1900: A physics genius wandering around Europe

Chapter 187: Atomic Bombs and Bombers, Grab Both

"Chairman, Shanhe Industrial Group is currently developing in an orderly manner according to the goals you set."

"To date, the group has 12 subsidiaries, including seven mountain series and five river series, with a total of 7 employees."

"The core subsidiary of the Shan series, Taishan Industrial Company, has officially started operations."

"The company has signed a contract with the Qing government and has obtained the development qualifications for seven high-quality mines in three provinces in China."

“These include iron ore, copper ore, uranium and other strategically designated minerals of the company.”

“The combined production capacity is expected to reach 3,000 tons.”

Li Qiwei was quite satisfied after hearing this.

You should know that the famous Hanyang Iron Works cost 500 million taels, took 6 years to build, had nearly 3000 employees, and its production capacity in 3 years was only 14 tons.

Moreover, the quality of the steel produced was not high, resulting in poor sales and serious losses, so the company stopped production last year.

In comparison, Taishan Industrial Company's performance is very good.

And this is just an attempt. Once his territory is secured, he will immediately expand the scale and engage in crazy infrastructure construction.

Among them, uranium mines were what Li Qiwei was most concerned about, as they involved his atomic bomb plan.

In addition to uranium, uranium ore also contains other elements such as radium. The proportion of uranium in uranium ore is the uranium grade. The higher the grade, the better the quality of the ore.

After uranium ore is mined, it needs to undergo mineral separation to obtain the purest uranium.

At this time, pure uranium has three isotopes, among which the abundance of U-235 is fixed at around 0.7%.

In order to make an atomic bomb, the abundance of U-235 must reach more than 90%.

Therefore, the pure uranium after separation must be passed through a centrifuge to increase the abundance of U-235. This step is uranium enrichment.

Centrifuges cannot be built yet because they require a lot of electricity.

Hengshan Industrial Company, which is responsible for producing electricity, has just started its business and cannot provide such a huge amount of electricity.

However, ore dressing, as the first step, is also very important, so Li Qiwei asked: "What is the current progress of ore separation technology?"

Hu Xizhong replied: "According to the method you provided, Chairman, the maximum purification can be up to 70% at present."

“The difference between domestic uranium ore and Belgian Congo ore is too great, and the grade is very low.”

Li Qiwei said: "But it belongs to someone else after all, we must always be prepared for the worst."

"For something as strategic as this, we must be self-sufficient."

"Yes."

"Go on."

After seeing that the chairman had roughly digested it, Hu Xizhong continued to report: "The core subsidiary of the River Series, Cheung Kong Industries, is still in the research and development stage."

At this point, General Manager Hu complained to Li Qiwei, "Chairman, the research and development of this aircraft is too difficult."

"You asked me to pay close attention to the achievements of the Wright brothers in the United States. They had already invented the airplane."

"But I really can't find anyone in China who knows anything about airplanes. I haven't even gathered enough R&D personnel yet."

"Chairman, I need your help."

Li Qiwei couldn't help laughing and thought to himself, if you don't look for me again, I'll start to suspect that you're just being perfunctory.

It’s normal to feel difficult.

As a top-secret project, the aircraft that Cheung Kong Holdings Group wants to develop is not an ordinary airplane.

If the intention was just to emulate the Wright brothers' airplane, there would be no need to keep it secret.

There are many aircraft companies in Europe and the United States now, and this thing was not taken seriously by governments in the early days.

It was not until the war broke out that everyone realized, wow, airplanes were so awesome that they completely changed the theory of war.

Of course, Ridgwell developed the aircraft not to participate in the war, but to implement nuclear deterrence.

Having an atomic bomb is useless. You must have the ability to drop it on the enemy's territory.

In later generations, there are three methods in total, namely the so-called trinity nuclear strike capability.

They are land-based ballistic missiles, sea-based ballistic missiles, and strategic bombers.

The land-based carrier is a high-speed tank, and the sea-based carrier is a nuclear submarine.

But both methods require ballistic missiles, which are extremely high-tech weapons.

In terms of technical difficulty, this is much more difficult than making an atomic bomb, especially intercontinental ballistic missiles, which are exclusive to major powers.

In later generations, many countries had atomic bombs, but only a handful of them had intercontinental ballistic missiles.

Li Qiwei would not even dare to think about it in the next few decades.

Therefore, he could only choose the last method, which was also the most primitive method, which was to hang bombs on the plane.

Early aircraft had poor load-carrying capacity because they were not needed in the military.

Just hang two machine guns on it. Air combat is very simple and unpretentious. It's just moving the guns from the ground to the sky.

