Chapter 45: A Destruction-Grade Ultimate Weapon

In the 1940s, New York’s Long Island was not yet a playground for the wealthy. It was largely filled with vast fields of corn and potatoes. Because land was cheap, it also attracted quite a few people to build factories here.

The Claire Chemical Pesticide Company was located right on Long Island.

It was a medium-sized enterprise with very comprehensive facilities. However, as a chemical pesticide company, it seemed to play little role in the wartime economy—it could neither manufacture weapons nor produce poison gas.

It simply produced pesticides as it had done in the past.

Although the war did not bring the company massive orders, it did not disrupt its production either.

Because of this, the company's board of directors had no pressing need to sell.

However, that did not matter; sometimes, all it took was a single check.

Half a month ago, Zhang Weilun arrived here in the capacity of an attorney for the Zhenghua Company. At the board meeting, he directly produced a check for one million dollars.

And immediately, the board agreed to sell the company as a whole—after all, this sum of money was enough for them to build a new and much larger factory.

Who would turn down such a business deal?

"Time, what we need is time!"

Li Yi'an explained it this way to Zhang Weilun and the others.

"We don't have two or even three years to build a factory from scratch..."

By the time the new factory was built, everything would be over, and the war would have ended. To whom would they sell the products?

The simplest solution was acquisition. Thus, the Claire Chemical Pesticide Company was renamed the KTJ Chemical Company, becoming the third subsidiary under Zhenghua Company. The KTJ Laboratory was established right inside the premises.

The chemists present came from all over the United States. Among them were young men like Arthur Galston and Sun Tianlei, as well as renowned scholars in the field of organic chemistry. All of them were astonished by the arrival of Li Yi'an.

The owner of the KTJ Company actually turned out to be Chinese!

Invited Chinese overseas students like Sun Tianlei and Zhao Zheng could not hide their excitement. They believed that once this news broke, it would undoubtedly create a sensation throughout the entire community of Chinese students in America.

After all, this was the United States!

Weren't Chinese people only supposed to run laundries and restaurants?

How could someone suddenly own and operate a modern factory?

Li Yi'an was already accustomed to such looks of surprise. At Carl Metal Company, he had grown used to this kind of gaze. Yet, there was nothing proud about such reactions; people were surprised simply because of their stereotypical views of the Chinese, which in itself was a form of discrimination.

Why couldn't Chinese people run factories and businesses?

Why couldn't Chinese people engage in scientific research?

Standing there with an air of composure, Li Yi'an's eyes were bright and resolute.

"Gentlemen, this laboratory might be modest in scale, but I believe that as the starting point of our endeavor, it will surely shock the entire world. For this very reason, we need to examine our research direction."

Glancing around the room, Li Yi'an did not raise his voice, yet he made everyone present feel the confidence radiating from his words.

"And the reason I have gathered you here from all across the United States is very simple: to further research the 'plant growth regulator' invented by Mr. Arthur Galston..."

Casting his gaze toward Arthur Galston, who could have imagined that the infamous "Agent Orange" was invented by this twenty-three-year-old young man?

Had Agent Orange not been so notorious that people dug deep to trace its origins, even Li Yi'an, despite coming from the future, would never have guessed that this substance had already been invented during World War II, complete with the capacity for industrial production.

However, what a pity it was that by the time the U.S. military discovered its potential military utility, the war was already nearing its end. Trials only began in June 1945, yielding remarkable results. The U.S. military immediately placed an order for fifty million liters, preparing to spray it extensively across the Japanese mainland to completely destroy its agricultural ecological foundation, turning it within half a year into a barren wasteland where crops could no longer grow, thereby utterly ruining Japan's environment.

The U.S. bomber command had formulated detailed plans, scheduling 9,000 sorties of heavy bombers to disperse 50 million liters of defoliant, with provisions to increase the volume if the effect proved insufficient. U.S. estimates indicated that with the onset of winter and under the influence of the defoliant, the Japanese homeland—facing the failure of the autumn harvest—would rapidly descend into famine. The resulting catastrophic starvation would cause a loss of life on the scale of twenty million people, amounting to roughly one-third of the population.

Under such circumstances, an amphibious invasion wouldn't even be necessary; they would simply need to wait until Japan collapsed and surrendered. To a certain extent, Japan's surrender in August 1945 was indeed a stroke of good fortune for themselves.

This stuff was truly a wonderful creation!

Since it was such a wonderful creation, it ought to be shared with the world—especially with the little Japanese.

Therefore, driven by the philosophy of sharing blessings with mankind, Li Yi'an spared no expense to directly purchase this chemical plant with an annual capacity of 5,000 tons of pesticides, and recruited dozens of chemists, including its inventor Arthur Galston.

The sole purpose was to let the little Japanese enjoy it ahead of schedule.

Perhaps Li Yi'an couldn't build an atomic bomb, but manufacturing pesticides was well within his reach to help sterilize the little Japanese.

Such a fine thing must certainly not be missed by the little Japanese!

Li Yi'an continued,

"The application of this substance causes soybean plant leaves to fall off and increases fruit yield. What we need now is to conduct further research on it, not only for its inherent properties, but also for its utilization in other fields."

As the inventor, Galston hurriedly asked,

"Mr. Li, may I ask which field you are referring to?"

"Military!"

The single word uttered by Li Yi'an left everyone in the room stunned. An American in his fifties directly and bluntly questioned,

"Applying a plant growth regulator on the battlefield—how could that possibly work?"

"Why wouldn't it work?"

Li Yi'an countered.

"Since it can make soybean leaves fall off to increase yield, could it not also make the leaves of trees fall off?"

A wave of astonishment rippled through the crowd as they murmured amongst themselves.

"What? Make tree leaves fall off? What tactical use could that possibly have?"

Observing the bewildered expressions and whispered discussions, Li Yi'an smiled and said,

"Gentlemen, you need to unleash your imagination. Now then, let us get to work. Keep in mind that our soldiers in the Pacific are eagerly awaiting the fruits of your labor!"