One day in October 1945, a hand-filled form was placed on Natsuki's desk, a slightly thicker, unpretentious form, filled with a few simple English letters and Arabic numerals, a series of names signed below, and seven or eight pages of information, including a slip from the Bank of Ireland. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

After pondering for a while, Natsuki solemnly signed his name on the last line of the form, stamped the official seal of His Majesty King Joachim I of Ireland, and rang the bell on the table.

The black-haired attendant pushed the door open and walked respectfully to the table.

Natsuki gathered the entire set of documents, fixed them with a golden paper clip, raised his eyes and handed them to the attendant, and instructed: "Wrap the documents, transfer them to General Dexsell, and tell him that this shipment can be shipped." ”

Without thinking, the attendant replied, "Understood, my esteemed majesty! ”

After he left, Natsuki got up unhurriedly and walked to the window. A short time later, a black Mercedes sedan drove out of the palace compound and sent his approval order to the Ministry of Defense. In about three hours, a special cargo will be loaded onto the military port of Mulagoro in north-west Ireland, and an American warship will carry it at full speed across the ocean......

3,500 kilograms of heavy water and 1 kilogram of plutonium-239, for these special purpose cargo, the U.S. government paid a full $45 million in cash, and sent a light cruiser to carry the cargo. However, compared with the Manhattan Project of the same era in another time and space, the cost of the Americans is quite cost-effective, you must know that the Americans in this time and space are still refining enriched uranium-235 and plutonium-239 through a large number of uranium isotope separators and graphite reactors, according to the overall input-output calculation, the cost of producing one kilogram of plutonium-239 is more than 50 million US dollars, this is not because the United States has a backward level of science and technology or industrial technology, although their nuclear research is based on the correct theoretical basis, but it needs to move forward in exploration, Since the overall investment is far less than that of the Manhattan Project in the old time and space, the scale effect is much worse.

Unlike the American cowboys, who have always taken the extensive route, Ireland in this time and space has taken a precautionary and budget-conscious path in the field of nuclear research and nuclear industry. As early as the early 30s, the Irish royal family and the government jointly funded the establishment of the first heavy water plant, which was installed in the dam of a hydroelectric power station in the upper Blackwater River, using cheap hydroelectric energy as energy, initially producing 1,000-1,200 kilograms of heavy water per year, and after some successful technological innovations, the annual production of heavy water increased to 2,000 kilograms.

In the mid-to-late 30s, when the economic crisis was raging, the Irish government once again forcibly stimulated domestic demand with large-scale infrastructure construction, and took this opportunity to build five heavy water plants in Ireland one after another, three of which were based on newly built hydropower facilities and two were powered by electricity from coal power stations. By the mid-40s, the maximum annual capacity of the six heavy water plants reached 15-16 tons, accounting for more than 80% of the world's heavy water production!

With an abundant supply of heavy water, Ireland's nuclear industry naturally opted for the heavy water reactor route. The first experimental heavy water reactor appeared in the autumn of 1937, when Ireland had just stockpiled up enough heavy water to build a small heavy water reactor and began refining weapons-grade nuclear materials such as plutonium-239. At the end of the 30s, with the rapid increase in heavy water supply capacity, new industrial heavy water reactors came into being, and the annual production of plutonium-239 reached a peak of 4.6 kg in 1944, which meant that Ireland was able to make the nuclear material for an implosion atomic bomb on its own, and with the technical research on the construction of the implosion nuclear bomb, they were fully capable of becoming the first country in the world to possess nuclear weapons in early 1945.

However, the Irish government did not hastily announce that it had developed an atomic bomb, nor did it test such a powerful weapon of mass destruction on its own soil or in any of the overseas occupation zones, but calmly observed the changes in the world situation while quietly accumulating its own strength. At the same time, Germany and the United States, the two most powerful countries in industry and science and technology, were also intensively engaged in the research of nuclear weapons, and because of the respective characteristics of the leaders of nuclear theory and technological resources, they embarked on two slightly different routes. The United States' capital investment and human resources are inferior to Germany, which won the two world wars, but they started early, and the government and the military attach more importance to this project, and are in a leading position in the early stage, so Ireland took the initiative to contact the United States, and reached a cooperative research and development agreement after several negotiations, and the two sides soon established a joint research institute, closely carried out technical exchanges, and successively solved a number of key technical problems. After selling another batch of nuclear materials at a price more than twice the cost price, Xia Shu pulled the abacus in his heart: The United States has accumulated about 30 kilograms of uranium-235 and 20 kilograms of plutonium-239, which is enough to assemble an atomic bomb with two substances as nuclear charges, and it is expected that the countdown to the first nuclear test of the United States has begun......

