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

"Seal off the downlink passage. Nobody should touch the feeder cables along the wall. There might be a separate detonator near the lead door. I'll deal with it when I get back."

After giving the order to the walkie-talkie, Jiang Ming put the shielding cover on Meng Dechang's radio back into the parameter box and boarded the jeep to return to the mine.

Director Wang put away his Type 54 pistol and pointed to the code attachment in the carriage.

"Hand this over to the security department for inventory. I'll be there shortly. You should check the radiation device underground first."

The jeep drove out of the barren rocky beach, its headlights leaving only a slit to block out the light, and the smell of burnt power tubes still lingered on Jiang Ming's gloves.

Fifteen kilometers away, temporary searchlights had already illuminated the mining area, and the assault company had set up three cordon lines at the main entrance.

As soon as Jiang Ming got out of the car, Lu Qinghe came to greet him carrying several rolls of spectrum paper, his cuffs covered with black ash from the power distribution room.

"The downlink lead door has been found, but the engineers haven't moved it yet. The technical supervisor only admits that it's an old laboratory downstairs, but he won't say what's inside the lead boxes."

She laid out the three phase curves on the front of the car.

"The centimeter-wave pulse starts 27 seconds earlier than the central control panel, and the reverse location is on the lower floor."

Fang Xudong rushed over from inside the cave, carrying a directional coupler that he had just removed from the feeder interface.

"The operating limit exceeds 10 gigahertz, the insulating ring is made of high-purity alumina, and there is no corresponding number in the Soviet equipment list."

Jiang Ming flipped the base over, and German abbreviations were still visible in the acid-washed weld seams. The words "experimental prototype" and "resonant cavity" were still recognizable.

"Go down. If the incinerator is still running, the paper evidence won't last long."

Four mechanical cables connect the lower lead gate to the detonator behind the stone wall.

As the engineers cut the cable and secured the firing pin, Jiang Ming followed the feeder line and discovered another thin cable on the left side that had penetrated the rock wall, pointing directly at the burning area.

"Don't pry open the door yet. There's an independent power supply on the left, separated from the junction box."

The lime layer was peeled away, revealing four series-connected mining lamp batteries, with their outputs connected to a spark igniter behind the door.

The assault company commander saw the line clearly and raised his hand to stop the winch.

"As soon as the door is opened, the stove will turn on the air, and all the documents inside will be lost."

After the thin cable was cut, the winch pulled open the lead door, and the acrid, hot air rushed up the steps into the upper level.

Jiang Ming put on a canvas mask and followed the engineers into the old laboratory, where his flashlight illuminated the lead plates and wave-absorbing materials on the wall.

In the center of the laboratory, a disassembled circular waveguide was set up, with a water-cooled load connected to its end. Glass shards were scattered next to the overturned instrument cabinet.

The Soviet-style incinerator in the corner was still emitting ash smoke, the foot-operated blower was kept half-open, and the embers were consuming the edges of the documents.

"Bring me the pliers and the sand bucket!"

Old Sun squeezed into the restricted area, opened the furnace door, and paper ash and hot air wafted onto his cotton hat.

Just as the engineer was about to pour the sand, he stopped the edge of the bucket.

"Don't touch the paper yet, the water will ruin the ink lines. Engineer Jiang, bring the steel tray over."

Jiang Ming flipped over the discarded instrument panel, while Lao Sun peeled back the burning cover and pulled out the first stack of blueprints from under the embers.

The paper edges were carbonized, the center was protected by a metal clip, and the fine formulas were still arranged between the coordinate grid.

The second folder was stuck deep inside the furnace, its latch already red-hot.

Old Sun used two iron pliers to clamp both ends, the sappers used dry sand to extinguish the outer fire, and Lu Qinghe used an enamel tray to hold up the scorched paper that had fallen off.

"There are file folders under the refractory bricks on the right, which the pliers can't reach."

Old Sun pulled out the ash hopper entirely, and a homemade scraper picked up the copper buckle from under the furnace grate, bringing the hopper opening to the outside.

Jiang Ming covered his gloves with a damp cloth and lifted the file folder out of the charcoal ash, revealing a layer of oilcloth beneath the broken paper rope.

"Seale the furnace fire, number all the fragments according to the order they came out of the furnace, and anyone who handles them must sign off on them."

The laboratory entrance was immediately closed, and the safety officer laid out a sheet metal worktable and arranged the drawings and file folders in order.

Jiang Ming put on thin rubber gloves and used tweezers to unfold the first sheet of charred paper, revealing a tattered German title beneath the soot.

The words "K-band oscillator prototype" are still intact.

The image below the title shows a multi-cavity magnetron with the operating wavelength indicated as being around 12.5 millimeters. The right column lists the number of anode cavities, magnetic field strength, and pulse power.

