For China, which wants to change its national policy, it is no longer necessary to build industry centered on war, but in this way, China will have no chance to participate in World War II, which is full of blood and blood. As a man, it is extremely lacking, but with Yang Rui's current position - fighting a war costs money, spending money will increase taxes, and increasing taxes will cause losses to assets, and the most important thing is that if you fight like Tsarist Russia, start a war in the front and revolution in the rear, and hang up street lights in your whole family overnight, it is better not to try such a dangerous thing.

Although I don't want to go to war, I still want to protect myself, and the focus of self-protection is on the atomic bomb. If the US imperialist aircraft carriers and aircraft are crushed by the sea and detonate a nuclear bomb as a deterrent, it is thought that the war can directly disappear. In the case that he doesn't want to expand and just wants to protect himself, he doesn't think that the US imperialists will be crazy and directly destroy China at the cost of tens of millions of deaths, therefore, the atomic bomb is very important, and Yang Rui is eager to know what the situation is on Cui Chaoqing's side.

In the reception room where there were only two people left on guard, in Yang Rui's expectant gaze, Lieutenant General Cui Chaoqing reluctantly raised his breath and said: "Prime Minister ......", as soon as he opened his mouth, Yang Rui listened attentively, not wanting his anger to drop suddenly, and changed his words: "Prime Minister, according to the classification and confidentiality regulations of the mixed element bomb project, the report can only be an oral report, and it must be in a specific secret room. ”

"Ahh Yang Rui was stunned by Cui Chaoqing, who had a white beard, he suddenly thought of the atomic bomb just now, and then thought that Cui Chaoqing was outside, so he asked Li Zilong to bring people over directly, not wanting that this had violated the confidentiality regulations. Cui Chaoqing's expression was extremely serious when Yang Rui was ah, and Yang Rui was like a naughty boy who wanted to buy snacks but couldn't open the piggy bank. The performance was a little awkward. "This ......," he muttered, and finally had to nod his head, "You're right." ”

"Prime Minister wise!" Cui Chaoqing didn't care about Yang Rui's embarrassment. What he cares about is the confidentiality of the project, which is also one of the reasons why Yang Rui chose him as the person in charge: Lao Cheng.

"Okay. You go out, I'll wait for your report tomorrow. Yang Rui secretly scolded Ying Ming in his heart, but he had to agree in harmony.

Cui Chaoqing saluted and turned around and went out, Yang Rui, who was extremely uncomfortable in his heart, summoned Lu Xiaoman in, and only after more than half an hour did he go out to attend the dinner under Li Zilong's notice. The next day, Lieutenant General Cui Chaoqing secretly went to Wenyuan Pavilion with several project team leaders, and Yang Rui did not have yesterday's displeasure at all, and happily led them into the secret room.

The hybrid bomb project was established before the founding of the country, and it was only a theoretical training before. At that time, He Yujie, who was studying in the United Kingdom, was selected as the team leader, and he was particularly safe, having worked in the Rutherford laboratory for several years. However, unlike Rutherford's other students, He Yujie has not achieved much over the years. When He Yujie studied under Rutherford, Wang Jitong's younger brother Wang Jixu, Rao Yutai, who solved the diesel engine oil pump at the beginning, mathematician Xiong Qinglai, chemist Hou Debang and others all participated in the project and were in charge of it.

In addition to these leaders, the laboratory has also trained 100 nuclear physics researchers in the past ten years. The knowledge of these people is only at the level of high school nuclear physics, but in this era when the structure of the atom is still speculating, any later common sense taught by the project team is enough for these people to study for half a lifetime, therefore. Laboratories can only insist that these common senses are proven axioms in order to study more specific and practical technologies, such as the production of various instruments and equipment, the smelting of uranium metal, the purification of graphite, the construction of reactors, and so on. More than a decade of talent and technology have been accumulated, and today's debriefing is to discuss how to start the second phase of the project.

Cui Chaoqing is a post-60s generation. He Yujie was born in the 80s, Wang Jixu was born in the 70s, Rao Yutai, Xiong Qinglai, and Hou Debang were all born in the 90s. However, the youngest Xiong Qinglai is also 30 years old this year. There is a way to produce results at the age of forty or fifty, looking at these people. Even if he didn't listen to the report, Yang Rui felt that the success of the project was promising.

