cicada

Chapter 1431 Go Down
Heavy water is essentially an isotope of water that can be produced by electrolysis, but requires multiple purification processes.

The electrolytic cells in this Norwegian factory were the most advanced equipment in Germany and the occupied territories. If they were destroyed, it would take the Germans at least six months to resume production.

Gui Youguang recalled the content mentioned in the training materials, turned around and gestured to his subordinates, then gently pushed open the iron gate.

I've heard that the Americans have already landed in Sicily.

Perhaps, but we have built a strong defensive line in the mountains of central Italy, and the Americans cannot advance any further.

Two German soldiers were discussing the battle situation in hushed tones, completely unaware that someone was slowly approaching from behind. The loud noise of machinery became the best helper for the operatives.

Gui Youguang pressed his feet to the rear of the target, gathered his strength slightly, and suddenly lunged forward, covering the German soldier's mouth with one hand and slitting his throat with a dagger with the other.

The chair beneath the soldier tipped over to the ground, but at the moment of impact, Gui You stretched out his bare foot to catch the back of the chair, continuing to exert force with his hands.

The German soldier in his arms struggled a few times, but his strength waned, and his legs kicked futilely on the ground. Soon, he stopped breathing in despair.

Another German soldier also died at the hands of the spy. Before he died, he tried to press the alarm button that was right next to him, but the spy did not give him any chance.

Gui Youguang laid the body flat, wiped the dagger with the uniform on the body, turned around and beckoned to the door.

Jack and his two companions, along with the other junior agents, entered the room. Seeing the blood and corpses scattered all over the floor, George, who had never seen such a bloody scene before, gagged a few times, but swallowed it back under Gui Youguang's cold gaze.

Inside the factory building beneath the glass curtain wall, several German soldiers carrying MP40s, unaware that their comrades above them were dead, continued their patrol along the designated route, albeit somewhat listlessly.

The monotonous work day after day, coupled with the lack of danger for a long time, caused these soldiers to lose their vigilance.

Gui Youguang observed for a moment, figured out the patrol route and pattern, and immediately summoned several junior agents.

"Two people are responsible for one target. No shooting allowed. Be quick. Go."

After assigning tasks to his subordinates, Gui Youguang stood sideways beside the glass curtain wall, monitoring the activity below from above, ready to send reinforcements at any time.

The junior agents who were assigned to this mission were all seasoned veterans. Under the cover of machinery and noise, the agents used daggers to slit the throats of the German soldiers one by one, which horrified Jack and William.

After clearing the Germans from the factory, the operatives began the next step: time bombs were installed on the core components of all the electrolytic cells.

These components are not only difficult to manufacture, but also made of special materials, making them difficult to repair once damaged.

Just as the agents were carrying out the plan methodically, William and George exchanged a few words and then stopped one of the junior agents, indicating that he had misplaced the bomb.

The junior agent glanced at Gui Youguang, and seeing Gui Youguang nod, he then reinstalled the bomb according to the British's instructions.

But the spies discovered another problem: the Germans were producing heavy water faster than expected, with hundreds of steel tanks filled with hundreds of tons of heavy water, and they didn't have enough bombs to carry.

George, as an expert, offered his professional opinion: "Sir, we must destroy this heavy water, otherwise this mission will be meaningless."

Gui Youguang raised his hand to stop the other person's incessant chatter, glanced around the factory, and issued a new order.

"Break open the steel tank and open the sewer."

The spies lifted the well cover in the corner of the wall, took out an axe, and chiseled through the tank storing heavy water.

In an instant, the heavy water, produced at the cost of countless resources and funds, gushed out and flowed into the sewers along the slope of the ground.

Gui Youguang avoided the heavy water on the ground and asked George in a deep voice, "Professor, are you sure my men won't be poisoned?"

George paused for a moment, then shook his head after thinking for a while: "No, as long as it is not consumed in large quantities or injected, heavy water is basically harmless to the human body."

"So that's the case, then I'm relieved."

Gui Youguang smiled slightly, looked around the scene, and slowly said, "Leave one team to guard the scene, the rest of you come with me to the research lab."

