When the People's Republic of China was founded in 1949, China did not have enough economic strength to gain a firm foothold at that time. Should complete the transition to socialism first? Or should we carry out industrial construction first? This worries the leaders of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China.
At this time, Chairman Mao decisively made the decision to "one and three changes to ", and my country's industrialization construction and socialist transition were carried out simultaneously.
Scenes of establishing cooperatives
But this is a huge challenge for our country. Chairman Mao called on domestic scientists to gather together and contribute to the construction of the country. But at that time, there were also many scientists studying abroad in various countries such as the Soviet Union, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Japan, and might even settle down.
This period is not only a test for the country, but also a test for scientists. Should we give up the excellent scientific research conditions abroad and return to the impoverished motherland to engage in construction? Can we avoid the blockade of countries hostile to China and successfully obtain a visa to return to China? These are all questions.
However, when the country is in crisis, there are always people who are willing to step forward and overcome all difficulties and dangers to return to the country to help the motherland tide over the difficulties.
Nuclear physicist Wang Chengshu is one of these tens of millions of overseas scientists.
1. Female geniuses in physics
In 1900, Shanghai Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau introduced "Physics" to China. Japanese Orientalist Fujita Toyohachi translated this book into Chinese. After that, China had physics. The concept of learning.
In 1913, , Peking University removed the physics category. Only then did physics begin to develop as an independent discipline in China.
And Wang Chengshu entered the physics department of Yenjing University (the predecessor of Peking University) in 1930. Physics at that time was only 17 years old in China.
Wang Chengshu When He Was Young
If there is one word to evaluate Wang Chengshu’s choice to enter the Department of Physics at Yanda, it would be the word “courage”.
Science is a discipline that is rejected by most women and is still in its infancy in China. No matter how you look at it, physics should not be Wang Chengshu’s destiny. But at the age of 18, she relied on her love for physics and entered the palace of physics despite the criticism from her family and classmates.
At the same time, Wang Chengshu also became the only female among the 13 freshmen physics students admitted to Yenching University.
The predecessor of Peking University: Yenching University
In 1934, Wang Chengshu graduated from Yenching University with honors and conducted postgraduate studies at the school. Two years later, he stayed at the school and became a teaching assistant in the Department of Physics.
However, physics is a subject introduced from abroad after all, and many teaching systems are not yet complete . Moreover, the country was in the chaos of the Anti-Japanese War at that time, and the number of people who could translate foreign literature was limited. The domestically received information about physics There are also very few books on learning.
Gradually, domestic books on physics could no longer meet Wang Chengshu's needs, so Wang Chengshu began to apply for places to study abroad, hoping to further study physics and promote China's physics discipline..
Wang Chengshu on the campus of Yenching University
In 1941, Wang Chengshu's application to study abroad was approved by the University of Michigan in the United States. After that, she went to the United States alone to study for a doctorate. But this time, I couldn't even come back even if I wanted to.
Wang Chengshu studied under physicist Uhlenbeck in the United States, and showed her talents in the American physics community. She and her teacher created "Wang Chengshu-Uhlenbeck's equation ", which shocked the entire physics community. This formula is still used today.
Uhlenbeck has praised Wang Chengshu's talent in physics more than once, and tried his best to keep her as a researcher in his institute.
Wang Chengshu ended his postdoctoral studies in 1946, served as an associate researcher and researcher at the University of Michigan, and worked at Princeton Institute for Advanced Study .
Wang Chengshu's husband Zhang Wenyu also came to the United States to live with her in order to support his wife's work.
At this time, Wang Chengshu was already a well-known professor of physics. He lived in a high-end bungalow assigned by the institute, drove a car, and lived a very comfortable life.
Wang Chengshu and husband Zhang Wenyu
But she finally chose to give up all this.
2. The Difficult Road Back to China
In 1949, , the People's Republic of China was founded. China finally ended its internal and external troubles and ushered in opportunities for development and construction, and it was time for Wang Chengshu to put his skills into play.
When she heard the news of the founding of New China in the United States, she shed tears of excitement. Wang Chengshu decided to return to China and personally participate in creating scientific research conditions.
Her decision won the support of her husband, and the two began the difficult and tortuous road of applying to return to China.
Although the New China at that time had been established, it was resented by the United States. The United States implemented policies of political suppression and economic blockade against China, and blocked the inflow of technology and talents into China.
