In 1937, at the entrance of Tsinghua University, a man in a tattered robe and holding a pickle jar in his arms tried to enter the campus. But in that era, there were many people fleeing because of the war, and people who had become beggars were everywhere, so the doorman stopped the beggar and said, This is the place where the school is held, and idle people are not allowed to enter!
The beggar did not pay attention to the doorman's words, but anxiously asked if Principal Mei was there. A small beggar actually wanted to see Principal Mei, it is estimated that he also came to ask for money, the doorman waved his hand, impatiently said, no longer there, the beggar has no choice, had to sit at the school gate and wait for Principal Mei.
The doorman suddenly noticed that the pickle jar was tightly held in the arms of the beggar, only to see the beggar carefully guarding it, afraid of being discovered and snatched away, but a broken jar, what treasure can be inside. Just then, a man came out of the school, and when the beggar saw it, he quickly got up and rushed forward, and before the doorman could stop him, the beggar came to the man and shouted excitedly in a hoarse voice, Principal Mei.
This person who came out of the school was Mei Yiqi, the president of Tsinghua University at the time, Mei Yiqi saw the beggar who suddenly appeared in front of him, first stunned, and then carefully looked at it, and was shocked, Professor Zhao, how did you come? The beggar did not speak, but gently patted the sauerkraut jar in his arms, Mei Yiqi's eyes were suddenly moist, and he quickly invited the beggar into the office.
Mei Yiqi
So, who is this beggar? Why can it arouse such high attention from Mei Yiqi? And what secrets are hidden in the sauerkraut jar he holds tightly in his arms? This beggar-like man is named Zhao Zhongyao, who is the father of China's atomic energy and the ancestor of China's nuclear physics community. What did such a big man go through? And why did he become a beggar? It has to start at the beginning.
Zhao Zhongyao was born in 1902 in Zhuji County, Zhejiang Province, his family situation in the local area is more than the upper and lower, and the parents who attach great importance to education, when their son was very young, they sent him to the school to read and write, with the accumulation of the sun and the moon, Zhao Zhongyao lived up to expectations, at the age of eighteen, he was admitted to the Physics Department of Nanjing Higher Normal School, and since then, he has begun his own path of physics.
Zhao Zhongyao
During his time at school, Zhao Zhongyao worked very hard, and his grades have always been among the best, and a few years later, he was given the opportunity to enter Tsinghua University as a teaching assistant. During this period, Zhao Zhongyao realized the backwardness of China's scientific research level, the so-called science and technology is strong, so he came up with the idea of studying abroad, set a goal, he began to soak in the library every day to study, after his unremitting efforts, he was successfully admitted to the California Institute of Technology in the United States, and entered the Nobel Prize in Physics, Professor Millikan, to study physics.
At that time, when science and technology were just emerging, physics could be said to be a very advanced subject, coupled with the limitations of scientific and technological means at that time, the difficulty of learning physics was very high, but Zhao Zhongyao seemed to be gifted in this regard, even if he encountered some obscure physical knowledge, he could still quickly learn and master, and soon stood out among the people.
Professor Millikan
Later, Zhao Zhongyao was hired by the Cavendish Laboratory at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom, where he worked with the nuclear master Rutherford, and over time, the two became very good friends. After 4 years of studying abroad, Zhao Zhongyao has learned the most advanced physics knowledge in the world, and it is time to return to China.
In 1931, Zhao Zhongyao set out to return to China, and on the eve of his departure from Britain, his friend Rutherford gave him fifty milligrams of radium element, hoping that he would continue to do research after returning to China and create glory again. Radium was a very scarce radioactive element at that time, and it was also a contraband, and it was very difficult to bring it back home safely.
Rutherford
However, Zhao Zhongyao knew very well that this thing played a decisive role in mainland scientific research, so he risked his life, concealed the search of officers and soldiers, and took this precious gift back to China and donated it to Tsinghua University, and it was this fifty milligram radium that initiated the research of modern nuclear physics in China. After that, Zhao Zhongyao opened China's first nuclear physics course at Tsinghua University, the first nuclear physics laboratory, and his students were scientists such as Qian Sanqiang and He Zehui.
In 1937, with the outbreak of the July 7 Incident, the Japanese army launched an all-out war of aggression against China, burning and looting everywhere it went, so many institutions of higher learning in Beijing were relocated, and Mei Yiqi, who was the president of Tsinghua University at the time, had long made plans to set up a temporary campus in Changsha, and the teachers and students were safely transferred.
