneath. He put it on the bench against the wall as soon as he entered the room. A drop of water dripped from the edge of the oilcloth and fell onto the cement floor, where it quickly seeped in.

Director Wang didn't go inside; instead, he stood by the door and locked it from the inside.

Jiang Ming put down his pencil and stood up from beside the processing drawings.

Director Wang nodded to the flat-topped clerk.

The flat-headed clerk opened the brown paper package and took out three transparent glass bottles.

Each bottle contained about half a pound of grayish-white powder, the bottle opening was sealed with wax, and a red label from the laboratory was affixed to it.

"Intercepted at Fengtai freight station."

Director Wang picked up one of the bottles and waved it in the dim light from the window.

"The registered product name is moisture-proof and fire-resistant clay purchased from Tongxian Brick Kiln Factory, three sacks, totaling 120 jin."

"The people at the freight station felt the weight was wrong; the refractory clay wasn't supposed to be that heavy, so they reported it."

Jiang Ming took the bottle, pried open the edge of the wax seal a little, and smelled it.

It has no muddy smell, but rather a very faint sour and astringent smell, like oxalate residue.

"Are the test results out?"

Director Wang took out a lab report folded into quarters from the inside pocket of his coat, unfolded it, and handed it to him.

"See for yourself."

The lab report didn't have many words, but every number was eye-catching.

The first bag contains lanthanum oxalate, with a purity of 91.3%.

The second bag contains neodymium dioxide, with a purity of 87.6%.

The third bag contains a mixture of rare earth oxides, with lanthanum, neodymium, and cerium in a ratio of approximately four to three to two.

Jiang Ming flipped the lab report over and looked at the back; it was blank, with no further information.

"Did the escort guard confess?"

"He confessed to part of it."

Director Wang leaned against the wall, his hands in his coat pockets.

"The goods were taken from the waste transfer station of the East Suburb Chemical Plant, and the factory exit procedures used the surplus loss transfer order signed by Li Huaiyuan."

"The escort said that the goods were originally planned to be delivered to a warehouse in the backyard of the Tongxian brick kiln. He made three trips there, each time unloading the goods in the middle of the night, without going through the main gate."

The crew-cut clerk added, "The windows of the warehouse in the backyard of the brick kiln are all bricked up, leaving only an iron door with a newly replaced lock."

Jiang Ming put the bottle back on the bench and tapped it twice with his fingers.

"Director Wang, lanthanum oxalate and neodymium dioxide are not ordinary chemical raw materials."

"I know."

"The combination and sintering of these two ingredients is the key formula for making the cathode coating of microwave electron tubes."

Director Wang narrowed his eyes slightly.

"Explain yourself."

"For an electron tube to emit electrons, the cathode surface must be coated with a layer of oxide with high emission efficiency."

Jiang Ming walked to the table and drew a simple cathode cross-section on a piece of scrap paper with a pencil.

"Ordinary barium carbonate coatings have low emission efficiency. To make high-power microwave tubes, we need to use high-emission cathodes doped with rare earth oxides."

"By combining lanthanum and neodymium oxides in a certain ratio and controlling the sintering temperature, the emission current density can be increased by three to five times."

He put down his pencil and turned to look at Director Wang.

"This isn't about smuggling ore to sell for money; it's about someone deliberately depleting the country's reserves of special materials."

"That sealed-window warehouse at the Tongxian brick kiln factory was likely not just a place for storing goods; it might also contain rudimentary purification equipment."

Director Wang didn't respond immediately, his gaze lingering on the three glass bottles for a moment.

"You mean, Grey Pigeon's business isn't just about reselling?"

"Reselling is just the tip of the iceberg."

Jiang Ming folded the scrap of paper and stuffed it into the chest pocket of his work uniform.

"Lanthium oxalate with a purity of over 90% is not something that chemical plants can just pick out from waste piles. It has to go through at least two acid dissolution and precipitation processes to reach this level."

"If there really is a refining site in the backyard of the brick kiln, then Grey Pigeon's goal is not just to move the materials out, but to build an independent rare earth refining chain outside the system."

Upon hearing this, the flat-topped clerk's expression tightened noticeably, and he turned to look at Director Wang.

Director Wang straightened up, took the test report back from Jiang Ming, folded it again, and stuffed it into his inner pocket.

"There's one more thing."

His voice was lowered even further.

"We checked Li Huaiyuan's sign-in book at the material allocation department and reviewed the records for the last three months."

"Every morning between 8:10 and 8:20, he would go to the director's office to deliver the day's allocation summary sheet."

"After the section chief signs it, he takes it back."

"You go every day?"

"Every single day, without fail."

Jiang Ming did not ask for the name of the section chief.

Since Director Wang has put it this way, his meaning is already very clear.

Li Huaiyuan is a thread, but at the other end of the thread hangs an even thicker rope.

"Alright, just listen to what I have to say, you don't need to worry about it."

Director Wang reached out and wrapped the three bottles on the bench back into the oilcloth, then handed them to the crew-cut clerk.

"Tonight I'm taking some men to the Tongxian brick kiln factory and turning over their backyard."

He walked to the door, put his hand on the latch, and then turned back.

"Don't go too far tonight, stay at the factory."

"If chemicals or equipment are found at the brick kiln, you might be asked to go over there in the middle of the night to take a look and determine if it's related to the electron tube process."

"it is good."

Director Wang unlatched the door, and raindrops drifted in again, hitting the cement floor and turning a darker color.

The sound of their footsteps echoed across the gravel path, quickly drowned out by the sound of rain.

Jiang Ming returned to his workbench and sat down. In front of him was a cross-sectional diagram of the magnetron anode machining process, with eight neatly arranged sector-shaped cavities marked in pencil.

But his gaze fell on the line of text in the upper right corner of the drawing.

"The eccentricity is 3.72 millimeters, and the accuracy of the scale is 0.03%."

The brown paper envelope that he was pressing down next to him contained the six-month supply flow data for the Fengtai freight station that Director Wang had left behind last time.

Three batches of metallurgical waste, with forged seals, were picked up on the side track after entering the station in the Tongxian direction.

Now, three more bags of rare earth powder disguised as refractory clay have appeared, also pointing to the Tongxian brick kiln factory.

He pressed the envelope back down, picked up a pencil, and wrote a number next to the cutting sequence of the third cavity on the machining drawing.

The rain outside was heavier than before, and it pattered against the tin roof with a muffled sound.

If the refining equipment is indeed unearthed at the brick kiln tonight, the Grey Pigeon underground network will no longer be just a matter of reselling.

That's a complete industrial chain from raw material theft to intermediate product processing. The real questions are where the end products are and who uses them.

The pencil tip paused on the paper for two seconds before continuing to write down the cutting parameters.

Manage the magnetron properly.

Director Wang is right.

However, Fengtai Freight Station will receive two tons of oxygen-free copper three days later, on the same platform and the same siding.

If someone else is also eyeing that batch of copper, things won't be so simple.