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

A cold breeze was blowing in through the cracks in the windows of the administration building in the early morning.

Jiang Ming pushed open the wooden door to the factory director's office; the smell of smoke from working late into the night hadn't dissipated yet.

Factory Director Zhang sat behind the table, his military green Zhongshan suit collar open.

Director Wang, dressed in military uniform, sat on the sofa, holding a cold enamel mug in his hand.

Factory Director Zhang took a brown paper bag from the drawer and pushed it in front of Jiang Ming.

Jiang Ming untied the white thread and pulled out two pages of paper.

The first image is a copy of Chen Zhiyuan's letter, with the words "regular noise" circled in red.

The second sheet bears the red seal of the Bureau of Investigation and Statistics and lists a series of shortwave frequency data.

Director Wang put down his teacup and cut off any way out with his words.

"Comrade Xiao Jiang, the noise in your classmate's letter is not a problem with the equipment."

"The security system dispatched a monitoring vehicle and confirmed that someone was secretly transmitting shortwave signals."

"The frequency jump pattern overlaps with an old shortwave frequency band that we have identified."

Jiang Ming gripped the edge of the paper, the veins on the back of his hand bulging.

He had previously assumed that Chen Zhiyuan had encountered interference from old Soviet equipment.

This report has now completely exposed the truth.

Near the communications test site in Northwest China, enemy agents have planted hidden stakes and are trying to pry open the national communications defense line.

Factory Director Zhang picked up a pen and tapped the table with the cap.

"The task assigned by the higher-ups to develop anti-jamming military vacuum tubes has now become a firefighting effort."

"No matter how impressive the test data in the workshop is, it can't plug the hole in Northwest China."

"Could you send over that tube with the silicone patch you have for testing first?"

Jiang Ming stuffed the report back into the paper bag and pushed it back to the center of the table.

"Director Zhang, that one yesterday was a sacrificial verification tube."

"The outer casing was cracked, but it held up for three hours thanks to vacuum silicone grease and copper foil."

"Send it to the Northwest, and after half a day of powering it on, the sealing stress will be enough to crack it."

Director Wang stared at him, his finger hovering over the edge of the enamel mug.

Jiang Ming stood up.

"If you're going to send something, send genuine military-grade products that can withstand sandstorms and temperature differences."

"Give me two days, and I'll make two resealable pre-cast tubes in the workshop."

"If the annealing process and inter-electrode capacitance are not resolved, sending it out will be a disgrace to the entire defense industry."

Director Wang's eyes darkened.

This unwavering focus on technical aspects reminded him of someone else.

Factory Director Zhang locked the kraft paper bag back in the drawer.

"Materials and equipment, the entire factory will give you the green light."

"Two days from now, I want to see finished products ready to be packed and loaded onto the train."

Jiang Ming grabbed his canvas bag, turned around, and went out.

My shoes stomped across the concrete corridor, my steps quickening as I walked.

In Workshop No. 1, the rotary vane vacuum pumps were monotonously pumping air.

Old Sun was squatting next to the fitter's bench, sanding a piece of scrap copper pipe with sandpaper.

Wu Hanzhang, holding a chipped teacup, checked the pressure drop data at the testing station.

Xiao Zhao and Da Liu soaked the glass dish in the detergent jar.

Jiang Ming pushed open the metal door, bringing in a gust of cold wind.

He threw his bag onto the control cabinet and walked to the blackboard.

He picked up half a piece of chalk and drew a big X on the broken annealing curve from yesterday.

Everyone in the workshop looked up.

"Stop it, everyone."

Jiang Ming turned around and looked at his group of old friends whose eyes were bloodshot from staying up all night.

"The factory administration has given a direct order."

"These pipes weren't used to fool the Science and Technology Commission's acceptance report."

"It's about to go to a real communications test field and eat sand in the Northwest."

The noise from the vacuum pump bearings was grating on my ears in the workshop.

Old Sun threw the sandpaper onto the stage and slowly stood up straight.

This time, he didn't pull out the tobacco stick from his waist.

"To the Great Northwest?"

"The temperature difference between day and night in that place is so great that it can crack rocks."

"That patched pipe from yesterday couldn't even get out of the workshop."

Jiang Ming took out a piece of grayish-white metal from the toolbox and placed it on the anvil.

"Therefore, the sealing and cushioning between glass and metal has been completely changed today."

"The outer support ring is not made of pure metal; instead, Kovar alloy is used as the transition step."

"Its coefficient of expansion follows the glass, and it can withstand thermal shocks."

