771 World Revolution and the first nuclear crisis in the history of the five world empires

A.D. 1938 in early April. Wuhan, the capital of the Republic of China.

A black sedan sped through the streets of Hankou and drove straight to the gate of the border guard office in Wuhan. This is an open office of the Chinese government in Wuhan, which has been persisting in the anti-war struggle in the heart of the enemy for all these years, and has naturally become a thorn in the side of the Kuomintang secret service. As soon as the car stopped, several of the Chinese special officers who were on guard at the door vigilantly surrounded the car, and the door of the car opened, and out of it came a handsome young man, and a foreigner who was also a dignified appearance. Several members of the special science team recognized this young man, and he was Comrade Huang Jing, deputy secretary of the Wuhan Municipal Party Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, and his current public identity was the deputy director of the Wuhan Office of the Chinese Border Guards. And the foreigner next to him was very angry. Not only did the comrades of the special branch not know him, but even the Kuomintang agents who were ambushed outside and monitored the border guard office did not know who he was?

The iron door of the compound was pushed open with a creak, and a middle-aged man in a neat military uniform came out, still holding the rank of major general, who seemed to know that Comrade Huang Jing was going to bring someone here, and respectfully made a gesture of invitation to the foreigner. Then he took the lead and led Huang Jing and the foreign comrade in.

Walking through the courtyard, in the spacious living room, there were already people waiting there. A middle-aged man with a small height, delicate eyebrows, and an elegant appearance sat in the sofa, and two tall and sturdy men stood coldly behind him, looking at the foreigner behind Huang Jing with cautious eyes.

"Comrade Han Nian, this is the Soviet scientist Igor who used to work in the U Engineering Committee of the Ministry of Armaments of the Nationalist Government. Vasilyevich. Comrade Kurchatov. Huang Jing raised his hand and pointed at the foreigner, and said: "Comrade Kurchatov was sent by the NKVD of the Soviet Union to join the Kuomintang U Engineering Committee, and he has just recently broken away from the tiger's mouth. Now you want us to arrange for him to return to Moscow, he has an important situation to report to Comrade Stalin! ”

"What!" Pan Hannian was stunned when he heard this, and stood up suddenly, and he looked at the Soviet scientist in his thirties. Leaned over to Huang Jing's side and said in a low voice: "Did he steal some secrets from the U Engineering Committee!" We must not offend the Kuomintang too much now, lest we undermine the situation of cooperation between the two parties! In case of a fight......"

Although his voice was soft and in Chinese, it was clearly heard by Kurchatov. The Soviet scientist smiled bitterly and spoke fluent Chinese. "To tell the truth, my work in the U Engineering Committee does not involve core secrets, and my departure from the U Engineering Committee is not a 'departure from the tiger's mouth', but a normal resignation. After Professor Meitner's discovery of the nuclear fission phenomenon, there were many foreign scientists who left their jobs normally, and the Kuomintang did not stop them. It's just that the Soviet Union is now blockaded by Belarus, and there is no way to return to the Soviet Union, so I need your help. ”

Pan Hannian's face turned slightly red, he raised his hand and pointed to the sofa opposite, and said with a smile: "Comrade Kurchatov, please take a seat." Take your time. He paused, and then asked: "Speaking of which, you don't have anything important to report to Comrade Stalin, do you?" ”

"There are important circumstances." Kurchatov did not sit down, but paced anxiously in the room, hesitated, and then sighed softly and said: "The situation is very important, but after the announcement of the phenomenon of nuclear fission, it is not a secret!" Any physicist with a deep theoretical background can come up with roughly the same result through a large number of calculations. ”

"Can you tell us the answer?" Pan Hannian obviously didn't think he had the talent to be a physicist, so he simply asked about the final calculations.

