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

Vasily's hand was still pressed on the seal of the Moscow Calculation Bureau.

He followed the "version archiving" route, shifting the blame to the document transfer process, claiming that the third version of the matrix may have had the dimensional labels misadjusted during circulation.

He requested that China postpone the characterization, downgrade the existing parameter package to a temporary reference, and wait for the Soviet side to send back the revised version before the technical committees of both sides resume the freezing procedure.

As the translator listened to the supplementary explanations, he relayed the details about document circulation, numbering and duplication, and archiving levels. He changed his story several times, and even the boundaries of responsibility between the Computing Bureau and the Technical Committee gradually became blurred.

"The Soviet representative meant that the original model was still reliable, and the problem might have been in the copying of the documents or in the binding of the versions. The specific details need to be reported back to Moscow for verification."

As he spoke, his voice gradually slowed down.

This explanation can at most account for the misplacement of a single document, but it cannot explain why the parameters in the three versions continue to shrink, let alone explain the precise correspondence between the translation coordinates and the Jiuquan monsoon sensitive area.

Jiang Ming stood beside the projector, pressing his fingers against the film holder to keep the three yaw lines in the center of the screen.

The revision dates, shrinkage ratios, and end-of-section magnification factors from the first to the third edition are all listed in the official dossier, and the critical fluctuations also gradually decrease in the same direction.

A single transcription might result in incorrect labeling, but three consecutive revisions could not possibly avoid the Soviet home range, while also locking in the wind shear height of Jiuquan.

After listening to the translation, Qian Xuesen closed the Russian folder in front of him, held the cover with both hands, and slowly pushed it to the far edge of the long table.

The paper made a dull rustling sound as it rubbed against the tablecloth. The translator stopped talking, and Vasily withdrew the supplementary page he was about to hand over.

Qian Xuesen first looked at the three yaw lines on the screen, then at the original Jiuquan radiosonde tape, and finally focused his gaze on the suspension of supply document in front of Vasily.

"We accept technical assistance and respect the work already completed by both sides, but any parameters that are put into live-fire testing must withstand verification under Chinese test range conditions."

The translator relayed the sentence, and Vasily was about to interrupt when Qian Xuesen raised his hand to signal him to listen first.

"The results of Kapustin Yar's live-fire test can be used as a reference, and the model from the Moscow Computing Bureau can also be used as a reference. However, reference materials cannot replace the real wind field in Jiuquan, nor can they assume the safety responsibility for the Chinese test personnel."

He flipped to the input conditions page of Jiang Ming's integral derivation, and moved his fingertip along the Jiuquan radiosonde station number, sampling date, and altitude record.

"China's missiles must be measured using data taken by China itself."

After the interpreter's voice echoed throughout the conference room, several experts in the front row immediately sat up straight. The officer in charge of taking notes wrote the entire sentence into the meeting minutes, even re-emphasizing the punctuation at the end.

The hesitation that had been weighing on the room began to dissipate, and the sense of authority brought by the complete Soviet system was pushed aside by the real focus on the backdrop and Qian Xuesen's tone.

The expert who had proposed the tropopause boundary took the broken pencil lead out of the folder, replaced it with another pen, and wrote "Remodeling" next to the 13.2-kilometer altitude of Jiuquan.

The overall team's calculators also put away the process sheets they had created based on the Soviet translation and annotations, and reopened the domestically produced interface cards, changing the data source column from the Soviet unified model to the Jiuquan measured layered input.

The major general rose from his seat, took the draft meeting minutes, crossed out the agenda for signing the parameter freeze, and then pushed aside the list of supplies suspended by the Soviet side.

"The military is responsible for range testing. I hereby announce that this defective parameter package is completely abolished. The sealed serial number will remain and it is only allowed to be used as a technical reference. It is prohibited from being used in overall design and live-fire preparation."

He turned to the seats of the overall group and guidance group, his tone crisp and leaving no room for conditional execution.

"The subsequent guidance calculation adopts the Chinese independent framework, with Jiuquan radiosonde data over the years as the main data source. Jiang Ming is responsible for the underlying physical equations, Ren Xinmin is responsible for the overall interface, and Mr. Qian presided over the final review."

