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

The next day, just as dawn was breaking, the iron door of Workshop No. 1 was pushed open forcefully.

With two huge dark circles under his eyes, Jiang Ming slammed two sheets of drawing data onto Wu Hanzhang's desk.

Wu Hanzhang almost choked on the strong tea he had just drunk, so he quickly put on his reading glasses and looked closely.

The first drawing was covered with densely packed curves showing temperature increases and decreases.

Wu Hanzhang nodded slightly.

The degassing process for baking was discussed yesterday, and setting it to 200 degrees Celsius for four hours is reasonable.

But when he saw the second drawing, his old eyes widened instantly.

The drawing depicts a strange double-layered tank structure, with three prominent words next to it: Cold Trap.

Wu Hanzhang pointed at the blueprints, his calloused hands trembling.

"Xiao Jiang, what is this? The complete set of operating procedures left behind by the Soviet advisors never mentioned this thing!"

"Liquid nitrogen? -196 degrees Celsius? What are you doing plugging that into a vacuum pump?!"

Jiang Ming remained expressionless, casually pulled out the internal dictionary that Chen Zhiyuan had copied from his pocket, and then opened Qian Xuesen's thick lecture notes, placing them directly next to the blueprints.

"Just because the Soviets didn't teach it doesn't mean that the laws of physics don't exist."

Jiang Ming pointed to a formula on the handout, his tone very confident.

"Qian Lao's lecture notes clearly describe the thermodynamic low-temperature condensation effect, and the appendix of this dictionary also happens to include the obscure term 'cold trap'."

Wu Hanzhang stared blankly at the formulas in the lecture notes, speechless for a long time.

Jiang Ming pressed on while the iron was hot, pointing to the pipeline diagram and explaining.

"The biggest enemy that prevents the vacuum from being created is the water molecules floating in the pipes."

"The low temperature of liquid nitrogen is used to lower the inner wall temperature, so that when water vapor passes by, it will freeze instantly on the pipe wall."

"This is equivalent to putting an absolutely impenetrable molecular sieve in front of the pump inlet!"

Wu Hanzhang was somewhat stunned by this impeccable theory.

He had spent his whole life working with old-fashioned vacuum tubes and had never seen such a dimensional reduction method of directly freezing gas with low temperature.

But Qian Xuesen's lecture notes are right here, and the theoretical logic is frighteningly rigorous.

Wu Hanzhang gritted his teeth and slammed his hand hard on the table.

"Let's do it! If we can break through ten to the power of negative five, I'll even invite the King of Heaven himself to be used as a sieve!"

He turned and yelled into the workshop.

"Old Sun! Take the job!"

Old Sun immediately ran over, took the blueprints, glanced at them, and his brows furrowed into a deep knot.

"Double-layered copper tubing nested together? The outer layer carries liquid nitrogen, and the inner layer carries a vacuum?"

Old Sun looked at the blueprints over and over, appearing somewhat hesitant.

"Can you do it?"

Jiang Ming asked in a deep voice.

Old Sun snorted and tucked the tobacco pipe into his belt.

"The copper tube is too soft. If you bend it by hand, it will definitely collapse. If you vacuum it, it will definitely leak air."

"Big Liu! Go to the warehouse and get half a bag of the finest yellow sand, and also bring a musket!"

The entire Workshop No. 1 quickly transformed into a bustling blacksmith shop.

Old Sun stuffed the copper tube tightly with dry, fine yellow sand and sealed both ends with wooden plugs.

With the yellow sand providing internal support, the pipes won't deform when bent.

He gripped the copper pipe in the vise and slowly twisted it, his rough hands showing prominent veins.

With his skillful force, the straight copper pipe was bent into a neat U-shape.

After pouring out the yellow sand and cleaning the inner wall, Lao Sun put on a black welding helmet and lit the welding torch.

The eerie blue flames licked wildly at the joints of the copper pipes, producing a piercing sound.

The welding of the double-layer structure requires a very delicate touch; if you linger for even a second longer, the copper pipe will be welded through and rendered unusable.

Old Sun remained silent, like a statue, and steadily completed the round of welding.

Sparks flew everywhere, while on the other side, Wu Hanzhang was giving Xiao Zhao a death order.

"I'll ride my bicycle, take the factory's confidentiality tag, and head to the chemical plant in the eastern suburbs!"

"You have to plead with me until you're hoarse to borrow a canister of liquid nitrogen. Don't come back if you can't!"

Xiao Zhao pushed his bicycle, sweating profusely, and rushed out of the factory gate.