In this unique nuclear race, the United States and Ireland were unable to maintain their lead in front of the Germans, although they both "ran ahead". With its strong national strength and scientific research strength, the Germans were the first to come first, and they gathered enough nuclear materials to reach the critical mass early, and held the first nuclear explosion test in the desert of German East Africa in December 1944. This was not bad news for the Irish, because after that, the German military turned to Ireland for technical cooperation in the nuclear field, contrary to the arrogance of the past. In March 1945 alone, the owner bought 5 tons of heavy water enough to build a small heavy water reactor and a complete set of technical drawings for a heavy water reactor in Ireland, and soon replenished the 239 plutonium needed to make the atomic bomb......

With the increasing maturity of nuclear physics research, the official advent of the nuclear age is actually only a matter of time, and the Irish military's secret stockpile of nuclear materials and relatively mature nuclear technology is enough for them to quickly follow up after the emergence of the first nuclear-weapon state, and sell their nuclear secrets at a high price to another country on the edge of the nuclear threshold, so as to maximize their own interests at the same time, promote the nuclear balance of the European and American worlds, and make their spearhead unanimously aimed at the Japanese who have not obtained a nuclear shield for the time being. Through nuclear deterrence, the arrogant Japanese top brass was forced to abandon their barbaric and brutal acts of aggression.

However, whether simple nuclear deterrence can make the Japanese compromise, Natsuki has doubts, if he really wants to use the atomic bomb to subdue the Japanese, beat them into fear, and even send them back to the Stone Age, then the resulting nuclear radiation will cause catastrophic ecological damage to East Asia and even the western Pacific region, which is by no means the situation he wants to see, and relying entirely on the power of the League of Nations or Western allies to force Japan to make concessions, and cannot achieve the goal, the final World War I am afraid will have to be solved by conventional war. In view of this, Xia Shu ordered the Irish government and military to dedicate a considerable portion of the proceeds from the sale of nuclear materials to the research and development and manufacturing of several types of technical weapons and equipment that he designated.

Just after he handed over the new batch of nuclear materials to the United States ********, one-third of the $4,500 cash was transferred to a special account of the Irish government to support five cutting-edge projects, including the mass production of the first-generation jet fighter, the practical application of the first-generation guided air-to-air rocket, the late-stage research and development of the jet long-range bomber, the mid-term research and development of the artillery position reconnaissance and calibration radar, and the initial research and development of the ship-borne over-the-horizon missile. Once these new land, sea and air equipment are fully operational and combat effective, the Irish army will have a qualitative advantage over any traditional army, and the new army of 500,000 men should be able to easily defeat the traditional army of two or three million men with sufficient logistical support.

A few days later, the U.S. side reported back that the nuclear materials had arrived safely at their nuclear weapons research and development base, and the first nuclear weapons test was expected to be conducted before the end of the year, which was expected by Natsuki, but another piece of information transmitted by the U.S. side surprised him a little -- according to the spy agents lurking in Japan, the Japanese military-backed scientific research institutions had obtained a considerable amount of low-enriched uranium by centrifugation or diffusion, and then produced plutonium-239 through uranium-graphite reactors. And it seems that the Japanese side has plans to conduct a nuclear explosion test in the near future.

Prior to this, Natsuki had always thought that the Japanese were still far from entering the nuclear threshold, mainly because the Japanese archipelago and its occupied areas were currently producing almost no uranium mines, and long-term sanctions made it difficult for Japan to obtain large quantities of uranium ore from Europe and the United States. Judging from the information provided by the US side, it seems that the Japanese side secretly hoarded a large amount of high-quality uranium ore as early as 1941, and these uranium ores may have two sources, one is that the Italians bought bituminous uranium ore from the Congo Hinkolobwe and then quietly resold it to Japan, and the other is that it was directly sold by the Soviet and Russian sides -- at that time, the Russians may not have known the role of uranium ore, or they may have carried out military and technical cooperation with Japan in some form, and it was not terminated until the two sides fought a big fight.

Thinking of the terrible consequences of the Japanese mastering nuclear weapons technology, Natsuki had no choice but to change his original assumptions, and he sent separate letters to the German Emperor and the President of the United States, explaining his fears to them, and in order to get the key to the new era before the Japanese, he proposed that Germany, the United States and Ireland work together on nuclear weapons research, and suggested that the German and American intelligence agencies work together to sabotage Japan's nuclear research program.

(End of chapter)