The three bombings of Oak Ridge by the rocket not only plunged the US top brass into a deep military crisis, but also plunged into a heavy political crisis.

On the one hand, they were shocked by their own backwardness in military strength: Germany's ballistic rockets could raid thousands of kilometers, and cruise rockets were even more empty-loaded, with a range of more than 500 kilometers and very accurate landing points; On the other hand, there is the incompetence of the intelligence and counterintelligence system: how ironic and flawed is that more than 30 German spies entered the country from Mexico and went deep into the heart of the United States without being detected? What's worse is that the Manhattan Project is known as the most top-secret project in the United States, and it is said that there are only 20 people in the "Qingren", but even so, it is still transparent in front of Germany, and everyone shuddeers when they think of this spy lurking in the upper echelons.

When the Joint Chiefs of Staff was in session, the eyes of everyone looking at each other changed: who knew if these soldiers and other politicians with the rank of general, lieutenant general, and prominent positions were in the eyes of the Germans?

Because Dewey was hospitalized again, and Dewey did not designate the head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Originally, Dewey was willing to let Ingram take this position, but because the Atlantic and Pacific fleets had been defeated one after another, and the rebuilding of the navy required competent manpower, Ingram was finally sent out by him, and no one spoke for more than half an hour at the beginning of the meeting.

It's not that everyone doesn't have ideas, it's that everyone doesn't know how to speak in this situation, and if one is not careful, he will be treated as a spy, and the rest of his life will be over.

At the stormy moment, Dulles had to stand up and stabilize the morale of the military, and the vice president is still an ornament, but Dulles, the secretary of state, is very eye-catching, both inside and out, and can speak in front of the soldiers.

He said hoarsely: "Now, the country is facing a life-and-death situation, and I think it is imperative to do the following things well:

First, we must find a way to catch the infiltrated German spies and pry out their intelligence sources and activity systems from their mouths;

Second, assess the extent of damage to Oak Ridge as soon as possible, rescue those that can be rescued, and relocate and rebuild those that cannot be rescued as soon as possible;

Thirdly, we must unite and trust, I personally believe that none of you here are German spies, you are at the pinnacle of a politician and a soldier's career, and I don't see any special benefit in selling your life to the Germans;

Fourth, it is necessary to increase investment in advanced weapons and speed up the progress of research and development, because we are lagging behind in the field of advanced weapons to a certain extent, and if this continues, we Americans will die without a place to be buried! ”

The last sentence was particularly moving, and just as everyone was about to start a discussion, the telephone rang one after another.

The first call was from Oppenheimer, who asked to bring a team of scientists to the scene to check the damage at Oak Ridge, a request that Dulles politely refused, believing that the situation was unknown and that the experts should not go to the scene for the time being but should hide on the spot, and that the damage should be taken by the Air Force to send a reconnaissance plane to take pictures to identify it;

The second call was from Carmen, who hoped to send some technicians to search for the wreckage and fragments of the German rocket together with the rescue force in order to study the relevant details, and the request was accepted by the Joint Chiefs of Staff, saying that the trip would be possible in the afternoon;

The third call was from Hoover, who asked for special authorization to see information about these bigwigs: their phone records, letters and parcels, family members' contacts with the outside world, suspicious bank account transactions, etc.

Dulles pondered for a long time, and said in front of the people of the Joint Staff: "You start with President Dewey first, the second one can check me, and then the others wait a little longer."

Marshall and Admiral King, who were attending the meeting as observers, glanced at each other, and their political sensitivities immediately woke up to the fact that Dulles was waiting for them to take the initiative to express their position, so they hurriedly stood up and said: "The two of us have contacted the relevant situation relatively early, so let's start with us

With Marshall and Admiral King taking the lead, the bigwigs of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, whether they were willing or not, all expressed their attitude to Hoover over the phone: Check it, let it check us

Since the current ones need to be investigated, of course, the previous ones cannot be let go: former President Harman, Secretary of State Hull, Secretary of War Stimson, and President Chief of Staff Li Hai are all among them.

Only when Hoover mentioned Roosevelt's name, everyone hesitated: theoretically, Roosevelt must have investigated, but Roosevelt is now dead and it is impossible to obtain his consent, and finally Dulles gritted his teeth and made up his mind: "Investigate, I will take responsibility for any problems." ”

After this statement was completed, everyone was sweating profusely and felt that they were about to run out of breath.