Intelligence provided by the Norwegian resistance indicated that there was a research room next to the factory. The resistance did not know what information was inside, but it was certainly very important.

Because a Norwegian worker once mistakenly entered the research lab, he was imprisoned in a concentration camp by the Germans the next day.

The reason why Britain and the United States attached so much importance to Operation Edelweiss was not only to delay the progress of the Germans' research on new weapons, but also for these technical data.

London and Washington had long coveted the research findings of Germany's top scientists, and of course, they wouldn't let the opportunity pass them by.

Passing through a small door on the side of the factory, the operatives arrived in front of a building. The junior agent did not immediately pick the lock, but carefully observed the area around the door frame.

The Germans would certainly have made arrangements for such an important and crucial location, and the fact proved that the little spy's caution was necessary.

Inside the door frame, a thin metal wire passes through the door gap and disappears inside the door; this is a short-circuit alarm device.

The alarm system will activate instantly as soon as someone opens the door. The person opening the door must deactivate the alarm within a specified time, such as by pressing a hidden switch; otherwise, the alarm will sound.

Disrupting such alarm devices is also quite simple. The junior agent puts on gloves, carefully uses two wires to create a bypass on the metal wire, and connects the two ends of the wires to the positive and negative terminals of a dry cell battery.

Two minutes later, the door to the technical room opened silently, and everyone went inside to collect data. Jack and his two companions were particularly enthusiastic.

"Five-minute countdown."

Beside the filing cabinet, Gui Youguang glanced inside the room, looked down at his watch, and urged everyone to speed up.

With twenty minutes remaining before the Germans' next shift change, and considering the time spent on the retreat, they only had five minutes to gather intelligence.

Jack, William, and George were clearly professionally trained; the three of them were rapidly flipping through the documents with red flashlights in their mouths, their expressions extremely excited, indicating that the documents were very important.

While the British and Americans were engrossed in reviewing the documents, Gui Youguang secretly gave them a wink, and a junior agent quietly slipped out.

Under the cover of night, the junior agent evaded the patrol and arrived at a small building. He placed his backpack on the ground, reached into the bag and fiddled with it for a few moments, then turned and left.

The small building housed the technicians at the heavy water plant, while their backpacks were filled with British high explosives and thermite, capable of generating temperatures of thousands of degrees Celsius upon detonation. From the beginning, Zuo Zhong had no intention of disrupting Germany's new weapons research program by blowing up the machinery.

No matter the era, talent is the most important thing.

Once these skilled technicians familiar with the production process are removed, it will take the Germans a very long time to train a new batch of people, by which time the red flag will have already been planted on the Reichstag.

Outside the factory, Wu Chunyang, who was in charge of providing cover, was extremely anxious. He kept checking the time, fearing that something unexpected might happen.

But what you fear most is what happens. A German soldier suddenly emerged from a small wooden hut not far from the factory, carrying a rifle, and headed towards the heavy water workshop. It's unclear whether he had noticed something amiss.

The military boots crunched on the gravel road. The German soldier adjusted his helmet, paced back and forth near the workshop, a cigarette dangling from his mouth.

Wu Chunyang cursed under his breath. If they didn't eliminate this mobile sentry, the demolition team would definitely run into trouble during their retreat.

After observing the surroundings, he realized that the person was right in the sentry's line of sight, which meant they couldn't eliminate him directly.

With the scheduled evacuation time drawing ever closer, Wu Chunyang prepared for a forced evacuation.

In the distance, a German sentry yawned, reached into his jacket pocket for a cigarette case, and found only an empty one.

The German soldier crumpled the cigarette box into a ball and threw it on the ground, cursing as he turned and walked back into the cabin. Wu Chunyang's eyes lit up, and he gently patted the shoulder of the little spy next to him.

The junior agent received orders and crawled to the door of the cabin. Just as the German soldier opened his cigarette case and stepped out of the door, he was struck hard behind the ear with a punch.

After a muffled thud, the sentry's body went limp and he collapsed backward. The junior agent twisted the man's neck and dragged the body into the darkness.