But the atomic bomb is very heavy, and to carry it so far, the requirements for the aircraft are very high.

Therefore, bombers came into being. This kind of aircraft specially designed for carrying bombs was Li Qiwei's goal.

Although bombers had already appeared around 1911, their carrying capacity was very small, only a few dozen or a hundred kilograms.

It is far from being able to withstand an atomic bomb weighing several tons.

Therefore, the top-secret aircraft of the Cheung Kong Industrial Company refers to the heavy-duty bomber. The blueprint was of course drawn by Li Qiwei, but it was just a rough concept map, and the details inside needed to be perfected through experiments.

Because the technology involved is too complex and needs to be kept confidential, progress is naturally slow.

"Manager Hu, don't worry, I know the details of this project and I understand your difficulties."

"How about this, for now you should focus on the research and development of supporting facilities for the aircraft, and sort out the upstream and downstream first."

"In a few years, the country will have the first batch of science and engineering graduates, and I will also select a few people from Huangpu University of Science and Technology to go there."

“When the time comes, we will conduct large-scale research and development.”

"Remember, this company is not allowed to hire any foreigners."

"All employees must undergo rigorous identity checks."

Ridgway had to consider all the worst-case scenarios.

Hu Xizhong nodded seriously; he knew the pros and cons.

Since the chairman has made such a serious request, it must be strictly implemented.

At this time, Li Qiwei asked again, "Is there any problem with the group's capital turnover at present?"

Since returning to China, he has withdrawn 25 pounds, equivalent to 165 million taels of silver, from Sheng Jingran's Pioneer Investment Group for his domestic business.

The construction and staffing of Huangpu Polytechnic University alone cost 5 pounds.

He invested the remaining 20 pounds into Shanhe Industrial Group.

But this was far from enough, so Li Tingzhao saw this and directly sold off part of the family assets to cash in to support his son's grand plan.

Now Li Tingzhao no longer looks down upon his own business of tea, spices, porcelain, etc.

Li Qiwei was very grateful for this. Although the other party was his father, the properties were shared by the family, which showed his father's determination to support him.

Li Qiwei knew that this was the most critical stage.

The nature of Shanhe Industrial Group determines that it cannot make a profit for the time being.

However, as long as they can survive this difficult period, Shanhe Industrial Group will surely become a super giant with its size and make crazy money.

Moreover, he didn't want to suck the blood of Pioneer Investment Group anymore for the time being.

As an investment company, if it does not have huge funds in its account, it will not be able to compete with foreign giants.

Sheng Jingran also raised this question with me.

Hu Xizhong certainly knew the importance of funds to the company. "Chairman, don't worry, I have always been paying attention to the group's financial plan."

"There is no risk of a funding shortfall at this time."

“Moreover, I am confident that within five years, the company can achieve profitability.”

Li Qiwei shouted "OK", subordinates who are full of confidence are the subordinates that leaders like.

"But you don't have to be nervous. As long as you follow the steps, you will succeed."

"I have a small matter now and I need your help."

"You withdraw some radium ore from Taishan Industrial Company, and then find someone to make something like this."

“It must be completed within a month.”

"Remember, tell them to strictly follow the company's rules and regulations when handling radioactive materials."

In this era, no one knew the dangers of radioactivity, but Li Qiwei took adequate protective measures.

The employees in his company are all treasures and cannot be harmed in any way.

As he spoke, Li Qiwei took out a simple blueprint with the production process clearly written on it.

Hu Xizhong agreed and took the drawings.

When he opened it, he found that the thing was very simple, just a ball.

The ball is about 10 cm in diameter and is made of glass.

But strangely, the drawings require the addition of a large amount of radium ore during the glass firing process.

Although Hu Xizhong didn't understand this, he didn't ask any more questions.

As the second-in-command of Shanhe Group, he knew very well when to ask and when not to ask.

Li Qiwei felt helpless looking at the experienced Hu Xizhong.

As his status continued to rise, the attitudes of people around him also quietly changed.

Even He Yujie and others were not as relaxed as they were when facing him in the UK. Instead, they were a little restrained.

This is inevitable and is the only way for those in power.

From then on, his words, actions, and even micro-expressions would cause countless people to speculate.

Because the resources he represents are so abundant that they can easily determine a person's future.

Some people enjoyed this feeling, but Li Qiwei was not interested.

So he took the initiative to say to Hu Xizhong with a smile: "This is the great gift I prepared for Cixi. I wish her a long-lasting infamy."

Hu Xizhong:
It turns out that it is right not to ask.

(End of this chapter)