On the evening of October 16, 1964, Chairman Mao Zedong could not suppress his inner excitement, and let Zhou Enlai, who was receiving the cast and crew of the large-scale musical and dance epic "Dongfang Hong" in the Great Hall of the People, announce an exciting news: At 15 o'clock Beijing time today, China's first atomic bomb explosion was successful, and the whole audience was suddenly full of joy and thunder, and Premier Zhou said humorously, "Everyone is willing to cheer, you can applaud, but don't jump on the floor."
The next day, Premier Zhou, in his report to the Standing Committee of the Second National People's Congress, said: With the explosion of China's first atomic bomb, it is time to sweep away all feelings of inferiority." This loud noise made the world re-understand China, and also let the world truly hear the roar of the new Chinese people who were bullied by the great powers for hundreds of years.
But who made New China stand up straight in front of the countries of the world with this loud noise and mushroom clouds? He is Deng Jiaxian!
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="67" > study</h1>
Deng Jiaxian, born in 1924 in Bailinsaka, Huaining County, Anhui Province, was the person in charge of the theoretical design of the first atomic and hydrogen bomb in New China, the leader and founder of the development of nuclear weapons, and from the successful test of atomic bombs and hydrogen bombs to the major principle breakthroughs and development of new nuclear weapons, Deng Jiaxian made indelible and important contributions.
His father, Deng Yijing, was a famous philosopher, educator and modern aesthetician in China, and Deng Jiaxian was carried to Beijing by his family when he was less than one year old, when his father had already returned to China after completing his studies and became a professor at Peking University. When their children were elementary school students, their learned fathers began to let them read the Four Books and Five Classics, and at the same time asked them to read world famous works and learn English, mathematics, etc. Although the father is very strict with the children's learning requirements, he does not bind the child's nature with the strict rules that Kong Menglun often has. In middle school, Deng Jiaxian was no longer a naughty boy, and he became more and more fond of mathematics and physics.
When Deng Jiaxian was studying at Beijing Chongde Middle School, in addition to his excellent grades, his outlook on life had slowly matured, and just as his thoughts began to take shape, the peaceful study life in Beijing was shattered by the iron hooves of the invaders.
After the fall of Peiping on July 29, 1937, the Invading Japanese Army forced citizens to march to celebrate their so-called "victory" after each attack on a city in China. The same was true of the Japanese army occupying Peiping, and Deng Jiaxian could not bear this humiliation, so he tore a Japanese flag to pieces in full view of everyone and threw it on the ground and stomped on it fiercely.
After this incident, one of his father's close friends came to the door and said that sooner or later the matter would be reported, or let Jia Xian leave Peiping as soon as possible to hide. In desperation, Deng Yijing asked his eldest daughter to take her brother south to Kunming. Before leaving, the father said to his son: "Jia'er, in the future, you must study science, do not study literature, science is more useful to the country" In fact, Deng Yijing is not a scientific salvationist, he is only based on his own experience to pin his hopes on Deng Jiaxian.
When he said goodbye to his younger brother Deng Haoxian, Deng Jiaxian said, "Brother Mao, I only have hatred now, no tears!" This resounding remark shows that although the young Deng Jiaxian was already a mature and firm patriot at this time.
At the turn of the spring and summer of 1940, the sisters and brothers set off from Beiping, and the road to Kunming was not as good as today, and because there was war, they had to go around. They traveled south to Shanghai, and then traveled through Hong Kong to Kunming that summer.
One day Deng Jia was walking on the mountain road by the river, just in time to encounter the Japanese bombing, one bomb after another fell on the houses, the fire rose, the smoke billowed out, he had to be like other people on the road, sticking to the stones on the side of the mountain. The people on the ground had no ability to resist at all, and could only watch the enemy planes wreak havoc in the air without fear. At this time, Deng Jiaxian, who was in danger, finally understood a truth, and it was absolutely impossible for a backward country that was bullied to have a real peaceful life even if it was far away from the front line of the battle.
In the autumn of 1941, Deng Jia was first admitted to the Department of Physics of Southwest United University, and many famous teachers and strict teaching of Southwest United University made the diligent and studious Deng Jia play a smooth and effortless study, and he achieved very excellent results in various subjects, which were recognized by many professors of Southwest United University.
