NFBE Chapter 701 Li Yunlong: Old Cheng, I didn’t expect it was you who switched defense with me!
Chapter 701 Li Yunlong: Old Cheng, I didn’t expect it was you who switched defense with me!
"Old Cheng, I didn't expect you to take over from me. You've worked so hard."
Old Li grabbed Commander Cheng of the 772nd Regiment who came to relieve the guard, and smiled sweetly.
"Go away, don't hold my hand, it's a bad influence."
Captain Cheng shook off Lao Li's hand and ignored Lao Li's enthusiasm.
Old Li didn't feel embarrassed at all. He walked forward, put his arm around Captain Cheng's shoulder, and hugged him as he walked into the command room.
As soon as he entered the room, Lao Li's expression changed: "Mr. Cheng, I'll call you Captain Cheng to give you face, but if I don't give you face, I'll call you Blind Cheng. What can you do to me?"
Unexpectedly, Commander Cheng ignored him and said coldly, "Li Yunlong, even though you are the commander of the corps now, if I insist on ignoring you, what can you do to me?"
"Hey, you blind man."
"Old Li, I fully supported your breakout back then. What did you say when we were in Zhaojiayu? When you got married, didn't I lead the team to guard outside your Zhaojiayu?
Now, you are yelling at me, which is not fair. "
Captain Cheng warned Lao Li.
After hearing this, Lao Li immediately calmed down and said, "Hey, Lao Cheng, what are you thinking about? Am I not taking you to familiarize yourself with the environment?
I was just kidding you.
Mainly, I want to tell you that we are the outer guards, and in the innermost part is my good brother and comrade Yu Ye, you must pay attention and protect his safety no matter what. "
"You don't need to explain this. Director Yu is a very important and core figure to our entire Eighth Route Army. His security level must be the highest.
The order I received was that even if all our 772nd Regiment members were killed, we had to protect Director Yu and not allow him to suffer any loss.
In other words, even if all of our 772nd Regiment were wiped out and turned into ghosts and crawled out from the ground, we would still have to hold back the Japanese and give Director Yu enough time to evacuate."
Captain Cheng said this righteously, and Li Yunlong saw a hint of determination deep in his eyes.
There was nothing to say, Lao Li saluted Captain Cheng with all his heart.
On the day that Lao Li set off, Yu Ye pressed the centrifuge start switch at the uranium enrichment plant. With a buzzing sound, 839 centrifuges started up one after another in the scheduled sequence.
Throughout the cave, the humming sound of centrifuges could be heard one after another. The refined uranium ore was put into them and processed in stages.
These uranium compounds with an enrichment of only 235% uranium 0.7 will be separated due to slight differences in weight in these high-speed centrifuges that rotate at 5 revolutions per minute.
铀235的丰度将会先从0.7%到20%，而后从20%到90%以上，最终成为武器级别的核裂变材料。
The most difficult part is the improvement process from 0.7% to 20%.
The entire interior of the cave is kept dry and brightly lit 24 hours a day. There are technical and management teams patrolling in three shifts 24 hours a day, and any minor problems will be resolved as soon as possible.
Once these 839 industrial-grade centrifuges start turning, they will continue to work without stopping until the end of their service life, except for major overhauls.
After staying at the uranium enrichment plant for three days to provide guidance, Yu Ye returned directly to Base 221 and handed over the uranium enrichment plant to a group of young engineers with strong technical skills and positions.
He has more important work to do.
Considering that the production capacity of uranium ore is temporarily limited and uranium enrichment technology has been put on the agenda, Yu Ye plans to convert the slow neutron reactor previously considered into a fast neutron breeder reactor, using the produced high-concentration uranium 235 as a neutron source to breed and produce plutonium 239, and directly use plutonium 239 as raw material to manufacture atomic bombs.
The fission performance of plutonium 239 is better than that of uranium 235. Almost all atomic bombs used as thermonuclear explosion fuses use plutonium as the fission material, so he plans to directly cross the current professional barriers and prepare higher-level and higher-performance nuclear fission materials.
It has to be said that this is a risky approach. With today's industrial capabilities, Yu Ye is very worried that the nuclear explosion cannot be completed within the limited time.
However, the benefits of choosing the plutonium route are also obvious. The critical mass of plutonium to produce nuclear fission is relatively low, the miniaturization of atomic bombs and hydrogen bombs in the future can be smoother, and uranium 238 can also be used to produce more plutonium 239.
This is a route that has relatively high risks but also relatively high returns under today's industrial conditions.
When he was discussing with Political Commissar Rong which route to choose, Political Commissar Rong asked Yu Ye a direct question: "Is this a problem of our support or a technical problem?"
"It's a technical problem, but not entirely a technical problem. It also involves a time issue."
Yu Ye said with some embarrassment.
"If it's a technical issue, then I'll listen to Comrade Yu Ye. Not only will I listen to you, but everyone from top to bottom, including the Northwest Headquarters, will listen to you.
If it's a matter of time, could you please tell me more about it?"
Political Commissar Rong remained as calm as ever and began to analyze the key points with Yu Ye.
"There is no technical threshold. It's nothing more than rebuilding a new reactor. I'm just worried that now that Pearl Harbor has been attacked, the United States will inevitably accelerate their atomic bomb research process.
If we can’t complete the nuclear explosion on the Japanese mainland before they do, I’m afraid we won’t have the right to speak.”
Yu Ye said with a frown.
"Then let me ask you a question. Based on your current progress, even if the Americans speed up their research and we use the plutonium route, how far behind them will we be?"
Political Commissar Rong analyzed.
"Even if the Americans were to conduct research at full speed, our progress would still lag behind theirs by half a year."
"Follow your idea. I support you! I will communicate with the commander and the Northwest Headquarters."
Political Commissar Rong made the final decision and took on all the pressure for Yu Ye.
Yu Ye knew clearly what kind of pressure he would face if he made such a choice, but Political Commissar Rong still did it without hesitation.
"Okay, Political Commissar Rong, I will do my best and not let you down."
Yu Ye was firm in his thinking.
"Old Yu, we've been working together for so long, I should be able to call you that. I think you've been putting too much pressure on yourself all this time.
Since you appeared, you have reshaped our entire Eighth Route Army industrial system almost step by step.
With our current equipment and production capacity, we can easily crush the Japanese, let alone the old industrial countries and strong teams like the United States and Germany.
With our current strength on paper, it is no problem for us to resist the increasingly weaker Japanese invaders.
So, what I want to say is don’t put so much pressure on yourself, eat one bite at a time, and do things one thing at a time.”
Political Commissar Rong comforted Yu Yedao.
Political Commissar Rong did not say this on a whim, but he had worked with Yu Ye for such a long time and found that Yu Ye was in a sleepless working state for a long time, sometimes even working all night long, as if something was whipping Yu Ye from behind.
He was so tired that Political Commissar Rong felt sorry for him just looking at him.
Yu Ye forced a smile. He had been trying to hide this problem, but he didn't expect that Political Commissar Rong saw through it.
Along the way, Yu Ye was indeed very anxious. What worried him was that he would not be able to completely settle accounts with the Japanese before they surrendered, leaving this problem to future generations.
The more powerful a conventional firepower army was built, the more worried and anxious Yu Ye became.
In fact, Yu Ye was not worried about not being able to build an atomic bomb to nuke the Japanese. What he was worried about was not being able to build enough hydrogen bombs to completely wipe out the Japanese nation.
After all, there is an upper limit to the equivalent of an atomic bomb, but there is no upper limit to the equivalent of a hydrogen bomb made using thermonuclear fusion.