Although the major naval powers have made considerable explorations in the use of air forces, and there is a lot of evidence that they have a bright future, no one dares to make conclusions about this kind of major decision that "can change the entire mode of naval warfare."

It was not until the Battle of Taranto at the end of the 40th century that the power of naval aviation was finally recognized.

At the beginning of the war, as the Italians held the Mediterranean, the British tried to launch a campaign to seize sea supremacy, but the shrewd Italians chose to "avoid the war and wait for the opportunity to move", and most of the time they hid in military ports, which was very nerve-wracking for the Royal Navy.

Although the Royal Navy was inferior to the Italian Navy fighting on home turf in the Mediterranean, the famous Admiral Cunningham boldly planned a well-planned surprise attack on the aircraft carrier.

The result was brilliant, with the Royal Navy's Mediterranean Fleet raiding the Italian naval base of Taranto and winning a resounding victory.

This was the first time since the aircraft carrier was commissioned that it took the initiative to attack the fleet in a military port on a large scale, and the tremendous power of naval aviation was proven to be inexhaustible. As a result, more and more people are beginning to reverse their original views.

The British army dispatched a total of 21 carrier-based aircraft, lost only 2 aircraft and 1 pilot, and used 8 torpedoes and some aerial bombs, and won a great victory in sinking and damaging 3 Italian battleships, 2 cruisers, and 2 destroyers.

At this point, can it really make everyone change their minds at once?

The truth is that some people are still stubborn, and a year later, the Royal Navy's Z Fleet set sail for the Far East, and despite the lack of air escort, Vice Admiral Philip has always been stubborn that the Japanese's clumsy and broken aircraft could not pose a threat to the British Empire's cutting-edge warships.

Eventually, the battleship Prince of Wales and the battlecruiser Counter Strike finally slept forever at the bottom of Southeast Asia.

What worries Zhou Changfeng is that history has deviated more and more from the track he is familiar with, and he cannot predict the future.

In the current situation, Italy shrewdly disguised itself as the vanguard of the confrontation, tried its best to show goodwill to Britain, and constantly attacked the German Society and Austria in the form of diplomacy, trade, border conflicts, etc.

Black and red coexisted, and the British naturally gave priority to instigating the former to contain the latter.

If we only look at it geographically, the war that may break out at any time is becoming more and more like a copy of the European war.

In this way, when exactly will the campaign to prove the power of aviation come? It's an unknown.

Hoping that after the European side of the war began, the British would carry out a campaign similar to the raid on Taranto against the Germans?

Such unilateral expectations full of unknowns are naturally unreasonable, so Zhou Changfeng considered starting from his own home and focusing on promoting the use of aviation when the Ming army fought in the Nanyang region.

If the British Z Fleet arrives as scheduled, as long as the Ming Air Force or Naval Aviation can play normally, then everything will be clear.

What I am afraid of is that at that time, the air force will not be able to play its due role due to various reasons such as weather conditions, command errors, and poor communications, and in the end, it will have to rely on the naval fleet to solve the problem of Z Fleet by force, which will undoubtedly blind the eyes of many people.

In the next few days, in addition to dealing with many affairs of the 1st Marine Brigade, Zhou Changfeng also took half a day to go to Imperial Gezhi University alone.

The purpose is to continue to negotiate with the nuclear physics boss Xu Shangdan on the feasibility of militarizing nuclear energy.

"Mr. Xu, I have carefully read your letter a few days ago, and I came to you today to ask you to ponder the theoretical calculations in your busy schedule, and it is troublesome."

"Zhou is polite, the stakes are very high, and this is also my business, not to mention that there is not much time delayed."

Taking the "drunkard walking problem" as the thinking model and referring to Lee's random walk theorem, Xu Shangdan thought that this theoretical calculation was not too difficult, so after listing the key points, he handed over the tedious calculation task to his students.

Although there were no electronic computers in this era, Imperial Gezhi University was one of the core science and engineering research centers of the Eastern powers, and all kinds of mechanical computing equipment were readily available.

With their assistance, the students, all of whom are the pride of the sky, have been busy for months, repeatedly checking and deducing, and have completed the radius required for spherical high-concentration uranium to stably and self-sustain the chain reaction under the action of thermal neutrons.

It has a radius of about nine centimeters and a total mass of less than sixty kilograms.

