Sometime in the winter of 1945, the eastern waters of the United States.

In the undulating waves, a submarine surrounded by darkness surfaced. The officers in grass-colored military caps and waterproof vests were the first to climb out of the conning tower cabin, and they unhurriedly picked up their binoculars to look around, and the crew wearing the same type of military caps and blue sailors' uniforms also calmly boarded the deck and raised a bright red flag over the submarine. For the rest of the day, they waited unhurriedly for the diesel engine to recharge the battery, unafraid that the rumbling engine would alarm the nearby ships.

About an hour and a half later, a boat-like fuselage seaplane appeared in this airspace, due to the drizzle on the sea, the line of sight was not ideal, but in the middle and late stages of the war, in order to deal with the cunning and bloodthirsty German submarine forces, the Allies installed radar equipment on the anti-submarine aircraft, so that the patrol alert efficiency was significantly improved. Before the officers and men on the submarine discovered the target and made an emergency dive, the crew of the plane had already spotted the other party through radar waves. Next, the two sides began a race against time, but the winner had no real prize, and when the seaplane descended in a non-standard dive, all the crew had already entered the cabin, and the submarine was diving at full speed, but the crew seemed to forget to put away the red flag in a panic, so much so that it was caught in the pilot's camera in the wind.

Sometime in the winter of 1945, Leningrad, Soviet Union.

The wind and snow shrouded the city from the ruins in a white glow. Thanks to the efforts of millions of soldiers and civilians, the rubble that clogs the streets has been cleared, and people are determined to bulldoze all the collapsed buildings and dilapidated buildings, and some have begun to build new buildings on their original sites, while others will be repurposed to turn them into parks or schools. Even though most outdoor projects have been slowed down by the low temperatures of snow and ice, the city as a whole still has the impression of a phoenix nirvana.

In a state-run bookstore that has been open for almost two years, a saleswoman with a headscarf, sleeve sleeves, and round cheeks red from the cold is bored fiddling with a small coal-burning stove, both to keep warm and to be extra careful that the flames set aflame the mountains of books around her, and occasionally look out the door with longing eyes. During the most difficult period of Leningrad, in order to defend against the enemy's attack, people did not hesitate to tear down their furniture, door panels, and all other objects that could be used to build barricades, except for the books, which were carefully preserved, and when there were no air raids, people rescued the wounded from the collapsed rubble, and by the way, the books that could be found were properly cleaned and stored. In the second month after the siege of Leningrad was lifted, schools, bookstores, and libraries were back in operation before electricity and communications were fully restored in the city—a propaganda stunt, but a fact that is undeniable in the country.

It wasn't a weekend, and the weather was terrible, and there weren't even 10 customers in the huge bookstore. Towards noon, two well-mannered men, each in a suit jacket and round-rimmed glasses, arrived, who were supposed to know each other, and greeted each other politely and coldly, and then chatted about academic topics that others thought were jerky and difficult to understand, and walked into the depths of the stacks of bookshelves as if they were looking for the professional books they needed. In a corner where no one was looking, one of the men took a thick book from the shelf and looked through it with pretended to be serious, but with one hand quickly and nimbly pulled out a portable dictionary-sized book from his pocket, a fake book that had been hollowed out of the interior for other items.

"This is a good book, it can represent the highest level in the academic field, it was printed not long ago, it should be in September!" He whispered.

Another man took the book with the same swift and stealthy movements, his eyes still searching the shelves: "Well, some of the books are indeed incisive, but some are just false knowledge of Western capitalism, and do not represent the most correct and advanced theories of the moment. ”

The man in front of him put back the book he had just taken off the shelf, then looked through the other one, and commented, "Oh, this one is very good!" It will be a great improvement in academic research! ”

"You have to be aware that there are some things that are ostensibly fancy, but they don't actually fit into the materialist theory!" The man in the back said with a profound gesture, "There is no doubt that everything that does not conform to the theory of materialism is pseudoscience!" Forget it, I'd better go back to school and read and think! There is no other side to the ocean of knowledge, only by learning more and thinking more can we continue to strengthen ourselves! ”

The man in front of him did not hold back, and continued to flip through the books on the shelves on his own.

The man who received the book shook his head and left, and before leaving the door, he asked the bookstore salesman with a dull smile: "When will the next issue of the Truth issue arrive?" ”

The salesman, who was using the stove to keep warm, turned his head and replied with a friendly smile: "It will definitely arrive before the New Year." ”

"Okay, thank you, comrade!"

