Chapter 474 Nuclear Engineering Starts

At the same time as the missile development plan was launched, the project funds for nuclear weapons had been allocated. However, nuclear physics scientists such as Madame Curie did not know that the nuclear physics projects they were studying, including military uses such as nuclear bombs. Beiyang Technology's official explanation is to seek new energy and use the super energy of nuclear physics to build nuclear power plants to replace the current large-scale pollution problem of thermal power plants. Therefore, they have received strong support, making the nuclear project research plan smoothly.

At the end of the 18th year of Guanghua, the Chinese Empire Nuclear Physics Research Laboratory successfully used gas centrifugation to obtain the necessary uranium 235 for nuclear fission from natural uranium elements and obtained laboratory-level production capacity. In this way, the Nuclear Physics Laboratory had enough uranium 235 to conduct a large number of tests, opening the door to the nuclear reactor stage.

However, due to the technical limitations of the times, Wang Chenhao can only provide them with a general theoretical guidance, and the specific theories and practical technologies have to be explored by these scientists themselves.

Because Madame Curie and other nuclear physics experts had a strong anti-war mentality, the Chinese Emperor did not dare to reveal any news about nuclear weapons research to them. Therefore, the Chinese Empire could only conduct research on nuclear reactors for power generation projects first. With technology, the military could slowly develop it into weapons-level nuclear engineering.

Nuclear reactors used for power generation only require uranium 235 raw materials with a concentration of 3.5%, which is too far from the uranium raw materials required at the weapon level. Moreover, the high temperature environment and strong radioactive environment required for nuclear reactors are not something that ordinary materials can achieve.

At this point, Wang Chenhao gave a research direction to purify 99.9% high-purity graphite materials. However, at this time, the Chinese Empire's science and technology and mechanical manufacturing technology could not obtain high-purity graphite materials. To this end, Wang Chenhao once again guided them, saying that the Kunming area in Yunnan has natural graphite raw materials with extremely high purity and can be used as a reference.

However, at this time, no graphite raw material production area was found in Yunnan, and Wang Chenhao didn't know where it was. Wang Chenhao just thought that the graphite needed for the United States to develop atomic bombs in history was obtained from Kunming, Yunnan. For this reason, Japan and the United States fought in Yunnan, but in the end the Americans successfully transported the graphite back to the United States and finally completed the development of the atomic bomb.

So, the Chinese Emperor's side and the Yunnan Provincial Government gathered manpower to start searching for graphite, but it was obviously like looking for a needle in a haystack. Fortunately, the research work on nuclear reactors has just begun and it is not yet the stage of using graphite electrodes. According to the research and development schedule, graphite electrodes will not be used in five years, so there is still plenty of time.

The research on nuclear physics is not limited to uranium elements. Under Wang Chenhao's guidance, scientists also began to study heavy water. Although they did not know why Wang Chenhao asked them to study heavy water, based on their past experience, they believed that Wang Chenhao had extremely accurate and foresight, so they started to conduct research.

The whole world does not know how to obtain heavy water, except for Wang Chenhao. Wang Chenhao ordered people to prepare a distillation equipment in the palace, distillation of ordinary water thousands of times and electrolysis dozens of times, and finally obtained a small bottle of heavy water with relatively high purity, and then handed it over to scientists for research. Soon, the scientists discovered a new substance, heavy water, and couldn't help but sigh, and admire Wang Chenhao even more.

Wang Chenhao knew that heavy water was a necessary coolant and delaying agent for nuclear reactors, and the deuterium in heavy water was a necessary reactor for thermonuclearity. Therefore, Wang Chenhao had already done everything that could be done for nuclear physics experts. Wang Chenhao couldn't help the rest of the problem. It was all up to these scientists to explore and summarize their experiences.

Of course, for safety reasons, Wang Chenhao is not in Tianjin, but builds an experimental base alone in the uninhabited northern border, because Wang Chenhao is worried that if there is a failure or a mistake in the experiment, it will be too dangerous, so it is safe to send them to an uninhabited place.

After the signing of the Five-Country Convention, the Chinese Emperor's side focused on the construction of strategic troops and the research and development of high-tech arms.

The General Staff issued the first five-year plan to the three navy, army and air force, requiring the Chinese Empire to achieve mechanization on land. The General Staff believed that the total strength of the Chinese Empire's army had dropped to 1.2 million people, and the reduction in the number of people brought about a certain decline in combat effectiveness, so it could only rely on quality to make up for the loss of overall combat capability. The mechanized troops first showed their strength in the war against Japan, but showed their skills in the war against the United States. The armored forces of the Royal Guards of the Empire set the limelight on the US plains and showed their majesty, which made the US military frightened. At the post-war summary meeting, the military's demand for armored troops increased day by day.

Because the early Chinese Empire's weapons and equipment companies produced the latest m16 tanks, w16 infantry tanks, and z16 anti-tank tanks were expensive, even if the Chinese Empire had money, it could not afford to be equipped, and could only meet the Royal Guards and a few ace troops from various military regions.

With the ongoing war against the United States, the military industry of the Chinese Empire developed rapidly, and the production technology of the Three Musketeers of the Armored Forces made major breakthroughs, the production speed increased significantly, and the production cost decreased significantly, only one-quarter of the previous ones. This led to the various troops of the Chinese Empire's Army starting to form armored forces one after another.