Lieutenant General Cui Chaoqing, who did not say a word in the General Staff Yesterday, was reporting the progress of the project to Yang Rui and Wang Jitong to Yang Rui and Wang Jitong slowly: "...... The neutron source problem has been solved by placing beryllium powder and radon gas in glass tubes......

…… The metallurgical laboratory is well mixed with calcium metal and uranium tetrafluoride. Make it react in the state of electric heating, you can get uranium metal with extremely high purity, and then through the graphite casting mold, you can completely get a specific shape of metal uranium rod, and later we use metal magnesium instead of metal calcium, in addition to adding additional heat, basically solve the problem of high cost of using metal calcium, and obtain a higher purity of metal uranium than the original......

…… The production of heavy water has been basically reduced to four methods, among which the hydrogen-water exchange method and the water-distillation method are the most promising, and experiments have been started, but the purification of graphite has been solved, and we can first use graphite instead of heavy water for mixed element reactors......

How to separate plutonium is a key issue, although cumbersome, but obviously easier and more feasible than separating uranium-235 from uranium-238, which has been considered in four ways: volatilization, adsorption, solvent extraction, and precipitation. The chemical separation laboratory now chooses the precipitation method, and in the last month, the chemical separation laboratory has isolated a few micrograms of plutonium......"

When Cui Chaoqing said this, Yang Rui couldn't help but glance at Hou Debang, who was sitting silently at the end. In fact, the successful separation of plutonium in the laboratory is the fulcrum of today's report, uranium metal smelting and graphite purification is not too difficult, at most it is a cost consideration, only the successful separation of plutonium represents the atomic bomb program on the ground.

When Yang Rui looked at Hou Debang, Cui Chaoqing was still introducing the situation without delay, "...... Large-scale electromagnetic computers have been completed, and more advanced tube computers are also being developed, which are expected to be completed within five years, so the scientific calculations involved in the project are basically solved. All in all, metallurgy, chemical separation, related equipment and instruments, talents and theoretical technical reserves have been completed, and the project team proposes to start the second phase of research, that is, the hybrid reactor project.

The plan is to build a small, non-self-sustaining hybrid reactor to accumulate the hybrid reactor theory and pave the way for the establishment of larger hybrid reactors. Five tonnes of high-purity uranium metal, three hundred and eighty tonnes of high-purity graphite and 15 tonnes of cadmium metal to control the reaction and absorb neutrons will be used, with an investment of five million yuan and a five-year project period. ”

Not a long briefing on the work. Every one of these technological breakthroughs took a lot of effort and money. After Cui Chaoqing finished speaking, Yang Rui applauded vigorously, and Wang Jitong beside him also applauded. The other people in the meeting applauded when they saw the two of them, and they also applauded. There was applause in the secret room. However, under the double glass interval, no matter how loud the sound inside is, it cannot be transmitted outside.

"Very good!" Yang Rui said loudly after the applause, "I am very grateful for your hard work and sweat, every step of the progress of the project is related to the national strategic decision-making, the determination of diplomatic positions, and the lifeblood of the nation." It costs money to fight a war, and it also costs money to develop the economy and build industry, and although we have worked hard to obtain the dividends of the First World War, this money is only enough to develop the economy.

This year's tax revenue is likely to exceed 2 billion Chinese dollars. Compared with Japan, this is already a light tax, but the country as a whole is still very poor, and it has been nearly seven years since the revitalization of agriculture, but the people can only eat enough, and most places only eat two meals, and it is generally sweet potato rice and bean dregs vegetables, and they can't smell fishy all year round, and they eat white noodles at most during the New Year; Some places in inland Shaanxi and Gansu. The fish at the wedding feast of the people was still wood; Eating is like this, that wearing and living is even more urgent, there are not a few people in the family who share a pair of pants, and there are not a few girls who do not cover their bodies.

So. During the current premier's term of office, agricultural taxes will be completely abolished, and the state tax revenue will be controlled below 1.5 billion yuan. In order to hide the wealth of the people and improve the lives of the people. In this case. The construction of the military industry will inevitably be suppressed, and the size of the army and navy and military spending will be further reduced, in general. We must try to put every penny into the national economy.