At that time, there was a song of "Chinese Boys" that was widely sung by students: "Chinese boys, Chinese boys, must hold the sky with one hand, sleeping lion for a thousand years, sleeping lion for a thousand years, a husband and wife, I have a sword, generous from the rong, hit the middle stream ... How many strange husbands in ancient and modern times, broken heads of yellow dust, Yanran Meritorious Service, still hot blood is still red"
Deng Jiaxian and many students sang such an exhilarating song, painstakingly pursuing China's dream of a strong country in the era of China's slaughter.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="69" > study abroad</h1>
In the summer of 1946, Deng Jiaxian was hired as an assistant professor in the Physics Department of Peking University, returned to Beiping after a six-year absence, and during his time as an assistant professor at Peking University, he met two students who had a major relationship with his life, the first was His wife Xu Luxi, who silently supported him in the future, and the other was Yu Min, who was studying in the Physics Department at the time and later became a partner.
While teaching at Peking University, Deng Jiaxian began to come into contact with Mao Zedong's articles, and he firmly believed that the Chinese Communist Party would build a new China. So while he was a teaching assistant, he continued to study hard to prepare for the exam to study in the United States, and he successfully passed the exam in 1947. In the autumn of the following year, Deng Jia first set sail from Shanghai to the other side of the ocean, and before leaving, a good friend of his said to him: "The sky in China is about to dawn, and you should stay in the motherland." Deng Jia smiled after listening to it and said, "In the future, the construction of the motherland will need people, and I will definitely come back when I have achieved success in my studies!" ”
Deng Jiaxian crossed the ocean to pursue a doctorate at Purdue University in the United States. At this time, his compatriot Yang Zhenning, who was born in Feixi, Anhui Province, went to the United States as early as 1945 and received a doctorate from the University of Chicago in 1948, and was staying in the United States as a postdoctoral fellow. The two of them grew up together and studied together at Beijing Chongde Middle School, at that time, they were like brothers, Yang Zhenning gave Deng Jiaxian a lot of help in his studies, and later went to the United States to study physics.
The solid foundation that Deng Jia first laid at the Southwest United University showed its role when he studied in the United States. Deng Jiaxian not only achieved excellent results in various subjects, but also won a scholarship, and he did not take a class in the second foreign language once, and actually successfully passed the exam. In this way, Deng Jiaxian can concentrate on studying physics, others need 3 years of doctoral courses, Deng Jiaxian only took 1 year and 11 months to complete all the credits, and completed the doctoral thesis "Deuterium's Light Ionization", and successfully passed the doctoral defense and successfully obtained a doctorate.
On the ninth day after receiving his doctorate, Deng Jia first fulfilled the promise he made when he left China two years ago, "I will come back when I finish my studies."
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="71" > work</h1>
Deng Jiaxian, who returned to his homeland in October 1950, was soon assigned to work at the Institute of Modern Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The 8 years he returned to China to participate in the work was the golden period of the construction of new China, and it was also the most relaxed and happy time in Deng Jiaxian's life. He married Ms. Xu Luxi, had a son and a daughter, and joined the Communist Party of China. The naughty nature of childhood was also revealed during this time, always taking the children out to swim, catch clams, catch frogs... Life and work are full and happy.
In 1957, Yang Zhenning won the Nobel Prize in Sweden, and at this time he was enjoying the world's top glory. But where did he know that a year later, Deng Jiaxian began to sleep in the desert depths of northwest China, using the most primitive method to explore the mysteries of the atomic bomb.
One day in August 1958, 34-year-old Deng Jiaxian was called into the office by Qian Sanqiang, then deputy director of the Second Aircraft Department, and said to him: "China wants to put a cannon battle, and it is going to transfer you to participate in this work." After that, Deng Jiaxian was transferred to the Ninth Academy of the Second Machine Department as the director of the theory department and served as the general person in charge of the atomic bomb theoretical design.
As soon as Qian Sanqiang said this sentence, it opened Deng Jiaxian's 28-year period of incognito. Since then, he has been closely linked to the birth and development of China's first atomic bomb and China's entire nuclear industry from scratch.
