After listening to Lin Mo's story, Peng Zhijian looked suspicious and slowly expressed his guess.
"What?...These are related to chemical weapons? Lao Peng...you...remember correctly?"
Professor Zhang, who was good at theory, couldn't help but stood up, his tone was trembling, and his face was even distorted.
It’s no wonder that this person had such a big reaction. He was also born abroad and studied for a doctorate in France after the European War. He has come into contact with officers who experienced gas stations. He still gets chills all over his body when he recalls how he described to him the battlefields that experienced poison gas attacks.
He has heard that the Japanese army used poison gas in the north, but he has never believed it. After all, there are clear international conventions prohibiting it. He also scorns some suggestions that China should develop chemical weapons to counter Japan, but now there is clear evidence.
What he saw before him completely overturned his previous understanding. How could he not be surprised?
In Chinese academic circles, the power of chemical weapons during the European War shocked many people, especially many enlightened people who realized that China and Japan would definitely go to war. There was no shortage of voices calling on the Chinese government to respond.
Although chemical weapons are the poor man's atomic bomb, it is not easy for China, which is poor and weak at this time, to obtain proper high-tech weapons. After all, it is not the kind of technology that will be used in later generations. Many technologies have already spread, and raw materials are not so hard to find.
era.
Compared with Professor Zhang, Teacher Zheng is much more rational. He has naturally paid attention to chemical weapons, but he does not think that a piece of paper can have much restraint.
"Lao Peng, I have also been concerned about chemical weapons, but it seems that these things cannot be used in chemical weapons, right?"
Hearing Professor Zheng's question, Lin Mo also looked at Peng Zhijian. Although his guess was the same as Peng Zhijian's, what he needed was the facts.
"Old Zheng, it's normal that you don't recognize it. After all, all you have access to is public information, and when I was working at a German research institute, I had the opportunity to look through some unpublished information in this regard.
The things we have identified so far can be roughly divided into three categories. One category is new chemical weapons that may be applied on the battlefield, or pre-synthetic substances of such new chemical weapons.
These substances can either be directly applied on the battlefield, or new substances can be applied on the battlefield after one or two simple synthesis operations.
The new chemical weapons I am talking about are chemical weapons that were already used on the battlefield during the European War and are still in the experimental or theoretical stage.
The second category is the chemical weapons that were common on the battlefield during the European War. The core or important additive compounds required for the new synthesis path were basically in the experimental or theoretical stage at that time. In theory, these new paths can be used
for larger scale production or lower production costs.
As for the third category, I don’t know about it. What I saw back then were only some such laboratories reporting research results or theories and applying for research funding, and the information was either rejected or not approved.
Real secrets are not accessible to me."
After listening to this, Lin Mo asked: "Mr. Peng, what level are the Japanese currently at in terms of research in the field of chemical weapons?"
"Hmm..." Peng Zhijian thought for a moment and said: "At least the Japanese have mastered the chemical weapons that were used on the battlefield during the European War, and can even apply them on the battlefield on a large scale.
After all, the second type of things is the exploration of new production paths for this type of weapons, and a new production path requires a lot of time and energy to explore, so generally exploring new production paths is done in
After mastering the mature production path.
As for the things in the first category, I guess they should be used to screen and research new chemical weapons, and they can also prove that the other party has mastered the chemical weapons commonly used in the European war.
Another key point is the Japanese's ability to obtain intelligence in Europe. If they are extremely capable, they will definitely have the opportunity to obtain more confidential chemical weapons research information.
And these can be recognized by me, but the level of confidentiality is obviously not high enough. They should only belong to the diffusion research of the Japanese, and they belong to the three-pole group. But this means that many more confidential chemical weapons have been researched by them. So,
The Japanese's chemical weapons research has reached an extremely high level.
If the Japanese's ability to obtain intelligence in Europe is not too strong, then the situation is not bad, but it has obviously reached the stage of screening and researching new chemical weapons. For us, this is also the worst of bad things."
After some answers, everyone present fell silent. They had no access to whether China had chemical weapons, but even if it did, it was far behind its opponents.