"Yes, according to my calculations...... With 20 kg of uranium-235 with an abundance of 90%, you can create a super bomb that is enough to destroy the whole of Hankow! Or about 1 kilogram of uranium-235 with an abundance of 90% can produce the power equivalent of an explosion of 1,600 tons of TNT explosives! 20 kilograms is the explosive yield of 32,000 tons of TNT explosives, and there is no problem in destroying Hankow or Moscow! Speaking of this, Kurchatov stomped his feet and said loudly: "The final result of this world war may be to see who can have this kind of bomb first!" If the fascists had had possessed it first, the cause of human liberation would have been finished! ”

"It's ...... So much power!? Pan Hannian was stunned when he heard this, and raised his eyes to look at Huang Jing, he graduated from the Department of Mathematics of the Sino-German Institute of Technology, so he should know a little bit, right?

Huang Jing nodded and said, "Comrade Kurchatov's calculations should not be wrong, this situation is no secret in the current physics community...... Although there are some discrepancies in the results of the calculations, the final conclusions are all drawn that the Kuomintang U Engineering Committee is making a powerful weapon! This weapon is powerful enough to destroy a city of millions of people! "We must immediately inform the Central Committee of this situation, and we must also send this Comrade Kurchatov to a safe place." ”

……

At the same time as signing unequal treaties with China and Germany, Stalin also signed a treaty with Japan to cede the Far East south of the Amur River and the North Island of Sakhalin. Therefore, Japan is now also the victor in this war! Tokyo citizens paraded through the streets waving sun flags and chanting slogans such as Kiminyo and Long live the Emperor. Of course, there were also Japanese troops who returned triumphantly carrying rifles with bayonets and holding military parades, and the whole scene was similar to that in Wuhan. It's as if the invincible Japanese Empire is back!

In the prime minister's residence in Kasumigaseki, Tokyo, Nagata Tetsuyama, head of the Army General Staff Headquarters, who had just been promoted to general, and a group of high-ranking Japanese army generals were accompanying Prime Minister Ugaki Kazunari there to watch the mighty procession from a distance. However, their mood at the moment is a little heavy. Because the Soviets signed a treaty to cede land, but the Russian army occupying Vladivostok did not admit it! They refused to give the first fortress in the Far East to the Japanese. To add to the frustration of the Japanese, Chinese themselves had signed a similar treaty with the Soviet Union, but supported the continued occupation of the Vladivostok fortress by the Russian Imperial Government...... At the same time, in the northern part of the Far Eastern Primorsky Zone, which was theoretically to be ceded to Japan, a Far Eastern Socialist Republic ruled by the Central Communists jumped out of nowhere! They also refused to recognize the "Japan-Soviet Peace Treaty" signed between the Soviet government and Japan, and refused to withdraw from the land that Japan deserved.

"Gentlemen, do you just let the people of China ride on the neck of the empire and!" Sadao Araki, the boss of the Imperial Road faction, was the first to make a big noise, breaking the suffocating silence. His well-trimmed French beard was trembling slightly, and it was obvious that he was very annoyed.

"Absolutely intolerable! The territory of the Far East was exchanged by the imperial army for a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood! Why did the people of China continue to occupy Vladivostok, and why did they also own the lands on the south bank of the Boli and Amur rivers! The man who echoed Sadao Araki was Lieutenant General Hideki Tojo, a cadre of the Unification faction, who participated in this dispatch as the commander of the 11th Brigade, and was promoted to lieutenant general after returning to the DPRK and served as the director of the Second Department of the Army General Staff.

"Do you have any good advice from Araki-kun and Tojo-kun?" Kazunari Ugaki said softly, his fingers tapping lightly on the windowsill of his office, but the expression on his face was extremely solemn.

"Protest! We would like to lodge the strongest protest to the National Government of China! Admiral Sadao Araki gritted his teeth and finally came up with the only feasible solution.

"Is there just a protest?" Nagata Tetsuyama said coldly, and he glanced sideways at Tojo, who echoed Araki, "What about Tojo-kun?" What's your idea? ”

"We should unite Britain and France against China! During this period, China's contradictions with Britain and France were deepening because of the Siam Incident. They had already hinted to the Reich more than once of their intention to form an alliance, and if the Reich were to form an alliance with Britain and France, it would be ......"

