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

Jiang Ming didn't reply. He turned around and walked to the metal cabinet by the window, opened the second drawer, and took out a glass bottle wrapped in three layers of oil paper from the innermost drawer.

The bottle was small, about the thickness of a thumb, with a layer of grayish-white powder settled at the bottom.

That's all.

Jiang Ming placed the bottle in the center of the long table, the glass bottom hitting the tabletop with a soft sound.

"It weighs a little over eleven grams. If the portion that sticks to the bottle wall and can't be scraped off is removed, only about ten grams are actually usable."

Old Sun, still holding his pipe, leaned over to take a look without lighting it.

"Ten grams, based on the dosage of No. 02, how many tubes will that make?"

Xiao Zhao flipped through the ledger and drew a line under the numbers with a pencil.

"The coating of No. 02 used 3.2 grams, and with losses and waste, the actual consumption was 4.8 grams."

"Five tubes weigh 24 grams."

Old Sun calculated even faster than Little Zhao.

"The shortage is fourteen grams, not even counting the amount used for trial and error."

Wu Hanzhang took off his glasses, wiped them, and put them back on.

"Xiao Jiang, are there any other sources for this material in China?"

"No military-grade."

Jiang Ming leaned against the metal cabinet, his arms crossed in front of his chest.

"A rare earth beneficiation plant is being built in Baotou. The first batch of test materials will not be produced until the second half of next year, and the purity will not meet the requirements for cathode coating."

"What about the Soviet channels?"

"It stopped working six months ago. The last fifty grams were leftover stock in a corner of the warehouse before they left."

The workshop fell silent, with only the north wind outside the window swirling sand and tapping against the glass.

Old Sun tapped his pipe on the edge of the table.

"So there's no road there?"

Jiang Ming did not answer, but turned to look at Xiao Zhao.

"Get out the previous coating record; I need to see the details of material loss at each step."

Xiao Zhao turned to that page and read it line by line.

Liquid preparation, plating residue, edge splashing, waste rework, and cleaning residue—these five items add up to 2.2 grams.

"Only 1.6 grams of cerium oxide are actually deposited on the cathode of each tube; the rest is wasted in the process."

Jiang Ming pulled a pencil from his breast pocket and drew a horizontal line on a piece of scrap paper.

Wu Hanzhang frowned even more deeply.

"The loss rate is approaching 60%."

"This is the level of skill required for hand-applied coating."

Jiang Ming used the tip of a pencil to press against the paper and drew an arrow.

"The root cause of uneven coating lies here. If the angle of the scraper is slightly different, the edge will be two micrometers thicker and the middle will be three micrometers thinner. It is physically impossible to control the half-micrometer level of precision by hand."

Old Sun did not refute.

He knew that what Jiang Ming said was true.

"Therefore, the issues of lifespan and materials are rooted in the same thing."

Jiang Ming wrote three characters under the arrow.

Electrophoresis.

Wu Hanzhang leaned closer to take a look.

"Electrophoretic deposition?"

"Yes. We use an electric field to make charged particles adsorb evenly onto the substrate, provided that the cerium oxide is made into a suspension and the concentration cannot be too low."

Wu Hanzhang shook his head.

"Your ten grams of material isn't even enough to make the solution."

Jiang Ming put down his pencil.

"So I need more cerium oxide."

"Where did you come from?"

Jiang Ming did not answer immediately. He folded the scrap paper, stuffed it into his pocket, and walked towards the door.

"I'm going to the confidential office; we'll meet again tonight."

That night, in the dormitory.

Jiang Ming sat cross-legged on the edge of the bed, the water in the enamel cup had gone cold.

He closed his eyes and sank into the Tongtian Record.

The voices of pioneers in the field of materials interface physics quickly rang out, their speech rapid-fire.

"Hand-scraping painting? You're still using hand-scraping painting?"

Jiang Ming didn't explain, but went straight to the core question.

What is the lowest possible suspension concentration for electrophoretic deposition?

"It depends on the particle size. If the cerium oxide is submicron in size, only two to three grams of solid are needed per liter of suspension to form a uniform electric field for migration. If the particle size is larger than five micrometers, the sedimentation rate will be faster than the electrophoretic migration rate, and the deposited layer will be rotten."

"I don't have submicron-sized cerium oxide right now."

"Then you should solve the particle size problem before talking about electrophoresis."

The other party was decisive and efficient.

"Cerium oxide produced by high-temperature calcination typically has a particle size between ten and fifty micrometers. It must be ball-milled or recrystallized by chemical precipitation to be pressed down to submicrometer size."

Jiang Ming memorized this information and then asked further questions.

"If I could obtain cerium oxalate, could I directly obtain small-particle-size cerium oxide by controlling the calcination temperature to limit grain growth?"

The other person was silent for two seconds, then slowed down their speech.

"Yes. Cerium oxalate decomposes into cerium oxide between 600 and 700 degrees Celsius. If the temperature is strictly controlled below 650 degrees Celsius and the holding time is not exceeded for more than two hours, the grain size can be compressed to one to two micrometers. Once the temperature exceeds 700 degrees Celsius, the grains will grow rapidly and the crystals will be ruined."

The psychic session has ended.

Jiang Ming opened his eyes and wrote down two key numbers on the scrap paper on his knee.