Feeling this atmosphere, Director Sun had a flash of inspiration and said: "Japan's chemical level is not bad, these things can be produced, and chemical weapons are absolutely confidential. They should not use this method to obtain raw materials, will they?
What could be the mistake?"
As soon as these words came out, Professor Zhang and Lecturer Zheng both turned their attention to Lin Mo. They had the same expectations as Director Sun. Only Peng Zhijian turned his head to the side and glanced at Director Sun with disgust. Cui Shunong listened quietly on the side.
, do not express an opinion.
"Wait a moment..." Looking at the expectant looks of several people, Lin Mo felt mixed emotions in his heart. He could only reluctantly hold his hands and let them wait. After all, although these people felt lucky, they still felt bad in their hearts.
I still think about this country.
"Teacher Peng, how difficult is it to produce these chemicals in small quantities by yourself? How much does it cost?"
After hearing Lin Mo's inquiry, Peng Zhijian thought about it and said: "Most of the things we recognized require a series of synthetic processes to be produced.
Some of them, if only produced in small quantities, can be prepared and synthesized in the laboratory. Some of them are relatively easy, while others are more cumbersome.
For the remaining part, due to the conditions during the synthesis process, either engraving is required, special equipment is required, or certain additions in the synthesis path are difficult to make. If you only produce a small amount by yourself, it will not only take a lot of time and effort, but also cost a lot.
Extremely huge.
In general, the cost of manpower, material, materials, etc. required for the first part of small-scale production in the laboratory is probably within ten to twenty times that of direct purchase.
As for the latter part, the cost is much higher, say dozens or hundreds of times less, especially the kind that requires specialized equipment. If this kind of equipment can be purchased or is readily available, the cost will be lower. If the equipment needs to be re-made from scratch,
R&D and manufacturing, and finally just a small amount of production, then the various expenses of equipment manufacturing have to be spread over this small amount of output, and the cost may be thousands or tens of thousands of times that of direct procurement."
Lin Mo nodded and continued to ask: "Teacher Peng, are these things easy to buy in Europe and the United States? Will they face some supervision or restrictions?"
"It is certain that there will be supervision and restrictions. After all, it may be related to chemical weapons. During the European War, all countries were deeply harmed by chemical weapons, and they must be extremely concerned about it, either explicitly or covertly. But it also depends on the type of chemical. Different chemicals
There are definitely different regulations and restrictions."
After speaking, Peng Zhijian pointed out a few of them and said: "These items have been widely developed for commercial use, and the supervision and restrictions on procurement are very loose, so ordinary people can buy them with some effort.
As for the rest, some have not yet been developed for commercial use, but some laboratories use existing equipment to produce small batches and supply them to some research institutions for research, but these are generally domestic institutions.
Others have commercial value, but the demand is not large. They are generally produced by laboratories or small companies. They are more expensive and difficult to obtain.
The latter two, because their output is small and easy to monitor, especially some of them, are considered to be likely to be used in chemical weapons, so regulatory restrictions are extremely strict, and they can basically only be obtained through some secret channels.
If a variety of chemicals are obtained together, or if multiple chemicals are discovered during transportation, once attention is drawn and they are investigated, it is not difficult to guess in European and American countries that they are related to chemical weapons, so it is very difficult to choose to use other countries as cover.
possible."
Lin Mo nodded, looked at a few people, and said: "Now, I can roughly answer the previous questions.
First of all, according to the clues provided by Teacher Peng and the quantity we seized, we can roughly confirm that if these chemicals are used in chemical weapons research, they should be used in the experimental screening and verification stage. Whether they are used in chemical weapons is still unknown.
As for screening and verification experiments, the current mainstream method is to test various chemicals like looking for a needle in a haystack. Even if there are some theories and the like that can be used for preliminary screening, it is inevitable to conduct screening experiments one by one.
As for this work, the chemicals that need to be screened are obviously huge, and the costs required are also huge. Even if huge sums of money are allocated to each of the chemicals that need to be screened, the quantity will not be enough.
many.
Therefore, a very important point in this kind of screening work is to control costs. For chemicals that can be produced domestically or can be easily purchased on the market, it is okay, but for chemicals like the ones we seized, it is very troublesome.