After receiving the task, Deng Jiaxian quickly disappeared from the sight of relatives and friends, he must be anonymous, can not publish academic papers, can not cooperate in public reports, can not casually interact with others, can not tell others or even his wife where he is, what he is doing, can not tell his parents, can not tell his wife and children, can only be in the vast desert, decades as a day to do nuclear theory research.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="73" > anonymous</h1>
He also knew in his heart that being able to join this special team was the trust of the party and the state in him, and it was to make what he had learned before have a broad place of use, and at the same time he also knew that New China needed the atomic bomb to strengthen the national prestige.
When he left, he didn't tell his wife anything, but left a sentence: "I will die without regrets about doing this!" ”
The atomic bomb, no one has ever seen, there is a blank in front of Deng Jiaxian... where to start? This was the first question he had to think about first. As the person in charge of the nuclear bomb, it is self-evident how heavy the burden on Deng Jiaxian's shoulders is.
At that time, such a metaphor was called "dragon head cubic". It is said that the leader in the development of nuclear weapons is in the Second Machine Department, the leader of the Second Machine Department is in the Ninth Academy, and the leader of the Ninth Academy is in the Theoretical Design Department, and the leader of the Theoretical Design Department is Deng Jiaxian.
Years later, his wife, Ms. Xu Luxi, recalled, "During this time he was very silent, even if sometimes he talked about interesting things at home, he laughed but he would suddenly interrupt laughter, and I felt that his whole person was split in half." The work half is always in motion, and even if it is relaxed, it is only a brief moment."
At this time, the wife found that her lover's favorite beethoven's song was replaced by "Pastoral Symphony" to "Symphony of Destiny". At this time, as the woman behind Deng Jiaxian, Xu Luxi understood very well that at this time, his lover was undergoing the double torture of a strong sense of patriotism and responsibility, and he needed to draw courage and strength from this music. If fate is the atomic bomb, he must hold the throat of fate tightly.
In the end, his thinking came to fruition, Deng Jiaxian found the "throat" of the atomic bomb, and he decided to take "neutron physics", "fluid mechanics" and "properties of matter under high temperature and pressure" as the three main directions of research. Following these three directions, he quickly divided the members of the theory department into three public relations teams. As the general manager, he always strictly checks on key nodes.
One night, the staff of the design department worked all night and finally calculated a value, but when they told Deng Jiaxian the value they had worked hard to get early in the morning, he said with a serious face, "This is not right, recalculation!" ”
Why did he deny the results of his colleague's hard night without calculating, because he himself roughly estimated a numerical range on paper, and if the number exceeded this range, it would be wrong, and the subsequent recalculations showed that Deng Jia was right first.
At the beginning of the development of the atomic bomb, there was also the help of Soviet experts, but in 1959, the Soviets withdrew the experts and destroyed all the information, which brought great difficulties to China's nuclear bomb development work. The results calculated by the designers did not match a key value given by the Soviet experts, so Deng Jiaxian led the team to repeated the calculation countless times, and later, the calculus paper was piled up from the ground to the roof, and finally proved that the value of the Soviet expert was wrong, just a value given casually.
The famous mathematician Hua Luogeng had a high evaluation of this calculus, saying that "it is the culmination of the world's mathematical problems."
At that time, they did not have a mainframe computer, and all the calculations used very primitive abacuses, slide rules, hand-cranked computers, and even paper and pen. Each value must be checked repeatedly to ensure accuracy, a key data calculation must have tens of thousands of outlets, each outlet to solve five or six equations, the finished bundle of paper in sacks piled up in the entire office area.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="75" > exploded successfully</h1>
In 1961, after three years of calculations, the scientific researchers led by Deng Jiaxian finally drew up a grand blueprint for the atomic bomb, and this blueprint was completely Chinese himself day by day, step by step.
On October 16, 1964, in the hinterland of China's western desert, a huge mushroom cloud rose in the air, and a loud noise shocked the world, and China's first atomic bomb successfully exploded.
In 1971, Yang Zhenning visited China for the first time, and under the arrangement of Premier Zhou, he met with his close friend Deng Jia, who had not heard from him for 20 years. At this time, Yang Zhenning, who had already won the Nobel Prize and was well-known around the world, did not know that the main hero of China's first atomic bomb was his hair child, Deng Jiaxian.
