A nation's industrial development begins with junior engineers.

Jiang Xia waved goodbye to Director Liu, whom she had gotten along with, with a bitter face.

He plunged headlong into the small office filled with blueprints. He took out a bag of sugar, intending to endure three days of weakness to scan and work through all the blueprints.

Just as I was about to make a move, a sudden idea flashed into my mind.

He picked up the list again and began to study it carefully.

"Iron slag? Slag~~~, I think there's a rumor about slag, but I can't remember what it is?"

"Slag! ~Baotou?"

Jiang Xia's eyes lit up. "Brother Liu! Brother Liu! Where are you?"

On the third floor, in the hallway, Director Liu poked his head out and waved to Jiang Xia.

"Brother, were those spies you caught in Baotou the ones you encountered north of Yinshan?"

Director Liu shook his head, gesturing for Jiang Xia to come down so they could talk later.

Jiang Xia ran downstairs excitedly, only to find that the doorplate of Director Liu's office was actually the Equipment Department.

"Hey bro, did you catch him over there?"

Director Liu touched his bag; the Taihang Mountain cigarette pack was now empty, so he reluctantly tossed it aside.

While rummaging through the drawer, he casually replied:

"No, they were caught in the city, but later, based on the package they discarded, which contained a map, they should have been to Baiyun Baogeda."

"Why are you suddenly asking about this? Just thinking about that place makes me want to smoke!"

Jiang Xia squeezed his bag; the pack of Zhonghua cigarettes was empty. He could only shrug at Director Liu.

"Oh right, there seems to be a steel plant over there too, is it also among the 156 items?"

Director Liu shook his head. "I'm not quite sure. I've been spending a lot of time in Bingzhou lately. But I think there probably is. About two years ago, the ministry took on a project there."

"What does this have to do with the minister asking you to look at the blueprints? Be careful, you might really miss out on lunch!"

Jiang Xia got excited: "Hey, this is really important! Once I figure this out, I won't have to dig through piles of blueprints anymore, and I can guess pretty much what Xiaoben is thinking!"

Do you have any friends in the Ministry of Metallurgy? Could you ask them for me?

Director Liu scratched his head: "Hey, you rascal. Isn't the steel rolling mill under the Ministry of Metallurgy? Why are you asking me for contact information?"

"Their Red Star Steel Rolling Mill is a bit special; it's been transferred to the direct jurisdiction of the First Ministry of Machine Building recently. Not only them, but it seems that all the steel mills in Beijing have also been transferred there."

“You’ve been at the Bingzhou Chemical Plant the whole time, so it’s normal that you didn’t know.”

Minister Hu walked in, tossing a bag of Taihang Mountain snacks to Director Liu.

"Tell me, little guy. What did you find out? There really is a large steel plant over there, and it went into production last year. The Ministry of Metallurgy even held a celebration party."

With the main character here, Jiang Xia didn't bother with any more beating around the bush.

"Tantalum-niobium ore! No, it should be said that the slag left over from steelmaking in that steel plant contains a high amount of tantalum-niobium."

"Currently, tantalum-niobium ore with a content of 30% should cost several hundred US dollars on the international market."

"Hiss~~~~~" Minister Hu and Director Liu gasped.

The two exchanged a glance.

Minister Hu frowned: "That doesn't make sense either. The little book doesn't seem to specify any particular location for slag, does it?"

Jiang Xia shook his head and said, "There's only so much slag in the entire city of Beijing. Even if we sold it all, it would only be a matter of a few sets of chemical equipment for the small business."

"Once the city of Beijing is sold out, won't it be other places' turn?"

"Anyway, the notebook is a sure thing. Besides, this kind of rare element isn't something you see everywhere. It's not impossible for its price to increase a hundredfold after extraction!"

Director Liu clapped his hands in amazement: "No wonder you asked me if I caught him over there. Little Notebook had his eye on the mines over there for a while now!"

"It must have been the slick-haired guy who ran away back then who went back to report!"

Minister Hu nodded, and couldn't help but pinch Jiang Xia's ahoge (cowlick) with his hand.

"What concrete evidence is there? Simple deductions can't wake someone who's lost in a beautiful dream!"

Jiang Xia nodded, "Of course there are."

It's worth noting that the treasure of Baiyun Baogeda wasn't first discovered by the little notebook.

Strictly speaking, the Chinese discovered the rare earth deposits in Baiyun Baogeda earlier than the Japanese.

As early as 1927, Chinese geologists conducted a detailed analysis of the minerals in that area and discovered two rare earth minerals, monazite and bastnaesite, and published their findings in a magazine.

Unfortunately, at that time, China was in the midst of warlord conflicts and Japanese invasions. This discovery, which was enough to shock the world, was lost in the torrent of history.

Of course, no information can be hidden from those who are interested.

The claim that Director Liu regretted sending a Japanese soldier back to report is actually incorrect. The expedition team sent by the Japanese was merely verifying the information.

The small notebook-based inspection team that Director Liu caught was just one of twenty teams.

In fact, before the end of the War of Resistance against Japan, the Japanese had organized the puppet North China Development Company and the South Manchuria Railway Company to conduct more than 20 surveys of this area.

They not only thoroughly understood the distribution data of mineral resources, but also developed specific plans for their development.

This includes how to build railways, find water sources, and so on.

Such meticulous planning is truly terrifying upon closer examination!

Of course, Jiang Xia would never say any of these things.

Therefore, another important witness was brought out by Jiang Xia.

"Professor Ye, a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences!"

"I attended one of his lectures when I was in school. One of the lectures mentioned the treasure of Baiyun Bogda. You can ask him for confirmation!"

"Okay!" Minister Hu rubbed Jiangxia's head for a while, then turned and left.

"Xiao Liu, treat this brat to a good meal, lest his master comes to scold us for being impolite!"

"Yes, sir!" Director Liu stood at attention.

After Minister Hu left, Jiang Xia nudged Director Liu: "Hey bro, let's get something good to eat. Shall we go get some roast duck?"

Director Liu made a decisive decision: "Let's go!"

"Hehe, you're so generous! I've always heard people say that roast duck is delicious, but I've never had it before!"

"That can't be right! But I heard you're the youngest engineer in the First Ministry of Machine Building, and you haven't even tried roast duck yet?"

"Hmm, that seems pretty expensive. A single meal like that costs the equivalent of several kilograms of flour!"

"Tsk, you little rascal! Not bad!"

"By the way, where's my master? Can I take him with me? Isn't he here? I haven't seen him at all!"

At this point, Director Liu was speechless.

After hesitating for a while, he finally gritted his teeth and said, "Your master has a fever and has fainted!"

"what?"

"Don't worry, don't worry. Your older sister took him to the hospital!"

"Miss?"

"It's your teacher's wife, but I don't know which hospital they went to."

Jiang Xia grinned, wondering if the burn had caused an infection.

Oh dear, the old man is in for a lot of trouble now.

Forget about eating roast duck, finding the master chef is the priority!

Jiang Xia turned and ran towards the main gate.

"Brother Wang! Brother Wang! Do you know which hospital Master went to?"

Jiang Xia wasn't entirely clear about Wang Kui's abilities, but he had never let him down. If anything happened, just ask him; you can't go wrong!

Wang Kui was talking to someone at the entrance of the Ministry of Chemical Industry when he saw Jiang Xia running over and waved to that person.

He turned around and met Jiang Xia, whose face was full of anxiety.