Research and produce it yourself! The cost is extremely huge. Whether these are useful is still unknown, but it is not possible without screening. After all, it has been proposed that it can be used as a chemical weapon, and previous people have screened it. The probability of it being used as a chemical weapon is
Much higher than ordinary chemicals.
Of course, there are ways to control the cost of self-production, or to offset the cost, that is, after self-production screening, it can be used for commercial operations. However, this involves patent issues. Japan currently still needs to compete internationally. In order to
I don’t think it’s enough to blatantly infringe other countries’ patents for just a small amount of money.”
After hearing about the patent, Professor Zhang looked at the samples on the table and recalled, "Indeed, many of the chemical compounds are still within the patent protection period. The remaining ones with greater commercial value have mainstream synthesis routes.
Basically within the patent protection period.”
Lin Mo nodded and continued: "One more thing, I have said before that the destination of this thing is the Northeast, which may also be the reason why it chose to purchase it from abroad.
Because the Japanese are not monolithic, and even the competition and power struggles within them are extremely cruel. For example, the Japanese forces in the Northeast have their own faction within Japan. If they do not want the forces in Japan to know or interfere,
For their research, they may also choose to obtain these things through the Western Channel.
Of course, there may be other reasons, such as various conflicts between the Japanese army and navy, and between the military and the government. It may also be the reason why they outsource their own research without relying on domestic forces.
However, these are just speculations. Since no one who knew the inside story has been arrested, we can only rely on our own research and inference.
But! Of all the various chemicals, so many have been identified to be related to chemical weapons, and so many methods have been used to transport them. I don’t believe there can be such a coincidence."
After listening to Lin Mo's words, the little luck in the minds of several people disappeared. Zhang, Peng, and Zheng knew that the matter was important and had begun to continue their research.
As for Director Sun, I regret saying this. Over the past few years, I have been busy with all kinds of trivial matters. Not to mention updating my professional knowledge, I have pretty much mastered what I learned before. Today I still have to catch up...
…
He continued to stay with a few people for a while. Seeing that the research would not produce any results in a short period of time, Lin Mo communicated with everyone and agreed on contact information. Of course, Lin Mo did not forget to reiterate the confidentiality requirement, so
Packed up his things and said goodbye and left.
After returning with Zhuzi, Lin Mo went to Xu Guyu to report. It happened that Lin Wenhua and Zhang Hongxin were also at Xu Guyu's place, which saved the day.
"Bang..." After Lin Mo finished speaking, Xu Guyu couldn't help but hit the table with a heavy palm, and Zhang Hongxin couldn't help but speak.
"Damn it, this little brat doesn't abide by any rules! This has already been an international convention signed, but he actually treats it as waste paper."
Hearing this, Lin Mo smiled bitterly and said: "As far as China and Japan are concerned, this convention is really just like useless paper. The main reason why this convention can be applied in European and American countries is that everyone has that ability. If you dare to use it, I will
If you can use it back, no one can afford the consequences, so they will naturally abide by it."
"What if we have one too?" Xu Guyu heard the meaning of Lin Mo's words and asked.
"With that, the Japanese would not dare to be so unscrupulous."
Hearing Lin Mo's words, Xu Guyu was slightly stunned. Lin Wenhua interjected: "In other words, we can't use it even if we have it."
"Yeah..." Lin Mo nodded helplessly and said: "Our use is also a violation of international conventions. When the time comes, the other party will be able to use this kind of weapon on a large scale without any hesitation.
The gap in industrial strength between China and Japan is too big. Once restraint is lost, we will suffer the loss. On the one hand, the chemical weapons are not as good as those of the other side, and on the other hand, the other side has relatively complete anti-virus equipment and measures. Our chemical weapons may not be able to do the job.
We have achieved great results, but the most important thing is that the battlefield is on our soil. If we use it, it may not cause much harm to the enemy, but it will cause huge harm to the people of the country."
Lin Mo also had another meaning that he didn't say clearly, which was that he had no ability to threaten the civilians of the other side. The army could distribute anti-virus equipment in large quantities and increase anti-virus troops, but it would be difficult for civilians to distribute these on a large scale. Unfortunately...