The duty officer immediately revised the meeting resolution, removing the page originally intended for both parties to sign the freeze agreement and replacing it with a task list independently reconstructed by the Chinese side.

The comments section of the technical committee, the approval section of the military, and the execution section of the overall group were passed in sequence. The Parker pen that had been hanging above the consent form was now placed on the domestic framework authorization page.

Vasily leaned on the edge of the table and sat back down in his chair. The previously prepared signing process, authorization period, and component list had all become invalid.

He still wanted to emphasize that the supply disruption would affect the overall progress, but the major general had already asked the equipment support personnel to take stock of domestic alternatives, and Qian Xuesen also added independent testing and phased verification to the mission statement.

The Soviet Union could suspend the use of components, but it could no longer demand that China write the incorrect parameters into its missiles.

During the meeting, an elderly researcher who had long advocated for adopting the Soviet standards looked down at Jiang Ming's derivation. After seeing the contraction ratio of the three versions of the matrix, he changed his hand from adjusting his glasses to supporting himself on the table.

In the past few years, Soviet standards have often been taken as the complete answer, with domestic engineering conditions only responsible for adaptation. Now that each layer of parameters has been broken down into physical processes, he can see that even a so-called complete model can conceal its flaws.

This shift in his understanding made him sit so intently that he forgot to even touch the tea that had gone cold beside him, focusing instead on meticulously calculating the intermediate amounts that Jiang Ming had preserved, page by page.

Jiang Ming walked to the main table, picked up the consent form with the signature column still empty, took it back from Vasily, and handed it to the meeting recorder to have it stamped as void.

As the red ink was pressed onto the paper, Vasily stared at the two striking words, his handkerchief crumpled into a ball, but he could no longer come up with a rebuttal that could be incorporated into the equation.

Two Soviet staff members began tidying up the display boards, taking three Russian parameter diagrams off the hooks. One of them was in such a hurry that the diagram scroll hit the back of a chair next to him, causing the chair to tip over.

The aerodynamics engineer helped him up in his chair, glanced back at the yaw trajectory on the screen, and then noted down the page numbers he had checked in his notebook.

The information he currently possesses is only enough to confirm that the Chinese derivation can be closed. As for why the third version of the matrix continues to shrink, it is still necessary to return to the original archives to investigate.

As the Soviet seats gradually emptied, the major general did not adjourn the meeting. Instead, he asked the overall team to confirm the resources, time, and data access of the domestic framework on the spot.

Data from the Fifth Academy's Data Room, Jiuquan Meteorological Station, Overall Calculation Group, and the Institute of Physics' High-Temperature Materials have been uniformly incorporated into a new access list. Content that previously required multi-level applications is now directly approved by a special authorization stamp.

Jiang Ming took the film out of the projector, put it back into the cardboard holder in numerical order, and then put the original, backup and coordinate transparent film into the three envelopes respectively.

Comrade Song checked the seals, read out the numbers one by one, and only after confirming that they matched the pre-meeting registration did he let Jiang Ming lock them back into the metal briefcase.

Only three items are listed above: Jiuquan extreme wind field supplementary calculation, crossflow correction module reconstruction, and overall safety boundary verification. Each item is marked with priority time.

"Today we've won at the parameter entry point, but we still need to rely on our own data to pave the way for the whole process."

Jiang Ming took the note, and the tension in his chest that had sustained him through several nights of calculations eased slightly. But when his fingers touched the edge of the briefcase, the progress of the diffusion furnace and high-frequency silicon tubes came back into his mind.

Having just gained autonomy over the control of the control wires, Aksai's short-frame interference is still worsening, and the Institute of Physics' second round of sample tests is also stuck at the high-frequency testing threshold.

The major general finished writing the last stroke on the new mission statement, and the person in charge immediately announced the end of the parameter freezing meeting. The original Soviet files were then transferred to the Confidentiality Department for continued sealing.

Comrade Song stood outside the door, opened the security report, and wrote in the section for the Soviet representatives' departure record: Vasily looked back several times, invalidating the consent form; the technical deputy left the room early with the files.

Jiang Ming fastened the briefcase and was about to leave the venue with Ren Xinmin when the mini pager in his pocket suddenly rang three times in quick succession.

That was the highest-level emergency call code agreed upon by the Institute of Physics' semiconductor laboratory.