It's still not a small amount, but it's not an unattainable astronomical amount.

Seeing Zhou Changfeng's satisfied look, Xu Shangdan reminded: "It is not easy to refine uranium ore, uranium 238 is not available, and it is even more troublesome to separate it from uranium 235." ”

However, the former didn't care, just arched his hand and said: "Thank you, everything is difficult at the beginning, Mr. Xu, you have made a great contribution!" ”

Zhou Changfeng was accompanied by palace attendants and military personnel, and the two cars they drove stopped under the physics school building, and then began to hand over the calculation documents with the students.

A wad of scratch paper for feasibility calculations was stuffed into a large suitcase, including the wrong scrap manuscripts, and four large suitcases were then placed in the trunk of the car.

A soldier of the military department said to several students very seriously: "Tell me again, you must keep it secret, it's not a joke, rot this matter in your stomach!" ”

The palace attendant next to him also said solemnly: "The hush money will not be settled all at once, but will be paid every month for ten years, and it can be regarded as a regular reminder that there is such a thing for you." If the leak becomes known to the outside world, it can be punishable by 10 or even 20 years in prison, depending on the seriousness of the consequences. ”

The students hurriedly responded, they could be very speechless, they thought that they were just completing a boring but novel calculation work for their husband, but they did not expect such a big event.

Although you can receive money regularly, the cost of not being able to stop the leak of news is too great.

Immediately, the satisfied Zhou Changfeng left Gezhi University.

Because it was lunchtime, he was hungry, so he found a restaurant on the side of the street, and ate a bowl of rice bowls and finished the business.

After pinching the time to return to the Forbidden City, he took the ferry all the way to the Qianqing Gate, and then walked quickly to the Zhaoren Palace.

Because there is no meeting or other itinerary today, Zhu Lingjing's clothes are much more casual, and she does not wear her usual formal clothes, but instead wears a light-colored floral dress and high heels, and her hair is tied in a high ponytail.

She didn't sit, but paced slowly around the room, as if thinking about something.

Zhou Changfeng couldn't help but be stunned when he saw this, and thought that he was hallucinating.

"Your Majesty, you ......" he paused for half a second and muttered, "It's fashionable to dress." ”

"Normally, that's a problem." Zhu Lingjing didn't care, and glanced at him, "What are you looking for me?" ”

"Mr. Xu Lao of Gezhi University and others have completed the feasibility analysis of the militarization of nuclear energy, and the specific draft paper has been taken away by the personnel of the Ministry of War for record."

"What's the verdict?"

"It's completely feasible, and you can guess the power, after all, it's about reducing mass to get energy, and it's very powerful."

Zhou Changfeng deliberately downplayed the feasibility a little, but obviously Zhu Lingjing was not so easily fooled.

She stared into the former's eyes and said with a smile: "When reporting from one to the next, we must try to be as objective as possible and bring less personal opinions, so as to reduce the distortion of the message conveyed at each level." ”

Zhou Changfeng, who was a little embarrassed, had no choice but to speak: "The calculated enriched uranium sphere needs a radius of about nine centimeters, and the total mass is about fifty-eight kilograms. ”

This figure is actually slightly different from the standard answer, but the difference is not much, only a few kilograms, probably due to the different limit states selected for the calculation.

Zhu Lingjing's face was strange, she slowly walked back to her seat and sat down, and said, "This result...... Not up or down. Let's talk about it... It's not a fantasy, let's say it's less... It will be dozens of kilograms again. ”

"Indeed, it's going to be a big project for sure."

Tut! I haven't skimmed the eight characters yet... Oh no, I just had a glimpse of the eight characters, and I haven't said that I want to do it, so why did I talk about the project?

"If I'm not mistaken, among the uranium ore mined, uranium 235 accounts for less than 1 percent, and 99 percent is uranium 238." Zhu Lingjing, who looked calm, looked at Zhou Changfeng a few steps away, and said lightly: "The difference between the two is only that there are three neutrons apart, and it is not easy to separate them." ”

"......" Zhou Changfeng nodded and remained silent.

"Let's see the cabinet and the military department discuss, this is a major matter that will be devoted to the country."

After speaking, Zhu Lingjing added, "I feel that such a huge thing, with the same resources, I am afraid it will be enough to build a whole fleet." ”

I have to say, your instincts are quite accurate. Zhou Changfeng said in his heart.

