As Hu Weidong had predicted, his "misconduct" did not last long, and in September 1942, China finally produced the first batch of weapons-grade highly enriched uranium, uranium-235 with a purity of more than 90 percent, and even earlier succeeded in producing plutonium-239 from reactors and separating and purifying it. Although the current production of uranium-235 and plutonium-239 is still pitifully low, and it will not be enough to produce enough nuclear fuel to make an atomic bomb in a few years, according to the idea of parallel engineering, the research on the weaponization of atomic bombs should be started in advance now, so as to minimize the research and development time

Therefore, the central authorities immediately merged the three core scientific research projects of nuclear weapons, missiles, and electronic computers in accordance with the jihua that had been determined long ago, mobilized a large amount of resources and manpower, and concentrated all the cutting-edge scientific research that could be used throughout the country, and began to tackle the "three bombs and one satellite" (missile, atomic bomb, and hydrogen bomb).

For the sake of secrecy, less than 10 people in the Red Party knew the full scope of the project, and the vast majority of people, including many of the comrades involved in the project, only knew the code name "911". In addition, also for the sake of secrecy, the vast majority of the scientists and party, government and military cadres involved in the core part suddenly "disappeared" from China, and even Hu Weidong changed his name to the pseudonym "Hu Yang" in his communications

Due to the peculiarities of the "911" project, it is no longer possible for the Chinese government to make use of foreign jishuliliang as much as it did before. But if the foreign scientists in China can really help the 911 project, and I agree to sign a confidentiality clause and accept some restrictions on personal freedom, then the Chinese government will still give it a try. However, this condition is unacceptable to Westerners, so there are only a handful of foreign scientists who finally participated in the "911" project, but with Goddard, a rocket genius, it is already Hu Weidong's unexpected joy.

Although Goddard is only 60 years old now, his health has not been good, and in order to see Sputnik in the sky in his lifetime, Goddard devoted himself to scientific research, and did not even care about the possible confrontation or even conflict between China and the United States in the future. But then again. Due to Qian Xuesen's rapid growth. Even if Goddard is not involved, there is no need to worry about the rocket project being left unhosted.

Hu Weidong's change of name to Hu Yang was only a code name used in the internal communication of the "911 Project", and he still appeared in the public eye from time to time with his original identity to avoid arousing the vigilance of the foreign powers. As for those scientists who participated in the "911 Project". The vast majority of them have no international influence (some of them, such as Qian Lao, Qian Sanqiang, and others, have now reached the first-class level of shijie. But because the topics studied are all top secret. Naturally, the loss of reputation is huge. At a time when World War II was in full swing, the governments of the great powers were not yet paying attention to the whereabouts of these "little people". You must know that Red China has now been recognized by the intelligence services of various countries as the most difficult country to infiltrate on Shijie, and there is no one. Therefore, it is difficult not to say that foreign spies want to infiltrate, and even if they succeed, they must first collect information that seems more important

While secretly in charge of the "911" project, Hu Weidong, who had just stepped down from the post of vice premier of the Government Council, was once again promoted to the post of first secretary of the Northwest Bureau, which had just been re-established by the Red Party, which was also the only regional secretary in China at this time, and his status was therefore higher than that of the original secretary of the Central Plains Bureau, and he could almost be said to be the first person below the Standing Committee. Because of the principle of "the party commands the gun," as secretary of the Northwest Bureau, although Hu Weidong no longer holds a military post, he can still command more than one million PLA troops in Tibet, Qinghai, Xinjiang, and Gansu provinces, including the Construction Corps

The reason why the Red Party Central Committee suddenly gave Hu Weidong such a large authority was, on the one hand, to enable Hu Weidong to smoothly complete the "911" project as soon as possible, and on the other hand, to make necessary arrangements in response to the drastic changes in the Shijie situation in the past few months

Looking at the Pacific Theater first, although Yamaguchi Tarumi wanted to annihilate the main force of the US (new) Pacific Fleet first, he was helpless for a while under the conservative strategy of the scheming Nimitz who refused to let the fleet stay away from the combat radius of his land-based aircraft. Although during this period, the Japanese army seized the main islands of the Cook Islands and the French Polynesian Islands to the east, but the Japanese government was deeply worried about the time it spent, the loss of equipment, ammunition, and personnel, and during this period, the US submarines became more and more rampant, not only causing great losses to the Japanese transport fleet, but also sinking the aircraft carrier Taiho

On August 15, 1942, the U.S. submarine "Big Mackerel" discovered the Japanese fleet and fired six torpedoes at the enemy at a distance of 5,000 meters, one of which hit the starboard side of the aircraft carrier Oho, penetrating the hull near the front oil tank, causing damage to the front elevator.

Originally, for the Dafeng aircraft carrier with a full load displacement of more than 34,000 tons, this degree of trauma was not enough to be fatal, but because the oil pipeline in the front tank was damaged during the mine, the fuel volatilized in the hull, and the sealed hull and the forward elevator that was closed due to damage caused the air circulation system to be unable to operate, making it difficult for oil and gas to leak out and diffuse inside the hull. At 2:27 p.m., an explosion occurred at the front due to high oil and gas concentrations, and five minutes later, the front ammunition depot was detonated and the hull began to tilt. At 4:52 p.m., Japan's first armored aircraft carrier sank to the bottom of the sea from its injuries, killing another 660 people. It is worth mentioning that the captain of the ship felt bad after the first big explosion and asked the pilot to leave the ship immediately, which resulted in avoiding even greater losses, which made Yamaguchi Tawen, who was still suffering from the lack of qualified carrier-based aircraft pilots, feel a little better.

In the face of the increasingly rampant US submarines, the Japanese military adopted a two-pronged approach, on the one hand, to strengthen its antisubmarine warfare in its own waters, and on the other hand, to "treat others as they would do well." A large number of submarines were sent to the waters under the control of the Allies, especially the main shipping lanes between the Americas and Australia, to engage in-for-tat battles, and during this period, the main forces of the Japanese Combined Fleet also made many sorties, ostensibly to block the supply of the Australian and New Zealand Allied forces, but in fact they wanted to force the Nimitz fleet to leave the protection of New Zealand's land-based aircraft group and fight a decisive battle on the far sea. (To be continued......)