In July 1971, Yang Zhenning embarked on a plane back to his homeland. After arriving in Shanghai, he first visited his parents and brothers, then visited Fudan University, the Institute of Biochemistry of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and finally went to the last stop: Beijing.
On the eve of Yang Zhenning's imminent return to the United States, he received a letter from his friend Deng Jiaxian. In the letter, Deng Jiaxian wrote briefly: No one in China's atomic bomb project has participated except for the slight help of the Soviets before 1959! Yang Zhenning clutched the letter in his hand tightly, and tears came out with a strong shock. In a later memoir, Yang Zhenning wrote: "I am proud of the nation, but also proud of the first, there is a good fortune for the country!" ”
In 1924, Deng Jiaxian was born in a scholarly family. In 1945, after graduating from the Physics Department of Southwest United University, he went to teach at Peking University. In 1948, he crossed the ocean to study in the Department of Physics of Purdue University in the United States. In just one year and ten months, Deng Jia, who was less than 26 years old, first read full credits and obtained a doctorate, known as "Dr. Doll".
Deng Jiaxian's achievements in the United States attracted the attention of the US government. In order to retain Deng Jiaxian, the Americans offered excellent scientific research conditions and living conditions, and mentors and alumni also advised him to stay in the United States. However, Deng Jiaxian has always held the ambition of learning more skills to build a new China, and only 9 days after obtaining his doctorate, he returned to China with more than 200 experts and scholars.
After returning to China, Deng Jiaxian immediately threw himself into the construction of the China Institute of Modern Physics, which opened up a new situation for the theoretical research of nuclear physics in China.
In the autumn of 1958, Liu Jie, deputy director of the Second Machine Department, told Deng Jiaxian that the state was going to put up a "cannon battle" and asked him if he was willing to participate in this top-secret work. Deng Jiaxian agreed without hesitation, and after a brief farewell to his wife, he quickly disappeared from academia and appeared in the vast Gobi Desert in the northwest.
Deng Jia was first responsible for the theoretical design of nuclear weapons, and successively served as deputy director and director of the Nuclear Weapons Research Institute, and finally as director of the Science and Technology Committee of the Commission of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense. Deng Jiaxian knew that his task was arduous and poured all his efforts into his work. In order to understand the mystery of the atomic bomb, a lot of complex calculations are required. Deng Jia first took the young man to work three shifts, the abacus crackled, and sometimes a key data needed a year of calculation to complete. Not only that, Deng Jiaxian also had to brave the severe cold and heat to run to the Gobi Desert and the test site where the sand and stones flew. Over eight years, he led 15 nuclear tests on the ground and obtained valuable data and information.
In October 1964, China's first atomic bomb was successfully exploded. Subsequently, Deng Jiaxian and Yu Min quickly threw themselves into the research of the hydrogen bomb and designed the Deng-Yu program, and in only 2 years and 8 months, the hydrogen bomb successfully exploded, setting a record for the fastest speed in the world.
In 1979, an accident occurred during an airdrop test of a hydrogen bomb. In order to find out the cause, Deng Jiaxian took the lead in rushing into the accident area, resulting in a fatal nuclear radiation exposure to the body. After his health was seriously endangered, he continued to work. In 1985, Deng Jia first suffered from rectal cancer and had to be hospitalized for surgery. As his condition worsened, he began to have hemolytic bleeding all over his body, and the pain was unbearable. Knowing that his time was short, Deng Jiaxian said to the people who visited him, "I knew that this day would come, but I didn't expect it to come so quickly." ”
When Deng Jiaxian was seriously ill, his old friend Yang Zhenning, who had already won the Nobel Prize in Physics, came to visit him. During the period, when talking about the reward for the development of two bombs, Deng Jiaxian said: "The atomic bomb is 10 yuan, and the hydrogen bomb is 10 yuan. "On the question of the two-bomb bonus, it is indeed 20 yuan. At that time, the total prize of the entire scientific research group was 10,000 yuan, the first prize was 10 yuan, the second prize was 5 yuan, and the third prize was 3 yuan, and after the grading was issued, Deng Jiaxian got the highest level of bonuses, a total of 20 yuan. In the eyes of posterity, the reward given by the motherland to the merits of the republic is far more than ten yuan, and the title of "two bombs and one star" is the wealth that will never depreciate!