We have this plan, but the tree wants to be quiet and the wind does not stop, the new economic strategy that Soviet Russia is now implementing is equivalent to raising pigs, and in a few years they will slaughter the civilian wealth accumulated in the past few years for the construction of military industry, it is expected that by ten years, the initially completed Soviet Russia will no longer be as honest and peaceful as it is now, the original Petersburg Peace Treaty was signed when the soldiers came to the city, with the nature of the Russians, things will not be stopped so easily, but the Outer Northeast is about the Pacific sea power, and the North Court is not only about oil, It also holds our railroad to the Persian Gulf.

Any one of these three is extremely important. If Russia rebuilds the Pacific Fleet, then we and Japan will inevitably be surrounded by the US Navy and the Russian Navy; If we lose Beiting Oil, then our industry will lose blood, and when all machines stop running, we can only be at the mercy of others; The railway leading to the Persian Gulf has become the main artery of China's western region, and the economic development of the northwest and southwestern provinces is all driven by the Western-Persian railway, and the northwest is not protected by water and soil, and the environment is harsh, so it has been hit by drought year after year, and its dependence on the railway is greater than that of the south on the Tianjin-Pudong railway, the Yangtze River, and shipping. It can be said that whether the western region can prosper or not depends on whether this passage is unobstructed.

This is true in the northwest, and the situation in the southeast is not optimistic. The Washington Naval Treaty ensured peace in the Pacific for fifteen years, but what about fifteen years later? We are developing, the United States on the other side of the Pacific is also developing, and its industrial scale is more than several times that of ours, some people may say that Germany's national policy before the European war was extremely unsuccessful, but as an industrial country, it is not surprising that she has a strong external expansion**. In the same way, Americans, who will one day rely on the world market to absorb their own industrial goods, will feel that the vast Pacific Ocean is too small.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is by no means alarmist, the US Joint Staff has long drawn up a detailed war plan for the countries of the two oceans, the red plan for Britain, the orange plan for Japan, and the yellow plan for us, of which orange and yellow are the focus of attention of the Americans, and they have been revised many times. Therefore, whether and whether the 15-year Washington Naval Treaty will be renewed after its expiration is a big question.

As I said earlier, our current strategy is to develop the economy as much as possible, but for the United States, which has already prospered economically and has to export commodities, it may be possible to destroy the industries that we have painstakingly built through a large-scale war, so that we will become a place of inclination for American commodities, just as Britain is to India, otherwise how can the prosperity of the United States continue?

We are not worried about war, the Revival Army is not afraid of any army in the world, but the last 30 years are not the time for war, we are still very poor, the country needs to be built, if there is really a war, it will also be after economic prosperity, so the importance of the hybrid bomb project is no less than the recasting of a great wall of steel. More than a decade later, when the world situation began to be stormy, we can ensure that the economic construction plan is not interrupted. Industrial construction does not need to be fully inclined to the military, which is extremely important for national security and national prosperity and reproduction.

Say so much. It's not to drive you out, it's not to give you a military order. I just hope that you can maintain a kind of tension and understand the meaning of the work in your hands, because this is related to the lives and fate of 50,000,000 people in China. Moreover, the hybrid bomb is not just a weapon, it is actually a more efficient energy technology than oil, and as long as needed, the hybrid reactor can be built into a hybrid reactor power station to provide energy where there is no coal and oil. Arguably. All of this is to carry forward the past and forge ahead into the future, to change the history of China and even the history of the world, and your work will be remembered by future generations! ”

Unlike Lieutenant General Cui Chaoqing's dry report, Yang Rui's speech was very infectious. After he finished speaking, the youngest post-90s applauded desperately, while Cui Chaoqing and He Yujie were inexplicably deep, which means that the national defense pressure has fallen on the mixed element bomb project team and on a few of his own people, and the project team can no longer be as relaxed as before, and the laboratory has become a battlefield for his own people.

