Chapter 268: The Rival Nation Plans Underhanded Moves

Throughout the workshop, dozens of technicians and workers were busily and tensely at work.

Many of them had initially held a skeptical attitude toward Li Mingyuan's design, but as the work deepened, that skepticism gradually transformed into amazement and admiration.

"Lao Wang, is the stepper motor on your end installed?" Li Mingyuan shouted toward the mechanical group.

"Almost there, almost there, just the final precision calibration left!" Lao Wang wiped the sweat from his face. "Engineer Li, the precision requirements for this motor are too high. I've been doing mechanical work for thirty years, and this is the first time I've seen such delicate work!"

Li Mingyuan smiled slightly, "This is nothing yet; once the lithography machine is truly working, the precision requirements will be even higher."

At the same time, in another workshop of the factory, the silicon manufacturing machine project team was also busily engaged in final debugging.

"Temperature controlled at 1410 degrees Celsius, there cannot be a fluctuation of more than 2 degrees!" The instructions Li Mingyuan left the day before were repeatedly confirmed.

The difficulty of the silicon manufacturing machine was no less than that of the lithography machine.

To extract single-crystal silicon with a purity reaching 99.9999999% (9 nines) from raw materials required extremely precise temperature control and environmental control systems.

"Engineer Li, are you sure this level of purity is necessary?" the Group Leader of the materials team had once asked. "In our country, even materials with 5 nines of purity are rarely seen."

"It must reach 9 nines," Li Mingyuan had replied decisively at the time.

"Integrated circuits have extremely harsh requirements for material purity; for every order of magnitude that impurity content increases, circuit performance will drop by an order of magnitude."

……

The capital of Di Guo, National Security Committee special conference room.

The curtains were drawn tight, and a sign reading "Top Secret Meeting in Progress" hung on the heavy oak door.

In the center of the room, twelve men in suits and leather shoes sat around an oval conference table, each with a red folder in front of them, the cover stamped with the words "Top Secret."

National Security Advisor Jackson of the Presidential Palace stood before the projection screen, his expression grave.

The screen was playing photos of Long Country's recent industrial activities—busy factories, endless streams of trains, and scenes of construction in full swing.

"Gentlemen," Jackson pointed at the screen with a laser pointer, "these photos come from our intelligence network in Long Country, taken within the past three weeks."

He switched to the next photo, showing a massive steel plant, chimneys lined up like a forest, and molten steel being poured into molds.

"Take note of this factory," he said in a low voice.

"According to our analysis, this is a newly built special steel plant in Long Country that employs some kind of advanced smelting technology. What is even more unsettling is their production capacity—"

He paused for a moment to ensure everyone was listening carefully.

"It is estimated that the steel output of this single factory alone reaches the sum of three of our similar factories, yet the cost is only half of ours."

A low murmur of discussion broke out in the conference room.

Secretary of Defense Grayson frowned and asked, "How is this possible? Three months ago we were still discussing how to cut off their supply of steel raw materials, and now they have achieved an explosion in production capacity instead?"

"Not only that," Jackson continued, his voice even more serious.

"Intelligence we intercepted shows that Long Country has already signed a large number of contracts with Beijixiong Guo, several southern countries, and even some countries traditionally close to us. They are using low-priced weapons to exchange for strategic resources, including oil, rare metals, and rubber."

Secretary of State Thompson suddenly slapped the table and stood up.

"Who authorized them to do this? Is this not a blatant challenge to our regional order?"

"I am afraid no one can 'authorize' or 'prohibit' the trade activities of a sovereign state," Intelligence Director Coleman pointed out calmly.

"Our 'Resource Encirclement' strategy has been cleverly circumvented."

Williams, a special assistant to the President, pondered for a moment and asked, "This sudden technological progress... could it be support from Beijixiong Guo?"

Jackson shook his head, "We initially suspected the same, but investigations show that these technologies appear to have been developed by Long Country itself. Beijixiong Guo engineers have even gone to visit and learn, rather than the other way around."

He switched to the next photo, which showed a group of Long Country engineers working around a strange device.

"What is even more worrying is this," Jackson's voice was so low it was almost inaudible.

"The footage captured by our intelligence personnel shows that Long Country is developing some kind of cutting-edge equipment; preliminary judgment suggests it may be related to semiconductor technology."

"Semiconductors?" Professor Hawkins, the Science Advisor to the Department of Defense, changed from his usual composure and stood up abruptly.

"That is impossible! Long Country doesn't even have a decent electronic industrial foundation; how could they leap to the semiconductor stage?"

"That is exactly what we need to figure out," Jackson said seriously. "If Long Country truly makes a breakthrough in this field, it will pose a fundamental threat to our technological advantage."

The conference room fell into a silence, with everyone digesting the impact of this possibility.

General Roberts, the Military Advisor to the President, cleared his throat, "Is it possible... they obtained our classified technology?"

"We are conducting a comprehensive investigation," Intelligence Director Coleman replied, "but preliminary investigations show that these technological paths differ significantly from ours and appear to have been developed independently."

"Developed independently?" Secretary of the Treasury Stewart scoffed.

"Three months ago they were still using our World War II-era technology, and now they have suddenly mastered cutting-edge metallurgy and semiconductors? Who believes that?"

Jackson looked at everyone present seriously, "Regardless, the facts are before us. Long Country is developing industrial technology at an unprecedented speed."

"That is absolutely unacceptable," Martins, the deputy to the President, said firmly. "We must take action, immediately."

"What action?" the Secretary of State asked back. "We just signed an armistice agreement; we cannot openly violate it. Besides, what they are doing is legitimate trade; what reason do we have to interfere?"

"Who said anything about acting openly?" Martins sneered. "Some things have always been done under the table."

Jackson nodded, "That is exactly what I mean. Gentlemen, I have gathered you here today to discuss a series of... unconventional means to contain Long Country's technological breakthroughs and economic expansion."

He displayed a detailed plan titled "Long Country Technology Development Containment Scheme," with several operation codenames listed below:

"Magician Operation"—infiltrate and sabotage Long Country's key industrial facilities

"Mist Project"—drive up the prices of raw materials urgently needed by Long Country in the international market

"Falcon Plan"—locate and neutralize Long Country's key technical personnel

"White Chess Game"—use White Elephant Country to constrain Long Country's southern transport lines

"First, regarding the 'Magician Operation'," Jackson began to explain in detail.