However, due to the urgency of the evacuation, many of the equipment in the school laboratory had not been taken away, including the fifty grams of radium element. Zhao Zhongyao was very worried that once this thing fell into the hands of the Japanese, they would send it to Japan for research and create more weapons of mass destruction, and the consequences would be unimaginable.
So Zhao Zhongyao, who was halfway to the road, despite the persuasion of Mei Yiqi and others, returned to Tsinghua University again, risked danger, sneaked into the campus of Tsinghua University, and by virtue of his familiarity with the school, evaded the Japanese patrol, and successfully came to the physics laboratory, he loaded the radium into a lead box, and then put it into a pickle jar to seal, and then took advantage of the cover of night to leave the school smoothly.
Next, his task was to carry these fifty grams of radium elements with him and successfully reach the temporary campus set up in Changsha, but all along the way were Japanese officers and soldiers, and it was definitely not easy to pass the pass with his formal dress. In order to avoid accidents on the way south, Zhao Zhongyao changed a suit and leather shoes into a worn-out long shirt, and then made his face and hair dirty, and the next moment he became a beggar, and the previous sentence was like two people.
Under the cover of beggar costumes, Zhao Zhongyao held the pickle jar and risked being irradiated by radium all the way south. A month later he finally arrived in Changsha, on this road, although there was no danger, but to Changsha encountered problems, Changsha is a relatively large city, and the location chosen by President Mei was even more remote, Zhao Zhonghuan inquired for several days, and finally found out the exact location of the temporary campus of Tsinghua University.
So there was the opening scene, Zhao Zhongyao bumped all the way, and it was difficult to reach the gate of Tsinghua University with radium element, but because of his dress, he was blocked by the doorman and did not allow him to enter, fortunately, Mei Yiqi walked out of the school at this time and recognized Zhao Zhongyao, which saved fifty grams of radium element and created favorable conditions for the mainland scientific research experiments later.
Later, Changsha fell, Tsinghua University had to choose to relocate again, they came all the way to Kunming, and along the way, Zhao Zhongyao always held the sauerkraut jar, never left the side for a moment, even when he slept, he held it in his arms, because he knew perfectly how big radium radiation was, and he was not at ease about handing this treasure over to others for safekeeping.
Unfortunately, there were no conditions for using radium for physics experiments, so radium was sealed until 22 years later, when it finally came in handy. In 1946, the United States developed the world's first atomic bomb, and Zhao Zhongyao was also fortunate to be invited to participate in the viewing, when a mushroom cloud bloomed in front of him, he was deeply touched, when will China also have its own first atomic bomb?
In order to make this day come early, Zhao Zhongyao and others went to the United States to learn about nuclear physics and cosmic rays. At that time, although the cutting-edge technological equipment in the United States could be bought and sold, it was forbidden to sell to the outside world, which meant that even if the accelerator was purchased, it could not be shipped back to China because it could not get an export license, but if you wanted to have nuclear weapons, you had to buy related nuclear equipment.
There is no way, Zhao Zhongyao had to rely on himself to learn to design an accelerator from scratch, during this period, he slept and forgot to eat every day, devoted himself to learning, after 4 years of hard work, finally developed China's own accelerator, with the nuclear test needs of other materials have also been completed, Zhao Zhongyao is also the time to return to China.
But after everything was ready, Zhao Zhongyao was targeted by American agents, not only turned over the luggage he was carrying, but also directly dismantled the electronic circuits needed in the laboratory, and even withheld the physics books and periodicals he carried.
However, when the ship sailed through Japan, a speedboat of the United States intercepted the ship and detained Zhao Zhongyao in Japan on the grounds of investigation, and during the two-month interrogation, Zhao Zhongyao was unmoved from beginning to end in the face of coercion and inducement, and finally the United States lifted the seizure of Zhao Zhongyao, Zhao Zhongyao finally returned to the motherland he had in mind, and he also brought back thirty boxes of nuclear research equipment this time.
Later, under the leadership of Zhao Zhongyao, he developed his own V2 accelerator, laying the foundation for the successful launch of the atomic bomb after the mainland. Moreover, Zhao Zhongyao also cultivated a large number of physics talents for the motherland, who followed and devoted themselves to the research and development of the atomic bomb.
On October 16, 1964, China's first atomic bomb was successfully tested in the Lop Nur area, and after three years, the first hydrogen bomb on the mainland was successfully tested. In 1999, on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of New China, the mainland awarded twenty-three scientists with two bombs and one star merit medal, 8 of whom were zhao Zhongyao's students.
Unfortunately, as a mentor, Zhao Zhongyao did not witness the glorious moment of his own students, Zhao Zhongyao died of illness in 1998 at the age of ninety-six!
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