With that, the man walked briskly out of the bookstore.

One day in the winter of 1945, a U.S. military radio listening station in Iceland intercepted a suspicious encrypted shortwave code, which was decoded and decoded, and the message read, "The weather is good, the dolphins have set off from the north as planned." After receiving the report, the U.S. Command in Europe ordered a maritime cordon to be set up between Greenland, Iceland and the United Kingdom, and soon after found a Soviet cargo ship in the Danish Strait that was automatically heading westward, the U.S. military followed and monitored the ship throughout the whole process, and detected an unidentified submarine near it about 300 nautical miles off the east coast of the United States, and when the freighter arrived at the port of Mexico, American intelligence officers launched a risky reconnaissance operation in the dock area. A number of German-style firearms and matching ammunition were found during the unloading of supplies.

The cold of winter is still continuing, and the white house in Washington, D.C., is miserable.

"Evidence, this is conclusive evidence! Classified material provided by double agents embedded in Soviet intelligence! Ladies and gentlemen, experts have just confirmed that these are two of the technical data on the atomic bomb that we lost in Los Amos, which are the most important technical data for the manufacture of atomic weapons. If our previous judgment of the traces at the scene and the torture of the arrested people were auxiliary evidence, and the intelligence from Ukraine was not enough to determine the facts, then now that everything is revealed, what is there to suspect? A middle-aged man in the uniform of a U.S. Army colonel said loudly without hesitation.

"I don't want to question the true nature of this evidence, but I don't quite understand how the Soviets dared to risk provoking World War III by sending armed men to infiltrate the core of the continental United States to seize nuclear weapons information, and weren't they afraid that we would seize the evidence and make it public, so that the whole world would point at them, and it would be entirely possible for us to drop atomic bombs on their hinterland out of righteous anger and completely blockade their coastlines with superior naval and air forces," said the Secretary of State, who remained calm throughout the country. And even if they take away a group of technical experts led by Dr. Oppenheimer and take away all the technical drawings, it will take at least one to two years to master this technology! ”

The colonel spoke in a voice that was obviously higher than his rank: "Sir, one to two years is only an estimate given by our experts, and they do not take into account whether the Soviets conducted research in this area before the end of the war, nor do they estimate how much nuclear equipment and nuclear materials the Soviets received from Germany. I am really worried that the Soviets have taken advantage of the two months we have been hesitating to advance their nuclear project in a big way, that a considerable amount of enriched uranium may have been refined, and that once they have mastered this terrible weapon, it is entirely possible that it could be used in military operations against Western Europe, and that we will have to seriously consider the terrible consequences of getting involved in an atomic-to-atomic war! If Britain and France cannot resist the attack, we will be completely expelled from Europe, then Africa, the Mediterranean, Asia, and even ......"

Truman, who was sitting behind a large desk and wiggling his fingers, suddenly interjected and asked: "Considering the possibility of war breaking out in the first half of next year, how many atomic bombs will we have in our arsenal by then?" ”

In response to this question, a thin old man with glasses and a restrained expression stood up from the sofa: "Mr. President, fortunately, the loss of our Oak Ridge factory is not too large, and the equipment transfer did not take too much time, if you are optimistic...... By tomorrow summer, we will have the materials we need to make five or six atomic bombs, and if we wait until the second half of the year, the number will probably reach about 20. ”

Truman stretched out his hands and said to the colonel, "If we are capable of doing so, how much better can the Soviets be?" ”

The colonel reminded with great concern: "If they are in a race against us with the strength of the whole country, it is difficult to say how long they will have to wait for their first atomic bomb." ”

At this point, Eisenhower, who was standing diagonally across from the president's desk, retorted: "It's unlikely, the war has just ended, they're still busy rebuilding, and we've got some news that the Soviet army is spending a lot of effort on jet and rocket technology, which will require a lot of money and manpower." ”

The colonel retracted a tune: "The general mentioned this is indeed the information that we have fed back from all sides, and we already know from the interrogation of some of the leading German generals that they were indeed confused by our feints before Operation Torch and the Normandy landings. ”

