Chapter 630: 3,000 Tons of Gold

(The gold price in the previous chapter was wrong and has been revised)

The bill submitted by President Wilkie to Congress to unite the Soviet Union against Germany was unanimously passed on the same day. Of course, they have not forgotten the unprovoked murder of the former Secretary of State, but they must first deal with Germany, a terrible enemy, and the former Secretary of State's grudges can be settled slowly in the future.

Regarding the 3,000 tons of gold "extorted" by the Germans, there were disagreements among the members.

After all, 3,000 tons of gold is indeed not a small amount. To hand it over so obediently makes people feel both cowardly and distressed. Therefore, some people proposed to delay as much time as possible until the U.S. and Soviet troops launched an attack on Germany; while some people objected that even if the U.S. and Soviet troops could launch an offensive on Germany tomorrow, the war would not end in a day or two, and the Germans would still Free to bomb the United States. By then, as the Germans threatened, the western industrial zone and the southern industrial zone will be attacked, and the losses may be as high as thousands of tons or tens of thousands of tons of gold. Who will bear these losses? !

After arguing for a long time, the councilors finally reached an agreement that the gold still had to be paid.

"Okay, how many months will it take to pay this time?"

"Of course it's been a month!"

"One month? Can we defeat Germany in one month?! I heard that the new high-altitude fighter planes and anti-aircraft guns will be put into the war in another year. You only pay for one month, what if the Germans want 6,000 tons next month? Next month How about nine thousand tons per month?”

"Yeah, these damn Germans, if they had known this, they should have given them more last time." Last time, they had to happily take out 3,000 tons, which was a 6-month protection period.

"Six thousand tons? Nine thousand tons? How can we have so much gold?!"

"I propose to hand over the money for two months. After we defeat Germany, we can get it back twice as much."

"The gold reserves in our treasury are already less than 6,000 tons. How can they be enough for two months?"

"Haven't you heard? The Germans extorted 2,000 tons of gold from Turkey as armistice payment. The Turks couldn't afford that much gold, so they evacuated the treasures of the Topkapi Palace Museum to avoid annihilation!"

"Is it possible that we also have to collect treasures from museums and give them to the Germans?"

After arguing for a long time, everyone finally decided to pay 3,000 tons of gold for one month in advance. Many members of Congress gritted their teeth and cursed and would not give up until Germany was destroyed.

The news that the Americans agreed to hand over gold reached Berlin, and everyone in the conference room cheered. "These Americans are really cowardly. Why don't they just surrender?" This is the second time that Americans have taken money from their own treasury, and it is real gold.

"Your Highness, the Americans must be counting on uniting with the Soviet Union to defeat us."

Yannick nodded. "Yes, the United States and the Soviet Union were already flirting with each other a few months ago, but President Roosevelt has always been unwilling to unite with the Soviet Union. Now the first thing that the newly-appointed President Wilkie will do is probably to unite and merge. Reinforce the Soviet Union.”

If they did not land in the Soviet Union, then the United States would have no use for all its production capacity and troops, but he did not know whether Stalin would agree to these American soldiers setting foot on Soviet soil.

"Marshal Dönitz, what's going on over there in the Pacific?"

Dönitz said respectfully. "Your Highness, there are currently more than forty ocean-going submarines swimming in the Pacific Ocean, and there are fifty ocean-going submarines at the Oceania Fleet base. I am planning to send Tiger Shark-class submarines No. 3 and No. 4 to the Pacific Ocean."

The Tiger Shark-class No. 3 submarine is an AIP submarine equipped with a closed-cycle diesel engine system, while the Tiger Shark-class No. 4 submarine is the first nuclear-powered submarine in this time and space.

Yannick said extremely seriously. "We must ensure the safety of nuclear reactors."

He knew that a nuclear reactor was like Pandora's Box. Although the nuclear reactor on a submarine would not explode like a nuclear bomb, even a slight leak would be fatal to submariners in a confined space.

There have been many nuclear submarine accidents in later generations. Among them, the accident of the Soviet K-19 nuclear submarine almost destroyed the world.

On July 4, 1961, the Soviet nuclear submarine K-19 had an accident in the Norwegian waters near the Norwegian island of Yaimain: a pipe in the submarine's nuclear reactor leaked, causing the reactor to overheat and possibly explode. The island was a NATO military base. It was the peak of the Cold War at that time, and the consequences of a nuclear submarine explosion could be imagined.

After the accident occurred, the officers and soldiers on the boat immediately adopted all the prescribed accident handling measures, but in the end it was to no avail. After the captain Zadeev held an emergency meeting of technical experts, he ordered "to install a water pipe that was not specified in the submarine's original plan as soon as possible, and to use the water in the spare drinking water tank to cool the nuclear reactor." After two hours of intense work, finally Reduce the temperature of the nuclear reactor to within the controllable temperature range of the control panel, thereby avoiding an explosion accident. However, because the operators spent too long in an environment with extremely high nuclear radiation and aerosols, a total of eight submariners died within days to weeks after the incident, and 14 others died shortly after returning home.

Later, Gorbachev talked about the accident and believed: "Thanks to the heroic actions of these submarine heroes, the nuclear reactor did not explode and a huge ecological disaster was avoided (the ecological impact after the explosion of the K-19 nuclear submarine will be Chernobyl 10 times that of a nuclear power plant accident).”

He stressed: "Moreover, the K-19 nuclear submarine accident occurred during the Cold War and the Caribbean crisis, when Soviet and American warships and nuclear submarines were always on combat duty. Once a Soviet nuclear submarine exploded near a NATO military base, the United States would certainly regard it as a provocation by the Soviet army. The United States and other NATO countries would immediately retaliate, thus triggering World War III." Gorbachev said that the K-19 nuclear submarine accident was kept strictly confidential until 1990. After that, none of the officers and soldiers who replaced the Zadeyev submarine crew knew about this, and no one in the Zadeyev submarine crew was commended for it. The martyrs who died were secretly buried in lead coffins overnight, and the location was not even told to their relatives.

Therefore, Yannick repeatedly emphasized the safety of nuclear reactors. "Multi-layer strict sealing measures must be implemented to absolutely isolate nuclear radiation."

Dönitz said confidently. "Yes, Your Highness. The nuclear reactor in the submarine is isolated by thick lead plates. A radiation alarm is also installed. Once the radiation exceeds the standard, an alarm will be sounded immediately. And lead plates are also attached between each compartment. In addition, there are three excellent nuclear engineers accompanying the submarine to carry out the mission to ensure that nothing goes wrong."

"That's good. Don't take it lightly." Yannick nodded. "Marshal Raeder, send a surface fleet to the Pacific Ocean. It doesn't need to fight with the US fleet. It is dedicated to the mission of disrupting commerce. A battleship, two aircraft carriers, several heavy cruisers and several cruisers and destroyers will be enough."

Raeder said respectfully. "Yes, Your Highness, I will arrange it immediately."