650 degrees.

two hours.

At five o'clock the next morning, Jiang Ming appeared in the document storage room next to the factory's confidential office.

Inside the metal cabinet against the wall are stacks of industrial geological reports and metallurgical waste archives collected from various ministries in North China, most of which are old materials used by Soviet advisors in the early days of the factory's construction.

Jiang Ming pulled out the files one by one, specifically choosing old files with yellowed covers and curled corners, and scanned the table of contents page by page.

The seventh book, "Compilation of Chemical Analysis of Heavy Industrial Waste in North China", published in 1953.

His finger stopped when he turned to page thirty-two.

A chemical plant in the eastern suburbs of Beijing, containing a waste residue from the sulfuric acid process for titanium dioxide production, sampled in the fourth quarter of 1952.

The sixth row of the table shows a cerium oxide content of 1.7% to 2.3%, with parentheses indicating that the mixed rare earth oxides were not separated.

Jiang Ming folded a corner of this page, then turned three more pages and found the statistics on the amount of waste slag piled up.

Approximately 240 tons have been accumulated.

He quickly did some mental calculations.

Even at the lowest estimate of 1.7%, theoretically there are more than four tons of cerium oxide mixed in.

Of course, this is a mixture of rare earth elements. To extract high-purity cerium oxide separately, acid washing, precipitation, and calcination are still required.

But the difference between four tons and eleven grams was so great that he gripped the report tightly in his hand.

8:30 a.m., in Director Zhang's office.

Wu Hanzhang arrived first and stood by the window looking at the thin layer of snow on the workshop roof.

Jiang Ming pushed the door open and came in, carrying a report on chemical waste and a stack of scrap paper.

"Factory manager, Chief Engineer Wu, I have a proposal."

He turned the report to the page with the folded corner, his pencil tip pointing at the table.

"The East Suburb Chemical Plant has more than 200 tons of titanium dioxide waste residue, containing about 2% cerium group rare earth elements. If we can extract cerium oxalate from the waste residue and then calcine it at low temperature into submicron-sized cerium oxide, the material problem will be solved."

Factory Director Zhang took the report, read it once, and then returned it to him.

"I know that factory in the eastern suburbs. The waste has been piled up there for years and nobody wants it. But if you want to dig something up on their land, you need a permit."

How quickly can the paperwork be processed?

"Normal procedure, one week."

"I can't wait."

Jiang Ming's tone was unwavering.

"The Science and Technology Commission gave us three months. After deducting the time for process improvement and manufacturing, we only had a maximum of three weeks left for material preparation."

Factory Director Zhang looked at Wu Hanzhang.

Wu Hanzhang nodded.

"The direction is right. Once the source of materials can be secured, we can discuss the subsequent processes."

"Okay, I'll send an official letter to the eastern suburbs today."

Factory Director Zhang opened the drawer, took out the official seal box, and pressed his palm down without opening it.

"However, Xiao Jiang, you need to be careful about one thing. The waste residue belongs to other people. When you go to collect it, it will be done through inter-ministerial coordination, and nominally it will be for industrial waste recycling research. You can't mention military projects, you can't mention rare earth cathodes, and you absolutely can't let anyone know what you're going to extract from it."

"clear."

Just as Director Zhang was about to stamp the document, there were two knocks on the door.

Director Wang pushed open the door and came in, holding a piece of paper folded into four folds.

"Xiao Jiang, are you shipping today?"

"Let's go to the eastern suburbs this afternoon."

Director Wang didn't ask any questions and handed the paper over directly.

"With a special pass, the guards at the gate on the east side won't stop you."

Jiang Ming took it and glanced at it. It was a red stamp from the Ministry's Security Department, a higher level than Director Zhang's official letter.

"Thank you, Director Wang."

Director Wang didn't leave; he stood at the door as if he still had something to say.

Jiang Ming folded the pass and put it in his breast pocket, then looked up at him.

"Is there anything else?"

Director Wang glanced at Factory Director Zhang and Wu Hanzhang, then lowered his voice.

"Xu Chongwen has been frequently visiting ministries lately, but he's not going to the Aerodynamics Center; he's going to the Materials Allocation Department."

Jiang Ming pulled his hand back from the edge of his pocket.

"What is he investigating?"

"Rare earth quotas".

Director Wang's voice was even lower.

"He doesn't know what you're doing, but he knows that the Third Electronics Factory received a special material allocation order this year, the product being cerium oxide. He submitted materials to the ministry, saying that the high-temperature coating project at the Aerodynamics Center also requires rare earth quotas, and requested an investigation into whether the Third Electronics Factory's usage was compliant."

Factory Director Zhang's face darkened.

Wu Hanzhang closed his reading glasses, turning the temples halfway around in his palm.

Director Wang looked at Jiang Ming.

"You went to the eastern suburbs to collect waste residue this time. The procedures were for industrial waste research, which has nothing to do with the regular quota. But Xu Chongwen is keeping a close eye on you. As soon as someone sees you bringing things back from the chemical plant, the charge of 'illegally misappropriating raw materials' can be slapped on you at any time."

Jiang Ming took the pencil out of his pocket, then put it back in, his gaze falling on the gray sky outside the window.

"Then we can't let anyone see it."