"Eight grids!" Nagata Tetsuyama didn't wait for Tojo to finish his sentence before interjecting, "Haven't you studied how the Germans defeated the Soviet Union?" The 4 million troops of the Soviet Red Army were completely crushed by them in less than a month! In this war, the Germans not only had an overwhelming qualitative and quantitative superiority in tanks and aircraft, but also the coordination between their various arms was almost perfect, and I am sure that once Britain and France went to war with Germany, Germany would surely win! When we go on the ship of Britain and France, don't we follow the funeral? ”

"No, Nagata-kun! The navies of the Germans and the Chinese were not as strong as those of the Reich and the British and French, and their land forces could not cross the sea without naval transport. And Britain and the Empire can use their navy to block their coastline and trap them on the mainland! Hideki Tojo argued forcefully.

"The key to naval warfare is the plane! The air forces of Germany and China were so strong that the Reich simply could not compete with them. Nagata Tetsuyama turned his head and asked Major General Takeo Yasuda of the Army Aviation Aviation Technology Research Institute, "Yasuda-kun, you are engaged in aviation technology, and it is up to you to say how big the gap is between the empire and China in aviation technology, and how much time will it take to catch up!" ”

"Ahh Yasuda Takeo didn't know what was going on, but today it seemed that the fugue was too empty, and he was named by Nagata, and a sentence popped out of his mouth. "Professor Yoshio Nishina has returned from China!"

"What? Who is Yoshio Nishina? Yasuda, what's going on with you today? Nagata Tetsuyama looked at this aviation technical expert with an annoyed expression, and just wanted to reprimand. Yasuda Takeo continued, "Yoshio Nishina is a physicist, he was sent to Shina by the military a few years ago to participate in a research project of their U Engineering Committee, he just returned to Japan last month, and he already met him yesterday. He brought back some pretty amazing news! ”

"Amazing? How amazing is it? Kazunari Ugaki asked.

"It's about a kind of uranium bomb."

"Uranium? Uh, this thing really made a bomb! Nagata Tetsuyama had a look of sudden realization, and he said, "This bomb must be much more powerful than ordinary bombs, right?" ”

"It's a lot more powerful." Takeo Yasuda smiled bitterly: "According to Yoshio Nishina's calculations, about 10 kilograms of high-purity uranium-235, if a nuclear fission reaction occurs, can produce an explosion equivalent to about 10,000 tons of TNT explosives, which is enough to flatten the center of Tokyo to the ground!" It's no problem to kill hundreds of thousands of people......"

"Nani !!" After a burst of exclamations and gasps, Nagata Tetsuyama pointed at Yasuda with his finger, his eyes widened, his mouth open, and he couldn't say a word for a long time.

There was a sound of gasping in the room, and after a while, Nagata Tetsuyama asked in a trembling voice, "Have the people of China already made this kind of bomb?" ”

Professor Yoshio Nishina does not know this problem, but it is theoretically possible to make such a bomb, and the biggest technical difficulty, Professor Nishina believes that it is the isotope of separating uranium - uranium-235, and as far as he knows, the Chinese have made great achievements in this regard, they have a huge isotope separation plant! Professor Nishina estimates that the plant will be able to produce at least 100 kilograms of uranium-235 with an abundance of more than 90% per year, which means that it can produce a uranium bomb with an explosive yield of 100,000 tons of TNT explosives! Enough to destroy the whole of Tokyo. ”

"That's nothing! If this kind of bomb can be made even by the people of China, then there is no reason why the empire can't make it, right? The Uranium Ore Empire also has a lot of reserves, and it should be able to build a few of these bombs! Ugaki Kazunari looked at Yasuda with a solemn face, "The people of Shina have a U engineering committee, and we will also set up a uranium committee, and you Yasuda Takeo will be fully responsible for making uranium bombs within 6 months, can you do it?" ”