Yang Rui took their reactions to heart. But he didn't care. Since we do not follow the Sri Lankan highway and at the same time weaken and restrict the bureaucracy, then the dependence of national defense naturally falls on the atomic bomb. China does not have to compete for hegemony or open up a new Silk Road, what China wants is stable development and the threat of all-out war. All this can only be counted on the atomic bomb. The hard work of thousands of people in the project team is better than the hard work of the whole country.

He waited for everyone's applause to fall, and then asked: "I fully approve the request of the project team, except for the relocation of the laboratory site." Everything else is fine. Also, I would like to know what the long-term planning and funding needs of the project team are, of course. This is just an approximation, and you should try to estimate it as high as possible. So as not to be unprepared when the time comes. ”

Yang Rui said to Cui Chaoqing and He Yujie that when he heard that the laboratory project was going to be relocated, Cui Chaoqing asked: "May I ask the Prime Minister, where is the laboratory going to be moved?" Other costs will be incurred if you move. ”

In the first stage, because it only involved experiments, the location was selected in the northwest, and it was said that it would be transferred to the desert in the future, but now the situation has changed greatly, and the laboratory naturally cannot be placed elsewhere. Yang Rui saw Cui Chaoqing asking, and said with a smile: "The new location has been selected, and it will be moved to Mengjiang County in the northeast." It is an old revolutionary base area, and the secrecy work is not a problem, and the mountains and rivers are beautiful, the population is sparse, and the Songhua River is in the territory, and when a large mixed yuan pile is built in the future, there will definitely be no shortage of water. ”

Hearing that the location was in the northeast, Cui Chaoqing and the others nodded without objection, they didn't know the real purpose of Yang Rui in the northeast - a big killing weapon like a nuclear bomb, or the closer it was to his fiefdom, the better. Seeing that everyone had no opinions, Yang Rui continued the question just now: "What is the future plan of the project team?" Is it possible to take only the plutonium route at the moment, and not the uranium route? ”

"Yes, Prime Minister." He Yujie, the actual leader of the project, nodded, "We have tried to directly separate uranium-235, that is, to follow the operating principle of the mass spectrometer [Note 128: This mass spectrometer was first used by A.J. Dempster in 1918. It is separated by electromagnetic method, but the efficiency is very low, and there are too many technical details that have not been solved, so it is feasible and efficient to produce plutonium through the reactor and then separate the plutonium by chemical methods. In addition to the electromagnetic method, other methods such as diffusion and centrifugal methods also have the same problem......"

Listening to He Yujie talk about the centrifugal method that he strongly recommended before, Yang Rui smiled and said: "The centrifugal method is not good? ”

"Yes, Prime Minister. According to calculations, the main point of the centrifugal method is to make an aluminum cylinder with a diameter of 20 centimeters and a length of about 7 centimeters run at a speed of 500 revolutions per second, and it is also subject to the high temperature of evaporation. With the current technology, this is difficult to do, and its difficulty is even higher than that of the electromagnetic method. It was Wang Jixu who spoke, and he was in charge of the mechanical part of the project.

"What about the diffusion method?" Yang Rui did not give up and asked another one, according to the data, this method was used in China in later generations.

"There's also a lot of uncertainty." This time it was Rao Yutai, who was the second person in charge of the project. "Porous membranes are the key to diffusion, and there are no practical porous membranes in the laboratory. In contrast, the separation of plutonium from a mixture by chemical precipitation is relatively simple and technically stable. ”

"I see." In reality, Yang Rui had to compromise -- China's first atomic bomb in the future would be a plutonium bomb.

He Yujie said: "Prime Minister, we have a rough draft for the planning of the entire project, and the whole project will be divided into four stages. The first stage is only the preparation of theory and related epitaxial technology, and the second stage is the test and improvement of hybrid reactor technology and plutonium separation technology. The program will take five years; In the third stage, the foreshadowing of the second stage is used to build a large-scale hybrid reactor that can be self-sustaining. This will also take no less than five years, and when the technology of large hybrid reactors and plutonium production technology has been thoroughly mastered, the project will enter the final stage, with the construction of several large hybrid reactors to produce enough plutonium, and then the synthesis of hybrid ammunition.

