"Marshal, weather briefing." Hersmann's new lieutenant, Albert Murphy. Major Schnetz pushed open the door to Hersmann's office in the General Staff, where there were two visitors besides Hersmann. Major Schnetz knew one of them was Carl Brown, who had served as chairman of the Industrial Promotion Committee. Feng. Haushofer. The other man, dressed in civilian clothes, was about 40 years old, had a rectangular head and a high forehead, and smiled and nodded at Schnetz when he saw him.

Hersmann took the latest weather bulletin and looked at it - two submarines lurking in the Danish Strait and the Norwegian Sea both reported that the sea surface was very windy and rough, there were sea conditions of grade 5 or higher, and there was a dense fog that interfered with the vision.

This is not a suitable weather for sailing and combat, and if it can be maintained until the evening, then the "Seydlitz" will be able to break through the Danish Strait without danger. The fleet under the command of Admiral Bohm was to join it at the eastern exit of the Channel, and then rendezvous with the cruise ship "Bremen" from Murmansk, Soviet Union (this fast cruise ship was in the United States at the outbreak of World War, and was later detained by the United States and handed over to a British cruiser, but it escaped with high speed and arrived in the Soviet port of Murmansk on September 6), and returned to Germany together.

After reading the weather bulletin, Hersman smiled and waved at Schnetz to let him leave his office. What he met in his office today was a man of interest in Germany's final victory, the chief scientist of the Uranium Engineering Committee, Werner. Dr. Heisenberg. And Hersmann's old friend Haushofer has now been recalled by the Army and has assumed the rank of lieutenant general as chairman of the Uranium Engineering Committee, who was the administrative head of Germany's atomic bomb and nuclear reactor engineering.

"Dr. Heisenberg, do you think that it is difficult to build a uranium bomb, and that you should study the uranium power generation project first?" Hersman asked the scientist in front of him with a smile.

"That's right, Professor Hahn, Professor Meitner, and Professor Fermi all think so." Heisenberg shrugged and said, "Because uranium, while capable of producing a reaction called nuclear fission, could theoretically be used to make bombs." But the conditions for such a reaction to occur are very difficult to achieve, I mean a large-scale nuclear fission reaction. Through laboratory experiments and mathematical calculations, we know that if we want to initiate a nuclear fission reaction of uranium, we need to put a huge amount of ...... It could be hundreds of tons of uranium metal stacked together, what a big bomb? ”

"There's no other way?" Hersman asked, expressionless.

"Not yet," Heisenberg shook his head, "after all, our research has only just begun...... We are currently planning to build a pilot reactor for 'controlled nuclear fission' research, and if successful, we will be able to build a nuclear fission power station. ”

Apparently, scientists at the Uranium Engineering Commission have not yet discovered that uranium-235 is the isotope that causes heavy nuclear fission. It is therefore impossible to build a nuclear bomb, but Hersmann is also a strong proponent of the peaceful use of nuclear energy using heavy water reactors.

Since 1935, the economic promotion company he controls has been the sole buyer of heavy water from a chemical plant owned by the Vimok hydroelectric plant in Norway. Every year, in the name of scientific research, several tons of heavy water of varying purity are purchased from there.

Heavy water is not actually the main product of the Vimok chemical plant, but a by-product of the electrolysis of water (the main business of the Vimok chemical plant is to produce hydrogen and oxygen from cheap electricity). Most of them do not reach the purity required for nuclear reactors and require further processing - electrolysis or distillation (boiling), although both require a lot of electricity and are ideally produced in Norway, which is rich in hydropower.

Therefore, the Vimok hydropower station in Norway and its affiliated chemical plants must also be controlled and protected!

"Doctor," said Hersmann in a calm tone, "Germany is a country lacking in resources, and it makes sense that the use of nuclear fission to generate electricity can save a great deal of coal and oil." And we can also use the electricity generated by nuclear fission to power battleships and submarines, which will give our navy a huge advantage in the future! This makes sense, both peacefully and militarily, so more scientists need to be involved. I think that physicists at the University of Copenhagen will be able to participate in research on the peaceful uses of nuclear fission in the near future. ”

What Hersmann wants now is a scholar from the Institute of Theoretical Physics at the University of Copenhagen - there was a Copenhagen School in physics in the 20s and 30s, and the University of Copenhagen was the temple of physics in this era, producing many master scholars in the field of quantum physics. Heisenberg himself was a former student at the University of Copenhagen and the founder of the Copenhagen School, Nils. Henrik. David. Bohr (winner of the 1922 Dynamite Prize, who was also the scientist who proposed the hypothesis that uranium-235 caused nuclear fission, and also proposed the droplet model theory of nuclear fission) worked on the research.

