Chapter 12 Chapter Eleven

On June 17, 1967, the central government decided to conduct the first air-dropped hydrogen bomb explosion test.Nie Rongzhen personally sits at the base.The airdrop explosion was scheduled for 7:00 am.everything's ready.Nie Shuai, Wang Ganchang and others all entered the command room, waiting for the air force pilot to take off with a thermonuclear device with a 3 million-ton equivalent. "Hiss—" Pilot Xu Kejiang took off from Malan Airport on time with No. 726 "H-6" aircraft.Nie Shuai, Wang Ganchang and other base commanders and scientists have been staring at the war eagle and pointing from time to time. At 8 o'clock sharp, Xu Kejiang's plane entered the airdrop area.The ground command immediately issued an order of "10, 9, 8, 7, 6, ... 2, 1—detonation!"

10 seconds, 20 seconds, and 30 seconds passed, and the plane was still flying smoothly. The big explosion that Nie Shuai and Wang Ganchang were looking forward to was delayed. what happened?Nie Shuai looked at Wang Ganchang uneasily, and Wang Ganchang looked at Nie Shuai with even more puzzled eyes, clearly saying: This is the pilot's problem. Yeah?Nie Shuai turned his head to the "H-6" fighter plane passing through the white clouds: Well, it's so high.It's still spinning in the sky, man! "Get me through the pilot and ask what's going on. Immediately!" Nie Shuai lost his temper.

"Report to Boss Nie: Captain Xu Kejiang said that he forgot to press the automatic thrower because he was memorizing quotations from Chairman Mao!" "Bullshit!" Nie Shuai's face turned blue, and it could be seen that he was trying not to let the dirty words come out of his mouth. "Report to Nie Shuai: Call from Beijing." "No!" "It's from the Prime Minister." Nie Shuai took over the microphone: "It's the Prime Minister. I haven't completed the tasks assigned by you and Chairman Mao." "What's going on? Is it a technical failure? Are there any casualties?" This was the Prime Minister's concerned and anxious voice. Nie Shuai's instructions were transmitted to the fighter plane in Baiyunjian.Captain Xu Kejiang collected himself, put his thumb on the automatic thrower, and pressed hard...

Immediately, he saw a white cylinder thrown by him, falling rapidly. In an instant, a parachute suddenly opened trying to grab the falling cylinder, and he saw that the white cylinder was about to hit the ground In an instant, a huge "sun" shone with strong light, shining between the sky and the earth... Wang Ganchang burst into tears... After the successful explosion of the hydrogen bomb dropped in the air, Wang Ganchang received Zhou Enlai's instruction: to start studying underground nuclear tests. In the 1960s, since Oppenheimer of the United States completed the "Manhattan Project", and Academician Kurchatov of the Soviet Union also completed several atomic bomb tests under the pressure of Marshal Stalin, the two superpowers of the Soviet Union and the United States were on the one hand. In order to suppress the other party's nuclear tests, on the one hand, it wanted to maintain its nuclear hegemony status in the world forever, and signed a treaty to limit nuclear tests in the air and on the ground.Although this treaty is not binding on third countries, after all, due to the huge destructive consequences of nuclear weapons, as long as they continue to test, they will bring serious damage to the environment and natural conditions of their homeland.Underground nuclear testing was first brought up in this context.The prime minister of China is the prime minister of the people, and Zhou Enlai thought ahead of all Chinese leaders.Wang Ganchang began to arrange immediately after accepting this new order. In October, he and his student, Professor Cheng Kaijia (the director of the Northwest Institute of Technology), who later became an outstanding physicist, organized the first underground nuclear test lecture in my country.The theme of the meeting is very clear: strive to transfer most of the above-ground nuclear tests underground within a year or two.After that, Wang Ganchang, as the direct organizer and leader of my country's underground nuclear test, fully assumed the heavy responsibility of theory and design.The heavy work made him have to travel between Lop Nur and Beijing.However, this 60-year-old scientist never thought that when he was engaged in such a confidential and important work, a catastrophe that he did not understand would hit him like a flood...

"That day Mr. Wang returned to Beijing from Qinghai. I drove his Volga special car to pick him up for work. When he was about to get into the car, Mr. Wang stopped suddenly, then went around to the back of the car and stood there motionless for a long time. I was in a hurry, thinking something was wrong. When I went over to look, it turned out that the rebels had posted a slogan on the glass of the rear car, with the words "reactionary academic authority" written in big characters. I saw Mr. Wang's face was so angry Pale, lips trembling slightly. 'These bastards!' I cursed in my heart, because someone had posted the same slogan before Mr. Wang came back, but I tore it up every time. I didn't expect today Someone posted it again. I reported this to Vice Minister Li Jue, and he was also very angry, saying that a scientist like Mr. Wang is a 'national treasure'. How can he be irresponsibly called a 'reactionary academic authority'? Li The general instructed me not to let Mr. Wang know about such things, so as not to irritate Mr. Wang. But I still didn’t “check it out” that day.” After nearly 20 years, I interviewed Comrade Da Shao, the driver who has followed Wang Ganchang for more than ten years. The big man from the Central Plains still harbors some guilt.Da Shao’s full name is Shao Chungui, and he is now retired at home. This veteran soldier who experienced the baptism of the Korean battlefield has come to the Nuclear Research Institute (Institute) since 1960, and later became Wang Ganchang’s full-time driver. guard".