Historically, the Manhattan Project cost more than $2 billion, while an Iowa-class battleship cost $100 million, a Cleveland-class light cruiser cost $30 million, and a Fletcher-class destroyer cost $10 million.

In fact, Zhu Lingjing herself is very interested in this, and she also agrees with its feasibility.

Since physical experiments have proved the existence of reactions, and theoretical calculations have confirmed their feasibility, such things are destined to work, but only at a cost.

If it were in peacetime, she would have been willing to invest in the project for a long time, but unfortunately the current situation makes her not so "generous", and she must be cautious about such a costly project.

If it fails in the end, instead wastes a huge amount of resources, and finally reverses the balance of war, then she will probably be nailed to the pillar of shame in history forever.

"Your Majesty, let's organize a seminar after that, this matter ...... It's too important to weigh it carefully. Zhou Changfeng proposed.

"That's right." Zhu Lingjing agreed very simply, "And whether it is advanced or not, the initial research should continue." ”

After thinking about it, she said: "Xu Shangdan is old and can teach, but he is not qualified for such hard work. Qian Yuankai is also talented, energetic, and very suitable. ”

Despite the changes in the world, the famous Qian family is still brilliant and has many celebrities.

Forty-two-year-old Qian Yuankai is one of them, and his research team has been at the forefront of high-energy physics research in the Ming Dynasty.

Qian Yuankai graduated from Gezhi University in Shanghai and holds a doctorate from ETH Zurich.

In the twenty-eighth year of Zhichang, in order to better study high-energy physics, he actually applied for a huge amount of funding from the Ministry of Industry and established a large-scale laboratory at Shanghai Gezhi University.

This was followed by the construction of the world's first 25-inch, 800mm cyclotron, followed three years later by another 50-inch, 1,600mm accelerator weighing 300 tons.

It is no exaggeration to say that half of today's Daming high-energy physics is driven by this genius.

In fact, as a traverser, Zhou Changfeng has a peculiar superstition - when he heard that his surname was Qian and that he was from the Qian family, he spontaneously felt an inexplicable peace of mind, and felt that this matter was already secure.

The Emperor himself was interested in this and had a positive attitude, and at the same time he was helped by an extraordinary genius......

It's just a fission bomb, can it stop me from building it first!

If that doesn't work out, I'll eat the cyclotron on the spot!

Because the future is bright, Zhou Changfeng's mood is so comfortable that he has a smile on his face when he returns home.

"Is there any great event today?"

"Of course, because I see a bright future." Zhou Changfeng pretended to be unfathomable.

"Well, I should be happy." Xia Xiaoshi took a knife and said while cutting oranges: "Sir, I have resigned today. Alas, a few seniors are quite sorry. ”

At present, except for the German Society, Austria, the Czech Republic and other countries, the vast majority of married women in the world do not work, and they mainly bear the responsibilities of housewives.

Daming is no exception, obviously Xia Xiaoshi didn't want others to take care of her cubs, so she chose to resign without hesitation.

"Sorry? Did they say anything to keep them? ”

"Hmm... No. ”

Zhou Changfeng, who was smiling and groaning, asked meaningfully: "My stupid little poem, think about it again, are they really 'sorry'?" ”

Come on! No matter how bad your father is, he is in the middle of the criminal department, and you are the best Colonel of the third grade.

If you accidentally get wronged, I'm afraid you don't have to be scared.

Xia Xiaoshi covered her forehead and said helplessly: "I won't bully people......

In the evening, the husband and wife plus Lin Xi gathered together for dinner, and they were comfortable.

I'm afraid that the peaceful life has entered the countdown, and Zhou Changfeng is now looking forward to the war coming a little later, and he doesn't want more, just wait for his wife to give birth.

However, even in times of general tranquility, not everyone can enjoy the little peace left.

Thousands of miles away in the north of Xinjiang, Beihai Lake.

As night fell, in this place where Su Wu shepherded sheep in ancient books, a team of uninvited guests crossed the border.

More than 40 heavily armed Russian soldiers quietly crossed the border to a hill in the southeast and began to dig field fortifications.

Easter Egg Chapters have updated the industrial production capacity of various countries

(End of chapter)