"The University of Copenhagen? You mean Professor Bohr, right? Heisenberg smiled and said, "Actually, I wanted to ask Professor Bohr to join the uranium engineering committee for a long time, but I couldn't tell him about nuclear fission, so I ......."

The theory of nuclear fission is still a secret!

"You will soon be able to tell Professor Bohr about this great discovery in person!" "His Majesty the Kaiser has persuaded the King and Prime Minister of Denmark that German troops will be peacefully stationed and protected Denmark within 24 hours," Hersmann said.

Doctor, you are now going to Copenhagen with Lieutenant General Haushofer and bringing Bohr and his students to Germany to work on uranium-generating projects, at all costs! ”

……

"The Brest Fortress must be captured, at any cost!"

In the Kremlin, Stalin, an old friend of Hersmann, had a somewhat ugly face. He, like Hersman, suffered a small setback! Hersman lost a battleship, and Stalin lost more than ten thousand Bolshevik fighters, more than three hundred tanks and a dozen planes in Brest!

The campaign to liberate Brest had been going on for 12 days, and the Brest Rapid Cluster under Pavlov's command had made some progress, but it was far from what Stalin demanded.

"The Germans defeated Poland in 12 days, and we couldn't even beat a single Brest fortress in 12 days!" Stalin said with some annoyance, "Not only did Brest not be defeated, but Kiev, Vinnytsia and Odessa were likewise not completely liberated!" Moreover, there are counter-revolutionaries everywhere on Ukrainian soil who are engaged in sabotage! ”

The Red Army made much more progress in Kiev, Vinnytsia and Odessa than in Brest. At Brest, the Red Army did not even see the gates of the fortress after paying the price of more than 30,000 killed, seriously wounded and missing - although Pavlov could not be blamed for his lack of effort, because Brest was not only garrisoned by the main Polish army, but also built large fortifications on the perimeter of the fortress (which were part of the Pilsudski Line) that were difficult to attack.

And in right-bank Ukraine, where there is no main force of the Polish army, the Red Army has already stormed the urban areas of Kyiv, Vinnytsia and Odessa, and street fighting is now underway. Since they were facing the most stubborn and reactionary Ukrainian counter-revolutionaries, the street fighting was carried out very hard. Especially in Kiev, where the Red Army was fighting the counter-revolutionaries almost inch by inch, hundreds of Red Army fighters gave their precious lives for the liberation of the Ukrainian people.

"Comrade General Secretary," Voroshilov said thoughtfully, "there is clear evidence that the German pseudo-socialists are secretly helping the Polish and Ukrainian reactionaries. They released all the prisoners and returned all the captured weapons to the Polish reactionaries. So the Polish reactionaries were able to support the defenders of Brest, and if we are to liberate Brest in the shortest possible time, it is better to ......"

"What is the best deal with Germany?" Stalin looked at Voroshilov coldly, "Is it permissible for them to occupy more Ukrainian land?" ”

"No, no, no......" Voroshilov hurriedly shook his head, "it is possible to put pressure on the Germans, whose fleet has just suffered a crushing defeat in the Atlantic." ”

"Fiasco?" Stalin took a puff on his cigarette, "It's already determined?" ”

"Yes," said Voroshilov with a smile, "just received the news that they scuttled the 'Scharnhorst'!" ”

The hapless battleship finally died and sank in Herogra de Marísmo in the Azores. The more than 1,000 German naval officers and sailors on the battleships were to be flown back to the mainland by the Portuguese government and then quietly released - a secret agreement between the Portuguese dictator Salazar and Ribbentrop.

However, the scuttling of the battleship was still a matter of disgrace to the Germans around the world. This was a victory for the British Empire, and Churchill could boast about it for a while. And Stalin could also take a breather, the war between Germany and Britain and France would continue, and he had time to slowly defeat the Poles and Ukrainians.

"Well," Stalin nodded, "it seems that it was the right choice for us not to build a battleship of the same class." ”

He paused, turned his gaze to Molotov, Chairman of the Council of Ministers and People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs, "You go to Poland and tell the Germans that if they don't intend to occupy Poland, then we have to think about crossing the Bug River and liberating all of Poland!" ”

"Okay," Molotov said, "I will certainly convey the opinion of Comrade General Secretary to the Germans." He thought for a moment and asked, "So are we going to think about cutting off Germany's oil supplies?" ”

"No," Stalin shook his head, "don't think about it now." "However, starting in November, they can no longer take credit." (To be continued.) )