Fang Xudong held up a slide rule to check the resonant cavity formula, and then retrieved the pulse records from the captured radiator.

"Twenty-four gigahertz, this equipment has already reached twenty-four gigahertz."

The slide rule closed again, and the wavelength and the measured pulse fell within the same working range.

"Domestic centimeter-wave radar is still advancing around three gigahertz, and even the devices publicly delivered by the Soviet Union cannot reach this level. This image shows that China is a generation ahead."

Lu Qinghe moved the three high-frequency fine peaks next to the drawing, and the design values ​​on the fragment just filled in the out-of-bounds frequency band that the receiver could not detect.

The electron cyclotron conditions, cavity coupling correction and cathode back-bombardment parameters are linked, and the material parameters at both locations also include production batch numbers.

This is not just a concept on paper; the prototype oscillator has been manufactured, and the equipment in the lead box is undergoing engineering verification.

Fang Xudong circled the system block diagram next to him. The K-band transmitter directly illuminates the radar receiving stage through a high-gain horn antenna.

The caption below the figure also states that a field networking test will be conducted three months later.

"Give them another three months, and the frequency, power, and antenna structure will be finalized. Existing radars do not have an early warning channel for this band."

His slide rule landed at the input level.

"As long as the equipment gets close to the position by following the terrain, the first wave of pulses can burn out the high-frequency input stage, and the radar station in Northwest China will start to lose contact from the edge."

Old Sun placed the pliers next to the steel plate, and the jaws made a dull thud.

"Meng Dechang has been causing trouble all these years, and he's not just eyeing this mine; he wants to destroy the eyes we've just set up."

Jiang Ming looked at the lower right corner of the drawing. The names of the design unit and the person in charge had been scraped off with a blade, but the remaining ink revealed traces of three transcriptions.

The first layer contains the original German manuscript, the second layer contains annotations in Russian, and the third layer includes Chinese experimental conditions and device replacement plans.

Funds, materials, and technical personnel converged into Mine No. 04 through various channels, enabling this prototype machine to operate underground for an extended period.

While the existing evidence is not enough to pinpoint the individuals associated with each channel, it is sufficient to demonstrate that Grey Pigeon Network is backed by an alliance capable of mobilizing transnational technological resources.

"Pack the drawings separately, take photos of the original German manuscript, Russian annotations and Chinese notes in layers, and don't let the paper continue to be exposed to air."

When Comrade Song brought the safety officer's number, Lu Qinghe opened the oilcloth file bag and placed a yellowed handwritten notebook on the worktable.

The cover reads "Lightning 7," and the inner pages record electromagnetic experiments from 1949 to 1950, with three pages skipped in the middle.

The gap is close to the binding line, and the outward-curling paper scraps and pinholes indicate that those three pages were forcibly torn off, and the manual was later rebound.

Lu Qinghe quickly found the missing item by comparing it with the catalog.

"Personnel access permissions, source of original components, and the first westward handover record are all on these three pages."

She combined the data from the before and after experiments.

"Not a single page of parameters is missing, but the information explaining who took over the equipment and where it came from has been taken away."

Jiang Ming flipped to the back cover, where a faded red clay stamp remained at the bottom of the paper, with the words "Thunder" engraved inside the border.

Old Sun approached the worktable, but didn't put the pliers back in the box.

"It's Lei Gong's stamp. I've seen it before. He always stamps it when he gets things from the workshop. There's a piece missing in the lower right corner, which was later replaced with copper foil."

Jiang Ming touched the edge of the seal through his gloves, and the bronze pages immediately unfolded in his mind.

The light patterns surrounding the four name cards converged simultaneously onto the Lightning Seven manual, and new writing appeared on the pages.

[Intervention at major historical junctures.]

[The rescue of key evidence from Lightning-7 has been completed; Lei Ming's personal seal has been confirmed; and fragments of a transnational technology chain have been obtained.]

[Contribution points settled, 350 points added.]

The numbers in the upper right corner of the book began to turn, revealing the complete scale of the new round of upgrade progress.

[Current contribution points: 350/1600.]

The engraving lines leading to the Hanlin Academy scroll were still long, but the system notification then closed, leaving only a gray shadow at the missing page location.

Hurried footsteps sounded at the laboratory entrance. Director Wang arrived at the worktable with Meng Dechang's personal secret letter and placed a burnt page of the document next to the Lightning Seven manual.

"The codebook has been matched. The translator has just translated a passage that mentions the list of participants in the 1949 electromagnetic experiment."

The end of the paper was burned off by fire. The first four lines of the list were still intact, but the fifth line was only half a stick of ink.

Beside the charred, broken edge, a lone, tuft-shaped stroke remains.