After two minutes of silence, Truman stood up with an embarrassed expression: "A considerable number of our parliamentarians and the people do not want war, and even fear war. They sympathized with the heavy losses suffered by the Soviets during their resistance to the German invasion, and they were in awe of the great fighting power displayed by the Soviets during the counterattack against Germany, especially during the Battle of Berlin, and they felt that once the war began, the Soviets' flood of armored forces and low-altitude tactical aircraft would occupy Central and Western Europe within two weeks, and we would have to retreat to the British Isles again, and there would no longer be the majority of the enemy's forces on the Eastern Front. Add to that the change of our most courageous and resilient ally to a moderate leader (Winston Churchill lost his prime minister in the post-war elections) and the withered skeleton of France's army, all of which give the impression that we are not worthy of fighting the Soviets. ”

Listening to these statements, the American [***] people present felt embarrassed and embarrassed and had their confidence frustrated, whether they were resolutely opposed to the use of force against the Soviet Union, or those who felt that they should exert further pressure on the Soviet Union or even threaten it with nuclear weapons, which made the Soviets feel humiliated, so indignant that they left the table on the spot. Equally bad is that the American political axe has had to cover up the news of the disappearance of scientists such as Oppenheimer again and again, citing ill health and other reasons. This is in line with the adage that a liar can only keep covering up old lies with new ones, and eventually fall deeper and deeper into it.

The Colonel, who was out of place, or should he have been at the right time, lamented in a sour tone: "Perhaps it is really through our weakness that the Soviets will frequently make moves that we did not expect, raiding Los Amos, delaying the Berlin negotiations and even openly purchasing uranium ore in Norway, as well as the Soviet submarines that have been repeatedly appearing in the northwestern Atlantic in recent times, and a secret base probably set up somewhere in the Caribbean......"

Truman clenched his fists and slammed his fist on the table, and once or twice, the dozen or so hearts in the office all twitched nervously with the cold crackling sound.

"Send this evidence to Berlin by plane, show it on the negotiating table, and see what else the Soviets have to say. If they insist on denying it, we will completely close the land passages in Central Europe and West Asia, cut off all contacts with the Soviet Union, and at the same time send high-altitude reconnaissance planes into the territory of the Soviet Union to carry out reconnaissance. If the situation continues to deteriorate, then we will have to remobilize our troops and prepare for the next war! ”

This is not like the rhetoric of a gladiator who came out on the battlefield and came to life, but a vicious word that has been resented by the bullies. In 1945, the United States did not weaken, but reached a new peak in its military, and its influence on the international economic and political arena increased, but more than a month after the announcement of its surrender and the end of the world war, the Los Amos atomic bomb test base was provoked by UFOs and suddenly attacked by ground personnel. At this time, the American GIs, who had performed mediocre on the battlefields of Europe and had only shown their domineering demeanor at the end of the Pacific War, were happily enjoying their victories, and a considerable number of them had been disarmed and repatriated, and remobilization and recruitment would be an extremely complicated and painful process.

Some of them knew that British Prime Minister Winston Churchill had made an extremely bold and risky plan before leaving office, that is, to quickly declare war on the Soviet Union after defeating Germany, and to rush through Poland, Belarus, to Stalingrad, and beyond where the German army had stopped, to completely contact this menace that had terrified the Western world since 1918, but the German counterattack in the Ardennes made the Western Allies, especially the United States[***] On the other side of the battlefield, the Soviets attacked the city of Berlin and then took the German capital and forced the Germans to surrender in an unprecedented and tragic battle. The Soviet army defeated the German army, and the German army suffered a heavy defeat to the American army, such a priority order formed a default rule, that is, under the same circumstances, the Soviet army's combat effectiveness was stronger than the American army, not to mention that in the post-war European continent, the Soviet army had an absolute numerical advantage!

The first to break the silence was MacArthur, who rose to fame for his campaign to recover the Philippines: "The atmosphere now reminds me of the autumn and winter of 1941, when there was a lot of anti-war cries in the country, and most people thought that we should not get involved in the war in Europe, and they thought that the cowboys who landed in Europe would be torn to pieces by German tanks and machine guns, but we did it and marched into the heart of Germany with our heads held high." Now they sympathize with and fear Soviet Russia, and one day they will find themselves having to fight for the survival of their country, hoping that they will still be able to burst out with the same hatred and cohesion as they did after the Pearl Harbor attack, defeat a strong enemy and prove the greatness of the United States! ”

"Hopefully we'll be able to afford the next Pearl Harbor!" Someone in the corner muttered something in a low voice.

