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

After Qian Xuesen sat down again, the chairperson announced that the meeting would continue. Vasily then instructed his deputy to remove the unit's errata sheet and replace it with a heading deviation statistical chart that had never been shown before.

The image shows six different batches of landing ellipses, each group of ellipses converging near the center line, with the outermost circle marked with an effective control probability of over 90%.

The translator stood to the side of the podium and read aloud the Soviet statistical summary item by item, emphasizing that the dispersion radius of each batch continued to shrink as the number of revisions increased.

"After the third version of the model was put into use, the root mean square value of the heading deviation decreased by 37%, the terminal control margin increased by 21%, and all live-fires landed within the designated safe zone."

The Soviet technicians turned up the lights, making the red ellipses on the statistical chart more prominent, and several Chinese experts who had initially held reservations also turned their attention to the probability table.

Live-fire statistics are the most important factor in engineering meetings. If the data in the diagram truly covers all the working conditions described by the Soviet side, then continuing to refuse to sign would require even stronger counter-evidence.

Jiang Ming flipped over the previous page to check the coordinates of the vulnerability, and his gaze moved along the horizontal axis of the statistical chart, finally landing on the small Russian annotation next to the origin of the vertical axis.

He first looked at the bottom edge of the map, then at the center of the ellipse in each batch, and then took out a ruler to measure the distance between the zero point and the first main scale.

The scale intervals conform to the standard of one kilometer, but the reference value marked next to the origin of the coordinate system is not zero, but positive five kilometers.

More importantly, the baseline value was cut off by the shadow of the projection frame, and only a blurry tail of the number could be seen from a distance. The whole picture still looked like it was calculated from zero.

Jiang Ming left his seat, took a ruler and pencil and walked to the side of the whiteboard. His shoes left a few water stains as they passed over the damp doormat.

The translator continued reading, and he walked to the statistical chart without saying a word, simply attaching a ruler to the vertical axis and rechecking each scale mark.

Vasily saw him approach the display board and gestured for the translator to pause.

"If Engineer Jiang has any questions, he can raise them according to the procedure after the reading is finished."

Jiang Ming stopped the ruler at the origin of the vertical axis and turned to face the main table.

"It should be mentioned now because the vertical axis of this graph has been shifted by 5,000 meters."

The sound of turning pages in the meeting room stopped. Ren Xinmin, who was sitting in the front row, immediately stood up, walked to the statistical chart from the other side, and bent down to examine the baseline annotation that was covered by shadow.

The Soviet technician quickly adjusted the projector stand, moving the map a few centimeters to the left, and finally the complete 5,000-meter mark next to the origin was revealed.

Jiang Ming drew a line connecting the centers of the ellipses of each group's landing points, and then restored the entire line downwards by five scales based on the original coordinates.

The curve that had been oscillating slightly around the center line deviated from the safe zone, bending continuously to the same side, with its yaw arc crossing the boundary of the graph and pointing directly to the area not shown in the statistical chart.

Ren Xinmin took the pencil and rewrote the original values ​​of the six batches on the whiteboard. After subtracting the translation datum, each set of data showed the same directional bias.

Vasily took two steps forward, stared at the restoration curve on the whiteboard, and then turned to question the technician in charge of the projection.

The technician turned the focus knob again, trying to make the origin annotation clearer, but the numbers only went from blurry to clear; the 5,000-meter reference remained in place.

"The projection equipment is old and the image edges are distorted, so we cannot conclude that there is a problem with the statistical method based on this."

Vasily pointed the finger at the camera, maintaining his previous tough tone, but his fingers moved faster as he flipped through his speech outline, missing the corresponding page twice in a row.

An aerodynamics engineer sitting at the end of the Soviet-held seat looked down at the small original image he was carrying, his gaze shifting back and forth between the vertical axis and the center of the impact point.

The rain outside the window pressed down at this moment, the raindrops hitting the glass, and the eaves drains quickly began to make a racket. The footsteps of the patrolmen in the corridor were drowned out by the sound of water, with only the occasional slight tremor from the door frame remaining.

Jiang Ming took the Jiuquan sounding data summary handed to him by Ren Xinmin, wrote the wind shear height of the Soviet home range on the left side of the whiteboard, and wrote the actual measured height of Jiuquan in July on the right side.

"The main wind shear layer of Kapustin Yar is located near the Soviet statistical baseline. The strong shear layer of the Jiuquan monsoon extends upward, and the height range that triggers crossflow separation also changes accordingly."

He converted the two altitude differences into flight time and then wrote the corresponding sideslip angles into the third version of the control function.

"The coordinates were shifted by 5,000 meters, which perfectly superimposed the stable zone of the Soviet home range onto the Jiuquan data, so the probability in the figure still appears to be shrinking around the center line."

The expert in the front row who had raised the issue of air density immediately flipped to his sounding chart and superimposed the 13.2-kilometer boundary with the wind shear height written by Jiang Ming.

The two lines intersect in the transonic speed-sensitive region, and the section that has been shifted in the Su Fang diagram happens to cover this segment.

"If this set of statistical charts is recalculated using the actual coordinates of Jiuquan, the so-called 37% dispersion contraction will not hold true."

After the expert finished speaking, he pushed the slide rule to the center of the table, indicating that anyone could review it.

Vasily looked at the major general, temporarily ignoring the numbers on the whiteboard, and turned his speech to the technical cooperation agreement between the two countries.

"The current project is proceeding according to the established division of labor between the two parties, with the Soviet Union undertaking the overall technical assistance. China's unauthorized changes to the core parameters will affect the division of responsibilities for the entire cooperation system."

When the interpreter spoke about the division of responsibilities, he slowed down his speech, and the meeting recorder also stopped writing, waiting for the military representative to express his opinion.

The major general shifted his gaze from the agreement text back to the restored yaw curve, withdrawing his hand from the armrest and instead pressing down on a corner of the consent form.

The issue of engineering safety is already laid bare. Continuing to use the agreement to circumvent the coordinate errors is tantamount to asking China to use range personnel and live ammunition to fill the gaps in the Soviet charts.

Jiang Ming returned to his seat, took out the neatly folded draft paper of the reverse deviation from his pocket, and smoothed out the four creases one by one.

The paper contained the shrinkage ratio, separation height, and end-stage magnification factor of three different parameters, the edges of which were worn soft from sweat and repeated folding.

The conference room was stuffy and hot. He unbuttoned the top button of his collar, and the cool breeze that seeped in through the window brushed against his neck, easing the drowsiness that had accumulated from working on calculations all night.

Vasily pulled the stamped document from the bottom of the red clay dossier, held it to his chest, and had the interpreter read aloud the Soviet technical committee's additional comments word by word.

"If China refuses to confirm the parameter freeze at this meeting, the Soviet Union will suspend the delivery of subsequent key components, including gyroscope stabilization components, servo amplifiers and supporting calibration equipment."

After this ultimatum was issued, the Soviet deputy pushed the list of components to the center of the main table, with the words "Suspension of Supply" marked in red pencil at the top of the page.

The major general looked at the equipment numbers on the list, while several experts in charge of overall assembly also looked down to check the inventory. The existing spare parts were only enough to support limited ground tests.

Vasily placed the stamped document next to the consent form and pushed it toward the major general.

"Sign the agreement; cooperation continues."

Rainwater pooled along the windowpane, forming thick, heavy streaks.

Jiang Ming pressed down on the reverse draft, his gaze passing over the component list and stopping at the double serial number on the film box seal next to his seat.

The next moment, he reached out and grabbed the edge of the box, pulling it in front of him.