Wang Ganchang is usually a "good old man". He never cares about others. He immerses himself in business work and regards the tasks entrusted by the country and the people as life to achieve. This is his greatest pleasure and pursuit.His daughter said something like this: "My father never knew what to ask for from the unit and the higher-ups, so when people in the unit mentioned my father, they said, 'Mr. Wang will have nothing to do with him'. He is such a person, It’s our sons and daughters and family members who are often pissed off by him.” But Wang Ganchang’s great wisdom determined that he is not a person who can be ridiculed or insulted when others want to. "I am a 'reactionary academic authority'? Can reactionary people participate in the country's most secret nuclear test? How can there be 'revolutionaries' like you in the world? 'Rebels'?" said in my heart.

This time he became angry and cursed in his heart for several days. Well, if you say that I am "reactionary to academic authority", then I will be "reactionary".Wang Ganchang made a "significant decision": Instead of taking a private car, take a bus instead. Wang Ganchang lived in Zhongguancun and worked in the "Hui Lou" on Huayuan Road, and there was quite a distance between them.It used to be that Da Shao would pick him up and drop him off by car every day—this was also the treatment given to great scientists such as Wang Ganchang by the central government. On the one hand, it was out of care, and on the other hand, it was for confidentiality.Since the anonymity, Wang Ganchang and the others are generally not allowed to roam freely in public places.This time the old man didn't take a special car, but Da Shao was in a hurry. What if something happened or the secret was lost?

"Mr. Wang, get in the car quickly! The more you do this, the more people will pay attention to you." Da Shao in "Volga" turned the car gear and accelerator to the lowest position, blushing anxiously and followed behind Wang Ganchang. Keep calling. Wang Ganchang just left on his own and ignored that. Since he decided not to take a car last night, he will never take a car!After he came out of the house, he went straight to the bus stop of No. 331 bound for Huayuan Road.He got into the car, made Da Shao miserable, and drove the "Volga" to follow the bus at a leisurely pace, and was scolded bloody by other cars, big and small, along the way. The No. 331 bus arrived at the stop, and Wang Ganchang walked as usual after getting off the bus, despite Da Shao yelling.

For several days, Wang Ganchang and Da Shao "confronted each other" every day.In the end, it was not the 60-year-old Wang Ganchang who couldn't bear it, but the strong and strong Da Shao.When the organization asked him to drive for Wang Ganchang, he made it clear: "Mr. Wang Ganchang is an outstanding scientist in our country. We must protect him like a senior leader and make no mistakes. This is an extremely important revolutionary work." Although Da Shao didn't know exactly what kind of work Wang Ganchang was doing, but Wang Ganchang often went to and from Zhongnanhai to meet with Premier Zhou Enlai and other national leaders, so we can tell that he is an unusual person...

"Volga" followed Wang Ganchang step by step like a snail... Looking at the upright "old man", Da Shao suddenly had an idea: "Mr. Wang, are you patriotic?" Da Shao put "Volga" Get close to Wang Ganchang, then stick out half of your head and say this to Wang Ganchang. Wang Ganchang was taken aback.He stopped and stared at Da Shao in the driver's seat: "How could I not be patriotic?" Da Shao secretly smiled in his heart, "Old man" took the bait!Then he put on a very serious look: "I don't think you are patriotic." "Why am I not patriotic? How can I go if I am not patriotic..." Wang Ganchang wanted to say "build atomic bombs and hydrogen bombs for the country", but when he thought of discipline, he changed his words, "Why did I come back from Germany to Zhejiang University when I was not patriotic?" To teach, and later to participate in socialist construction?"

"I think you are not only unpatriotic, but you also know a lot about foreign countries..." Da Shao felt angry with him. Wang Ganchang, who has nothing to do with the world, can't understand Da Shao's "conspiracy", "How can I know foreign countries? Nonsense!" "Really? Really nonsense?" "Of course, it's absolutely nonsense! How can I know foreign countries!" Wang Ganchang argued with his neck straightened. "Then—why don't you take a private car?" "People call me a 'reactionary academic authority'! But I'm not! What a joke, how could I be a 'reactionary'? A bad person?" Wang Ganchang got angry when he mentioned "reactionary academic authority". Da Shao laughed loudly: "Mr. Wang, since you insist that you are not a 'reactionary academic authority' and not a 'little foreigner', it proves that he is indeed talking nonsense. Since you believe that he is talking nonsense, why bother?" They? Are you angry with them? Is it worth it? You are angry and your work is affected. Who do you think is happy? It’s not the people who want to knock you down! So can you make it?” Wang Ganchang was really dismissed: Yes, why should I care about those ignorant and reckless people?How can they understand what those of us who have to hide our true identities are pursuing in our lives?That sucks, why am I mad at myself?Thinking of this, Wang Ganchang stopped in his tracks. "Come on, if you don't get on the car behind you, you're going to push our butts." Just like that, Wang Ganchang got into the "Volga" again.