152: Chapter 152 Planning on the Eve of the Mission! Bypassing the Old Man and Directly Making a Move

6:00 PM.

Third-floor cockpit.

Lu Chen sat before the console, scrolling through a list sent by Zhou Yuan.

The header read: Equipment Details for the iron wall Diplomatic Mission.

He scanned it line by line.

Personnel: Zhou Yuan, Signalman A Zhang Lei, Signalman B He Ping.

Vehicle: iron wall, Lv.3 downgraded transport vehicle, engine in good condition, tread wear at 12%.

Fuel: Main tank full, auxiliary tank to be filled tomorrow morning, eight spare fuel drums totaling 1,600 liters.

Weapons: One remaining 105mm main gun on the iron wall, barrel intact, twelve rounds of ammunition. One vehicle-mounted Heavy Machine Gun, two hundred rounds of ammunition. Three personal sidearms.

Communication Equipment: iron wall communication tower, effective range 300 to 500 kilometers. Two spare handheld communicators.

Supplies: 300 nutrition bars, enough for three people for five days. 40 liters of drinking water. One basic medical kit.

Special Items: Mature wheat ear samples of Fast-growing Wheat, to be collected from the greenhouse before departure.

Lu Chen's finger paused at the last line.

The communicator rang.

“Zhou Yuan.”

“City Lord.”

“How do you plan to package the wheat ear samples?”

“There are thermal sealing bags in the greenhouse. I've already coordinated with Lin Wan; we'll pick and pack them on the morning of departure to maintain the vitality and moisture of the grains.”

“How many stalks are you taking?”

“Three. One for display, one for them to test, and one as a backup.”

“What if they demand a planting verification?”

“We won't give it to them,” Zhou Yuan said quickly. “A planting verification is equivalent to giving them the seeds, and the seeds are the technology itself. I will only show the finished product, letting them know it exists, but they won't be able to get their hands on it.”

“What if they forcibly detain the samples?”

“Detaining a single wheat ear is meaningless. Without the cooperation of the gene modification module, offspring grown from ordinary sowing will rapidly degenerate.”

“Are you sure?”

“Lin Wan has confirmed it.” Zhou Yuan paused for half a beat. “The genetic stability of fast-growing crops relies on continuous input from the system module. Once removed from the module, the second generation will degenerate by more than sixty percent.”

“Good.”

“There is one more thing,” Zhou Yuan lowered his voice.

“After I leave, daily affairs of the Staff Department will be handed over to Chen Li, but there is one thing Chen Li cannot handle.”

“What is it?”

“Signal monitoring of the Iron Hoof Legion.”

Lu Chen leaned back into his chair, his eyes scanning the dark red signal log in the bottom right corner of the console.

“You mean?”

“Regarding that 0.3-second encrypted signal from last night, I had the technicians archive the waveform and lock the frequency band. If the Iron Hoof Legion sends a similar signal again, the receiver will automatically flag it.”

“But waveform analysis requires human judgment.”

“Correct. Chen Li's communication technicians can only operate the equipment; they don't know how to interpret waveforms. If we receive another signal from the Iron Hoof Legion after I leave, someone needs to be able to judge the nature of the signal's content.”

“What do you suggest?”

“Forward the waveform data in real-time to the Polaris console for you to judge directly.”

“I'm not a communications expert.”

“You don't need to be a communications expert,” Zhou Yuan's tone became direct. “You only need to look at three indicators.”

“Whether the pulse width is constant at 0.04 milliseconds; this represents military-grade equipment.”

“Whether the signal duration exceeds one second; exceeding one second means the amount of information being transmitted has increased, which would be detailed instructions, not a simple time calibration.”

“Whether the signal direction is still fifteen degrees north-northwest; if the direction shifts, it means the transmission source has moved.”

“Three indicators.”

“Yes. I'll write the interpretation standards on a piece of paper and give it to you before I leave.”

“Alright.”

“City Lord.”

“What?”

“I'm seventy percent confident about getting entry qualifications for negotiations with the Dawn Legion, but only thirty percent confident about obtaining the blueprints.”

“Why?”

“Evening Bell is too conservative. His mindset is risk-averse; his first reaction to unknown technology is to be on guard.”

“Then what do you plan to do?”

“Bypass Evening Bell.”

Lu Chen's fingers paused on the armrest.

“The Dawn Legion's Chief of Weapons, Forge, has a divergence in path from Evening Bell. Forge advocates for taking the initiative, and his attitude toward the Iron Hoof Legion is much more radical than Evening Bell's.” Zhou Yuan's voice, leaning forward, came through the communicator. “If I can win Forge's support in the council, the success rate of the blueprint trade will rise to over fifty percent.”

“How will you contact Forge?”

“By showing the wheat ear samples,” Zhou Yuan answered quickly. “The Dawn Legion is a research-oriented power; their Chief of Weapons' sensitivity to new technology far exceeds Evening Bell's. A stalk of wheat that matures in seven days placed before him... he won't remain indifferent.”

“What if Forge wants the technology but Evening Bell refuses to trade?”

“Then I'll let them argue amongst themselves.”

His speaking speed didn't change, but every word was laced with calculation.

“My goal is to create a rift within the council. As long as a portion of the people support cooperation, Evening Bell won't be able to veto it unilaterally.”

“Zhou Yuan.”

“Yes.”

“Have you told Lin Xiao about these ideas?”

“I told him half. I didn't mention the part about bypassing Evening Bell. City Lord Lin Xiao's diplomatic style leans toward direct, head-on negotiations; he might not agree with this flank-penetration approach.”

“But you think it's necessary.”

“It is necessary.”

The only sound left in the cockpit was the faint hum of the console's current.

“Go then,” Lu Chen said.

“Alright.”

“Come to the cockpit before you leave. I want to test Chen Li's communication frequency.”

“I'll come up tomorrow afternoon.”

“Also.”

“Yes, City Lord.”

“Take four hundred nutrition bars, not three hundred.”

“Three people won't be able to eat four hundred bars.”

“The extra hundred will be emergency reserves for the road. If the edge of the Ash Rift Valley is blocked and you need to take a detour, an extra day's worth of rations could save your lives.”

Zhou Yuan was silent on the other end for a second.

“Understood.”

The communicator hung up.

Lu Chen closed the list.

The time on the panel showed 6:27 PM.

He picked up an iron pen and wrote a line in his logbook.

Zhou Yuan's mission list confirmed, nutrition bars increased to four hundred, wheat ear samples to be collected on departure day.

He closed the logbook and put it back in the drawer.

The sky outside the window had completely darkened.

Nothing could be seen on the wasteland.

Only at the edge of the 200-meter radius snow-free zone did the heat from the dispersal generator cause a thin layer of white mist to steam off the ice.

In the darkness to the north, the direction the signal had come from, there was nothing.

But Lu Chen knew that no signal was even more unsettling than having one.