When Yang Zhenning returned to board the plane, he asked Deng Jiaxian a question, "I heard that Americans participated in the development of China's atomic and hydrogen bombs. Deng Jiaxian only smiled slightly, did not answer positively, and finally when he learned that China's atomic and hydrogen bombs were completely developed by Chinese themselves, and no foreigners participated, Yang Zhenning wept bitterly...
In fact, many people do not know that as early as a year before the atomic bomb explosion, Deng Jiaxian led the original team of people to start the theoretical design of the hydrogen bomb. Atomic bombs use the nuclear fission process to obtain energy, while hydrogen bombs use the principle of nuclear fusion to obtain energy, and the two theoretical processes are just the opposite. In the design of the hydrogen bomb, Deng Jiaxian and Yu Min, who are also friends and disciples, solve a series of basic and key theoretical problems.
In 1966, on the basis of the previous year's theoretical plan, Deng and Yu led the team through two thermonuclear tests to prove that this plan was correct.
On June 17, 1967, China's first hydrogen bomb also successfully exploded.
From the atomic bomb explosion to the hydrogen bomb explosion, the United States took 7 years and 4 months, the Soviet Union took 4 years, the United Kingdom took 4 years and 7 months, France took 8 years and 6 months, and China only took 2 years and 8 months under the efforts of Deng Jiaxian's team.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="77" > forward-looking recommendations</h1>
Unfortunately, the great man who designed the nuclear bomb was injured by the radiation of the nuclear bomb for this cause.
During a nuclear test in 1979, the bomb fell directly from a high altitude to the ground without a mushroom cloud. At that time, Deng Jiaxian, who was the general person in charge of theoretical design, disregarded the dissuasion of others, forced himself to board the jeep, personally entered the scene, and looked for debris. However, it was this time that his body suffered a fatal injury, and radioactive plutonium invaded the body and was absorbed by the bone marrow. In 1985, he had cancer, and the bleeding in his body could not be stopped, and he was finally admitted to the hospital.
Many people have always had a question, Deng Jiaxian made such a significant contribution to the atomic bomb and hydrogen bomb, how much money the state gave him.
In 1986, an old friend Yang Zhenning visited Deng Jiaxian, who was seriously ill, in Beijing, and also asked the question curiously: "In addition to the two award certificates, how much money has the state rewarded you?" ”
At the end of the question, Xu Luxi said: "Reward 10 yuan."
Deng Jiaxian added
Even lying in a hospital bed, Deng Jiaxian did not forget China's nuclear weapons cause. During this time, he and his old partner Yu Min and others did another milestone and major thing.
Deng Jiaxian, who was seriously ill, first submitted a proposal to the central authorities. He believes that the theoretical level of the world's nuclear powers is close to the limit, and that they can reach the level of computer simulation experiments without the need for more nuclear tests. He therefore judged that it was entirely possible for the nuclear-weapon States to maintain their status as nuclear Powers by restricting the rights of others. If other nuclear powers do this, it will have very serious consequences for China's nuclear weapons industry, which is in a critical stage of development.
On March 18, 1986, Deng Jiaxian, who was seriously ill, endured severe physical pain and wrote a note proposal to Hu Side, then vice president of the Ninth Yuan:
"Old Hu, I have another operation tomorrow." I read the communication twice, and I think it's okay, but the last paragraph should be linked to Star Wars, such as lasers, electromagnetic orbits and other high technologies, and then I and Lao Yu will sign it. The head up is the Ministry of Nuclear Industry, the Commission of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense".
Deng Jiaxian's keen eye allowed China's nuclear weapons development to continue to be brilliant for a full 10 years, and finally reached the level of laboratory simulation before a total ban on nuclear testing.
In June 1986, the name of Deng Jiaxian, who had been incognito for 28 years, suddenly appeared in major newspapers across the country at the same time. However, just over a month later, Deng Jiaxian, a nuclear physicist of the new Chinese generation and the founder of the two bombs, passed away.
At the time of his deathbed, Deng Jiaxian's last words to the people around him were
On July 29, 1996, the tenth anniversary of Deng Jiaxian's death, China conducted its last nuclear test. The next day, China announced a moratorium on nuclear testing to the world.