Many scientists studying in the United States have been suppressed and monitored by the U.S. government because they applied to return to their countries. Qian Xuesen, Wang Chengshu, Pan Jingong, Li Jingjun, etc. are all scientists who have been hostile to the United States because of their return to China.
Qian Xuesen
and Wang Chengshu applied to return to China for 7 years. From 1949, when Wang Chengshu submitted her first application, to 1956, the United States used every means to monitor Wang Chengshu, obstructed her from returning to the country, and even illegally detained her.
Qian Xuesen, the father of my country's two bombs and one star, was once placed under house arrest by the US government. He was tortured to the point of losing 20 pounds in less than 10 days. The US government even declared: "Even if he is shot, he cannot be allowed to return to the country!"
Qian Xuesen
and Wang Chengshu were not only monitored by the US FBI, but also pressured by various public opinions around him.
At that time, Wang Chengshu's teachers and classmates in the United States persuaded her to stay in the United States. Everyone could not understand why Wang Chengshu had to give up her favorable living conditions and return to her impoverished motherland. But Wang Chengshu knew in his heart that the country needed them at this time.
Therefore, no matter how much everyone persuaded her, she did not give up. The only person around Wang Chengshu who supported her was his husband Zhang Wenyu.
Wang Chengshu
html For 2007, Wang Chengshu and her husband have been preparing to return to China. They packed more than 300 pieces of information collected in the United States into ordinary mails and sent them back to China one by one. The information was returned, but the people could not go back. They can only submit visas again and again.Scientists who are eager to return to China have not given up, and neither have China's leaders.
Since the United States began to use various means to prevent Chinese scientists from returning to the country, Chairman Mao and Zhou Enlai have repeatedly negotiated and negotiated conditions with the United States, asking the United States to release them.
In 1955, Premier Zhou Enlai exchanged 11 US military prisoners of war for Qian Xuesen.
In 1956, China also made conditions with the United States, allowing Wang Chengshu, Zhang Wenyu, Guo Yonghuai and other scientists to return to the motherland.
3. Taking over the research work in new fields
In 1956 , Wang Chengshu finally returned to the motherland after 15 years. Standing at the gate of the airport, Wang Chengshu shed tears of excitement. She breathed the air of the motherland hard and expressed her longing for the motherland. feeling.
The return of a group of scientists such as Wang Chengshu is a timely help for China.
Group photo of Wang Chengshu and his colleagues
Sino-Soviet relations deteriorated in the 1950s and 1960s. The Soviet Union gradually withdrew materials and talents supporting China, putting China in an extremely embarrassing situation.
At this moment, Chairman Mao decisively set up the banner of "self-reliance and hard work" and called on domestic scientists to gather together to carry out scientific research for the construction of New China.
After Wang Chengshu returned to China, he first entered the physics department of Peking University to teach. Wang Chengshu was deeply moved when he returned to the familiar campus again at the age of 44.
Over the past 20 years, Wang Chengshu's deep cultivation in the field of physics has reached the top level of domestic physics. She wants to pass on the most advanced knowledge to the next generation and promote the development and progress of Chinese education.
Wang Chengshu
However, less than two years after teaching at Peking University , the organization assigned Wang Chengshu a new task-the research of thermonuclear fusion.
In 1956, China and the Soviet Union signed an agreement on the Soviet Union's assistance to China in building its atomic energy industry, and then began the development of the atomic bomb . However, Sino-Soviet relations deteriorated in 1958, and the Soviet Union withdrew all aid experts and equipment, putting China's atomic bomb research in an embarrassing situation.
However, thermonuclear fusion technology, as a key technology in the development of atomic bombs, is completely blank in China.
But even Wang Chengshu, who is already at the top level in the field of physics, has not yet set foot in this field. Facing a brand new field, Wang Chengshu may have to bear greater pressure, but Wang Chengshu agreed without hesitation.
The technology of thermonuclear fusion is too complicated, and there are no relevant reference books in China. If it is developed purely based on experiments, I don’t know that it will not be successfully developed until the Year of the Monkey. In order to become familiar with the core of thermonuclear fusion in the fastest way, Wang Chengshu Decided to study in the Soviet Union.
Despite the changes in Sino-Soviet relations, Wang Chengshu still received help from Soviet experts at the Soviet Atomic Energy Research Institute.
When Soviet experts went to China for reinforcements, China gave them the highest courtesy. Experts from the two countries had already established a profound friendship, and Soviet experts were also full of admiration for Chinese experts.