Well done! Wu Chunyang felt relieved and quietly screwed the grenade's back cover back on.

Two minutes later, the bomber assembled the time bomb and evacuated from the technical room. Jack and his two companions reluctantly put down the documents and left quickly at Gui Youguang's urging.

The spies in the factory also turned on the timer switch, setting the bomb to explode in fifteen minutes. The demolition team and the cover team met up and returned to the cliff along the route they had come from.

Compared to the thrilling infiltration, the retreat was uneventful. The team successfully reached the starting point, followed by several loud explosions.

Thick smoke billowed from the heavy water plant, which had cost a fortune to build, and rising flames dyed the night sky red. Large numbers of German soldiers rushed out of their barracks, and alarms blared incessantly.

Amidst these flames, a white flame stood out conspicuously. Hundreds of German technicians were unable to escape and perished in the inferno.

The operation went so smoothly that everyone was overjoyed. William told his temporary partners with a smile that they should contact him if they got to London, and he would prepare the best whiskey for them.

The Kuomintang secret agents, including Wu Chunyang, all nodded in agreement, even though such a thing would never happen.

William and George glanced back at the factory area one last time, then happily grabbed the ropes and prepared to descend the mountain, but Gui Youguang suddenly moved.

He held a knife in one hand and grabbed George's backpack with the other, then kicked him hard in the back with his right foot.

Surprisingly, as a physics professor, George reacted extremely quickly, almost simultaneously with Gui Youguang's movement, he pulled out his dagger and stabbed back.

With a clang, Gui Youguang's short blade clashed with the dagger in George's hand, sparks flying from the point of impact.

George's expression was ferocious, and he was about to change tactics and attack again when five Kuomintang agents rushed up, snatched his backpack, and dragged him to the edge of the cliff. Gui Youguang raised his foot and kicked hard.

"Go down, you!"

A cold wind howled as George plummeted down the mountain, disappearing into the dark ravine in the blink of an eye. A few seconds later, a loud thud echoed from the foot of the mountain.

The internal conflict happened very suddenly. Before Jack and William could do anything, a cold dagger was pressed against their necks, and the two had no choice but to obediently raise their hands.

"Friends from the Republic of China, why are you doing this?" Jack asked with a mournful face.

"Hehe, calm down, my friend." Gui Youguang walked up to the two of them and replied with a smile, but his eyes were fixed on William.

"SOE? The SOE members I know aren't as easy to deal with as you. On the contrary, that Mr. George seems more like a veteran of the Special Operations Executive, am I right?"

Just now in the factory, George actually had to think about something as simple as whether heavy water is toxic. This idiot is definitely not a Cambridge physics professor.

William swallowed hard and forced a smile: "Sir, it was an order from London that George and I switched identities."

"Your true identity?"

"PhD in Physics, University of Cambridge"

Why do you know mountaineering and British tactical maneuvers?

"I am a member of the Homeland Defense Volunteer Army."

Gui Youguang sneered. Wu Chunyang then walked over and put his arm around Jack, giving him a choice that would determine whether he lived or died.

“Jack, I hate dishonest business partners. Can you help Mr. William and teach him the price of lying?”

Knowing that the people of the Republic of China did not intend to kill him, Jack breathed a sigh of relief, then gritted his teeth and pushed William down as well.

The British wanted German technical data, and so did the Military Intelligence Bureau. Although the Nationalist government was not yet capable of researching that new type of weapon, it was always good to gather intelligence first.

Back in Nice, France, Zuo Zhong had secretly instructed Gui Youguang and Wu Chunyang to find an opportunity to kill the British and seize the information.

“Very well, we should retreat now, gentlemen.”

Wu Chunyang said with a smile that the heavy water factory halfway up the mountain had been completely engulfed by the fire, and the nearby German troops would soon receive the news and they would have to rush back to Oslo as soon as possible.

①In Europe, apart from medicine and law, other degrees are collectively called Doctor of Philosophy, but I didn't write it that way because it would be easy to misunderstand.