Everyone in the room heard, but they all pretended not to hear.

December 23, 1945, the eve of Christmas Eve.

Basel, Switzerland.

At the back door of a half-used factory, Lynn wore a wide-brimmed gentleman's hat, a long gray pockmarked woolen trench coat, a plain black velvet scarf tied around her neck, and a miniature cigar slightly larger than a regular cigarette in her mouth.

In the cold wind, snowflakes the size of goose feathers swept down. Finally, a black object like a one-eyed monster snorted into view, and a powerful pillar of light broke through the double barrier of night and snow, gradually illuminating this lonely place with mottled exterior walls and deserted for a long time.

Seeing the train approaching along the tracks, the two special inspectors of the Swiss political axe took out their documents and put them on their chests, and the older of them, who was in charge of the team leader, asked Lynn: "These are all shipped directly from Spain?" ”

"Yes!" Lynn, in German with a strange accent, replied, "It took five days and seven hours to drive from Burgos and travel nearly a thousand kilometers through the south of France...... It has to be said that there is still a significant gap in the efficiency of French officials compared to Switzerland. ”

Hearing such a compliment, the inspector, who also had a lot of snow on his hat and shoulders, raised the corners of his mouth slightly, and did not make any comments about his colleagues in neighboring countries. When the train had finally come to a halt along the freight route into the factory area, he motioned for his companion to follow the rear of the train and walked forward with the folder board himself. When the train driver stepped out of the front of the train, he greeted him in Spanish.

The bushy-bearded train driver, a middle-aged man with a slightly chubby man, spoke in Spanish as if he were complaining about a bad trip — the chartered train to transport machinery and equipment came much later than expected if approvals by non-French authorities delayed. Of course, the weather in Switzerland is much colder than in the Spanish city of Burgos, on the southern shore of the Bay of Biscay.

The inspector had no intention of chatting, let the train driver continue to wave his arms and nag more and more excitedly, turned around and waited for the freight commissioner with the car to send the approval documents and detailed list of goods directly to him, and then turned around and returned to the duty room next to the door, and checked page by page by the light there.

Lynn stood silently beside the railroad tracks, watching the workers use the sliding cranes in the factory to load and unload the machinery and equipment in the carriages. By this time, he and Andri had been in Switzerland for two months. Life was undoubtedly more stable and affluent than ever before, and at the invitation of their new friends, the three couples also found time to spend a week skiing in the Alps, and in the later stages of the Erlikon-Pifil project, the details were no longer necessary for these high-level commanders. Taking advantage of this time, Lynn, Andriy and Courtland joined forces and decided to invest 45 million Swiss francs (about 2.6 million pounds) to set up a military enterprise with the full name "Kaiser Defense Equipment" in Basel, an industrial city in northern Switzerland, through the acquisition of a bankrupt old textile company and a vehicle manufacturing company.

Nominally, this new military enterprise was jointly funded by two Spanish shareholders, one Swiss shareholder and one Norwegian shareholder, and the initial business project was to manufacture 7.92 mm caliber M1943 rifles and supporting ammunition for Spain's Seitmai company in the form of authorized production, and the entire production line was also purchased from Spain. The process sounds somewhat complicated and redundant, but the M1943, which equipped the Spanish army, was exactly the exact copy of the German Mauser 98K. What's more, Semet had already received a technical order from the Franco regime to develop an automatic rifle similar to the German MP44. The negotiations between the two sides basically hit it off - "Caesar" will manufacture vintage rifles and rifle cartridges for Semet, and Semet will produce Spanish MP44 and intermediate short rifle cartridges in batches within a year after receiving technical support.

The entire M1943 production line of the Spanish company Semet is now being unloaded from the train, and the cast parts needed to make the firearm are produced by another local Swiss company that is worried about not having orders, and the project has nothing to do with Erlikon-Pifil from start to finish. In Switzerland, where all the people are soldiers, there are not many military production enterprises, and the Swiss army has formed a supply system with Swiss characteristics from rifles, machine guns to artillery, and has chosen 7.5 mm as the standard caliber of firearms. Therefore, the Swiss political axe did not set up many obstacles in the production line and technology introduction of "Caesar", but after all, it is an arms company, and not only is the whole process of establishment accompanied by special inspectors, but in the future, the production and operation will always be under the joint supervision of the industry and defense departments.

(To be continued)