By the end of the 18th year of Guanghua, the Imperial Chinese Army had equipped 2,000 M16 main combat vehicles, 3,300 W16 wheeled infantry combat vehicles, and 1,500 Z16 anti-tank combat vehicles.

The General Staff required the empire's 1.2 million army officers and soldiers to reorganize, and to form forty armored divisions and twenty mechanized infantry divisions within the next five years to realize the comprehensive mechanized reform of the Chinese Empire's Army.

Of course, the mechanized reform proposed by the General Staff was also instructed by Wang Chenhao. Because Wang Chenhao understood that mechanization was the mainstream of the next world war, and the powerful transportation network of the Chinese Empire, the railway, highway network, aviation network and waterway network all over the urban and rural areas all require a high-speed maneuverable force to be competent, so it became an inevitable trend for the Chinese Empire to enter the era of mechanization ahead of schedule.

The Imperial Army implemented mechanized reforms, and the Imperial Navy also carried out modernization and upgrading in accordance with the orders of the General Staff.

After the world war and the war against the United States, senior Chinese Navy leaders have discovered that the prerequisite for victory in the future naval war is to ensure air supremacy. Although the Chinese Navy has a powerful aircraft carrier battle group, a powerful ASCHS air defense cruiser, and the air defense firepower network of each ship, etc., which can eliminate most of the threats from enemy aircraft from the air, senior Chinese Navy officials also realized that the development speed of aircraft was too fast. Before the world war, the Chinese Empire was ahead of Europe and the United States in aircraft manufacturing for more than ten years. Due to the stimulus of the war, the aircraft manufacturing technology of European and American countries has made rapid progress after the war, and the performance of the O-400 bomber designed by the British

It is already very close to the most advanced H2n1 bomber in the Chinese Empire. In the final stage of the Sino-US war, the US Air Force was forced by the war to develop a series of advanced combat aircraft such as Bell's P-3, Curtis's P-5, Brewster's F2a, and Grumman's F1f in just four months. At the last moment, a new fighter jet such as F3 with performance close to the Chinese Empire's Thunder Fighter. If the Chinese Empire had not used the blitzkrieg tactic of quick-decision, it would have put the Chinese Empire in a quagmire of war and could not extricate itself.

The biggest advantage of the Chinese Emperor's side is not its strong combat effectiveness and advanced weapons and equipment, but its self-criticism and summary, as well as its ability to reflect on time. This ability of self-reflection and summary is Wang Chenhao's key requirement for the Chinese Emperor's side, ensuring that the Chinese Emperor's strength and guiding ideology do not go to extremes, do not turn into a stubborn point, and can develop healthily.

At the post-war summary meeting, senior officials of the Imperial Navy, generals of the Navy Fleet Command, and soldier representatives stated their overall views on the war from their respective positions, confirmed the advantages and strengths of the Imperial Navy, and also put forward the shortcomings and shortcomings of the Imperial Navy in combat.

At the meeting, the senior officials of the Navy had to admit that if the World Air Force continued to develop at this rate, it would not take long for their air force to achieve a qualitative breakthrough, and even threaten the hegemony of the Imperial Air Force, which in turn affected the Imperial Navy's control over sea control in future naval wars.

Lieutenant General Liu Guanxiong, deputy commander of the Navy Fleet Command and the highest commander of the aircraft carrier battle group, said in his summary report: "If the US Air Force and Navy Air Force had high performance combat aircraft such as O-400 and F3 earlier in this naval battle against the United States, then the Imperial Navy would not have lost only the third aircraft carrier battle group. The entire aircraft carrier battle group would pay a heavy price or even lose air supremacy, which would affect the Imperial Navy's control over sea supremacy and affect the entire war process. Therefore, I suggest that the aircraft carrier battle group should be included in the ranks of the main ships of the sea decisive battle."

Liu Guanxiong's proposal was quite pertinent, but most of the officers of the Imperial Navy's senior officials also had a deep remembrance of giant ship cannonism, so some officers opposed it, hoping to continue to exclude aircraft carriers on the grounds that the Imperial Navy's powerful fleet air defense firepower network was an insurmountable gap for enemy aircraft.

However, Navy Minister Lin Jianzhang and others had already entered the palace to ask Wang Chenhao for instructions. Although Wang Chenhao did not directly withdraw the battleship from the stage of history, he expressed his certainty that aircraft carriers would become the dominant naval warfare in the future.

Therefore, the Navy Committee finally made the decision to combine the battleship battle group and the aircraft carrier battle group, that is, the aircraft carrier and battleship form a joint special mixed fleet to participate in the future maritime decisive battle, and both battleships and aircraft carriers are treated as main naval battleships.

In terms of specific deployment, the Navy Commission issued a large-scale modernization modification and upgrade of all the main battleships of the Imperial Navy, equipped with more advanced air-to-air radar systems, and installed new air-to-air dense arrays, anti-aircraft guns and anti-aircraft machine guns with stronger firepower. The ASUSTAIN air-to-air cruiser is also in the process of upgrading and transformation, comprehensively improving the fleet's air-to-air firepower. The importance of naval aviation is also well understood. Since the Convention of the Five-Nation does not stipulate the number and tonnage limits on aircraft carriers, the Imperial Navy will vigorously develop aircraft carriers within the next fifteen years to improve the comprehensive combat capabilities of aircraft carriers.
Chapter completed!