While waiting for the liquid nitrogen and cold trap to be completed, Jiang Ming did not waste a single second.

"Da Liu, find all the spare heating wires in the warehouse and wind them around the casing of the rotary vane pump."

"Let's get past the hurdle of baking the pump body today!"

Jiang Ming stood on a high place and gave loud instructions.

Several thick heating wires were tightly wrapped around the bulky cast iron pump body.

The switch snapped shut, and the heating element instantly glowed a glaring dark red.

The temperature in the workshop rose sharply, and the air was filled with the pungent smell of burnt machine oil.

Jiang Ming held a pocket watch in his hand, his eyes fixed on the high-temperature thermometer attached to the pump body.

The pointer slowly climbed upwards.

100 degrees.

150 degrees.

Finally, the pointer stopped at 200 degrees.

"Hold on! Disconnect both heating coils and maintain this temperature!"

"Four hours, not a minute less!"

Jiang Ming's voice echoed in the stuffy workshop.

The intense heat, lasting for four hours, left everyone in the workshop drenched in sweat.

Da Liu simply took off his work clothes and stood shirtless next to the guillotine.

When the four-hour mark arrived, the most technically challenging cooling-off phase finally began.

Metals expand at 200 degrees Celsius.

If the power is cut off and the material is allowed to cool naturally, the thermal stress generated by the rapid contraction will instantly tear apart those fluororubber seals.

"The temperature drop must not exceed 20 degrees Celsius per hour."

"Da Liu, do as I say, unplug one of the heating coils every twenty minutes."

Although Jiang Ming's voice was hoarse, it sounded steady and powerful.

This is a grueling period of training the eagle.

The thermometer needle was dropping like a snail.

It dropped from 180 degrees to 160 degrees, and then to 100 degrees.

It wasn't until 8 p.m. that the pump casing finally cooled down completely.

Everyone gathered around nervously.

"Connect the vacuum gauge and start the pump for testing."

Wu Hanzhang's voice trembled slightly.

The rotary vane pump emitted a dull hum once again, and the exhaust valve opened smoothly.

Da Liu stared intently at the dial of the Maxwell vacuum gauge, not daring to move his eyes.

The pointer quickly moves past negative three and then negative four.

Finally, it came to a difficult stop at a new mark.

"10 to the power of negative 4.7 Pascal".

When Da Liu read out the numbers, his tone betrayed his undisguised disappointment.

It is indeed a small step forward from the previous negative 4.5.

But there's still a huge chasm between us and the critical threshold of 10 to the power of negative 5.

Old Sun had just finished welding the last piece of the cold trap when he heard this data, and he sighed heavily.

Wu Hanzhang also fell silent.

After a whole day of struggling, there was very little progress.

Jiang Ming walked over calmly and patted the cold pump body.

"What's the rush? Baking just forces out the dirt from the metal pores; it's just laying the foundation."

He turned to look at the simple cold trap with a purplish-copper luster on Old Sun's workbench.

"The real killer weapon hasn't been installed yet."

Just then, a sudden screech of bicycle brakes came from outside the workshop.

Xiao Zhao's face was covered in dust, and his work clothes were stained with oil.

He was clutching a double-layered tin thermos wrapped in several layers of thick cotton cloth tightly in his arms, panting heavily.

A wisp of cold white steam seeped out from the gap in the lid of the tin can.

As soon as these cold air units came into contact with the air, they turned into a thick white fog.

Everyone in the workshop immediately swarmed over.

"The liquid nitrogen has arrived!"

Xiao Zhao's voice was hoarse from shouting, and he excitedly raised the jar in his arms.

"Three liters! I squatted at the entrance of the Chemical Industry Bureau's workshop for ages, begging for ages, and even flashed the top-secret mission slip from the Science and Technology Commission, and only then did I manage to borrow this much!"

"This stuff is only enough for one use!"

The workshop was eerily quiet, with only the faint sound of liquid boiling coming from the tin cans.

Jiang Ming stared intently at the jar emitting a chilling white vapor.

Success or failure depends entirely on these three liters of extremely cold liquid.

Jiang Ming took a deep breath and turned to look around at the exhausted crowd.

"Old Sun connected the cold trap into the pipeline, and Big Liu sealed the interface."

"Also, everyone go back and rest today. Tomorrow morning, we'll start the pumps and pour in liquid nitrogen for a joint, top-secret test!"

Wu Hanzhang clenched his fist tightly.

Old Sun also took a deep drag on his pipe.

Tomorrow will be the decisive moment to completely confront that life-or-death line!