Wang Chengshu studied at the Institute of Atomic Energy for three months, and then returned to China to continue developing thermonuclear fusion.
But Wang Chengshu suddenly disappeared from public view one day.
4. Concentrating on developing
incognito In March 1961, Wang Chengshu’s colleague Qian Sanqiang found Wang Chengshu and said to her: "Chengshu, I have a very important matter to discuss with you. Our country enriches uranium The development has encountered problems, and now the organization wants to send you Go to the 504 uranium mine in Lanzhou to develop uranium enrichment."
Wang Chengshu didn't even ask for a reason and said directly: "I am willing to go."
Qian Sanqiang, the father of the Chinese nuclear bomb,
but went to the Lanzhou 504 plant. It's not as simple as imagined.
Lanzhou 504 Factory is one of the "Five Factories and Three Mines" established by China. It is known as China's top secret nuclear forbidden area . The scientists who go there cannot tell anyone around them their location and what to do. things.
Lanzhou 504 Factory
They stayed away from family and friends, remained anonymous, and conducted repeated development and testing in an uninhabited nuclear base. They also had to bear the risk of nuclear radiation and harsh environmental conditions.
Faced with such difficult conditions, Wang Chengshu still did not hesitate at all. Her love for serving the country was so pure and firm.
In this way, Wang Chengshu disappeared from the sight of his students, family and colleagues. Even the national leaders, only Chairman Mao and Premier Zhou knew Wang Chengshu's whereabouts.
No one knew where she went, but Wang Chengshu only left one sentence: "I am going on a long business trip." He never saw her again.
504 Factory
Since then, Wang Chengshu has taken root in the Gobi Desert and devoted himself to the development of enriched uranium raw materials for uranium-235.
Uranium-235, as the main raw material for making atomic bombs, directly determines whether an atomic bomb can be made.
However, in natural uranium ore , fissile uranium-235 only accounts for 0.711%, and the concentration of enriched uranium used as raw material for nuclear weapons must reach more than 90%.
Therefore, it is an extremely difficult technical project to extract enriched uranium that meets this standard. From prospecting, beneficiation, mining to final refining, hundreds of processes are required to extract enriched uranium step by step.
504 Factory
Wang Chengshu and a group of scientific researchers took root in the Gobi Desert in Lanzhou and jointly solved various problems faced in refining and enriching uranium.
If you don't have equipment, you have to develop and make equipment first. If you don't have tools, you have to make tools. The scientific researchers here rely on a few notebooks provided by Soviet experts, and then carry out constant trials and errors.
After the unremitting efforts of scientific researchers, , , on January 14, 1964, , uranium-235 was finally successfully refined.
Wang Chengshu still remembers the scene of everyone cheering after the results of the last experiment came out. After 4 years of development, enriched uranium that meets the standards for making atomic bombs was finally extracted. The researchers named it "Uranium-235" .
The successful development of "uranium-235" marks the completion of the most important step in the development process of atomic bombs.
After the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China learned of the news, it sent Deng Xiaoping to inspect Lanzhou 504 Factory.
Deng Xiaoping
Surrounded by a group of scientific researchers, Deng Xiaoping entered Factory 504. In the crowd, Deng Xiaoping suddenly saw a familiar figure. He walked straight towards Wang Chengshu and said in surprise: " Professor Wang Chengshu, so you are here!"
Everyone looked at him in surprise, and Wang Chengshu said: "Chief, do you know me?"
Deng Xiaoping said: "At the meeting of heroes, who didn't know that there was someone in China? 'Marie Curie’, I am very impressed by you!”
Wang Chengshu smiled sheepishly, and said to Deng Xiaoping: “I didn’t expect the chief to still remember me, thank you for the compliment!”
Lanzhou 5 Factory 04 has successively provided qualified nuclear fuel for China's first atomic bomb, the first hydrogen bomb, the first nuclear submarine, and the first nuclear power plant. It is known as the "cradle of China's enriched uranium industry." Wang Chengshu made an indelible contribution here.
Conclusion:
Tang Dynasty poet Dai Shulun's "Two Songs on the Fortress Part 2" contains two lines that describe Professor Wang Chengshu particularly well: "Wish Why should I be born in Yumen Pass when I have such a long life to serve the country?" Dai Shulun used this poem to express his sacrificial spirit of "giving up his family and serving everyone" in order to serve the country. Even if he cannot return home, he is still full of pride in being able to serve the country. This may be true. This must be Wang Chengshu's state of mind at that time.