He pushed the alloy section in front of Lao Sun.

"Master Sun, this tough nut to crack will have to be cracked with your file."

Old Sun picked up the Kovar alloy and scratched the surface with his fingernail.

Then he went to the counter and picked out the finest assorted file.

"Give me the blueprints."

Xiao Zhao ran to the metal cabinet, locked the old ledger in the bottom layer, and took out a hardcover book with a top-secret red number.

"Jiang, from now on, I will register every piece of data according to the actual delivery standards."

Wu Hanzhang placed the teacup next to the blueprints, his gray hair glaringly bright under the incandescent light.

"Xiao Jiang, go for it!"

"If anyone in this workshop dares to slack off even a little bit on the process, I'll skin them alive."

The sounds of metal filing and the roar of vacuum pumps drowned out the daytime.

As dusk fell, the workshop lights were still fixed above everyone's heads.

Jiang Ming returned to his single dormitory and locked the wooden door.

He didn't even go to the cafeteria; he went straight to sit cross-legged on the hard bed.

Consciousness sinks.

The bronze-covered book of connections and connections unfolded deep within my mind.

He staked all three of his psychic abilities on the final piece of the puzzle: improved anti-interference stability.

He first connected with that early pioneer of vacuum tubes and radar.

"Senior, there is man-made co-frequency clutter interference at the test site in Northwest China."

"The 260 microamp transmission data meets the standard, but in a complex electromagnetic environment, minute fluctuations in the inter-electrode capacitance can cause signal distortion."

What should be the sintering temperature for mica-ceramic composite sheet pads?

The fiery pioneer's voice had a rough, metallic quality.

"Do you think mica composite sheets are made of clay?"

"Preheat at 650 degrees Celsius for two hours to drain the water of crystallization."

"Only when the composite sheet is sintered at 800 degrees Celsius can a dense insulating lattice be formed."

"If the crystal lattice remains intact, external noise cannot penetrate the inter-electrode capacitance barrier."

Jiang Ming held a pencil and wrote down the preheating temperature and time in a kraft paper notebook.

During his second psychic encounter, he sought out his fellow students in the Materials Interface Physics School.

"Senior, when using Kovar alloy for stepped cooling, will pausing at 400 degrees Celsius for heat preservation cause slight surface oxidation?"

The other person spoke so fast it sounded like they were reciting lab rules.

"The surface of Kovar alloy must be nickel-plated in advance."

"The nickel layer can block residual oxygen molecules in the 400-degree range."

"The flow rate of the hydrogen-nitrogen mixture must not be interrupted before the annealing is completed."

Jiang Ming wrote down the four characters "nickel plating".

Old Sun's fitter work now has another step.

His final psychic encounter was with that pioneering woman in precision instrument and vacuum systems engineering.

"Senior, when two tubes are sintered in the furnace at the same time, the heat distribution in the furnace cavity is more complex than when a single tube is sintered."

"Can the heat dissipation efficiency of the copper clamp hold up?"

The female pioneer snorted coldly.

"Place the two pipes diagonally across each other."

"Use the dead zones of thermal convection in the furnace cavity to compensate for temperature differences."

"This is the physical limit that your broken furnace can achieve."

The credit limit was exhausted three times.

When Jiang Ming opened his eyes, the back of his shirt was already soaked with sweat.

He reorganized the scattered key points and drew a complete second-generation process flow chart.

The next morning, Workshop No. 1 was filled with the smell of rosin and machine oil.

On the operating table, two brand-new cylindrical cathode tubes lay in a white porcelain dish.

The support ring was replaced with nickel-plated Kovar alloy, and the edges were ground down by Lao Sun until not a single burr could be found.

The interior is lined with a mica-ceramic composite sheet pre-fired at 650 degrees Celsius.

A 1.1% rare earth mud slurry is smoothed with spring steel scrapers to achieve a micron-level flatness.

Old Sun threw the cotton cloth into the waste bin and exhaled a breath of stale air.

Da Liu pushed the double-layered copper cold trap filled with liquid nitrogen to the pipeline interface and tightened the flange.

Xiao Zhao opened the top-secret numbered ledger and dipped his pen in carbon ink.

Jiang Ming took the parameter flow sheet and walked to the control cabinet. Looking at the two main tubes that were about to enter the furnace, he pulled out a pen from his shirt pocket.

The pen tip hangs at the very top of the process sheet.

He lowered his wrist and wrote four words on the rough paper.

Successful replication.