According to the plan, the second phase will take five years and the project will be funded by 5 million Chinese dollars. The third phase will cost about 50 million Chinese dollars, and the project time will be five years. The fourth stage is only a matter of synthesizing hybrid bombs, that is, detonating them, and the time required is estimated to be about five years. But because it involves several large mixed element reactors for the production of plutonium, the investment will be extremely staggering......" He Yujie said this, glanced at Rao Yutai and Cui Chaoqing, and did not speak immediately.

Seeing this, Yang Rui probably guessed that this number was so large that He Yujie was not easy to speak, but he had long been mentally prepared that the Americans spent two billion dollars to build the atomic bomb in five years in World War II, even taking into account the 40 percent depreciation of the dollar in 1933, it was more than 1.2 billion dollars. Now, according to He Yujie's plan, it took about 32 years from the establishment of the project to the successful research and development of the hybrid project. The time is six times that of the Americans, and if they don't take a detour and take the plutonium route with one mind, they can save six or seven billion dollars.

"Say it. No matter how cheap it is to fight. Yang Rui lit a cigarette very easily and said to everyone.

"Prime Minister......" is still Cui Chaoqing's mouth, "according to the current estimate." In the fourth stage, 700 million Chinese yuan will be needed to build a mixed element reactor alone, and other heavy water plants, graphite factories, uranium mines, uranium smelting plants, high-energy explosives factories, and various technical research on the final synthesis of mixed element bombs. I think the funds will not be less than 500 million. The last incalculable is the investment of the supporting engineering factory, if the whole project is completely based on the country. It depends on the development of domestic industry in ten years, if the domestic factory can not solve the supporting problems and has to build relevant supporting factories, this money is likely to be more expensive than the war. ”

"More expensive than fighting? How much? Yang Rui suddenly felt a little apprehensive in his heart, he understood what Cui Chaoqing meant: The Americans made several atomic bombs with two billion dollars, which was based on the situation of developed domestic industry.

"If it is as previously planned, the final goal is to produce uranium bombs, and at the same time, domestic supporting industries must be specially established, and the total funds will probably not be less than 5 billion Chinese dollars." Cui Chaoqing said. In his concept, the expedition of the Baister's labor division to participate in the European war may be cheaper than this, and the Sino-Japanese and Sino-Russian wars will be even cheaper.

"Five billion should mean the development of uranium bombs in a blank space, right?" Yang Rui asked. His concept is different from Cui Chaoqing's, a real all-out war, it will cost at least hundreds of billions of Chinese yuan, and five billion is really not expensive.

"Yes, Prime Minister." Seeing that Yang Rui was not frightened, Cui Chaoqing breathed a sigh of relief. "If it is a plutonium bomb, from the beginning to the successful development of the project, the entire project is about 1.5 billion Chinese dollars. However, this is only the previous R&D expenses, and follow-up production still needs to be invested. If the efficiency of the hybrid reactor cannot be improved, the cost of each hybrid bomb will not be less than 200 million Chinese yuan at the current cost estimate. ”

"Don't worry about that." Yang Rui smiled: "The mixed element bullet is not used for war, but for deterrence. When the time comes, having a few in your hand can scare people. If we don't fight, we will have time to improve efficiency and reduce costs. After he said that, he thought of the three five years that He Yujie said just now, and then thought that the Washington Treaty still had 14 years to expire, so he said: "I make a request......

As soon as Yang Rui said the request, everyone who sat down again looked at it, and Yang Rui said: "Be sure to explode the first hybrid bomb in the twenty-fifth year of Shenwu." ”

In a few days, it will be the twelfth year of Shenwu, and the twenty-fifth year of Shenwu will be twelve years later. If so, each phase can only be compressed to four years. Cui Chaoqing is just an outsider leader, and the progress of the real project is still in the hands of He Yujie and Rao Yutai, so he can only look at these two people when he hears it. When He Yujie saw him coming, he could only look at Rao Yutai, and after the two looked at each other, Rao Yutai said: "Prime Minister, I accept this request on behalf of the project team." ”

"Good! Very good! Yang Rui and Wang Jitong also glanced at each other - so that the current change of national policy is generally worry-free, and he turned to everyone and smiled happily: "Then I will feel at ease!" (To be continued.) )