6 months? Yasuda Takeo shook his head with a wry smile, and just wanted to say that it was impossible, but Hideki Tojo rushed ahead of him and said: "The empire can cooperate with Britain and France to develop uranium bombs!" If Britain, France, and Ken cooperate with the Empire, it should be possible to make such a bomb in 6 months to 1 year, and then we will not have to be afraid of Zhina! ”

"But what if Britain and France don't agree to cooperate with us?" Yasuda Takeo's eyebrows furrowed tightly, after Professor Meitner announced her findings, any equipment that could be used to isotope separation became an absolute ban on exports by various countries! Unless they are extremely close allies, it is impossible to share this secret weapon.

"Then we will make an alliance with China! In any case, it's better to be on the side of the winner than on the side of the loser! Nagata Tetsuyama gritted his teeth and shouted.

……

Kurchatov's journey to Moscow went much smoother than expected, perhaps because of the negligence of the Kuomintang agents, or perhaps because the Kuomintang simply didn't care about letting Stalin know about the existence of such a terrible weapon as the atomic bomb - what if he knew? The atomic bomb is not something that a few Frankenstein people can drumble up in a laboratory, and the creation of an atomic bomb is a huge system engineering! Especially after the phenomenon of nuclear fission has become known to outsiders, the Soviet Union has no way to get the relevant technology and equipment before it is destroyed. But Stalin didn't know this yet, so on the day Kurchatov arrived in Moscow, he was sent into the towering Kremlin in a black Volga car. Stalin's secretary Poskorebeshev personally waited at the door of a scaffolded palace and, when he saw Kurchatov get out of the car, led him into the hall.

The palace looks like it was bombed by the Germans in the previous war! The whole of Moscow is littered with ruins or half-collapsed buildings. Naturally, such a conspicuous target as the Kremlin has not been bombed! However, the interior of the palace still maintains a rather ornate decoration, I wonder if it has just been restored? Kurchatov was led straight to the second floor of the palace, and outside an office in the corner of the second floor, Poskorebeshev pushed the door open without knocking, and then made a gesture of please.

In his office, Kurchatov met with Stalin. Although he had never seen a real person, he had only seen the great leader in elaborately retouched photographs or greatly embellished portraits. But when he saw this short, thin little old man with a pockmarked face and a gray mustache, he knew that he was Stalin. Because, that person has a self-prideful temperament that can only be cultivated by living in people for a long time!

"You're Igor. Vasilyevich. Kurchatov, right? Please sit down, sit down and talk. Stalin's voice was a little hoarse and he looked very tired, and he looked up at the somewhat reserved Kurchatov and smiled a little ugly. I have already heard from the experts of the Lenin Academy of Sciences about the uranium bomb, who believe that it is theoretically feasible, but it will take a long time and unimaginable money to turn it into reality. Do you think the Chinese have so much time and money? ”

"They have!" Kurchatov took a deep breath and replied loudly: "Comrade Stalin, the Chinese started very early in this regard!" They started the construction of isotope separation plants even before the phenomenon of nuclear fission became public! This is the most difficult part of making such a bomb, and it is also the link with the largest investment. ”

"Isotope separation plant? What's that? ”

"Comrade Stalin, it is the case that the element uranium is made up of three isotopes: uranium-238, uranium-235, uranium-234. Of these, only uranium-235 can produce nuclear fission, which means that it can be used to make such a superbomb. However, the content of this isotope in uranium oxide is very low, only 0.72%, and the difference between uranium-235 and uranium-238 is so small that it is unimaginably difficult to isolate them! In this world, only Germany and the United States are capable of independently creating a gas diffuser for separating uranium-235......"

"What! So speaking of which, the technology used by the Chinese to make such bombs came from Germany! Stalin stood up sharply, "Then did Hitler also have this technique?" ”

Kurchatov sighed: "I think Hitler must have had this technology......"