The expeditionary force began to dominate Southeast Asia by recruiting defeated soldiers

"Without security, all benefits are castles in the air!"

Alexander, as Minister of Defense, immediately refuted this.

He knew very well that mastering this new power of nuclear energy might not guarantee success, but not mastering it would certainly lead to disaster.

Looking at the arguing crowd, the new Prime Minister Attlee rubbed his temples wearily.

The ideal of the John Labour Party, which he represented, was to shed all extra burdens and do everything in its power to build a just domestic society.

But the cold reality is that without nuclear weapons, Britain, as the leading power, might even lose the right to discuss fairness.

"Ernest, you personally contacted Washington to express our deepest concerns and strongest support, requesting... no, demanding, comprehensive strategic coordination."

Alexander, please prepare a report for me outlining the limits of resources and time required to accelerate the 'Alloy Tube' project.

Gentlemen, Britain... has reached its most perilous moment.

In contrast, the atmosphere was at the other extreme in the private room at the Savoy Club, which was filled with the smells of cigars and aged whiskey.

Former Prime Minister Mr. Churchill sank his obese body into the leather sofa, slamming his brandy glass heavily on the table with a dull thud.

He glanced around at his loyal Conservative colleagues, his voice like the roar of a wounded lion.

"Did you see that? Did you all see that?!"

"This is what happens to that damned, penny-pincher (referring to Attlee) and his bunch of red-worshipping charlatans!" He waved his short, stubby index finger.

"When the world was once again overturned by dangerous unknown forces, our great motherland's first reaction was like a panicked little girl running to tug at the hem of her white eagle cousin's clothes, begging for protection."

Although when Mr. Qiu was Prime Minister, he sold the country to the United States most thoroughly.

But that doesn't stop him from making outrageous remarks now that he's in the opposition.

The former prime minister gulped down a large mouthful of wine, his face flushed red.

"What a depravity, what a disgrace! The former glory of the empire has been thrown into the Thames."

What right does a government that can't even figure out where the atomic bomb came from, a government that can't even guarantee its own security, have to lead this country?!

“Winston, what do you think…” a congressman began cautiously.

“What do I think?” Mr. Qiu interrupted him, his eyes burning with anger.

“I think we are sliding into an abyss, and Attlee is the idiot who stepped on the gas when the country’s car started to go downhill.”

He doesn't understand that the essence of geopolitics is power, naked power.

"If I were prime minister, we would have to use every means at our disposal, even mortgaging oil companies, to build our own nuclear weapons."

After saying that, Mr. Qiu sighed.

Even someone as tough as him had to admit that World War II was about to end and the empire was crumbling.

Even those projects he advocated during his tenure that clashed fiercely with the United States of Southeast Asia were cancelled by the new Prime Minister, Attlee.

The reason is simple: no money.

The entire Southeast Asian colony was almost paralyzed.

The three brothers are engaging in nonviolent non-cooperation, and even the jewel in the crown is obscured.

A large number of colonial civil servants were not interested in their work and were single-mindedly trying to use their connections to transfer back to the mainland.

However, John's homeland is already half-crippled, so where are all these jobs coming from?

With the new Prime Minister Attlee extremely busy, Mr. Chiu, now in the opposition, can naturally sit back and laugh at him.

"Of course, we must also strengthen, and strengthen again, our special relationship with the White Eagle."

This is the only reliable cornerstone for us to safeguard our global interests and respond to any threat.

Whether the threat comes from Moscow or from some dark corner of the world.

Mr. Qiu's words were filled with boundless nostalgia for the lost empire and a deep-seated pain at its decline.

In his view, the Labour Party's policies are systematically crippling the empire's strategic capabilities, and this nuclear bomb of unknown origin is merely the prelude to the climax of this tragedy.

-----

The heavy oak door was tightly shut, cutting off all outside noise.

President Truman sat in the main seat, took off his signature round-framed glasses, and pinched the bridge of his nose hard.

The shrewdness and confidence that Kansas businessmen usually possessed were completely gone from his face at this moment, replaced by an expression that was a mixture of shock, confusion, and unease.

He gently pushed a document marked "Top Secret" to the center of the table, his gaze sweeping slowly across each of the Generals of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, like a searchlight.

"Gentlemen," Truman's voice was a little hoarse. He tried to force a calm smile, but only his lips twitched unnaturally.

"Regarding...the incident in Niigata, Japan, the preliminary analysis report is here. Do you have anything to say?"

He adopted an attitude of 'How can you teach me, sir?'

His eyes revealed the same sense of bewilderment as everyone else present.

The document was silently passed from hand to hand among the generals.

Everyone's expression seemed to mirror Truman's shock.

Army Chief of Staff General Marshall, a five-star general known for his calm and wisdom as the organizer of the victory, frowned deeply, repeatedly looking at the words "confirmed to be a nuclear explosion" on the report, as if trying to confirm whether his eyesight was failing.

General Henry Arnold, commander of the Army Air Forces and in charge of the world’s largest strategic bomber fleet, looked unusually grim.

Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Ernest King, known for his fiery and tough personality, now had his lips tightly pursed and his thick fingers unconsciously tapping the table.

Finally, everyone's eyes fell on General Groves, who had been specially summoned.

The military leader of the Manhattan Project, a civil engineering graduate who used a tough approach and outstanding management skills to unite countless top scientists and hundreds of thousands of workers into a cohesive force, ultimately creating the atomic bomb, had the most unpleasant expression at that moment.

Fine beads of sweat even appeared on his forehead.

“This is impossible…” Groves almost groaned as he picked up the document, then put it down again, as if the paper was burning his hand. “Absolutely impossible!”

He raised his head, looking at Truman, then at the other generals, his eyes filled with the bewilderment of a faith shattered:

"Mr. President, gentlemen, do you know what we have sacrificed for 'Little Boy' and 'Fatty'?"

We used nearly a third of the nation's electricity, and we gathered some of the brightest minds in the entire Western world—Oppenheimer, Fermi, Bohr…

We built three top-secret cities (Oak Ridge, Hanford, and Los Alamos), where hundreds of thousands of the best engineers and workers worked day and night.

This is almost an expendable national effort.

His voice trembled slightly with excitement:

"This is not just a scientific issue, but also the ultimate test of engineering, materials science, and even the country's industrial strength."

Enriched uranium-235, production of plutonium-239...

Any one of these steps would be enough to stump a traditional industrial powerhouse.

We succeeded, but we know perfectly well how difficult it was—as difficult as climbing to the heavens!