At the end of the meeting, Dulles saw that Clark and Turner seemed to have something to say, but had some concerns, so he motioned for them to speak: "America is here, what else can't be said?" ”

Turner said in a hesitant voice: "In the short term, the war can no longer be fought, and fighting again is nothing more than increasing losses and aggravating the hardships of the people. ”

Clarke's words were more direct: "In view of the current situation, I propose to tilt military spending towards rockets, jet planes, and atomic bomb projects, and the reason why the Germans are holding back their efforts to bomb the Manhattan Project shows that they have realized the importance and key points of this project, and their progress should be lagging behind us, so they are desperately trying to delay and delay our time, and we cannot be fooled, let alone discouraged."

According to Clark's meaning, it is to stop some of the Navy's long-term warships, such as those that could only be put into service in 1948, stop the construction of some flashy super-heavy tanks or other weapons in the Army, and use the saved costs for the restoration and investment of the Manhattan Project and rocket engineering.

Nimitz and MacArthur were both in pain, but they also knew that the Manhattan project was not an ordinary budget, and if it was now exposed to broad daylight, it would not only trigger a backlash from the government and the opposition, but also cause trouble to the use of previous appropriations, and finally the two had to agree to reduce their armaments.

On behalf of the Navy, Nimitz cut the construction costs of 2 Montana-class, 4 Essex-class and a number of supporting warships; On behalf of the Army, MacArthur cut all the super-heavy tank production and development programs of more than 60 tons, and cut the production of a number of flashy weapons; The Air Force also stated that it would cut the production of all piston fighter models except for P51 and P47 and streamline the production system of attack aircraft and heavy bombers.

However, after making so many concessions, the army, navy, and air force demanded that they be repaid: they must find a way to retain the backbone of Hawaii, and those middle-level and above officers, pilots, and technical officers must be redeemed as much as possible, and the number may be counted in 10,000 units.

Dewey was not there, and the soldiers waited for Dulles to make a decision, and finally he gritted his teeth and made up his mind: "Regarding peace, I will find a way to conduct another round of contact; With regard to the internal adjustment of military spending and the redemption of personnel, the government fully supports it. ”

But he ended up with a tail: "I won't finalize it until I'm going to report to the president tomorrow." ”

In the middle of the night, the meeting ended in a gloomy fog.

After dawn, the Air Force quickly dispatched planes to reconnoiter Oak Ridge, but to the pilot's disbelief, the Oak Ridge he was familiar with in the past had completely changed, and there were broken walls everywhere, and the violent explosion not only blew up the factory facilities, but also partially hit the mountain ridge and caused a landslide and buried many parts, giving him the feeling that there had been a violent directional earthquake in Oak Ridge, although he knew that there was not.

"According to the results shown in the photos, there is basically no room for rescue and rescue in Oak Ridge." MacArthur sighed and said word by word, "Even if it can be saved, it will not be able to save the scholars who have just come to a terrible conclusion that the Oak Ridge area is no longer suitable for human life in the short term." ”

"Why?"

"Terrible atomic radiation!" Someone sighed and said, "Scholars believe that it will cause fatal harm to the human body. ”

What they don't know is that the hazard has already been formed, although the expert group led by Oppenheimer and Fermi has reminded the rescue team in a very solemn tone that they must be replaced every three hours, and no one should be exposed to radiation for more than five hours.

But since last night, the firefighters and officers and soldiers have been desperate to fight for most of the night, and after a short rest of a few hours, they feel that there is nothing wrong with their health, so they forget the expert opinion, and when the ban is issued again, thousands of people have been exposed for more than 6 hours, and the largest group even exceeded 8 hours.

In fact, at that time, the understanding of the power of atomic radiation was not very clear, and the general attitude of experts was that although atomic radiation was strong, as long as the exposure time was not long, it would not cause significant harm, but one thing was clear, and there must be problems with long-term exposure, and they must wear protective clothing, and they must not even be able to make a single piece of lead protective clothing for scientific researchers, let alone issue it to ordinary officers and soldiers.

And a terrible phenomenon was detected: the sites and containers where the finished nuclear elements were stored had been destroyed in the explosion, and a steady stream of material was leaking out, even if the equipment in Oak Ridge could still be used off-site, and the radioactive particles and dust on it could cause serious trouble.

By March 30th, regardless of what everyone thought, the Manhattan Project had come to a painful conclusion: the core area of Oak Ridge and the control zone must be completely cordoned off, and the warning zone must also be strictly controlled, and this place has become a complete dead land!

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